Like Edmund Kean, Betterton may be said to have died upon the stage;
for in April, 1710, when he took his last benefit, as Melantius, in
Beaumont and Fletcher's _Maid's Tragedy_ (an adaption of which, by the
way, was played by Macready under the title of _The Bridal_,) he was
suffering tortures from gout, and had almost to be carried to his
dressing-room; and though he acted the part with all his old fire,
speaking these very appropriate words:--

"My heart
And limbs are still the same, my will as great,
To do you service,"

within forty-eight hours he was dead. He was buried in the Cloisters
of Westminster Abbey with every mark of respect and honor.

I may here add that the censure said to have been directed against
Betterton for the introduction of scenery is the prototype of that
cry, which we hear so often nowadays, against over-elaboration in
the arrangements of the stage. If it be a crime against good taste
to endeavor to enlist every art in the service of the stage, and to
heighten the effect of noble poetry by surrounding it with the most
beautiful and appropriate accessories, I myself must plead guilty to
that charge; but I should like to point out that every dramatist who
has ever lived, from Shakespeare downwards, has always endeavored to
get his plays put upon the stage with as good effect and as handsome
appointments as possible.

Indeed, the Globe Theatre was burned down during the first performance
of _King Henry VIII._, through the firing off of a cannon which