QUIN, JAMES, a celebrated actor of Irish descent, was b. in London, Feb. 24, 1693, and made his first appearance on the stage in 1714 at Dublin as Abel in The Committee. Shortly after he proceeded to London, where lie was engaged at Drury Lane. but for quite inferior parts. In 1716, however, the sudden illness of a leading actor led to Quip's being called on to sustain the character of Bajazet in the once famous play of Tameritine. His success was marked. Next year, he exchanged Drury Lane for Mr. Rich's theater at Lincolu's Inn Fields, where he remained as a principal actor 17 years. Not long after- leaving the former place, he had the misfortune to kill a brother-actor, Mr. Bowen, in a duel—a circumstance which clouded his reputation for a while. The only really fine, parts which he seems to have played were captain Macheath in the Beggars' Opera, and Falstaff in the Xerry Wives of Windsor. In 1734-35, be returned to
Drury Lane theater, "on such terms," says Cibber, "as no hired actor had before received ;" and from this date until the appearance of Garrick in 1741 he was. by uni versal consent, the first actor in England.' Quin was by no means pleased at the rising fame of Garrick, and sarcastically expressed his chagrin by declaring that "Garrick was a new religion, and that Whitefie!d was followed for a time; but they would all come to church again." In this, however, he was mistaken. In 1751 he withdrew from the stage as a hired actor, though he continued at intervals to give his services for benevolent purposes, told fixed his residence at Bath, where he died Jan. 21, 1766. In after-dinner conversation he was a coarse but capital story-teller, and many of his jests are still in vogue.