lay in these very
personalities which held well-known people up to ridicule with a
precision which made it impossible for the originals to escape
recognition. Even irascible Dr. Johnson, who wished to disapprove of
him, admitted that there was no one like "that fellow Foote." So this
"Aristophanes of the English stage" was mourned when he died at the
age of fifty-seven, and a company of his friends and fellow-actors
buried him one evening by the dim light of torches in a cloister of
Westminster Abbey.

There is often a boisterous unreserve in the plays of Foote, as in
other eighteenth-century drama, which revolts modern taste. As they
consist of character study rather than incident, mere extracts are apt
to appear incomplete and meaningless. Therefore it seems fairer to
represent the famous wit not alone by formal citation, but also by
some of his _bons mots_ extracted from the collection of William Cooke
in his 'Memoirs of Samuel Foote' (2 vols. 1806).

HOW TO BE A LAWYER

From 'The Lame Lover'

_Enter_ Jack

_Serjeant_--So, Jack, anybody at chambers to-day?

_Jack_--Fieri Facias from Fetter Lane, about the bill to be filed by
Kit Crape against Will Vizard this term.

_Serjeant_--Praying for an equal partition of plunder?

_Jack_--Yes, sir.

_Serjeant_--Strange world we live in, that even highwaymen can't be
true to each other! [_Half aside to himself._] But we shall make
Vizard refund; we'll show him what long hands the law has.

_Jack_--Facias says that in all the books he can't hit a precedent.

_Serjeant_--Then I'll make one myself; _Aut inveniam, aut faciam_, has
been always my motto. The charge must be made for partnership profit,
by bartering lead and gunpowder against money, watches, and rings, on
Epping Forest, Hounslow Heath, and other parts of the kingdom.

_Jack_--He says if the court should get scent of the scheme, the
parties would all stand committed.

_Serjeant_--Cowardly rascal! but however, the caution mayn't prove
amiss. [_Aside._] I'll not put my own name to the bill.

_Jack_--The declaration, too, is delivered in the cause of Roger
Rapp'em against Sir Solomon Simple.

_Serjeant_--What, the affair of the note?

_Jack_--Yes.

_Serjeant_--Why, he is clear that his client never gave such a note.

_Jack_--Defendant never saw plaintiff since the hour he was born; but
notwithstanding, they have three witnesses to prove a consideration
and signing the note.

_Serjeant