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WILLIAM HENRY WEST BETTY (1791-1874)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 833 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM HENRY WEST BETTY (1791-1874)  ,
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English actor, known as " the young Roscius," was born on the 13th of September 1791 at Shrewsbury . He first appeared on the stage at
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Belfast before he was twelve years old, as Osman in
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Aaron Hill's Zara, an English version of Voltaire's
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Zaire . His success was immediate, and he shortly afterwards appeared in
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Dublin, where it is said that in three hours of study he committed the Other places named " Yspytty " are Y . Cynfyn and Y . Ystwyth . For the name Yspytty, cf . Bale's' King John, 2125: " So many masendeens (maisons Dieu), hospytals and spyttle hawses."
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part of
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Hamlet to memory . His precocious talents aroused
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great
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enthusiasm in
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Glasgow and
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Edinburgh, and he was favourably compared with some of the greatest tragedians . In 1804 he first appeared at Covent Garden, when the troops had to be called out to preserve order, so great was the crush to obtain admittance . At Drury Lane the house was similarly packed, and he played for the then unprecedented
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salary of over 75 guineas a
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night . He was a great success socially, George III. himself presenting him to the queen, and Pitt upon one occasion adjourning the House of
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Commons that members might be in time for his performance . But this enthusiasm gradually subsided, and in 18o8 he made his final appearance as a boy actor, and entered Christ's College, Cambridge .

He re-appeared four years later, but the public would have none of him, and he retired to the enjoyment of the large

fortune which he had amassed as a
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prodigy . He died on the 24th of August 1874 . His son Henry Betty (1819—1897) was also an actor .

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