BAKER (Thomas), a dramatic writer, was the son of an eminent attorney in the city of London. His turn was entirely to comedy, and his plays are five in number, viz. 1. Act at Oxford. 2. Five Ladies airt. 3. Hampstead Heath. 4. Humours of the age. 5. Tunbridge Walks. All of them have a considerable share of merit; yet only one among the number stands on the present list of acting plays, viz. Tunbridge Walks. It is said that the character of Maiden in this play, which is perhaps the original of almost all the Pribbles, beau Mizens, &c. that have been drawn since, and in which effeminacy is carried to an height beyond what any one could conceive to exist in any man in real life, was absolutely, and without exaggeration, a portrait of the author's own former character; whose understanding having at length pointed out to him the folly he had so long been guilty of, he reformed it altogether in his subsequent behaviour, and wrote this character, in order to set it forth in the most ridiculous light, and wren others from that rock of contempt which he had himself for some time been wrecked upon. Whether this gentleman's attachment to the mules drew him from any application to business, or from what other cause, is not known; but during the latter part of his life he stood on indifferent terms
terms with his father, who allowing him a very scanty income, he was obliged to retire into Worcestershire, where he is reported to have died of that loathsome disorder the morbis pediculosus.