The Life of Robert Coates. By John R. and Hunter
H. Robinson. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.)—" Romeo" Coates might have been allowed to rest quietly in his grave. When a man hats escaped a biography for more than forty years, it is a little hard that he should not escape altogether. Coates's character did not particularly need vindication. Most people that have heard of him probably supposed him to be a not very wise person, who was decidedly stage-struck, and who obtained a certain success as an actor, a success that was not altogether owing to his dramatic abilities. We do not see that the Messrs. Robinson have done any- thing materially to alter this estimate. They allow that their hero was extravagant, but think that this extravagance was " not unwarrantable before the period of the West Indian troubles." They naïvely add that, as he lived in ample comfort to the end of his days—satisfying his creditors, as far as we can make out, at the expense of those who came after him—he managed pretty well. There is some entertainment to be got out of the book. The manners of the theatre and the Press in " Romeo " Coates's days supply the subject of some curious sketches ; but, on the whole, The Life of Robert Coates might very well have been spared.
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