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for Love,' which was very successful, but after a few years, 

 the profits arising from the theatre proving very insignifi- 

 cant, and Mr. Betterton growing very infirm and suffering 

 continually from the gout, he retired at once from manage- 

 ment and the stage. The narrowness of his circumstances 

 being known to the public, it was determined to give him a 

 benefit, and on Thursday the 6th of April, 1709 (see The 

 Tatler, No. I.), the comedy of ' Love for Love ' was performed 

 for that purpose, Betterton himself, though nearly seventy- 

 four, sustaining the youthful part of Valentine. The cele- 

 brated performers Mr. Dogget, Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Brace- 

 girdle, who had quitted the stage some time previously, 

 acted for him on this occasion. Congreve wrote a prologue, 

 and Rowe an epilogue (printed in his works), which latter 

 was spoken by Mrs. Barry, who, witli Mrs. Bracegirdle, sup- 

 ported ' Old Thomas,' as Betterton is called in it, while ap- 

 plauses were showered upon him by an audience almost as 

 numerous behind, as it was before the curtain. The profits 

 of the night are said to have amounted to 5001. In Sep- 

 tember, Betterton appeared again in Hamlet, a particular 

 notice of which performance is given in the 'Tatler,' No. 71; 

 and Mr. Owen M'Swinny, then manager of the Opera 

 House in the Haymarket, prevailed on him to perform oc- 

 casionally during the following winter. On Thursday, the 

 13th of April, 1710, he took another benefit, an invitation 

 to which was kindly published in the 'Tatler' of Tuesday 

 the lltb. No. 157. On this occasion he enacted his cele- 

 brated part of Me'.antius in the 'Maid's Tragedy.' The event, 

 however, proved fatal, for having been suddenly attacked 

 by the gout, in order to prevent disappointment he made 

 use of some outward applications, which reduced the swelling 

 and enabled him to walk on the stage with one foot in a 

 Upper ; but the violence of the remedy drove the distemper 

 into his head, which a few days afterwards terminated his 

 existence in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was buried 

 on Tuesday, May 2nd, 1710, in the cloisters of Westminster, 

 with much ceremony, according to the ' Tatler ' for Thurs- 

 day, May 4th, No. 167. ' Such an actor as Mr. Betterton,' 

 says the essayist, 'ought to be recorded with the same re- 

 spect as Roscius among the Romans.' Gibber says, ' He 

 was an actor as Shakspeare was an author, both without 

 competitors, formed for the mutual assistance and illustra- 

 tion of each other's genius.' As a man he is said to have 

 been modest, polite, generous, benevolent, of a cheerful 

 temper, with a pious reliance upon the dispensations of Pro- 

 vidence. Dryden mentions his judgment honourably in his 

 preface to ' Don Sebastian,' and Rowe acknowledges his 

 obligations to him in his ' Life of Shakspeare,' Betterton 

 having made a journey into Warwickshire expressly to ob- 

 tain information. Pope admired him exceedingly, and 

 painted his portrait in oil, which is said to be still preserved 

 at the Earl of Mansfield's, Caen Wood. The following mi- 

 nute and curious description of his person towards the close 

 of his life, is given by Anthony Aston, in a pamphlet, en- 

 titled ' A brief Supplement to Colley Cibber, Esq., his 

 Lives of the late famous Actors and Actresses,' 8vo. : 



' Mr. Betterton, although a superlative good actor, laboured 

 under an ill figure, being clumsily made, having a great 

 head, a short thick neck, stooped in the shoulders, and had 

 fat short arms, which he rarely lifted higher than his sto- 

 mach. His left hand frequently lodged in his breast, be- 

 tween his coat and waistcoat, while with his right he pre- 

 pared his speech ; his actions were few but just ; he had 

 little eyes and a broad face, a little pock-fretten, a corpulent 

 body, and thick legs with large feet ; he was better to meet 

 than to follow, for his aspect was serious, venerable, and 

 majestic, in his latter time a little paralytic ; his voice was 

 low and grumbling, yet he could tune it by an artful climax, 

 which enforced universal attention, even from the fops and 

 orange-girls ; he was incapable of dancing, even in a coun- 

 try-danee, as was Mrs. Barry, but their good qualities were 

 more than equal to their deficiencies.' 



Mr. Betterton wrote and altered several dramatic pieces 

 (see Biografih. Dram.), but none of them have kept posses- 

 sion of the stage. Queen Anne settled a pension upon his 

 widow, who survived him only a year and a hall : grief for 

 the loss of her husband deprived her of reason. 



(Colley Cibber's Lives and Apology ; Companion to the 

 Play-hoof e ; Bios;raph. Dram. ; Sir Richard Steele and 

 Adilison in The Tatler ; Gait's Lives cf the Actors, $c.) 



BKTTINELLI, SAVEIIIO, was born at Mantua in 

 1 7 1 , and studied at Bologna, where he entered the order 

 of the Jesuits in 1 736. He was afterwards sent to Brescia, 



and there became acquainted with Mazzuehelli, Duranti, 

 Cardinal Quirini, and other learned men, whose conversation 

 encouraged him in his literary pursuits. In 1744 he re- 

 turned to Bologna, where he frequented the society of 

 Manfredi, Zanotti, Ghedini, and other distinguished men of 

 that city. In 1748 he was sent to Venice, where he became 

 likewise intimate with the literary men of that place, who 

 used to assemble frequently in his cell. Bettinelli wrote 

 a little poem in remembrance of them, which he styled 

 ' Parnaso Veneto.' In 1751 he was sent to Parma, as di- 

 rector of the studies in the college of the nobility in that 

 city. He there conceived the idea of his principal work, on 

 the revival of literature in Italy in the eleventh century, 

 which, however, he did not complete for many years after. 

 In 1755 he travelled through part of Germany to Strasburg 

 and Nancy, as tutor to the two sons of Prince Hohenlohe. 

 Towards the end of 1757 he accompanied the princess of 

 Parma to Paris ; he afterwards visited Normandy, and then 

 went to the court of King Stanislaus at Nancy, who was a 

 patron of literary men, and who charged Bettinelli with a 

 commission for Voltaire, relative to half a million of francs 

 which Voltaire intended to employ in Lorraine. Voltaire 

 was then living at the Delices, a country-seat near Geneva, 

 from whence he soon after removed to Ferney. He received 

 Bettinelli with great kindness, and afterwards occasionally 

 corresponded with him. One of Voltaire's letters to Beiti- 

 nelli, dated March, 1 760, which is characteristic of the writer, 

 was published for the first time in Ugoni's biography of 

 Bettinelli, In this letter Voltaire flatters Bettinelli, pro- 

 fesses his respect for the Jesuits, speaks highly of England, 

 abuses in coarse terms the clergy of Geneva, praises the 

 king of Prussia, pities the fallen state of France, and all 

 this in bis usual jocular, satirical, rambling style, sneering 

 at, and displaying bis wit upon, every subject, however 

 serious. 



Bettinelli returned to Parma in 1759. In the same year 

 lie went to Verona, where he remained till 1767, spending a 

 great part of his time in a pleasant country-house belonging 

 to the Jesuits near Verona. He there wrote his ' Risorgi- 

 mento d'ltalia negli Studj, nelle Arti e nei Costumi dopo il 

 Mille,' which he published in 1773, just after the sup- 

 pression of the order of Jesuits. On his return to his na- 

 tive Mantua, he published, in 1780, an edition of his va- 

 rious works in eight vols. 8vo. In 1796 the French inva- 

 sion drove Bettinelli away from Mantua, and he took 

 refuge at Verona, where he became acquainted with Ippolito 

 Pindemonte. Bettinelli returned to Mantua after that place 

 had surrendered to the French, and resumed his literary 

 occupations, notwithstanding his advanced age of fourscore. 

 Bonaparte made Bettinelli a knight of the Iron Crown, and 

 a member of the National Institute. Bettinelli died at Man- 

 tua in September, 1 808, being past ninety years of age. His 

 life is chiefly remarkable on account of his having been 

 intimate with several successive generations of learned men, 

 and his forming a connecting Imk between the Italian lite- 

 rature of the eighteenth century and that of the nineteenth. 



Bettinelli's ' Risorgimento ' is the only work by which 

 his literary reputation is now sustained. The subject is 

 very interesting, and he was the first to treat it in a me- 

 thodical and attractive manner. His plan is well distributed, 

 and the spirit of his remarks is generally liberal. He be- 

 gins by giving a sketch of the low state to which science 

 and literature had fallen during the ninth and tenth cen- 

 turies, which form the darkest period in the history of Italy. 

 He then traces the dawn of their revival during the eleventh 

 and twelfth centuries, and he passes in review the men who 

 cultivated various branches of learning, especially theology 

 and jurisprudence, most of whom are now forgotten. In 

 the thirteenth century the earliest writers in the Italian lan- 

 guage make their appearance, and early in the following 

 century we find that language emerging at once into all the 

 vigour and refinement of full maturity. Bettinelli investi- 

 gates with much erudition this singularly rapid progress of 

 the language of Italy. He then follows the brilliant course 

 of Italian literature and science through the fourteenth cen- 

 tury, thus leading the reader through the first period of 

 modern learning and carrying him towards the age of the 

 Medici, which constitutes a second and distinct epoch. In 

 the second part of his work he treats of the fine arts, of the 

 progress of industry, of commerce, of wealth, and of manners 

 and habits during the same period. Bettinelli made a good 

 use of the immense stores relating to the orudition of the 

 middle ages, which Muratori hat laboriously collected in his 



