ascribed to the treatment he received in connection with this speculation, in which nothing of his own was embarked, his subsequent imprisonment for debt and the general collapse of his fortunes.
In such difficulties was he plunged that he resided for some period in his dressing-room in Drury Lane Theatre, and when he was needed elsewhere he was conveyed in a cart behind theatrical scenery. On 15 June 1789 he gave at the Lyceum an entertainment called 'As you like it,' which began with a personal prologue written by Thomas Bellamy [q. v.] He also played at Worcester and elsewhere, took the part of Henri du Bois, the hero in a spectacle founded on the taking of the Bastille, and, while a prisoner in the Rules of the King's Bench, delivered three times a week, at a salary of twelve guineas a week, Stevens's 'Lecture on Heads.' On 9 Nov. 1789 Drury Lane Theatre was closed, and Palmer, as a rogue and vagabond, was committed to the Surrey gaol. The public demanded him, however, and 1789-90 is the only season in which he was not seen at Drury Lane.
On 18 June 1798, the last night of the season at Drury Lane, Palmer played Father Philip in the 'Castle Spectre' of 'Monk' Lewis, and Comus, the former an original part, in which he had been first seen on the 14th of the previous December. He then went to Liverpool, and was in low spirits, bewailing the death of his wife and that of a favourite son. He was announced to play in the 'Stranger,' but the performance was deferred. On 2 Aug. 1798 he attempted this part. No support of his friends could cheer him. He went through two acts with great effect. In the third act he was much agitated, and in the fourth, at the question of Baron Steinfort relative to his children, he endeavoured to proceed, fell back, heaved a convulsive sigh, and died, the audience supposing, until the body was removed and the performance arrested, that he was merely playing his part. An attempt to reap a lesson from the incident was made by saying that his last words were, 'There is another and a better world.' It was said, too, that this phrase, which occurs in the third act, was to be placed on his tomb. Whitfield, however, who played Steinfort, told Frederick Reynolds positively that Palmer fell in his presence, which is irreconcilable with this edifying version. A benefit for his children was at once held in Liverpool, an address by Thomas Roscoe [q. v.] being spoken, and realised a considerable sum. A benefit at the Haymarket on 18 Aug. brought nearly 700l.; a third was given on 15 Sept., the opening night at Drury Lane, when the ' Stranger ' was repeated.
One of the most versatile as well as the most competent and popular of actors, Palmer played an enormous number of characters, principally at Drury Lane. Genest's list, which is far from complete, and does not even include all Palmer's original characters, amounts to over three hundred separate parts. Except singing characters and old men, there was nothing in which he was not safe, and there were many things in which he was foremost. An idea of his versatility may be obtained from a few of the characters with which he was entrusted. These include Wellborn in 'A New Way to pay Old Debts,' Face in the 'Alchemist,' Pierre, Mercutio, Iachimo, Iago, Bastard in 'King John,' Slender, Teague, Trappanti, Young Marlow, Jaques, Buckingham in 'Henry VIII,' Ford, Ghost in 'Hamlet' and Hamlet, Colonel Feignwell, Bobadill, Valentine, and Ben in 'Love for Love,' Comus, Petruchio, Lofty in the 'Good Natured Man,' Puff in the 'Critic,' Lord Foppington, Lord Townly, Falstaff in the 'Merry Wives of Windsor' and Henry IV, pt. i., Touchstone, Henry VIII, Inkle, Macduff, Macbeth, Octavian in the 'Mountaineers,' Shylock, Prospero, Doricourt in the 'Belle's Stratagem,' and innumerable others. Not less numerous are his original characters. Of these three stand prominently forth, the most conspicuous of all being Joseph Surface, which seems never to have been so well played since; Almaviva in 'Spanish Barber,' and Dick Dowlas. Other original characters include Colonel Evans in the 'School for Rakes,' Captain Dormer in 'A Word to the Wise,' Dionysius in Murphy's 'Grecian Daughter,'Leeson in the 'School for Wives,' Siward in 'Matilda,' Sir Petronel Flash in 'Old City Manners,' Solyman in the 'Sultan,' Jack Rubrick in the 'Spleen,' Earl Edwin in the 'Battle of Hastings,' Granger in 'Who's the Dupe ?' Sneer in the 'Critic,' Woodville in the 'Chapter of Accidents,' Contrast in the 'Lord of the Manor,' Sir Harry Trifle in the 'Divorce,' Almoran in the 'Fair Circassian,'Prince of Arragon in the piece so named, Lord Gayville in the 'Heiress,' Don Octavio in the 'School for Guardians,' Sir Frederick Fashion in 'Seduction,' Marcellus in 'Julia, or the Italian Lover,' Random in 'Ways and Means,' Demetrius in the 'Greek Slave,' Young Manly in the 'Fugitive,' Sydenham in the 'Wheel of Fortune,' Schedoni in the 'Italian Monk,' and Tonnage in the 'Ugly Club.' In tragedy Palmer was successful in those parts alone in which, as in Stukely, Iago, &c., dissimulation is required. In comedy, thanks partly to his
