Garrick even got a small military appointment for him; but Palmer refused to follow his counsel, and entered the shop of a print-seller on Ludgate Hill.

Being refused an engagement by Garrick, whom he still failed to please, he joined a country company under Herbert, and played, at Sheffield, Richmond in Richard III.

Being refused at Drury Lane an increase of salary, he went to Colchester, under Hurst, and was so lightly esteemed that, but for the intercession of Mrs Webb, an actress of influence, he would have been discharged.

He then gave, at Hampstead and Highgate, and in various country towns, George Alexander Stevens's Lecture on Heads, and, after playing with a strolling company, returned to London.

Returning in the summer to the Haymarket, Palmer was on 2 July 1767 the original Isaacos in the mock tragedy of the Tailors, and acted Ben Budge in the Beggar's Opera, Morton in Hartson's Countess of Salisbury, imported from Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, to the Lord William of Miss Palmer from Dublin, apparently no relation, and Young Rakish in the School-boy.

Back at Drury Lane, he was on 23 Oct. 1767 the original Wilson in Garrick's Peep behind the Curtain, or the New Rehearsal; Furnival, a worthless barrister, in Kenrick's Widow'd Wife; on 23 Jan. 1768 Sir Harry Newburgh in Kelly's False Delicacy, and, 21 March, Captain Slang in Bickerstaffe's Absent Man, and played also Young Wilding in the Liar, and Colonel Tamper in The Deuce is in him.

In 1772 Palmer relinquished his summer engagement at the Haymarket in order to succeed Thomas King at Liverpool, where he became a great favourite, and established himself as a tragedian.

Alarmed at this report, he sent for that long-suffering lady, who came, and hiding, it is said, the bruises on her face inflicted by her husband, who was both false and cruel, walked about Liverpool with him and re-established him in public estimation.

Tribute to his special gifts is involved in his selection for Joseph Surface on the first performance of The School for Scandal, 8 May 1777, a character in which he was by general consent unapproachable.

Himself addicted to pleasure, for which he occasionally neglected his theatrical duties, he had a pharisaical way of appealing to the audience, which exactly suited the character, and invariably won him forgiveness.

This it was, accompanied by his "nice conduct" of the pocket-handkerchief, that secured him the name of Plausible Jack, and established the fact that he was the only man who could induce the public to believe that his wife brought him offspring every two months.

Deaf to remonstrances, he persisted in his task, though the only licenses, wholly ineffectual, which he could obtain were those of the governor of the Tower and the magistrates of the adjoining district.

The polemic was continued after the death of Palmer, a list of the various pamphlets to which it gave rise being supplied in Mr. Robert Lowe's Bibliographical Account of Theatrical Literature.

Improvident and practically penniless through life, Palmer ascribed to the treatment he received in connection with this speculation, in which nothing of his own was embarked, his subsequent imprisonment for debt and the general collapse of his fortunes.

In such difficulties was he plunged that he resided for some period in his dressing-room in Drury Lane Theatre, and when he was needed elsewhere he was conveyed in a cart behind theatrical scenery.

On 18 June 1798, the last night of the season at Drury Lane, Palmer played Father Philip in the Castle Spectre of "Monk" Lewis, and Comus, the former an original part, in which he had been first seen on the 14th of the previous December.

In the third act he was much agitated, and in the fourth, at the question of Baron Steinfort relative to his children, he endeavoured to proceed, fell back, heaved a convulsive sigh, and died, the audience supposing, until the body was removed and the performance arrested, that he was merely playing his part.

His biographer says that his want of a "classical education" was responsible for his defects, which consisted of a want of taste and discrimination, and the resort to physical powers when judgment was at fault.

In Captain Absolute, Lamb held, "you thought you could trace his promotion to some lady of quality who fancied the handsome fellow in a top-knot, and had bought him a commission."

A fifth, painted by Zoffany, representing Palmer as Face in the Alchemist, with Garrick as Abel Drugger and Burton as Subtle, is in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle.

), the actor's brother, played with success impudent footmen and other parts belonging to Palmer's repertory, and was good in the presentation of rustic characters and of drunkenness.

Portraits of "Bob" Palmer by Dewilde, as Tag in the Spoiled Child, and as Tom in the Conscious Lovers, are in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club.

[6] He was celebrated as Captain Plume, as Osric, and as the Duke's servant in High Life Below Stairs; he was also a favourite in Orlando and Claudio, but especially in such jaunty parts as Mercutio.

His wife, a Miss Pritchard, played from 1756 to 1768, and was accepted as Juliet and Lady Betty Modish, but was better in lighter parts, such as Fanny in the Clandestine Marriage.

"Gentleman Palmer", who has been frequently confused with his namesake, died on 23 May 1768, aged 40, his death being due to taking in mistake a wrong medicine.