In 1831-2 his Private Correspondence with the Most Celebrated Persons of his Time was published, and opened a rich field to the social historian.  Among his correspondents were Dr. Johnson, Boswell, Goldsmith, Gibber, Sheridan, Burke, Wilkes, Junius, and Dr. Franklin.  Thus Garrick catered largely to the history of his period, as an actor and dramatic author, illustrating the stage; as a reviver of Shakspeare, and as a correspondent of history.

SAMUEL FOOTE.—­Among the many English actors who have been distinguished for great powers of versatility in voice, feature, and manner, there is none superior to Foote.  Bold and self-reliant, he was a comedian in every-day life; and his ready wit and humor subdued Dr. Johnson, who had determined to dislike him.  He was born in 1722, at Truro, and educated at Oxford:  he studied law, but his peculiar aptitudes soon led him to the stage, where he became famous as a comic actor.  Among his original pieces are The Patron, The Devil on Two Stilts, The Diversions of the Morning, Lindamira, and The Slanderer.  But his best play, which is a popular burlesque on parliamentary elections, is The Mayor of Garrat.  He died in 1777, at Dover, while on his way to France for the benefit of his health.  His plays present the comic phase of English history in his day.

RICHARD CUMBERLAND.—­This accomplished man, who, in the words of Walter Scott, has given us “many powerful sketches of the age which has passed away,” was born in 1732, and lived to the ripe age of seventy-nine, dying in 1811.  After receiving his education at Cambridge, he became secretary to Lord Halifax.  His versatile pen produced, besides dramatic pieces, novels and theological treatises, illustrating the principal topics of the time.  In his plays there is less of immorality than in those of his contemporaries. The West Indian, which was first put upon the stage in 1771, and which is still occasionally presented, is chiefly noticeable in that an Irishman and a West Indian are the principal characters, and that he has not brought them into ridicule, as was common at the time, but has exalted them by their merits.  The best of his other plays are The Jew, The Wheel of Fortune, and The Fashionable Lover.  Goldsmith, in his poem Retaliation, says of Cumberland, referring to his greater morality and his human sympathy,

    Here Cumberland lies, having acted his parts,
    The Terence of England, the mender of hearts;
    A flattering painter, who made it his care
    To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.—­No man represents the Regency so completely as Sheridan.  He was a statesman, a legislator, an orator, and a dramatist; and in social life a wit, a gamester, a spendthrift, and a debauchee.  His manifold nature seemed to be always in violent ebullition.  He was born in September, 1751, and was the son of Thomas Sheridan, the actor and lexicographer, His mother, Frances Sheridan, was also a writer of plays and novels.  Educated at Harrow, he was there considered a dunce; and when he grew to manhood, he plunged into dissipation, and soon made a stir in the London world by making a runaway match with Miss Linley, a singer, who was noted as one of the handsomest women of the day.  A duel with one of her former admirers was the result.