��Two Dialogues by
��and in regard to his being a great man, you must take the whole man together. It must be considered in how many things Garrick excelled in which every man desires to excel : setting aside his excellence as an actor, in which he is acknow ledged to be unrivalled : as a man, as a poet, as a convivial companion *, you will find but few his equals, and none his superior. As a man, he was kind, friendly, benevolent, and generous.
GIB. Of Garrick's generosity I never heard ; I understood his character to be totally the reverse, and that he was reckoned to have loved money.
JOHNS. That he loved money, nobody will dispute ; who does not? but if you mean, by loving money, that he was parsi monious to a fault, Sir, you have been misinformed. To Foote 2 , and such scoundrels, who circulated those reports, to such profligate spendthrifts prudence is meanness, and economy is avarice. That Garrick, in early youth, was brought up in strict habits of economy, I believe, and that they were necessary, I have heard from himself; to suppose that Garrick might inadvertently act from this habit, and be saving in small things, can be no wonder 3 : but let it be remembered at the same time, that if he was frugal by habit, he was liberal from principle 4 ;
��1 ' Garrick was a very good man, the cheerfullest man of his age.' Life, iii. 387. 'Having expatiated with his usual force and eloquence on his extraordinary eminence as an actor, Johnson concluded : " And after all, Madam, I thought him less to be envied on the stage than at the head of a table." ' Ib. iv. 243.
2 'Foote used to say of Garrick that he walked out with an intention to do a generous action ; but, turning the corner of a street, he met with the ghost of a halfpenny, which frightened him.' Ib. iii. 264. ' There is a witty satirical story of Foote. He had a small bust of Garrick placed upon his bureau. " You may be surprised (said he) that I allow him to be so near my gold ; but
��you will observe he has no hands." ' Ib. iv. 224.
3 ' Garrick (said Johnson) was very poor when he began life ; so when he came to have money he probably was very unskilful in giving away, and saved when he should not. But Garrick began to be liberal as soon as he could.' Ib. iii. 70. ' He began the world with a great hunger for money ; the son of a half-pay officer, bred in a family whose study was to make four-pence do as much as others made four-pence halfpenny do. But when he got money he was very liberal.' Ib. iii. 387.
4 ' Swift was frugal by inclination, but liberal by principle.' Works, viii. 222.
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