Comparing Garrick with Betterton, it must be remembered that he was more exposed to the attacks of envy from the very universality of his success.  Never, perhaps, was there a man in any profession who combined so many various qualities.  A fair poet, a most fluent correspondent, an admirable conversationalist, possessing a person of singular grace, a voice of marvellous expressiveness, and a disposition so mercurial and vivacious as is rarely found in any Englishman, he was destined to be a great social as well as a great artistic success.  He loved the society of men of birth and fashion; he seems to have had a more passionate desire to please in private even than in public, and almost to have justified the often quoted couplet in Goldsmith’s “Retaliation.”

    “On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, ’Twas only
    that when he was off he was acting.”

Some men, envious of the substantial fortune which he realized by almost incessant hard work, by thorough good principle with regard to money, and by a noble, not a paltry, economy, might call him mean; though many of them knew well, from their own experience, that his nature was truly generous—­his purse, as well as his heart, ever open to a friend, however little he might deserve it.  Yet they sneered at his want of reckless extravagance, and called him a miser.  The greatest offender in this respect was Samuel Foote, a man of great accomplishments, witty, but always ill-natured.  It is difficult to speak of Foote’s conduct to Garrick in any moderate language.  Mr. Forster may assert that behind Foote’s brutal jests there always lurked a kindly feeling; but what can we think of the man who, constantly receiving favors from Garrick’s hand, could never speak of him before others without a sneer; who the moment he had received the loan of money or other favor for which he had cringed, snarled—­I will not say like a dog, for no dog is so ungrateful—­and snapped at the hand which had administered to him of its bounty.  When this man, who had never spared a friend, whose whole life had been passed in maligning others, at last was himself a victim of a vile and cruel slander, Garrick forgot the gibes and sneers of which Foote had made him so often the victim, and stood by him with a noble devotion as honorable to himself as it was ill-deserved by its object.  Time would not suffice, had I as many hours as I have minutes before me, to tell you of all the acts of generosity that this mean man, this niggardly actor, performed in his lifetime.  One characteristic anecdote will suffice.  When Whitfield was building his Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road, he employed one of the carpenters who worked for Garrick at Drury Lane.  Subscriptions for the Tabernacle do not seem to have come in as fast as they were required to pay the workmen, so that the carpenter had to go to Garrick to ask for an advance.  When pressed for his reason he confessed that he had not received any wages from Mr. Whitfield.  Garrick made the advance asked for, and soon after quietly set out to pay a visit to Mr. Whitfield, when, with many apologies for the liberty he was taking, he offered him a five hundred pound bank note as his subscription towards the Tabernacle.  Considering that Garrick had no particular sympathy with Nonconformists, this action speaks as much for his charity as a Christian as it does for his liberality as a man.