Anecdotes by George Steevens.
��after we had been jostled into conversation, he took me to a window, asked me some questions, and, before we parted, was so well pleased with me, that he patted me.' ' You always, Sir, preserved a respect for him?' 'Yes, and justly. When as yet I was in no favour with the world, he spake well of me, and I hope I never forgot the obligation *.'
'Though you brought a Tragedy, Sir, to Drury-Lane 2 , and at one time were so intimate with Garrick, you never appeared to have much theatrical acquaintance.' * Sir, while I had, in common with other dramatic authors, the liberty of the scenes, without considering my admission behind them as a favour, I was frequently at the theatre. At that period all the wenches knew me, and dropped me a curtsey as they passed on to the stage 3 . But since poor Goldsmith's last Comedy, I scarce recollect having seen the inside of a playhouse 4 . To speak the truth, there is small encouragement there for a man whose sight and hearing are become so imperfect as mine. I may add, that, Garrick and Henderson 5 excepted, I never met with
��Mrs. French, in London, well known for her elegant assemblies, and bring ing eminent characters together. The interview proved to be mutually agreeable.' Life, iv. 48.
1 In his Shakespeare he praised Johnson's Observations on Macbeth. Ib. i. 176. For Johnson's criticism of him see ante, i. 381.
2 Ante, i. 386.
3 See Life, i. 201 for the ' considera tions of rigid virtue' which, if Gar- rick's story is to be trusted, kept him from going any longer behind the scenes.
4 For She Stoops to Conquer see ib. iv. 325. Johnson went to Mrs. Abington's benefit two years later. Ib. ii. 324.
5 Johnson, speaking to Henderson ' of a certain dramatic writer, said, " I never did the man an injury ; but he would persist in reading his tragedy to me." ' Life, iv. 244, n. 2.
��The man was Joseph Reed, the author of Dido. Nichols, Lit. Anec. ix. 1 1 6.
Henderson died less than a year after Johnson (Gentleman's Maga zine, 1785, p. 923), and was buried in Westminster Abbey close to him. See the Plan in Stanley's Westminster Abbey, ed. 1868, p. 268.
' Cumberland said that the three finest pieces of acting which he had ever witnessed were Garrick's Lear, Henderson's Falstaff, and Cooke's lago.' Rogers's Table-Talk, p. 136.
Macaulay, recording a voyage to Dublin, during which ' he went through Paradise Lost in his head,' says : ' In the dialogue at the end of the fourth book Satan and Gabriel became to me quite like two of Shakespeare's men. Old Sharp once told me that Henderson the actor used to say to him that there was no a performer
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