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Show DICK TARLETON. There is no name among the old players mere famous than that of Dick Tarleton. "For a wondrous, pleasant, Bitemporal wit be was the wonder of his lyme! He was so he loved that men used hia picture for their signs," saya Howes. Another old author tells ua, "For the clown's part he never had bis equal." Even Ben Jonson, who never misses an opportunity for a fliog at actors, could not refrain from applauding Tarleton. "The Bell-same words uttered ut-tered by another would hardly move a man to Bmile, which uttered by him would move a iad soul to laighier." He is said to have been brought to London from Shropshire by one of Lord Leicester's servants, who found him in the fields, tending hie father's Bwine, and was so asto nibbed by the readiness of hia answers and the quickness of hia .intellect that he proposed he should enter my lord's service a proposal -Dick waa willing enough to accept. In a little while be wsb enrolled en-rolled among the twelve players who form the queen's company, and became be-came a sort of court jester. "When the queen was serious," says Fuller. "I dare not say sullen, Tarleton would undumpisb her at his pleasure. He told her more of her faults than most of her chaplains, and cured her of her melancholy better than all her physicians." He fell into disgrace at last, hswever, and was dismissed from court for ecurriloua reflections upon Leicester and Raleigh. He appears to have chiefly played at the Red Bull; in bis later years be kept a tavern in Paternoster row, and alter-wards alter-wards the Tabor, in Grace Church street. He died iu 158S. and was buried in St, Leonard's, Siioreditcb. "He wrote," says Dibdin (History of the Stage), "one dramatic piece called the 'Seven. Deadly Sins,' and this appears to have been when, tired ot his debaucheries, he, like Green and Nasb, pretended to repent of bis irregularities, at which time his wit seems to have dwindled into mere acurrility, for, as he grew debilitated with his excesses, he becamo sour and sarcastic. None escaped hia virulence, not even Leicester and Raleigh, till being discarded from court, and growing every day more I conlemplible in the world's opinion, he I died like Voltaire, a mixture of imbecility, imbe-cility, follv and irresolution." On the frontispiece of a jest book, which r'cars hia name, there is a picture of him which answers Chettle's description. descrip-tion. "The next, by his suit of russet, his buttoned cap, his tabor, bis standing on his toe, and other tricks, I know either lo be the body or the resemblance of Richard Tarleton, Tarle-ton, who living for his pleasant conceits, con-ceits, was of all men liked, and dying, for mirth left not his like." There are many strange stories recorded of his wit and rogueries, but most of them have been applied to other celebrated jesters. Hero ia one that much eaverB of a tale told of Rabelais. Having run up a long score ut an inn at Sandwich, and not being able, or not feeling disposed to pay, he made his boy accuse him of being a seminary priest. When the officers came they found him npun his knees crossing himself mostdilligently; they paid his reckoning, made him prisoner, pris-oner, and carried him oh to London. He was taken before Recorder Fleetwood, Fleet-wood, who knew him well, and laughing heartily at his trick, not jonly discharged him, but invited him home to dinner. Temple Bar. |