it was first suggested to him, by his chief patron, Dr. (afterwards Sir) Edward Barry, to visit England, as the soil most congenial to great abilities and superior talent. However, prior to his making this attempt, he returned to Dublin, and joined the company of that year, which stands remarkable in the annals of Irish theatricals, for the finest collection of excellence that ever was known at any one period. Our readers will best judge of this themselves, when they are informed, that the imperishable names of Garrick, Barry, Sheridan, Quin, Woffington, and Cibber, stood first upon the list; and that there was scarce a play that these performers did not change parts, in a praise-worthy contention for rival powers. The public, it is to be regretted, paid a dear price for this mental luxury, as the constant and excessive fulness of the house brought on innumerable colds and fevers, besides dislocations and other odd kind of accidents in abundance, which, terminating in the deaths of many individuals, the saying became common, that Miss ——— died of a Quin fever, but Mr. ——— of a Barry fever.
In 1746, Mr. Barry arrived in England, and was engaged at Drury Lane, and, the next year the patent falling into the hands of Messrs. Garrick and Lacy, Mr. Barry took the lead as the principal performer of that house, and here it was that Mr. Garrick and he frequently appeared in the same characters, and divided the applause of admiring audiences; however, Barry, after a short period, feeling an inferiority arising from the joint power exerted against him as actor and manager, quitted Drury Lane, and headed the forces of Covent Garden. Here his gigantic powers had full play, and here he entered the lists of competition against a man, who, till now, had thrown all his competitors at an immeasurable distance. They played all their principal characters against each other with various success, Garrick being allowed to be the best Richard, and Barry the finest Othello; and remained opposing each other till the summer of 1758, when Barry,
