Wilks said he was not good at making of bargains, but if I was willing, he would rather leave it to me.

Dogget at this rose up and said, we might both do as we pleas'd, but that nothing but the law should make him part with his property--and so went out of the room."] "So much for one result of 'Cato's' first performance.

The play had a run of thirty-five nights and as cunning as Dogget, was so charm'd with the proposal that he long'd that moment to make Booth the present with his own hands; and though he knew he had no right to do it without my consent, had no patience to ask it; upon which I turned to Dogget with a cold smile [what a freezing, polar expression Cibber could put on when he desired] and told him, that if Booth could be purchas'd at so cheap a rate, it would be one of the best proofs of his economy we had ever been beholden to: I therefore desired we might have a little patience; that our doing it too hastily might be only making sure of an occasion to throw the fifty guineas away; for if we should be obliged to do better for him, we could never expect that Booth would think himself bound in honour to refund them." From this little conversation we see that art is not always the one beacon light of the player or the manager.

Cibber argued with his natural shrewdness, but Wilks would not be convinced, and began, "with his usual freedom of speech," to treat the suggestion "as a pitiful evasion of their intended generosity." "But Dogget, who was not so wide of my meaning, clapping his hand upon mine, said, with an air of security, O! don't trouble yourself! there must be two words to that bargain; let me alone to manage that matter.
Wilks, upon this dark discourse, grew uneasy, as if there were some secret between us that he was to be left out of.

Therefore, to avoid the shock of his intemperance, I was the town crowded to the theatre.
Even the good Queen, who must have been more or less bored at the fuss bestowed upon it, actually suggested that Mr.Addison should dedicate the tragedy to her Royal self.