common lustre. All the world admired Wilks except his brother
manager: amidst the repeated bursts of applause which he extorted,
Booth alone continued silent.--DAVIES.]

But all these petty heartburnings and jealousies were buried in the
grave of Wilks. That incomparable player, whose sprightliness seemed
to defy the grim tyrant, and who could act the lithesome youth upon
the stage even though he had to hobble to his hackney-coach when the
piece was ended, made his last exit in the autumn of 1732. Booth
followed on the same long journey in the May of 1733, after an illness
during which the great patient was dosed with crude mercury, bled,
plastered, blistered, and otherwise helped onward to his death.
Verily, it is a wonder that the physicians of old did not extinguish
the whole human race.

The still attractive Santlow (or rather Mrs. Booth) survived the
tragedian, and her sorrow may have been assuaged by the remembrance
that she was left the sole heir of her husband. "I have considered my
circumstances," wrote Booth in his will, "and finding upon a strict
examination that all I am now possessed of does not amount to
two-thirds of the fortune my wife brought me on the day of our
marriage, together with the yearly additions and advantages since
arising from her laborious employment on the stage during twelve years
past, I thought myself bound by honesty, honour, and gratitude due to
her constant affection, not to give away any part of the remainder of
her fortune at my death"; and with that eloquent stroke of the pen
the testator cut off with nothing a sister and a brother whom he had
sufficiently helped during his lifetime.

Surely so noble an actor deserves an epitaph. Perhaps none could be
more worthy than this estimate of the man, made by Aaron Hill: "He had
learning to understand perfectly whatever it was his part to speak,
and judgment to know how far it agreed or disagreed with his
character. Hence arose a peculiar grace which was visible to every
spectator, tho' few were at the pains of examining into the cause of
their pleasure. He could soften, or slide over, with a kind of elegant
negligence, the improprieties in a part he acted; while, on the
contrary, he would dwell with energy upon the beauties, as if he
exerted a latent spirit which had been kept back for such an occasion,
that he might alarm, waken, and transport, to those places only, where
the dignity of his own good sense could be supported with th