FOOTE, SAMUEL, Esq. the modern Aristophanes, was born at Truro, in Cornwall; and was descended from a very ancient family. His father was member of parliament for Tiverton, in Devonshire, and enjoyed the post of commissioner of the prize office and fine contract. His mother was heiress of the Dinely and Goodere families. In consequence of a fatal misunderstanding between her two brothers, Sir John Dinely Goodere, Bart. and Samuel Goodere, Esq. captain of his majesty's ship the Ruby, which ended in the death of both, a considerable part of the Goodere estate, which was better than 500l. per annum, descended to Mr. Foote.

He was educated at Worcester college, Oxford, which owed its foundation to Sir Thomas Cookes Winford, Bart. a second cousin of our author's. On leaving the university, he commenced student of law in the Temple; but as the dryness of this study did not suit the liveliness of his genius, he soon relinquished it. He married a young lady of a good family and some fortune; but their tempers not agreeing, a perfect harmony did not long subsist between them. He now launched into all the fashionable foibles of the age, gaming not excepted, and in a few years spent his whole fortune. His necessities led him to the stage, and he made his first appearance in the character of Othello. He next performed Fondlewife with much more applause; and this, indeed, was ever after one of his capital parts. He attempted Lord Foppington likewise, but prudently gave it up. But as Mr. Foote was never a capital actor in the plays of others, his salary was very unequal to his gay and extravagant turn; and he contracted debts which forced him to take refuge within the verge of the court. On this occasion, he relieved his necessities by the following stratagem. Sir Fr—s D—l—l had long been his intimate friend, and had dissipated his fortune by similar extravagance. Lady N—f—u P—let, who was likewise an intimate acquaintance of Foote's, and who was exceedingly rich, was fortunately at that time bent upon a matrimonial scheme. Foote strongly recommended to her to consult upon this momentous affair the conjurer in the Old Bailey, whom he represented as a man of surprising skill and penetration. He employed an acquaintance of his own to personate the conjurer; who depicted Sir Fr—s D—l—l at full length; described the time when, the place where, and the dress in which she would see him. The lady was so struck with the coincidence of every circumstance, that she married D—l—l in a few days. For this service Sir Francis settled an annuity upon Foote; and this enabled him once more to emerge from obscurity.

In 1747 he opened the little theatre in the Haymarket, taking upon himself the double character of author and performer; and appeared in a dramatic piece of his own composing, called the Diversion of the Morning. This piece consisted of nothing more than the exhibition of several characters well known in real life; whose manner of conversation and expression this author very happily hit off in the diction of his drama, and still more happily represented on the stage, by an exact and most amusing imitation, not only of the manner and tone of voice, but even of the very persons, of those whom he intended to take off. In this performance, a certain physician, Dr L—n, well known for the oddity and singularity of his appearance and conversation, and the celebrated Chevalier Taylor, who was at that time in the height of his popularity, were made objects of Foote's ridicule; the latter, indeed very deservedly; and, in the concluding part of his speech, under the character of a theatrical director, Mr. Foote took off, with great humour and accuracy, the several styles of acting of every principal performer on the English stage. The performance at first met with some opposition from the civil magistrates of Westminster, under the sanction of the act of parliament for limiting the number of playhouses, as well as from the jealousy of one of the managers of Drury-lane playhouse: but the author being patronized by many of the principal nobility, and other persons of distinction, this opposition was overruled; and having altered the title of his performance, Mr. Foote proceeded, without further molestation, to give Tea in a Morning to his friends, and represented it through a run of 40 mornings to crowded and splendid audiences.—The ensuing season he produced another piece of the same kind, which he called An Auction of Pictures. In this performance he introduced several new and popular characters; particularly Sir Thomas de Veil, then the acting justice of peace for Westminster, Mr. Cock the celebrated auctioneer, and the equally famous Orator Henley. This piece also had a very great run.—His Knights, which was the production of the ensuing season, was a performance of somewhat more dramatic regularity: but still, although his plot and characters seemed less immediately personal, it was apparent that he kept some particular real persons strongly in his eye in the performance; and the town took upon themselves to fix them where the resemblance appeared to be the most striking. Thus Mr. Foote continued from time to time to select, for the entertainment of the public, such characters, as well general as individual, as seemed most likely to engage their attention. His dramatic pieces, exclusive of the interlude called Piety in Patterns, are as follows: Tafe, the Knights, The Author, The Englishman in Paris, The Englishman returned from Paris, The Mayor of Garat, The Liar, The Patron, The Minor, The Orators, The FOOT, Commissary, The Devil upon Two Sticks, The Lame Lover, The Maid of Bath, The Nabob, The Cozeners, The Capuchin, The Bankrupt, and an unfinished comedy called The Slanderer. All these works are only to be ranked among the petit pieces of the theatre. In the execution they are somewhat loose, negligent, and unfinished; the plots are often irregular, and the catastrophes not always conclusive: but, with all these deficiencies, they contain more strength of character, more strokes of keen satire, and more touches of temporary humour, than are to be found in the writings of any other modern dramatist. Even the language spoken by his characters, incorrect as it may sometimes seem, will on a closer examination be found entirely dramatical; as it abounds with those natural minutiae of expression which frequently form the very basis of character, and which render it the truest mirror of the conversation of the times in which he wrote.

In the year 1766, being on a party of pleasure with the late duke of York, Lord Mexborough, and Sir Francis Delaval, Mr Foot had the misfortune to break his leg, by a fall from his horse; in consequence of which he was compelled to undergo an amputation. This accident so sensibly affected the duke, that he made a point of obtaining for Mr Foot a patent for life; whereby he was allowed to perform, at the little theatre in the Haymarket, from the 15th of May to the 16th of September every year.

He now became a greater favourite of the town than ever; his very laughable pieces, with his more laughable performance, constantly filled his house; and his receipts were some seasons almost incredible. Parsimony was never a vice to be ascribed to Mr Foot; his hospitality and generosity were ever conspicuous; he was visited by the first nobility, and he was sometimes honoured even by royal guests.

The attack made upon his character by one of his domestics, whom he had dismissed for misbehaviour, is too well known to be particularized here. Suffice it to say, he was honourably acquitted of that charge: but it is believed by some, that the shock which he received from it accelerated his death; others pretend, that his literary altercation with a certain then duchess, or rather her agents, much affected him, and that from that time his health declined. It is probable, however, that his natural volatility of spirits could scarcely fail to support him against all impressions from either of these quarters.

Mr Foot, finding his health decline, entered into an agreement with Mr Colman, for his patent of the theatre; according to which, he was to receive from Mr Colman, 160l. per annum, besides a stipulated sum whenever he chose to perform. Mr Foot made his appearance two or three times in some of the most admired characters; but being suddenly affected with a paralytic stroke one night whilst upon the stage, he was compelled to retire. He was advised to bathe; and accordingly retired to Brighthelmstone, where he apparently recovered his former health and spirits, and was what is called the fiddle of the company who resorted to that agreeable place of amusement. A few weeks before his death, he returned to London; but, by the advice of his physicians, set out with an intention to spend the winter at Paris and in the south of France. He had got no farther than Dover, when he was suddenly attacked by another stroke of the palsy, which in a few hours terminated his existence. He died on the 21st of October 1777; in the 56th year of his age, and was privately interred in the cloisters of Westminster abbey.