Barton Booth, Eſq;
It is but juſtice to the memory of this great actor to give him a place among the poets, if he had been leſs conſiderable in that province than he really was; for he appears early to have underſtood the Latin claſſics, and to have ſucceeded in occaſional pieces, and little odes, beyond many perſons of higher name in poetry.[1] Mr. Booth was deſcended from a very ancient, and honourable family, originally ſeated in the County Palatine of Lancaſter. His father, John Booth, eſq; was a man of great worth and honour; and though his fortune was not very conſiderable, he was extremely attentive to the education of his children, of whom Barton (the third) was born in 1681.
When about nine years of age, he was put under the tuition of the famous Dr. Buſby, head-maſter of Weſtminſter ſchool, under whom ſome of the ableſt men have been educated, that in the laſt and preſent age have done honour to the nation. The ſprightlineſs of Booth’s parts early recommended him to the notice of Dr. Buſby: he had a ſtrong paſſion for learning, and a peculiar turn for Latin poetry, and by ſtudying the beſt authors in it, he fixed many of the fineſt paſſages ſo firmly in his memory, that he was able to repeat them with ſuch propriety, and graceful action, with ſo fine a tone of voice, and pe-
- ↑ N. B. As Mr. Theophilus Cibber is publiſhing (in a work entirely undertaken by himſelf) The Lives, and Characters of all our Eminent Actors, and Actreſſes, from Shakeſpear, to the preſent time; he leaves to the other gentlemen, concerned in this collection, the accounts of ſome players who could not be omitten herein, as Poets.
