, but the playing of dandies could hardly lead one up
very gracefully to the handling of Cato.

Next came the suggestion that John Mills[A] should try the character,
but fortunately he displayed no more enthusiasm for it than did
Cibber. Cato was too old a person for him to act, he said, and so
declined to have anything to do with the elderly hero. Afterwards he
was cast for the less important role of Sempronius, which proved in
every way a better disposition of affairs, for Mills was a plodder
rather than a genius. He belonged to the order of actors to whom,
in the present day, we apply the charitable word of painstaking, an
adjective which shows very plainly the nature of the man, while it
likewise allows the critic to escape the charge of unkindness. We all
know the painstaking player, and always cheerfully acknowledge his
virtues, but who shall blame us if, after giving him the benefit of
his earnestness, we yawn and creep out into the lobby while he holds
the stage?

[Footnote A: Mills was considered one of the most useful actors that
ever served in a theatre, but, though invested by the patronage of
Wilks with many parts of the highest order, he had no pretensions
to quit the secondary line in which he ought to have been
placed.--BELLCHAMBERS.]

That Mills sometimes inspired this feeling of boredom may be imagined
from the way in which his performance of Macbeth was once received. To
those who remembered how magnificently Betterton had played the part,
the chill formalism of the new aspirant must have seemed presumptuous,
and one night the contrast proved too much for a country gentleman
possessed of more honesty than politeness. After watching the progress
of the tragedy with growing indignation his feelings became unbearable
at a certain point in the fourth act, where George Powell came on
as Lennox. "For God's sake, George," shouted the squire, "give us a
speech and let me go home!"[A]

[Footnote A: "I recollect," says Bellchambers, "an incident of the
same sort occurring at Bristol, where a very indifferent actor
declaimed so long and to such little purpose that an honest farmer,
who sat in the pit, started up with evident signs of disgust, and
waving his hand, to motion the speaker off, cried out, 'Tak 'un away,
tak 'un away, and let's have another.'"]

Thus every one must have given a sigh of relief when industrious John
objected to the age of Cato; every one, at least, excepting Wilks, who
had taken