BOOTH

Babton, an actor of great celebrity in the reigns of Queen Anne and Greorge L, was bom in 1681, and placed under Dr. Busby, at Westminster School. An early attachment for the drama was fostered by the applause he met with while performing a part in one of Terence's plays, at the annual exhibition in that seminary. He eloped from school at the age of seventeen, and joined Ashbury's company of strolling players, with whom he went to Dublin. After performing three years in the Irish capital with great applause, he returned in 1701 to London, and, engaging with Better ton, met with similar succe . On the death of that manager he joined the Drury Lane company, and on the production of Cato in a 1712 raised his reputation as a tragedian to the highest pitch by his performance of the principal character. It was on this occasion that Lord Bolingbroke presented him from the stage-box with fifty guineas — an example which was immediately followed by that nobleman's political of^xments. Declamation, rather than pa ion, appears to have been his forte, though Cibber sp^tks of his Othello as his finest character. He became a patentee and manager of the theatre in 1718, in conjunction with Wilks, of Cibber, and Doggett, and died May, 1733. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a monument to his memory. He was the author of Dido and.Sneas, a mask, various songs, ., and the translator of several odes of Horace.