bloodily, that it
was terrible to hear and see them. (Some of them were afterwards hanged,
when the Dutch took possession of the place, others sent off in
chains.)'

THEATRICAL HISTORY.

When _The Widow Ranter; or, The History of Bacon in Virginia_ was
produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1690--the year after Mrs.
Behn's death--owing to the slipshod and slovenly way in which it was put
on, or rather, 'murdered', to use the phrase of the dedication, it did
not meet with the success so capital a piece fully deserved. Such ample
and needless omissions were made that the intrigue soon became
hopelessly fogged, many incidents seeming absolutely disjointed and
superfluous. For not only were heavier scenes, including the apparition
of Cavernio, cut, but the essential comic relief was woefully
maltreated. The Court House opening of Act III was expunged in its
entirety, whilst other episodes were so mangled and the speeches so
pruned that they proved practically unintelligible. Again, the play was
badly cast. Indifferent performers such as Barnes, Baker, Cudworth, were
entrusted with roles they were incapable of acting, whilst Daring, the
dashing, gallant, and handsome young officer, who is loved by the Widow,
was alloted to Sanford, of all men most supremely unfitted for the part.
Indeed, it would seem that the casting was done on purpose perversely
and malignly to damn the play. Samuel Sanford, who had joined Davenant's
company within a year of their opening, had been forced by nature, being
low of stature and crooked of person, rather than by choice, into a line
denoted by such characters as Iago, Creon in Dryden and Lee's _Oedipus_,
Malignii, Osmund the wizard in _King Arthur_. 'An excellent actor in
disagreeable characters' Cibber terms him, and old Aston sums him up
thus: 'Mr. _Sanford_, although not usually deem'd an Actor of the first
Rank, yet the Characters allotted him were such, that none besides,
then, or since, ever topp'd; for his Figure, which was diminutive and
mean, (being Round-shoulder'd, Meagre-fac'd, Spindle-shank'd,
Splay-footed, with a sour Countenance and long lean Arms) render'd him a
proper Person to discharge _Jago_, _Foresight_ and _Ma'lignij_, in the
_Villain_.--This Person acted strongly with his Face,--and (as King
_Charles_ said) was the best _Villain_ in the World.' The performance of
an actor with such a marked personality and unpleasantly peculiar
talents as are thus enumera