characters before enraptured audiences, earning from fifty to seventy-five
guineas per night, apart from benefits, so that he really made from L4000
to L5000 a year.

In 1805, the House of Commons adjourned in a body to witness his
performance of _Hamlet_. Wherever he appeared an excited mob instantly
gathered; ladies vied with each other in the endeavour to kiss his hand,
and at the hour when he was expected at the Play House a larger crowd
assembled than ever collected to see the king. "He and Bonaparte now
divide the world," wrote Sir William Knightly at this date; "This is, I
believe, the first instance since the creation, of a child so much under
age, getting such an income by any ability. I think he is very excellent,
his gracefulness is unparalleled and the violence of the desire to see him
either on or off the stage is like a madness in the people."

In the autumn of 1805, Roscius went a tour in the Provinces; in August of
that year he was in the North, and Mr Smith, the Vicar of Newcastle
(formerly tutor to the sons of Walter Stanhope) wrote to Mrs Stanhope an
account of the prodigy's reception there:--


_August 19th_.

The Young Roscius is engaged here for three nights, and makes his
_debut_ this evening in the play of "Douglas"; places are as yet
allowed to be taken only for the first four nights of his performance,
and so great is the expectation of Newcastle, that if the boxes had
held double the number of spectators, all the seats would have been
taken.