seen so many extracts and criticisms that I am no stranger to his merits. . . . . Boswell’s work I am anxious for. I will answer for it we may depend upon his fidelity. I knew him intimately many years ago when he was in Dublin. He had not then appeared as an author; he was an amiable, warmhearted fellow, and there was a simplicity in him very engaging.”
A writer upon the life and works of Shakspeare must take interest in the performers as well as in productions of the modern stage. Among the former, John Kemble took the lead. About 1783, Malone selected him as a man of education and gentlemanly manners, with whom a few agreeable hours could be spent on their favourite topics. The actor understood the value of such an acquaintance, and soon learned to esteem his amiable private qualities. Pleasant dinners, amid amusing and intelligent companions, gave zest to their discussions; and among Malone’s letters is an apology from Mrs. Siddons, who cannot fulfil a previous dinner engagement to him by the unexpected arrival of two dear friends from abroad. A note from her brother to the critic at this time (March, 1786) postpones a friend’s dinner invitation while jesting upon the fate of an unlucky play—forgetting that what proved sport to him was dramatic death to the luckless author. He was a clergyman, Dr. Delap, once curate to Mason, the poet, and whose name occurs in his letters to Gray. He wrote no less than seven tragedies. Three were represented and failed. The others only escaped from a country printing-office to pass into immediate and total oblivion. Who may
