Editing Samuel Foote (section)

==''The Author'' himself==
The Fielding quarrel was followed by a more serious quarrel with actor [[Henry Woodward (English actor)|Henry Woodward]]. This resulted in a small [[riot]] that was damaging not only to the Haymarket Theatre but to Foote's reputation. He began to deflect criticism only with the opening of his play, ''The Knights''. This play, unlike his earlier satirical revues, was a romantic comedy set in the country, though he did use this play as a vehicle to satirize such things as [[Italian opera]] and the [[gentry]] of Cornwall.<ref name="Howard, p. 133">Howard, p. 133.</ref>

[[Image:Scene from Samuel Foote's Taste.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.25|Scene from ''Taste'' in a painting by [[Robert Smirke (painter)|Robert Smirke]]. Lady Pentweazel, played by Foote, wore a large headdress, satirizing the elaborate headdresses of the day, with feathers that fell out throughout the play.<ref>Murphy, p. 1103.</ref>]]
At the close of the Haymarket season in 1749, Foote left London for Paris in order to spend money he had recently inherited.<ref name="Howard, p. 133"/> Upon his return to London in 1752, Foote's new comedy, ''Taste'', was produced at Drury Lane. Foote took aim at the burgeoning art and [[antiquities]] market and particularly aristocratic collectors. In his preface to the play, Foote specifies his targets as the "barbarians who have prostituted the study of antiquity to trifling superficiality, who have blasted the progress of the elegant arts by unpardonable frauds and absurd prejudices, and who have vitiated the minds and morals of youth by persuading them that what serves only to illustrate literature is true knowledge and that active idelness is real business."<ref name="Murphy, pp. 1106–7">Murphy, pp. 1106–7.</ref>

''Taste'' opens with Lady Pentweazel who believes that the works of art, the [[Venus de' Medici]] and the Mary de Medici, are sisters in the [[Medici]] family. Two other collectors, Novice and Lord Dupe, claim to be able to determine the age and value of coins and medals by tasting them while Puff, an [[auctioneer]], convinces them and Sir Positive Bubble that broken china and statuary are worth far more than perfect pieces. Lord Dupe follows this advice by purchasing a canvas with the paint scraped off. The foibles of ignorant art collectors and predatory dealers were presented by Foote in this high [[burlesque]] comedy. In order for an audience to appreciate high burlesque, they must understand the standards of true taste before they can recognize the conflict between those standards and the characters' standards. The audience that saw the premier of ''Taste'' evidently did not understand this conflict as the play was not successful and played only five performances.<ref name="Murphy, pp. 1106–7"/>

Following the unsuccessful reception of ''Taste'', Foote staged a new production, ''An Englishman in Paris'', inspired by both his trip there and possibly, as Davison suggests, a French play, ''Frenchman in London'' which he may have seen.<ref>Davison, p. 333.</ref> Here, Foote satirized the boorish behaviour of English gentlemen abroad. The play garnered wide acclaim and became a part of the repertoires of the Drury Lane and [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] theatres where it remained for a few decades.<ref name="Howard, p. 135">Howard, p. 135.</ref> While his success was becoming more solidified as a writer, Foote was also in demand as an actor, working at Drury Lane and Covent Garden during the 1753–4 season.

When he found himself out of work in November 1754, Foote rented the Haymarket theatre and began to stage mock lectures. Satirizing [[Charles Macklin]]'s newly opened school of oratory, these lectures created a sort of theatrical war, especially when Macklin began to appear at the lectures himself. At one particular lecture, Foote extemporized a piece of [[nonsense]] prose to test Macklin's assertion that he could memorise any text at a single reading.

{{Wikisource|The Grand Panjandrum}}
<blockquote>So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! No soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top, and they all fell to playing the game of catch-as-catch-can till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.</blockquote>

This introduced the nonsense term "The Grand Panjandrum" into the English language and the name was adopted for the [[Panjandrum]] or Great Panjandrum, an experimental [[World War II]]-era [[explosive device]].

With Foote's success in writing ''An Englishman in Paris'', Irish playwright [[Arthur Murphy (writer)|Arthur Murphy]] was moved to create a sequel, ''The Englishman returned from Paris''. While Foote readily encouraged Murphy's plan, Foote secretly wrote his own version which opened at Covent Garden on 3 February 1756. While early biographers scorned Foote's plagiarism of Murphy's play, the 1969 discovery of that manuscript laid it to rest when it was proven that Foote's play was far superior. The play was successful at Covent Garden and played regularly until 1760.

Two rival actresses captured the attention of London audiences and Foote's satire. Peg Woffington and [[George Anne Bellamy]] apparently took their roles rather seriously in a production of [[Nathaniel Lee]]'s ''The Rival Queens''. When Bellamy's Parisian fashions began to upstage Woffington, Bellamy was driven offstage by a dagger-wielding Woffington thus providing a source for Foote's ''The Green-Room Squabble or a Battle Royal between the Queen of Babylon and the Daughter of Darius''. The text of this farce is now lost.<ref name="Howard, p. 135"/>

Having turned his satire on Englishmen abroad and actresses at home, Foote pointed his daggered pen towards himself, other writers and the condition of the "starving writer" in his play ''The Author'' which premiered at Drury Lane on 5 February 1757.<ref>Howard, p. 135</ref> The plot concerned a poor author's father who disguises himself in order to spy on his son. Again, Foote created the role of Cadwallader for himself and used it to satirize John Apreece, a patron of authors. While critics derided Foote's attack on Apreece, audiences flocked to the theatre. Apreece even appeared and sat "open-mouthed and silly, in the boxes, to the delight of the audience, and mystified by the reflection of himself, which he beheld on the stage."<ref>Doran, p. 376.</ref> Foote noted later that Apreece finding "the resemblance [...] too strong, and the ridicule too pungent [...] occasioned an application for the suppression of the piece, which was therefore forbidden to be anymore performed."<ref>Foote, p. 11</ref> The play was forbidden further productions by the Lord Chamberlain. While success may have been limited, [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]] adapted the plot in his ''[[School for Scandal]]''. Modern critics would point out that ''The Author'' shows great development in Foote's ability in creating characters and sustaining plot.<ref name="Howard, p. 135"/>