OBITUARY. 627 



Chest," as was said at the time, proved a leaden coffin to poor Stephen Ho- 

 race, the composer of the music, who caught his death by attending the re- 

 hearsals when suffering severely from the gout. To give an example of the 

 style in which some of his plays were performed, we need only mention some 

 of the actors who appeared in "John Bull," one of his most successful co- 

 medies Job Thornberry, Fawcett, Hon. Dick Shuffleton, Lewis, Dennis 

 Brulgruddery, Irish Johnstone, and Peregrine Cooke. When will such a ga- 

 laxy of [talent again appear ? Besides his plays, "all the world is acquainted 

 with his licentious but witty " Broad Grins." For many years, however, he 

 had retired from the trade of authorship, and enjoyed the office of Licenser of 

 Plays, which he exercised with a severity one may almost say prudery, that 

 ought not to have been unexpected, for says the proverb, "The greatest sinner 

 makes the greatest saint." Whatever failings he may have had, it is not ge- 

 nerous now to dwell on them, and it will become us to recollect how few 

 could have resisted the temptations he was exposed to with more if so much 

 firmness. Let us honour his genius and respect his memory, and so farewell 

 to George Colman the younger. 



Not many days after the death of Colman, he was followed in that long 

 journey which none twice travel over, by his friend and contemporary John 

 Bannister. John, or as he was more commonly styled Jack Bannister, was 

 intended by his father for an artist, a destination not to be wondered at when 

 we consider that a taste for the fine arts is generally diffused among actors 

 and the cheapness of the initiation into the mysteries of the pencil. We say 

 cheapness, for the necessary expenditure is less than that required in any other 

 liberal profession. Jack's stars however decided that the stage should be the 

 scene of his triumphs, and we accordingly find him at an early age enacting 

 serious parts in tragedy, to which line he devoted himself for some years. It 

 was not till after he had acquired some reputation as a hero of the buskin, 

 that it was discovered how much better adapted the sock was for his dimen- 

 sions, and even to the last his favourite parts those in which he obtained 

 the highest distinction were semi-serious, such for example as Walter in the 

 " Children in the Wood," and Wilford in the "Iron Chest." To his distin- 

 guished reputation as a comedian, Bannister united the highest repectability 

 in private life, a character which added not a little to the interest felt in him 

 by the public. And here we may observe, that although the profligacy of a 

 public person is usually thought to be a matter with which we have no con- 

 cern, it invariably happens that all the world takes an interest in the details 

 of scandal, and are not a little influenced in their judgment by the good or bad 

 report in which the individual is held among his intimates. 



Jack Bannister had long retired from the stage, having amassed a competent 

 fortune. He was, however, not long since again brought into public notice by 

 Leslie's portrait of him as my uncle Toby, the resemblance of which was very 

 striking. "Honest Jack" has gone to his long account, leaving behind him 

 no successor nor emulator, and it will probably not occur that the place he 

 vacated on the stage will be filled again as ably during the existence of the 

 generation who remember him. It is but too probable that " we ne'er shall 

 look upon his like again." He was born in 1758, and died on the 8th of No- 

 vember 1836. Peace be to his ashes. 



