CHARACTERS. 



259 



ilagc, wanted instruction or recbm- 

 mendation, who so fit as Hiffernan, 

 the grave scholar and travelled 

 man, the writer of plays himself, 

 the intimate friend and occasional 

 scourge of both manatrers and ac- 

 tors, to instruct them in the ele- 

 ments of their intended profes- 

 sion ? 



His mode of proceeding in this 

 last instance, we were informed of 

 by a late eminent performer of Co- 

 vent-Garden Theatre, who, partly 

 from curiosity^ and, perhaps, partly 

 from being deceived by some friend 

 respecting HifFernan's abilities and 

 patronage, went through the pro- 

 cess himself, and who told it with 

 tliat whim and humour which he 

 was so much master of, on or off 

 the stage. From him we are ena- 

 bled to give somewhat of a general 

 description. 



When a candidate for the stage 

 was first announced by the waiter 

 to doctor Hiffernan, the doctor 

 .never rose from h'.s seat, but draw- 

 ing the pipe which he smoked 

 from his mouth, gave a slight in- 

 clination of the head, and desired 

 him to sit down. He then listened 

 very attentively to the novice's ac- 

 count of himself, his studies, and 

 line of pretensions, but then gave 

 no opitiiuu : he reserved himself for 

 a private meeting the next night 

 at the Black Lion, Russel street, or 

 «oifte othef favourite ale-house; and 

 if the candidate, wishing to do a 

 xivil thing by his preceptor, offer* 

 ■cd to pay the reckoning, the doctor 

 was not in the least offended, hut, 

 on the contrary, considered it as 

 the perquibite of his own superio* 

 rity. 



When they met on the nent 

 night, the preliminaries ol business 

 Were oj>ene j, which first begao-by 



the doctor explaining his terms, 

 which were a entrance guinea an- 

 other guinea for instruction, and 

 two guineas more to be paid on 

 his getting an engagement at either 

 of the London theatres. All this 

 being settled, and the doctor hav- 

 ing pocketed his first guinea, he 

 began by attentively eyeing the 

 height and figure of the perfor- 

 mer : and, in order to ascertain 

 this with mathematical precision, 

 he pulled out a six-inch rule, which 

 he carried about him on these oc- 

 casions, and measured him against 

 the wainscot. If the candidate 

 happened to be very tall, " to be 

 sure that was not so well; but then, 

 Barry was tall, and nobody ob- 

 jected to his theatrical abilities." 

 If he was short, " that was against 

 his being much of a hero ; but 

 then there was Garrick, whom all 

 the world admired." He, there- 

 fore, generally consoled his pupi', 

 let him be of what size or figure he 

 might be,withthe superiority which 

 rrhvit has over all external quaiifi* 

 cations ; concluding with Churchill 

 upon the same subject, 



" Before such merit all ftistinctions fly, 

 Pritchard's genteel, and Garrick's six feet 

 high." 



In this wretched manner did our 

 author while away the greater part 

 of a life which, with becoming in- 

 dustry, and hisstores of information, 

 might have been made useful to 

 the world, and respectable to him- 

 self. He never, however, wholly 

 gave up the trade of booh-maklng, 

 every now then producing some 

 original matter or translation from 

 the French. In this latter walk, we 

 fuid him employed in the year 

 1764, and as the circumstances at- 

 tending tills case jjo in a great de- 

 S ii grce 



