when his very legs seemed drunk beneath him; his attempt to set down the
keg would stagger the disbelievers of perpetual motion. Again, who did not
relish the richness of his voice, and the arch crispness which he gave to
some words, while others came not trippingly off his tongue, but lingered
and jarred with an effect which accounts for so many imitators. His mouth
had a peculiar twist, somewhat resembling that of Mathews, which at times
almost forbad his plain speaking.

We have seen that Munden was

A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Had ta'en with equal thanks.

As he ripened, he became tinged with the old gentlemanly vice. He almost
made penury his hobby. Oxberry's widow asked him, after his retirement, to
play for her benefit: he said he could not, but that, if ever he performed
again, he would present her with 100_l_. It is related of him too, that a
friend asking him for a keepsake, he exchanged his old cotton umbrella for
his friend's silk one. Elliston and Munden were on good terms, though men
of very opposite habits. Munden had played twelve nights for Elliston at
Leamington. The manager had his wine, and the actor his brandy and water,
in the greenroom; before leaving the town, Munden sent for his bill at the
next tavern--14 glasses as many shillings. He asked Elliston to contribute
3_s_. which the manager refused to do, as Munden had drunk his wine; "but,"
retorted Munden, screwing his features up to the very point of exaction,
"Sip-pings, remember sip-pings," alluding to Elliston's occasional visits
to his glass, while he was playing his part. It is said too, though we
know not how truly, that Munden was once seen, walking to Kentish Town,
with four mackerel, suspended from his fingers by a twig, he having
purchased the fish at a low price in Clare-Market. But this is venial: for