118 NINE YEARS OF AN ACTOR ? S LIFE. 



better than their fellows in the minor theatres ; and the secondaries 

 of the major are excelled by those of Bath, Dublin, &c." 



Mr. Dyer married, and in the course of time had an 

 increasing family ; but in his profession he found that 

 children were questionable blessings. 



" Children are not blessings to actors ; for accustomed to see their 

 parents in fictitious characters, their young minds, unable to distin- 

 guish between the real and assumed, become suspicious of deceit ; 

 and confidence once destroyed, affection cannot be felt. Before rea- 

 son can eradicate the impressions of childhood, parent and child are 

 thrown on the dangerous field of professional rivalry, where jealously 

 ever prevents a ' union of hearts.' I have observed that the children 

 of low comedians entertain little or no respect for their fathers. My 

 children's visits to the theatre were very rare; and those were cur- 

 tailed after my eldest boy remarked on my Macaire, ' I don't love 

 my father now he is a murderer ! ' The son of a particular friend 

 of mine saw me in Massinger's Luke ; and on his return home he 

 said, with great earnestness, ' Papa, I wonder you like that Mr. 

 Dyer, he is such a hypocrite ! ' ' Children are a poor man's riches,' 

 says the proverb ; but they are not an actor's, not even when they 

 are employed as benefit auxiliaries ; for the public may be fashioned, 

 or talked, or surprized, but never paraded, into charity. I knew an 

 actor whose numerous progeny entirely filled the drnnmtis person <c 

 of Bombastes Furioso, and who invariably put them as a puff ad- 

 vertisement in his bill : yet his receipts never exceeded the common 

 average. When my vicissitudes sent me through the country, a 

 Sylvester Daggerwood, with * a wife and five small children,' I pro- 

 duced them as reasons for my wanderings ; but I doubt whether 

 they helped my interests. Some managers have an utter aversion 

 to family men ; and one, with whom I passed many pleasant 

 months, long hesitated to engage me, because he thought three 

 children must make me necessitous, and increase my weight of lug- 

 gage beyond his allowance to performers." 



From a consideration of the vicisitudes attendant on 

 the life of an actor and a firm conviction that the stage 

 was not a theatre whereupon any honest man had much 

 chance of success unless he possessed Jirst rate talent, 

 Mr. Dyer formed the resolution of quitting it, in which 

 he was confirmed, in the ninth year of his career by not 

 having any prospect of an immediate engagement. 



