Samuel Foote (1720–1777)

Boswell: "Foote has a great deal of bumour."
Johnson: "Yes, sir."
Boswell: "He has a singular talent of exhihiting character."
Johnson. "Sir, it is not a talent; it is a vice; it is what others abstain from. It is not comedy, which exhibits the character of a species, as that of a miser gathered from many misers: it is farce which exhihits individuals."
Boswell. " Did not he think of exhibiting you, sir?"
Johnson. "Sir, fear restrained him; he knew I would have broken his bones. I would have saved him the trouble of cutting off a leg ; I would not have left him a leg to cut off."
--Boswell, Life of Johnson… (mehr)

In no way is this really about India, but it's a fast-paced and mildly delightful short comedy that makes me think of Fawlty Towers or Are You Being Served? in the dialogue department. Foote skewers the "nabob", a sort of colonial bounder with lakhs of rupees coming back to buy all the honours and gentry daughters he can, in a way that makes you feel okay about the brittle dignity of the superannuated aristocracy, smile at the stout opportunism of the burgher, warm your heart on the ultimate winning-out of true love, and generally feel good about everything in the world except Sir Matthew Mite the richie-rich crapbag, who delivers a few foolish speeches about how much his kind do for the country (very much in a Lehman Brothers mould!) and then gets his comeuppance. Would go well between beef and sugarplums.… (mehr)