Lord Sandwich and Samuel Foote
Samuel Foote was an 18th-century theater manager, writer and actor, and the story goes that he was sharing a meal with Lord Sandwich at London’s famous Beef Steak Club in Covent Garden. After the bottle had passed back and forth a few times, Sandwich said:
“Foote, I have often wondered what catastrophe would bring you to your end; but I think you must either die of the pox [syphilis] or the halter [hanged on the gallows].”
Without missing a beat, Foote replied: “My Lord, that will depend upon one of two contingencies – whether I embrace your Lordship’s mistress or your Lordship’s principles.”
thebeaumonde.com