Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/338

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Moody
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Moody

beth,' Major Oldfox in the 'Plain Dealer,' Captain Bluff, Sir Sampson Legend, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Sir Toby Belch, Roger in 'Æsop' Gripe in the 'Confederacy,' Sir Wilful Witwou'd, Dr. Cantwell, Dogberry, &c. On 21 Sept. 1776 he was the original Phelim in Colman's 'New Brooms;' 24 Feb. 1777 the original Sir Tunbelly Clumsey in the 'Trip to Scarborough,' altered from Vanbrugh by Sheridan; 15 Oct. 1778 the original O'Daub in the 'Camp,' erroneously assigned to Sheridan; and, 29 Oct. 1779, Lord Burleigh in the 'Critic.' His other original parts of any importance were Dennis Dogherty in Jackman's 'Divorce,' 10 Nov. 1781; Major O'Flaherty in Cumberland's 'Natural Son,' 22 Dec. 1784; and Hugo in Cobb's 'Haunted Tower,' 24 Nov. 1789. In Liverpool, where he acted during the summer, and in other country towns, he tried more ambitious parts, as King in 'First Part of King Henry IV,' Iago, and Shylock. After the season of 1795-6 the management, in answer to constant complaints of his heaviness, did not engage him, and he went into compulsory retirement, from which he emerged to play at Covent Garden, for the benefit of the Bayswater Hospital, 26 June 1804, Jobson in the 'Devil to Pay.' This was announced as 'his first appearance these ten years, and positively his last on any stage.' He retired to Barnes Common, where he lived in comfort, adding to his income by growing vegetables for the London market, sometimes himself driving his produce into town. Here at Shepherd's Bush according to the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' or in Leicester Square according to the 'European Magazine,' he died 26 Dec. 1812. He requested that he might be buried in St. Clement's burial-ground, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and that the headstone should bear the words, 'A native of this parish, and an old member of Drury Lane Theatre.' The cemetery was full, however, and his remains were interred in the churchyard at Barnes, near those of his first wife, who died 12 May 1805, aged 88. His widow, Kitty Ann Moody, died 29 Oct. 1846, aged 83 (see Notes and Queries, 8th ser. ii. 292).

In his early career Moody was much praised, being declared the best Teague that the stage had produced. His Captain O'Cutter was highly popular, and secured him the praise of Churchill, who devotes ten lines to him in the 'Rosciad.' He was held a principal support of the 'Jubilee,' and played in the 'West Indian' with such judgement and masterly execution as to divide applause with the author. Tate Wilkinson praises highly his comic characters and his wisdom and sagacity, professing a great friednship for him. In his later days he incurred much condemnation, going through his parts in a state of 'torpor, bordering upon sleep.' Mrs. Mathews says that Moody, 'afraid of o'erstepping Nature, occasionally came short of her.' Thomas Dibdin relates a racy interview which he had with 'the venerable Hibernian' when he was over eighty, but still full of 'excellent humour' (Reminiscences, i. 258).

Portraits of Moody as Teague in the 'Committee,' with Parsons as Obadiah, by Vandergutch; by Drummond, R.A., as Jobson in the 'Devil to Pay;' and as one of a club of twelve persons called the 'School of Garrick,' are in the Garrick Club, and two engravings, one by J. Marchi from a painting by Zoffany, and the other by T. Hardy from one of his own paintings, are in the National Portrait Gallery, Dublin. Prints of Garrick as Foigard and as the Irishman in the 'Register Office' are in existence.

[Some confusion as to Moody's early life is due to the fact that he wished to be accepted as an Englishman, and to hide his humble origin. Lives of him are given in Theatrical Biography, 1772, the Georgian Era, the Thespian Dictionary, the Dramatic Mirror, the Secret History of the Green Room, the Monthly Mirror, vol. iii., and the European Magazine, vol. xviii. See also Genest's Account of the English Stage, Tate Wilkinson's Memoirs, the Garrick Correspondence, the Dramatic Censor, Cumberland's Memoirs, O'Keeffe's Recollections, Boaden's Life of John Philip Kemble, Clark Russell's Representative Actors, Dibdin's History of the Stage.]

J. K.

MOODY, RICHARD CLEMENT (1813–1887), major-general royal engineers, colonial governor, second son of Colonel Thomas Moody, royal engineers, by his wife, whose maiden name was Clement, was born in St. Ann's garrison at Barbados, West Indies, on 13 Feb. 1813. His brothers were Colonel Hampden Moody of the royal engineers, who died when commanding royal engineer at Belfast in 1869, and the Rev. J. L. Moody, army chaplain. After being educated at private schools and by a tutor at home, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in February 1827 and left in December 1829, as the custom then was, to receive instruction in the ordnance survey. He was gazetted a second lieutenant in the royal engineers 5 Nov. 1830, and was posted to the ordnance survey in Ireland on 30 May 1832; but early in 1833 he fell ill, and on his recovery was stationed at Woolwich; in October he embarked for the West Indies, and was for some years at St. Vincent. He was promoted first lieutenant on 25 June 1835. In