- Performer Name:
- Hook
- Performance Venue:
- Performance Date:
- Author:
- Date Written:
- Language:
- English
- Publication Title:
- The New Monthly Magazine and the Humorist
- Article Title:
- Memoir of the Late Theodore Edward Hook, Esq.
- Page Numbers:
- 63:137-140
- Additional Info:
- Publisher:
- Henry Colburn
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Date Published:
- 1841
Text:
[137] Of all the "familiar faces" that within the last twenty years have vanished from the social circles of the metropolis, none has been more missed, or will cause a greater blank in convivial society than one which Death has lately withdrawn from the great family groupe. Associated with Music and Song, Wit, Humor, and an extraordinary power of Improvisation, it was the face most eagerly looked for in all gay parties, and the lover of laughter felt certain that neither the dinner-table nor the drawing-room would be a dull one where he recognized the features of the late Theodore Hook.
His brilliant reputation, however, did not rest solely on his conversational sallies and impromptu performances, unusual as they were, and must have been, to astonish Sheridan, who is said to have been present at one of his most remarkable exploits-the singer of an extempore song, in which no less than threescore persons of the company obtained a point a-piece. It was one of these extempore efforts undertaken in defence of the Prince Regent against an insinuation at a public dinner at Worcester, that he was indebted for the kind notice of George IV., and the friendship of the Duke of Cumberland, which ultimately led to his appointment to the treasurership of the Mauritius.
[139] He also cultivated his musical talents with such assiduity and success, that he could sit down at the piano and extemporise any kind of vocal performance, from sentimental Ballad to a burlesque Opera.
Notes:
- Collected by:
- CB