Charles Bannister

Drury Lane turned him down, but after successful work in Norwich, Ipswich and other eastern towns, Samuel Foote gave him his first London appearance in 1762 at the Haymarket Theatre, as Will Tirehack in The Orators, opposite John Palmer as Harry Scamper, who also made his debut on that occasion.

Long afterwards, in June 1787, Palmer as manager of the Royalty Theatre attempted to present dramatic works (including As You Like It), and then other lighter entertainments of the stage, with the encouragement of Arthur Murphy, contrary to Statute.

Bannister was untutored as a singer, but possessed a natural voice which united 'in extraordinary perfection the extremes of a deep bass and high-toned falsetto: and his ear, which was of great delicacy and perfection, enabled him to execute not only pieces of ordinary description, but to represent, with great humour, and without the grossness of burlesque or caricature, many leading performers of the day, both male and female.

This was shortly before the premiere of The School for Scandal in 1777: and in October 1778 Bannister had the role of Serjeant Drill in the elder Linley's two-act musical drama The Camp (after Sheridan), with the recruiting song "Great Caesar, once renown'd in fame".

At Covent Garden a new comic opera by Hook, The Fair Peruvian, in March 1786, featured Bannister opposite the excellent Mrs Billington, who became suddenly ill during the performance.

'Among them may be named: "Her mouth which a smile", in Rosina; "While happy in my native land", in The Election; "Brave Admiral Benbow"; "To Anacreon in Heaven"; "When Bibo went down to the regions below"; and above all, and never to be equalled or forgotten, "Stand to your guns, my Hearts of Oak!"

[22] Garrick took Felice Giardini to hear Bannister's imitations of Tenducci and Champneys, and the composer observed that the mimicry was perfect, but the fault was that the mimic was better than the performers themselves.

[23] Michael Kelly refers to his appearance as Polly in a travesty of The Beggar's Opera at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket in 1781, in which he 'gave her tender airs with all the power of his deep and sonorous bass voice.'

He brought it off not by mimicking feminine intonation or mincing gait, antics or 'superadded drolleries', but by the ridiculous incongruity of his deep voice and muscular frame, by an occasional display of ankle, and by the perfect judgement with which he sang Polly's songs.

[26] As Hecate, Bannister was a successor to the celebrated bass Richard Leveridge (who had composed the Macbeth music about a century before and performed the role for some forty years).

It is impossible to exceed the vigour with which he ejaculated his curses, the humility with which he worshipped the "brave god who carried the bottle", or the appalling revelry with which he made the stage tremble under him, when he shouted "Freedom!

He was, at this time, eminently in favour with the public, upon whom his truly English style of singing and acting had made a powerful impression; he was greatly esteemed in all convivial and social circles, where his never-failing good humour and versatile talent occasioned his company to be generally courted, and among whom his affability, candour and plain integrity procured him the title of "Honest Charles Bannister".

A project to erect a bust to Dr Thomas Arne, which this group proposed to fund by charitable performances, was vetoed by the management of Covent Garden.

'In Ways and Means, Honest Thieves and The Rival Soldiers he had, therefore, beside his son, (Joseph) Munden, (Jack) Johnstone, (George) Bartley, (Samuel) Simmons, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs.