Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Companion to the play-house, or, An historical account of all the dramatic writers (and their works) that have appeared in Great Britain and Ireland, from the commencement of our theatrical exhibitions, down to the present year 1764 > Volume 2

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Queen Elizabeth, aud that he
lived at Epivorth in Lincolnjhire.
—In his literary Capacity only
therefore we can fpeak of him,
in which Light we are to confider
him as the firft Perfon who gave
this Kingdom an entireTranflation
of -Terenc/s Comedies. —' — To the
learned it would beneedlefs to re-
peat thfir Names, but for the Sake
cf our Fair P,eaders,and others who
may not be ib well acquainted
with the Latin Claflics, it may
»ot be improper to inform them
that they were fix in Number,
and their Titles ss follows,
I. Ade/fbi.
, ,2. Aridria.
3. Euruchus.
4. Heautontimorunienos,
5. Hecyra.
6. Phcrmio.
Mr. Yarnard has not, however,
contented himfelf with giving a
bare Tranflation of thefe fix
Plays, but has alfo fwledcd fe-
paiately and difiindlly, in each
Scene, all the moft remarkable
Forms of Speech, Thefes and
moral Sentences , after the
fame Manner as had been done
before him in an old French
Tranflation of the fame Author,
printed at Pari% in 1 574. — Thefe
little Extrads are extremely ufe-
ful and entertaining, and may
not only be rendered ferviceable
to Boys at School in the more
immediate Underllanding of the
Author, but are alfo of great Af-
iiftance to thofe who read him
with a more cUflical View, in
the pointing out, and fixing on
the Memory fome of the moft
beautiful Paffages, or fuch as
from the Importance of the Sen-
timent, or the peculiar Arrange-
ment of the Phrafeology, may be
the moft defirablc to remember,
Betterton, Ivlr . ^J^homai.-^
Tko' in Pursuance of tkg I>efig;i
B E
of this Work we can infert ho
Names but thofe of dramatic
Writers, yet the Gentleman who
now comes under our Coniidera-
tion requires our fpeaking of him
not in that Light only, but alfo
as an Aftor, and that perhaps as
the moft capital one that this or
any other Country has ever pro-
duced. — He was born in Tothill-
Street, Wefiminfier, in the Year
163S, his Father being at that
Time under Cook to K.Charles I.
— He received the iirft Rudiments
of a genteel Education, and Shew-
ed fuch a Propen/ity to Litera-
ture, that it vv'as for fome Time
the Intention of his Family to
have brought him up to one of
the liberal Profeffions. — But this
Defign the Confufion and Vio-
lence of the enfuing Times di-
verted them from, or probably
put it out of their Power to ac-
complish. — His Fondnefs of Rea-
ding, however, induced him to
rcqueft of his Parents that they
would bind him Apprentice to a
Bcokfeller, which was readily
complied with, fixing on one
Mr. Rhodes, near Charing-Crofs,
for his Mader.
This Gentleman, who had
been J'fardrobe-Keeper to the The-
atre in Black-Friars before the
Troubles, obtained a Licence in
1659, from the Powers then in
being, to fet up a Company of
Players in the Cock-pit in Drury-
Lane, in which Company Mr.
Betterton enter'd himfelf, and tho'
not much above twenty Years of
Age, immediately gave Proof of
the moft capital Genius and Me-
rit, and acquired the higheft Ap-
plaufe in the Loyal Subje£}, the
WildGooJeChace, tht. Spanifo Cu-
rate, and feveral other Plays of
Beaumont and Fletcher, which
were then th* Pkces moft in
Vogue»
PrefenUy