# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Garrick, David

​GARRICK, DAVID (1717–1779), actor, was born on 19 Feb. 1716-7, at the Angel Inn, Hereford, where his father, a captain in the army, was quartered on recruiting service. On the 28th of the same month he was baptised at All Saints Church in that city. He was of Huguenot extraction, his grandfather, David de la Garrique (d. 1694), having fled from Bordeaux in 1685, and changed his name (that of a family in Saintonge) to Garric. Peter Garric, the eldest son of the refugee, born in France, escaped as a child in 1687, and after obtaining a commission came to reside in Lichfield, where he married Arabella Clough, of Irish descent, the daughter of a vicar of the cathedral in that city. David was the third child. He was educated at Lichfield grammar school under a Mr. Hunter. "When about the age of eleven he played Sergeant Kite in Farquhar's 'Recruiting Officer.' About the same period he was sent to learn the wine trade from his uncle David, a wine merchant at Lisbon, but soon returned. He had already made the acquaintance of Samuel Johnson. David and his brother George became Johnson's first pupils at Edial. In 1737, furnished with recommendations from Gilbert Walmsley, registrar of the ecclesiastical court at Lichfield, to John Colson [q. v.], Garrick travelled with Johnson to London. The statements that they rode and tied and reached town with twopence halfpenny in Johnson's case and three halfpence in Garrick's are probably fanciful. In Walmsley's letters to Colson (5 Feb. and 2 March 1736-7) Garrick's father is spoken of as an honest valuable man, and Garrick himself is described as 'a very sensible young man and a good scholar.' Walmsley adds: 'He is of sober and good disposition, and is as ingenious and promising a young man as ever I knew' (Garrick Correspondence). Garrick set out from Lichfield 2 March 1736-7, and on the 9th of the month was entered at Lincoln's Inn. Payment of the fee, 3l. 3s. 4d., left him unable to meet the modest demands of Colson. His father died in a week or two, and his mother within a year. His uncle David also died, and left him a legacy of 1,000l., on the strength of which he went to Rochester, where he stayed for some months with Colson. He then started a wine business with his brother Peter in Durham Yard, the site of which is now merged in the Adelphi. Here Garrick's old love of the stage came out to the prejudice of his business. Introduced by Johnson to Cave, he took part in amateur performances at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, in the room over the archway, where he played in the 'Mock Doctor' of Fielding, and afterwards in a burlesque of 'Julius Cæsar.' Garrick wrote an epilogue to the 'Mock Doctor,' which was inserted in the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' and wrote verses and theatrical criticisms. On 15 April 1740 (Geneste; 1 April, Fitzgerald) 'Lethe,' a mythological sketch by Garrick, subsequently enlarged, was played at Drury Lane, with his friend Macklin as the Drunken Man. At this period Garrick became warmly attached to Margaret Woffington. In March 1741, at the theatre in Goodman's Fields, in the pantomime of 'Harlequin Student/ he played two or three scenes as Harlequin Student in the absence of Yates. He then joined a troupe which Giffard, manager of Goodman's Fields, took to Ipswich, and here, under the name of Lyddal, made his first regular ​appearance as Aboan in 'Oroonoko.' Chamont in the 'Orphan,' Sir Harry Wildair in Farquhar's sequel to the 'Jubilee,' and Captain Brazen in the 'Recruiting Officer' followed. Emboldened by his success he made unavailing advances to the managers of Drury Lane and Covent Garden. On 19 Oct. 1741 at Goodman's Fields, between the two parts of a concert of vocal and instrumental music (to evade the privilege of the patent theatres), he made his famous appearance as Richard III, being announced as ' a gentleman who never appeared on any stage.' His success was im- mediate . Richard was played seven times consecutively. On 9 Nov. he performed his first original part, Jack Smatter in Dance's 'Pamela,' and later appeared in the 'Lying Valet,' adapted by him from Motteux's 'Novelty.' His 'Lethe' was also produced. Meantime his representations Had taken the town by storm. The patent houses were deserted, and a string of carriages thronged the route from Temple Bar to Goodman's Fields. Writing to Chute, Gray says: 'Did I tell you about Mr. Garrick, that the town are horn-mad after him? There are a dozen dukes of a night at Goodman's Fields sometimes' (Works, ii. 185). Oray adds: 'And yet I am stiff in the opposition.' Walpole admitted that he was a good mimic, but confessed to the 'heresy' that there was 'nothing wonderful' in his acting (Collected Letters, i. 189). Pope, who had lost interest in the stage, was taken more than once by Lord Orrery, and said: 'That young man never had his equal, and never will have a rival.' Gibber's easily explicable hostility was conquered, and he said to Mrs. Bracegirdle, 'I' faith, Bracey, the lad is clever.' Macklin had been Garrick's friend from the beginning, and Quin uttered the memorable and prophetic observation, 'We are all wrong if this is right.' Garrick had much difficulty to reconcile his family and his brother Peter to his new profession. A number of letters written to Peter were discovered by John Forster, and are now in his manuscript collection in the South Kensington Museum. Many of them are quoted by him in his 'Life of Oliver Goldsmith.' In them Garrick dwells upon his success, artistic and pecuniary, boasts of the intimacy of 'Leonidas' Glover, quotes 'Mr. Pit's' opinion, that 'I was ye best Actor ye English Stage had produc'd,' and expects the Prince of Wales to come to see him (Forster, Goldsmith, i. 237). He adds as a secret that he is getting ' six guineas a week,' and is to have a benefit, for which he has been offered 120l. Subsequently he offers, in case his brother should want money, to let him command 'his whole.' Five hundred guineas and a clear benefit, or part of the management, are offered him. Murray, Pope, Lords Halifax, Sandwich, and Chesterfield are soon to be among his acquaintances. The Ghost in 'Hamlet' followed, and after other parts he achieved, on 3 Feb. 1742, his great triumph as Bayes in the 'Rehearsal.' In this his imitations of other actors gave some offence. Master Johnny, a lad of fifteen, in Gibber's 'Schoolboy,' was another great success. On 11 March he played King Lear, and on the 15th Lord Foppington in the 'Careless Husband.' The season extended to 27 May 1742, when the house closed not to open again, through the jealousies of the patentees of Drury Lane and Covent Garden and the action of Sir John Bernard, the original mover of the Licensing Act. On 11 May 1742 Garrick, for the benefit of Harper's widow, played Chamont at Drury Lane. He also, by a special arrangement, appeared for three nights at Drury Lane, at the close of the season, on 26 May, as Bayes, on the 28th as King Lear, and on the 31st as Richard. He had played over one hundred and fifty nights, and acted a score of different characters. Some of his imitations of actors of the day are said, on no very trustworthy authority, to have led to a duel with his manager, Giffard, in which Garrick was slightly wounded. Garrick now engaged at Drury Lane for the forthcoming season. Meanwhile he accepted a preliminary engagement for Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, where he appeared 17 June 1742 as Richard. Other characters followed, his principal supporters being Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Furnival, and Giffard. For his benefit he appeared as Hamlet to Mrs. Woffington's Ophelia, and on 19 Aug. 1742 he played as Captain Plume in the 'Recruiting Officer' to the Sylvia of the same actress. His success, according to Hitchcock (Correct View of the Irish Stage, i. 119), 'exceeded all imagination.' An epidemic which then raged in Dublin was called, in memory of his visit, 'the Garrick fever.' In company with his future associate, Mrs. Cibber, Garrick left Dublin 23 Aug. 1742. He appeared at Drury Lane on 5 Oct. During the season, in addition to most of the parts assumed at Goodman's Fields, he was seen in Captain Plume, Hamlet, Archer in the 'Stratagem,' Hastings in 'Jane Shore,' Sir Harry Wildair in the 'Constant Couple,' and Abel Drugger in the 'Alchemist,' and on 17 Feb. 1743 was the original Millamour in the 'Wedding Day' of Fielding. Sir Harry Wildair, in which the public were used to Mrs. Woffington, was to some extent a failure, and, like other characters in which he did not succeed, was gradually dropped. He rashly tried keeping house with his old ​friend Macklin and with Mrs. Woffington, with whom he maintained an intimacy productive of some scandal, and for whom he wrote his delightful song of ‘Pretty Peggy.’ He quarrelled with both. The rupture with Mrs. Woffington was made up after leading to a return of presents, with the exception of a pair of valuable diamond buckles, which Garrick, it is said, craved permission to keep. A more serious quarrel with Macklin initiated the charges of meanness Garrick had henceforward to endure. Fleetwood's extravagant management of Drury Lane had ended in bankruptcy. Garrick, as the heaviest sufferer, invited the actors of the company to meet him at his house in King Street, Covent Garden (‘Mr. West's, Cabinet Maker’), and asked them to sign an agreement to stand by each other in refusing to act. He relied upon his popularity to obtain from the Duke of Grafton, the lord chamberlain, a license to open a new theatre. The duke, finding that Garrick drew 500l. a year, asked contemptuously if that ‘was too little for a mere player,’ and declined to give the license. A scheme of Garrick's to take the Lincoln's Inn Theatre fell through, and in the end the seceders made terms with their former manager, while Macklin, who is said to have opposed the original action, was made the scapegoat by Fleetwood and excluded. Garrick's endeavours to mediate between the manager and Macklin were vain, and a bitter and lasting quarrel between the two actors ensued. On 13 Sept. 1743 Drury Lane reopened, but the first appearance of Garrick was deferred until 6 Dec., when he appeared as Bayes. Two days previously he had written to the ‘ London Daily Post’ a letter explanatory of his conduct. On the day of his appearance a pamphlet entitled ‘The Case of Charles Macklin’ was published, and a large party of Macklin's friends went to Drury Lane. Garrick had dispersed a ‘handbill requesting the public to suspend their judgment.’ His appearance provoked a storm of opposition, and he was not allowed to speak. On the 8th Garrick's explanation, said to be written by Dr. Guthrie the historian, and a letter from ‘A Bystander,’ appeared in the ‘Daily Post.’ Garrick was once more attacked. Fleetwood had, however, sent thirty prize-fighters into the pit; the dissentients were driven out of the house, and the riot ceased. Garrick's behaviour was scarcely chivalrous; but as others would have suffered by the fulfilment of his engagements to Macklin the general verdict was in his favour.
The great event of the season was Garrick's appearance, 7 Jan. 1744, as Macbeth, ‘as written by Shakespeare.’ D'Avenant's version had till then held possession of the stage since the Restoration. Garrick's claim to have restored Shakespeare must be accepted with some allowance. At the subsequent revival, 19 March 1748, when Mrs. Pritchard played her great part of Lady Macbeth, he is known to have added a dying speech to his own part. Mrs. Giffard was Garrick's first Lady Macbeth. Samuel Foote [q.v.] , destined to be a thorn in the side of Garrick, this season appeared at Drury Lane. The season of 1744–5 saw Garrick's first appearance as Sir John Brute in the ‘Provoked Wife,’ Scrub in the ‘Beaux' Stratagem,’ King John, Othello, and Tancred in the ‘Tancred and Sigismunda’ of Thomson. After 4 April Garrick, on account of illness, played no more. At the end of the season Fleetwood sold the patent to Lacy. Garrick renewed his intimacy with Mrs. Woffington, and even proposed marriage; but a total estrangement followed. During his illness Garrick declined advances from Mrs. Cibber to join her and Quin in taking Drury Lane, with which Lacy, it was supposed, could be induced to part. He accepted an invitation from Thomas Sheridan, the joint manager of the theatres in Aungier Street and Smock Alley, to appear in Dublin and share the profits with him. He appeared at Smock Alley as Hamlet 9 Dec. 1745. Lord Chesterfield, the lord-lieutenant, treated Garrick with studied coldness. The result was none the less a financial success. Orestes, a part he never essayed in England, Faulconbridge, and Iago were the new characters in which he appeared. Arriving in London 10 May 1746, Garrick arranged with Rich for six performances on sharing terms. On the 11th, accordingly, as King Lear he made his first appearance at Covent Garden. Hamlet, Richard, Othello, Archer, and Macbeth followed. He accepted also an engagement for Covent Garden for the following season. He associated himself, however, financially with Lacy, the manager of Drury Lane, whose resources had been crippled by the troubles of 1745, and became his partner in the new patent obtained from the lord chamberlain, the Duke of Grafton. Garrick appears to have paid 8,000l. for his share. The agreement, which bears the date 9 April 1747, is published in the ‘Garrick Correspondence.’ Hotspur was his only new Shakespearean character, but he was, 17 Jan. 1747, the original Fribble in his own farce of ‘Miss in her Teens, or the Medley of Lovers,’ and 12 Feb. 1747 the original Ranger in Dr. Hoadly's ‘Suspicious Husband.’ Quin had on other nights played in characters ordinarily taken by Garrick.
​In spite of adverse circumstances, including a disabling illness of Garrick and the keen opposition of Barry and Mrs. Woffington at Drury Lane, the profits of the season, including the six nights in May, were estimated at 8,500l. The season of 1747-8 at Drury Lane began under the joint management of Garrick and Lacy. On 15 Sept. Garrick was ill, and unable to speak Johnson's famous prologue. Reformation in management began at once, the first step being the abolition of the practice of admitting by payment behind the scenes. He did not himself act until 15 Oct., when he reappeared as Archer. He spoke the prologue and presented the chorus in a revival of Henry V, and took for the first time Jaffier instead of Pierre in 'Venice Preserved.' From this time to his retirement, 10 June 1776,Garrick's connection with Drury Lane was unbroken. In the following season he played Benedick, produced on 29 Nov. 1748 his own version of ' Romeo and Juliet,' with an altered termination for Barry and Mrs. Gibber, and was the original Demetrius, 6 Feb. 1749, in 'Mahomet and Irene,' under which name was produced Johnson's tragedy of 'Irene.'
On 22 June 1749, first 'at the church in Russell Street, Bloomsbury, and afterwards at the chapel of the Portuguese embassy in Audley Street' (Fitzgerald, Life of Garrick, i. 240), Garrick married Eva Marie Violetti (1724-1822), the reputed daughter of a Viennese citizen named Veigel. She came to London in 1746, engaged as a dancer at the Haymarket, and became the guest of the Earl and Countess of Burlington, who on her marriage to Garrick are reputed to have settled on her 6,000l. Upon his marriage Garrick lived in Southampton Street, Strand, in the house now No. 27. He afterwards (1754) purchased the famous little house at Hampton. His marriage embroiled him further with the leading actresses, more than one of whom had regarded him as in some shape pledged to her. Mrs. Woffington had previously joined the rival house, and Mrs. Gibber quitted Garrick in anger. Barry also broke his engagement and went to Covent Garden. Garrick had thus to face the un- concealed hostility of Quin, Macklin, Barry, Mrs. Woffington, and Mrs. Gibber, and the more dangerous enmity of Foote. Johnson regarded him with temporary mistrust, if not with, coldness, on account of the failure of 'Irene,' and an estrangement had arisen between himself and the aristocratic friends of his wife. Mrs. Ward had to assume the principal characters at Drury Lane, for which she was unfitted, until Miss Bellamy, whom Garrick was training, could be trusted with leading business. In addition to these, his company comprised Yates, King, Shuter, Woodward, Mrs. Pritchard, and Mrs. Clive [q. v.] Weakened by the death of Mills, it was reinforced by the engagement of Palmer. Before the secession of Barry, Garrick played Comus for the benefit of Mrs. Forster, granddaughter of Milton. He had also played Iago to the Othello of Barry. An occasional prologue, written and spoken by Garrick 8 Sept. 1750, upon the reopening of Drury Lane with the 'Merchant of Venice,' alluded to the secession of Barry and Mrs. Gibber, and said that Drury Lane stage was sacred to Shakespeare, but that if ' "Lear" and "Hamlet" lose their force' he will give the public ' Harlequin,' and substitute the stage carpenter for the poet. In the epilogue he made Mrs. Clive speak of him as of a choleric disposition, but 'much tamer since he married.' So formidable was the opposition that his ruin was anticipated. Garrick, however, as his prologue stated, was 'arm'd cap-à-pie in self-sufficient merit.' 'Besides,' adds Tate Wilkinson (The Mirror, or Actor's Tablet, p. 156), 'he had industry, and his troops were under excellent discipline.' In the famous duel of this season, when 'Romeo and Juliet' came out at both houses on 28 Sept. 1750, Garrick and Miss Bellamy were pitted against Spranger Barry and Mrs. Gibber. (For the epigram by Mr. Hewitt which appeared in the 'Daily Advertiser,' and for the comparisons instituted between the two Romeos, see Barry, Spranger.) A second epigram, by the Rev. Richard Kendal of Peterhouse (Poetical Register for 1810-11, p. 369), institutes a comparison between the respective Lears of the same actors:—
The town has found out different ways
To praise its different Lears;
To Barry it gives loud huzzas
To Garrick only tears.   A king! aye, every inch a king,
Such Barry doth appear;
But Garrick's quite another thing,
He's every inch King Lear.
Garrick played in the season Osmyn in Congreve's 'Mourning Bride,' and Alfred in Mallet's masque of 'Alfred,' 23 Feb. 1751, and at Christmas 1750 carried the war into Rich's camp, producing 'Queen Mab,' a species of pantomimic entertainment in which Woodward played harlequin. Before Drury Lane reopened for the following season, 1751-2, Covent Garden lost Quin, who had practically retired, and Mrs. Woffington, who had gone to Dublin. Garrick meanwhile, together with other actors, had engaged Mossop. He played, 29 Nov. 1751 , Kitely in his own alteration of Jonson's 'Every Man ​in his Humour,' was the original Mercour, 17 Feb. 1752, in 'Eugenia,' by Philip Francis, D.D. [q. v.], and produced Foote's comedy of 'Taste.' A visit in company with his wife to Paris had attracted little attention, though Garrick was introduced to Louis XV, and is said, on very dubious testimony, to have been the hero of a romantic adventure, in which by his skill in acting he detected the murderer of a Sir George Lewis (Fitzgerald, Life of Garrick, i. 270). Garrick once more produced a pantomime in 1752-3, and created a very powerful impression by his performance as the original Beverley in Moore's 'Gamester,' 7 Feb. 1753. In the following season Mrs. Gibber rejoined Garrick, whom she resembled so much that they might have passed for brother and sister. From this time forward until her death she did not leave him. Miss Macklin and Foote also joined the company, and Macklin took what was called a farewell benefit. Garrick took parts in the 'Boadicea' of Richard Glover [q. v.] the 'Virginia' of Samuel Crisp [q. v.], and Whitehead's 'Creusa.' To 18 March 1754 belongs the first production of 'Katharine and Petruchio,' Garrick's adaptation of the 'Taming of the Shrew,' which may be said to still hold possession of the stage. In this Garrick did not act; the Petruchio being Woodward and the Grumio Yates. The first important revival of the following season was the 'Chances,' altered by Garrick from Buckingham's previous alteration from Beaumont and Fletcher, and produced at the request of George II. In this, 7 Nov. 1754, he played Don John. Four days later for Mossop he produced 'Coriolanus.' 'Barbarossa,' by John Brown [q. v.], 17 Dec., was the first novelty. The 'Fairies,' an opera taken from the ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' 3 Feb. 1755, is generally attributed to Garrick, but is repudiated by him. He delivered as a drunken sailor a prologue to Mallet's masque of 'Britannia.' This was repeated many nights after the masque was withdrawn. On 8 Nov. 1755 Garrick produced the 'Chinese Festival,' a very dull divertissement by Noverre, a Swiss, which had been long in preparation. Meanwhile war with France having broken out, the French dancers provoked a strong opposition and much brawling. Garrick was accused of bringing over the enemies of his country to oppose his countrymen on the stage. On Tuesday the 18th the rioters overpowered the aristocratic patrons of the house, who drew their swords, did some 1,000l. worth of damage to the theatre, and attempted to sack the house of Garrick. The piece was then withdrawn. Three days later Garrick, dressed as Archer, came on the stage and heard cries which sounded like 'Pardon.' He then advanced, and firmly and respectfully 'explained how ill he had been treated by the wanton and malignant conduct of wicked individuals,' and declared that unless he was permitted to perform that night, 'he was above want, superior to insult, and would never, never appear on the stage again' (Tate Wilkinson, The Mirror, or Actor's Tablet, p. 215; not given in contemporary biographies). This was greeted with wild enthusiasm. 'Florizel and Perdita,' Garrick's alteration of the ' Winter's Tale,' was produced 21 Jan. 1756 with Garrick as Leontes, and the 'Tempest,' an opera taken from Shakespeare, with some additions by Dryden, on 11 Feb. and attributed to and repudiated by Garrick. In the next season, 28 Oct. 1756, Garrick produced 'King Lear,' with restorations from Shakespeare; also, 3 Dec., 'Lilliput,' a one-act piece, extracted from 'Gulliver' and acted by children whom he had trained; and, 24 March 1757, his own farce the 'Modern Fine Gentleman,' revived 3 Dec. as the 'Male Coquette.' He played for the first time, 6 Nov. 1756, his favourite character of Don Felix in the 'Wonder,' produced Foote's comedy the 'Author,' and strengthened his company by the addition of Miss Barton, subsequently Mrs. Abington [q. v.] Mrs. Woffington died before the next season commenced. On 2 Dec. 1757 he was Biron in his own alteration of Southern's 'Fatal Marriage,' and on 22 Dec. produced the 'Gamesters,' altered by himself from Shirley's 'Gamester,' and played in it the part of Wilding. When on 16 Sept. 1758 Drury Lane reopened, Garrick had lost Woodward. Foote, however, reappeared, and with him Tate Wilkinson. Garrick took Marplot in the 'Busybody,' Antony in 'Antony and Cleopatra,' abridged by Capel, and was the original Heartly in his own adaptation the 'Guardian,' 3 Feb. 1759. Moody was added to the company the following season, one of the early productions of which was ' High Life below Stairs.' Garrick produced on 31 Dec. 1759 his own unprinted pantomime 'Harlequin's Invasion.' In 1760-1 Garrick engaged Sheridan, who played leading business, Richard III, Cato, Hamlet, &c. Garrick was himself the Faulconbridge to Sheridan's King John. Some revival of jealousy and ill-feeling was the outcome of this experiment. He produced 'Polly Honeycombe,' by his friend George Colman the elder [q. v.], the authorship of which was attributed to and disowned by Garrick. He produced the ' Enchanter, or Love and Magic, 13 Dec. 1760, a musical trifle, the authorship of which has been assigned to him. Foote during the season played in some ​of his own pieces. Garrick's alteration of 'Cymbeline,' 28 Nov. 1761, was, after the production of one or two pieces to commemorate the coronation, the first important event of 1761-2. On 10 Feb. 1762 Garrick was the original Dorilant in Whitehead's 'School for Lovers,' and on 20 March the Farmer in the 'Farmer's Return,' a trifle in verse of his own composition. For the following season the theatre was enlarged and further restrictions were imposed upon the presence of the public behind the scenes. Garrick was, 19 Jan. 1763, the original Don Alonzo in Mallet's 'Elvira,' and 3 Feb. the original Sir Anthony Branville in Mrs. Sheridan's comedy 'Discovery,' and played, 15 March, Sciolto in the 'Fair Penitent.' This is noticeable as the last new part he played. A production of the 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,' altered by Victor, was the cause of a serious riot. A certain Fitzpatrick put himself at the head of a set of young men known as f The Town,' and demanded in their names, on 25 Jan. 1763, ad- mission at half price at the end of the third act. A riot followed and was renewed next day, when Moody, for preventing a man from setting fire to the house, was ordered to go on his knees to apologise. He refused and was supported by Garrick, who, however, was compelled to promise that Moody should not appear while under the displeasure of the audience. Fitzpatrick, who had abused Garrick in newspapers and pamphlets, and spoken insultingly of him in a club at the Bedford (Cooke, Life of Macklin, 1804, p. 246), is the Fizgig of Garrick's ' Scribbleriad.' He was treated with much savagery by Churchill in the eighth edition (1763) of the ' Rosciad.' These things were largely responsible for Garrick's resolution at the close of the season 1762-3 to quit the stage, at least for a considerable time. A peaceful, and in the main long-suffering man, petted and rather spoilt by the distinguished men to whose society he was admitted, Garrick shrank from dependence upon the mob. The public interest was nagging. Receipts had fallen from hundreds to scores of pounds. Sir William Weller Pepys said, according to Rogers (Table Talk, ed. 1887, p. 7) that 'the pit was often almost empty.' Davies (Life, ii. 62) asserts that the opposition of Beard and Miss Brent at Covent Garden prevailed during the season against Garrick. It is difficult to believe, however, that Garrick and Mrs. Gibber jointly played on one occasion to an audience of five pounds. Change of air had been prescribed for Mrs. Garrick. It is a characteristic and an honourable trait in Garrick that Mrs. Garrick 'from the day of her marriage till the death of her husband had never been separated from him for twenty-four hours' (ib. ii. 67 ). After a visit to the Duke of Devonshire, the Garricks went to Paris, where they arrived 19 Sept. 1763. Drury Lane, where Garrick left his brother George as his substitute, opened the following day, and gave, for one night only, 23 Nov., his alteration of the 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' A manuscript journal which Garrick rather spasmodically kept, together with his voluminous correspondence, enables us to trace the actor throughout his long and triumphant tour. Englishmen were well received in Paris after the peace. At the dinners of Baron d'Holbach he made the acquaintance of Diderot and the encyclopaedists; he was made free of the Com6die-Francaise, and formed friendships with the members, especially Mile. Clairon. At the house of a Mr. Neville he was induced by Mile. Clairon to give various recitations in presence of Marmontel, D'Alembert, &c. After a stay of three weeks, and with a promise to return, he left Paris; proceeded by Lyons and Mont Cenis to Turin; received but did not accept an invitation from Voltaire to call on him at Ferney; visited the principal cities of Italy; stayed a fortnight at Rome; and reached Naples, where he was very popular with the aristocratic English colony of visitors and collected articles of virtu. By Parma, where the grand duke entertained him, he posted to Venice, which he quitted about the middle of June. Mrs. Garrick was restored to health by the mud baths of Albano, near Padua. The pair visited Munich, where Garrick had a bad attack, compelling him to go to Spa. He reached Paris once more near October 1764, and was welcomed more warmly than before. Beaumarchais, Marivaux, Grimm, and all the brilliant society received him with demonstra- tions more enthusiastic and more sincere than were often lavished upon English visitors. Mrs. Garrick was also received with the most respectful homage. French literature of this epoch furnishes many proofs of the influence he exercised. A dozen years later Gibbon found that Garrick was warmly remembered. Grimm or Diderot (July 1765) says that Garrick is the only actor who reaches ideal excellence, speaks enthusiastically of his freedom from grimace or exag- geration, and describes- the effect which he produced by performing the dagger scene in 'Macbeth' in a room and in his ordinary dress (Correspondance Litteraire de Grimm et Diderot, vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 500-1, ed. 1813). The same authority declares Garrick to be of middle height, inclining to be little, of agreeable and spirituel features, and with a prodigious play of eye. He tells how Garrick simulated drunkenness with Préville in ​passing through Passy, and criticised his companion for not being drunk in his legs. He also gives a description of his method of narrating in a manner à faire frémir the incident of a father dropping his child from a window, losing his speech, and going mad (ib. pp. 502-3). Many other references, all eminently favourable to Garrick, are to be found in the correspondence. Garrick is said to have had an income of fifty to sixty thousand livres de rente, and it is added that l he passes for a lover of money.'
Meanwhile Drury Lane was making money in a manner not altogether agreeable. Powell, a young actor whom Garrick had trained, and who made his .debut 8 Oct. 1763, had already become a public favourite, and was to prove, next to Barry, the most dangerous of all Garrick's rivals. Garrick was stimulated to return and resume acting. With characteristic and misplaced ingenuity he sent in advance a satirical pamphlet written by himself against himself, and called 'The Sick Monkey.' By publishing this 'fable' he hoped to escape the satire of others, and also to herald his reappearance. Much fuss was made about keeping the authorship secret, and Colman was urged to let no word of rumour escape. The thing, however, as it deserved, fell flat. On 27 April 1765 Garrick arrived in London. On the reopening of the theatre, 14 Sept. 1765, he introduced for the first time in England the system of lighting the stage by lights not visible to the audience. His first appearance 'by command' took place 14 Nov. as Benedick to the Beatrice of Miss Pope. His calculations had been just. Weary of the musical pieces, which during his absence had proved, at his suggestion, the staple of Drury Lane entertainments, the public received him with wild enthusiasm, and applauded every- thing, even to a facetious prologue of his own, which he spoke, and which is not in the best possible taste. An aftermath of success richer than the original harvest was in store for him. On 30 Jan, 1766 he lost by death his great ally, Mrs. Gibber, which wrung from him the remark that 'tragedy is dead on one side.' Quin, with whom he had of late been intimate, was also dead. On 20 Feb. he produced the 'Clandestine Marriage,' by himself and Colman. By refusing to take the part of Lord Ogleby, which was played by King, he gave rise to a coldness between himself and his collaborator extending over years. Early in 1766 Garrick ceased to act, and visited Bath. He played Kitely, 22 May, in aid of the fund for the benefit of retired actors. On 25 Oct. 1766 he produced his 'Country Girl,' an alteration of Wycherley's 'Country Wife,' and on 18 Nov. 'Neck or Nothing,' a farce imitated from Lesage, the authorship of which, on no very satisfactory evidence, is assigned to Garrick. 'Cymon,' a dramatic romance founded on Dryden's 'Cymon and Iphigenia,' was played 2 Jan. 1767, and is more probably his. Garrick's 'Linco's Travels' saw the light 6 April 1767. Barry and Mrs. Dancer (subsequently Mrs. Barry) appeared in the season 1767-8. Garrick's 'Peep behind the Curtain, or the New Rehearsal,' was played 23 Oct. 1767. He wrote also a farewell address for Mrs. Pritchard on her quitting the stage, 24 April 1768. Palmer died at the close of the season and his wife retired. The following season saw the retirement of Kitty Clive, of all Garrick's feminine associates the one he most feared and in a sense esteemed. Havard was also dead. Meanwhile Colman had purchased the lease of Covent Garden, and been joined by Powell. A formidable rivalry was thus begotten, and the coolness between Garrick and Colman increased. Of the pieces by various authors produced by Garrick since his return from abroad Kelly's ' False Delicacy' and Bickerstaffe's 'Padlock' alone had a signal success. Before the beginning of the next season (1769-70) the memorable jubilee in honour of Shakespeare had been celebrated in Stratford. Garrick had the chief share in designing and carrying out this entertainment, to which the wits and the weather proved equally hostile. A full account of the spectacle (on 6, 7, and 8 Sept. 1769) is given in the third volume of Victor's 'History of the Theatres of London,' 8vo, 1771. Victor describes the entire pageant, . including Garrick's 'Ode upon dedicating a Building and erecting a Statue to Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon' (see also Cradock, Memoirs, i. 211). Garrick, who was much out of pocket by the fiasco, recouped himself by producing at Drury Lane, 14 Oct. 1769, the ' Jubilee,' a dramatic entertainment consisting of the pageantry designed for the Stratford celebration. This was repeated over ninety times. Garrick wrote the manuscript, which now appears to be lost. He had previously (30 Sept.) given the before-mentioned ode, which was republished with a whimsical parody upon it. Foote was persuaded to abandon an intended caricature of the whole proceedings, which gave Garrick many qualms. Kelly's 'Word to the Wise,' 3 March 1770, was the cause of a riot prolonged over some days by the friends of Wilkes, who saw in Kelly a government hireling. The piece was with- drawn after many scenes of disorder. ' King Arthur,' by Dryden, altered by Garrick, was produced 13 Dec. 1770. Cumberland's ' West ​Indian' was given this season. The 'Institution of the Garter,' altered by Garrick from a dramatic poem by Gilbert West (Biographia Dramatica), was played 28 Oct. 1771. His 'Irish Widow,' taken in part from Moliere's 'Le Mariage Force,' came out 23 Oct. 1772. On 18 Dec. he produced his mangled version of 'Hamlet,' which, in consequence of the opposition it aroused, was never printed. On 27 Dec. 1773 'A Christmas Tale,' assigned to Garrick, saw the light.
The season of 1774-5 opened 17 Sept. with the (Drummer' and a prelude by Garrick never printed, called 'Meeting of the Company.' 'Bon Ton, or High Life above Stairs,' by Garrick, was played 18 March 1775. 'Theatrical Candidates,' a prelude attributed to Garrick, served in September for the opening of the season. 'May Day, or the Little Gipsy,' also attributed to him, followed, 28 Oct. During the spring of 1776 Garrick played for the last time a round of his favourite characters. His last appearance on the stage was made 10 June as Don Felix in the Wonder.' The profits of the night were appropriated to the Theatrical Fund, the customary address, one of the best and happiest in its line, being written and spoken by Garrick, who also took leave in a prose address. In the course of his farewell season his spirits and capacities were once more seen at their best. His successive representations had been patronised by all that was most brilliant in English society, and many of his distinguished French admirers were present. During one or two previous seasons the takings had diminished. Garrick's receipts had, however, been handsome, and the theatre had increased largely in value. Some important alterations in Drury Lane were made at the beginning of his last season. Consciousness of failing strength was a motive to retirement. The unrelenting animosity of contemptible scribblers, feuds with authors, and various managerial troubles had acted upon his singularly nervous temperament. Epigrams asserted that Garrick had been driven from the stage by three actresses, Miss Younge, Mrs. Yates, and Mrs. Abington. Garrick said that Mrs. Abington was 'the worst of bad women' (Correspondence, ii. 140). Miss Younge's letters are often querulous. The moiety of his patent and other possessions in Drury Lane Garrick sold to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Lindley, and Dr. Ford for 35,000l., a sum which must be considered moderate, since the other moiety, belonging to Willoughby Lacy, was purchased two years later for upwards of 45,000l. Of this latter sum 22,000l. was due to Garrick, who held a mortgage on Lacy's share. Garrick maintained to the last his interest in Drury Lane, the fortunes of which, in spite of the success of the 'School for Scandal,' fell off under Sheridan's indolent management. His time, largely occupied with visits to country houses, allowed him to visit the theatre, and to offer suggestions, not always accepted in the best spirit, to actors who played characters previously his. A prologue by him was delivered on the opening of the season of 1776-7, and various prologues and epilogues were spoken during the following years at one or other of the patent houses. The best known of these are the prologues to 'All the World's a Stage' and to the 'School for Scandal,' both of them spoken by King. Both prologue and epilogue to the 'Fathers,' by Fielding, were also by Garrick, and constituted apparently his last contribution to the stage. 'Garrick's Jests, or the English Roscius in High Life. Containing all the Jokes of the Wits of the Present Age,' &c., 8vo, no date, is a catch-penny publication, for which Garrick is in no way responsible. Among his triumphs was the famous scene in the House of Commons, when 'Squire' Baldwin complained that Garrick had remained after an order for the withdrawal of strangers. Burke, who said that Garrick had 'taught them all,' supported by Fox and Townshend, successfully objected to the enforcement of the order in his case. Garrick foolishly retorted in some feeble and ill-natured verses against Baldwin (Poetical Works, ii. 538). While spending the Christmas of 1778 at Althorpe he was attacked by gout and stone, which had long beset him, and also by herpes. He was brought to No. 5 Adelphi Terrace, a house which he had taken in 1772, on 15 Jan. 1779. He rapidly sank, and died on 20 Jan. about 8 A.M. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on 1 Feb. with exceptional honours. The streets were crowded, and the string of carriages extended from the Strand to the abbey. The Bishop of Rochester received the cortege. The pall-bearers were the Duke of Devonshire, Lords Camden, Ossory, Spencer, and Palmerston, and Sir Watkin Wynne, and Burke, Johnson, Fox, and the 'Literary Club' generally were among the mourners. Sheridan wrote on his death the much-lauded monody, and Johnson uttered the famous phrase, 'I am disappointed by that stroke of death which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.' These words Mrs. Garrick caused to be engraved on his monument in Lichfield. His tomb in Westminster Abbey is at the foot of Shakespeare's statue, where, 16 Oct. 1822, his wife, then ninety-eight ​years of age, was placed beside him. His monument, erected by his friend Wallis, is on the opposite wall, with an inscription by Pratt, substituted for one by Burke, rejected as too long. Of the monument and inscription Lamb said in the 'Essays of Elia:' 'I found inscribed under this harlequin figure a farrago of false thoughts and nonsense.' Burke's rejected epitaph said: 'He raised the character of his profession to the rank of a liberal art' (Windham, Diary, p. 361). Garrick is the last actor who was buried in the Abbey (Stanley, Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, p. 306). Garrick left behind him a sum that with no great exaggeration has been estimated at 100,000l. To his widow were left the houses at Hampton and in the Adelphi, with plate, wine, pictures, &c., 6,000l., and an annuity of 1,500l. No memorials were left to any of his friends, but his relations, including a German niece of Mrs. Garrick, had sums varying from 1,000l. to 10,000l., which last named amount was left to his brother George, who did not directly benefit by it. Of George, who had been his right-hand man, and who only survived him a few days, it was said with touching humour that he followed his brother so close because 'David wanted him,' a phrase which had been familiar in the theatre.
Garrick's correspondence is a mine of information, and from this and the recorded opinions of friends and observers, English and foreign, we have a livelier idea of his character than we possess of any actor, and of almost any contemporary. Of his weaknesses the best account is given in Goldsmith's masterly summary in 'Retaliation.' Garrick had the burning desire for admiration common to men of his craft. He was jubilant in success, petulant in defeat, timid in the face of menace, miserable in the absence of recognition. Naturally careful, he acquired a wholly unmerited reputation for meanness. Few actors indeed have been more reasonably and judiciously generous. His biographer, Davies, who is nowise given to over-praising Garrick, has collected many instances of his generosity. He was steadily beneficent in private as well as in public (Life of Garrick, ii. 395). His offer to Clairon in her fight against the ministry and the court of France elicited from Voltaire the question whether there was a marshal or a dnke in France who would do the like. Davies also mentions that his death was deplored as a calamity in Hampton, and says that he heard Johnson express his knowledge that Garrick gave away more money than any man in London (ib. ii. 398). Garrick also 'dearly loved a lord,' a not unnatural failing in one courted by lords. He was the object of special attention on the part of the Due de Nivernois and other foreign ministers, and was probably more caressed than any man of his epoch. Impressionable in nature, and accustomed from his early days to a struggle for existence, belonging to 'a family whose study was to make fourpence do as much as others made fourpence half-penny' (Johnson, Life, iii. 387), he was prudent and cautious even in the midst of his liberalities, and he was led to overestimate the value of social attention. Like most men of his epoch he was inclined to be a free, though, as Johnson said, 'a decent liver,' and he paid in ill-health the penalty of indulgence that does not seem to have been excessive. He confessed to fieriness of disposition, especially in disputes with Mrs. Clive or Mrs. Woffmgton. With the chief actresses of his company his relations during his married life were not always friendly, but he secured the esteem and the respect of the most petulant. Literature presents little that is pleasanter than his correspondence with his Pivy, a contraction of Clivey Pivey, as he called Mrs. Clive. One letter written by Mrs. Clive, 23 Jan. 1776, when she was sixty-five years of age, tells him that none of his surroundings could be sensible of half his perfections, and speaks in the highest terms of the manner in which he trained his company, endeavouring to beat his 'ideas into the heads of creatures who had none of their own' (Garrick Correspondence, ii. 128). Johnson,, though he scolded Garrick and sneered at his profession, would, as Sir Joshua Rey- nolds said, let no one attack him but himself.. 'It is wonderful,' he said, 'how little Garrick assumes.' Stockdale says (Memoirs, ii. 186) that Johnson said of Garrick: 'More pains have been taken to spoil that fellow than if he had been heir-apparent to the empire of India.' Most of the accusations levelled against Garrick are attributable to the reckless Foote and to petulant and unreasonable dramatists. His success made him from the outset many enemies, and each step of importance aroused a fierce polemic. In some cases, as in that of Kenrick, whose 'Love in the Suds; a Town Eclogue,' 1772, of whick an imperfect copy is in the British Museum, charges Garrick with infamy, a public apology was made by Garrick's assailant. Other attacks, attributed to the Rev. David Williams, Leonard McNally, William Shirley, Fitzpatrick, Theophilus Cibber, Edward Purdon, and various nameless writers, were answered by friends of Garrick. 'An Essay on Acting, in which will be considered the mimical behaviour of a certain fashionable faulty actor, ​and the laudableness of such unmannerly, as well as inhumane proceedings,’ &c., 1744, 8vo, is curious as a criticism by Garrick upon his own Macbeth, by publishing which he hoped to disarm the censure of others. Garrick also wrote an ‘Answer to Mr. Macklin's Case,’ London, 1743, of which a copy with no title-page is in the Forster collection at South Kensington. On a copy of a ‘Letter of Abuse to D——d G——k.’ London, 1757, 8vo, belonging to Joseph Reed, now no longer traceable, was the following note: ‘This was probably written by Mr. Garrick himself.’ The best known eulogy of Garrick is that of Churchill in the ‘Rosciad,’ 1761, in which, after dealing with minor actors, Shakespeare, on behalf of himself and Ben Jonson, bids
Garrick take the chair, Nor quit it till thou place an equal there.
Garrick's easy acquiescence in this praise, which he professed to regard as a bid for the freedom of his theatre, led to the publication by Churchill of the ‘Apology,’ in which Garrick was made to wince. Henceforward Churchill was treated with consideration by Garrick, who more than once lent him money. For a list of the pamphlets and other works for and against Garrick that are accessible in the British Museum, the Forster collection, and some private libraries, reference may be made to Mr. Lowe's ‘Bibliographical History of English Theatrical Literature,’ 1888, in which work they occupy twelve pages. As a dramatist Garrick had vivacity and sweetness that almost do duty for art, a good knowledge of character, and complete familiarity with stage craft. In this respect he resembled Colley Cibber. His poetical works were collected in two volumes, small 8vo, 1785. Of the 540 consecutively numbered pages, almost three quarters are occupied with prologues and epilogues, in which Garrick was happy. These indeed constitute in themselves a minute chronicle of the stage. Songs, burlettas, epigrams, fables, and occasional verses, with ‘Fizgig's Triumph, or the Power of Riot,’ written against Fitzpatrick, and other satires make up the two volumes. His epigrams are good in their way. The only piece in which he reveals inspiration is in his song ‘Peggy,’ written to Mrs. Woffington. Garrick's plays have never been collected. His share in works, such as the ‘Clandestine Marriage,’ written in conjunction with George Colman cannot be settled, and the pieces generally which bear his name or are ascribed to him are almost invariably adaptations. Sometimes, as in the ‘Country Girl,’ his version of an unpresentable work of one of the older dramatists has retained possession of the stage. His alterations of Shakespeare, however, of Ben Jonson, and other dramatists are not to be trusted as original productions, and are sometimes the reverse of creditable. His so-called dramatic works were published in three vols. 12mo, 1768, reprinted 1798. Lowndes justly speaks of this as ‘a wretched and imperfect collection.’ It contains sixteen plays. Most of the printed plays of Garrick are in the British Museum in 8vo. Many of them are included in the ‘Modern British Drama’ and the collections of Inchbald, Bell, &c. As a manager Garrick commands respect. His vanity did not prevent him from engaging the best obtainable talent. He pitted himself against men such as Spranger Barry, Macklin, and Quin, and he missed no opportunity of appearing with actresses such as Mrs. Clive, Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Abington, and others of equal talent and reputation. To Mrs. Woffington he had, after essaying it, to resign the part of Sir Harry Wildair, and it was often said that he would not fairly match himself against Mrs. Clive, who was indeed a formidable opponent. In this respect, however, his conduct compares favourably with that of most of his profession. In his resentment against those who, he held, had gone out of their way to injure him, he declined to accept one or two pieces from their pens, and so played into the hands of Covent Garden. He had no enduring hostility, however, his temper generally being devoid of gall. He carried caution to an excess. Davies says that he acquired through this a hesitation in speech which did not originally characterise him. As a rule he was fairly accessible to authors, and if he produced few masterpieces, the fault was in the writers. In dramatists generally he displayed genuine interest, and after his retirement he took great pains to advance the fortunes of Hannah More. In his disputes the impression conveyed is generally that he was in the right. He generally treated the ebullitions of mortified vanity on the part of authors with tenderness. He kept the masculine portion of his company in fair order, though the feminine portion was generally mutinous. He made many important reforms, some of them learned during his journeys abroad, in discipline, in stage arrangement, and in matters of costume, in which he effected some improvement, pleading as a not very convincing reason for going no further that the public would not stand it. In many cases of difficulty he showed magnanimity, which his enemies sought vainly to stamp as prudence. Fortune fluctuated during his managerial career, but the result was that the property he conducted increased ​steadily in value under his management, that he retired with a larger fortune than any English actor except Alleyn had made in a similar enterprise, and with the respect and friendship of all the best men of his epoch. A list, founded principally upon information supplied by Genest, of the chief incidents at Drury Lane during Garrick's management appears in Mr. Fitzgerald's ‘Life,’ ii. 472–85.
Garrick's social gifts were among his strongest points. He was a bright and vivacious talker, except in the presence of Foote, when, says Davies (ii. 257), ‘he was a muta persona.’ Concerning his conversation, Johnson says it ‘is gay and grotesque. It is a dish of all sorts, but of all good things. There is no solid meat in it; there is a want of sentiment in it. Not but that he has sentiment sometimes, and sentiment too very powerful and very pleasing, but it has not its full proportion in his conversation’ (Life by Boswell, ii. 464). Garrick's position as an actor is in the front rank. That Horace Walpole and Gray disputed his supremacy, and Colley Cibber, Quin, and Macklin made grudging concessions of his merits, is little to the point. Every innovator in art encounters such opposition. George III said that ‘he never could stand still, he was a great fidget,’ and George Selwyn spoke depreciatingly of his Othello. Smollett attacked Garrick with much bitterness, but made amends by a high compliment in his continuation of Hume's ‘History,’ vi. 310, ed. 1818. George Colman the younger [q. v.] admits Garrick's unequalled power of imitating nature, though whenever he ‘chose to show off as himself … he was almost sure to play that character worse than any other’ (Random Recollections, i. 223, 227). Colman had been told that Garrick could make ‘the twin stars which nature had stuck in his head look as dull as two coddled gooseberries,’ and proceeds to describe at some length the manner in which he conveyed the expression in the eye of a deaf person. The most trustworthy, as the most unprejudiced, testimony to Garrick's method is that of Lichtenberg, the German critic, which is included in his ‘Ausgewählte Schriften,’ and has been more than once translated into English. Writing from England in October 1775, he furnishes to a friend elaborate criticisms of Garrick in various characters. Garrick is described by him as a model of strength and force as distinguished from the actors around him, by the intense life of his look, movement, and gesture, and compelling, as if by magnetic force, the sympathy of his audience with every assumed mood. Lichtenberg assigns Garrick an incontestable superiority over every English actor, and analysing various characters, notably Hamlet and Sir John Brute, conveys a lively idea of his powers of conception and execution. Samuel Derrick [q. v.], in his ‘General View of the Stage’ (pp. 231–2), after describing his appearance, says that he is the greatest if not the only actor in Lear and Abel Drugger, Macbeth and Benedick, Hamlet and Sir John Brute, Chamont and Archer, Tancred and Ranger, Jaffier and Bayes, Lusignan and Lord Chalkstone. This selection will be generally accepted. To this description may be added that in the ‘Theatrical Review,’ 1763, p. 74, quoted by Waldron in the Appendix to his edition of the ‘Roscius Anglicanus,’ p. 21: ‘The voice of the performer is clear, impressive, and affecting, agreeable though not harmonious, sharp though not dissonant, strong though not extensive. In declamation it is uncommonly forcible, in variation unaffectedly simple. It is said to want power at the top, though the art of the actor all but conceals the defect.’ Dr. Burney says that Garrick, like other inhabitants of Lichfield, said ‘shupreme,’ ‘shuperior.’ Garrick's versatility, or, as Johnson called it, his ‘universality,’ was his distinguishing characteristic. The one character Johnson held he could not play was a fine gentleman (Boswell, v. 126). Hogarth, after seeing him in Abel Drugger, said: ‘You are in your element when you are begrimed with dirt or up to your elbows in blood’ (note to Boswell's Johnson, iii. 35, taken from Murphy's Garrick, i. 31). Shireff, the miniature-painter, who was deaf and dumb, followed closely Garrick's performances, and said he understood him, ‘his face was a language’ (Murphy, Garrick, ii. 185). Cooke's ‘Memoirs of Macklin,’ p. 110, tells of a Lichfield grocer who having seen Garrick in Abel Drugger apologised to Peter Garrick for saying that though the actor might be rich, he was ‘one of the shabbiest, meanest, most pitiful hounds ever seen.’ Standing in one of her tiffs at the wings in Drury Lane, Mrs. Clive turned away in anger at finding herself moved in her own despite, and said, ‘D——him, he could act a gridiron.’ Stories of the kind from compilations French and English might be multiplied without end. The stories concerning his diminutive stature and his avarice sprang generally from rival actors. Burney and Hogarth, with Bannister and other actors of a later date, describe his facial play, the effect of the eye, which Burney says ‘was surely equal to all Argus's hundred,’ and the manner in which things inanimate seemed to share in the expression of emotion. Burney said of his coat that the very flaps and skirts seemed animated, while ​Bannister asserted that in Lear his very stick acted. Home's ‘Douglas’ was first offered to Garrick, who returned it with an opinion that it was totally unfit for the stage (Dr. A. Carlyle, Autobiography, p. 325). Armstrong, on account of the rejection of his ‘Forced Marriage,’ maintained his anger for twenty years. Hawkins and Mickle for similar reasons remained hostile. Mickle inserted an angry note in his ‘Lusiad.’ Soon after he saw Garrick in ‘Lear,’ and after fetching a deep sigh said, ‘I wish the note was out of my book’ (Horne, Essays, p. 38, ed. 1808). ‘Garrick in the Shades, or a Peep into Elysium,’ 8vo, 1779, a farce published after his death, represents Garrick as hurt at the cold reception given him by Shakespeare.
Garrick collected books and bric-à-brac. His books, with additions by Mrs. Garrick, were dispersed in 1823 at a ten days' sale at Saunders's. From the Garrick collection of plays Lamb took for Hone's ‘Table Book’ many extracts, subsequently included in his ‘Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets.’ Garrick's will is printed in Murphy's ‘Life.’ Innumerable portraits and engravings of Garrick are to be found. One portrait by Hogarth represents him composing the prologue to ‘Taste.’ Sir Joshua Reynolds painted him several times. One of his most famous pictures is that presenting Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy. A portrait of Garrick as Kitely is, or quite recently was, in the Huth collection. A third portrait by Reynolds was presented to the Garrick Club in 1888 from his family collection by the Earl of Fife. The Garrick Club contains in addition among others a portrait assigned to Hogarth, pictures by Zoffany representing Garrick as Jaffier, as Macbeth, and as Lord Chalkstone, by Hayman as Ranger, by Morland (copied from Dance) as Richard III, by Loutherbourg as Don John in the ‘Chances’ and Richard III; by an unknown hand as Romeo and a steward of the Jubilee. In 1766 Gainsborough [q. v.] painted a portrait of Garrick for the corporation of Stratford-on-Avon, said by Mrs. Garrick to be the best portrait ever taken of ‘her Davy.’ Another by the same artist was painted in 1770.
J. K.