BOOTH, Barton, a celebrated English actor, born in Lancashire in 1681, and educated in Westminster school under the celebrated Dr Bushby, where his success in the Latin plays customarily performed by the scholars gave him an inclination for the stage. He was intended for the church; but having run away from school to Dublin, he there commenced actor. His first appearance was in the part of Oroonoko, in which he obtained the most flattering testimonials of approbation from the audience. From this time he continued daily improving; and after two successful campaigns in Ireland, conceived thoughts [7:4:796]of returning to his native country, and making a trial of his abilities on the English stage. To this end he first reconciled himself to his friends; and then, as a further step towards insuring success, he obtained from Lord Fitzharding, one of the lords of the bed-chamber to Prince George of Denmark, a recommendation to Mr Betterton, who, with great candour and good nature, took him under his care, and gave him all the assistance in his power. The first part Mr Booth appeared in at London was that of Maximus in Lord Rochester’s Valentinian, his reception in which exceeded even his most sanguine expectations; and soon afterwards his performance of Artaban, in Rowe’s Ambitious Stepmother, a new tragedy, established his reputation as only second to his great instructor. Pyrrhus, in the Distressed Mother, was another part in which he shone without a rival. But he was indebted to a happy coincidence of merit and chance for that height of fame which he at length attained in the character of Cato, as drawn by Mr Addison. For this play being considered as a party one, the Whigs, in favour of whose principles it was apparently written, thought it their duty to support it strongly; while at the same time the Tories, who had too much sense to appear to consider it as a reflection on their administration, were still more vehement in their approbation, which they carried to such a height as even to make a collection of fifty guineas in the boxes during the performance, and present it to Mr Booth, with this compliment, “that it was a slight acknowledgment~for his honest opposition to a perpetual dictator, and his dying so bravely in the cause of liberty.” Besides this, he had a present of an equal sum from the managers, in consideration of the extraordinary success of the play, which they attributed in a great measure to his merit in the performance; and it is certain that no one since that time has ever equalled, or even approached, his excellence in this character. But these were not the only advantages which accrued to Mr Booth from his success in this part; for Lord Bolingbroke, then one of the principal secretaries of state, soon after procured a special license from Queen Anne, recalling all the former ones, and nominating Mr Booth joint manager with Wilkes, Cibber, and Dogget. None of these persons, however, was satisfied with the arrangement; and the last especially took such disgust as to withdraw himself from any further share in the management. In 1704 Mr Booth married a daughter of Sir William Barkham, Bart, who died in 1710, without issue. But being fully established in the management, he once more turned his thoughts towards matrimony, and, in the year 1719, united himself to the celebrated Miss Hester Santlow, a woman of a most amiable disposition, whose great merit as an actress, added to the utmost discretion and prudential economy, had enabled her to save a considerable fortune. During the twenty years in which Mr Booth continued a manager, the theatre was in the greatest credit; and his illness and death, which happened on the 10th of May 1733, contributed not a little to its decline.

Mr Booth wrote a dramatic entertainment called Dido and Aeneas; but his masterpiece was a Latin inscription to the memory of Mr William Smith, a promising actor, who died while young. As an actor, his excellency lay wholly in tragedy; nor was he able to endure any parts but those which had strong passion to inspire him; and even in this walk, dignity rather than ease, rage rather than tenderness, seemed to be his forte. Some idea of his abilities may be formed from the description Mr Cibber has given of Booth in his Apology, and from the character drawn of him by Aaron Hill, in a political paper called the Prompter, which may be seen at length in Cibber’s Lives of the Poets, and Chetwood’s History of the Stage· His character as á man was adorned with many amiable qualities, among which goodness of heart, the basis of almost every virtue, was remarkably conspicuous.