Richard Suett (1755 – 6 July 1805)[1] was an English comedian who was George III's favourite Shakespearean clown, and star at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane for twenty-five years.
[2] Suett was born in Chelsea in 1755, and at ten years of age entered the choir at Westminster Abbey as a pupil of Benjamin Cooke.
Wilkinson thought highly of him, calling him his pupil, speaking of him as about the age of 17, known only from having sung one season at Ranelagh, and pronounced him the possessor of 'a most unpromising pair of legs.'
To 1784–5 belong Filch in 'The Beggar's Opera,' Lord Froth in the 'Double Dealer,' Binnacle in the 'Fair Quaker,' Clown in 'Winter's Tale,' and Sir Wilful Witwould in the 'Way of the World.'
Many similar parts were assigned him, including Robin in the 'Waterman,' Dumps in the 'Natural Son,' Lord Plausible in the 'Plain Dealer,' Snip in 'Harlequin's Invasion,' Allscrap in the 'Heiress,' Trappanti, Mungo, First Gravedigger, Gibbet in the 'Beaux' Stratagem,' Diggory in 'All the World's a Stage,' Colonel Oldboy in the 'School for Fathers,' Obediah in the 'Committee,' Moneytrap in The Confederacy Launcelot Gobbo, Doctor Bilioso (an original part) in Cobb's 'Doctor and Apothecary,' 25 October 1788, Gardiner in 'King Henry VIII,' Oliver (an original part) in Cumberland's 'Impostors,' 26 January 1789, Bartholo in 'Follies of a Day,' Muckworm in 'Honest Yorkshireman,' Touchstone, Pistol in 'King Henry V,' Booze in 'Belphegor,' Solomon in the 'Quaker,' Thurio in 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,' Old Hardcastle, and Mawworm.
[3] When Drury Lane was demolished, Suett in 1791–2 accompanied the company to the Haymarket Opera-house, where during two seasons he played many insignificant original parts, besides appearing as Sancho in 'Love makes a Man,' Tipkin in the 'Tender Husband,' Thrifty in The Cheats of Scapin, Old Gobbo, Foresight in 'Love for Love,' Sir Felix Friendly in the 'Agreeable Surprise,' and Label (an original part) in Hoare's 'Prize' on 11 March 1793.
A winter season at the same house under Colman followed, and Suett, besides playing Obediah Prim and Bullock, was on 1 October 1793 the first Apathy in Morton's 'Children in the Wood,' and on 16 December the first Dicky Gossip, a barber, in Hoare's 'My Grandmother.'
On the reopening of Drury Lane in the spring of 1794 Suett played a Witch in 'Macbeth,' and was on 8 May 1794 the original Jabal, a part in which he scored highly, in Cumberland's 'Jew.'
The Shakespearean parts assigned him included Clown in 'Measure for Measure,' Polonius, Peter in 'Romeo and Juliet,' Dogberry, Trinculo, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Shallow in the 'Merry Wives of Windsor.'
His great original part of Daniel Dowlas, alias Lord Duberly, in The Heir at Law, was played at the Haymarket on 15 July 1797.
On 1 February 1800 Suett was, at Drury Lane, the first Baron Piffleberg in ‘Of Age to-morrow,’ adapted from Kotzebue by T. Dibdin; on 15 July, at the Haymarket, the first Steinberg in C. Kemble's ‘Point of Honour;’ and on 2 September the first Deputy Bull in the ‘Review’ of Arthur Griffenhoof (George Colman the younger).
He died on 6 July at a small public-house in Denzell Street, Clare Market, and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard, on the north side.
A story is told that Parsons, being unwell, could not play his part of Alderman Uniform in Miles Peter Andrews's 'Dissipation,' which had been commanded by the king.
Among Suett's best parts were Moll Flagon, Tipple, Apathy, Dicky Gossip, the drunken Porter in 'Feudal Times,' and Weazel in Cumberland's 'Wheel of Fortune.'
O'Keeffe declared that he was 'the most natural actor of his time,' and Leigh Hunt speaks of him as 'the very personification of weak whimsicality, with a laugh like a peal of giggles.'
They have all the true Suett stamp, a loose and shambling gait, a slippery tongue, this last the ready midwife to a without-pain delivered jest, in words light as air, venting truths deep as the centre, with idlest rhymes tagging conceit when busiest, singing with Lear in "The Tempest," or Sir Toby at the buttery-hatch.