the wrongside of three-score,[A] he has yet the open spirit of a hale
young fellow of five and twenty; that though he still chuses to speak
what he thinks to his best friends with an undisguised freedom, he
is, notwithstanding, acceptable to many persons of the first rank and
condition; that any one of them (provided he likes them) may now send
him, for their service, to Constantinople at half a day's warning;
that Time has not yet been able to make a visible change in any part
of him but the colour of his hair, from a fierce coal-black to that of
a milder milk-white: When I have taken this liberty with him, methinks
it cannot be taking a much greater if I at once should tell you that
this person was Mr. Owen Swiney."

[Footnote A: Swiney, or MacSwiney, died in 1754, after making Peg
Woffington his legatee]

* * * * *

Swiney was an ardent Irishman who had, for some mysterious reason,
formed a friendship with Rich, and his advice and energy often stood
the manager of Drury Lane in good stead. When, in the summer of 1706,
Vanbrugh proposed that Swiney should lease the Haymarket, Sir John
being anxious to relinquish management, just as Congreve had done some
time before, cunning Christopher gave his consent, curiously enough,
to what was nothing more or less than the setting up of a rival
company of actors. In the first place, he probably looked upon his
players as an encumbrance, since he was in the vein for operatic
entertainments just then, and, furthermore, he pictured himself as
a future monopolist controlling the destinies of two houses. For he
never dreamed, did this haggling, pettifogging lawyer, that Swiney
would swerve from the old time allegiance to him, and he felt so