THE

POLYANTHOS.

JANUARY, 1806.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE

AND

CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES OF

MR. T. A. COOPER.

WITH A PORTRAIT.

Neminem libenter nominem, nisi ut laudem; sed nec peccata reprehenderem, nisi ut aliis prodessem.

IN

of

N our biographical department we shall ever be happy in tracing the progress genius wherever it may be found to flourish. Theatrical entertainments have their use. To delineate the sorrows or to lash the follies of our fellow-creatures, frequently answers very valuable purposes. We therefore feel a lively satisfaction in contemplating the character of a gentleman who has attained a degree of celebrity, to which, in our country, no other person in his profession has arrived.

Mr. COOPER was born about the year 1777, of reputable parents. His father was a surgeon, who lived well established G...YOL. 1.

in his profession, at Harrow on the Hill; but having quitted this situation, he went to India, and acquired considerable property in the east, under Warren Hastings's Indian administration-but of the greater part, if not all of this, his widow and children were at his death, which was abroad, defrauded and left destitute. When nine years old, Cooper was taken, out of friendship to his family, and in some sort adopted by Mr. Godwin, the well known author of the Essay on Political Justice, by whom he was educated and intended for a writer, and no doubt inducted into the visionary democratical sentiments of his instructor. He is probably one of the very few, who have been apprenticed to authorship; and as it is impossible to determine the bent and much more so the soundness and strength of a mind so young, it is somewhat remarkable that a man of Godwin's understanding should train a boy to write books, before it was certain he could ever be induced to read them.

Such a pupil to such a master must have been roused and delighted by the French revolution. Cooper was scarcely seventeen when his enthusiasm prompted him to relinquish the pen for the sword, and to seek a commission in the armies of the great Republick; the just sprouting sensitive, and uncertain laurels of the author were blasted-civick and mural crowns, ovations, and “ sabres d'honneur" were much more glittering, and accordingly it was already deter

mined that he should engage for the banners of liberty and confusion, when the war broke out between England and France, and clouded the brilliant prospects of military promotion and renown in the cause of liberty. Then it was, he turned his attention to the stage, and communicated his wishes to his benefactor; they were received with coldness and regret, and not till some time assented to, and then with decided disapprobation. His intention, however, being found invincible, Mr. Holcroft undertook to give him some preparatory lessons. When he was thought sufficiently prepared, many difficulties occurred, before a suitable place could be found for his first appearance; at last Mr. Stephen Kemble offered his auspices, and Edinburgh was concluded on. He was at that time a raw country youth of seventeen. On his arrival in Edinburgh, little conscious of his appearance and incompetency, he waited on Mr. Kemble, made up in the extreme of rustick foppery, proud of his talents, and little doubting his success. When he mentioned his name and errand, Mr. Kemble's countenance changed from a polite smile to the stare of disappointment. Cooper had been prepared for Young Norval; but he was obliged to exchange all his expected eclat for a few cold excuses from the manager, and the chagrin of seeing, some nights after, his part filled by an old man and a bad player. During the remainder of the season he