great lesson of the theatre, was
an adaption of his look to his voice, by which artful imitation of
nature, the variations in the sound of his words, gave propriety to
every change in his countenance, so that it was Mr. Booth's peculiar
felicity to be heard and seen the same, whether as the _pleased,_ the
_grieved,_the _pitying,_the _reproachful,_or the _angry_. One would be
almost tempted to borrow the aid of a very bold figure, and to express
this excellence more significantly, beg permission to affirm, that the
blind might have seen him in his voice, and the deaf have heard him in
his visage. His gesture, or as it is commonly called his action, was
but the result, and necessary consequence of his dominion over his
voice and countenance; for having by a concurrence of two such causes,
impressed his imagination with such a stamp, and spirit of passion, he
ever obeyed the impulse by a kind of natural dependency, and relaxed,
or braced successively into all that fine expressiveness with which he
painted what he spoke, without restraint, or affectation.'

But it was not only as a player that Mr. Booth excelled; he was a man
of letters also, and an author in more languages than one. He had a
taste for poetry which we have observed discovered itself when he was
very young, in translations of some Odes of Horace; and in his riper
years he wrote several songs, and other original poems, which did him
honour. He was also the author of a masque, or dramatic entertainment,
called Dido and Aeneas, which was very well received upon the stage,
but which however did not excite him to produce any thing of the
same kind afterwards. His master-piece was a Latin inscription to the
memory of a celebrated actor, Mr. William Smith, one of the greatest
men of his profession, and of whom Mr. Booth alway spoke in raptures.
It is a misfortune that we can give no particular account of the
person this excellent inscription referred to, but it is probable he
was of a good family, since he was a Barrister at Law of Gray's-Inn,
before he quitted that profession for the stage.

The inscription is as follows,

Scenicus eximius
Regnante Carolo secundo:
Bettertono Coaetaneus & Amicus,
Necnon propemodum Aequalis.
Haud ignobili stirpe oriundus,
Nec literarum rudis humaniorum,
Rem fenicam
Per multos feliciter annos administravit;
Justoque moderamine & morum suavitate,
Omnium intra T