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 EMINENT ACTORS 
 
 EDITED BY WIILIAM ARCHER 
 
 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY
 
 WILLIAM CHARLES 
 
 iM ACREADY 
 
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 1890
 
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 PREFACE. 
 
 The chief authority for a Life of Macready is, of course, 
 his J^ef/iinisct'nccs, Diaries, and Letters, edited by Sir 
 Frederick Pollock. His Reminiscences, unfortunately, 
 ^come to an abrupt end at the close of the year 1826. 
 N Up to that point, my main task has been to check his 
 ^ statements (which I find surprisingly accurate, even where 
 he had only childish memories to draw upon), and tcj 
 supplement them by extracts from contemporary docu- 
 ments. From 1826 onwards — that is to say, during the 
 last twenty-five years of Macready 's life as an actor — the 
 yZ>iary affords only fragmentary information. It is valuable 
 ^ rather as an expression of character than as a record 
 \) of events. In the following pages, then, the story of 
 '^j Macready's whole career is told for the first time, with, 
 I hope, reasonable fulness and accuracy. 
 
 My guiding principle has been to avoid vague and 
 second-hand statements, and, as far as possible, to give 
 precise information founded on first-hand evidence. For 
 instance, 1 have examined every London play-bill on 
 
 38S814
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 which Macready's name appears, except those belonging 
 to one or two seasons at the very close of his career, 
 which are absent from the British Museum collection. 
 His performances during these years are fully recorded 
 in the newspapers, to which I have also referred for 
 details as to his rare visits to suburban theatres. I have 
 naturally given special attention to his four seasons of 
 management. They form, as it were, the central point 
 in the stage-history of this century; in them the traditions 
 of the " palmy days " and the tendencies of our own time 
 met, and clashed. Therefore I have tried to write their 
 annals at large, in the spirit of the painstaking Genest. 
 
 In the course of my inquiries I have incurred many 
 obligations. With a generosity not always characteristic 
 of collectors, Mr. E. Y. Lowne, a warm admirer and 
 personal friend of Macready, gave me free access to his 
 vast store of Macreadiana, now in the possession of Mr. 
 Henry Irving. Mr. Lowne's unwearying kindness at 
 once lightened my labour and placed within my reach 
 much interesting material not otherwise accessible. My 
 thanks are also due to the late Mr. Robert Browning, 
 for some very valuable notes as to his relations with 
 Macready ; to Mr. George Scharf, F.S. A., Director of the 
 National Portrait Gallery, and Mr. Henry Howe of the 
 Lyceum Theatre, who have favoured me with interesting 
 personal reminiscences ; to Mr. Joseph N. Ireland, the 
 learned historian of the New York stage ; to Mr. Samuel 
 Timmins, and the officials of the Birmingliam Public 
 Library ; to Mr. F. W. Dendy of Newcastle, and Mr. W. 
 E. Adams, editor of the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle ; to
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 Mr. James Mucready Chute, of the Prince's Theatre, 
 Bristol ; to the editor of the Bath Chronicle ; to Mr. J. 
 Evans of Manchester, and Mr. E. R. Dibdin of Liverpool, 
 who were good enough to make some researches on my 
 behalf into the early history of Macready's parents ; to 
 Mr. Sketchley of the Dyce and Forster Libraries ; and 
 last, not least, to the ever-obliging ofificials of the British 
 Museum Library.
 
 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BOYHOOD. 
 1793-1808. 
 
 When Charles Macklin paid his last visit to Dublin, 
 in 1785, Daly, the manager of the Smock Alley Theatre, 
 was to have played Egerton to his Sir Pertinax McSyco- 
 phant. He took offence, however, at the veteran's 
 overbearing manner of directing the rehearsals, and 
 recalled a young actor from Waterford to take his place. 
 The actor's name was William Macready. He was the 
 son of a well-to-do Dublin upholsterer, who afterwards 
 became " Father of the Commons " (a municipal dignity, 
 I take it), and, dying, left ;j{^2o,ooo to be frittered 
 away in a Chancery suit. Before taking to the stage, 
 young Macready is said to have served an apprentice- 
 ship to his father's craft. He now held a respectable 
 position in the Smock Alley company, and "had figured 
 in many first-rate parts" in the Irish provinces. In 
 selecting him for Egerton, Daly may have had the 
 intention of pitting Turk against Turk, for Macready's
 
 2 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 temper was of the hottest. The experiment, in any 
 case, succeeded, for Macklin was much pleased with 
 his Egerton. In a letter, preserved in the British 
 Museum, he writes to Macready at Waterford (August 
 1.8, 1785)- 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 " I am obliged to you for your civility, by your 
 journey to Dublin, and your kind attention. . . . Mr. Mat- 
 tocks, of the Liverpool company, desired me to learn whether 
 there was any young man that would play Gentlemen Fops 
 and Tragedy for his company at Liverpool and Manchester 
 — were there such to be had, I think it might be a step 
 towards his being introduced to Covent Garden Theatre. 
 I play four nights at Liverpool, and such a person might 
 travel with me thither." 
 
 The old man (he was at least eighty-six) evidently had 
 Macready himself in his eye, desiring, perhaps, to secure 
 an attentive travelling-companion. In this he seems to 
 have succeeded. Macready did not appear along with 
 him in Liverpool, where his performances took place 
 between the 7th and the 17th of October; but in the 
 following month we find " Mr. M'Cready " a member of 
 the Liverpool company. In the course of the winter he 
 played in Liverpool such parts as Trueman in George 
 Barnwell^ Altamont in The Fair Peniioit, Pjlades in 
 The Distrest Mother, and Stephano in The Tetnpest. 
 
 In Manchester, where Mattocks also reigned, he made 
 the acquaintance of a Miss Christina Ann Birch, who 
 played such parts as Goncril in Lear, the Queen in 
 Hamlet, Mrs. Dangle in The Critic, and Lady Mcdway 
 in Mrs. Sheridan's comedy The Discovery, at the Theatre 
 Royal, Spring Gardens. How this young lady became 
 an actress wc do not know. The traditions of her family 
 went back to the Civil War, when her great-grandfather
 
 BOYHOOD. ^ 3 
 
 is said to have been disinherited for espousing the 
 Cavalier cause. Her grandfather, Jonathan Birch, was 
 Vicar of Bakewell, in Derbyshire; two of her paternal 
 uncles were clergymen ; her father was a surgeon ; her 
 mother was a daughter of Edward Frye, Governor of 
 Montserrat; so that all her antecedents were at least 
 "genteel." Her birthp'ace was Repton, near Derby, 
 where her father died, overwhelmed by pecuniary 
 disaster, before she was three years old. She was now 
 in her twenty-first year, and an attachment soon sprang 
 up between her and Macready, who was ten years her 
 senior. We find them taking a joint benefit on April 7, 
 1786, Macready playing Bob Acres, and Miss Birch 
 Julia, in The Rivals. At the close of the season they 
 were married, the ceremony taking place at the Collegiate 
 Church, Manchester, on Sunday, June 18, 1786. 
 
 Macklin was as .good as his word in procuring 
 Macready a London engagement. On September 18, 
 1786, just three months after his marriage, he made his 
 first appearance at Covent Garden, as Flutter in The 
 Belle's SfrafaQ-ei/i. For ten consecutive seasons he 
 remained a useful, but not a brilliant member of Harris's 
 company. A list of his chief Shakespearian parts will 
 show the estimation in which he was held. I'hey were 
 Gratiano (to Macklin's Shylock), Paris (to Holman's 
 Romeo), Fenton, Borachio, Malcolm, Cassio, Le Beau 
 (or, as it was then spelt and pronounced, " I-e Beu"), 
 Edmund, Antonio [Merchant of Ve?iice), Poins, Page, 
 and others of even less importance. He made no 
 advance in status or authority. Edmund, indeed, is a 
 good part ; but as we find him cast for Guildenstern in 
 the same season, we can only conclude that he was 
 regarded as an actor-of-all-work. Among his non-Shake- 
 spearian parts were Young Marlow, Figaro, Fag in The
 
 4 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 Rivals, and Tattle in Love for Love. He also tried his 
 hand at authorship, producing, in 1792, a farce named 
 The Lrishman in London, and in 1795 a comedy named 
 The Batik-Note, — both mere adaptations of older plays. 
 At the close of the season 1796-97 he quarrelled with 
 the management over a question of salary, and resigned 
 his position. He left behind him a reputation summed 
 up in the following couplet : — 
 
 " Tho' than Macready there are many better, 
 Who, pray, like him, so perfect to a letter ? " 
 
 In other words, painstaking, but mediocre. 
 
 His wife, so far as I can ascertain, did not appear on 
 the London stage. Three children were born to them, 
 who died in infancy ; then a daughter who lived to reach 
 her seventh year, and dwelt in the memory of her 
 younger brother as an "angelic influence," intervening 
 "between his infant will and the evil it purposed." The 
 child whose precocious depravity she thus restrained 
 was William Charles Macready, born on Sunday, 
 March 3, 1793, in Mary Street (now part of Stanhope 
 Street), Euston Road, As this is Macready's own state- 
 ment, apparently on the authority of an entry in his 
 mother's Prayer-book, it may be taken as conclusive. 
 He was baptized at St. Pancras Parish Church, January 
 21 1796, the date of his birth being given in the register 
 as 1792 ; but this he explicitly declares to be a mistake. 
 London remained his parents' head-quarters long enough 
 for the boy to be sent to a preparatory school in Ken- 
 sington, but he cannot have been more than six wlicn 
 the scene of his life changed to Birmingham. 
 
 Two years before his secession from Covent Garden, 
 the elder Macready had become a provincial manager. 
 Here is his first manifesto -
 
 BO YHOOD. 5 
 
 "Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, June ii, 1795. 
 "Mr. M'CREADV, with profound Respect, begs Leave to 
 acquaint the Ladies and Gentlemen of Birmingham and its 
 Vicinage that ... he purposes opening the spacious 
 THEATRE erected [after an incendiary fire] in New Street, 
 on Monday, the 22nd inst., with 
 
 A PLAY AND ENTERTAINMENTS 
 
 . . . Mr. M'Cready respectfully pledges himself to have 
 a succession of the most capital Performers on the London 
 Stage during the Summer ; — for he will only presume to 
 solicit encouragement from the Public so long as his Exer- 
 tions shall prove that it is his greatest Ambition to merit 
 their Favour and Protection." 
 
 The name of Mrs. M'Cready appears in a subordinate 
 place among the company. If not a great actress, she was 
 certainly versatile. In the course of seven seasons, besides 
 playing pretty constantly in farce, she supported almost all 
 the "capital Performers" whom her husband, in pursuance 
 of his promise, brought to Birmingham. She played Char- 
 lotte in The Gamester, to Mrs. Siddons's Mrs. Beverley, 
 Celia to her Rosalind, Andromache to her Hermione, 
 Elizabeth to her Mary Queen of Scots. She played 
 Blanche to Elliston's Sir Edward Mortimer, and Countess 
 Wintersen to Kemble's Stranger. Among her other 
 parts were the Queen in Hamlet^ the Countess Almaviva, 
 Evelina (the Spectre) in The Castle Spectre^ Betty in The 
 Clandestine Marriage^ and Lucy in The Rivals. She 
 never, even for her benefit, attempted a leading part, 
 and whenever the company included another actress 
 who was competent to undertake " seconds," the man- 
 ager's wife at once resigned in her favour. From this, 
 and from the absolute silence of all records as to the 
 merit of her performances, I conclude that she was a 
 "utility" actress in the strict sense of the word. Her 
 son does not mention that she was on the stage at all.
 
 6 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 The Birmingham season lasted from June to Sep- 
 tember, In the winter of 1797, after his quarrel with 
 the Covent Garden management, Macready made an 
 attempt to run the Royalty Theatre, in Well Street, 
 Wellclose Square, Whitechapel, as a sort of music-hall. 
 Faihng in this, he shook the mud of London off his feet, 
 and devoted himself to his Midland circuit, which he 
 extended, in the winter months, so as to include Sheffield 
 and other northern towns. In all probability, then, it 
 was early in 1798 that William Charles was taken from 
 his Kensington school and handed over to an irascible 
 pedagogue named Edgell, in St. Paul's Square, Birming- 
 ham. Here he distinguished himself chiefly in recitation, 
 learning by heart long extracts from Shakespeare, Milton, 
 Pope, and Young, "which," he says, "have been of some 
 service to me in accustoming my ear to the enjoyment 
 of the melody of rhythm." His mother had great diffi- 
 culty in teaching him to use, without abusing, the letter 
 //. "The line, "Appy, 'appy, 'appy pair !' was for some 
 time an insuperable obstacle to progress." In the holi- 
 days he hung about his father's theatre, observing and 
 remembering much. He was awed by Mrs. Siddons, 
 who visited Birmingham almost every year ; he saw 
 King, the original Sir Peter Teazle and Lord Ogleby, 
 dressed for the latter part ; and Gentleman Lewas, the 
 great Mercutio, left his face engraven on the boy's me- 
 mory. He remembered, too, the appearance, in 1802, 
 of the beautiful I\Irs. Billington. The same season left 
 another vision still more deeply impressed on his mind. 
 During the Peace of Amiens, the Hero of the Nile made 
 a triumphal tour of the provinces. On August 30, 1802, 
 he reached Birmingham, and went to the theatre in the 
 evening, where one Blisset, an actor of provincial fame, 
 was playing Falstaff in The Merry Wives. 'Hie per-
 
 BOYHOOD. 7 
 
 foimance must have pleased him, for the next day's play- 
 bill announced, " By desire of the Right Honourable 
 Lord Nelson, King Henry IV. ; or, The Humours of Sir 
 John Falstaff." The theatre was crowded with hero- 
 worshippers, and Macready records their frantic enthu- 
 siasm. An improvised act of homage to the popular 
 idol included the singing of a song with this refrain — 
 
 " We'll shake hands and be friends ; if they won't, why, 
 
 , what then ? 
 We'll send our brave Nelson to thrash 'cm again ! " 
 
 which I.ady Hamilton applauded with uplifted hands, 
 kicking with her heels against the foot-board of her seat. 
 It is wholesome to be reminded that the heroes of the 
 glorious past did not escape, and perhaps did not 
 altogether disdain, the homage of the music-hall lyrist. 
 
 Under the heading of " Midsummer, 1803," the register 
 of new pupils at Rugby School contains the following 
 entry : — ■ 
 
 " Macready, William Charles, son of Mr. W. Macready, 
 Master of the Birmingham, Leicester, and Stafford Theatres, 
 &c., aged 10. March 3." 
 
 He boarded with his mother's cousin, William Birch, 
 one of the masters of the school, who treated him with 
 great kindness, and did much to alleviate the trials which, 
 at a public school of that period, must have beset a boy 
 of his temperament. Oddly enough, his schoolfellows 
 do not seem to have bantered him about his father's 
 calling. Had they done so, Macready would have taken 
 care to record the fact. On the contrary, as his school 
 career advanced, he acquired popularity by reason of his 
 father's readiness to lend dresses and properties for the 
 boys' theatricals. His own abilities as an actor and 
 reciter procured him some consideration. He began by
 
 8 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 playing small female characters, but rose eventually to 
 such parts as Zanga in The Revenge. A programme of 
 the Rugby speech-day of 1808 has been preserved, with 
 comments on each recitation by one of the audience. 
 His remarks run the whole gamut of blame and praise, 
 from "Horrible," up to "Surprisingly well indeed" — the 
 last being reserved for the so-called "Closet-Scene" from 
 Hamlet., with Skeeles as the Queen, and Macready major 
 as the Prince of Denmark. (His younger brother, ^^d- 
 ward, had' joined him at Rugby in the previous year.) 
 The Latin prize poem on this occasion was S/iaksJ>earus, 
 by Robinson major (afterwards Master of the Temple), 
 who was Macready's only rival in recitation. It is clear 
 that there was a marked theatrical bias in the Rugby 
 mind. Macready, indeed, declared to Dr. Inglis that he 
 "very much disliked the thought" of the stage, and 
 approved of his father's design of sending him to the 
 bar. But when, speaking of his last recitation at Rugby, 
 he notes what " inward elation he felt in marking, as he 
 rose slowly up, the deep and instant hush that went 
 through the whole assembly," we cannot but recognize 
 the young war-horse scenting the battle afar off. 
 
 His first home-coming from Rugby was a sad one. 
 He arrived in Sheffield to find that his mother, whom he 
 deeply loved, had died the day before. Her health had 
 been failing for some years. In the season of 1802 she 
 does not seem to have acted at all, though a benefit was 
 given her, at which she spoke an address, louring the 
 following season Mrs. Macready's name is again absent 
 from the bills, and on December 12, 1803, Avis' s Bir- 
 mingliam Gazette contains the following announcement 
 in its list of deaths : — 
 
 "Saturday sc'nnight [Dec. 3], at Shcflield, aged 38, Mrs. 
 M'Cready, wife of ilic wuriliy manager of our theatre, after
 
 no YHOOD. 9 
 
 a severe and lingering illness, which she bore wiili ilie most 
 Christian fortitude and resignation, leaving a disconsolate 
 husband and four young children, as well as all who knew 
 her and her exemplary character, to bewail the loss of so 
 amiable and so good a woman." 
 
 She seems, from the little we know of her, to have 
 been not only an amiable, but a brave and wise woman, 
 and the loss of her counsel probably paved the way for 
 her husband's subsequent misfortunes. Her memory 
 was an abiding influence for good in the life of her 
 son. 
 
 The elder Macready's day of disaster was distant as 
 yet. The next season, indeed, witnessed his chief 
 managerial triumph, which was thus heralded — 
 
 " The Ladies and Gentlemen of Birmingham and its 
 Vicinity are respectfully informed that the celebrated 
 
 YOUNG R O S CI U S, 
 
 Who has performed with such astonishing Excellence, 
 Attraction, and Applause, at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, 
 Cork, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, <S:c., &c., is engaged 
 here for Eight Nights, the first of which will be 
 
 Tliis present Monday, August the \ztJi-, 1804." 
 
 This was Master Betty's first appearance in England, 
 and the Birmingham people greatly appreciated their 
 manager's enterprise in securing for them so marvellous 
 a novelty. He was two years older than young Macready, 
 who, however, found him, at the height of his renown, 
 a congenial and very boyish playfellow. A return visit 
 of the phenomenon in 1805 was again brilliantly suc- 
 cessful, and there is no evidence that the seasons of 1806 
 and 1807 were other than prosperous. Macready had 
 certainly saved some money when, in 1806, the lessee- 
 ship of tlie new Theatre Royal, Manchester, was put up
 
 lo WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 for competition. In an evil hour, Macready outbade his 
 rivals, offering the extravagant rental of ^1600 a year. 
 In order to complete the decorations of the house and 
 make a start, he took into partnership a certain Galindo, 
 a Dublin fencing-master, whose wife afterwards made 
 herself notorious by publishing a defamatory pamphlet 
 concerning Mrs. Siddons. Galindo was to have invested 
 ^3500 in the enterprise, ^1000 of which he borrowed 
 from Mrs. Siddons ; but the conditions of the partnership 
 were of the quaintest. The theatre, a large and very 
 handsome one, was opened on June 29, 1807. Things 
 went badly from the very first. The company was voted 
 unworthy of Manchester, and though some attractive stars 
 appeared — Mrs. Siddons, Munden, the Young Roscius 
 (then in his decline), and Elliston — nothing availed to 
 turn the tide of ill luck. Macready's own performances 
 were but little relished. One critic denounces him as a 
 " delirious Daggerwood " (Sylvester Daggerwood was the 
 Crummies of the period), foisting himself on the public 
 in the whole round of the drama, and playing his own 
 panegyrist in the newspapers. Even his brogue — un- 
 kindest cut of all ! — was declared to be bad. When it 
 became evident that the undertaking could not prosper, 
 Galindo not only refused to pay the last instalments 
 of his /3500, but claimed prompt repayment of the sum 
 actually advanced. The claim, it appears, was justified 
 by the terms of this odd partnership, and Macready 
 found ruin staring him in the face. Having given up his 
 Birmingliam theatre at the close of the 1807 season, he 
 struggled on gallantly in Manchester ; but his exchequer 
 was so low that he could not pay his sons' school-bills 
 for the second half-year of 1808. 
 
 The sons, as yet, knew nothing of their father's 
 difficulties. Passing through Birmingham on his way
 
 BOYHOOD. II 
 
 from Rugby to Manchester for tlie Christmas holidays of 
 1 80S, William Charles found a box-ticket for the theatre 
 awaiting him — an act of courtesy on the part of his 
 father's successor, Watson of Cheltenham. The bill of 
 the evening (December 16) consisted of The Busy-Body, 
 and " Dibdin's much-admired ballet d'action, The Bridal 
 Spectre ; or, Aloiizo and Lnogine." The Baron St. Clare 
 was played by the star of the evening, "Richer, the 
 funambulist ; " the Fair Imogine found an obese repre- 
 sentative in the manager's wife; and "a little mean- 
 looking man in a shabby green satin dress appeared as 
 the hero, Alonzo the Brave," Knight of Calatrava. Six 
 years later, this mean-looking little man leaped into 
 renown, and the name of Edmund Kean became a 
 synonym for "Genie et Desordre." Had Macready 
 been in Birmingham four days earlier, he might have 
 seen the little man play Joseph Surface and Alonzo the 
 Brave on the same evening. 
 
 Arrived at Manchester, he was soon made aware of 
 his father's distresses. The pride, which was his blessing 
 and his bane, at once asserted itself. He formally 
 renounced all thought of the bar, and stated his inten- 
 tion of seeking his career on the stage. His father made 
 some show of resistance, but was in reality only too glad 
 to find a burden thus transformed into a prop. 
 
 Behold him, then, at the age of sixteen less two 
 months, embarked as his father's lieutenant in the 
 multifarious and adventurous enterprises of provincial 
 management. He left Rugby with a fair smattering of 
 the classics. Latin he seems to have read fluently, and 
 he knew enough Greek to astonish a dinner-party with a 
 quotation from Homer ; but the tragic poets are notably 
 absent from his lists of reading. He never suffered his 
 classics to rust, but was always rubbing them up; mainly.
 
 12 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 no doubt, from a genuine love of literature, but partly, 
 we may suspect, because a little learning is a gentleman- 
 like thing, and served to mark him off from the common 
 herd of actors. It was his habit to note "business" on 
 his parts in Latin, so that his comrades might not under- 
 stand it. His public school training was in a sense his 
 chief misfortune, for to it we may surely trace the 
 morbid sensitiveness on the subject of his social status 
 that tortured him in after-years. " My father," he says 
 pathetically, in speaking of this first turning-point in his 
 life, " was impressive in his convictions that the stage 
 was a gentlemanly profession. My experience has 
 taught me that ... in other callings the profession 
 confers dignity on the initiated ; on the stage the player 
 must contribute respect to the exercise of his art." He 
 found, in other words, that a clergyman or a soldier was 
 rated a gentleman because of his profession, an actor in 
 spite of it; and this caused him "many moments of 
 depression, many angry swellings of the heart." In the 
 mean time, however, he was insensible to the mighty 
 difference between the prefix "Mr." and the aftix 
 " Esq." He faced his new career, if not with enthusiasm, 
 at least with resolute composure.
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NOVITIATE. 
 
 I 8 o 9 - I 8 I 6. 
 
 Ir was not till a year and a half after he thus cast in his 
 lot with his father that Macready actually " commenced 
 actor." He was too old for a Young Roscius, too 
 young for a mature tragedian ; and he had no idea of 
 serving an apprenticeship in minor parts. After a 
 miserable six months in Manchester, helping his father 
 to dodge the sheriff's officers, he undertook the super- 
 vision of the Newcastle Theatre for a short summer 
 season, and ''fell desperately in love with one of the 
 actresses." In the autumn he went to London to learn 
 fencing under Angelo, and study the leading actors of 
 the day. His father forbade him to see John Philip 
 Kemble, lest he should imitate his style ; but the pro- 
 hibition was needless, as the O. P. riots, which broke 
 out on September i8, the evening before Macready's 
 arrival in town, banished that noble Roman from the 
 boards during his whole stay. On nights when the O. P. 
 party did not begin their orgy until half-price time, he 
 saw G. F. Cooke, Young, Charles Kemble, Munden, 
 Fawcett, Emery, and Liston ; at the Lyceum he saw the 
 burnt-out Drury Lane company ; and at the Surrey he 
 saw Elliston in the " Grand Ballet of Music and Action
 
 14 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 founded on Macbeth^'' with which he opened his first 
 transpontine management. Returning to Manchester, 
 he was present, and " burst into tears," when his father 
 surrendered himself to a sheriff's officer to be lodged in 
 Lancaster Castle. Next day he assumed the manage- 
 ment of his father's company at Chester, and found 
 himself for the first time battling single-handed with the 
 serious troubles of life. 
 
 His lines had not fallen in pleasant places. The lot 
 of a strolling manager in difficulties was laborious and 
 anxious, shifty and sordid. He lived from hand to 
 mouth, watching with eager eyes the rise and fall of the 
 shallow stream that flowed through his treasury, and 
 knowing that some caprice of the crowd might at any 
 moment cause it to run dry. He had to be obsequious 
 to the County, submissive to the Garrison, conciliatory 
 to the Civic powers. His company was inadequate and 
 often turbulent, the inevitable jealousies and discontents 
 being embittered and emboldened when pay-day became 
 a movable feast. ^Slacready, it is true, had but a short 
 experience of the pinch of managerial poverty. He 
 escaped absolute bankruptcy at Chester, and got himself 
 and company transported to Newcastle in time to open 
 the theatre on Boxing Day, 1809; though to do so he 
 left his own watch in pawn in Chester, and the watches 
 of three of his company at a posting-house on the road. 
 The Newcastle season was fairly successful, the gigantic 
 Conway, beloved of Mrs. Piozzi, proving a great attrac- 
 tion. Before it closed, the elder Macready was out of 
 durance, and once more at the helm. But even these 
 {(t\\ months of strain and stress must have been a hanl 
 trial for a boy not yet seventeen, inclined by disposition 
 and training to regard the Koiiuvt Comiqiw from its 
 tragic rather than its comic side.
 
 NOVITIATE. 
 
 15 
 
 As a manager, the elder Macready was popular with 
 his audiences, but not with his actors. He had catered 
 liberally for the Birmingham public, and had earned their 
 esteem. Local critics were apt to make merry now and 
 then over the flowery style of the manager's advertise- 
 ments. When Pizarro was about to be produced as 
 the latest London novelty, he heralded it with a glowing 
 description of " the pervading effects of its resistless 
 power." " The sense," he wrote, "aches with pleasure, 
 while at the same time the heart melts with sympathy, 
 and the mind is entranced with a something bordering 
 upon vision supernatural." Such literary foibles, how- 
 ever, were easily pardoned, and we have ample evidence 
 of the respect in which he was held, even by his 
 creditors. With his actors the case was different. He 
 was obstinate, violent, overbearing, and anything but 
 open-handed. Already in 1796 a libellous pamphlet 
 entitled. The Dissection of a Bir — g — ;;/ Manager was 
 hurled at his head. In the spring of 1807 he got 
 into a miserable pamphlet war with an ex-oflicer call- 
 ing himself John Prosser Edwin, whom he had dis- 
 missed from his Newcastle company. Edwin's two 
 pamphlets rank with Cape Everard's Alemoirs of an 
 Jjiifortunate Son of Thespis in the deplorable records of 
 itinerancy. The first, A71 Appeal to the Public 7-elative to 
 the Conduct of William JlPCready, Esq., was answered 
 by the manager in a manifesto entitled. Fact versus Fallacy; 
 to which Edwin rejoined with Candour versus Cahwiny; 
 being an Ample Refutation of the Malignant Falsehoods 
 and Despicable Misrepresentations lately published by the 
 AlAN-rt'^vr, William APCready. The whole affair is 
 simply squalid. Beside it the Crummies episode in 
 Nicholas Nickleby seems dignified and almost idyllic. 
 There are two gleams of humour in the story of debt,
 
 l6 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 drunkenness, and unseemly wrangling. The first is Mr. 
 Edwin's preliminary note : " To avert the imputation of 
 egotism, I shall narrate in the third person ; " the second 
 is his complaint that the manager would not suffer him 
 to correct the grammar of that distinguished playwright 
 Mr. Cherry, but insisted on a singular subject being 
 followed by a predicate in the plural, if it stood so in 
 the prompt-book. 
 
 This species of obstinacy is exemplified on a larger 
 scale in one of the anecdotes related by his son. At 
 Berwick, in 1 8 14, on the summer evening appointed 
 for an illumination to celebrate the fall of Napoleon, 
 Macready senior determined to open the theatre, 
 though warned on all hands that it would be empty. 
 He announced Reynolds's comedy Laugh When You 
 Can, with himself as Gossamer, The players dressed, 
 the musicians assembled, and seven o'clock struck, 
 "Shall I ring in the music, sir?" inquired the prompter; 
 " there is no one in the house." " Certainly, sir ; ring 
 in the music," replied the manager. When the curtain 
 rose there were two boys in the gallery, one man in the 
 pit, and William Charles Macready in the centre box, 
 watching his father " very gravely, and indeed sternly, 
 begin the part of the laughter-loving Gossamer." Even 
 filial piety could endure but little of this entertainment, 
 so the young man went out for a walk, and returned 
 about nine, to find the play just over. The man in the 
 pit disappeared, but the two boys remained in the 
 gallery until the musicians began the overture to the 
 afterpiece. Then one of them leaned over tlie balustrade, 
 made a violent gesture with his arm, and called out, 
 " Oh, dang it ! give over ! " whereupon they both walked 
 out, leaving the theatre emi)ty. A manager subject to 
 such aberrations was not likely to be popular wiih his
 
 NOVlTIArE. 17 
 
 subordinates. At a later period, in Bristol, he dismissed 
 a too-convivial scene-painter, saying to him, " I was told 
 you were a blackguard, Mr. Atkins, and I was not 
 deceived ; " on which the artist retorted, " I was told 
 you were a gentleman, and I was deceived. That's all 
 the difference, Mr. Macready." Anecdotes and allusions 
 of a like nature abound in the theatrical gossip of the 
 period, showing that, in the lower ranks of the profession, 
 the manager was but little beloved. In short, his 
 reputation with the public of his district was such as to 
 enable the elder Macready to give his son an excellent 
 start ; but his domineering temper rendered it highly 
 improbable that the two should long continue to work 
 together in harmony. 
 
 The summer of 18 10 found the elder Macready once 
 more manager in Birmingham, which was naturally 
 selected as the scene of his son's first attempt. It was 
 thus announced — 
 
 '* On Thursday Evening, June 7, will be presented the 
 
 Tragedy of 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET 
 (Written by Shakespear). 
 
 The Part of Romeo by a Young Gentleman, being his 
 
 first appearance on any Stage ; 
 Friar Lawrence, Mr. Harley ; and Juliet by Mrs. Young. 
 
 In Act I. A GRAND MASQUERADE. 
 
 In Act V. THE SOLEMN DIRGE. 
 
 To which will be added (for the first Time this Season) 
 
 the Farce of 
 
 THE IRISHMAN IN LONDON; 
 
 or, THE HAPPY AFRICAN 
 
 (Written by Mr. M'Cready). 
 
 Murtoch Delany, Mr. M'Cready ; Edward, Mr. Mansel ; 
 and Louisa, Mrs. Clifford." 
 
 c
 
 1 8 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 A rare portrait by De Wilde, taken two months later, 
 shows us the young Romeo as he appeared in the 
 Balcony-Scene — a chubby-faced boy in a close-fitting 
 white satin tunic and knee-breeches, slashed with purple 
 on the breast and thighs. He wore a broad flowered 
 sash almost under his armpits ; an upstanding rufif close 
 to the neck ; white kid gloves, white silk stockings and 
 buff-leather dancing-pumps ; and he carried in his hand 
 a large black hat with a forest of white plumes. 
 
 He had rehearsed very diligently and " had got by rote, 
 as it were, every particular of place, gesture, feeling, and 
 intonation." His opening speeches he went through 
 mechanically, " like an automaton moving in certain 
 defined limits." The first burst of applause scattered 
 the mist which clouded his faculties ; he gained his self- 
 possession, entered into the spirit of the character, and 
 "felt the passion he was to represent." Every round of 
 applause heightened his inward elation, and the curtain 
 fell upon a complete success. '•' Well, sir, how do you 
 feel now?" said one of the company, who crowded 
 around him with their congratulations. " I feel," he 
 replied, "as if I should like to act it all over again." 
 
 Here is the first printed criticism that greeted the young 
 actor — the harbinger of a mighty host. It appeared in 
 Aris's BirniitigJiam Gazette for Monday, June ii, 1810 — 
 
 "Thkatre Rovai,. — The Tragedy of Romeo mid Juliet 
 was brouglit forward at our Theatre on Thursday last, for 
 the purpose of introducing (a young candidate not eighteen 
 years of age) Mr. William M'Creadv to the stage, from 
 whose performance wc have no hesitation at predicting his 
 future fame and prosperity ; indeed, we never witnessed a 
 belter first appearance. He looked the character admirably : 
 the elegance of his figure, the expression of liis counlenanrc, 
 and the very great ease ofliis deportment, united in forming 
 a perfect representation (if what Romeo should exactly
 
 NOVITIATE. 
 
 19 
 
 appear. He recci\cd the most encouraging and flattering 
 applause through the four first acts, and at his dying scene 
 there were several distinct peals, testifying surprise and the 
 highest admiration of talents which have been seldom 
 equalled, if ever surpassed." 
 
 On June 1 1 the " young gentleman " made his second 
 appearance as Romeo, and on June 13 his third appear- 
 ance, as Lothair in " Monk " Lewis's Adelgit/ia, to the 
 Robert Guiscard of Conway. Three days later the 
 same play was repeated, the name of " Mr. William 
 M'Cready " this time figuring in the bill. He next 
 appeared as Young Norval and as Zanga (in which, 
 according to Aris's Gazette, he " evinced a mind far 
 beyond his years") and played Romeo a third time. 
 The play-bill of Friday, July 27, bears the following 
 announcement : — 
 
 " Mr. William M'Cready, with Gratitude to a liberal Public 
 for the fostering encouragement and cheering Applause 
 bestowed on his first Dramatic Efforts, laments that his 
 other engagements will not admit of his appearing here 
 THIS SEASON after Monday next, July 30th, on which 
 Evening will be presented the historical Play of 
 
 GEORGE BARNWELL; 
 
 Or, THE LONDON MERCHANT." 
 
 His performance of Lillo's homicidal hero was, by his 
 own account, the best of these early attempts. 
 
 Had it been Macready's habit to look at the bright 
 side of things, he must have recognized, in later life, that 
 his upward path was from the first made singularly 
 smooth for him. He did not, like Garrick, awake one 
 morning to find himself monarch of the theatrical globe ; 
 but except Garrick, whose genius made him a perpetual 
 exception to all rules, few actors have been more uni- 
 formly fate-befriended. When we compare Macready's
 
 20 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 apprenticeship with that of Kemble or Mrs, Siddons, 
 Edmund Kean or Mr. Irving, we see how httle cause he 
 had to chide with Fortune. He stepped at once into 
 " the lead." For four years he held the chief place in 
 his father's companies, working hard, indeed, and playing 
 at least seventy-four parts, but always the best parts in 
 the repertory of the day. Then he passed two seasons at 
 Bath, still successful and applauded ; and from Bath to 
 London was but a single step. No fitter method could 
 well have been devised for the complete and rapid 
 development of his powers. He was spared the soulless 
 drudgery in which so many actors have wasted their 
 best years. It was not his fate to eat his heart out 
 while awaiting tardy opportunity. The career was open 
 to his talents from the first. To some natures the very 
 facility of the course would have been ruinous ; but 
 Macready was a born worker ; sloth had no charms for 
 him. His hunger for self-improvement was commensu- 
 rate with his means of satisfying it. Had he been capable 
 of happiness, he might have been the happiest of men. 
 
 The sympathies of Macready senior were all with the 
 older generation. IMacklin and Henderson were his 
 idols, and his soul delighted in the pompous iambics of 
 eighteenth-century tragedy. His son, accordingly, went 
 tlirough a very "legitimate" course of training, escaping, 
 in a great measure, the influence of German romantic 
 drama and its home-made imitations, which were then at 
 the height of their popularity. Yet his second series 
 of performances, at Newcastle, added Rolla in Pizarro 
 and Earl Osmond in TIw Castle Spectre to his repertory 
 — Teutonisms both. During a return visit to Birming- 
 ham, at the close of 1810, his most important character 
 was Luke in Sir James Bland Burgess's alteration of 
 Massinger's City Afada/n, entitled Ric/ies. This was a
 
 NOVITIATE. 21 
 
 problem indeed for a lad of seventeen to attempt. Early 
 in the following year, at Newcastle, he made his second 
 Shakespearian essay, in Hamlet — a performance which 
 led him to the often-quoted reflection that " a total 
 failure in Hamlet is of rare occurrence." The Duke 
 Aranza in Tobin's Honeymoon (his first comedy part), 
 Posthumus in Cymbeline, and Orestes in The Disirest 
 Mother., made him " the established flivourite of the 
 Newcastle audience." It was during the Newcastle 
 season of 1811-12 that he encountered two members of 
 the Clan Kcmble — first, Mrs. Whitlock, a caricature of 
 her elder sister, Mrs. Siddons, with something more than 
 her bulk and infinitely less than her genius ; and then 
 the imperial Siddons herself. He played Beverley in The 
 Gamester (a new part) to her Mrs. Beverley, and Young 
 Nerval to her Lady Randolph. In his first scene with 
 her his awe overcame him, and he broke down for a 
 moment in his part. She kindly whispered the word to 
 him, and he gradually regained confidence, playing so 
 well in the last scene that, as she stood at the wing 
 awaiting her cue, she called out, " Bravo, sir ! bravo ! " 
 and loudly applauded him in sight of part of the 
 audience. After the performance of Douglas she sum- 
 moned him to her room, and gave him some parting 
 words of advice. " You are in the right way," she said ; 
 " but remember w^hat I say : study, study, study, and do 
 not marry till you are thirty ! " The admonition was 
 not thrown away. Macready study-study-studied, and 
 married at thirty-one. " Her acting," he says, " was a 
 revelation to me, which ever afterwards had its influence 
 on me in the study of my art." 
 
 With the awe of Melpomene fresh upon him, Macready 
 passed under the charm of Thalia. After an uneventful 
 summer at Birmingham, he spent the autumn of 1812 at
 
 22 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Leicester, where, on the opening night of the season, he 
 played Don Felix in The Wonder to the Violante of Mrs. 
 Jordan. " Oh, the words laughed on her lips ! " he cries. 
 " With a spirit of fun that would have out-laughed Puck 
 himself," she combined a discrimination of character and 
 a careful elaboration of effect which impressed the young 
 man scarcely less than the majesty and passion of Mrs. 
 Siddons. " Her common speech had more sweetness in 
 it than any other woman's singing," says Robson, the 
 " Old Playgoer ; " and Macready almost echoes his 
 enthusiasm, adding that she could vary her common 
 speech by certain bass tones " that would have disturbed 
 the gravity of a hermit." 
 
 The winter season (1812-13) at Newcastle was marked 
 by the addition of three Shakespearian parts to his 
 repertory — Richard II., Richard III., and Cleopatra's 
 Antony. IMacready Avas under the impression that 
 Richard II. had not been acted since Shakespeare's time, 
 but that was a mistake. It was revived at Covent 
 Garden in 173S, and garbled versions of it had been 
 produced at earlier dates. Oddly enough, it was the 
 success of the season; whereas it was barely accepted in 
 London three years later, when Kean played Richard II., 
 and Elliston Eolingbroke. Macrcady's Richard III. was 
 received with approbation, but he felt no satisfaction in 
 playing it, because " a hump-backed tall man is not in 
 nature." Yet this was the j^art which afterwards con- 
 firmed his leading position on the London stage. 
 Antony he played for his benefit (April 9, 1813) '"'with 
 little effect." On the morning before the performance 
 an anonymous paper was afiixed to the box-ofiice door, 
 accusing him of having " shamefully misused and even 
 kicked " the young lady who was to act Cleopatra. The 
 house was nevertheless crowded, for "Mr, \\'illiam " was
 
 NOVITIATE. 23 
 
 very popular. At the first entrance of Antony and 
 Cleopatra, he led the lady down to the foot-lights, and 
 asked, " Have I ever been guilty of any injustice of any 
 kind to you since you have been in the theatre ?" "No, 
 sir," she replied. " Have I ever behaved to you in an 
 ungentlemanlike manner?" " No, sir." " Have I ever 
 kicked you ? " " Oh no, sir ! " This little dialogue was 
 received by the audience with laughter and loud applause, 
 and the play proceeded. The idea of Antony calling 
 Cleopatra to witness that he had never kicked her is 
 sufficiently quaint, but provincial audiences of that date 
 were accustomed to such episodes. 
 
 The summer and autumn of 1813 were passed in 
 Glasgow, whither the elder Macready had now extended 
 his operations. Here William Charles added to his list 
 of parts Captain Plume, Doricourt, Puff, Young Marlow, 
 and Mark Antony in Jiiliiis Cccsar. W. H. Betty, no 
 longer the Young Roscius, had now emerged from his 
 period of seclusion at Cambridge. The two young men 
 appeared together in Glasgow, as Charles H. and William 
 Wyndham in The Royal Oak, and as Warwick and 
 Edward IV. in The Eat'l of Warivick, the combination 
 proving very attractive. Macready speaks in high terms 
 of Betty's talent. He especially praises his Osman 
 (Orosmane) in Aaron Hill's translatio-n of Zaire, and his 
 Sir Edward Mortimer in The Iron Chest. Had he 
 studied and persevered, according to Macready, he might 
 have taken a permanent and honourable place on the 
 stage; but he "deteriorated by becoming used up in 
 the frequent repetition of the same parts." During a 
 visit to Dumfries, in the autumn of 1813, Macready 
 played one part at least which he has forgotten to put on 
 record — Count Rostopschin in tlie " celebrated new 
 drama " TJie Burning of Moscoiv.
 
 24 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 The first serious quarrel between father and son took 
 place at the close of the Glasgow season. Each pos- 
 sessed a temper which rendered him (as Carlyle's mother 
 said of her son) "gey an' ill to live wi'." In his heart 
 the elder Macready was very proud of his son's talent. 
 Before the boy's first appearance, his father saw him, 
 one day, instructing a stage Indian how to make a tiger- 
 spring upon his enemy, and then suddenly fall back in 
 astonishment on seeing his own figure reflected in his 
 adversary's shield. " If you can do anything like that 
 on the stage," cried the manager, taken by surprise, 
 " there will be few come near you." In later days, when 
 William Charles was rising into metropolitan fame, 
 Macready senior, it is said, overheard an actor of his 
 company comparing him unfavourably with Kean and 
 Young, and dismissed the impertinent critic on the spot. 
 To his face, however, he was systematically cold and 
 discouraging, and this ill-advised surliness tended to 
 place the pair on a false footing. IMoreover, the elder 
 man was apt to resent correction, remonstrance, or even 
 the slightest difference of opinion, and in moments of 
 passion "there was no curb to the violence of his lan- 
 guage." "God's blood!" an oath more ancient than 
 elegant, was his favourite expletive, and he allowed him- 
 self an unbridled licence of insult and innuendo. " You 
 fool, WiUiam ! " was one of his formulas of address. It 
 was not in human nature, least of all in the nature of 
 William Charles Macready, to refrain from kicking 
 against sucli pricks. 
 
 Soon after the first quarrel Macready returned to 
 Newcastle for the season of 1 8 13-14. He went into 
 lodgings of his own, and was placed on a salary of ^3 
 a week. His chief individual effort was a careful revival 
 of Kin^ John^ in which he played Faulconbridge. 'Hie
 
 NOVITIATE. 2 5 
 
 grown-up Roscius paid a short visit to Newcastle in 
 January, 1814, when the Glasgow experiment of a 
 " combined attraction " was repeated with success. After 
 the departure of his younger brother to join the army in 
 the Netherlands, Macready returned to the paternal roof, 
 but his father soon withdrew to Carlisle, leaving " Mr. 
 William " to carry on the prosperous season at Newcastle. 
 For his own benefit he acted Benedick and Marmion in an 
 adaptation by himself of Scott's poem. For his father's 
 benefit he adapted Rokeby, in which he played Bertram 
 of Risingham. The summer and autumn were passed 
 at Berwick, Dumfries, Leicester, and Carlisle. The 
 Newcastle Theatre was temporarily reopened during the 
 race-week in June, and the assize-week in August. ]\Ir. 
 and Mrs. Charles Kemble were the attraction of the 
 race-week, Macready playing Pierre to Kemble's Jaffier, 
 Colonel Briton to Kemble's Don Felix and his wife's 
 Violante in The IVojider, and (strange to relate) Captain 
 Absolute to their Faulkland and Julia in T/te Jiivah. 
 These parts, which modern actors can scarcely be bribed 
 to undertake, were then the star-parts of the comedy ! 
 It is in speaking of this engagement that Macready sums 
 up Charles Kemble's merits in the phrase, " He was a 
 first-rate actor in second-rate parts." During the assize- 
 week Charles Young and Emery were engaged, Macready 
 playing Alonzo to Young's Zanga in T/ie Revenge, and 
 Wilford to Young's Sir Edward Mortimer and Emery's 
 Orson in T/ie Iron Chest. Young took occasion to warn 
 him against over-acting — a hint for which he was after- 
 wards grateful, though he regarded it at the time as an 
 attempt on Young's part to impose on others his own 
 cold and declamatory manner. 
 
 The beginning of the winter season of 18 14-15 brought 
 Macready once more to Newcastle. A new disagree-
 
 26 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 raent with his father soon followed, and, remembering 
 that Dimond of Bath had offered him an engagement 
 for the previous season, Macready now wrote to inquire 
 whether his services were still in demand. The manager 
 answered in the affirmative, and it was arranged that the 
 young tragedian should appear in Bath shortly after 
 Christmas. Before he left Newcastle he played a part 
 in a singular real-life melodrama. On December i6, 
 1814, a fearful hurricane swept over Newcastle. The 
 two Macreadys were sitting over their wine after dinner 
 in their lodging in Pilgrim Street, when a sudden crash 
 shook the house to its foundations, and the room was 
 filled with dust and smoke. A chimney had fallen in, 
 and, breaking through the roof, had wrecked one of the 
 upper bedrooms in Avhich the landlady's two children 
 were playing. The distracted mother was already be- 
 moaning their fate, when Macready junior rushed up 
 to the room, and found them safely ensconced under a 
 large mahogany table, which had protected them from the 
 avalanche of bricks and mortar. The myth of the child 
 rescued from a burning cottage, which, as we shall see, 
 haunted Macready all his life through, probably arose 
 from some perverted rumour of this incident. 
 
 During a week of farewell performances in Newcastle 
 he added the Stranger and Othello to his list of characters. 
 He played Beverley and Benedick on December 20 and 
 21, and eight days later we find him on his new scene 
 of action. 
 
 Bath, if not quite in its glory, was not yet obviously 
 in its decline. l*'orty years had passed since Sir Anthony 
 Abs(jlute and Sir Lucius O'Trigger were to be met on 
 the Nortli Parade, and the memorable sojourn of Mr. 
 Pickwick and Sam AVeller was not to be until twenty 
 years later. It was the Balli of Miss Austen- the P>ath
 
 NOVITIATE. 27 
 
 oi Northanger Abbey. Catherine Morland, an assiduous 
 theatre-goer, must certainly have seen Macready. If he 
 was playing on the evening of her tiff with the Tilneys, 
 he probably found her a sadly preoccupied spectator. 
 His first appearance took place on December 29, 1814, 
 when he played Romeo. " The manager paid him the 
 compliment," says Genest, who was no doubt present, 
 "of new-casting Romeo and Juliet to the best advantage, 
 and ensured him a good house by bringing out Aladdin 
 on the same night." There is, perhaps, a touch of malice 
 in Genest's curt comment, '^Aladdin was very success- 
 ful ; " for the clerical critic thought little of Macready. 
 His Romeo, however, was applauded by the public and 
 praised by the press. The Earl of Essex was his next 
 character, and he subsequently appeared as Hamlet, 
 Orestes, Hotspur, Richard H., Beverley, Luke in Riches, 
 and other characters. Genest preferred Macready's 
 arrangement of Richard II. to Wroughton's adaptation, 
 in which Kean appeared at Drury Lane some six weeks 
 later ; but he notes that it was acted only twice, to bad 
 houses. Macready's engagement came to an end on 
 February 18, 1815, but Dimond retained him for the 
 following season, at an increased salary. 
 
 The news of his success soon reached London, and 
 led to a correspondence with Harris of Covent Garden, 
 which would probably have ended in a three-years' 
 engagement, but for a blundering interference on the 
 part of the elder Macready. During a short visit to 
 town on business connected with this negotiation, 
 Macready saw Kean for the first time since his rise to 
 eminence, and was much impressed by his Richard \1\. 
 He also met him at supper, and records " his unassum- 
 ing manner . . , partaking in some degree of shyness," 
 the " touching grace " of his singing, and the extraordi-
 
 28 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 nary humour of his mimicry. He saw Miss O'Neill, too, 
 in Juliet, and wrote of her in after-years, when he had 
 himself been her Romeo, " Through my whole experi- 
 ence hers was the only representation of Juliet I have 
 seen. . . . 'She is alone the Arabian bird.'" Some 
 time afterwards, a negotiation with the Drury Lane 
 committee likewise fell through, on the question of 
 terms. The Rev. J. Noel, a relation of Lady Byron's, 
 had been commissioned by Macready's Rugby friends to 
 plead his cause with Lord Byron, then the leading spirit 
 of the Drury Lane management. After descanting for 
 some time on the young actor's merits, his clerical 
 advocate wound up, with ingenious infelicity, " And be- 
 sides all this, Mr. Macready is a very moral man." 
 " Ha ! then," replied Byron, " I suppose he asks five 
 pounds a week more for his morality ! " 
 
 In the early spring of 1815 he played a short engage- 
 ment in Glasgow, rendered memorable to him by his first 
 meeting with his wife, then " a pretty little girl, about nine 
 years of age." She played one of Rosalvi's children to 
 his Felix in The Hunter of the Alps, and he scolded her 
 for being imperfect in her part. In April he made his 
 first appearance in Dublin, being engaged, on the 
 strength of his Bath reputation, at the large salary of 
 ^50 a week. Then came a round of short engagements 
 in England and Scotland, in the course of which (at 
 Newcastle) he added Henry V. to his list of parts, with 
 no great success.. The winter season found him once 
 more at Bath. Gencst notes his reappearance as follows : 
 " Dec. 9. Much Ado. Benedick = W. Macready — very 
 bad." His Benedick, however, gained him the friendship 
 of the Twiss family (Mrs. Twiss was a younger sister of 
 Mrs. Siddons), through whom he obtained an introduc- 
 tion to the best circles in Bath. It was his first ex-
 
 NOVITIATE. 
 
 29 
 
 perience of •' society," in tlie narrower sense of the word. 
 He seems to have entered into it with zest, and with 
 less false sensitiveness than lie sometimes displayed in 
 later life. Among many local notabilities, he encountered 
 one lady of a wider fame — that " lively little lioness," as 
 he calls her, Mrs. Piozzi, her hair still black, and her 
 cheek still (artificially) red, at the age of seventy-five. 
 
 His principal new parts during tliis season were 
 Mentevolc in Jephson's Italian Lover (which added 
 greatly to his reputation), and Kitely in Every Man in his 
 Hiinwur. For his benefit he played Leontes in The 
 Winter's Tale., and then, towards the end of February, 
 1 816, set forth to fulfil a thirteen-weeks' engagement 
 in i )ublin. For so long a visit he could not expect the 
 high salary of the previous year, but contented himself 
 with_;;^2o a week. The only part of any importance 
 which he added to his repertory was Lord Townly in 
 The Provoked Htisband. He found the Dublin audience 
 apt to be unruly, but keenly sensitive and warmly 
 sympathetic when once their attention was seized. He 
 played Pierre on one occasion, to the Jaffier of a portly 
 and drawling local actor, who dragged out his dying 
 speech unconscionably. At last, unable to endure it 
 any longer, one of the gods called out loudly, " Ah, 
 now ! die at once ! " to which another immediately re- 
 plied, " Be quiet, ye blackguard !" then, turning to the 
 lingering Jafiier, added encouragingly, " Take your 
 time ! " 
 
 Meanwhile negotiations had been renewed with Harris 
 of Covent Garden, Macready's friend Fawcett, the stage 
 manager, acting as intermediary. A five-years' engage- 
 ment was the result, at a salary of ^16 a week for the 
 first two seasons, 17 for the second two, and ^18 for the 
 last season of the term. Macready's demand for a veto
 
 30 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 on characters he considered " derogatory " was fortunately 
 not conceded— fortunately, because, if he had had the 
 power, he would certainly have declined several parts 
 which helped to establish his reputation. Starring 
 engagements at Wexford and Galway, and an unprofes- 
 sional tour in Wales, occupied the time between the 
 close of his Dublin engagement and his first appearance 
 in London, which was iixed for September i6, 1816. 
 
 Macready"s Characters before his Appearance 
 
 IN London. 
 
 1810-1816. 
 
 [Here, as in subsequent lists, parts which Macready " created " are 
 marked with an asterisk.] 
 
 Romeo ; Lothair {Adelgif/ia) ; Young Norval ; Zanga ; 
 George Barnwell ; Aclimet {Bafbarossa) ; Osmond {Castle 
 Spectre) ; Rolla ; Alwin {Coioitess of Salisbury) ; Luke {City 
 Madam) ; Hardyknute {IVood Demon) ; Karl of Essex ; 
 Roderick Dhu ; John of Lome {Family Legend) ; Julian 
 {Peasant Boy) ; Hamlet ; Duke Aranza ; Posthumus ; Orestes ; 
 Frederick {Natural Son) ; Phocyas {Siege of Damascus) ; 
 Charles IL (Royal Oak) ; Percy (in Hannah More's tragedy) ; 
 Daran {Exile) ; Chamont ; Edward the Plack Prince ; 
 Alexander the Great ; Fitzharding {Cutfeiu) ; Rover ; 
 Beverley; Rolla {Virgin of t lie Sun); Hastings; Zaphna 
 {Mahomet); Don Felix; Richard H. ; Dorax {Don Sebas- 
 tian); Oroonoko ; Richard III; Antony {Antony and 
 Cleopatra); Captain I'lume ; Tangent {Way to get Mar- 
 ried); Lovemorc {Way to Keep Him); Doricourt ; Puff; 
 ^'oung Marlow ; Antony (fulius Ctesar) ; Count Villars 
 {Kdueation); ls\A^^\cv,\r\ {Aladdin) ; Frederic (Ar^T'tv/ Vo7i's) ; 
 Rostopschin {Burning of Moscow) ; William Wyndham 
 (Royal OalS) ; Edward IV. {Earl of JVarToie/c) ; Faulcon- 
 bridgc ; Nourjaliad {Illusion) ; Aladdin ; Benedick ; *i\Iar- 
 mion ; Gingham {T/ie Rage) ; Lackland {Eontainebleau) ; 
 Beverley {All in the Wrong) ; P.clrour ; ^Bertram {Rokeby) ;
 
 NOVITIATE. 31 
 
 Pierre ; Colonel Briton ; Captain Absolute ; Wilford {lro)i 
 Chest) ; Alonzo {Revenge) ; Vincent {Educaiioii) ; Stranger ; 
 Othello ; Hotspur ; Gustavus {Hero of the No7'th) ; Cheveril 
 {Deserted Daughter) ; Henry V. ; Leon {R^ile a Wife) ; Mcn- 
 tevole {fielia) ; Kitely ; Leontes ; Lord Townly ; *f2d\vard 
 Gregory {Changes ajid Chances) ; Octavian {Motnitaitieers) ; 
 Bertram : eighty-two characters. 
 
 Postscript.— Parts played in Newcastle in 1813, not 
 mentioned in Reminiscences: Charles I. {Royal Martyr); 
 *Oswald, the Noble Foundling (Dr, Trotter's tragedy, The 
 Noble Foundling ; or, The Hermit of the Tzveed) ; Dori- 
 court {Belle's Stratagem) ; Frederick {School of Reform).
 
 32 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE ADV. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 
 1S16-1823. 
 
 Though Macready did not at first (or perhaps at last) 
 recognize the fact, his arrival in London was certainly 
 well-timed. The poetic drama, it is true, was entering 
 upon a period of disruption and decline. Throughout 
 his career, the state of the theatre was a perpetual source 
 of torture to his artistic susceptibilities ; but for his 
 personal fame and fortune the conditions were, on the 
 whole, as favourable as could be desired. In 1816 the 
 stage was rapidly clearing, as though in preparation for a 
 new actor of the first magnitude. Mrs. Siddons had 
 formally retired four years earlier ; John Philip Kemble 
 was entering upon his farewell season ; Miss O'Neill's 
 short and brilliant career had only three more years 
 to run. It was now nearly three years since Edmund 
 Kean had taken London by storm, and he was still at 
 the height of his reputation. His talent and his fame 
 alike may fairly be said to liave culminated in his 
 terrible performance of Sir Giles Overreach, which took 
 place in January, 18 16. He was only six years older 
 than Macready, and was in every way a rival to be feared. 
 But the brandy-bottle was already doing its work, and
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 
 
 33 
 
 though Kean's great name was a power iii the land even 
 to the day of his death, seventeen years later, his genius 
 was a mere wreck before Macready's had reached 
 maturity. Charles Young, cold, stately, estimable, and 
 Charles Kemble, the first-rate actor of second-rate parts, 
 had neither the talent nor the force of character to prove 
 serious obstacles in Macready's path. The unpre- 
 possessing youth of three and twenty could scarcely 
 hoi^e to conquer London at one blow, as Kean and 
 Garrick before him had done. His gifts, as he very 
 well knew, were not of this overwhelming order. But he 
 had not unreasonably long to wait for a fair share of 
 popularity, which gradually increased until he stood with- 
 out a rival at the head of his profession. 
 
 In what play was the new actor to make his first 
 venture? Kean's parts were barred, the semi-mythical 
 "Wolves" being leagued, it was thought, to fall upon 
 and rend any pretender to their hero's laurels. This 
 put the leading Shakespearian characters out of the 
 question, as well as Massinger's Luke, whom Macready 
 would himself have chosen. A timid policy finally pre- 
 vailed, and Orestes in The Distnsi Mother was fixed 
 upon. The play was a translation of Racine's An- 
 droi/iague, by Ambrose Philips — the poet whose name, 
 satirically corrupted, has given us the term " namby- 
 pamby." It had not been revived for several years, so 
 that Macready, who had acted Orestes with applause 
 in the country, would not have to contend against 
 the vivid recollection of any great predecessor. Charles 
 Kemble would make an admirable Pyrrhus, but the 
 importance of the female parts was a great drawback. 
 Miss O'Neill had not yet returned to town ; Miss 
 Foote and Miss " Sally " Booth were not to be thought 
 of in such heavy characters. There remained Mrs.
 
 34 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE ADV. 
 
 Egerton, an excellent Meg Merrilies, who was cast for 
 the haughty Hermione ; while Mrs. Glover, one of the 
 first comic actresses of her time, W'as specially engaged 
 to appear as the tearful Andromache. Abbott, a heavy 
 walking-gentleman, played Pylades. 
 
 The opening of The Disirest Mother is excessively 
 trying for a nervous aspirant. Orestes has to dash upon 
 the stage in high elation the moment the curtain rises, 
 crying— 
 
 " O Pylades ! what's life without a friend ? 
 At sight of thee my gloomy soul cheers up ! " 
 
 Macready clasped Abbott's hand convulsively, as, with 
 hyacinthine curls flowing over his shoulders, an ample 
 and most unclassical chlamys streaming behind him, 
 and legs bare to three or four inches above the knee, he 
 hurried to meet his fate, He had not a single personal 
 friend among the audience, and the mere play-bill 
 announcement of '• Mr. Macready, from the Theatre 
 Royal, Dublin," can have aroused no special predispo- 
 sition in his favour. He was cordially received, how- 
 ever, and proceeded nervously with the scene. His 
 first eighty lines or so were heard in silence. It is even 
 stated that a dangerous tittering commenced on the first 
 bench of the pit, which might have been fatal had it 
 extended a little further. But at last the phrase — 
 
 " O, ye gods ! 
 Give me Hermione, or let me die ! " 
 
 was greeted with "loud and long plaudits ;" and this 
 applause, by restoring his self-possession, assured his 
 success. The mad-scene at the close — considerably 
 amplified in the I'^nglish version — brought down the 
 house, though the critic of the News thought it " one 
 continued, bustling, incoherent rave." It was not yet
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 35 
 
 the custom (at Covent Garden, at any rate; to call 
 players before the curtain ; but tlie announcement that 
 the play would be repeated on the following Friday and 
 Monday was received with cheers. Edmund Kean, wlio 
 was " conspicuous in a private box," applauded loudly ; 
 and Harris delighted his new recruit by saying, "Well, 
 my boy, you have done capitally; and if you could 
 carry a play along with such a cast, I don't know what 
 you cannot do." 
 
 The critics were unanimous in condemning the selec- 
 tion of the play, praising the new actor's power and 
 passion, and declaring his face his misfortune. Hazlitt 
 (in the Exa//ii/ier) moralized in the strain of the Great 
 Marquis — 
 
 " He cither fears his fate too much 
 Or his desert is small 
 That dares not put it to the touch 
 To gain or lose it all." 
 
 Orestes he described as "an ambiguous character," in 
 which, if great success was impossible, total failure was 
 unlikely. At the same time, he "had not the slightest 
 hesitation in saying that Mr. Macready was by far the 
 best tragic actor that had come out in his remembrance, 
 with the exception of Mr. Kean." He praised the power, 
 harmony, and modulation of his voice, approved of his 
 declamation, defended him against the accusation of 
 excessive violence and deficient pathos, but had nothing 
 to say for his face. The Times held that he would 
 scarcely supersede Young, and that Charles Kemble, 
 even in tragedy, had little to fear from him ; but 
 allowed him "a large quantity of vocal and brachial 
 force," and admitted that, at the right moments, he 
 knew how to produce his effects with "a speaking eye 
 or a deep and broken murmur." The critic of the A^eros
 
 36 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 had seen Macready " so often and in so many characters 
 in every exhibition of paintings at Somerset House," 
 that he was incHned to class him with the incompetents 
 who " wriggle themselves " forward by means of puffing. 
 The performance of Orestes dissipated this prejudice. 
 " Mr. Macready," the critic proceeded, " is one of the 
 plainest and most awkwardly made men that ever trod 
 the stage. His voice is even coarser than his person. 
 And yet ... he is undoubtedly an actor, . . . and an 
 actor in many points superior to Mr. Kean." The Globe 
 discerned in him " a man of mind," praised his voice, 
 and remarked that his eyes were so " full of fire " as to 
 divert attention, at critical moments, "from the flatness 
 of the features they irradiate." The European Magazine, 
 on the other hand, admitted the gracefulness of his 
 action and the excellence of his voice, but added that, in 
 spite of the fire in his eye, " the vacuity of his counte- 
 nance lessened the illusion." 
 
 " I'm told he's a capital actor, but a devilish ugly 
 fellow," said a playgoer one evening, little dreaming that 
 Macready was sitting at his elbow ; '' they say he's an 
 ugly likeness of Liston." John Kemble, when his 
 brother Charles prophesied great things of the new 
 actor, took a pinch of snuff, and rejoined with a signifi- 
 cant smile, "Oh Charles! con ijiicl viso I " These 
 testimonies to Macrcady's lack of personal beauty are 
 borne out by the portraits of the period, which show a 
 small but rather scowling mouth, an irregular nose, and 
 a chubbiness of contour which was doubtless apt to seem 
 coarse. His face seems to have been one that improved 
 in aging. The furrows of time and the lines of thought 
 strengthened and ennobled it until, in old age, it 
 became venerable and most impressive. 
 
 Orestes was repeated twice, and then, on September
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 37 
 
 30, Jcphson'sy/<'//<7; or, The Italian Lover, was revived, 
 with Macrcady as Mentevole. This tragedy was pro- 
 duced ill 1787, with John Kcmble and Mrs. Siddons in 
 the principal parts. It is well-knit and powerfully written, 
 but intolerably sombre, Mentevole being a lurid and 
 volcanic personage, who sticks at no crime in the pursuit 
 of his desires. The performance increased the new 
 actor's reputation. " It was impossible," the News de- 
 clares, " to look the dark burning slave of passion better 
 than Mr. Macready. . . . Passion quivers at his finger- 
 ends." "Subtlety, terror, rage, despair, and triumph," 
 says the Times, " were successively displayed by him 
 with truth and energy." Hazlitt praised him highly, but 
 thought that his behaviour, when accused of the murder 
 of Claudio, was too obviously that of conscious guilt. 
 The play-bill announced that his Mentevole was "greeted 
 with shouts of rapturous applause ;" but the tragedy was 
 repeated only once. In a sense, it did Macready a 
 disservice, for his personal success in so villainous a part 
 probably helped to procure him that reputation for 
 consummate (theatrical) villainy under which he writhed 
 for so long. 
 
 A sterner trial was at hand. Weary of exhibiting his 
 recruit in plays that would not draw, Harris announced 
 him to appear alternately with Young in the parts of 
 Othello and lago. Othello was, of all his Shakespearian 
 parts, the one with which he was least familiar, and lago 
 he had never played at all. Nevertheless, he had to 
 make the plunge, playing the Moor on the loth, and his 
 Ancient on the 15th of October. His Othello was sur- 
 prisingly successful, and his lago was not disastrous. 
 The Times was enthusiastic over Othello, especially 
 praising "his practice of employing all his force in 
 passages of noiseless but intense feeling." Several critics
 
 38 IVILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 (Hazlitt among them) found him efifeminate, and, in 
 the pathetic passages, incUned to be " whimpering and 
 lachrymose." His address to the Senate, according to 
 \\-\& Nc7i<s, was "stilted and studiously eloquent;" and 
 in repeating Desdemona's words of commiseration, he 
 mimicked her. On the whole, however, his Othello pro- 
 duced a favourable impression. He was certainly not 
 outshone by Young, whose lago was "jocular and 
 sarcastic — nothing more." When the parts were reversed, 
 Hazlitt compared Young's Othello to a great humming- 
 top, and Macready to a mischievous boy whipping it. 
 The Neivs complained that he " resolved lago's character 
 into one of simple, unmixed impulses ; " and the Times, 
 admitting that he had some "great and superlative" 
 moments, found him in the main faulty and unimpres- 
 sive. The simple truth was that he had had no time to 
 master the character. Othello he repeated once, lago 
 not at all. 
 
 In the mean time Miss O'Neill had returned to her 
 duties, and John Philip Kemble's farewell round of per- 
 formances was announced. It began with Cato on 
 October 25, and closed with Coriolanus on June 23, 
 181 7. There was no room for Macready in any of the 
 legitimate plays acted by Kemble and Miss O'Neill, 
 Young and Charles Kemble being in possession of all 
 the secondary parts. On two occasions, indeed, Macready 
 acted Beverley in The Gamester to the Mrs. Beverley 
 of Miss O'Neill, but the part reverted to Young. An- 
 other circumstance which tended to keep him in the 
 background was the appearance (February 12, 181 7) of 
 Junius Brutus Booth, "of the Brighton and Worthing 
 Theatres." His maikcd physical resemblance to Edmund 
 Kean — a similarity of temperament as well as of appear- 
 ance — led the Covent Garden managers to hope that
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 39 
 
 they miglit find in him an effective counter-attraction to 
 the Drury Lane tragedian. Booth's Richard III. was 
 enthusiastically received ; but a ciuarrel as to salary 
 enabled Kean, with apparent generosity and real astute- 
 ness, to lure his simple-minded rival to Drury Lane, in 
 the hope of quietly shelving him. Booth soon awoke to 
 Kean's design, alleged illness as an excuse for not 
 appearing a second time at Drury Lane, and returned to 
 Covent Garden, Here his reappearance led to a riot, 
 his vacillating behaviour having displeased "the town." 
 Several nights passed before he was listened to with 
 patience, and then, the excitement having subsided, he 
 sank into comparative obscurity. The management, 
 nevertheless, did their best to force him upon the public ; 
 and it filled Macready's soul with bitterness to find him- 
 self elbowed to the Avail, not only by the established 
 favourites, but by a raw and inexperienced youth. This 
 fact explains his undue contempt for Booth's talents. 
 There can be no doubt that in later years he was a great 
 actor, and the man Avho, at twenty-one, could in the eyes 
 of Hazlitt hold his own for a single night against Kean 
 in the splendour of his genius, cannot have been a mere 
 charlatan. 
 
 But if Macready's loftier aspirations were held in 
 check, he soon fell in with a stirring part in the lower 
 walk of the drama. This was Gambia, the African 
 Bayard, in Morton's musical drama of The Slave, pro- 
 duced on November 12, 181 6, Its success was not 
 exactly a personal triumph for Macready, Liston and 
 Emery played the comic parts of Fogrum and Sam 
 Sharpset, while Miss "Kitty" Stephens, as the quadroon 
 heroine Zelinda, lent the aid of her lovely voice and 
 great personal charm. Yet Gambia, in which, according 
 to the Times, he found ample room for " the broad and
 
 /|0 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 boisterous ostentation of tempestuous passion," was the 
 first part which made ISIacready really popular. It is 
 tragi-comic to think of him with "black body, legs, and 
 arms, short white cotton trunks, and coloured beads 
 round arms, neck, and ankles," uttering such sentiments 
 as this : " There is a state worse than slavery ! — liberty 
 engendered by treachery, nursed by rapine, and in- 
 vigorated by cruelty." The chief situation of the piece 
 is thrilling in the extreme. Clifton and Zelinda (whom 
 Gambia hopelessly adores) are fleeing from Somerdyke 
 and his myrmidons. They cross a stream by a rope- 
 bridge, and the pursuers are about to follow when Gambia 
 scrambles up the tree from which the bridge is sus- 
 pended, and cuts the rope. " We are safe, my husband ! " 
 cries Zelinda ; but alas ! at the sound of her voice her 
 child, who has been concealed hard by, runs out from its 
 hiding-place, on the ^^Tong side of the river. 
 
 Child. It was my mother's voice ! Mother ! mother ! 
 
 Zcli7ida. Alas ! my child ! 
 
 Somerdyke. Her child ! Then we triumph — seize him 1 {A 
 slave seizes the child, and, running up a point of rock, hands 
 it to Somerdyke, ivho continues.) Move one step further, and 
 you will see him buried in the waters. Submit, or this in- 
 stant is his last. {Holding him up in the act of precipitating 
 him.) 
 
 Zelinda. I do submit. 
 
 Gambia. Never ! {Gambia, 7vJio has concealed himself in 
 the branches, snatches the child up into the tree.) Father, 
 receive your child ! ( Throws the child across the stream.) 
 They have him ! He is safe ! Ha! ha ! ha! [^Curtain. 
 
 On January i8, 1817, he played Demetrius in a poor 
 adaptation of The Humorous Lieutenant. The play was 
 a failure, but the actor was praised. l''or the sake of its 
 one effective scene, he volimtecrod to play Robert in 
 'j"()l)!n's Curfew to the Fitzhardini; of IJoolh. Again he
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 41 
 
 succeeded. On April 15 a romantic i)lay by Diniond, 
 named The Conquest of Taranto ; or, Si. Clara s Eve, was 
 produced for the first time, Young playing a Moorish 
 Admiral, Booth the heroic Rinaldo, and Macready the 
 traitor Valentio. It was sorely against his will that he 
 undertook this odious character, but in the fine situation 
 of the last act (the one good point in the play) he 
 entirely outshone Booth, and scored a personal success. 
 " His by-play," says the European Magazine, "was excel- 
 lent. If his features could but display the agony of his 
 heart, it would be perfect." The piece was a failure ; 
 but a more successful venture of the same order soon 
 followed it. Richard Lalor Sheil, afterwards the Right 
 Honourable, and the most luxuriantly eloquent champion 
 of Irish Nationalism, was at this time a briefless barrister of 
 twenty-six. He had found a friend in his countrywoman. 
 Miss O'Neill, who had secured the production of his 
 first play, Adelaide, in the previous spring; but it was 
 acted only once. On May 3, 18 17, his second effort. 
 The Apostate, was produced, Charles Kemble playing the 
 feeble and vacillating Hemeya, Young the strong and 
 telling part of Malec, Miss O'Neill the fair Florinda 
 (whose impassioned outburst, " This is too much for any 
 mortal creature ! " excited a good deal of ridicule), and 
 Macready the cruel and sinister Pescara, Governor of 
 Granada. This character, too, he vehemently rebelled 
 against ; yet it earned him a distinct access of reputation. 
 Ludwig Tieck, who saw little merit in Kemble and none 
 in Kean, declared that Macready's Pescara took him 
 back to "the best days of German acting," and pro- 
 phesied that the young actor had a career before him. 
 Miss O'Neill's acting being pronounced "shockingly 
 good," and " terrifically horrible " (she enraptured 
 Tieck), the play attained a fair success. The author, on
 
 42 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 the first night, was a prey to painful nervousness. After 
 sitting out the first two acts, he could endure no more, 
 but betook himself to the green-room, which he found 
 deserted. An attendant, entering shortly afterwards, 
 found him pacing the narrow platform in front of the 
 divan which ran round the room, absorbed in thought. 
 At last he became alive to the fact that he was not alone, 
 and, turning sharply, said in a tone of earnest anxiety, 
 '•' Can you tell me, sir, about what time they generally 
 begin to hiss tragedies at this house?" That fatal hour 
 fortunately passed without a murmur, and The Apostate 
 was played twelve times during the last weeks of the 
 season. 
 
 Before leaving town for the recess, Macready was 
 present at a dinner given by the English actors to Talma, 
 who had come to London to assist at John Kemble's 
 leave-taking. On this occasion Kemble paid Mac- 
 ready the honour of a special invitation to drink wine 
 with him — a distinction of which the young actor was 
 vastly proud. He had left London for a professional 
 tour round his father's northern circuit, before the date 
 (June 27) fixed for the farewell banquet to "the noblest 
 Roman of them all." 
 
 His first appearance for the season of 1S17-18 took 
 place on October 15 in the part of Gambia. The 
 Covent Garden company was practically unaltered, 
 except that Booth appeared only once ; and Macready's 
 position, in respect to the line of parts assigned him, 
 was in no way improved. He was forced to play in 
 wretched melodramatic after-pieces, in which] his con- 
 scientiousness earned the esteem of the public and the 
 amused wonder of his comrades. The season, however, 
 was by no means barren of advantage to liini. An illness 
 of Charles Kemble's gave him an opportunity of playing
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 43 
 
 Romeo to Miss O'Neill's Juliet (Monday, December 15, 
 181 7) with great distinction.* "In the very opposite 
 feelings of tenderness and energy," said the Theatrical 
 Tnipdsitor, " the powers of this gentleman are perhaps 
 unrivalled, and his Romeo exhibited that superiority in 
 a gorgeous and conclusive manner." He had no part 
 in Milman's -/^(/s/^, produced on February 5, 1818; but 
 on March 12 he created the part of Rob Roy in 
 Pocock's adaptation of Scott's novel, which had been 
 published on the last day of 181 7. Liston played Bailie 
 Nicol Jarvie ; Mrs. Egerton, Helen Macgregor ; and Miss 
 Stephens, Diana Vernon. "It seems odd to me," Scott 
 wrote to Daniel Terry, on April 30, "that Rob Roy 
 should have made good fortune." Perhaps he thought 
 the theme too Scotch to please a London audience ; but 
 Liston's Bailie, though excessively humorous, did not 
 reproduce the dialect of the Sautmarket with such 
 fidelity as not to be understanded of the people. Rob 
 Roy remained for many years one of Macready's most 
 popular parts. He studied it, he tells us, from the 
 original, so that he was not only Pocock's Rob Roy, but 
 Scott's. A writer in the Examiner (whom I suspect to 
 have been Leigh Hunt) found him " improved since 
 The Slave — less loud and declamatory;" and Barry Corn- 
 wall addressed to him a sonnet, praising " the buoyant 
 air, the passionate tone, that breathed about him." 
 Another poetical tribute came from Charles Lloyd, 
 the friend of Lamb, who, after having ^been afflicted for 
 four years with " a torpor of feeling," found the springs 
 
 * Macready represents that, but for an illness of his own, he would 
 have repeated Romeo on the following Monday ; but his memory 
 seems to have been at fault. The play-lnll of Thursday, the 18th 
 announced, " On Monday the Tragedy of Venice Preserved,^'' and 
 ■Macready was playing on Friday, the igtii ; so that Monday's bill 
 was fixed before his illness declared itself.
 
 44 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 of emotion suddenly touched by Macready's Rob 
 Roy, and wept healthful and refreshing tears. The im- 
 provement continued for several years, but at last the 
 cloud of melancholia descended immovably upon his 
 mind. Macready's remaining creations of this season 
 were villains of the deepest dye — Chosroo in John 
 Dillon's feeble tragedy of Re/ribufion, and Amurath or 
 Sinano in Sheil's Bellamira ; or, The Foil of Tufii's, which 
 was fairly successful. The Examiner praised Macready 
 above all his comrades (Young, Charles Kemble, Terry, 
 and Miss O'Neill), alleging that " he gave the malignant 
 villainy of Amurath its best because most quiet effect." 
 " He performed one scene," said the European Magazine, 
 "in a style which would have added honour to the 
 greatest master of the art." At one of the rehearsals of 
 Bellamira, Young inquired of the author what he was to 
 do at the line, " My scimitar, my scimitar ! my child ! " 
 seeing he had given up his scimitar in the previous 
 scene. Thus appealed to, Sheil explained the situation : 
 " Now observe : here's Mr. Young ; here's Mr. Kemble. 
 Well, the guard comes on; Mr. Young draws his sword, 
 and finds that he hasn't got it ! " 
 
 4- Though Macready found himself, at the end of the 
 season, greatly advanced in reputation, its petty annoy- 
 ances had been a sore trial to him. At one time he 
 thought seriously of taking Ben Jonson's advice, and 
 leaving " the loathed stage," to enter what would doubt- 
 less have been in some respects a more congenial calling 
 — tlie Chun h. lUit just as he was debating this question 
 in his mind, a sum of money was suddenly required for 
 the military advancement of his brother, to whom he was 
 romantically attached. Tliis put an end to his hesitation. 
 A friend had offered to lend him a certain sum to 
 support him at O.vford while studying for orders. 'JMiis
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 45 
 
 siiiu he now borrowed to sui)ply his brother'.s need, and 
 in order to repay it he was forced to stiek to his i)ro- 
 fession. Such a trait of true generosity goes far to 
 explain the affection with which his friends regarded 
 him, all faults of temper notwithstanding. 
 
 Friends were by this time beginning to gather round 
 him. Among the earliest was William ^\^allace, barrister 
 and journalist, who, until his death in 1839, may be said 
 to have acted as Macready's literary adviser. At Wallace's 
 rooms, shortly before the production of The Apostate, he 
 met Lalor Sheil, who remained for over thirty years one of 
 his firmest friends. The '"unaccustomed gush" of tears 
 over Rob Roy led to a friendship with Charles Lloyd ; 
 and Lloyd introduced him to that greater Charles, who 
 was not yet known as Elia. " I have been indulged with 
 a classical conference with Macready," says Lamb, in 
 Barbara S— — , enumerating the actors he has known. 
 On June 27, 1820, Crabb Robinson writes, " Went to 
 Lamb's, found the Wordswcrths there, and, having walked 
 with them to Westminster Bridge, returned to Lamb's, 
 and sat an hour with Macready, a very pleasing man, 
 gentlemanly in his manners, and sensible and well- 
 informed." It was Lloyd, too, who made him acquainted 
 with Talfourd, one of the most prominent members of his 
 circle in later years. About the same time we find him 
 on friendly terms with Procter, Alaric Watts, Jerdan, and 
 other literary men of the younger generation. Dickens 
 and Forster, the intimates of his later life, were not yet 
 in their teens. 
 
 During the summer of 18 18 Macready received ^'100 
 for a week's engagement with EUiston at Birmingham, 
 and gave a gratuitous series of performances at his 
 father's theatre, in conjunction with Miss O'Neill. Re- 
 turning to London for the season 1818-19, he reappeared
 
 46 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 on September ii, in the character of Rob Roy. On 
 the previous evening WilHani Farren, "from Dublin," 
 had made his first appearance in London as Sir Peter 
 Teazle, with instant and unmistakable success. Farren's 
 well-known vaunt that he could always command his own 
 price, as he was " the only cock-salmon in the market," 
 suggested to the much-tried manager a nickname for 
 Macready. " If Farren is the cock-salmon," Harris used 
 to say, " Macready is the cock-grumbler." The pre- 
 ponderance of villainy in the business assigned to him 
 was an unceasing ground of complaint. Michael Ducas 
 in Monk Lewis's Adelgitha seemed a particularly bitter 
 pill to swallow. His old friend Fawcett replied to his 
 remonstrances, " Why, William, you grumble at every 
 part that is given you, and you succeed in them all ! Set 
 to work at this, and, though it is rather an odious gentle- 
 man, you may make something of him by hard study." 
 Fawcett's encouragement was more than justified by the 
 result. " For myself," says Macready, '' the part was a 
 great step in public opinion, . . . Indeed, from this 
 performance I date an elevation of style and a sensible 
 improvement in my acting." Miss Somerville, otherwise 
 Mrs. Ikmn, whom Kean had driven from Drury Lane 
 because she overtowered him in stature, was the Adel- 
 githa of this revival ; and she subsequently played Alicia 
 to Miss O'Neill's Jane Shore, Macready winning fresh 
 laurels in the part of Dumont. Forty-four years later, 
 Macready's friend George Wightwick thus recorded Iiis 
 impressions of that performance — 
 
 " In the second scene Bclmour and Dumont entered. There 
 was some applause, as the j^acetinj; of a favourite, but I should 
 not have known to which it applied if the actor of Dumont 
 had not slighdy bowed. ... His tone of voice, enunciation, 
 and action . . . struck nic at once, and ' nipp'd inc into
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 47 
 
 listening.' Here was the homage of admiration without 
 any prompting of antecedent expectancy. I felt that an 
 actor, great, or destined to become so, was before me. . . . 
 But when, on his over-pressed famiHarity with Jane Shore, 
 the advances of Hastings are prevented by Dumont, and the 
 seeming servant of 'venerable aspect ' disarms the proud 
 and irate nobleman, down came such plaudits as had not 
 been heard before. ... I had no play-bill. I had but come 
 to see Miss O'Neill, and no play-bill was necessary for that. 
 ' Who is this actor ? ' said I to my neighbour. It was a Mr. 
 Macready ! " 
 
 A comedy by Kenney, entitled, A Word for the Ladies, 
 was unsuccessful, though Macready, Charles Kemble, 
 Young, Liston, and Farren all appeared in it. On Feb- 
 ruary 10, 1819, however, Shell's Evadne ; or, The Statue, 
 was produced with complete success. According to the 
 play-bill, it was "universally admired for the classic 
 beauty of its poetry ; " but we may suspect that it was 
 rather the strong situation of the last act which carried 
 it through thirty performances. The idea and several of 
 the scenes were suggested by Shirley's tragedy of The 
 Traitor. The terrible conclusion of the older play, 
 where the profligate duke, rushing to an unholy tryst 
 with Amidea, finds her corpse awaiting him, is altogether 
 suppressed. The earlier passage, in which Amidea 
 defends her chastity at the dagger's point, is replaced by 
 a much finer scene, founded on the idea which Victor 
 Hugo utilized, ten years later, in the portrait-scene in 
 Hernafii. Shell's play is much better knit than Shirley's, 
 though its style is conventional and flaccid. Miss 
 O'Neill found in the heroine a character after her own 
 heart, and Macready gained much credit as the traitor, 
 Ludovico, the counterpart of Shirley's Lorenzo de' Me- 
 dici, afterwards so marvellously embodied by Alfred de 
 Musset in his Lorenzaccio. A villain of yet deeper
 
 48 IVJLLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 dye fell to Macready's lot in Maturin's Fredolfo, a 
 piece of romanticism run mad, which did not survive 
 its first performance. In the last act Charles Kemble, 
 as Adelmar, yielded up his sword to Macready, as 
 Wallenberg, who immediately plunged it into the bosom 
 of his defenceless foe. "A yell of indignation," says 
 Macready, " greeted this atrocity, such as, I fancy, was 
 never before heard in a theatre. Not another syllable 
 was audible." George Robertson iir TJie Heart of 
 Midlothian (to jMiss Stephens's Efifie Deans and Liston's 
 Dumbiedikes) was ]\lacready's only remaining creation 
 during this season. When Young played Brutus for his 
 benefit, Macready supported him as Cassius. For many 
 years he and Young were in the habit of exchanging 
 these services of courtesy. " Our rivalry," says Macready, 
 " was always maintained on the most gentlemanly 
 footing." 
 
 Two great actresses made their last appearances on 
 the stage at the close of this season — Mrs. Siddons at 
 the age of sixty-four, Miss O'Neill at the age of twenty- 
 eight. Mrs. Siddons appeared, on June 9, as Lady 
 Randolph, for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
 Kemble. Macready, who played Glenalvon, may be 
 said to have received the last expiring flicker of her 
 genius, at the lines — 
 
 " Thou look'st at me as if thou fain would'st pry 
 Into my heart. 'Tis open as my speech ! " 
 
 In this one phrase, he says, she was once more at her 
 greatest ; having delivered it, she sank into ai)athy. A 
 month later (July 13), Miss O'Neill acted Mrs. Haller, 
 the play-bill announcing that this would be licr last i)er- 
 formance before Christmas. It proved t^) he her last 
 appearance in London. On Dci ember 18 she married
 
 T-ORGING AHEAD. ^r, 
 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Wrixon Becher, and retired 
 from the stage. She died on October 29, 1872, just six 
 months before Macready. 
 
 I-)iiring the summer recess Macready visited Scotland, 
 appearing for the first time in Edinl)urgh, where, says 
 Mr. Dil)din, in his "Annals" of the local stage, he " was 
 not cordially received." The Edinburgh public, indeed, 
 never took very kindly to liim. .He made a three-weeks' 
 walking-tour in the Highlands, visiting Rob Roy's 
 country with special interest, and then took his way 
 southward to play an engagement with his father on the 
 western circuit. From Easter, 181 9, until his death in 
 1829, the elder Macready was prosperously established 
 in Bristol, where his descendants (by his second mar- 
 riage) are still connected with theatrical affairs. 
 
 The season of 1819-20 opened disastrously for Covent 
 Garden, Young had left the company. Miss O'Neill and 
 Miss Stephens were absent (the former, as we have seen, 
 never to return), and illness disabled Liston for more 
 than six weeks. At Drury Lane, on the other hand, 
 Kean, Munden, Dowton, Harley, Miss Kelly, and Mrs. 
 Glover were assembled under the command of EUiston, 
 who opened his management with characteristic energy. 
 The first night at Covent Garden (September 6) was 
 inauspicious, Charles Kemble's Macbeth being received 
 with open disfavour. Two nights later Macready ap- 
 peared as Joseph Surface, and, though this was afterwards 
 one of his popular parts, it seems at this time to have 
 made little impression. The critic of the JVercs hoped 
 never to see him again in this character, adding that 
 " his looks certainly would not have been dangerous to 
 Sir Peter's peace." Mordent in IVie Steivard, an altera- 
 tion by S. Beazley of Holcroft's Deserted Dmighier, was 
 his first original part, in one scene of which he was 
 
 E
 
 50 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 likened by the Times to Kean in Sir Giles Overreach. 
 The first six weeks of the season dragged slowly along, 
 Macready playing Othello, Henry V., Hotspur, and other 
 parts to miserable houses, salaries falling into arrear, and 
 Harris (as he afterwards declared) not knowing in the 
 morning whether he should not shoot himself before 
 night. At last he determined upon a less desperate 
 course. He had in Macready an actor of undoubted 
 ability : why not give him a chance to establish himself 
 in popular favour as a tragedian of the first rank ? 
 Accordingly, Macready was announced to appear on 
 October 25 as Richard IH. He approached the adven- 
 ture with many misgivings. His figure was unsuited to 
 the character, and he feared to affront comparison not 
 only with Kean, but with the still vivid memory of Cooke. 
 There was no help for it, however ; he braced himself 
 to the effort, studying the text of Gibber, but trying to 
 inform it with the spirit of Shakespeare. The event was 
 a complete success. The house was crowded, and the 
 applause was loud. Twice the pit literally " rose at " 
 the new Richard, shouting, cheering, and waving hand- 
 kerchiefs. 'J'hey would not hear the subordinate whose 
 duty it was to announce the repetition of the play, but 
 insisted on Macready himself appearing before the 
 curtain. This " raising of the dead," as conservative 
 playgoers called it, was an innovation at Covent Garden, 
 though it had occurred more than once at Drury Lane. 
 The critics were no whit behind the pul^lic in their 
 enthusiasm. With scarcely a single reservation, they 
 accepted Macready's Ricliard as a worthy counterpart to 
 Kean's. It was " perfectly original," wrote James Haines, 
 in the Morning Chronicle ; "yet there was no apparent 
 struggle after originality, no laborious effort to mark a 
 difference' in passages of small importance." " AVe did
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 
 
 SI 
 
 not perceive one servile imitation of Kean," said the 
 N'e-ivs ; "all Kean's defects were studiously avoided, and 
 even his beauties given in a different form." Leigh 
 Hunt, in the Examiner, remarked that Macready pre- 
 sented " the livelier and more animal part " of Richard, 
 Kean, " the more sombre and perhaps deeper part." He 
 blamed in Macready a tendency to whining in the scenes 
 of remorse, but declared that he "never saw the gayer 
 part of Richard to such advantage." All the other 
 papers followed suit, and Macready found himself, by 
 general admission, the leading actor of the theatre, and 
 the peer of Kean. One studious and evidently im- 
 partial critic published a forty-page pamphlet, entitled, 
 A Critical Examination of the 7-espective Performances 
 of Mr. Kean and Mr. Macready in . , . Richard the 
 Third, summing up, on the whole, in Macready's favour. 
 Their rivalry, though not friendly (for they knew little of 
 each other personally), was generous and as yet unem- 
 bittered. A newspaper paragraph of the period repre- 
 sents Kean saying, with reference to Macready's Richard, 
 " Such a man could do nothing short of excellence," and 
 Macready owning, in return, that he could not appear 
 as Othello without " blushing through his black " at his 
 inferiority to Kean. 
 
 The success of Richard III. saved the theatre, proving 
 that Harris's company was still able to hold its own against 
 EUiston's; and the return of Listen and Miss Stephens 
 completely re-established the balance of power. On 
 November 29 Macready appeared as Coriolanus, con- 
 firming, but scarcely increasing, the reputation gained 
 by his Richard. It was easier to compete with Kean 
 in the flesh than with the memory of Keml)le. "Mr. 
 Macready," says the Nezvs, "aware, no doubt, that his 
 figure, face, and manner combined would not inspire
 
 52 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 awe in vulgar souls, or strike a plebeian dumb by a single 
 motion, gave excessive bitterness to his words and violence 
 to his actions." Other critics were more favourable, but 
 Coriolanus was acted only thrice, whereas Richard III, 
 furnished nine performances. 
 
 In March, 1820, Macready "groaned and snarled" 
 through the part of Front de Bceuf in a drama founded 
 on the latest of the Waverley Novels, Charles Kemble 
 playing Ivanhoe ; Miss Stephens, Rowena ; Miss Foote, 
 Rebecca; Liston, Wamba; and Farren, Isaac of York. 
 The death of poor old George III. having removed 
 the long embargo upon King Lear, the play^ was an- 
 nounced for revival at Drury Lane, with Kean in 
 the title part. Harris determined to take the wind out 
 of his rival's sails, after the ungenerous fashion of the 
 times, and asked Macready to prepare himself in Lear 
 with all possible speed. Respect for Shakespeare and 
 for his own reputation led him to decline the task, but 
 he offered to take any other part in the revival that 
 might be assigned him. Booth was accordingly en- 
 gaged for Lear, and Macready cast for Edmund. 
 The revival took place, unsuccessfully, on April 13 ; 
 and Kean's performance, eleven days later, was scarcely 
 more fortunate. Henri Quatre, in a musical romance 
 of that title by Morton, provided Macready with a 
 pleasant and effective character, " in which," says the 
 Ncivs, " he relaxed in a great degree his usual stern- 
 ness." It remained for several seasons among his 
 most popular parts. But a more noteworthy triumph 
 was at hand — the "crowning mercy" of this eventful 
 season. 
 
 Karly in 1820 a (Glasgow acquaintance of Macrcady's 
 begged him to read a tragedy named Virgiiiius, which 
 had been acted with success at the local theatre. The
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 53 
 
 author was an Irish schoohnaster, known to his pupils 
 as Paddy Knowles. He had been a strolling player in 
 his time, and had acted with Edmund Kean at the 
 Waterford Theatre. It was Kean who suggested the 
 theme of Virgiiihis, which Knowles scribbled in fragments 
 upon a schoolboy's slate, in his rare moments of relaxa- 
 tion ; for his teaching occupied thirteen hours out of the 
 twenty-four. In earlier years, in London, he had known 
 Lamb, Hazlitt, and others of the literary set, but Macready 
 had not even heard his name. He read the tragedy, was 
 delighted with it, and secured its acceptance by Harris, 
 who entrusted to him the entire care of the mounting. 
 Charles Kemble was cast for Icilius, Terry for Dentatus, 
 Abbott for Appius Claudius ; and Virginia was assigned 
 to " the elegant, the swanlike, the fascinating Maria 
 Foote." 
 
 On May 17 (after the Lord Chamberlain, at the 
 express command of George IV., had cut out some 
 lines on tyranny) the production took place. It was a 
 complete success, both for the author and for the actors 
 When we compare Virginms with other tragedies of 
 the time — the works of Maturin and Sheil, for example, 
 not to mention obscurer names — we can understand the 
 enthusiasm awakened by the frank humanity of its sub- 
 ject and the rhetorical vigour of its st\'le. To sophisti- 
 cated ears, its pseudo-Shakespearian phraseology, its 
 " broad and boisterous ostentation of passion," seem 
 perilously like mere fustian. We are apt to laugh when 
 we hear Virginius, at the height of his agony, describe 
 his baby-daughter lying 
 
 " At the generous 
 And sympathetic fount, tliat, at her cry, 
 Sent forth a stream of liquid living pearl 
 To cherish her enarnell'd veins."
 
 54 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Genest remarks, very aptly, that this description of the 
 simple operation of suckling a child " would have done 
 vastly well in a burlesque tragedy," and compares with it 
 the exquisite simplicity of Lady Macbeth's — 
 
 " I have given suck, and know 
 How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me." 
 
 But merit is, after all, comparative, and Virgmius was 
 far more truly alive than any play of its kind that had 
 appeared for years. John Hamilton Reynolds, the poet 
 whom Leigh Hunt introduced to the world in company 
 with Keats and Shelley, provided a prologue ; Barry 
 Cornwall wrote the epilogue ; and Lamb, in a poetical 
 address, exclaimed — 
 
 " With wonder I 
 Hear my old friend (turn'd Shakespeare) read a scene 
 Only to ]iis inferior in the clean 
 Passes of pathos : with such fence-like art — 
 Ere we can see the steel, 'tis in our heart." 
 
 When so fine a critic further compliments the poet on 
 attaining his effects almost without the aid of " that 
 huffing medium, 70ords" we, who know very certainly 
 that Knowles was not a word-sparing dramatist, cannot 
 help transferring to the actor a large share in the eulogy. 
 He met with praise on all hands. " Austere, tender, 
 familiar, elevated," said the Morning Herald, " mingling 
 at once terror and pathos, he ran over the scale of 
 dramatic expression with the highest degree of power." 
 " Faults hitherto attributed to his style," the A^e2t'S 
 declared, "were studiously avoided ; his love of sudden 
 transition was controlled within the bounds of propriety, 
 and his rich manly voice, which has too freciuently 
 tempted him to rant, was subdued and mellowed down 
 to a tone of excjuisite touchingness." Virginius estab-
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 55 
 
 lished him firmly in the distinguislied position he owed 
 to his Richard III., and remained one of his favourite 
 characters to the end of his career. For his benefit 
 (June 9) he appeared for the first time in Macbeth, 
 and was greeted with enthusiasm. It was on this 
 occasion that he rebelled against the long-established 
 custom which i)ermitted an actor, on his benefit day, to 
 accept gifts of money from distinguished " patrons." 
 
 In the course of his provincial tour this summer (1820) 
 he visited Aberdeen, Montrose, Dundee, and Perth, 
 with a company under the management of Ryder, playing 
 Macbeth, Coriolanus, Romeo, Virginius, and other parts. 
 His Virginia was Miss Catherine Frances or "Kitty" 
 Atkins, the girl whom he had scolded in Glasgow, five 
 years before, for being imperfect in a child's part. She 
 was now not quite fifteen, but the local critics already 
 discovered in her a " correctness of taste and accuracy of 
 judgment " which encouraged them to hope that she was 
 " destined to a higli degree of eminence." Macready was 
 brought into frequent contact with this young lady, and, 
 as he quaintly puts it, " grew less and less desirous of 
 avoiding her." He found her graceful, amiable, intelli- 
 gent, and docile — and to a man of his character, docility 
 was a crowning charm in womanhood. He procured her 
 a situation, a few months later, in his father's company 
 at Bristol, and from this time onwards he never lost sight 
 of her. 
 
 The season of 1820-21, though remunerative to the 
 management, was comparatively unexciting. Macready 
 created three new characters, which failed to take a 
 permanent place in his repertory. The first was Wallace 
 in a turgid and feeble tragedy of that name by a young 
 man named C. E. AValker, which met with a success 
 far beyond its deserts. The second was the Duke in
 
 56 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Barry Cornwall's Afira?ido!a, in the construction of whicli 
 ]\Iacready may be said to have collaborated. Its style 
 is lighter and more graceful than that of most contempo- 
 rary plays, but the conduct of the story is unskilful — a 
 female lago, with a clerical familiar, playing an equivocal 
 and ineffective part in the action. The third original 
 character was Damon in Banini and Sheil's tragedy, 
 or rather romantic play, Damon and Pythias. This 
 is a really strong and stirring drama, and the fact 
 that it was less successful than the puling Wallace can 
 only be attributed to some unaccountable caprice of 
 public taste. Macready also added four Shakespearian 
 parts to his list. His lachimo was described by the 
 Neivs critic as " the worst he had ever seen," and 
 Macready himself admits that it was ineffective. Prosper©, 
 in a further maltreatment by Reynolds of Dryden and 
 Davenant's perversion of The Tempest, was a performance 
 of small account; but Hamlet, which he acted for his 
 benefit, was received with enthusiasm. Finally, on June 
 25, 182 1, he made a remarkable success as the King in 
 the second part of Henry IV.., revived for the sake of 
 introducing a Coronation Spectacle, which was so 
 attractive as to lead to a prolongation of the season. 
 Charles Kemble was the Prince of VV^des ; Fawcett, 
 Falstaff ; Farren and Emery, Shallow and Silence ; and 
 Mrs. Davenport, Mrs. Quickly — an excellent cast. 
 Earlier in the season, at Macready's instance, an attempt 
 had been made, with small success, to revive the original 
 text of Shakespeare's Richard III. 
 
 " Of the Tragedy hitherto acted under tlic title of Kini^ 
 Richard the Third" said the play-bill, " more than half is the 
 exclusive composition of Cibber. The present is an attempt 
 to restore (in place of his ingenious alteration) the original 
 character and language of Shakespeare ; in which no more
 
 FORGING AHEAD 57 
 
 extraneous matlcr is ret.uned than the tiitling passages 
 necessary to connect those scenes between which omissions 
 have necessarily been made for the purposes of representa- 
 tion." 
 
 In spite of these protestations, several of Gibber's most 
 famous claptraps were retained ; but they were not 
 sufficient to reconcile the general public to the new face 
 of their old friend. 
 
 Macready's original five-years' engagement had now 
 expired, and he re-engaged with Harris for a similar 
 period, on terms to be stated presently. Young's return 
 to Covent Garden combined with several other circum- 
 stances to render the season 1821-22 an idle and in- 
 glorious one for Macready. He appeared only three 
 times before the New Year — twice as Virginius and once 
 as Gambia ; and during the remainder of the season he 
 created no new character, and appeared only some forty- 
 five times in all, as against a hundred and twenty 
 appearances in 1819-20, and a hundred and thirty in 
 1820-21. The public taste, whetted by the pomp and 
 circumstance of the previous summer, was insatiate in its 
 demand for spectacle. Reynolds's "melodramatic opera" 
 The Exile revived for the sake of the " grand public 
 entry of the Empress Elizabeth ; " The Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona, treated as a spectacular opera; and Pocock's 
 Montrose ; or, The Children of the Mist, with Listen as 
 Dugald Dalgetty, were all extremely popular ; so that, 
 for Macready, the season was practically barren. The 
 only noteworthy event was a successful revival o( Julius 
 Ccesar, with Young as Brutus, Charles Kemble as Antony, 
 and Macready as Cassius. To this character he now 
 devoted renewed study, and made it, he says, " one of his 
 most real personations." 
 
 In the spring of 1822 Charles Kemble, who was now
 
 5S WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 (by his brother John's gift) a co-proprietor in the theatre, 
 obtained a preponderating share in its management. It 
 soon became evident that he and Macready could by 
 no means pull in the same boat. They had at one time 
 been on good terms, and in after-years, when the causes 
 of friction no longer existed, they professed much mutual 
 esteem ; but the relation of actor-manager and actor led 
 to perpetual misunderstandings. There were, no doubt, 
 faults on both sides ; but it is clear that Macready 
 worked himself into a state of unreasonable irritation 
 which often warped his saner judgment. Open warfare 
 broke out soon after the change of management, which 
 took effect on March ii, 1822. On May i Macready 
 writes to " — Forbes andWillett, Esqrs.," Charles Kemble's 
 co-managers, a long and angry letter of complaint. " My 
 fortunes," he says, " are surrendered to the single sway 
 of an actor whose aspirations to supremacy in his pro- 
 fession must render my reputation but of secondary 
 moment to him, while he who has the motive is also 
 armed with the power to molest and distress me." His 
 specific complaint is that, Kean having promised to play 
 for his benefit, Charles Kemble has maliciously revived 
 an obsolete rule, forbidding the enlistment on such 
 occasions of performers from the other theatre. The 
 rule, if it ever existed, has been set at nought, Macready 
 declares, by Farren and Miss Stephens : why, he asks, 
 should it be enforced in his case alone ? " If Mr. C. 
 Kemble," he proceeds, " be permitted to exercise his 
 influence without control over the course of a contempo- 
 rary actor, the Committee must expect tosee him the 
 single sujjportcr of the Covent Garden stage, as no 
 gentleman of talent or feeling can brook so irrational and 
 so partial an autocracy."' The remonstrance was with- 
 out avail. Macready had to content himself with Young's
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 59 
 
 support on his benefit night, when they phi)ed Othello 
 and lago to a large house. 
 
 Towards the end of June, 1822, Macready set forth 
 on a tour to Italy. He passed through Paris, Geneva, 
 Lausanne (where he called on John Kenible, but did not 
 see him) ; up the Rhone valley, over the Simplon to 
 Domo d'Ossola, Lago Maggiore, and Milan ; thence to 
 Verona and Venice, Bologna and Florence; from 
 Florence to Naples without pause ; back to Rome, which 
 he "did" with laudable diligence; then by way of 
 Bologna to Parma and Milan ; thence to Turin, and over 
 the Mont Cenis to Geneva and Paris. He had a letter 
 of introduction to Byron, but some difficulty as to his 
 route compelled him to leave Pisa unvisited. He does 
 not seem to have heard while in Italy of the death of 
 Shelley, which occurred just a week before he crossed 
 the Alps. In Paris he saw Mdlle. Mars on his outward, 
 and Talma on his homeward, journey. Of both he 
 speaks with enthusiasm. 
 
 An Englishman whom he met in Paris assured him 
 that he had recently seen Young play Hamlet at Drury 
 Lane. Macready politely but confidently insisted that 
 he must be mistaken, for Young was engaged at Covent 
 Garden, and, even if any disagreement had taken place, 
 he could not yet have appeared at Drury Lane, as there 
 was a convention between the theatres that no performer 
 leaving the one should be engaged at the other until a 
 year had elapsed. His informant, as it turned out, was 
 in the right. The unwise economy of the Covent Garden 
 management, and the no less unwise extravagance of 
 Elliston at Drury Lane, had led to a revolution in the 
 theatrical world. Young, Listen, and Miss Stephens 
 demanded that their salaries at Covent Garden should be 
 raised from ^20 to ^25 a week. The management
 
 6o WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 demurred, and EUiston, regardless of the unwritten 
 compact, seized the opportunity to ofter the seceding 
 artists, not j[^2^ a week, but ^20 a night, for at least 
 three nights a week. This trebled their Covent Garden 
 salary, and they naturally accepted without hesitation. 
 The result was a complete overthrow of the balance of 
 power. Kean, Young, and EUiston, Munden, Liston, and 
 Dowton, Miss Stephens, Madame Vestris, Mrs. Glover, 
 and Mrs. W. West — a company of unusual strength — 
 were opposed to Macready, Charles Kemble, Farren, and 
 Fawcett— a company of unexampled feebleness. Drury 
 Lane was crowded, Covent Garden deserted \ but the pre- 
 cedent of enormous salaries, thus established by EUiston, 
 was ultimately ruinous to both houses. 
 
 The Covent Garden season was naturally dull. Sheil, 
 who was anxious to secure an actress for the leading part 
 in his Huguenot, thought he had discovered a new O'Neill 
 in a Miss F. H. Kelly from Dublin, who was, at his 
 request, tutored by Macready, and brought forward in 
 luliet. This part she performed about a dozen times, 
 with some success, but her subsequent efforts fell far short 
 of her promise. The Huguenot was duly jjroduced on 
 December 11, 1822, and was duly massacred. Abbott, 
 at rehearsal, declared that the name, which he pro- 
 nounced " You-go-not," was one of ill omen, and secured 
 the fulfilment of his prophecy by refraining from learning 
 his part. The play was altogether miscast, and though 
 Macready thought it the best of Sheil's works, and 
 devoted much study to his own part of Polignac, it was 
 acted only three times. Miss Mitfor(rsy////r?//, produced 
 March 15, 1823, met with somewhat bettor fortune. 
 Poor Miss Miiford had an evil time of it for many months 
 between the contending Kemble and Macready factions, 
 but at last cast in her lot with Macready, for whom she
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 6i 
 
 hinl at thai time the warmest admiration. One of his 
 letters was " the prettiest letter I ever read in my life, . . . 
 (|uite the letter of a scholar and a gentleman, not the 
 least like that of an actor. . . . He is just such another 
 soul of fire as Haydon — highly educated, and a man of 
 great literary acquirements — consorting entirely with 
 poets and young men of talent." Her tragedy was well 
 written and not uninteresting, but there was a womanish- 
 ness in the character of Julian that sapped its otherwise 
 undeniable merit. It evidently led to some friction 
 between the poetess and the actor, for she writes on 
 May 13, " That Macready likes me I know ; but I have, 
 perhaps, suffered even more from his injustice and pre- 
 judice and jealousy than from the angry attacks of the 
 Kembles." Their relations, in after-years, were far from 
 amicable. 
 
 The new Shakespearian parts which Macready this 
 season essayed were Cardinal Wolsey and King John, 
 both undertaken, it woidd appear, with reluctance, yet 
 both reckoned afterwards among his best performances. 
 Macbeth, too, which he had not acted since the spring 
 of 1820, was now revived ; and for his benefit he played 
 Shylock for the first time, along with Delaval in Kenney's 
 comedietta of Matrimony. It was his general custom, on 
 his benefit night, to choose some afterpiece affording him 
 a light-comedy part — Almaviva, Sir Charles Racket in 
 Three Weeks after Marriage, or Delaval. 
 
 In the mean time Macready's hatred for Charles 
 Kemble was growing more and more bitter. It blinded 
 him even to his merits as an actor, which he afterwards 
 freely acknowledged. Kemble was to have played at a 
 benefit on behalf of the Philanthropic Society, when the 
 news of his brother John Philip's death forced him to 
 withdraw his name. In this difificulty a deputation was
 
 62 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 sent to Macready. As soon as their spokesman broached 
 the business to him, he interrupted him, saying, "So, sir, 
 because the Corporal refuses to do his duty, you apply 
 to the Coimmander-in-Chief ! " This extravagant piece 
 of arrogance is vouched for by an ear-witness ; and 
 certain it is that Macready's tone led the Philanthropic 
 Committee, perhaps with a spice of malice, to advertise 
 that he had " condescended " to play Hamlet for their 
 benefit — a phrase which, being attributed to Macready 
 himself, gave him much annoyance. About the same 
 time he wrote to an aspiring dramatist that " he wished 
 to avoid anything that would bring him into collision 
 with a person for whose talents and judgment he had 
 such a contempt as he bore for those of Mr. C. Kemljle." 
 With the otlier managers his relations were scarcely 
 happier. In an undated note dashed off at the Box 
 Office (probably on February 15, 1823) — 
 
 '"Mr. Macready informs the Committee of Management . . . 
 that he CAXNOT undertake the character of King John for 
 Monday se'nnight. If it should be his ill fortune to have any 
 concern with them so long as the following IMonday, he will 
 endeavour to be ready in the part ; but neither his spirits 
 nor his i)o\vers of mind are, under their conduct, what they 
 have been. . . . Mr. Macready desires to know of the 
 Committee why his name, whilst he has the miserj- of 
 belonging to their theatre, is omitted on the Play-Bills for 
 Cardinal Wolsey, and why they will suffer their agents to 
 disgrace them by breaking a promise, given at least ten 
 times, of the performance of Macbeth as a recompense for 
 undertaking Wolsey." 
 
 The Committee could scarcely be eager to retain the 
 services of a performer Avho favoured them with sucli 
 missives as this, and the breach which soon followed was 
 clearly inevitable. Macready's written agreement with 
 Harris for a second term of five years ])laced his salary
 
 FORGING AHEAD. 63 
 
 at ^20 a week, but was supplemented by a verbal 
 promise that he should have the highest salary in the 
 theatre — in other words, if any regular performer received 
 more than ^{^20, his salary should at once be raised to 
 the same amount. This stipulation, a common one at 
 the time, was made in the presence of a witness, and in 
 handing over the management to Forbes, Willett, and 
 Kemble, Harris explicitly informed them of its terms. 
 During the season 1822-23, however, Macready found 
 them attempting to shuffle out of it. Correspondence 
 and interviews led to no settlement. The question was 
 to be referred to arbitration, but the Committee delayed 
 and delayed until Macready at last gave them notice that, 
 as they declined to ratify his engagement, he held it void. 
 This was, perhaps, the very thing the Committee desired. 
 Macready issued a pamphlet, dated June 16, 1823, in 
 which he set forth his wrongs. Among other things, he 
 accused Charles Kemble of having offered Miss Stephens 
 ;^2 5 a week, on condition that she should keep the fact 
 secret, and so defraud him (Macready) of the additional 
 jQ^ a week to which, by his agreement, he would have 
 been entitled. This may or may not have been true ; 
 but it is evident, from the correspondence Macready 
 prints, that the Committee shuffled and paltered most 
 unjustifiably. Elliston offered him the same terms he 
 had given to the other refugees from Covent Garden, 
 and Macready engaged with him for the ensuing season 
 at ^20 a night. 
 
 Macready's Characters. 
 
 1816-1823. 
 (With the number of performances.) 
 Covent Garden: 1816-17 : *Gambia {Slave), ^t, ; 
 *Pescara {Apostate), 12 ; *Valentio {Conquest of Taranto),
 
 64 WILLIAM CLLARLES MAC READY. 
 
 6 ; Demetrius {Humorous Lieutenant)^ 5 ; Orestes {Disirest 
 Mother), 3 ; Othello, Mentevole {Italian Lover), Beverley 
 {Gamester), 2 ; lago, Robert {Curfeiu), i. 
 
 1817-18: *Rob Roy, 34; *Amurat {BcUamira), 13; 
 *Uumont {Father and CJiildrcn), *Berndorff {Illustrious 
 Traveller), 9; *Salviati {Castle of Paluzsi), 8; *Cliosroo 
 {Retribution), 7 ; Pescara, 6 ; Gambia, 4 ; Romeo, Glenal- 
 von {Douglas), Pizarro, Hotspur (second act of Henry IV. 
 Part I.), Posthumus, i 
 
 1818-19 : *Ludovico {Evadne), 30 ; *George Robertson 
 (^Heart 0/ Midlothian), 16; Rob Roy, 'Dumoni {yane Shore), 
 15 ; *Romani {Proof Presumptive), Ducas {Adelgitha), 
 *Winterland ( Word for Ladies), 3 ; Cassius, 2 ; Pescara, 
 Earl of Warwick (Francklin's play), Hotspur, Pierre, *Wal- 
 lenberg {Fredolfo), Glenalvon, Gambia, i. 
 
 1819-20 : *Henri Quatre, 28 ; *Front de Bocuf, *Virginius, 
 14; *Mordent {The Steiuard), 13; Rob Roy, 11 ; Richard 
 III., 9 ; Joseph Surface, Coriolanus, Jaciues, Edmund, Mac- 
 beth, 3 ; Rolla, Biron {Isabella), * Leicester (translation of 
 Schiller's Maria Stuart), *Montoni {Montoni ; or, The 
 Phantom), Gambia, 2 ; Othello, Henry V., Hotspur, Clytus 
 {Alexander), Bajazct {Tamerlane), Peregrine {John Bull), 1. 
 
 1820-21 : Henry IV., 21 ; *Wallace, 17 ; *Mirandola, 15 ; 
 Rob Roy, 14; Virginius, Henri Ouatre, 11 ; Prospero, 10; 
 Gambia, 9; *Damon, 7; Pierre, Joseph Surface, 4 ; lachimo, 
 Richard III., 2 ; Zanga, Jacjues, Hamlet, Sir C. Racket 
 {Three Weeks after Marriage), and Captain Irwin {Every 
 One has his Fault), i . 
 
 1821-22 : Rob Roy, 9 ; Cassius, 8 ; Gambia, 4 ; Mrginius, 
 Daran, Henri Ouatre, 3 ; Romeo, Othello, 2 ; Joseph 
 Surface, Prospero, Wallace, Henry IV., Hubert, Almaviva, 
 Antonio, Posthumus, i. 
 
 1822-23 : *Julian, 8 ; Rob Roy, 7 ; Wolscy, King John, 
 Macbeth, Jaques, 5 ; Joseph Surface, 4 ; *Polignac {Hugue- 
 not), Pierre, Virginius, 3 ; Henri Ouatre, Wallace, Daran 
 Gambia, 2 ; Othello, Earl of Esse.\-, Hamlet, Shyiock, 
 Dclaval, Duke Aranza, 1.
 
 ( (35 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 1823-1837 
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 
 
 We come now to what may be called the doldrums of 
 Macready's career — " a region of calms, squalls, and 
 light baffling winds." Hitherto he had gone steadily 
 ahead ; for the next thirteen years, during which he 
 made Drury Lane his head-quarters, his progress, though 
 real, was slow and intermittent, while annoyances in 
 the shape of hostile criticism and personal enmity 
 beset him on every hand. These thirteen years brought 
 him no great and inspiriting triumphs like Rob Roy, 
 Richard HI., and Virginius. They added only two 
 really enduring creations to his record — AVilliam Tell 
 and Werner — and they were fruitful in semi-successes, 
 disappointments, and humiliations. It is true that, if he 
 made enemies during this period, lie also made staunch 
 and devoted friends — the "clique" who were so often 
 accused of ministering unduly to his self-esteem. But 
 if he had died or retired from the stage in the winter of 
 1835-36, it might have been said with apparent truth 
 that he had for some time been losing ground, and had 
 not fulfilled the promise of his early years. Oddly 
 enough, it was his bitterly-rued assault upon the Poet 
 
 I''
 
 66 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Bunn that seemed somehow to dissipate the spell. His 
 migration to Covent Garden after the outbreak gave a 
 fresh impetus to his career, and marks in every sense a 
 new departure. 
 
 On Monday, October 13, 1823, Macready made his 
 first appearance at Drury Lane, as Virginius, ^^'allack 
 playing Icilius; Mrs. W. West, Virginia; and Mrs. 
 Glover, Servia. The aforesaid annoyances commenced 
 at once. In the yb///^ ^/^// of October 19 the following 
 paragraphs appeared : — 
 
 "At Urury Lane, Mr. Macready opened his career in 
 Virginius^ one of those melodramatic tragedies which 
 peculiarly suit the ventriloquism of \\hat are called natural 
 actors, and his reception was very flattering. 
 
 " Mr. Macready is a clever performer, and moreover a 
 clever man — he is a scholar, and, as we are told, a person of 
 refined manners, gentlemanly habits, and classical pursuits — 
 it must therefore be extremely painful to him to witness the 
 ill-judged /7{^r)/ with which he is bedaubed in all the morning 
 papers. We do not allude to his gallant preservation of a 
 fellow-creature, or his own modest concealment of the fact — 
 there he cannot be too much lauded." 
 
 The writer then goes on to quote an apparently 
 extravagant, because ill-written, eulogy from the Courier 
 (edited by Macready's friend Mudford), and to remark 
 that if Mr. Macready were not known to be " above such 
 conduct," it would seem as though the " empty praises " 
 were founded on solid pudding. 
 
 Here I must digress to explain " the gallant preserva- 
 tion of a fellow-creature." In May, 1821, appeared the 
 first number of an obscure theatrical paper, containing 
 what purported to be a biography of Macready. It 
 related how, during an engagement at Birmingham, he 
 had heroically rescued a child from a burning house. 
 There was not an atom of foundation for the story,
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 67 
 
 which may, however, have been a distoitcd version of 
 the quite unlieroic incident during the storm at Newcastle 
 in 1814. Macready at once contradicted the legend, but 
 in vain, fn August, 1823, it cropped up in a Southampton 
 newspaper. Mudford copied it into ihc Courier, from 
 wliicli it was disseminated through half the papers in the 
 kingdom. I have not been able to procure the original 
 magazine, but it was in the following form that the story 
 went the round of the press : — 
 
 "... He had left the house after the tragedy of Ha/ulcf, 
 in which he had delineated, with his accustomed ability, the 
 romantic and philosophic Prince, and was proceeding on foot 
 to his lodgings in the suburbs, when lie approached a small 
 cottage in flames, surrounded by a concourse of people. The 
 flames were bursting out of the front door, and a cry of 
 distress was heard from within ; he instantly threw otif his 
 coat, waistcoat, and hat, and, with the agility of a harlequin, 
 sprang into the parlour window, from whence he soon issued 
 with an infant in his grasp. The flames had caught his 
 clothes, which, however, were soon extinguished, and the 
 infant was received by the speechless mother in an agony no 
 words can describe. The hat, coat, and waistcoat of the 
 adventurous hero were gone, and he darted through the 
 crowd as he was, to his lodgings." 
 
 The myth then relates how his identity was discovered. 
 "A fellow" was caught next day selling "a handsome 
 coat" with Macready's name marked in the sleeve, and 
 the modest hero was forced to confess that this was 
 the coat he had thrown off in order to facilitate his 
 harlequin leap through the window. A ^10 note, sent 
 him anonymously on his benefit night, '' as a tribute 
 to his humanity and courage," he at once handed to the 
 parents of the rescued child, " promising to assist the 
 infant as it advanced in years." In vain Macready tried 
 to strangle this terrible infont, which came trailing clouds
 
 68 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 of most unwelcome glory. It continued to haunt him at 
 intervals, on both sides of the Atlantic, until the very end 
 of his career. 
 
 This was the '' gallant preservation of a fellow 
 creature," which the John Bull admitted to be above 
 praise. Macready's explanations led to the following 
 paragraph in the next issue : " Our observations upon 
 the fulsome praises of INIr. Macready . . . have drawn 
 from that gentleman a letter which he wishes us not to 
 publish. . . . Mr. Macready seems equally with our- 
 selves to feel the injurious effect of such overstrained 
 praise; and requests us to contradict the statement of 
 his having saved a child from a burning house . . . and 
 informs us that he himself contradicted the story some 
 months ago." The writer then goes on to protest that 
 the paragraphs " were directed, not against his acting, 
 but against a system likely, as he says himself, to do him 
 incalculable mischief." Macready believed that Theodore 
 Hook, then editor of the John BnI/, deliberately mis- 
 represented his letter in order to involve him in difficulties 
 with the friendly portion of the press. It is certain that 
 he would be the last man to despise or reject favourable 
 criticism, even if a little overstrained. Yet it seems 
 probable that Hook carelessly misunderstood some ex- 
 ])ression in his letter, and wrote without malice. A week 
 or two later the John Bull makes a similar attack on the 
 extravagant panegyrists of Mrs. Bunn, whom, neverthe- 
 less, it praises warmly, and to all appearance sincerely. 
 I find no sign in the John Bull of any animus against 
 Macready at this period, except such as might arise from 
 his habitually appearing in the " democratic, ranting, 
 trashy i)lnys"' of Knowles. In May of the following 
 year the John Hull eulogizes Rfacready's Richard HI. 
 at the expense of Kean's, declaring Macready to l)c the
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 69 
 
 greater attraction of the two. It seems, therefore, that 
 he was wrong in supposing himself the victim of delil)erate 
 malice on the part of Theodore Hook. None the less 
 was the paragraph calculated to injure him with the 
 press in general. It cost him years of effort, he says 
 (perhaps with some exaggeration), to " live down " the 
 hostility it excited. 
 
 His second part at Drury Lane was Rolla, his third 
 Hamlet, his fourth Macbeth, with Wallack as Macduff, 
 and Mrs. Bunn as Lady Macbeth. Then came a toler- 
 ably successful revival of The Winter's Tale, in which he 
 appeared, for the first time in London, as Leontes. Mrs. 
 Bunn made a stately Hermione ; Wallack played Florizel ; 
 I\[rs. W. West, Perdita ; Mrs. Glover, Paulina ; Munden, 
 .\utolycus ; and Harley, the Clown. A fortnight later 
 (November 18), "in consequence of the Sanction of the 
 Licenser having been at length obtained," Knowles's 
 Cains Gracchus was performed for the first time. The 
 interest of this play is entirely political, Cornelia and 
 Licinia serving merely as a plaintive chorus. Moreover, 
 its whole action turns upon the fickleness of the tedious 
 pseudo-Shakespearian mob, who keep on veering about 
 through the whole five acts with imbecile unanimity. 
 Caius Gracchus himself is represented as a singularly 
 feeble politician, loquacious, yet unpersuasive, devoid 
 alike of foresight and of temper. The cast, too, was 
 anything but strong, so that failure was inevitable. 
 Macready represents that liunn, who was Elliston's 
 stage-manager, brought the run to an untimely end 
 because his wife was unsuccessful as the Mother of 
 the Gracchi. But it was not in the nature of things 
 that such a play should become really popular. 
 
 On December 8 Kean appeared and Macready dis- 
 appeared. Elliston had intended to make their joint
 
 70 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 performances the great attraction of his season, but Kean 
 flatly declined to be seen on the same stage with 
 Macready. He '•' did not mind Young," whose method 
 served as a foil to his own, but shrank from facing a 
 fierier rival. Elliston was consequently forced to 
 restrict jNIacready's engagement to the stated minimum 
 of forty nights. He reappeared after Easter (1824) to 
 finish his tale of performances ; but the remainder of the 
 season was uneventful, save for Munden's retirement 
 from the stage on the last day of May. The onh" part 
 added to Macready's repertory was that of the Duke in 
 ATeasure for Measure. 
 
 His last appearance for the season took place on 
 June 23, and on the following morning he was married 
 at St. Pancras Church to his Virginia of four years ago, 
 Miss Catherine Frances Atkins. Miss Atkins had held 
 the " juvenile lead " in his father's Bristol company from 
 January, 1821, to June, 1822. Here she had played Lady 
 Anne to Macready's Richard HI., Virginia to hisVirginius, 
 Isidora to liis IMirandola. Among her other parts were 
 Ophelia, Celia, Dorinda in Dryden and Davenant's 
 l^empcst, Calauthe in Damon and Pythias^ and Zelinda 
 in The Slave. The "lead" was held at this time by a 
 Miss Desmond, who, towards the close of 182 1, became 
 the wife of the elder Macready. On leaving Bristol, Miss 
 Atkins and her father and mother migrated to Dublin ; 
 and on March 26, 1823, her father was drowned, with 
 seventy other passengers, in the wreck of the Liverpool 
 packet Alert off the Welsh coast. Up to this time the 
 relation between Macready and Miss Atkins had lieen 
 that of guardian and ward, or preceptor and pupil. Her 
 father's deatli brought matters to a point. They became 
 formally betrolhcil, and in the autumn of 1823 Miss 
 Atkins came to l^ngland to make the acquaintance of
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 
 
 71 
 
 Macready's sister Letitia, who had for some time resided 
 with him. This lady seems to have possessed a full 
 sliare of the family temper, and Macready gives a tragi- 
 comic account of her more than ungracious reception of 
 her sister-in-law to be. In time, however, this difficulty 
 was got over, and the two became friends. Miss Atkins 
 spent the winter studying assiduously to fit herself for the 
 high estate and dignity of Macready's si)ouse. He him- 
 self was in his element in the part of guide, philosopher, 
 and friend to his " lovely and docile Griselda." Accord- 
 ing to the newspaper gossip of the time, he might, had 
 he so pleased, have married " the daughter of a noble 
 Earl" — what noble Earl I do not know. He- preferred 
 the obscure country actress to the high-born dame (if she 
 ever existed), and was rewarded by conjugal happiness 
 as perfect as his nature would allow, throughout the 
 twenty-eight years of their married life. 
 
 His second season at Drury Lane (1824-25) opened 
 on November 15 with Macbeth. Der Freischiitz had 
 been produced five days earlier — the fifth adaptation of 
 Weber's opera performed in London within the space of 
 four months. It was the rage of the season, and was 
 played seventy-two times. Macready performed Leontes, 
 with Harley as Autolycus ; Jaques to the Rosalind of 
 Mrs. Yates, the Orlando of Wallack, and the Touchstone 
 of Harley ; and King John to Wallack's Faulconbridge 
 and Mrs, Bunn's Constance. On January 5, 1825, 
 Massinger's Fatal Dowry, expurgated and adapted by 
 Shell, was produced with great success, Macready playing 
 Romont; Wallack, Charalois; Terry, Roch fort; and Mrs. 
 W. West, Beaumelle. It was repeated on January 7, and 
 bade fair to prove a great attraction, when a serious 
 illness which befell Macready interrupted its career. He 
 suffered from inflammation of the diaphragm, was for some
 
 72 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 time in imminent danger, and, on rising from his sick-bed 
 (as he himself tells us), left the vivacity of youth behind 
 him. An anecdote, recorded by his enemy Bunn, but 
 doubtless founded on fact, relates to this illness. EUiston, 
 on calling one day to inquire for him, " was admitted 
 into the chamber of the sick tragedian, who faintly 
 implied a belief in his approaching dissolution." The 
 manager, deeply impressed, spoke some words of en- 
 couragement, and glided on tiptoe from the room. He 
 had not reached the bottom of the staircase when some 
 one, in a whisper, called him back. He approached the 
 suherefs bedside, " in the conviction that some posthu- 
 mous attention was about to be required of him ; " when, 
 to his astonishment, the dying man feebly but eagerly 
 whispered, " Elliston, do you think that I'^o/> Roy, reduced 
 to two acts, would be a good afterpiece for my benefit ? " 
 Elliston, no doubt, left the house reassured as to 
 Macready's chances of life. 
 
 It was more than three months before Macready was 
 able to resume duty, and in the mean time many things 
 had happened. The notorious case of Cox v. Kean 
 had been tried while his illness was at its height ; 
 Kean's ill-advised attempts to outface British pharisaisni 
 had occupied the public mind; and yet another 
 theatrical scandal, the case of Miss Foote v. Hayne, had 
 intervened to divert attention from the drama proper. 
 Reappearing as Romont on April ii, Macready found 
 that the success of three months before had been for- 
 gotten, and the piece was soon witlidrawn. On the 
 other hand, Knowles's William Tell, produced on Ma\' 
 II, survived the insufficient rehearsal of the first per- 
 formance, and proved a lasting success. Though turgid 
 and long-winded even beyond the playwright's wont, it 
 contains some effectively overwrought scenes which
 
 TFIE DOLDRUMS. 73 
 
 suited Macready's style. Mrs. Bunn played Tell's wife, 
 and tlie infant prodigy, Clara Fisher, created the 
 important part of the boy Albert. For his benefit (June 
 2) Macready acted Henry V. and Rob Roy (the play- 
 goers of those days likctl to have their money's worth), 
 and for Harley's benefit he resumed his old part of 
 Gambia, for the last time in London. 
 
 The remainder of the year 1825 and the first three 
 months of 1826 were devoted partly to provincial 
 engagements, partly to rest in a country retreat near 
 Denbigh. An article in Blackwood's Magazine for June, 
 1825, embittered the commencement of this partial 
 holiday, causing Macready at least as much annoyance 
 as his dispute with t\\e./ohn Bull. It was entitled, A 
 Letter to Charles Koiible, Esq., and R. IV. Ellis ton, Esq., 
 on the Present State of the Stage, the signature of " Philo- 
 Dramaticus " being assumed by the Rev. W. Harness. 
 Inquiring into the depressed state of the national drama, 
 the author laid the fault at the door of "your Great 
 Actors— I mean your soi-disant Great Actors — Messrs. 
 Kean, Young, and Macready." Their refusal to attach 
 themselves permanently to a stock company, their demand 
 for short engagements at high salaries, and their self- 
 seeking tyranny over dramatic authors, constitute tlie 
 head and front of their offending. 
 
 " They must have tragedies written to suit their personal 
 tricks — I beg pardon, their peculiarities. . . . The history of 
 the lately rejected tragedy of Rienzi [by Harness's intimate 
 friend. Miss Mitford] is strikingly illustrative of the evils that 
 attend the operation of the present system. . . . The play 
 was completed and shown to Mr. Macready. He was 
 delighted with the production. The chief part was very 
 effective both in language and situation, and only required 
 a \cxy few and slight alterations to render it worthy the 
 abilities of any of \\\& great actors. He wislied an entirely
 
 74 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 new first act ; this was indispensable that Rienzi might be 
 introduced striking to the earth an injurious Patrician, . . . 
 because this circumstance had pecuharly pleased Mr. 
 iNIacready's fancy when a boy at school. To make room for 
 the introduction of this new incident, the second and third 
 acts . . . were to be compressed into one. The fifth act, 
 was to be rewritten, that the character of Rienzi might, to 
 the very dropping of the curtain, hold its paramount station 
 on the stage. All these alterations were to be made /// a 
 fortnight ; the authoress was then to . .". superintend in 
 person the rehearsals ^nd geiti/ig up of the piece. ... In a 
 fortnight she called on Mr. Macready with the manuscript. 
 To her utter astonishment he received her with the greatest 
 coolness : ' There was no hurry for her play. The managers 
 had another piece at the theatre which must at all events be 
 produced first ; and it was very improbable her play could 
 be acted at all.' This other piece was The Fatal Dowry of 
 Massinger. . . . 
 
 " Persons of distinguished talent will cease, as they 
 have ceased, to write for the stage. . . . Who are your 
 successful authors 1 Planche and Arnold, Poole and 
 Kenney ; names so ignoble in the world of literature that 
 they have no circulation beyond the green-room. ... It is 
 no longer, the play, but the actors, that the public are called 
 to see. ... I have seen Mrs. Siddons go through the part 
 of Constance, of Isabella, of Belvidera, of Mrs. Beverley, 
 almost without a single burst of applause ; there have been 
 nothing but tears and sobs to interrupt the silence. . . . But 
 this style of simple and natural acting has passed away. The 
 actor of forty pounds a night comes forth to astonish. He is 
 a sort of rhetorical Merry Andrew ; and all his excellence 
 consists in the exhibition of a certain round of tricks. . . . 
 Every start, every rant, every whisper, is followed by rounds 
 of applause, and by these [the audience] estimate his merits. 
 The mob arc collected to see an enormously paid actor, who 
 acts only for twelve nights, and their expectations must not 
 be disappointed. I f they returned home without having been 
 wonderfully astonished, without having something extra- 
 ordinary and monstrous to relate, they would begin to suspect 
 that the performer did not deserve his wages. The con-
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 75 
 
 sequence is that Messrs. Young, Kean, and Macready — Mr. 
 Young in a degree less than the other two — have introduced 
 a manner of acting more forced, heavy, exaggerated, and 
 unnatural than perhaps ever disgraced the stage since 
 England had a regular theatre to boast of." 
 
 I have quoted this long passage because, in spite of 
 obvious exaggerations, it contains a certain leaven of 
 truth, and at least represents the views then held with 
 regard to the stage by a large number of educated men. 
 Macready declares the account of his dealings with Miss 
 Mitford to be " false and libellous ; " but it was certainly 
 not quite unfounded. What the writer failed to see was 
 that the weakness of the authors, rather than the egoism 
 of the actors, lay at the root of the evil. No playwriglit 
 of really commanding talent was ever tyrannized over 
 by his actors, though the greatest playwrights, from 
 Shakespeare downwards, have not disdained to fit 
 particular actors with parts " cut to their measure." 
 
 In the spring of 1826 Macready played a short 
 engagement (April 10 to May 19) at Drury Lane, now 
 nominally under the management of William Gore 
 Elliston, a son of the Great Lessee. He attempted no new 
 character. He was the Hotspur in Henry IV. Pari I. 
 when Elliston made the attempt to play Falstaff, which 
 brought his career at Drury Lane to an inglorious close. 
 At rehearsal Macready thought Elliston the best Falstaff 
 he had ever seen, but on the night of performance 
 (May 11) he was feeble and ineffective. When the play 
 was repeated, four nights later, he struggled on until, in 
 the last act, he reeled and fell upon the stage. The 
 disaster was generally attributed to drink, but Macready 
 avers that it was really due to physical weakness com- 
 bined with an overdose of ether. 
 
 After fulfilling some pro\incial engagements, Macready,
 
 76 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 with his wife and sister, sailed from Liverpool for New 
 York on September 2, 1826, arriving on the 27th of the 
 same month. As to the details of this tour I have not 
 been able to learn much, but there is no doubt that it 
 was thoroughly successful. His impresario was Stephen 
 Price, one of the first of a long line of American specu- 
 lative showmen, who was lessee of Drury Lane Theatre 
 during this very winter. Macready made his first ajv 
 pearance at the Park Theatre, New York, on October 2, 
 in the character of Virgin ius, and was warmly received 
 both by the public and the press. He may not have 
 been much gratified on finding himself described in one 
 of the leading papers as " second only to Mr. Cooper;" * 
 hut there must have been solace in the fact that another 
 critic credited him, not only with genius, but with great 
 personal beauty. It seems to have been recognized, on 
 the whole, that of all the tragedians who had appeared 
 on the American stage, only Cooke and Kean were to 
 be regarded as his peers. Though it was five years since 
 Junius Brutus Booth had crossed the Atlantic, he had 
 not yet attained the height of his feme ; Forrest, the 
 first native-born tragedian, was but a youth of twenty, 
 though already rising into note ; and such actors as 
 Holman and Conway were evidently on a lower plane 
 of talent. Kean's second American tour, ill-advised and 
 humiliating, had taken place during the previous winter, 
 and it is possible that the unpopularity of his predecessor 
 may have reacted to the advantage of Macready, whose 
 conduct, both in i)rivate life and towards his audiences, 
 was so different. At Boston, where the most serious 
 anti-Kcan riots had occurred, Macready was received 
 
 * Thomas Alillioipo CoopLT, the pupil of William Godwin. 
 He was an actor of fine endowment, mancd by carelessness and 
 defective training.
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 77 
 
 uilh entluisiaMn, both on his first \isit in November, 
 1S26, ami (luring a return engagement in the following 
 Marc h. He also appeared at Baltimore, Phila(lel[)hia, 
 and Albany, and seems to have visited Niagara. In New 
 York he played no fewer than five short engagements 
 — in October and December, 1826, and in February, 
 April, and ]Ma\-, 1827. In the third series of perform- 
 ances Conway appeared with him, playing Jafifier to 
 his Pierre, Charalois to his Romont, Faulconbridge to 
 his John, the Prince of Wales to his Henry IV., and 
 Brutus to his Cassias. He took his farewell benefit in 
 New York on June 4, playing Macbeth and Delaval, and 
 seems to have returned to England shortly afterwards. 
 
 During the season 1827-28 Drury Lane was still 
 under the management of Stephen Price. On the open- 
 ing night Charles Kean made his first aj^pearance on 
 any stage in the part of Young Norval, and continued 
 to perform at intervals throughout the season, while 
 Listen, Wallack, Ellen Tree, and Miss Eoote also be- 
 longed to the company. Macready appeared on Novem- 
 ber 12 as Macbeth, to the Lady Macbeth of Mrs. W. 
 AVest. It was at this time that the German traveller. 
 Prince Piickler-Muskau, saw him in Macbeth, and re- 
 corded* his striking excellence in the murder-scene, the 
 banquet-scene, and the last act. He praises the stage 
 management, but ridicules the tashionable flowered- 
 chintz dressing-gown which Macready threw over his 
 armour in obedience to Lady Macbeth's advice that he 
 should get his nightgown on. 
 
 Early in 1828 Macready played Ribemont, Marshal 
 
 ot France, in an historical play by Reynolds^ '' founded on 
 
 .Shirley and Beaumont and Fletcher," entitled, Edward 
 
 the Black Prince. A gentleman informed Cienest that 
 
 * " Bricfe eines Vcr.slorbcncn," iv. 255.
 
 78 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 the plays of Fletcher from which Reynolds borrowed 
 were Philaster, Bo/iduca, and The Two Noble Kinsmen. 
 " He could not pretend to describe hotv Reynolds had 
 contrived to jumble his materials together — -he only 
 knew that the thing was done, and that he witnessed 
 the damnation of the piece." No better fate awaited 
 Lord Porchester's tragedy of Z'^v/ Pedro, m which (March 
 lo) Macready played Henry of Trastamar. There were 
 one or two strong situations in the piece, but it was on 
 the whole tedious and ineffective. Macready played 
 Posthumus for his benefit (May 23), to Miss Foote's 
 Imogen and Cooper's lachimo. Bunn states that Price, 
 finding him unattractive, sacrificed sixteen nights of his 
 engagement, though he had jievertheless to pay the 
 stipulated ^20 for each night. As Macready played 
 only twenty-four times (not counting his benefit), Bunn 
 is no doubt right. There was certainly no love lost 
 between actor and manager, Macready one evening 
 suggested to Price that, as the bill was unusually long, 
 he might cut out the music in Macbeth. " I can't very 
 well do that," replied the manager; 'Mnit I'll cut out the 
 part of Macbeth, if you like." 
 
 During this season (1827-28) a company of English 
 actors, under the management of Abbott, gave a series 
 of performances in Paris, which has left its mark upon 
 the history both of the French drama and of French 
 music. Their first play was The Rivixls (Odeon, Sep- 
 tember 6, 1827), in which Listen played Acres; Chippen- 
 dale, Sir Anthony ; and Miss Smithson, Lydia Languish. 
 Two days later Listen appeared as Tony Lumpkin ; and 
 on September ii Charles Kemble played Hamlet to the 
 Ophelia of Miss Smithson. This was the fateful evening 
 which revealed to Alexandre Dumas the full possibilities 
 of the romantic drama, and inspired Hector Berlioz with
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 79 
 
 the great passion of his life. Harriet Smithson (the 
 French called her Henriette) was regarded in London 
 as a third-rate performer with an Irish brogue ; in Paris 
 she found herself a great actress, a second O'Neill. 
 " The success of Shakespeare," wrote Berlioz, '' height- 
 ened by the enthusiastic efforts of all the new literary 
 school, whose leaders were Victor Hugo, Alexandre 
 Dumas, and Alfred de Vigny, was surpassed by the 
 success of Miss Smithson;" and, though Berlioz is 
 scarcely an impartial historian, contemporary documents 
 fully bear out this statement. Yet the success of Shake- 
 speare was undoubtedly great. He came in the nick 
 of time. The romantic revolution had set in (Victor 
 Hugo's Cromwell was the literary event of this very 
 winter), and its ringleaders were prepared in advance to 
 accept the name of Shakespeare as a watchword. " It 
 was the first time," wrote Dumas, "that the stage had 
 shown me real passions animating men and women of 
 flesh and blood." 
 
 Miss Smithson played Juliet and Desdemona, to Charles 
 Kemble's Romeo and Othello. Then Miss Foote ap- 
 peared as Lgetitia Hardy, Lady Teazle, and Violante, 
 and was pronounced (to her no small disgust, we may 
 believe) an imitator of "la belle Smidson," On October 
 4 the company removed to the The'atre Italien (Salle 
 Favart), but afterwards returned once or twice to the 
 Odeon. Miss Smithson made her chief success in Jane 
 Shore, about the middle of October, and afterwards 
 played Belvidera, Portia, and Cordelia. On April 7, 
 1828, Macready made his first appearance, as Macbeth. 
 The house was crowded, the places of honour being 
 occupied by "S.A.R. Mgr. le due d'Orleans et toute 
 sa famille, et S.A.R. Madame, duchesse de Berry." 
 The majority of the French public was not yet reconciled
 
 So WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 to the " strange inequalities which disfigure the master- 
 pieces of Shakespeare." They rebelled against the 
 \\'itches in Macbeth, and the handkerchief in Othello. 
 But Macready's personal success was great. 'Yht Journal 
 des Dci'ofs, noticing his first appearance, spoke of him 
 as a fine actor, full of skill, energy, fire, and intelligence. 
 His play of expression, said the critic, redeemed the 
 irregularity of his features, while his voicC; in its lower 
 register, possessed tones which penetrated to the very 
 soul. He did not fulfil the writer's ideal of Macbeth, 
 perhaps because that gentleman credited himself with 
 a singularly profound insight into Shakespeare's inten- 
 tions. "Abbott," he continued, "dans le role de Mac- 
 dulph, est pur, correct, et ele'gant;" but Miss Smithson's 
 Lady Macbeth he admitted to be feeble. Between the 
 7 th and the 25 th of April Macready i)layed Macbeth 
 thrice, and Virginius four times. After Virginius, says 
 Jules Janin, " on trouva, pendant vingt-quatre heures, 
 (|ue Macready etait I'egal de Talma." "Who would 
 believe," cried the critic of La Jici/nion, on paradox 
 intent, " that this man, to whom Nature has refused 
 everything — voice, carriage, and physiognomy — could 
 rival our Talma, for whom she had left nothing undone ? 
 This prodigy, which is related of Lekain, was yesterday 
 realized by Macread}'." The general complaint was that 
 the performance was too harrowing. Towards the end 
 of April Macready returned to London, and Kean took 
 his place, being received with comparative coolness. 
 After the close of his Drury Lane engagement, Macready 
 paid a .second visit to Paris, appearing eight times between 
 June 23 and July 21. His parts were A'irginius, \Villiam 
 Tell, Hamlet, and Othello, in all of which his success 
 was great. "At his entrance as William 'I'cll," says Ihe 
 Dcbats, "and more than lhirt\' limes during the perform-
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 8i 
 
 ance, salvos of applause proved to him that a French 
 pit has ears for the language of truth in whatever idiom 
 it may be couched. Protracted acclamations pursued 
 him even after the foil of the curtain." At the close of 
 his last performance as Othello, a police ordinance for- 
 bidding actors to appear before the curtain was evaded 
 by a number of enthusiastic young men, who haled him, 
 still in costume, from his dressing-room into the orchestra, 
 and thence lifted him over the footlights. Well might he 
 write to his wife, " I am considerably fatigued, as I play 
 in earnest here, and feel it for some days afterwards ; but 
 I am more than repaid in the sort of transport that seems 
 excited among the literary and fashionable."' 
 
 During the seasons of 1828-29 and 1829-30 Macready 
 did not appear in London, but devoted himself, with 
 intervals of rest, to starring engagements in the provinces. 
 On April 1 1, 1829, his father died at Bristol, aged seventy- 
 four, and Macready seems to have afforded a good deal 
 of aid to his widow, who retained the management of the 
 theatre. It is reported that in January, 1830, he one night 
 played Macbeth in Portsmouth to ten persons in the boxes 
 and a proportionately scanty audience in the pit; and a {q.\\ 
 w^eeks later we find him selling an Irish engagement to 
 Alfred Bunn for ;^6oo, and then remitting ^100 of the 
 price, " in consequence of the ill-success of the engage- 
 ment." Yet, on the whole, his provincial rounds must have 
 been fairly remunerative. His total income amounted, in 
 1828, to ^2361, and in 1829 to ;^2265 ; so that even if 
 we suppose his investments to have brought him in ;^5oo 
 a year, his professional receipts would still come to the 
 respectable sum of over ^1750. As his first child, 
 Christina Letitia, was not born until December 26, 1830. 
 he was spared, at this period, the morbid anxiety to secure 
 a provision for his family which tortured him in after-years. 
 
 G
 
 82 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 On October i8, 1830, he made his "first appearance 
 these two years " at Drury Lane, now under the 
 management of Captain Polhil), a wealthy amateur, and 
 Alexander Lee, a musician. Virginius was his opening 
 part, to the Icilius of Wallack, and the Virginia of Miss 
 Phillips. For fourteen successive weeks he played Joseph 
 Surface every Tuesday to Farren's Sir Peter, Dowton's 
 Sir Oliver, Walla ck's Charles and Miss Chester's Lady 
 Teazle. Among other legitimate parts he acted Pierre, 
 King John, and Hastings, to the Belvidera, Constance, 
 and Jane Shore of a new actress, Miss Huddart, who was 
 afterwards, under the name of Mrs. Warner, closely 
 associated with his career. Wallack's performance in 
 The Brigand was the great popular attraction of the 
 autumn ; but on December 15 INIacready added to his 
 repertory a part which was destined to rank among his 
 great achievements — the gloomy and conscience-stricken 
 Werner. The fact that he was able to breathe life into 
 Byron's dull, diffuse, and ill-written ])lay appears to me, 
 I confess, one of the most convincing proofs that he was 
 really a great actor. Two other "creations" belong to 
 this season— Don Leo in The Pledge ; or, Castiltaii Honour 
 (April 8, 1 831), and Alfred the Great in Knowles's play 
 of that name (April 28). llic Pledge was a bald version, 
 by James Kenney, of Victor Hugo's Hernani, produced 
 in Paris more than a year before amid the tumultuous 
 scenes so vividly described by The'ophile Gautier. In 
 London it was well received, the Times according it the 
 then unusual honour of a whole cohmm of criticism. 
 The mounting, liowever, was miserable, and the managers 
 seem to have been anxious to shelve the- piece, Mac- 
 ready's part was Don Leo (Ruy Gomez) ; ^^'allack jilayed 
 Hernani ; Cooper, Charles V. ; and Miss Phillips, Donna 
 Zanthe (Doha Sol). Knowles's Alfred was played ten
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 83 
 
 times running, and fifteen times in all, the numerous 
 allusions to the " patriot king "being applied to William 
 IV,, and much applauded ; but the part was not strong 
 enough to hold its place in Macready's repertory. This 
 season, however, witnessed his first appearance as Mr. 
 Oakly in The Jealous Wife., afterwards the most popular 
 of his few comedy parts. He acted it with "careless 
 nonchalance," said the Ti/iies, up to the last scene, " which 
 cannot be too highly praised." For his benefit (May 27) 
 he played Coriolanus, to the Volumnia of Miss Huddart, 
 and Puft' in The Critic. 
 
 During the following season (1831-32) Drury Lane 
 was under the management of Captain Polhill. The 
 attraction of the winter was the "Grand Oriental 
 Spectacle" of Hyder All ; or., The Lions of Mysore., in 
 which a whole menagerie of animals, including boa-con- 
 strictors and an elephnnt, figured on the scene. In the 
 spring of 1832 a version of Robert le Diable, entitled, 
 The Dcemon ; or. The Mystic Branch., was very popular. 
 Against such competitors " the legitimate" stood a bad 
 chance, and Macready acted only fifty-two times in all, as 
 against ninety-nine times in the previous season. Werner 
 (October 4) was his opening part, and was followed 
 by a round of stock characters. On December 5 he 
 appeared as Richard III., "first time these eight years," 
 said the play-bill ; but, as a matter of fact, he had not 
 played the part in London since the spring of 182 1. 
 His only new part was Scroope in Tlie Merchant of 
 London, a poor play by T. J. Serle, actor, stage-manager, 
 and author. It was well received on the first night, but had 
 no real vitality. For his benefit (May 14) Macready acted 
 Leontes and Petruchio ; and on May 30, when Charles 
 Young bade farewell to the stage at Covent Garden, 
 Macready played the (ihost to his retiring rival's Hamlet.
 
 84 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 The season of 1832-33 was more eventful. Macready's 
 opening part was Rolla (September 28), and on October i 
 he appeared as Colberg in Serle's tragedy, The House of 
 Colberg. Though the play was feeble as a whole, the 
 last two acts offered fine opportunities for the morose 
 vehemence in which Macready excelled. The death of 
 Sir Walter Scott having occurred, in September, Rob Roy 
 was revived on October 13, and was followed by a grand 
 Waverley Pageant, which curiously illustrates the taste of 
 the times : — 
 
 " Scene I. — View of Abbotsford (the residence of the lately 
 deceased Poet), painted expressly by Mr. Stanfield ; to which 
 celebrated place will be introduced, in commemoration of 
 .Scotland's Immortal Bard, a Pilgrimage of the Principal 
 Dramatic Characters his genius has created, in imitation of 
 the honours paid to Shakespeare in the celebrated Jubilee. 
 
 "Scene II. — The Poet's Study at Abbotsford, Exhibiting 
 an arrangement of the Characters round his Bust and Vacant 
 Chair, concluding with a Grand Scenic Apotheosis of the 
 Minstrel of the North, the Coronach from The Lady of the 
 Lake, to be sung by Mr. Braham and full chorus. 
 
 "Ori:)ER of the Pageant : The Bard (from I7ie Lay of 
 ilie Last Minstrel), Waverley, Hie Fortunes of Nigel, Guy 
 Manueriiig, The Bride of Lammernioor, Rob Roy, Ivatthoe, 
 The Antiquary, The Heart of Midlothian, Pei'eril of the 
 Peak, The Lady of the Lake, The Legend of Mont}-ose, 
 Kenilworth.' 
 
 Macready not only acted in the drama (or opera, as it 
 was then called), but figured as the central personage of 
 the Rob Roy grou]) in the Pageant. On November 10 
 he played Kitely in a careful revival of Every Man in 
 /lis J/uinour, with Power as Bobadil, l''arren as Brain- 
 worm, ]J)owton as Justice Clement, liarley as Master 
 Stephen, and Mrs. Nisbett as Dame Kitely. Notwith- 
 standing this strong cast, the play was repeated only
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 85 
 
 once. Kcan, whose race was now almost run, appeared 
 early in November, and on the 26th he and Macready 
 acted together for the first time, as Othello and lago. 
 Greatly to Macready's disgust, Kean resorted to the old 
 trick of always standing a pace or two further up the 
 stage than his interlocutor, who was thus forced to ap- 
 pear in profile to the audience. At the close of the 
 performance, says Bunn, who was Polhill's stage-manager, 
 Macready '"bounced into my room," and vowed that he 
 would play no more with so unfair an actor. " He 
 finally wound up by saying, ' And pray what is the — 
 next p — lay you ex — pect me to appear in — with tlrat 
 low — man?' I replied that I would send him word, 
 I went up into Kean's dressing-room, where I found 
 him scraping the colour off his face, and sustaining the 
 operation by copious draughts of cold brandy and water. 
 On my asking him what play he would next appear in 
 with Macready, he ejaculated, ' How the blank should 
 I know what the blank plays in?'" They appeared, as 
 a matter of fact, in no other play ; they did not even 
 alternate the leading parts in Othello. Macready played 
 lago ten times to Kean's Othello, and once to Cooper's, 
 Kean being too ill to act. The last joint performance 
 took place on F^ebruary 8, 1833, and on May 25 Macready 
 was one of the pall-bearers at Kean's funeral, A new 
 part of a ridiculous order which he performed during this 
 season was that of Lord Bellenden in Men of Pleasure, 
 by Don Telesforo de Trueba, a Spaniard who wrote in 
 English. A German opera company, with Schroder- 
 Devrient as its star, was one of the attractions of the 
 season, in the course of which, too, the " matchless " and 
 ill-fated Malibran made her first appearance on the Eng- 
 lish stage. Roth these great artists sang, and Taglioni 
 danced, on Macready's benefit-night (June 10), when he
 
 86 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 played Joseph Surface. He at one time intended to 
 play Charles Surface, but wisely changed his mind. 
 Perhaps he remembered the story of John Philip Kemble 
 and " Charles's Martyrdom." 
 
 At • Swansea, during the recess of 1833, Macready 
 played King Lear for the first time. *• How?" he writes 
 in his diary. " Certainly not well, not so well as I re- 
 hearsed it; crude fictitious voice, no point — in short, 
 a failure !" It afterwards became one of his best Shake- 
 spearian performances. 
 
 Towards the end of May, 1833, the public and the 
 l^layers alike were astonished to learn that the 
 
 "... houses twain 
 Of Covent Garden and of Drury Lane " 
 
 had passed into the hands of one man, and that man 
 Alfred Bunn. As a journalist, a speculative country 
 impresario, an experienced stage-manager, and the lius- 
 band of Mrs. Bunn, this gentleman was tolerably well 
 known in the theatrical world. He had little education, 
 no literary culture, a shady private character, plenty of 
 fluency and effrontery, a fine stock of ingenuous snob- 
 bishness, and withal a sort of rough good-nature, not 
 wholly unsympathetic. We may pretty safely conjecture 
 that Thackeray had him in his eye when he drew Mr. 
 Doljihin, " the great manager from London," who lured 
 the Fotheringay awa}- from her Chatteris admirers. " He 
 was a tjll, ])ortly gentleman, with a hooked nose, and a 
 profusion of curling brown hair and whiskers ; his coat 
 was covered wiih the richest frogs-braiding and velvet. 
 He had under-waistcoats, many splendid rings, jewelled 
 pins, and neck-chains." I have before me a ])ortrait of 
 Alfred Bimn, to which this description (all but the single 
 word •' tall ") api)lies exactly. .\s a manager he was
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 87 
 
 sanguine, improvident, hapi>y-go-lucky, and (like his 
 master, Ellislon) devoted to the catchpenny methods of 
 the showman. His character and habits, in short, were 
 altogether antipathetic to Macready, who regarded with 
 justified forebodings the freak of fortune whitli made 
 " Bunny,'' as his friends loved to call him, the autocrat 
 of the legitimate drama. 
 
 His first measure was to strike a blow at the large 
 salaries which he considered the ruin of the stage, and 
 to re-establish the " maximum " of Sheridan and Harris 
 (;^20 a week). This step, which naturally enraged " the 
 profession," was a futile attempt to stem the oncoming- 
 tide of free-trade, and revert to a bygone order of things. 
 I have not been able to ascertain whether Macready, 
 in engaging with Bunn for the season 1833-34, con- 
 sented to this self-denying ordinance. Certain it is that 
 he joined the Drury Lane company, and appeared on the 
 opening night of the season as Prospero in Dryden and 
 Davenant's version of The Tempest, to which, "by way 
 of being extra legitimate," Bunn added Comas as an 
 afterpiece. The new manager was determined not to 
 let his principal tragedian rust in idleness. Between the 
 5th and the 30th of October Macready appeared fifteen 
 times, playing Prospero, Macbeth, Mr. Oakly, Pierre, 
 Biron (in Isabella), Posthumus, the Stranger, Wolsey, 
 Hotspur, Werner, and Leontes. As the season went on 
 his appearances were less frequent. On November 21, 
 struggling against illness, insufficient rehearsal, and de- 
 plorable mounting, he played Antony to the Cleopatra 
 of Miss Phillips, but made of it only " a hasty, unpre- 
 pared, unfinished performance." A few days later he 
 offered Bunn a premium to release him from his engage- 
 ment, which Bunn, in a conciliatory letter, declined to 
 do. The horsemanship of Ducrow attracted crowds to
 
 88 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 the pantomime of St. George and the Dragoti, and in the 
 early spring Bunn produced a successful adaptation of 
 Scribe's Bert?-and et Raton, under the title of The Minis- 
 ter and the Mercer. Thus Macready was not greatly in 
 request until after Easter, when a grand spectacular pro- 
 duction of Byron's Sardanapalus was announced. The 
 part of Myrrha was assigned to Ellen Tree ; but just as 
 the rehearsals were drawing to a close, Bunn received 
 a letter from Paris which altered his plans. It Avas an 
 offer from Mrs. Mardyn, the actress whose name had 
 been associated with Byron's in the scandalous chronicle 
 of 1815, to play the part of Myrrha, which, she declared, 
 liad been written for her. " My late regretted friend," 
 the writer stated, " ever paid me the flattering compli- 
 ment that in his portraiture of the ' Ionian INIyrrha,' I 
 had been associated by his muse in every image of her 
 trance, and that if ever the poem strayed into publicity, 
 beyond the closet, it was his wish that the dreek girl's 
 sandals should be worn by niei' Bunn promptly came 
 to terms with "Madame la Baronne de St. Dizier," as 
 ISIrs. Mardyn now called herself, and announced the 
 postponement of the production in order that the design 
 of the "Noble Author" might be fulfilled. But alas! 
 one illness after another prevented Madame la Baronne 
 from leaving Paris, and Bunn finally concluded (on in- 
 sufficient evidence, I think) that the whole correspond- 
 ence was a hoax, in which the real Mrs. Mardyn had no 
 hand. The part was restored to Ellen Tree, and the 
 play produced on April i o, with some success. Accord- 
 ing to Macready, Cooper, the stage-manager (who played 
 Salemenes), was "as capable of directing the niisc en 
 scene of a play as a man devoid of information, industry, 
 genius, or talent may be supposed to be." It was of 
 him that Malibran said, " C'est un liotel garni, dont
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 89 
 
 I'appartement le plus eleve est ordinairement le plus mal 
 meublc." The mounting, though far inferior to that of 
 Charles Kean's revival of the same play at the Princess's, 
 passed muster with tlie public of that day, and Sarda- 
 napalus had a considerable run. A revival of Henry IV. 
 Part IL, with the Coronation Spectacle, was also fairly 
 attractive, Macready resuming his old part of the King. 
 For his benefit (May 2t,) he pjlayed King Lear for the 
 first time in London, purging the text of Tate's absurdi- 
 ties, but not yet venturing to restore the Fool. He was 
 " as nervous as on the first night he acted in London," 
 and did himself no justice in the first two acts. In the 
 third act, however, he improved, and the performance 
 was, on the whole, a success. Before the season closed 
 he gave three performances at Covent Garden, repeating 
 Lear twice, and playing Hamlet once. 
 
 On Monday, July 28, Sheridan Knowles took a fare- 
 well benefit at the Victoria Theatre before starting for 
 America. There had been some estrangement between 
 him and INLicready, who, by way of heaping coals of fire 
 on his old friend's head, for what he called his " bad and 
 base conduct," offered to play Icilius to Knowles's Vir- 
 ginius on the night of his benefit. Knowles, however, 
 would not hear of this self-abasement, and elected to 
 play Siccius Dentatus to INIacready's Virginius, IVilliain 
 Tell being performed as an afterpiece, with the author 
 in the title-part. Macready also played Virginius for 
 Abbott's benefit, at the Opera House, on August 18. 
 
 The winter season of 1834-35 Macready spent entirely 
 in the country. On October 27, 1834, he wrote from 
 Dublin to his friend Thomas Gaspey, editor of the 
 Suuday Times — 
 
 '"I suppose you know that I a)ii not ew^agcd in London. 
 Mr. Bunn will not have me. I do not know the quality of
 
 90 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 his new performer [Denvil, who made somethuig- of a success 
 in Manfred, but failed lamentably in Othello], but presume 
 he is satisfied that I may be dispensed with. This is rather 
 hard, that so grievous a monopoly is to exclude an artist 
 from the practice of his art, where his station gives him 
 some right to appear. But cheapness is the order of the 
 day." 
 
 During this engagement in Dublin, Tlie Bridal^ adapted 
 by Alacready from Beaumont and Fletcher's Alaid's 
 Tragedy, was produced for the first time, with Macready 
 as Melantius. Sheridan Knowles had contributed three 
 scenes to the adaptation, and some misunderstanding as 
 to their respective shares in the work seems to have 
 caused the coolness between them to which I have just 
 alluded. 
 
 At the end of December, 1834, Macready embarked 
 on a managerial speculation at Bath and Bristol, in 
 partnership with a Mr. \\'oulds. The lieading of the 
 play-bills (written by Macready) ^announced a "CoMiu- 
 NATiON OF TALENT witliotit precedent in this or any theatre 
 out of the Metropolis, and at present dejying competition on 
 the part of the London theatres.'' Macready and Mrs. 
 Lovell were the tragic stars ; Dowton represented comedy ; 
 and ]\Ir. and Mrs. Wood (Miss Baton), popular vocalists 
 of the period, strengthened the combination. Macready 
 played all his popular parts, even Gambia, and at Bath, 
 on February 24, he added a new part to his list — that of 
 Ford in The Merry Wives of ]Vi/tdsor : Dowton i)laying 
 Falstaff; and Mr. and Mrs. Wood, Fenton ami Mrs. 
 I'ord. The " combination of talent," though Farren 
 joined il in tlic course of the spring, was nut, on the 
 whole, successful. Macready writes to Gaspey from 
 Bristol, on March 5, 1835 — 
 
 " I iiave made u;i my mind not to play at the wintci
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 91 
 
 theatres this season under any circumstances ; the thing is 
 too loiu down. We are playinj^^ here to splendid houses 
 — again. Last week the Woods, Dowton, and self played 
 on Monday in The Slave to ^{^50 (!!!) at Bath; on Tuesday, 
 Merry Wives of Windsor— £'^^ (II!). There's taste and 
 patronage! Thursday, Hamlet — upwards of ^100. Satur- 
 day, Rob Roy — turned ;^ioo again. Here we have played the 
 same pieces to considerably above ^100 each night, and the 
 /^<u-t\c_<^'7vv?//)' /c?/77/ for the remaining nights. . . . Dowton's 
 engagement has been a total failure. Bath is incapable of 
 supporting its Theatre." 
 
 The parsimony of Bath more than counterbalanced the 
 liberality of Bristol, and it was currently reported at the 
 time that Macready lost ;^iooo by the speculation ; but 
 this was prol)al)ly an overestimate. 
 
 Captain Polhill, having lost (as he told Planche) 
 ^50,000 in four seasons, withdrew his financial support 
 from Bunn's enterprise in December, 1834. The union 
 of the two houses was dissolved at the end of the season, 
 and Bunn's genius was forced to confine itself to the 
 restricted empire of Drury Lane. With many misgivings, 
 Macready agreed to join the Drury Lane company for 
 the season 1835-36. His salary of ^30 a week was to 
 extend over thirty weeks and a half; he was to act (if 
 called upon) four nights a week ; to be subject to no 
 forfeit or fine ; and to possess a veto on any part which 
 he might deem melodramatic. From the first the 
 engagement was unfortunate. On the opening night 
 (October i) Macready, by his own confession, played 
 Macbeth very badly, and " felt almost desperate." His 
 form improved as time went on, and before the 28th of 
 the month he had played Jacjues, Hamlet, Hotspur, 
 Leontes, Lord Townly, and Othello — sixteen ])erform- 
 ances in all. But now came the great success of Balfe's 
 Siege of Kochelle, followed by the still greater success of
 
 92 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 Planche's three-act drama, The Jewess, founded upon 
 La Jiiive of Scribe, " and got up with nearly as much 
 splendour as the original." Macready's Shakespearian 
 performances, even aided by the abnormal receipt due to 
 a royal " command," had produced an average of less 
 than p^2 2o a night, and Bunn could not afford to inter- 
 rupt, for Macready's sake, the run of entertainments 
 which, combined in one bill, brought in an average 
 receipt of ;^33o. Macready had declined the part of 
 Eleazar in The Jeiaess, played by Vandenhoff, and the 
 result was that he found himself entirely shelved from 
 October 28 until February 3, His salary, of course, was 
 duly paid him, though even that Bunn had proposed to 
 reduce ; but this enforced idleness suited neither his pride 
 nor his interest. That one of the two homes of the 
 legitimate drama should be given up week after week to 
 the unbroken run of an opera and a melodramatic 
 spectacle, was undoubtedly an innovation, and in 
 Macready's eyes a degrading one. Moreover, Bunn had 
 broken his contract to produce The Bridal " immediately 
 after Christmas," thus depriving Macready of a consider- 
 able addition to his income, on which he had calculated. 
 Hence the relations between actor and manager became 
 more and more strained as the season advanced. On 
 l^'ebruary 3 Macready reappeared as Othello, and a 
 week later he created the part of Bertuli:)hc in The 
 Provost of Bruges, to the Constance of Ellen Tree. This 
 tragedy was the work of G. W. Lovell, secretary of the 
 Phoenix Life Assurance Company, and husband of the 
 actress to whom the English stage owes Itigomar and 
 Parthenia. It was a vigorous work of the school of 
 Knowles, and Macready, no doubt, entered heart and soul 
 into the agonies of the merchant prince who falls from 
 his high estate by reason of the discovery that he was
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 
 
 93 
 
 bom a serf. His performance was much praised, but 
 the tragedy failed, being- played eight nights at an 
 average loss of ;Q()o a night. Meanwhile The Jezvess was 
 still holding the bills, backed by Auber's Bronze Horse, 
 and a "grand chivalric entertainment," entitled. Chevy 
 Chase. Macready's appearances were consequently rare 
 — they numbered twenty-one in all between February 3 
 and April 29 — and the average receipt produced by his 
 Shakespearian performances barely rose above ;^iSo. 
 It now occurred to Bunn, in an unlucky moment, that he 
 might combine tragedy with opera and spectacle. He 
 accordingly announced The Corsair {Zainpa) for April 
 16, with Macready in Willia/n Tell as an afterpiece. 
 This was a sore indignity, but Macready submitted under 
 protest. Emljoldened by this partial victory, Bunn next 
 announced for April 29 a " combined attraction," con- 
 sisting of the first three acts o( Richard III., The /ewess, 
 and the first act of Chciy Chase. A truncated tragedy 
 was almost, if not quite, as degrading as an afterpiece, 
 and Macready worked himself into a state of frenzy over 
 the matter. He thought of throwing up his engagement, 
 but his solicitude for his children's future forbade him 
 to sacrifice ^250. Once more lie determined to submit ; 
 but on April 28, the eve of the " day of wrath," lie 
 wound up the entry in his diary with the words, " God 
 knows I have very few friends here. I am very un- 
 happy." 
 
 Unhappy he was, but rather in the multitude than the 
 paucity of his friends. Their " obstinate condolements " 
 over Bunn's " scandalous and insulting proceeding " 
 exasperated his exasperation. Even his old antagonist, 
 diaries Kemble, commiserated him. He went to the 
 theatre on the evening of Friday, April 29, '• tetchy and 
 unhappy ; " but " pushed through the part in a sort of
 
 94 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 desperate way as well as he could."' He left the stage a 
 few minutes before nine o'clock to return to his dressing- 
 room. His way lay past the door of Bunn's office, and 
 the chance proximity to the author of all his wrongs 
 suddenly overcame his self-control. He threw open the 
 door — there sat the manager at his writing-table, over 
 which a shaded lamp cast a glow of light. *• I could not 
 contain myself," he writes. " I exclaimed, ' You damned 
 scoundrel! how dare you use me in this manner?' 
 And going up to him as he sat on the. other side of the 
 table, I struck him, as he rose, a back-handed slap across 
 the face." At this point we may let Bunn take up the 
 tale — 
 
 "After an ejaculation of ' There, you villain, take that— 
 and that I ' I was knocked down, one of my eyes completely 
 closed, the ankle of my left leg, which I am in the habit of 
 passing round the leg of the chair when writing, violently 
 sprained, my person plentifully soiled with blood, lamp-oil, 
 and ink, the table upset, and Richard the Third holding me 
 down. On my naturally inquiring if he meant to murder 
 me, and on his replying in the affirmative, I made a struggle 
 for it, threw him oft* and . . . finally succeeded in getting 
 him down on the sofa, where, mutilated as I was, I would 
 have made him ' remember Mi:,' but for the interposition of 
 the people who had soon filled the room." 
 
 It is evident from, all accounts that, considering his 
 bulk, and the fact of his being taken unawares, Bunn 
 made a surprisingly good fight for it. He did his anta- 
 gonist no great damage, beyond biting the little finger of 
 his left hand ; but when the combatants were separated, 
 the manager was clearly u])permost. Willmott the 
 jMompter, the call-boy, and others (juickly came to the 
 rescue. Macready retreated to his dressing-room, where 
 his friends, Wallace, Forster, and Dow, soon arrived to
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 95 
 
 hold a council of war. Runn, on the other hand, was 
 conveyed to bed. He did not leave the house for three 
 weeks, and then hobbled to the theatre on crutches, to 
 superintend Malibran's last rehearsals in T/ic Maid of 
 Artois. 
 
 Macready's part in the affair was certainly not dignified. 
 If there had been any premeditation about it, the assault 
 would even have been cowardly. But lie more than 
 expiated the offence in the anguish of spirit it caused 
 him. It was a notorious victory of that worser part in 
 his nature against which he was for ever struggling. He 
 happened to take up Johnson's " Life of Savage " on the 
 following day, when " the idea of murder presented itself 
 so painfully and strongly to his mind, that he turned 
 directly lor relief to another subject." Moreover, the 
 
 newspaper placards, " Great Fight. B — nn and AT y" 
 
 the paragraphs, the caricatures, the gossip and comment 
 on the affair, were torture to his soul. " It makes me 
 sick to think of it," he wrote. Yet in this respect he 
 escaped more easily than might have been expected. 
 Bunn was no favourite with the general public, whose 
 verdict, on the whole, seems to have been, " Serve him 
 right ! ■' Osl)aldiston, who was running Covent Garden 
 Theatre at reduced prices, at once offered Macready an 
 engagement, and on May 11, twelve days after the 
 assault, he appeared as Macbeth. " The pit — indeed, 
 the house," he says, " rose and waved hats and handker- 
 chiefs, cheering in the most fervent and enthusiastic 
 manner." He made a short speech at the end of tlie 
 tragedy, alluding to the "annoying and mortifying pro- 
 vocations " to which he had been subjected " in cold 
 blood," but at the same time expressed his regret for " an 
 intemperate and imprudent act, for which he felt, and 
 should never cease to feel, the deepest and most poignant
 
 96 1 VILLI AM CHARLES M ACRE ADV. 
 
 self-reproach." It is evident that, in the end, the event 
 brought him an access of popularity. Weighing one 
 thing with another, the public did not actively condemn 
 his conduct, and the whole affair was a brilliant 
 advertisement. 
 
 At Covent Garden, Virginius followed Macbeth, and 
 on May i8 the bill announced that " Miss Helen Faucit 
 will act for the first time with Mr. Macready," her part 
 being Mrs. Haller in The Stranger. For Macready's 
 benefit, on May 26, Talfourd's Ion was performed for the 
 first time with complete success, Miss Ellen Tree playing 
 Clemanthe. It was suggested that Talfourd should go 
 on the stage in response to the applause of the audience ; 
 but to such an unprecedented proposal INIacready said, 
 '' On no account in the world." As it happened to be 
 the author's birthday, the event was celebrated by a 
 supper at his house. '' I was happily placed," writes 
 Macready, " between Wordsworth and Landor, with 
 Browning opposite." Happily placed, indeed ! Forster, 
 Stanfield, and Ellen Tree w'ere also present, along with 
 — guests less congenial to Macready — Miss Mitford and 
 the Rev. W. Harness. As the assault upon Bunn was 
 not yet an " old, unhappy, far-off thing, or battle long- 
 ago," Wordsworth perhaps showed less tact than might 
 have been desired in quoting the lines from his own 
 Borderers — 
 
 " Action is transitor> — a step, a blow. 
 The motion of a muscle — this way or that — 
 'Tis done ; and in the after vacancy 
 We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed." 
 
 Macready, however, does not seem to have noticed the 
 allusion. " I felt tranciuilly hajipy," lie writes. 
 
 For Osbaldiston's benefit, on May 30, Julius Ccesar
 
 THi: DOI.DRrMS. 97 
 
 was revived, with Sheridan Knowles as Brutus, Macready 
 as Cassius, and Charles Kenible in his great character of 
 Mark Antony. The Bunn affair had led to a formal 
 reconciliation between Kemble and Macready, who, how- 
 ever, writes of this performance, " I do not think my 
 reception was quite so long as Kemble's, or I did not 
 use sufficient generalship with it."' The eighth re]:)resen- 
 tation oi Ion brought the season to a close on June ii. 
 From the second night onwards Miss Faucit had re- 
 placed Ellen Tree as Clemanthe. 
 
 It had been supposed at first that Bunn would challenge 
 Macready, who was ready to go out if called upon. The 
 wily manager, however, took refuge in the plea that his 
 adversary's conduct had deprived him of all right to 
 be treated as a gendeman. He chose the more pacific 
 course of suing him for assault, and as Macready allowed 
 judgment to go l)y default, the issue was reduced to an 
 assessment of damages. Thesiger, afterwards Lord Chelms- 
 ford, was Bunn's counsel, while Talfourd appeared for 
 Macready. It cannot be said that Talfourd's advocacy 
 did much for Macready's case. His address to the jury, 
 full of cajolery and emi)ty rhetoric, is a fine example of 
 the Bu/.fuz style. 
 
 '' Shakespeare ! " cried the learned Serjeant — "the mighty 
 magic of the name is enough — Shakespeare, in whose might}- 
 name the British drama originated, and still has its being — 
 Shakespeare, and Shakespeare's representative, Mr. Mac- 
 ready, were to be shelved, that the words of the songs of The 
 Maid of Ariois should be given to the public. How polite, 
 how modest, is Mr. Bunn ! Mr. Bunn's poetry against Shake- 
 speare's Richard III. f . . . Mr. Macready felt injured and 
 insulted ; he struck Mr. Bunn ; a scuffle ensued ; genius, and 
 right, and strength triumphed — Mr. Bunn was the sufferer!" 
 
 The attempt to represent Macready as a victim to 
 
 H
 
 98 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 Bunn's literary vanity was too flagrant a piece of special 
 pleading even for a British jury. The truth, though it 
 was not Talfourd's cue to admit it, was that " Shakespeare 
 and Shakespeare's representative " did not draw, whereas 
 opera and spectacle did. The fortunes of the season 
 (unforeseen, of course, at its outset) had made Macready 
 a white elephant on the manager's hands, and he treated 
 the haughty and supersensitive tragedian with little con- 
 sideration and less tact. Macready accused him of 
 attempting, by dint of deliberate and studied humilia- 
 tions, to force him to throw up his engagement ; but I 
 find no evidence of any such far-reaching plan on Bunn's 
 part. The player's professional position and dignity were 
 nothing to the manager. He regarded actors as his natural 
 enemies : they got all they could out of him ; he would get 
 all he could out of them. 'We can scarcely believe that 
 it would have done Macready's position any grievous harm 
 had he yielded with a good grace to the requirements of 
 a manager who, after all, had paid him a large sum and 
 received very little in return. In any case, even if he was 
 right to be "jealous in honour," he was obviously wrong 
 in being so " sudden and quick in quarrel." The jury, 
 despite Talfourd's blandishments, awarded Bunn damages 
 to the amount of j[,'i^o. 
 
 After some unimportant provincial engagements, Mac- 
 ready returned to Covent (harden, where he had agreed 
 with Osbaldiston for twenty-two weeks at j[,^o a week. 
 His opening part was the favourite Macbeth (October 3), 
 with Pritchard as Macduff, and Mrs. ^^^ A\'est as Lady 
 Macbeth. 
 
 Charles Kemble's farewell performances drew crowded 
 houses during the last three months of 1836. He 
 ])layed his great parts of Faulconbridgc, Cassio, and 
 Aiiiony, to Macready's King John, Othello, and Brutu.s,
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 
 
 99 
 
 and also acted Hamlet, Macbeth, Mercutio, Shylock, 
 and Petruchio, his last part being Benedick, to Miss 
 Faucit's Beatrice, on December 23. Osbaldiston was 
 running the theatre at reduced prices (boxes, 4J-. ; pit, 2s. ; 
 lower gallery, i^-. ; upper gallery, 6d.) ; but the rush to 
 see the last of Kemble induced him to announce on the 
 play-bill of Monday, November 21 {Julius Caesar), that 
 " Stalls had been fitted up in the Orchestra," admission 
 7,s-. ; and this arrangement was adhered to throughout 
 the season. 
 
 On the fourth day of the new year (1837) a new 
 dramatist made his first essay. The Duchess de la 
 Vallihr, " by H L. Bulwer, Esq., M.P.," had been 
 offered to Bunn in the spring of 1836; but the author 
 making it a condition that the play should be accepted 
 unread, Bunn very naturally declined to buy a pig in a 
 poke. At Covent Garden, Vandenhoff made a most 
 unkingly Louis XIV. ; Farren was ludicrously out of 
 place as Lauzun ; Miss Faucit acted La Valliere ; and 
 Macready, Bragelone. The play met with a mixed 
 reception, and held the bill for eight nights only. That 
 Macready should ever have accepted the part of Brage- 
 lone is a strong proof of his friendship for Bulwer ; for 
 the scenes between Louis, La ^^alliere, and Madame de 
 Montespan in the third act are the only really effective 
 passages in the rambling, turgid, and unhealthy play. 
 Another new dramatist was soon to have his turn. We 
 have seen that at the Ion supper Macready sat opposite 
 to Robert Browning. " On descending the staircase," 
 writes Mr. Browning, "he said, with an affectionate 
 gesture, ' Will you not write me a tragedy, and save me 
 from going to America ? ' " Mr. Browning responded in 
 a letter which Macready accepted as one of the highest 
 honours that had ever been paid him ; but other occu-
 
 loo WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 pations prevented the poet from immediately fixing on 
 a subject. At last he selected the story of Thomas 
 Wentworth, and on the evening of Macready's benefit 
 (May i) Strafford was produced for the first time. 
 While the play was in rehearsal Macready had grave 
 doubts as to its reception, which the event did not 
 justify. He anticipated " consideral)le opposition ;" but 
 though the minor parts were badly filled, the play met 
 with unmixed applause. " Macready acted very finely," 
 Mr. Browning notes, " as did Miss Faucit. Pym received 
 tolerable treatment. The rest — -for the sake of whose 
 incompetence the play had to be reduced by at least one- 
 third of its dialogue — noii ragiouiain dl lor .'" Most of 
 the critics complained of the obscurity of the action. 
 "Events are implied, not stated," said the Jo/in Bull : 
 "thoughts inferred, not uttered." Even the more than 
 friendly Examiner could not predict permanent success 
 for the trasedv. 
 
 ■^C)^ 
 
 "It should be stated, however," the critic wrote, "that it 
 was most infamously got up ; that even Mr. Macready 
 himself was not near so fine as lie is wont to be ; and that 
 for the rest of the performers, with the exception of Miss 
 Faucit, they were a barn wonder to look at ! Mr. \'anden- 
 hoff was positively nauseous, with his whining, drawling, 
 and slouching in Pym ; and Mr. [J.] Webster whimpered 
 in somewhat too juvenile a fashion through young \'ane. 
 Some one should have stepped out of the pit and thrust Mr. 
 Dale [Charles I.] from the stage. . . . The most striking 
 thing of the evening was Mr. Macready's first entrance 
 upon the stage. It was the portrait of the great and ill-fated 
 Earl stepping from the living canvas of Vandj-ke." 
 
 The play-bill of May 3 (Osbaldiston was great in 
 play-bills) announced that " The new Historical Tragedy 
 of STRAFFonr). having been iiukcd most cminentlv
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. lOI 
 
 successful and greeted with the most enthusiastic fervour 
 hy a liouse densely crowded in every part, will be 
 repeated This Evening, on Friday and Tuesday next.' 
 After the fourth performance (May 9) a series of benefits 
 intervened, and tlie fifth and last did not take place 
 until May 30, when the tragedy was for the first time 
 announced as " by — Browning, Esq." 
 
 Macready's chief parts during the spring were King 
 John to the Faulconbridge of Vandenhoff and the 
 Constance of Miss Faucit \ Brutus to Vandenhoff' s 
 Cassius and Sheridan Knowles's Antony ; Posthumus to 
 Elton's lachimo, Farren's Cloten, and Miss Faucit's 
 Imogen ; and Leontes to Miss Faucit's Hermione, Mrs. 
 Glover's Paulina, and Farren's Autolycus. His last 
 appearance took place on June 3, when he played 
 Othello to Elton's lago and Miss Faucit's Desdemona. 
 
 The doldrums were now fairly past, and during the 
 remaining fourteen years of his career Macready ran 
 before the trade-winds of success. His financial fortunes 
 varied, but his reputation, his position, was securely 
 established. He was "a personage/' the recognized 
 leader of his profession. He had lived down the adverse 
 influences which beset his middle course. Though 
 heartily hated in many (quarters, he was respected in 
 all. His unpopularity both with the press and among 
 his fellow-actors had decidedly declined, and, on the 
 other hand, his enthusiastic supporters were more 
 numerous and influential than ever before. The faith- 
 ful Talfourd was always at liis side. He had made the 
 acquaintance of John Forster at Kean's funeral, in 1833. 
 Bulwer he met in Dublin in the following year, and their 
 friendship was now confirmed. In 1835, at the house 
 of \\\ J. Fox, he met '^' Mr. Robert Browning, the author 
 of Pamcehiisr In his dressing-room at the Haymarket,
 
 I02 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 in June, 1837, Forster introduced him to ''Dickens, 
 alias Boz," his friend till death parted them. Thus the 
 chief members of his much-talked-of " clique " were 
 already around him at the period we have now reached. 
 The establishment of the Garrick Club, in 1832, some- 
 what extended his social relations, but its atmosphere 
 was never very congenial to him, and he retired from it 
 at the close of 1838. During and after his period of 
 management he entered largely into social life, and his 
 dinner-parties were famous in their way. " I only intend 
 in future," writes Abraham Hayward, in 1838, "to go to 
 dinner where I am sure of meeting people worth meet- 
 ing. ... At Macready's, for example, there was no 
 rank, but there w^as hardly a person in the room but was 
 worth knowing for something." 
 
 I am inclined to believe that his liberation from his 
 thraldom to the bungling managers of Drury l,ane led 
 to a substantial improvement in his art. In the news- 
 paper criticisms between 1825 and 1835 the adjectives 
 "cold," " tame," and " measured " recur with surprising 
 frequency. Now, if we can be sure of anything with 
 regard to a player of the past, it is that Macready was 
 not naturally " cold " or " tame." His temper, however, 
 reacted strongly upon his performances, and the chronic 
 dissatisfaction and despondency under which he laboured 
 through so many seasons may well have begotten a 
 slackness and apathy in his average efforts. Under these 
 circumstances, too, he would naturally yield to his 
 mannerisms without a struggle. He notes that on 
 December 7, 1836, Mrs. Glover remarked to Iiini that 
 " she had never seen such an improvement in any person 
 as in himself lately;" and Mrs. Glover spoke with the 
 authority of commanding talent, and an experience which 
 reached back to the best days of the Kemble dynasty.
 
 THE DOLDRUMS. 103 
 
 No doubt his somewhat exaggerated sense of having 
 endangered his position by his assault on Bunn served 
 as a spur to his flagging genius ; and he was soon to 
 have the nobler incentive of acting amid worthy sur- 
 roundings on behalf of an enterprise in which his own 
 fortunes were identified with what he conceived to be 
 the best interests of the British drama. 
 
 Macreadv's Characters. 
 1823-1837. 
 
 DruryLane: 1823-24: Leontes, 12; *Caius Gracchus, 
 Rob Roy, 7 ; Virginius, 4 ; Macbeth, Roll a, 3 ; Hamlet, 
 Duke {Measure for Measure)., Wolse)', Coriolanus, 2 ; 
 Prospcro, Almaviva, Delaval {Mairii/io/iy), i. 
 
 1824-25 : *\Villiam Tell, 11 ; Romont {Fatal Dowry), 7 ; 
 Macbeth, Jaques, 4 ; Leontes, 3 ; King John, Virginius, 2 ; 
 Wolsey, Henry v., Rob Roy, Gambia, i. 
 
 1826 : Tell, 6 ; Virginius, 4 ; Macbeth, Othello, Hotspur, 
 2 ; Leontes, Posthumus, Delaval, i. 
 
 1827-28 : Virginius, 8 ; Tell, 6 ; ]\Lacbeth, 3 ; *Ribemont 
 {Edward the Black Prince), *Henry of Trastamar {Don 
 Pedro), 2 ; Hamlet, Biron {Isabella), Jaques, Posthumus, i. 
 
 1830-31 : *Werner, 17; Joseph Surface, 16; *Alfred the 
 Great, 15 ; Tell, 11 ; *Don Leo {T/ic Pledge), 8 ; Rob Roy, 
 5 ; Virginius, 4 ; Hastings, Henri Ouatre, Macbeth, 3 ; Henry 
 v., Pierre, Stranger, Mr. Oakly, Coriolanus, 2 ; Hamlet, 
 Hotspur, King John, Daran {The Exile), Puff, i. 
 
 1831-32 : *Scroope {Merchant of London), g ; Daran, 7 ; 
 Macbeth, 6 ; Richard III., Rob Roy, 5 ; Tell, 4 ; Werner, 
 Virginius, Joseph Surface, 3 ; Alfred the Great, 2 ; Hastings, 
 Stranger, King John, Hamlet, Leontes, Petruchio, i. At 
 CovENT Garden : Ghost {Hamlet), i. 
 
 1832-33 : lago, II ; Joseph Surface, 8 ; Rob Roy, Mac- 
 beth, 6 ; Rolla, *Co\hQrg {House of ColOero;), Tell, Mr.' Oakly, 
 *Lord Bellenden {Men of Pleasure), 4; Kitely, Virginius, 
 2 ; Hotspur, Hastings, Daran, Wolsey, i.
 
 I04 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 1833-34: *Sardanapalus, 23; Henry I\'.. 12; Macbeth. 
 Werner, 7 ; Prospero, Hotspur, \'irginius, 4 ; Tell, Antony 
 {Antony and C/copatra), 3 ; Hastings, Hamlet, Coriolanus, 
 
 2 : Mr. Oakly, Pierre, Biron {IsadcHa), Posthumus, Stranger, 
 Wolscy, Leontes, Jaques, Henry V., lago, King John, King 
 Lear, i. At Covent Garden : King Lear, 2 ; Hamlet, 
 I. At the Victoria : A'irginius, I. At the Opera HOUSE : 
 Virginias, i. 
 
 1835-36: Macbeth, 9; *Bertulphe {Pro7'os/ 0/ Bneifcs), 
 8 ; Othello, 7 ; Hamlet, Lord Townly, 3 ; Jaques, Hotspur, 
 Leontes, Virginius, King John, Tell, Stranger, Henry IV., 
 Richard IIL (tirst three acts), i. 
 
 Covent Garden : 1836 : *Ion, 8 ; INLacbcth, Stranger, 2 ; 
 Virginius, Hamlet, Cassius, i. 
 
 1S36-37 : Othello, King John, 14; Ion, Brutus, 13; 
 *Bragelone {La VaUicrc), 8; ^slacbeth, 7; Richard III., 
 VVolsey, *Straftbrd, 5 ; Virginius, 4 ; Werner, Posthumus, 
 
 3 ; Leontes, Pierre, 2 ; Hamlet, Hastings, i.
 
 lo; 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1837-1843. 
 
 MANAGEMENT. 
 
 The idea of going into management had hovered before 
 Macready's mind tor years. It was absohitely necessary, 
 he felt — and the "legitimate" actors all felt with him — 
 that some effort should be made to arrest the rapid decline 
 of the legitimate drama. At the patent theatres, to which 
 these performers were obliged to look for the greater part, 
 at any rate, of their livelihood, matters had long been 
 going from bad lo worse. Manager after manager had 
 been driven to the most '' illegitimate" expedients in the 
 hope of attracting the public, and had nevertheless drifted 
 into insolvenc}'. The monopoly which confined the 
 ''regular drama"" to Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and 
 the Haymarket had become a mere dog-in-the-manger 
 absurdity. Its days were clearly numbered; yet Macready 
 and most of his comrades had the foresight to recognize 
 that the remedy for the depression of their particular 
 Ijranch of ait was not to be found in free-trade. In his 
 evidence before the Select Committee on Dramatic 
 Literature, of 1S32, Macready had expressed himself in 
 favour of the monoi)oly, with certain modifications. In the 
 mean time, the fact of the decline was obvious, and it was
 
 ro6 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 generally felt that some serious attempt ought to be made 
 to stay it. All eyes turned towards Macready. In spite 
 of his unpopularity, he was known to be an able, energetic, 
 honourable man. If anything could be done, he was the 
 man to do it. Private motives conspired with public con- 
 siderations to induce him to undertake the task. It was 
 certain that, unless he stepped into the breach, the great 
 theatres would be given over to a succession of showman- 
 managers, of Bunns and Osbaldistons, each, probably, 
 more speculative and irresponsible than the last. He 
 ' could no longer brook such leadership ; and, on the other 
 hand, his power of attraction in the provinces was on the 
 wane. Even if his management should result in a 
 pecuniary loss, the effort, he knew, would not be in- 
 glorious. The great productions which he had in his 
 mind's eye would give his reputation a fillip both in the 
 country and in America. A splendid success was pos- 
 sible, a disastrous failure highly improbable. The enter- 
 prise might conceivably lead to great results for dramatic 
 art and all concerned in it, while at Avorst it could do 
 him, personally, no harm in the long-run. Osbaldiston's 
 failure offered an opportunity, and, after much anxious 
 thought, Macready determined to enter into negotiations 
 with the Covent Garden proprietors. 
 
 In the mean time, he had accepted a short engagement 
 with Benjamin Webster, who entered upon his historic 
 management at the Haymarket on INIonday, June 12, 
 1837. On that night Macready played Hamlet, with 
 Webster as the Gravedigger, Elton as the Ghost, and 
 Miss Huddart as the Queen. The chief event of this en- 
 gagement was the first performance in London (June 26) 
 of The Bridal. Tt was an adroit-enough li.mdling of a 
 difficult subject, though much of the tragic intensity of 
 the original was, of course, sacrificed, whilst the style of
 
 MANA CEMENT. 107 
 
 Knowles, overlaying that of Beaumont and Fletcher, was 
 like a coat of cheap varnish on a Stradivarius. Its 
 success was declared to be more brilliant and decisive 
 tlian that of any play since The Hii}ichback. According 
 to the Times, the rough frankness of Macready's Me- 
 lantius was touching, his anger terrific. Miss Huddart's 
 Evadne was probably the great success of her life. 
 Elton made a hit as Amintor, and Miss Taylor played 
 Aspatia. Farren, Buckstonc, Mrs. Nisbett, and Mrs. 
 Glover were all at this time members of the Haymarket 
 company, and Macready appeared along with them in 
 The Provoked Hnsbayid. 
 
 By the middle of July the Covent Garden negotiations 
 were practically concluded. I have not been able to dis- 
 cover the precise details of Macready's contract with the 
 proprietors. ^Ve find in his diary that he offered to 
 pay ^40 per night for a hundred and eighty nights 
 (_p^720o in all), and then, after assigning himself a salary 
 of ^^30 a week, to share any surplus with the proprietors 
 "till the remainder of ^8800 should be paid to them." 
 On the other hand, we have his own statement that the 
 rent he actually did pay was only ^5500, or about ^26 
 for each of the two hundred and eleven acting nights of 
 the season. During his second and more productive 
 season he paid ^7000 on two hundred and twenty-one 
 acting nights, or a little over ^31 a night. It appears, 
 then, that the claims of the proprietors must have been 
 in some measure contingent on the receipts ; but the 
 details of the arrangement are, to me at least, obscure. 
 Fifteen years earlier, Elliston had paid the Drury Lane 
 proprietors ;^i 1,300 in a single season. Comparing 
 these figures, the reader may estimate for himself the 
 depreciation of theatrical property. 
 
 The next care was to select a company, and to induce
 
 io8 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 the actors so far to moderate their demands as to give 
 the enterprise a fair start. The fact that he had no real 
 difticulty on this score is a conclusive proof of the con- 
 fidence he inspired. He met with only one serious re- 
 buff — from Charles Kean. Having won his way by a 
 hard struggle into genuine popularity, Kean was but little 
 tempted by Macready's offer to "give the completest 
 scope to the full development of his talents." He knew 
 that the value of such a phrase lay entirely in its inter- 
 pretation; and being by inheritance and habit essentially 
 a " star," he saw that it would be folly on his part to 
 become a stock actor under a tragedian-manager. Mac- 
 ready can scarcely have expected any other reply. His 
 offer was probably intended as a mere cloak for the ex- 
 pression of a hope that, if Kean could not co-operate, 
 he would at least not actively oppose — a rather maladroit 
 appeal to an improbable generosity. 
 
 On July 30, 1837, Macready wrote to his friend Wight- 
 wick, with reference to an Exeter tragedian, of whom 
 good reports had reached him — 
 
 '• I hope he is moderate in his expectations of 7-cmiiiicraiion 
 for ours is now a struggle for existence^ not for profit ; and 
 every salary on our establishment is largely, but willingly, 
 reduced. I should like much to know what is his aim in 
 coming to town — whether he has the 'aul Ca:sar aut nullus' 
 view of young Kean, or a resolution in the love of his art to 
 study and toil for the perfection of it." 
 
 This young man was named Samuel Phelps; and, after 
 a visit to Southampton to see him act, Macready engaged 
 him. Another provincial aclor, James Anderson, who 
 came of a Scotch theatrical firmily, and had been on the 
 stage from his childhood, was secured for the "juvenile 
 lead." Phelps was at this time thirty-three, Anderson 
 twenty-eight. Edward \\'illiam Ellon, on the ulhur hand.
 
 AfA NA GEMENT. \ 09 
 
 was only a year younger than Macready himself. He had 
 for nearly twenty years been struggling into notice as a 
 provincial and East-End actor, but had only recently made 
 his mark in the ^^'est End. An amiable and intelligent 
 man, he had no originality of talent, and his small stature 
 stood in the way of his advancement. James Warde was 
 a still older stager. V,oxx\ in 1790, he had been a leading 
 actor in Bath and Dublin for a dozen years before his 
 first appearance at Covent Garden in 1825. He was 
 a useful and " responsible " performer of the second 
 rank. Ten years younger than Warde, George Bennett 
 was an actor of similar merit, though not yet of equal 
 reputation. He had played the leading tragic characters 
 in his day, not without applause ; but his place was un- 
 doubtedly in the second rank. Pritchard, though an 
 actor of some ambition, scarcely rose above the third 
 rank, to which such useful but undistinguished performers 
 as Waldron and Diddear certainly belonged. On the 
 level of general utility stood T. J. Serle, playwright and 
 actor, one of Macready's most assiduous henchmen ; and 
 a youth of twenty-five, named Henry Howe, was already 
 showing in small parts that sterling ability which has 
 earned him the respect of two generations of playgoers. 
 Among the ladies, Miss Huddart and Miss Helen Eaucit 
 shared the leading place. Miss Huddart, born in 1804, 
 had been discovered and brought to the front by Mac- 
 ready, and was now the best living actress of what may 
 be called Siddonian characters. Miss Eaucit, whose 
 mother and elder sister had preceded her on the boards, 
 was a girl of eighteen, and had made her first appearance 
 so recently as January, 1836. She was already recognized 
 as the most promising young actress of her time; but her 
 first signal triumph was yet (and very soon) to come. 
 On tlie comic side the company was well provided
 
 no WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 The genial and rotund Bartley, fifty-five years of age, 
 had made liis first appearance in London so early as 
 1802, had acted all over the English-speaking world of 
 his time, had succeeded Fawcett as stage-manager at 
 Covent Garden during Charles Kemble's reign, and now 
 retained that post under Macready. W. |. Hammond, 
 one of the best low comedians and burlesque actors on 
 the stage, came fresh from a great success at the Strand 
 Theatre in the part of Sani Weller, the popular hero of 
 the hour. Vining, Drinkwater Meadows, and Tilbury 
 were all sterling actors trained in a good school. Harley, 
 " Quicksilver Harley," whom the death of Munden and the 
 retirement of Liston left incontestably the first comedian 
 of the older generation, joined the company in the 
 spring of 1838 ; and Tyrone Power, the extravagantly 
 popular Irish actor ; Strickland, a good comedian of the 
 second order ; and Mrs. Glover, the greatest living 
 actress in 'a wide range of comic characters, — all made 
 brief appearances in the course of the season. Miss 
 Taylor (afterwards Mrs. Walter Lacy) ])layed with dis- 
 tinction in sentimental comedy ; Mrs. Humby was an 
 experienced and popular soubrette ; Mrs. W. Clifford 
 was a good " first old woman ; " and a girl of nineteen, 
 Miss Priscilla Horton, whom many of us remember as 
 Mrs. German Reed, soon proved herself one of the most 
 useful members of the company. 
 
 " English opera," said ALicready, in his opening mani- 
 festo, " has become an essential part of the amusements 
 of a metropolitan audience." He was consequently 
 forced to secure a strong musical company, the leaders 
 of which v/ere Wilson, Manvers, and Leffler, Miss 
 Shirreff, and Miss Vincent. Though these names have 
 lillle meaning in our ears, they were poinilar in their 
 day. Indeed, I gather that Miss Shirreff drew tlie
 
 MAXAGEMENT. ill 
 
 highest salary on the Covent Garden list~-^i8 a week. 
 Macready offered Miss Faucit (and she seems to have 
 accepted) ;^i5 a week, while Phelps had only ;£\o, and 
 Anderson jCd. The musical director was Alexander 
 Lee, once part-manager of Drury Lane, who died some 
 years afterwards in extreme misery. There was also a 
 complete company of pantomiraists on the establishment, 
 including W. H. Payne, T. IVLatthews, and C. J. Smith, 
 who used to play " utility " parts in the Shakespearian 
 productions. The chief scene-painter was Marshall, an 
 artist of some originality. 
 
 Macready promised and carried out two reforms which 
 deserve to be noticed. He forswore the extravagant and 
 mendacious play-bill puffs of his predecessors, and he 
 did his best, at considerable trouble and expense, to free 
 the theatre from the " improper intrusion "' which had 
 from time immemorial rendered certain parts of it 
 unapproachable for ladies. At Covent Garden he seems 
 to have effected this improvement with comparative ease ; 
 but at Drury Lane, in 1S41, his conduct was so misre- 
 presented in the press (especially by the John Bull and 
 the Weekly Dispatch) as to .cause him much annoyance. 
 On the whole, he seems to have effected a distinct 
 improvement in the manners of the average audience. 
 Ten years earlier, Prince Piickler-Muskau wondered how 
 great actors could endure to waste their genius on the 
 inattentive mob whose turbulence would often spoil their 
 best effects. 
 
 At the end of this chapter will be found a synopsis, as 
 complete as my limits allow, of Macready's four seasons 
 of management. I have given the dates and casts of all 
 important productions, with the numlier of their repeti- 
 tions, so that such details need not burden my text. The 
 bill generally consisted of a five-act play and a farce, a
 
 112 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADl. 
 
 three-act drama, or a musical piece ; sometimes both a 
 farce and an operetta would be given. For instance, 
 Macbeth would be followed by Fra Dlavolo or The 
 Marriage of Figaro, Hamlet by The Miller and his Men, 
 Othello by Dibdin's Waterman and The Spitfire, Werner 
 by the Christmas pantomime. With us a three-act play 
 will often constitute an '• entire evening's entertainment ; " 
 fifty years ago the public would have felt defrauded had 
 the manager offered them less than six acts, and did not 
 complain of seven or eight. "• Curtain-raisers " were 
 unknown. The solid pudding always headed the bill of 
 fare, with a more or less liberal dessert to follow. The 
 institution of "half-price," however, must have been a 
 boon to all who preferred to take their theatrical enjoy- 
 ments in moderate doses. 
 
 The new management made but a languid start. The 
 Winter's Tale was carefully but not brilliantly mounted, 
 and the acting excited no enthusiasm. Anderson alone, 
 who had nearly thrown up his engagement in disgust at 
 being cast for Florizel, made a striking success. The 
 revivals of Hamlet and Othello passed unnoticed by the 
 Times, though, according t& the Examiner, " the scenes 
 of Hamlet were a series of glorious pictures," wliilc tlie 
 Council-scene in Othello (a faithful reproduction of the 
 " Sala del Maggior Consiglio "') was one of the finest of 
 all Rlacready's scenic effects. Macbeth, very strongly 
 cast, and with tiic whole of the musical company in the 
 singing parts, was the first revival that really impressed 
 both critics and public. The Times admitted that 
 Macready had made it " almost a new play ; "' while the 
 John Bull said, " The poetry of the drama is now for 
 the first time put in motion, and its supernatural agents 
 begin to assunie their real functions." On the other 
 hand, Henry /'. was '"crudely and incompletely"
 
 MANA GEMENT. 1 13 
 
 revived, the battle of Agincourt being fought by gentle- 
 men in silken hose and velvet doublets, while not a 
 single bowman was visible ! Balfe's Joan of Arc being 
 in preparation at Drury Lane, Macready was not above 
 taking the wind out of Bunn's sails by hurrying on a 
 spectacular romance of the same title, written by Serle, 
 with one or two ideas borrowed from Schiller. It was 
 successful ; and, a few days later, Rooke's romantic 
 opera Ainilie was received with great favour. Neverthe- 
 less, it was stated that the loss, up to Christmas, 
 amounted to ^3000; while scoffers remarked that tliis 
 vaunted Shakespearian management had made its only 
 real successes with a spectacle and an opera. The 
 pantomime, with Stanfield's diorama, somewhat re- 
 plenished the treasury, and towards the end of January 
 King Lear was revived with unprecedented scenic effect. 
 " The castles," said the John Bull, " are heavy, sombre, 
 and solid ; their halls are adorned with trophies of the 
 chase and instruments of war ; druid circles rise in spec- 
 tral loneliness on the heath ; and the ' dreadful pother ' 
 of the elements is kept up with a verisimilitude which 
 beggars all that we have hitherto seen attempted." The 
 Fool, restored to the stage for the first time, amid many 
 misgivings, was charmingly played by Priscilla Horton. 
 Three weeks later a new play was produced, the author- 
 ship of which was attributed by rumour to all manner of 
 improbable people. It was called The Lady of Lyons : 
 and Macready, rather to his own humiliation, and to the 
 displeasure of his more fervent admirers, assumed the 
 part of the youthful hero. He was at least twice the age 
 of Claude Melnotte, but Anderson assures us that " when 
 playing to a good house, he did not look more than 
 twenty-five ; " and as Anderson would fain have played 
 the part himself, his evidence may be taken as unbiased. 
 
 I
 
 114 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC RE ADV. 
 
 The play was enthusiastically received, Miss Faucit's 
 Pauline producing a deeper impression than any of her 
 previous performances. The Times praised the adroit 
 manipulation of the plot, and allowed that the author 
 "had written several nice speeches," but declared the 
 characters to be " the gaudy, overdrawn personages of 
 melodrame." " Vulgar bravoes," it added, greeted the 
 " republican claptraps \\hich were flung in every here 
 and there ; " and these '' liberalisms," as another critic 
 contemptuously called them, gave so much offence that 
 at the end of the fourth performance Macready protested, 
 in a short address, that they " belonged to the period of 
 the action," and were to be taken as purely dramatic 
 utterances. For five or six nights the play drew poor 
 houses, and Macready was on the point of withdrawing 
 it ; but Bartley, who, in the part of Damas, had good 
 opportunities of watching the demeanour of the audience, 
 assured him that, if he kept it on, it would be "as great 
 a draw as The Stranger'' Gradually the audiences in- 
 creased, and the announcement of the author's name 
 confirmed its success; notwithstanding which, Buhvcr 
 declined to receive any payment for it. 
 
 Perhaps by way of atonement for so frivolous a triumph, 
 Macready now put all his strength into a great revival of 
 Coriolanus, which extorted the admiration even of Bunn. 
 The Times, indeed, dismissed it in seventeen lines, 
 admitting that " the organization of the mob was ex- 
 ceedingly clever," but adding that the " decorations were 
 better than the substance." in his mounting of the play 
 Macready reversed the achievement of Augustus — he 
 found the stage Rome marble, and left it brick. Tiie 
 Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and Trajan's Column 
 figured in Kcmble's revival ; in Macready 's, the Palatine 
 was covered with thatched hovels. In everv outdoor
 
 Jl/A NA GEMEN7\ \ 1 5 
 
 scene, the Capitol, with its arx and temples, closed the 
 perspective, "like a chord in music pervading the entire 
 comjiosition." In the Senate-scene, the white-robed 
 fathers, between one and two hundred in number, sat in 
 triple rows round three sides of the stage, an effect of 
 perspective being obtained by getting half-grown boys 
 to present the more distant figures. In the middle 
 of the back row the Consul occupied the curule chair ; 
 before him the fire of the sacred altar, behind him 
 (sole ornament of the pillared hall) the brazen wolf 
 suckling the founders of Rome. The starlight view of 
 the port and mole of Antium, with its pharos, was a lovely 
 effect. But the great scene of all was the siege of Rome 
 by the Volscian army, with its battering-rams and moving 
 towers. The brilliantly equipped soldiers " seemed 
 thousands, not hundreds ; " and when their serried ranks 
 opened for the " black apparition " of the Roman matrons. 
 '' one long dreary sable line of monotonous misery," the 
 stage presented a glorious picture. The management of 
 the Roman mob, all critics agree, was an unparalleled 
 feat. Each figure lived its own life, and the plebeians 
 were '' now for the first time shown upon the stage as 
 agents of the tragic catastrophe." In this revival, in 
 short, Macready seems to have anticipated all the 
 Meiningen methods. An unfortunate attempt of Forster's 
 to prove Macready superior to Kemble, on the ground 
 that it is a mistake to suppose Coriolanus " an abstraction 
 of Roman-nosed grandeur," drew from James Smith the 
 following epigram, which had great success in its day :— 
 
 "What scenes of grandeur docs this play disclose, 
 Where all is Roman — save the Roman's nose ! " 
 
 Coriola/ius was the great effort of the season. Macready 
 produced The Ttuo Foscari for his benefit, with much
 
 Ii6 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 applause ; but the part of the Doge soon dropped out of 
 his repertory. After this, nothing of importance occurred 
 until well on in the summer, when Sheridan Knowles's 
 comedy of Woman's Wit was produced amid wild 
 enthusiasm. To us it is almost inconceivable that 
 l^eople should take pleasure in the romantic extravagances 
 of the plot and the laboured artificiality of the wit ; for, 
 Irishman though he was, Knowles assuredly " jocked 
 wi' deeficulty." The success of Woman's Wit, however, 
 almost rivalled that of The Lady of Lyons, and brought 
 the season to a brilliant close. 
 
 On the whole Macready had fought a good fight. Out 
 of two hundred and elev^en acting nights, fifty-five had 
 been devoted to Shakespeare,* eleven of his plays being 
 produced. There is reason to believe that, if he would 
 have yielded to the tendency of the time, and repeated 
 King Lear and Coriolanus without intermission until 
 their attraction was exhausted, he might largely have 
 increased the proportion of Shakespearian performances, 
 to the great advantage of his treasury ; but he resisted, 
 with heroic obstinacy, the encroachments of the " long 
 run "system. As it was, he stated ofticially that "the 
 plays of Shakespeare, genuine and unalloyed, had been 
 the most profitable performances of the season " — and this 
 in sj)ite of the rivalry of Charles Kean, who had played 
 a forty-three nights' engagement at Drury Lane to large 
 houses. The legitimate drama, as a whole, had held by 
 far the most prominent place in the Covent Garden pro- 
 gramme ; and though Macready had been rather unfor- 
 tunate in his minor novelties, he had added two new 
 plays of some importance to the dramatic literature of 
 the time. 
 
 * In these statistics I do not reci'^oa Garrick's afterpiece, Catherine 
 and Pctriichio, among the Shakespearian jiiays.
 
 MANAGEMENT. \\>j 
 
 During the recess he played a five-weeks' engagement 
 with Webster at the Haymarket, appearing on July 23 
 as Kitely in Every Man in his Humour. On August 4 
 Talfourd's Athenian Captive was produced with consider- 
 able success, Mrs. Warner playing Ismene and Macready 
 Thoas. 
 
 The same company, to all intents and purposes, 
 gathered round Macready for his second Covent Garden 
 season. It was strengthened, however, by Vandenhoff 
 and his daughter. Vandenhoff was an older man and 
 older actor than Macready by about three years, though 
 he did not appear in London until 1820. He was popular 
 in the provinces, but had never quite attained the first 
 rank in his profession. Macready writes of him as " a 
 useful mill-horse actor, or rather post-horse " — implying 
 that it was his nature to follow in the track of others. 
 Miss Vandenhoff, now near the commencement of her 
 career, was a mediocre actress, who subsequently came 
 to be regarded as an imitator of Miss Helen Faucit. It 
 was Macready's practice, at the beginning of each season, 
 to distribute complimentary season tickets among men 
 of distinction in literature, art, and science. The ticket 
 sent to Carlyle for the season 1838-39 elicited the follow- 
 ing characteristic letter of thanks : — 
 
 " 5, Cheyne Row, Chelsea, October 12, 1838. 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " On returning from the country, I find you have 
 again honoured me widi a Free Ticket to Covent Garden. 
 I owe you many thanks for such a kindness and distinction ; 
 many thanks for the great pleasure I hope to have this 
 season, as I had last, of occasionally seeing you — were it only 
 in the distance and by lamplight. To an entirely ////theatrical 
 man, perhaps the most so of all your spectators, there was 
 a touch of wild sincerity in these things whicli was extremely
 
 ii8 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 striking. I wondered at the Drama, wondered at your Her- 
 culean task. Proceed in it, prosper in it ! I remain always, 
 
 " Dear sir, 
 
 " Yours, much obliged 
 
 "T. Carlvle." 
 
 The first week of the season was given up to Vanden- 
 hofif and Phelps, who played Coriolanus and Aufidius, 
 lachimo and Posthumus, respectively. The critics 
 condemned them roundly, perhaps not altogether to 
 Macready's disappointment. At the end of the third 
 week the first great effort of the season was made — an 
 elaborate and highly successful revival of The Tempest. 
 It was received with enthusiasm. '' Even papers that were 
 wont to ' damn with faint praise, assent with civil sneer,' 
 and to dismiss with a frigid notice of some dozen lines 
 the most splendid restorations of Shakespeare at this 
 theatre, whilst devoting columns to nonentities elsewhere, 
 at length joined in the popular acclaim." Yet the 
 general taste of the production was questionable. The 
 whole dialogue of the opening scene was suppressed ; and 
 the shipwreck, exhibited spectacularly, was a more or 
 less clever piece of mechanism. In the second scene 
 Pros])ero and Miranda entered together down a rocky 
 incline, so that Miranda's first words — 
 
 " If by your art, my dearest father, you have 
 Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them !" 
 
 — were treated as part of an ordinary conversation, instead 
 of the eager cry of her " i)itcous heart " on first meeting 
 her father after having witnessed the wreck. It seems 
 almost incredible that Ferdinand's sword should have 
 been struck out of his hand by actual collision witli 
 Prospero's wand; yet so i\\c John Bull affirms. Miss 
 Priscilla Horton, as Ariel, it adds, was " whisked nliout
 
 MA NA GEMENT. 1 19 
 
 l)y wires and a cog-wheel like . . . the ladies in Peter 
 IVitkifis^' and throughout the play " poetry was drowned 
 in the vulgar hurly-burly of an Easter piece." Almost the 
 only feature of the production praised by this critic (in 
 my judgment the ablest of his day) was George Bennett's 
 Caliban, which was acknowledged to be at once powerful 
 and poetical. The John Bull, however, stood almost 
 alone in its unfavourable opinion. The other critics were 
 loud in their praises, especially of the wire-wafted Ariel. 
 According to the Examiner, she 
 
 " floated ill air across the stage, singing or mocking as she 
 floated — while a chorus of spirits winged after her higher in 
 the air. Now amidst the terrors of the storm she flanjcd 
 aniazcnicnt ; now with the gentle descent of a protecting god 
 she hung over the slumbers of Gonzago, . . . flitting in 
 another instant across the scene, behold her resting on a leaf, 
 that she may mock with her pretty human mimicry, Caliban 
 and Stephano and Trinculo ; and then, almost before thought 
 has time to follow her, see the pert and deft little spirit per- 
 forming the part of Ceres. . . . The masque is given as 
 Shakespeare wrote it, with beautiful landscapes, brown and 
 blue, such as Titian would have beheld with pleasure.'' 
 
 VV^e arc j^robahly safe in taking the mean between the 
 John Bull, which found little to praise, and the Examiner, 
 which found nothing to condemn. The majority sided 
 with the Examiner. The play was performed fifty-five 
 times to an average of ^230 a night, and might have 
 drawn like receipts for another hundred nights, says 
 Anderson, if Macready would have suffered it to run 
 without interruption. 
 
 Early in December Macready once more resorted to 
 the not very generous policy of forestalling Bunn in an 
 important enterprise. Rossini's Guillaume Tell being in 
 preparation at Drury Lane, Knowlcs's William Tell \\3.^
 
 I20 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 hurried on at Covent Garden, with interpolated choruses 
 from Rossini's opera, performed by a company of eighty 
 singers. The pantomime of Fair Rosamond was a failure 
 on Boxing Night, but '• weathered the storm," and be- 
 came fairly popular. January and February were, for 
 the most part, given up to The Tempest, Kitig Lea?-, 
 and The Lady of Lyo?is. But early in March a new play 
 by Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, Bart., was produced. 
 ^Richelie2i: or, The Conspiracy, had been the subject of long 
 and anxious discussion and correspondence between 
 author and manager. The character of De Mauprat 
 (under another name) was originally intended for Mac- 
 ready, but the impossibility of finding a satisfactory 
 Richelieu led to the abandonment of this design. Every 
 scene, every speech, was anxiously weighed, and, before 
 the production was finally decided upon, the play was 
 submitted to a conclave of advisers, among whom were 
 Robert Browning and W. J. Fox. It was elaborately 
 mounted and very carefully prepared. " We have had 
 twenty rehearsals of this piece," said some one on the 
 morning of the production. " Then I wish you luck at 
 vingt-et-un," replied Tom Cooke, the conductor of the 
 orchestra. His wish was amply fulfilled. The extra- 
 ordinary originality and power of Macready's concep- 
 tion were recognized from the outset, and the great scenes 
 of the concluding acts roused the crowded audience to 
 a wild pitch of excitement. When Richelieu drew "the 
 circle of the Church " round Julie de Mortemar, and 
 threatened to " launch the curse of Rome " at who- 
 ever should infringe it. "the vast pit," says ^^'estland 
 Marston, " seemed to rock with enthusiasm as it vol- 
 leyed its admiration in rounds of thunder;" and the 
 great phrase of the last act, " There, at my feet ! " proved 
 no less effective. The press scarcely echoed the public
 
 management: 121 
 
 enthusiasm. '' The play is clever," said the Times — 
 " nothing more nor less ; clever is the exact predicate. 
 ... Sir E. L. Bulwer, according to the new and most 
 absurd fashion, being called for, made his bow from the 
 stage-box." The John Bull admitted that the author 
 had shown tact, cleverness, and the power of adapting 
 means to an end : '• but the tact is wasted on the little, 
 the cleverness on the pretty ; the end is to startle, and 
 the means are squibs." A week later, the same paper 
 remarked, " We said that the herd would go and gape at 
 Riclielieu, and were oracular, for they do." 
 
 The success was complete, and for three months no 
 new effort of any importance was required. For Miss 
 Faucit's benefit, As Vou Like It was revived, Macready 
 playing Jaques, and Phelps the First Lord ! — who, 
 however, was not forced, according to stage tradition, to 
 give up his one great speech ^to Jaques. Miss Faucit, 
 playing Rosalind for the first time, was received with 
 popular applause, but not, as she herself tells us, with 
 critical approbation. A '"'dramatic romance" named 
 Agnes Bernaner was moderately successful ; but a new 
 opera named Henrique, l)y the composer ot Auiilie, soon 
 dropped out of the bills. Having determined, early in 
 April, to bring his management to a close at the end of 
 the season, Macready gave his wliole mind to an elaborate 
 revival oi Henry V., which should enable him to retire 
 in a blaze of triumph. The rehearsals were long and 
 arduous, and the actors were seriously annoyed by the 
 perpetual presence on the stage of a whole cohort of the 
 manager's friends — Bulwer, Dickens, Forster, Maclise, 
 Fox, and others. Forster's overbearing manner made 
 him especially obnoxious, and so utterly upset the 
 nerves of Mrs. Humb)-, who was to have played Dame 
 Quickly, that the words of her part constantly escaped
 
 122 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 her. She was, says James Anderson, so incredibly 
 ignorant that her comrades advised her to put up with 
 Forster's interferences on the ground that he was the 
 author of the play ! Even this consideration, however, 
 could not reconcile her to his habit of shouting, when- 
 ever she made a slip, " Put her through it again, Mac. ; 
 put her through it again ; " so that the matter ended in 
 her relinquishing the part. The production did not take 
 place until early in June, when it was received with 
 general acclamation. The Morning Chronicle declared 
 it "worthy of being reserved for some great national 
 fete^' adding that "the nation has but rarely the oc- 
 casions which deserve so splendid a celebration.'" Once 
 more the Joiin Bull played the devil's advocate, ridicul- 
 ing especially Stanfield's "Pictorial Illustrations." The 
 prologue to the first act, with its allusion to " famine, 
 sword, and fire," crouching for employment at the feet 
 of " the warlike Harry," was illustrated by "a figure in 
 armour with three furies clinging to his feet." " .Shade 
 of yKschylus ! " cries the critic, " imagine your 'I'heban 
 chiefs ill a raree-show ! " Macready's performance of 
 the King was pronounced " conventionally dignified " 
 and " bustling and didactic, rather than frank and im- 
 pulsive." Phelps told Mr. Coleman that, after fatiguing 
 rehearsals, Macready would "devote hours to walking 
 about the stage ' with his cuisses on his thighs ; ' but 
 all to no avail, for at night he tossed and tumbled 
 about literally like a hog in armour." Nevertheless, the 
 production was very attractive. " It would have filled 
 the house nightly," said Anderson ; "but the old policy 
 prevailed : it was acted only four nights a week, up to 
 the close of the season, which was as good as telling the 
 public the i)roduction was only half a success." 
 
 Macready's reasons for relinquishing management are
 
 MANAGEMENT. 123 
 
 not very clear. Tlie enterprise was evidently prospering. 
 He calculated that in " actual decrease of capital and 
 absence of profit on his labour," he was ^2500 out 
 of pocket by his first season ; but the result of his 
 second season must have been very different. The ex- 
 cessively cautious proposition he made to the Covent 
 Ciardcn proprietors for a third season was rejected by 
 them ; and as we find him, several months earlier, re- 
 solving in his diary that Henry F. should be " the last 
 Shakespearian revival of his management," it is natural 
 to infer that he did not desire or intend it to be ac- 
 cepted. One can hardly believe the proprietors so blind 
 to their own interests as to let slip such a tenant if 
 they could retain him by any reasonable concessions ; 
 unless, indeed, they were already in treaty with Charles 
 Mathews and Madame Vestris, who eventually took the 
 theatre. We may probably conclude that the cares of 
 management were such a perpetual annoyance to Mac- 
 ready as to make him eager for any fair excuse to cast 
 them off. Both in personal and professional considera- 
 tion he had reaped the full reward of his enterprise. A 
 public dinner bore witness to the esteem in which he 
 was held, by a clique, perhaps, but certainly a large and 
 influential clique. It took place at the Freemasons' 
 Tavern, Ji^ily 20, 1839. The Duke of Sussex was in the 
 chair, and Lord Conyngham, Lord Nugent, Dickens, 
 Bulwer, Shell, Talfourd, Monckton Milnes (Lord 
 Houghton), Forster, Fonblanque, Charles BuUer, and 
 Charles Young were among the company. This was 
 just the sort of distinction Macready most appreciated, 
 and though nervousness made him look, as Bulwer said, 
 like " a baffled tyrant," the occasion may be called, in 
 more than a conventional sense, one of the proudest 
 moments of his life.
 
 124 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 It was at tliis time that he apphed to the Lord 
 Chamberlain for a '-'personal licence" to perform the 
 legitimate drama when and where he pleased — an ap- 
 plication which was ultimately refused. Similar ill 
 success attended a scheme for securing him the post of 
 Reader of Plays, in succession to Charles Kemble. He 
 was eager to obtain the office, and would willingly have 
 engaged to retire from the stage in four years, or even 
 in one, had such a condition been insisted on. In 
 the end, however, the Anglo-Saxon scholar, John 
 Mitchell Kemble, succeeded his father. 
 
 During the two years and a half which intervened 
 between his first and second managements, Macready 
 was engaged, almost without intermission, at the Hay- 
 market. He seems to have got on better with the 
 Haymarket manager than with any other. I find him, 
 indeed, in a letter to Webster of Oc.ober 8, 1840, com- 
 plaining bitterly of certain unspecified offences, and 
 vowing that, after the expiration of the current engage- 
 ment, he will never enter upon another. But this (juarrel 
 seems to have blown over quickly, and Macready 
 certainly did not carry out his resolution. 
 
 On August 19, 1839, he appeared at the Haymarket 
 as Othello, with Phelps as lago. Cooper as Cassio, 
 Walter T,acy as Roderigo, Miss J*aucit as Desdemona, 
 and Mrs. Warner as EmiHa, Mr. Howe, on this occasion, 
 made his first appearance on the stage with which he 
 was so long and honourably connected, in the small 
 part of Lodovico. The Lady of .Lyons followed, and 
 was frequently rejieated. Other stock plays were ])er- 
 formed at intervals, tlic most popular being The Merchant 
 of Venice, with Phelps as Antonio, Helen Faucit as 
 Portia, and Buckstone as Launcelot (lobbo. On October 
 31 a new play by Sir E. I.. Dulwcr was produced willi
 
 MANAGEMENT. 125 
 
 yreat success. This was The Sea-Captain ; or., The Birth- 
 right., now remembered almost solely by reason of 
 Barham's rhyming account of its plot, and Thackeray's 
 scathing satire on its style. Macready played Norman ; 
 Phelps, Onslow ; Mrs. Warner, Tady Arundel ; and Miss 
 Faucit, Violet. In the scene between Norman and Lady 
 Arundel, where the son reveals himself to his mother, 
 and, being scornfully repudiated, invokes the spirits of 
 his ancestors to take his part, " Macready's action, his 
 look, his utterance, was sublimity itself." The play did 
 not hold the stage, however, either in its original shape, 
 or in the revised form in which it was reproduced at the 
 Lyceum in 1868, under the title of The Rightful Heir. 
 
 Five days after the close of the Haymarket season 
 Macready appeared at Drury Lane, under the manage- 
 ment of the comedian W. J. Hammond. His opening 
 play (January 20) was Macbeth, with Phelps as Macduff, 
 and Mrs. Warner as Lady Macbeth. On January 22 a new 
 tragedy by James Haynes was produced under the title 
 of Mary Stuart. It had originally and more fitly been 
 called Kizzio. Macready's part was Ruthxen ; Elton 
 played Rizzio ; Phelps, Darnley ; and Mrs. Warner, the 
 Queen. The play was repeated twenty times, but cannot 
 have been profitable, since at the end of February 
 Hammond failed for ;^8ooo. Macready played four 
 nights gratuitously for the benefit of the minor per- 
 formers, and then returned to the Haymarket, where the 
 season commenced on March 16. 
 
 The opening play was Hamlet, with Warde as Claudius, 
 Mrs. Warner as Gertrude, Priscilla Horton as Ophelia, 
 Strickland as Polonius, Webster as Osric, and Phelps 
 as the Ghost. A revival of The Sea-Captain proved un- 
 attractive ; but, on the other hand, The Lady of Lyons 
 and Richelieu vied with each other in popularity. At-
 
 126 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 the close of the previous year a tragedy named Glencoc : 
 or, The Fate of the Macdonalds. had been placed in 
 Macready's hands by Dickens. He read it with admira- 
 tion, and thought the anonymous author an imitator of 
 Talfourd, " but without the point that terminated Tal- 
 fourd's speeches." Great was his surprise on learning 
 that it was by Talfourd himself. It was successfully 
 produced at the Haymarket on May 23, Macready 
 playing Halbert Macdonald ; Phelps, Glenlyon ; Webster, 
 Maclan; Mrs. Warner, Lady Macdonald; and Miss Faucit, 
 Helen Campbell. A gloomy and stilted production, it 
 took no permanent place on the stage. IMrs. Inchbald's 
 comedy, To Marry or not to Marry, revived with INIac- 
 ready in Kemble's part of Sir Oswin Mortland, met with 
 some success, but a new play by Serle, named Master 
 Clarke (September 26), was practically a failure. In this 
 Macready played Richard Cromwell ; and Miss Faucit, 
 his wife, Lady Dorothy. The play-bill of November 5 
 announced that a " New and Original Comedy by Sir 
 Edward Lytton Bulwer had been accepted, and would be 
 produced as early as the scenic arrangements, etc., would 
 permit." A week later its tide, rMoNEv ! appeared in 
 large letters. The production, after repeated postpone- 
 ments, was fixed for Saturday, November 28 ; but on the 
 previous day the play-bill stated that "In consecpience 
 of the very severe domestic calamity of Mr. M.^cready, 
 the production was necessarily deferred until Mr. Mac- 
 ready could resume his professional duties." The 
 calamity was the death of his daughter Joan, aged three 
 years and four months. Phelps and A\'allack occupied 
 the bill for ten days, playing Othello, JIamlet, and other 
 stock pieces. On December 7 Macready appeared in 
 Wcnwr, and on the following evening Money was pro- 
 duced, •■ with entirely new Scenery, Dresses, Furniture,
 
 MA NA CEMENT. \ 2 7 
 
 and A[)pui"tcnanccs." It was out of pure coni])laisancc 
 that IMacready accepted the part of Alfred Evelyn. Ke 
 calls it in his diary " ineffective and inferior," and is said 
 to have denounced the sententious secretary, in private, 
 as a "damned walking-gentleman." His success, how- 
 ever, was indubitable ; " the forced gaiety," says Walter 
 Lacy, "being as natural to the man as appropriate to 
 the character." The cast as a whole was very strong : 
 Miss Faucit and Miss Horton played Clara Douglas and 
 Georgina Vesey; Webster and Mrs. Glover established 
 the traditions, .now so threadbare, of Graves and Lady 
 Franklin ; David Rees, a fine and very popular come- 
 dian, created the part of Stout ; Dudley Smooth, declined 
 by James A\'allack, was admirably performed by Wrench ; 
 F. Vining played Lord Glossmore ; Strickland, Sir John 
 Vesey ; and Walter Lacy, Sir Frederick Blount. Every 
 strap and button of the costumes was anxiously studied, 
 Count d'Orsay supervising the whole ; for the Mathews- 
 Vestris management at the Olympic and Covent Garden 
 had made solecisms in modern dress unpardonable. We 
 obtain a curious glimpse of Macready's habiliments in 
 the following letter from Dickens, dated 1845 : — 
 
 "]\IY DEAR MACREADV, 
 
 " You once — only once — gave the world assurance 
 of a waistcoat. You wore it, sir, I think, in Money. It was 
 a remarkable and precious waistcoat, wherein certain broad 
 stripes of blue or purple disported themselves, as by a com- 
 bination of extraordinary circumstances too happy to occur 
 again. I have seen it on your manly chest in private life. 
 I saw it, sir, I think, the other day in the cold light of 
 morning, with feelings easier to be imagined than described. 
 Mr. Macready, sir, are you a father? If so, lend me that 
 waistcoat for five minutes. ... I will send a trusty mes- 
 senger at half-past nine precisely in the niorninf;^. He is 
 sworn to secrecv. He durst not for his life belra\- us, or
 
 128 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 swells in ambuscade would have the waistcoat at the cost of 
 his heart's blood. 
 
 " Thine, 
 
 "The Unwaistcoated One." 
 
 This marvellous garment no doubt contributed its share 
 to the success of the comedy, which was unprecedented. 
 It ran for eighty consecutive nights, the season being 
 extended for two months, up to March 13, 1841, by 
 special licence from the Lord Chamberlain. 
 
 When Macready returned to the Haymarket for the 
 following season (May 3, 1841) Money was again placed 
 in the bills — Mrs. Stirling now playing Lady Franklin — 
 and was repeated twenty-nine times. His performances 
 during this season were interrupted for nearly two 
 months, during which Charles Kean and Ellen Tree 
 held the chief place in the bills, their principal produc- 
 tion being Romeo and Juliet. Macready played no new 
 character until November i, when, for Miss Faucit's 
 benefit, R. Zouch Troughton's tragedy of Nina Sforza 
 was produced. Wallack played the hero, Raphael 
 Doria ; and Macready found in Ugone Spinola one of 
 those sardonic villains who had vexed his soul during 
 his early years at Covent Garden. The play, though 
 written with some power, was in truth a mere romance, 
 with little dramatic fibre. On December 7 he brought 
 his Haymarket engagement to a close with The Lady of 
 Lyons. 
 
 So early as the previous April Macready had arranged 
 to undertake the management of Drury Lane, and to open 
 the theatre at Christmas. I am unable to state the pre- 
 cise terms of his agreement with the proprietors. He 
 notes in his diary that he demanded " liberty to close at 
 a day's notice," and " no comjmlsion to pay any rent." 
 This somewhat fantastic stipulation probably means that.
 
 MANAGEMENT. 129 
 
 if he should bring the season to a premature close, no rent 
 was to be due for the nights thus sacrificed. We learn, 
 too, that when he entered upon his new dominion, the 
 female wardrobe was not worth ^40, and there was not 
 a serviceable rope in the house ; so that the proprietors 
 had to consent to a " very inadequate deduction " from 
 the rent, in consideration of his putting the theatre in 
 working order, ^Vhat the rent actually was, however, I 
 have not discovered. The chief members of his Covent 
 Garden company gathered eagerly round him, in some 
 cases rejecting more highly-paid engagements elsewhere 
 — a sufficient proof, surely, that his bark was worse than 
 his bite. Mrs. Warner and Miss Faucit, Phelps, Elton, 
 Anderson, and George Bennett enlisted once m'ore under 
 his banner ; while Henry Marston, who had come to the 
 front under Hammond's management, was the chief new- 
 comer on the tragic side. This sterling actor, afterwards 
 Phelps's trusted lieutenant at Sadler's \Vells, might have 
 attained great distinction but for his unfortunately husky 
 voice. The leading comedians were Keeley, Mrs. Keeley, 
 Henry Compton, and James Hudson. Keeley and his 
 wife were already at the height of their popularity ; 
 Compton had been four years on the London stage ; and 
 Hudson, a young actor whom Macready had discovered 
 in Dublin, proved a valuable importation. The musical 
 company included H. Phillips and Allen, Miss Romer, 
 Miss (jould, Miss Poole, and Miss P. Horton. Ander- 
 son was stage-manager ; Serle, acting-manager ; and T. 
 Cooke, musical director. The scenic department — 
 doubly important since the decorative achievements of 
 the Vestris management at Covent Garden —was for the 
 most part in the hands of Marshall and Telbin. 
 
 The season opened on Boxing Night with The Mer- 
 chant of Venice and the pantomime of Harlequin and 
 
 K
 
 I30 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Duke UinnJ)/irey. Enthusiasm was the order of the 
 evening, and the audience would not suffer the play to 
 proceed until Macready had appeared to receive their 
 welcome. The Times, which, four years ago, had dis- 
 missed Macready's opening night at Covent Garden in 
 a mere paragraph, now devoted a column and three- 
 quarters to impressing on the public the importance of the 
 new undertaking. Macready's Shylock was received with 
 almost unmixed praise, and the mounting of the play was 
 declared superb. For the fust time (so far as I know) 
 in the case of a Shakespearian revival, a synopsis of the 
 scenery was issued — an honour hitherto reserved for pan- 
 tomime and spectacular drama. Even now the list of 
 scenes found no place on the play-bill, but was relegated 
 to a small fly-leaf On the two following evenings Mac- 
 ready, after a heroic mental struggle, swallowed two very 
 bitter pills — the small parts of Harmony in Mrs. Inch- 
 bald's comedy Every One has Ids Fault, and Valentine 
 in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In Old Harmony 
 (created by Munden !) he seems to have been thoroughly 
 out of place, and he was scarcely repaid for his con- 
 descension in undertaking Valentine. The revival of 
 The Ttvo Walking-Gentlemeti (as they were rechristcned 
 by a green-room wit) was chiefly remarkable for the great 
 success of a Miss Fortescuc in the ]iart of Julia. Its first 
 night, too, was signalized by the first appearance of a new 
 crimson velvet curtain, with a broad gold fringe, orna- 
 mented with large gold wreaths of laurel. A revival of 
 The Gaviester, in which Macready undertook the part of 
 Beverley with grave misgivings, was well received, but 
 proved unattractive, and the season languished on the 
 whole until, early in l''ebruary. Gay's Acis and Galatea 
 was produced, with Handel's music and Stanfield's 
 scenery. This was a great triumph, and was received
 
 MANAGEMENT. 131 
 
 with enthusiasm on every liand. It charmed even the 
 fastidious Edward Fitzgerald. " Never in this country 
 has the illusion which scenic art ]icrmits of been so 
 completely and triumphantly displayed," exclaimed the 
 cool and critical John Bull. AVhat chiefly excited 
 admiration was a novel device for representing " the 
 hollow ocean ridges roaring into cataracts," 
 
 " The SiciUan coast in moonlight/' said the E.va/ni/icr, 
 " stretches up the stage, and between the foreground and 
 P^tna in the distance — • 
 
 'A promontory, sharpening by degrees, 
 Ends in a wedge, and overlooks the seas,' 
 
 as they come swelling towards us, the waves breaking as they 
 come ; the last billow actually tumbling over and over with 
 spray and foam upon the shore, and then receding with the 
 noise of water over stones and shells, to show the hard, wet 
 sand, and, in its due time, roll and break again." 
 
 ISIacready himself took great pride and pleasure in the 
 production, and Westland Marston records his delight 
 when a lady said to him, " Now I have seen a poem ! " 
 " It ought to have run two hundred nights," says Ander- 
 son, who, as stage-manager, had access to the books of 
 the theatre, "and brought thousands of pounds to the 
 treasury, had the manager been so inclined. But no ; in 
 direct^opposition to the advice of his officers, ... he would 
 not permit it to be sung more than f/irec times a week. 
 The consequence was its attraction dwindled to nothing. 
 . . . Mr. Macready treated the public much as he did 
 his own children — reared them on vegetable diet, and 
 physicked them with homoeopathic doses. He said, ' He 
 knew what probity was. He had promised variety, and 
 he would be conscientious.' He had his own way, but 
 he lost his money."
 
 132 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 Douglas Jerrold's Prisoner of War, produced two nights 
 later, was a great success ; Mrs. Keeley's reading of Peter 
 Pallmall's letter from Verdun being encored nightly ! On 
 the other hand, Gerald Griffin's powerful play Gisippiis, 
 splendidly mounted, finely played, and received with 
 acclamation by the critics, brought no money to the trea- 
 sury. According to Anderson, it should have been re- 
 served till next season ; as it was, Gisippus and Acis and 
 Galatea each cut the other's throat. Macbeth was revived 
 after Easter, in much the same style as at Covent Garden, 
 and three weeks later a terrible disaster took place in 
 the failure of Plighted Troth, a would-be Elizabethan 
 tragedy, by a Mr. Darley. It was, in fact, an extravagantly 
 gloomy and forcible-feeble melodrama, against which all 
 possible circumstances conspired. The name of Mac- 
 ready's character, "Gabriel Grimwood," aroused memories 
 of a recent crime, and led to bantering interruptions from 
 the gods ; and while Grimwood, stabbed with a bread- 
 knife, was lying dead under a table, one of the other 
 actors had the misfortune to tread on Macready's hand, 
 causing the corpse to sit up and rate him soundly, in full 
 hearing of the audience. This transformed the hisses 
 and cat-calls, which had previously reigned supreme, into 
 shouts of laughter, and dealt the finishing blow to Plighted 
 Troth. The criticisms were one chorus of condemnation ; 
 yet Macready had been "confident in hope about it." 
 He was never guilty of a greater error of judgment. A 
 revival of Hamlet, and the production of Marino Faliero, 
 for Macready's benefit, were the chief events of the re- 
 mainder of the season, which was brought to an early 
 close on May 23. 
 
 I'rovincial engagements occupied a portion of the 
 summer, the inter\als being devoted to preparations for 
 a "longer, stronger pulT'ilming the coming season at
 
 MANA GEMENT. 133 
 
 Drury Lane, which was to commence on October i. 
 The company was strengthened by tlie addition of Mrs. 
 Nisbett, the most popular comic actress of the day ; 
 Charles Mathews and Madame Vestris, engaged at a 
 salary of ^60 a week ; and John Ryder, then a raw- 
 boned stripling, fresh from the provinces. As Yuu Like 
 It, elaborately mounted, and very strongly cast, was the 
 opening play, Macready acting Jaques ; but once more 
 the audience insisted on seeing him before the comedy 
 began, and the stage was littered with bouquets and 
 wreaths, which were collected and carried off by a foot- 
 man ! The weak point of the cast was Mrs. Nisbett's 
 Rosalind, which Robson, " the Old Playgoer," does not 
 hesitate to describe as "inflimous." Her merriment, 
 said the Ti/iits, was thoughtless and unrestrained, with 
 no hint of underlying seriousness. Anderson's Orlando, 
 Mrs. Stirling's Celia, Hudson's Le Beau, and Compton's 
 William, were all much praised^ but Keeley's Touchstone 
 can scarcely have been the true sententious philosopher, 
 and the sprightly Mrs. Keeley could by no means assume 
 the stolidity of Audrey. The second Shakespearian 
 revival, King John, with scenery by Telbin, took place 
 towards the end of the month. The stage-management 
 was very careful and effective. Especially striking was 
 the rupture of the short peace between Philip and John. 
 " The Englishmen and Frenchmen, who had mingled 
 together," said \.\\Q./o/rn Bull, "parted with the rapidity 
 of lightning. ... A quiet mass of glittering accoutre- 
 ments had suddenly burst into new combinations of 
 animation and energy." Macready's John was admitted 
 to be one of his best Shakespearian parts, and Phelps, 
 "an actor with more manly pathos than any on the 
 stage," was greatly praised as Hubert. ' 
 
 The Mathews- Vestris engagement was not a success.
 
 134 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 They drew poor houses, and their dignity was outraged 
 by the small parts for which they were cast. Mathews 
 actually appeared as Fag in The Rivals and Roderigo 
 in Othello^ and, playing carelessly no doubt, was roundly 
 condemned by the critics. His wife complained that 
 she was asked to play Maria in The School for Scatidal, 
 and Venus in King Arthur — a part which was ultimately 
 assigned to Miss Fairbrother, a columbine. The engage- 
 ment, in short, was found to have been a mistake on both 
 sides, and was rescinded by mutual consent in little more 
 than a month. 
 
 By way of following up the vein so successfully opened 
 in Acis and Galatea, Dryden and Purcell's King Arthur 
 was revived about the middle of November. Unfortu- 
 nately, it had not the advantage of Stanfield's scenery, 
 and was a "retrograde movement'" in point of " artistic 
 display." I'he costumes were very tawdry. A genera- 
 tion which has passed through the awakening crisis of 
 restheticism cannot read without a shudder of Mrs. 
 Nisbett's " bright yellow, almost orange, gown, surcoat 
 of decided blue, and tippet and scarf of extreme scarlet." 
 Nevertheless, it was well received and fairly successful. 
 'J'he Times described it as " a succession of magnificent 
 masques." A young singer, who had hitherto passed 
 unnoticed in the crowd, was entrusted on an emergency 
 with the part of the Warrior, and made a decided hit in 
 the song, '• Come if you dare," though he narrowly 
 escaped dismissal for declining to sing it with his back 
 to the audience. He has since been known as Sims 
 Reeves. 
 
 In a revival of Love for Love it was generally agreed 
 that the ladies were all good (Mrs. Nisbett especially), 
 the men all more or less jjad. Macready took no part 
 in it, and the public showed but little appetite for
 
 MANAGEMENT. 135 
 
 Congreve's wit. Very different was the fare provided in 
 the. first new j^lay of the season, The Patrician^ s Daughter, 
 by J. VVestland Marston, produced early in December. 
 The work of a young and as yet unknown writer, it had 
 been pubhshed some months before, and had " made a 
 sensation which, for an unacted drama, might be con- 
 sidered remarkable." Critics had long been advocating 
 an attempt to utilize, for the purposes of poetic drama, 
 the spiritual conflicts of modern life, and some were 
 .sanguine enough to hope that this simple yet powerful 
 play might mark a new departure in dramatic literature. 
 Charles Dickens took deep interest in the experiment, 
 and wrote a prologue for it. The play was to all appear- 
 ance a success, though its central incident — a repetition, 
 in some sort, of the painful cathedral-scene in Much Ado 
 — was misunderstood and generally condemned. When 
 Macready, in his own person, spoke the prologue, he 
 was, said the JoJin Bull, "easy and gentlemanly;" but 
 "such a person as he represented Mordaunt to be had 
 emptied any modern drawing-room in five minutes." 
 On the whole, however, the performance was praised, 
 and as the audience had shown no inclination to ill- 
 timed laughter, it was declared that " the principle of 
 characters talking poetically in plain dress " was secure. 
 But the victory, as we know, has proved a barren one. 
 
 Of the pantomime of Harlequin and William Tell the 
 Titties remarked, " The scenery is clever, but the same 
 may be said of it as of the scenery of King Arthur, that 
 it is better conceived than executed, and that a certain 
 want of finish prevails throughout." Revivals of IVeriier, 
 The Lady of Lyons, and Cynibclinc (the last not so 
 elaborate as some of its predecessors, but " distinguished 
 by taste and art of the highest kind ") were the chief 
 events of January, 1843. '"he season was not going
 
 136 WILLIAM CILARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 prosperously, and Macready was in no happy mood ; 
 hence the regrettable circumstances connected with the 
 production of-^Ir. Browning's tragedy, A Blot in the 
 ' Scufc/ico?i, which took place on February 11. Macready 
 had engaged to produce it, and was too proud frankly to 
 confess the embarrassments which now rendered his 
 promise irksome to him. 
 
 " It would seem, by all the evidence I had afterwards," 
 Mr. Browning writes to me, " that I was supposed to myself 
 understand the expediency of begging to withdraw, at least 
 for a time, my own work — saving Macready the imaginary 
 failure to keep a promise to which I never attached particular 
 importance. As so many hints to my dull perception of this, 
 Macready declined to play his part, caused the play to be 
 read in my absence to the actors by a ludicrously incapable 
 person — the result being, as he informed me, ' that the play 
 was laughed at from the beginning to the end ' — naturally 
 enough, a girl's part being made comical by a red-nosed, 
 onedegged, elderly gentleman [Willmott, the prompter] — 
 then, after proposing to take away from his substitute the 
 opportunity of distinction he had given him (to which I 
 refused my consent), leaving the play to a fate which it 
 somehow managed to escape. Macready was fuori di sc 
 from the moment when, in pure ignorance of what he was 
 driving at, I acquiesced in his proposal that a serious play of 
 any pretension should appear under his management with 
 any other protagonist than himself When the more learned 
 subsequently enlightened mc a little, I was angry and dis- 
 inclined to take advice — but it is happily over so long ago ! 
 One friendly straightforward word to the effect that what 
 was intended for an advantage would, under circumstances 
 of wliicli I was altogether ignorant, prove the reverse — how 
 easy to have spoken, and what regret il would have spared 
 us both ! " 
 
 Tt was Phelps who i^layed Trosham, and, in spite of 
 illness so severe lh;it M;)rrcndy at one time made up his
 
 MANAGEMENT. 137 
 
 mind to imdersludy the part, he [jla)cd it very finely. 
 The Morning Post missed in him '' a Httle of that refine- 
 ment which carries Macready so triumphantly through 
 his blotchy mannerisms," but added that " he gave a 
 singular passion and power to the proud brother, which 
 could have been shown by no other actor than himself." 
 Miss Faucit's Mildred was also much praised, and the 
 performance, as a whole, was received with applause. 
 The Thumping Legacy, with Keeley in his afterwards 
 celebrated part of Jerry Ominous, was performed for the 
 first time on the same evening • and this combination 
 was thrice repeated. On the third evening (February 17) 
 the play-bill announced that the tragedy and farce would 
 be acted three times a week until further notice ; yet 
 from that night forward the tragedy was shelved. 
 
 For his benefit, to every one's surprise, Macready 
 attempted the part of Benedick in Much Ado. As to 
 the merits of the performance opinions were greatly 
 divided. T\\z John Bull declared that " he clutched at 
 drollery, as Macbeth at the dagger, with convulsive 
 energy ; " while the Examiner argued, not very con- 
 vincingly, that because his Benedick made Don Pedro 
 and Claudio laugh, it must have been comic. Forster 
 adds, however, what is much more to the point, that the 
 audience laughed as well. James Anderson's account of 
 the matter is that " his friends were pleased with him, 
 and he with himself; but the general public said he was 
 as melancholy as a mourning-coach in a snowstorm." 
 Playgoers who still vividly remembered the chivalrous 
 grace of Charles Kemble must certainly have regarded 
 Macread/s Benedick with mixed feelings. 
 
 A spirited attempt at grand opera was made shortly 
 before Easter, Pacini's Sapphohexng splendidly produced, 
 with Miss Clara Novello, fresh from her early continental
 
 138 WJLLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 triumphs, as Sappho, and Vlx=>. Alfred Shaw, one of the 
 most popular singers of the day, as Climene. The 
 experiment, however, was unremunerative. The Easter 
 piece was Planche"s graceful extravaganza, Fotiunio, with 
 Priscilla Horton in the leading part. " The rehearsals," 
 says the author, " were most energetically and judiciously 
 superintended by Macready himself. ... He knew 
 every one's part, and acted each in turn, to my great 
 delight, and the infinite amusement of Miss Helen 
 Faucit, who sat almost daily on the stage, and encouraged 
 us all by her unaftected enjoyment of the dialogue." A 
 small part was allotted to Mrs. Alfred Wigan, who, with 
 her husband, had now joined the company, both appearing 
 in very subordinate characters. Fortiuiio was a success, 
 but The Secretary, by Sheridan Knowles, produced a few 
 days later, was a complete failure. It was Knowles's 
 last play, and one of his wordiest and emptiest. One 
 other new play closes the list of novelties under 
 INIacready's management. This was William Smith's 
 Athehvold, produced on the occasion of Miss Faucit's 
 benefit, and repeated only once. It dealt with a striking 
 subject, but was undramatic in treatment and heavy in 
 diction. 
 
 At a conference with the Drury Lane Committee, on 
 May 6, Macready found that there was no hope of 
 coming to terms witli them for another season. The 
 details of their disagreement are unknown to me. Mac- 
 ready stated, in his farewell speech, that " he could not 
 subject himself to the liabilities required of him ; " and 
 his friend W. J. Fox attributed his retirement to "pro- 
 prietary arrangements, or disarrangements, which yielded 
 no security for an expenditure that could only have 
 repaid itself in a series of years, and the immediate 
 profits of which were liable to be pressed upon by un-
 
 MAN A CEMENT. \ 39 
 
 defined and encroaching claims." We can scarcely 
 believe that the proprietors were unwilling to grant 
 Macready a lease at a fixed rental if he would have 
 accepted it. The truth probably is that he declined 
 to undertake what they considered his fair share of the 
 risk. He was determined not to burn his ships, and the 
 Committee were dissatisfied with a lessee who insisted 
 upon such unlimited facilities for retreat. In the light 
 of after-events, we may think them unwise. It would 
 have been to their interest, we may argue, to give such 
 a man as Macready every possible encouragement in 
 his enterprise. They should have preferred small profits 
 and steady returns to rack-rents tempered by bankruptcy. 
 Yet IMacready's bargains bore on the surface a heads-I- 
 win-tails-you-lose appearance, from which we cannot 
 wonder that they recoiled, In his heart of hearts 
 Macready cared too little about the enterprise to give it 
 any chance of permanency. He went into it with the 
 feeling and pose of a martyr. At every touch of dis- 
 couragement he said to himself that he was endangering 
 his own and his children's future in order to fight a 
 losing battle on behalf of an art he regarded with 
 mingled feelings, and a body of artists with whom he 
 had little personal sympathy. In such moments the 
 alternative course of making a modest fortune as a star, 
 retiring, and devoting himself to the education of his 
 family, presented itself in the light of a positive duty. 
 This was not the temper in which to set about the regene- 
 ration of the drama. He " feared his fate too much." 
 
 Without venturing too far into the vasty labyrinths of the 
 might-have-been, we may ask whether any possible com- 
 pliance on the part of the Drury Lane or Covent Garden 
 proi)rietors would have ensured success. I doubt it. 
 The era of long runs, of conversational playwriting and
 
 I40 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 actings of division of labour, or ratlier specialization of 
 function, in the theatrical sphere, was already and in- 
 evitably upon us. INIacready struggled gallantly to carry 
 on the traditions and methods handed down, under all 
 external modifications, from Davenant to Elliston, His 
 huge establishment, his varied bill of fare, were fitted for 
 the time when there were but two winter theatres to 
 cater to the taste of a smaller but more homogeneous and, 
 theatrically speaking, more intelligent town. In short, 
 he tried to continue the system of monopoly manage- 
 ment under the conditions of free-trade ; for the already 
 decrepit monopoly was on the verge of extinction by 
 Bulwer's Act of 1843. He declared, in his concluding 
 speech, that the result of his experiment, though it did 
 not as yet " amount to a remunerating return," might be 
 " confidently taken as an earnest of future and permanent 
 success." In order to secure this success he would 
 almost certainly have had to modify and modernize his 
 principles of management. He fought a good fight, but 
 the tendencies of the time were against him. 
 
 His conduct as a manager was much, and bitterly, 
 criticized. The following passage from the John Bull 
 states in short compass the current objections of his 
 detractors. It occurs in an article on his Covent Garden 
 management, but so far as it applies at all it applies 
 equally well to his tenure of Urury Lane. I have read 
 carefully the whole series of this writer's criticisms, and 
 can find in them no trace of personal animus. He is 
 often generous in praise, sometimes convincing in cen- 
 sure. We may accept his judgment as that of an im- 
 partial outsider, neither a member of the Macready 
 clifiue nor an adherent of the opposition : — 
 
 '■ His real services we wcie llic fust 10 bear testimony to,
 
 MANAGEMENT. 141 
 
 and will be the last to deny. Following in the track laid 
 down by Kemble, he has rendered it impossible for any suc- 
 ceeding manager to bring out a play of Shakespeare's other- 
 wise than in an adequate manner. For this his profession is 
 largely indebted to him. He has made the theatre a decent 
 place of amusement, which it hardly was before. ... As an 
 actor, though a very unequal, he is now an unrivalled one ; 
 and so far from joining in the ungenerous judgments we 
 have heard passed on him in this respect, we believe that, 
 could the greatest in his art repeople the scene again, he 
 would still be a foremost and a distinguished man. But here 
 we stop. He has giv^en encouragement to no dawning 
 genius ; has brought forward no new author ; has done all 
 to serve himself, little to advantage his brethren. . . . We 
 gave him credit for the enlarged views of the scholar, for the 
 liberal sentiments of the gentleman. We have found him the 
 mere actor ; the slave of the little feelings and paltry as- 
 sumptions engendered of the green-room. He has pro- 
 fessed much ; we have weighed him by his professions, and 
 found him wanting. He began his career with well-assumed 
 modesty ; he has ended it with ill-concealed and insensate 
 vanity." 
 
 The reproach as to his neglect of '' dawning genius "' 
 may at once be dismissed. There is no proof that any 
 such genius existed to suffer from his neglect. Far more 
 relevant is the remark upon his conduct to his brother- 
 actors. He treated them justly, in some cases gene- 
 rously, but never graciousl)'. He crushed their profes- 
 sional vanity with an iron hand, but he took no trouble 
 to soften the blow by mortifying his own. In one or two 
 cases he made a show of taking minor parts, such as Friar 
 Laurence and Jaques, but these condescensions were 
 rare, and in great measure illusory. He was the star of 
 Covent Garden and Drury Lane, just as Mr. Irving is the 
 star of the Lyceum. It is true that this position was in 
 some degree forced upon him. To have cast himself
 
 142 WILLIAM CILARLES MACREADY. 
 
 tor minor parts would have cost him a far greater sacri- 
 fice than one of mere vanity. Those which he could 
 have played to any advantage were few, and the 
 public would probably not have cared to see him in 
 them. Before really critical audiences, a great actor 
 may bestow his whole care upon second-rate or third-rate 
 characters without any sense of waste ; but the average 
 English audience has no eye for aught but the large 
 effects to be obtained in leading characters. Moreover, 
 the critics and the public would not accept Vandenhoff 
 or Phelps, Elton or Anderson, in characters which Mac- 
 ready had made his own. He is scarcely to be blamed, 
 then, for not having brought his subordinates more to 
 the front. Juster reproach attaches to his habit of 
 taking to himself the whole credit of his achievements, 
 and ignoring the co-operation of his comrades. His 
 churlishness in this respect contrasts unfavourably with 
 Mr. Irving's generosity of acknowledgment towards his 
 company on all public occasions. Many of Macready's 
 actors risked a third of their ordinary salary in order to 
 serve under his banner ; and though he fulfilled his pro- 
 mise of making good the deficiency so far as the results 
 of each season permitted, he did so in such an ungrace- 
 ful way as to minimize their gratitude. The attitude of 
 his fellow-actors towards him is amusingly illustrated in 
 an anecdote related by James Anderson. One day 
 Macready failed to appear at rehearsal, on account of 
 illness. Some one inquired what was the matter with 
 him, andWillmott, the prompter, replied that he believed 
 it was heart-disease. " AVhat ! "' cried Mrs. Kceley, 
 who was standing by, " Macready suffering from heart- 
 disease ! You might as well try to make mc believe that 
 Walter Lacy could suffer from brain fever ! "' The faith- 
 fulness with which the leading members of his company
 
 MANAGEMENT. 
 
 '43 
 
 clung to liim ihroughoul proves that tlicy had Httle 
 serious ground of complaint ; but there was undoubtedly 
 a lack of amenity in his behaviour towards them which 
 gave some colour to the strictures of his harsher critics. 
 
 Among his personal friends and the theatre-going 
 public his popularity was undiminished. On his retire- 
 ment from Drury Lane his friends presented him with a 
 marvellous piece of symbolic sculpture in silver, testify- 
 ing that his management had " Formed an Epoch in 
 Theatrical Annals." The public, who always crowded 
 to his opening and closing nights, however they might 
 neglect the intermediate performances, filled every corner 
 of Drury Lane, when, on June 14, 1843, Macready made 
 his last appearance as a manager. Their enthusiasm, he 
 says, "was grand and awful. ... It was unlike any- 
 thing that ever occurred before." He was nerved by 
 the splendid reception to play his part — Macbeth — in 
 his best style; then, having "spoken his speech," he 
 "retired with the same mad acclaim." 
 
 CovENT Garden Theatre. 
 1837-1838. 
 
 Sept.'3o (opening night) : Address [by Talfourd] spoken 
 by Macready. The Winter's Tale: Leontes = Macready; 
 Polixenes = Diddear ; Camillo = Pritchard ; Antigonus = 
 G. Bennett ; Florizel = Anderson (first appearance in 
 London) ; Shepherd = Tilbury ; Clown = Meadows : Auto- 
 lycus - BarUey ; Hermione = Miss H. Faucit ; Perdita = 
 Miss Taylor ; Paulina = Miss Huddart ; Mopsa = Miss 
 P. Horton ; Dorcas = Miss Vincent. 4 times. Feb. 10 : 
 Dorcas = Mrs. Humby. 
 
 Oct. 2 : Hamlet: Claudius = Diddear; Hamlet = ALic- 
 ready; Polonius = Meadows ; Laertes = Anderson ; Horatio 
 = G. Bennett ; Osrick = Vining ; (".ravcdigger = Bartley ;
 
 144 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 Ghost — Elton ; Ophelia = Miss Taylor ; Gertrude = Miss 
 Huddart. 3 times. Oct. 8 : Ghost = Warde. 
 
 Oct. 7 : The Bridal: Arcanes = G. Bennett ; Melantius 
 = Macready ; Amintor = Anderson ; Evadne = ]\Iiss Hud- 
 dart ; Aspatia = Miss Taylor. 7 times. 
 
 Oci'. ] I : New Play, The Novice [translation by W. 
 Dimond?]: Warde, Bartley, Anderson, Miss H. Faucit. 
 3 times. 
 
 Oct. 14 : Catherine and Petrtichio (afterpiece) : Miss 
 Faucit and Vining. Twice. 
 
 Oct. 16: Othello: Duke = Bartley; Brabantio = G. 
 Bennett ; Othello = Macready ; Cassio = Anderson ; lago 
 — Warde ; Roderigo = Mning ; Desdemona = Miss Faucit ; 
 Emilia = Miss Huddart. 3 times. Oct. 30 : Othello = 
 Phelps ; lago = Macready. 
 
 Oct. 19 : The Provoked Husband: Lord Townly = Mac- 
 ready : Lady Townly = Miss Faucit ; Lady Grace = Miss 
 Huddart. 3 times. New Play, Afrancesado [by T. J. 
 Serle] : Anderson, Bartley, Warde, Miss Taylor, Miss 
 Vincent. Twice. 
 
 Oct. 21 : Werner: Werner = Macready ; Ulric = Ander- 
 son ; Gabor = G. Bennett ; Josephine — Miss Huddart ; 
 Ida — Miss Vincent. 9 times. 
 
 Oct. 26: The Hunchback: Warde, .*\nderson, X'ining, 
 Miss Faucit, Miss Taylor. Twice. 
 
 Oct. 27 : I'cnice Preserved: Jaffier = Phelps (first appear- 
 ance at this Theatre) ; Pierre = Macready ; Belvidera = 
 Miss Faucit. Twice. Nov. 9 : Pierre = Warde. 
 
 Oct. 31 : The Stranger: The Stranger = Macready ; 
 Steinfort = Warde; Mrs. Haller - Miss Faucit. Once. 
 
 Nov. 2 : Virginius : Appius Claudius = G. Bennett ; 
 Dentatus = Warde ; Virginius - Macready ; Icilius = 
 Anderson ; Virginia = Miss Faucit ; Servia = Miss Hud- 
 dart. Twice. 
 
 Nov. 4 : New Play (afterpiece), Parole of Honour [by T. 
 J. .Serle] : Bartley, Anderson, G. l)ennctt, INIeadows, Miss 
 Faucit, Miss Taylor. 10 times. 
 
 Nov. 6: Macbeth: Duncan = Waldron ; Malcolm and 
 Donaldbain = Anderson and IMiss Fairbrothcr ; Macbeth
 
 MAN A GEMENT. 145 
 
 = Alacready ; IMacdufif — Thelps ; Banquo = Warde ; 
 Lenox = Howe ; Witches = G. Bennett, Meadows, and 
 Payne ; Hecate = H. Phillips ; Singing Witches = Wilson, 
 Leffler, Stretton, Alanvers, Ransford, Mesdames Shirreff, 
 P. Horton, Taylor, Vincent, Land, and East ; Lady Macbeth 
 = Miss Huddart. Acted every Monday for 14 weeks run- 
 ning, and 18 times in all. Monday, Jan. i, 1838 : " Lady 
 ALicbeth = Mrs. Warner (late Miss Huddart)." 
 
 Nov. 1 1 : New Comic Opera, The Barbers of Bassora 
 [by J. Hullah]: H. Phillips, Wilson, Bartley, Leffler, Miss 
 Shirreff. 7 times. 
 
 Nov. 13 : New Interlude, TIte Original: Bartley, 
 Meadows, Anderson, Miss P. Horton. 20 times. 
 
 Nov. 14 : King Henry V. : Henry V. = Macready ; Exeter 
 = Warde ; Archbishop of Canterbury = G. Bennett ; Flu- 
 ellen = Meadows ; Williams = Bartley ; Bardolph, Pistol, 
 and Nym = Macarthy, Hammond, and Ayliffe ; Mrs. 
 Quickly = Mrs. Garrick ; Kathcrine= Miss P. Horton. Twice. 
 
 Nov. 28 : Riches {The City Madam) : Luke = Macready ; 
 Lady Traffic = Miss Taylor. Once. Joan of Arc, " Grand 
 Historical and Legendary Spectacle" [by T. J. Serle]: Prit- 
 chard, Anderson, Waldron, Miss Huddart. 31 times. 
 
 Dec. 2: New Romantic Opera, Aniilie ; or. The Love- 
 Test [music by T. B. Rooke] : Phillips, Hammond, Wilson, 
 Miss Shirreff, Miss P. Horton. 53 times. 
 
 Dec. 26: Jane Shore: Hastings = Macready; Glo'ster 
 = G. Bennett ; Dumont = Phelps ; Alicia= Miss Huddart ; 
 Jane Shore = Miss Faucit. Once. Pantomime, Harlequin 
 and Peeping Tom of Coventry : Herbert Bellenclapper = 
 I'aul Bedford. 43 times. " The Manager acknowledges 
 expressly and particularly, under the particular circum- 
 stances, his obligations to Mr. Stanfield, That distin- 
 guished Artist, at a sacrifice, and in a manner the most 
 liberal and kind, has for a short period laid aside his easel 
 to present the Manager with his LAST WORK //; a depart- 
 ment of art so conspicuously advanced by him, as a mark of 
 the interest he feels in the success of the cause which this 
 Theatre labours to support." Stanfield's Diorama con- 
 sisted of " Scenes at Home and Abroad." 
 
 L
 
 146 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 1838. Jan. 25 : King Lear : Lear = Macready ; Kent = 
 Bartley; Glo'ster = G.Bennett ; Edgar = Elton; Edmund 
 = Anderson ; Fool - Miss P. Horton ; Goneril and Regan 
 = jMrs. W. Clifford and i\Irs. Warner ; Cordelia = Miss 
 Faucit. 10 times. 
 
 Jan. 27 : The Wonder : Don Pedro = Strickland (first 
 appearance at this Theatre) ; Don Felix = Maci-eady ; Vio- 
 lante = Miss Faucit ; Flora = Mrs. Glover (first appearance 
 this season) ; Inis = Mrs. Humby (first appearance here 
 these four years). 4 times. But after first performance, Don 
 Felix = Anderson. 
 
 Feb. 13: The Irish Ainbassador : Sir Patrick O'Plenipo 
 = Tyrone Power (first appearance here these two years;. 
 His engagement ended IMarch 3. 
 
 Feb. 1 5 : New Play, The Lady of Lyons : or, Love and 
 Pride: Beaus^ant = Elton; Glavis = Meadows; Damas 
 -. Bartley; Deschappelles = Strickland; ist Officer = 
 Howe ; Landlord = Yarnold ; Gas par = Diddear ; * Claude 
 Melnotte - Macready ; Madame Deschappelles = Mrs. W. 
 Clifford; Pauline = Miss Faucit ; Widow Melnotte = Mrs. 
 Griffith. ■},■}, times. " Edward Lytton Bulwer, Esq.,'' an- 
 nounced as author at the foot of play-bill of P'eb. 24. 
 
 Feb. 16: New Opera, The Black Domino [by Scribe and 
 Auber]: Strickland, Wilson, Hammond, iNIiss Shirreff, Miss 
 P. Horton. 3 times. 
 
 Feb. 20: Julius Ccrsar: Cit^sar = G. Bennett; Octavius 
 = Anderson ; Antony = Elton ; Brutus = Macready ; Cas- 
 sius = Phelps ; Casca = Bartley ; Cinna = Howe ; Cal- 
 phurnia = Mrs. W. Cliftbrd ; Portia* = Mrs. Warner. Twice. 
 Feb. 21: New Farce, Mackintosh and Co.: Power, 
 Bartley. 3 times. 
 
 March 12: Coriolanus : Menenius = Bartley ; Caius 
 Marcius = Macready ; Aufidius = Anderson ; Voluninia = 
 Mrs. Warner; Virgilia - Miss E. Clifford ; Valeria = Mrs. 
 W. Clifford. 8 times. 
 
 April 7 (Macready's benefit) : The Tioo Foscari: Francis 
 Foscari = Macready ; Jacopo Foscari = Anderson ; Lore- 
 dano and Barbarigo = Warde and Elton ; Marina = Miss 
 Faucit. 3 times. New Operetta, Windsor Castle ; or, The
 
 MANAGEMENT. 147 
 
 Prisoner King : Wilson, Leffler, Bartley, Miss Shirrcff, Miss 
 P. Horton. Once. 
 
 April 16: Easter piece, Si/idbad the Sailor: Bartley, 
 Anderson, Paul Bedford, Miss P. Horton. 5 times. 
 
 April 21: The Hypocrite: Cantwell = Bartley ; Maw- 
 worm = Harley (first appearance this season), Waldron, 
 Vining, Mrs. W. Clifford, Miss E. Clifford, Miss Taylor. 
 
 5 times. 
 
 April 28 : Talfourd's Athenian Captive announced for 
 this evening, but not produced on account of the sudden 
 illness of Mrs. Warner. 
 
 April 30: Romeo and Juliet: Romeo = Anderson ; 
 Paris = Howe ; Tybalt = G. Bennett ; Mercutio = Vining ; 
 Friar Laurence — Macready ; Apothecary = Meadows ; 
 Nurse = Mrs. W. Clifford ; Juliet = Miss Faucit. Twice. 
 
 May 3: The Jealous Wife: Major Oakly = Warde ; 
 Charles Oakly == Anderson ; Mr. Oakly = Macready ; Sir 
 Harry Beagle = Harley ; Russet = Bartley ; Mrs. Oakly 
 — Miss Faucit. Once. 
 
 May 4: Ion: Adrastus = Phelps; Ion = Macready; 
 Clemanthe = Miss Faucit. Once. 
 
 May 5 : As You Like It: Banished Duke = G. Bennett ; 
 Amiens = Wilson ; Jaques = Macready ; Orlando = Ander- 
 son ; Adam = Warde ; Touchstone = Harley ; Silvius = 
 Howe ; Rosalind = Miss Taylor ; Celia = Miss E. Clifford ; 
 Phcebe = Miss E. Phillips ; Audrey = Mrs. Humby. Once. 
 
 May 10: New Farce, The Veiled Portrait ;' or. The 
 Chateau of Beauvais : Harley, Warde, Vining, Miss Taylor. 
 
 6 times. 
 
 May 14: King Henry VIII. : Henry VIII. = Bartley; 
 W^olsey = Macready ; Buckingham = Elton ; Sands = 
 Harley ; Gardner = Meadows ; Cromwell = Anderson ; 
 Queen Katharine = Miss Faucit ; Anne Bullen = Miss 
 Taylor ; Patience = Miss Shirreff .with song, "Angels ever 
 bright and fair "). Twice. 
 
 May 17 : New Operatic Entertainment, Tlie Outpost \hy 
 J. HuUah] : Wilson, Leffler, Meadows, Bartley, Miss Shirreff. 
 
 7 times. 
 
 May 23 : New Play by James Sheridan Knowles, Esq.,
 
 148 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE ADV. 
 
 Womaifs Wit ; or, Lcn'c's Disguises : Lord Athunree = 
 Warde ; Sutton = Bartley ; De Grey = Anderson ; *Wal- 
 singham = Macready ; Eustace = Miss Taylor ; Clever = 
 Harley ; Hero = INIiss Faucit. 31 times. Elton played 
 Walsingham 6 times. 
 
 June 23 (Sheridan Knowles's benefit) : IVoman's Wit and 
 The Wife : Leonai'do and Ferrardo Gonzago = Elton and 
 Warde ; Julian = S. Knowles ; INIariana = H. Faucit. 
 Once. 
 
 June 28 (Theatre open gratuitously, in honour of the 
 Queen's Coronation) : T/ic Hypocrite and Tlie (2ita/ccr. 
 
 July 6 (last night of season; : IVoam/i's JVit. 
 
 Minor Pieces : A Roland for an Oliver, 3 ; Miller and 
 his Men, 3 ; Love ifi a Village, 2 : Irish Tutor, 3 ; Brother 
 a?id Sister, 3; Fra Diavolo, 22 ; The Spitfire, 11 ; TJie 
 Beggar'' s Opera, 3 ; The Lord of the Manor, 3 ; The (Quaker, 
 7 ; The Poor Soldier, 5 ; I'he Waterman, 6 ; No Song no 
 Supper, 3 ; Aladdin, 2 ; Gity Mannering, 2 ; The Marriage 
 of Figaro, 7 ; Rob Roy, 2 ; TJie IrisJi Ambassador, 3 ; Born 
 to Good Luck, 2 ; The Omnibus, 3 ; Teddy the Tiler, i ; The 
 Neri'ous I\Ian, i ; High Life Below Stairs, 7 ; Animal 
 Magnetism, 3 ; Johji of Paiis, 3 ; The Midnight Hour, 
 2 ; Matrimony, i ; The Padlock, i ; The Will, 5. 
 
 Macreadv's Characters : *Claude INIelnotte, 33 ; 
 *WaIsingham, 25; Macbeth, 18; Lear, 10; Werner, 9; 
 Coriolanus, 8 ; Melantius, 7 ; Leontes, 4 ; Hamlet, Lord 
 Townly, *Francis Foscari, 3 ; Othello, Virginius, Henry V., 
 Brutus, Friar Laurence, Wolsey, 2 ; lago, Pierre, Stranger, 
 Luke, Hastings, Don Felix, Mr. Oakly, Ion, Jaqucs, r. 
 Total, 144 performances. 
 
 1838-1839. 
 
 Sept. 24 (opening night) : Coriolanus : Caius Marcius 
 = Vandenhofif (first appearance here these two years) ; 
 Virgilia — Miss Vandenlioff; Aufidius = Phelps. Rest as 
 March 12, 1838. Twice with this cast. (See May 6, 1839.) 
 
 Sep']'. 26 : Cymbeline: Cymbeline = Waldron ; Guiderius 
 = Elton ; Avvira; us = Anderson ; Clotcn = \'ining ; Be-
 
 MANAGEMENT. 149 
 
 larius = Warde ; Postluimus - Phelps ; Pisanio = G. 
 Bennett ; Imogen = Miss Faucit ; Minstrels = Mrs. Serle, 
 Miss P. Horton ; lachimo = Vandenhoff ; Philario = Howe. 
 Twice. 
 
 Sept. 27 : New Farce, Brori'/i, Jones, and Robinson [by J. 
 0.\enford] : Bartley, Harley, \'ining, Mrs. Humby, Mrs. W. 
 Clifford. Thrice. 
 
 Sept. 29 : To7u/i andCoitntry : \'andenhofif, Elton, Harley, 
 Mrs. Warner, Miss Vandenhoff. Once. 
 
 Oct. I : Hamlet: Polonius = Bartley ; Horatio = Serle ; 
 Gravedigger = Harley ; Ghost = Warde ; Ophelia = Miss 
 Rainforth. Rest as Oct. 2, 1837. 5 times. 
 
 Oc'l'. 3 : The Lady of Lyons : Deschappelles = \\'aldron. 
 Rest as Feb. 15, 1838. 29 times. 
 
 Oct. 4 : Othello : Othello = Macready ; lago = Vanden- 
 hoff. Rest as Oct. 16, 1837. ' 8 times. Oct. 25 : Othello = 
 Vandenhoff; lago = Macready. 
 
 Oct. 6: The Winter's Tale: Leontes = Vandenhoff 
 Polixencs = Warde ; Camillo = Diddear ; Autolycus = 
 Harley; Perdita = Miss-Vandenhofif; Dorcas = Mrs. Humby. 
 Rest as Sept. 30, 1837. Thrice. 
 
 Oct. 13 : The Tempest., from the text of Shakespeare. 
 The music selected from the works of Purcell, Linley, and 
 Dr. Arne, and arranged by Mr. T. Cooke. The entr'actes 
 from Corelli. Previous to the play, Weber's Overture to 
 The Ruler of Spirits. Alonzo = Warde ; Sebastian = Did- 
 dear ; Prospero = Macready ; Antonio = Phelps ; Ferdi- 
 nand = Anderson ; Gonzalo = Waldron ; Caliban = G. 
 Bennett ; Trinculo = Harley ; Stephano = Bartley ; Mi- 
 randa = Miss Faucit ; Ariel = Miss P. Horton ; Spirits in 
 the Vision : Iris = Mrs. Serle ; Ceres = Miss P. Horton ; 
 Juno = Miss Rainforth. 55 times. On Nov. 29 and 
 Dec. I and 4 : Miranda = Miss Vandenhoff. 
 
 Oct. 19 : New Drama [from the German], interspersed 
 with music. The Foresters; or, Twenty five Years Since: 
 Vandenhoff, Frazer, Anderson, Warde, Harley, Bartley, 
 Mrs. Warner, Miss Rainforth, Miss P. Horton. 4 times. 
 
 Oct. 20 : New Petite Comedy, Jealousy : Vandenhoft', 
 Anderson, Meadows, Mrs. Warner. Thrice.
 
 I50 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Oct. 26 : The Htitichback: Helen = Miss Vandenhoff. 
 Rest as Oct. 26, 1837. Once. 
 
 Oct. 29: Macbeth: Lenox = Serle; Hecate = Leffler. 
 Rest practically as Nov. 6, 1837. 5 times. 
 
 Nov. 2: Cato : Cato = Vandenhoff; Porcius = Elton ; 
 Marcus = Phelps ; Juba = Anderson ; Sempronius = G. 
 Bennett; Syphax = Warde ; Marcia = Miss Vandenhoff; 
 Lucia = Mrs. Warner. Once. 
 
 Nov. 3. "^Qw O^txa., Bcifbara; or, The Bride of a Day 
 [music by Boieldieu yf/j] : Harley, Frazer, Miss Rainforth, 
 Miss P. Horton. 7 times. 
 
 Nov. 10 : Catherine atid Petruchio. 8 times. Petruchio 
 = Vining ; Catherine = sometimes Miss Faucit, sometimes 
 Mrs. Warner. 
 
 Nov. 19 : New Farce, Chaos is Come Agdi/i ; or, The 
 Race Bail: Bartley, Vining, Meadows, Miss Charles. 30 
 times. 
 
 Nov. 23: Ion: Adrastus = Vandenhoff; Ion = Ander- 
 son ; Clemanthe = l\Iiss Faucit. 3 times. May 20 : Ion 
 = INIacready. 
 
 Nov. 30: Werner: Gabor = ^'andenhoff; Ida = Miss 
 Vandenhoff. Rest as Oct. 21, 1837. 4 times. 
 
 Dec. 3 : Williain Tell, with alterations by the author : 
 Gesler = Warde ; Tell = Macready ; Michael = Anderson ; 
 Albert = Miss R. Isaacs ; Emma = Mrs. Warner. 14 times. 
 
 Di;c. 7 : Venice Preser^ied : Jafifier = Elton ; Pierre = 
 Vandenhoff; Belvidera = Miss Faucit. Once. 
 
 Dec. 26: Ja7ie Shore: Glo'ster = Vandenhoff. Rest 
 as Dec 26, 1837. (Repeated March 4, 1839 : Hastings = 
 Elton.) Pantomime, Harlequin and Fair Rosamond; or, 
 Old Dame Nature a/id the Fairy Art. 41 times. 
 
 1839. Jan. 4: Rob Roy: Vandenhoff, Harley, Frazer, Mrs. 
 Warner, Miss Rainforth. 5 times. 
 
 FeI3. I (Royal command) : The Lady of Lyons (49th 
 time) and last two acts of Rob Roy. 
 
 Feb. 4 : King Lear. Cast as Jan. 25, 1838. 6 times. 
 
 FeI!. 8 : New Drama, The King and the Duke ; or, I he 
 Siege of Alcn^on : Bartley, .\nderson, \'ining, Harley, Miss 
 Rainforth, Miss Taylor. 6 limes.
 
 MA NA CEMENT. 1 5 1 
 
 March 7 : New Play, RicJicIicii ; or, The Cofispiracy, hy 
 Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, Bart. : Louis XIII. - Elton ; 
 Gaston = Diddear; *Richelieu = Macready ; Baradas = 
 Warde ; Mauprat = Anderson ; De Berighcn = Vining ; 
 Father Joseph = Phelps ; Huguet — G. Bennett ; Francois 
 = Howe ; Julie de IMortemar = Miss Faucit ; Marion de 
 Lorme = Miss Charles. 37 times. 
 
 April 8: "The Public is respectfully informed that the 
 present management will terminate with this season." 
 
 Al'Rii, 18 (Miss Faucit's benefit) : As You Like It: ist 
 Lord = Phelps; Amiens = Frazer ; Rosalind — Miss Faucit; 
 Celia = Miss Rainforth ; Phoebe = Miss P. Horton. Rest 
 as May 5, 1838. 4 times. New F^arce, Sayings and Doings : 
 Meadows, Vining, Harley, T. Lee, :\Irs. W. Clifford, Miss 
 Charles. 15 times. 
 
 April 20: New Dramatic Romance, Agnes Bernaiier; 
 or, T/ie Secret Tribunal; Overture and incidental music by 
 Mr. G. A. Macfarren : Phelps, Anderson, Serle, Elton, G. 
 Bennett, Mrs. Warner. 17 times. 
 
 April 27 (Vandenhoff's benefit) : Julius Cwsar: Antony 
 = Vandenhoff. Rest as P'eb. 20, 1838. Once. 
 
 May 2 : New Grand Opera, Henrique ; or, Tlie Love- 
 Pilgi-imx IMusic by :Mr. W. M. Rooke : H. Phillips, W. 
 Harrison (first appearance in London), Leffler, ]\Ianvers, 
 Harley, Miss Rainforth, Miss P. Horton. 5 times. 
 
 May 6 (Macready's benefit): Coriolanus : Menenius = 
 Strickland ; Virgilia = Miss \'andenhoff. Rest as March 
 12, 1838. Once with this cast. (See Sept. 24, 1838.) 
 
 ]\Iay 13 : Virginius. Cast as Nov. 2, 1837. Once. 
 
 May 25 : Tlie Provoked Husband: Squire Richard = 
 Harley ; Moody = Meadows ; Miss Jenny = Mrs. Humby. 
 Rest as Oct. 19, 1837. Once. 
 
 May 27: T7ie Two Foscari. Cast as April 7, 183S. Once. 
 
 June 10: Ki/ig Henry ]''. "To impress more strongly 
 on the auditor, and render more palpable these portions of 
 the story which have not the advantage of action, and still 
 are requisite to the Drama's completeness, the narrative 
 and descriptive poetry spoken by the chorus is accompanied 
 with Pictorial Illustr a iioxs from the pencil of Mr.
 
 IS2 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 STANFIELD.'' The music selected from Purcell, Handel, 
 and Weber. Chorus in the character of Time = Vanden- 
 hoff ; Henry V. = Macready ; Exeter = Elton ; Erpingham 
 = Bartley ; Govver = Anderson ; Fluellen = Meadows ; 
 IMacmorris = T. Lee ; Bates and Williams = C. J. Smith 
 and Warde ; Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol = Bedford, Ayliffe, 
 Harley ; Boy = Miss P. Horton ; Mrs. Quickly = Mrs. C. 
 Jones; Charles VI. = G. Bennett; Dauphin = Vining ; 
 Orleans = Howe ; D'x'llbret = Phelps ; Isabel = Mrs. W. 
 Clifford; Katharine = Miss Vandenhoff. 21 times. 
 
 June 25 : The Stranger: Vandenhoff, Warde, Miss Faucit. 
 
 July 16 (last night) : Kijig Henry V. 
 
 Minor Pieces : High Life Below Stairs, 11 ; Fra Dia- 
 volo, 20 ; A Roland for an Oliver, 6 ; The Original, 1 1 ; 
 Animal Magnetism, i ; The Waterman, 7 ; The Marriage 
 of Figaro, 12 ; The Cabitiet, 5 ; Laugh when yon can, 5 ; 
 TJie Quaker, 12 ; The Omnibus, 12 ; The Miller aiid his 
 Men, I ; The Royal Oak, 3 ; A7t Agreeable Surprise, 4 ; 
 Charles IL, 3 ; TJie Portrait of Cervantes, 7 ; Raising the 
 Wind, 3; The Invincibles, 10; Lodoiska, 6; Inkle and 
 Yarico, 5 ; The Slave, 2 : The Mountaineers, i ; No Song 
 no Supper, 3 ; A mi lie, 10. 
 
 M.vcready's Characters : Prospero, 55 ; *Richelieu, 
 2,7; Melnotte, 29; Henry V., 21; Tell, 14; Othello, 7; 
 Lear, 6 ; Hamlet and Macbeth, 5 ; Werner, 4 ; Jaques, 3 ; 
 lago, Hastings, Brutus, Coriolanus, Virginius, Ion, Lord 
 Townly, F. Foscari, 1. 194 performances. 
 
 Drury Lane Theatre. 
 
 1841-1842. 
 
 Dec. 27 (opening night) : The Merchant of Venice, from 
 the text of Shakespeare : Duke — G. Bennett ; Antonio = 
 Phelps ; Bassanio = Anderson ; Salarino = Marston ; Shy- 
 lock = Macready ; Launcelot Gobbo = Compton ; Old 
 (iobbo = W. Bennett; Portia = Mrs. Warner; Nerissa = 
 Mrs. Kceley. J 5 times. Pantomime, Harlequin and Duke 
 Hutnphrey's Dinner ; or, Jack Cade, the Lord of London. 
 42 limes.
 
 MANAGEMENT. 153 
 
 Dec. 28 : Every One has his Fault: Macready, Phelps, 
 Compton, Kcelc)-, Anderson, Mrs. Warner, Mrs. Keeley. 
 8 times. 
 
 Dec. 29: Two Gentlemen of Verona: Duke = Phelps; 
 Valentine = Macready ; Proteus = Anderson ; Thuri.o — 
 Compton ; Speed = H. Hall ; Launce = Keeley ; Julia = 
 Miss Fortescue ; Silvia = Miss Ellis. 13 times. 
 
 1842. Jan. 12: '['he Gamester: Beverley = Macready ; 
 Lewson = Anderson ; Jarvis = Elton ; Stiikeley = Phelps ; 
 Mrs. Beverley = Mrs. Warner ; Charlotte = Miss Ellis. 
 5 times. May 6 : Beverley - Anderson. 
 
 Jan. 25 : Point of Honour: Phelps,, Hudson, Anderson, 
 Compton, Mrs. Warner. Twice. New Farce, The Wind- 
 mill [by E. Morton] : Sampson Low = Keeley ; Marian = 
 Mrs. Keeley. 33 times. 
 
 Feb. 5 : Acis and Galatea. " In aid of the endeavour to 
 establish upon the ENGLISH Stage the Wokks of the 
 Greatest Co^iposers of the English School of Music, 
 Mr. STANFIELD, R.A., has been engaged to furnish the 
 Scenic Illustrations for the representation of the first 
 of a series of Operas proposed to be revived at this Theatre." 
 Cupid = Miss Gould ; Acis = Miss P. Horton ; Damon = 
 Allen ; Polyphemus = H. Phillips : Galatea = Miss Romer. 
 43 times. 
 
 Feb. 8 : New Play, The Prisoner of War [by Douglas 
 Jerrold] : Captain Channel = Phelps ; Firebrace = Anderson ; 
 Peter and Polly Pall-Mail = Mr. and Mrs. Keeley. 31 times. 
 
 Feb. 14 : Venice Preserved: Jaffier = Anderson ; Pierre 
 = Phelps ; Belvidera = Miss Faucit (first appearance at 
 this Theatre). 3 times. 
 
 Feb. 21 : Catherine and Petruchio (afterpiece) : Petruchio 
 = Anderson; Grumio = Compton; Catherine = Miss Faucit. 
 4 times. 
 
 Feb. 23 : Gisippjis, by the late Gerald (iriffin : Fuhius = 
 Anderson ; *Gisippus = Macready ; Pheax and Chremes = 
 Elton and Hudson : Sophronia =^ Miss Faucit. 20 times. 
 
 March 28 (Easter Monday) : Macbeth: Duncan = Wal- 
 dron: Malcolm = Graham; Macbeth = Macready ; Banquo 
 = Anderson ; Macduff = Phelps ; Rosse = Elton ; Lenox
 
 154 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 = Marston ; Fleance = Miss Phillips ; Lady Macbeth = 
 Mrs. Warner; ist and 2nd Witches = G. and W. Bennett ; 
 3rd Witch ^ M'lan ; Singing Witches = Giubilei, Allen, 
 Reeves, Jones, etc., Mesdames Romer, P. Horton, Keeley, 
 Poole, etc. 8 times ; every Monday to May 16. New 
 Operetta, The Students of Bonn [by G. H. Rodwell] : 
 Hudson, Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Selby, Mrs. C. Jones, Mrs. 
 Keeley, Miss Romer. 22 times. 
 
 April 20 : New Play, Plighted Troth [by Darley] : 
 Macready, Anderson, Hudson, Phelps, Elton, Miss Faucit, 
 Mrs. Stirling. Once. 
 
 April 29: Hamlet: Claudius = G. Bennett; Hamlet = 
 Macready ; Polonius = Compton ; Laertes = Elton ; Horatio 
 = Graham ; Osrick = Hudson ; Gravedigger = Keeley ; 
 Ghost = Phelps ; Gertrude = ]\Irs. Warner ; Ophelia = 
 Miss P. Horton. 4 times. 
 
 May 17 (Miss Faucit's benefit) : The Stranger : Stranger 
 = Macready ; Steinfort = Phelps ; Solomon = Compton ; 
 Peter = Keeley ; Mrs. Haller = Miss Faucit ; Countess 
 Wintersen = Mrs. Stirling ; Charlotte = Mrs. Keeley. Once. 
 May 19 (Mr. and Mrs. Keeley's benefit) : The Provohcd 
 Husband: Lord Townly = Macready ; Manly = Phelps ; 
 Sir F. Wronghead = Compton ; Squire Richard = Keeley ; 
 Lady Townly = Miss Faucit ; Lady Wronghead = Mrs. C. 
 Jones ; Lady Grace = Mrs. Stirling ; Miss Jenny = l\Trs. 
 Keeley. Once. New Farce, The Attic Story: Mr. and 
 Mrs. Poddy = Mr. and Mrs. Keeley. Twice. 
 
 May 2o(Macready's benefit) : Marino Falicro : * Marino = 
 Macready ; Bertuccio Faliero=: Hudson ; Lioni = Anderson ; 
 Benintende = Q. Bennett ; Israel Bertuccio = Phelps ; 
 Bertram = Elton ; Angiolina = Miss Faucit. Twice. 
 
 May 23 (Anderson's benefit, and last night) : Othello : 
 Othello = Anderson ; lago = Macready ; Cassio = Hudson ; 
 Roderigo = Compton ; Brabantio = I'"lton ; Desdemona = 
 Miss Faucit ; Emilia = Mrs. Warner. Once. 
 
 Minor Pikces : La Sonnatnbula, 4 ; The Poor Soldier, 
 
 4 ; No Song no Supper, 6 ; The (Quaker, 3 ; The Duenna, 2. 
 
 Macready's Characters : *Gisippus, 20 ; Shylock, 15 ; 
 
 \''alcntine, 13; Macbeth and Harmony, 8: Hamlet and
 
 MA NA CEMENT. 1 5 5 
 
 Beverley, 4; ♦Marino Faliero, 2 ; *Grim\vood, lago, Stranger, 
 and Lord Townly, i. 78 performances. 
 
 1 842-1 843. 
 
 Oct. I (opcninj^ "ight) : -^s You Like It; Overture, 
 first movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, entr'actes 
 selected from the same work : Duke = Ryder ; ist Lord = 
 Elton ; 2nd Lord = H. Phillips ; Amiens = Allen ; Jaques 
 = Macready ; Duke Frederick = G. Bennett : Le Beau — 
 Hudson ; Oliver = Graham ; Jaques do Bois = Lynne ; 
 Orlando = Anderson ; Adam = Phelps ; Touchstone = 
 Keeley ; William = Compton ; Pages to Banished Duke = 
 Miss P. Horton and Miss Gould ; Foresters = Stretton, J. 
 Reeves, etc. ; Rosalind = Mrs. Nisbett ; Celia = Mrs. 
 Stirling; Phoebe = Miss Fortescue ; Audrey -Mrs. Keeley. 
 22 times. 
 
 Oct. 3 : Hamlet. Cast as April 29. 7 times. April 3 
 and 19, 1843: Hamlet = Anderson. Acis and Galatea: 
 Polyphemus = Stretton. Rest as last season ; but see May 5, 
 1843. 15 times. 
 
 Oct. 5 : ATaiiiio Faliero. Cast as May 20. Follies of a 
 i\7«^/// [by J. R. Planche] : Druggendraft = Compton ; Palliot 
 = C. Mathews; Duchesse de Chartres = Madame Vestris. 
 16 times. 
 
 Oct. 7 : The Rivals : Sir Anthony = Lambert (first appear- 
 ance) ; Captain Absolute = Anderson ; Faulkland = Phelps ; 
 Acres = Keeley ; Sir Lucius = Hudson ; Fag = C. Mathews; 
 David = Compton ; Mrs. Malaprop = Mrs. C. Jones ; Lydia 
 Languish = Mrs. Nisbett ; Julia= Miss Faucit ; Lucy = Mrs. 
 Keeley. Thrice. 
 
 Oct. II : The Stranger. Castas May 17. Once. 
 
 Oct. 18: The Road to Ruin : Dornton = Phelps ; Harry 
 Dornton = Anderson ; Sulky = Lambert ; Silky = Compton ; 
 Goldfinch = C. Mathews ; Widow Warren = Mrs. C. Jones ; 
 Sophia = Mrs. Stirling. Twice. 
 
 Oct. 20 : Othello : Othello = Macready ; Cassio = 
 Anderson ; lago = Phelps ; Roderigo = C. Mathews. Rest 
 as May 22. 10 times [Macready played lago twice ; and 
 once Othello = Anderson ; lago = Phelps].
 
 156 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Oct. 24 : Khig John ; Overture, Martial Movement from 
 Beethoven's C Minor Symphony : King John = Macready ; 
 Arthur = Miss Newcombe ; Salisbury = Elton ; Hubert = 
 Phelps ; Faulconbridge = Anderson ; Philip Augustus = 
 Graham; Dauphin = Hudson ; Pandulph= Ryder ; Elinor 
 = jNIiss Ellis ; Constance = Miss Faucit ; Blanch — Miss 
 Fairbrother ; Lady Faulconbridge = Mrs. Selby. 26 times. 
 
 Oct. 27 : Patter v. Clatter : C. Mathews. Twice. 
 
 Oct. 29 : The Provoked Husband: Lord Townly = 
 Anderson; Manly = Phelps ; Lady Townly = Mrs. Nisbett. 
 Rest as May 19. Once. New Farce, The Eton Boy : 
 Popham — C. Mathews [afterwards Hudson] ; Dabster = 
 Keeley ; Fanny = Mrs. Stirling. 18 times. 
 
 Nov. 16: Dryden's King Arthur ; Overture and music 
 by Purcell, except three songs by Dr. Arne : Arthur = 
 Anderson; Conon = (T. Bennett; Merlin = Ryder ; Warrior 
 = J. Reeves ; Emmeline = Mrs. Nisbett [afterwards Mrs. 
 Stirling] ; Osmond = H. Phillips ; Priest = Allen ; Philadel 
 = Miss P. Horton ; Grimbald = Stretton ; Cupid = Miss 
 Romer ; Venus = Mrs. Fairbrother. 31 times. 
 
 Nov. 19 : Love for Love : Legend = Lambert ; Valentine 
 = Anderson ; Ben = Keeley ; Scandal = Phelps ; Tattle = 
 Hudson ; Foresight = Compton ; Angelica = Miss Faucit ; 
 Mrs. Foresight = Mrs. Stirling ; Mrs. Frail = Mrs. Nisbett ; 
 Miss Prue = Mrs. Keeley ; Nurse = Mrs. C. Jones. 8 
 times. 
 
 Dec. 10 : New Play, Tlie Patrieiairs Daughter, by J. 
 Westland Marston, Escj. : Earl Lynterne = Phelps ; 
 Pierpoint = Hudson; *Mordaunt = Macready; Heartwell = 
 Elton ; Lister = G. Bennett ; Physician = Ryder ; Lady 
 Mabel = Miss Faucit ; Lady Lydia = Mrs. Warner. 1 1 
 times. 
 
 Dkc. 26; ya7ic Shore: Glo'ster = Phelps ; Hastings = 
 Macready ; Dumont = Anderson ; Bclmour = Ryder ; Jane 
 Shore = Miss Faucit ; Alicia = Mrs. Warner. Once. 
 Tantomimc, //(?;7^(7//'/« and IV/lliatn Tell: or, 'The Genius 
 0/ the Ribstone Pippin. 35 times. 
 
 1843. Jan. 9: Macbeth: 3rd Witch = Ryder. Rest 
 practically as March 28, 1842. 10 times. (See April 17.)
 
 MA NA GEMENT. \ 5 7 
 
 Jan. 13; Werner: Gabor = I'lielps ; Idcnstcin = 
 Compton ; Ida = Miss Fortescue. Rest as Covent Garden, 
 Oct. 21, 1837. Twice. 
 
 Jan. 17: TJic Lady of Lyons : Beausdant —Elton ; (jlavis 
 = Keeley; Damas = Phelps; (]aspar = G. Bennett ; Melnottc 
 = Macready ; Madame Deschappcllcs = Mrs. C. Jones ; 
 Pauline = Miss Faucit ; Widow Melnotte = Miss Ellis. 12 
 times. 
 
 Jan. 21 : Cymbeline : Cymbeline = Ryder; Cloten — 
 Compton ; Posthumus = Anderson ; lachimo = Macready ; 
 Bellarias = Phelps ; Guiderius and Arviragiis= Hudson and 
 Allen; Pisanio= Elton ; Oueen = Miss Ellis ; Imogen = ?vliss 
 Faucit. 4 times. 
 
 Fed. 1 1 : New Play, A Blot in the 'Scutcheon [by 
 Robert Browning] : Thorold = Phelps ; Mertoun = Anderson ; 
 Austin = Hudson ; (Jerard = G. Bennett; Mildred =: Miss 
 Faucit ; Gwendolen = Mrs. Stirling. Thrice. New Farce, 
 The Thumping Legacy: Jerry Ominous = Keeley ; Rosetta 
 = Miss P. Horton. 17 times. 
 
 Feb. 18: She Stoops to Conquer : Hardcastle = Compton ; 
 Young Marlow= Hudson ; Tony Lumpkin = Keeley ; Mrs. 
 Hardcastle = Mrs. C. Jones ; Miss Hardcastle = Mrs. 
 Nisbett ; Miss Neville = Miss Fortescue. Once. 
 
 Feb. 24 (Macready's benefit) : Much Ado about Nothing : 
 Don Pedro = Hudson ; Don John = Lynne ; Claudio = 
 Anderson ; Benedict = Macready ? Leonato = Phelps ; 
 Balthazar = Allen ; Dogberry and Verges = Compton and 
 Keeley; Se.\ton = Morris Barnett ; Friar = Ryder; Hero = 
 IMiss Fortescue; Beatrice = Mrs. Nisbett. 11 times. 
 ConiHs : Attendant Spirit = Miss P. Horton ; Comus = 
 Macready [he played the part this night and on May 5 ; 
 on all other occasions, Comus = Phelps] ; Elder Brother = 
 Anderson ; Lady = Miss Faucit ; Sabrina = Miss Romer ; 
 Bacchanals = H. Phillips, Allen, J. Reeves, etc. 14 times. 
 
 Feb. 25 : The Gamester: Mrs. Beverley = Miss Faucit ; 
 Charlotte = Mrs. Stirling. Rest as Jan. 12, 1841. Once. 
 New Operetta, TJie Queen of the Thames : Phillips, Allen, 
 Keeley, Miss Romer. 6 times. 
 
 March 6 : Virginius : Appius = Ryder ; \'^irginius -
 
 158 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 Macready ; Dentatus = Phelps ; Numitorius = Elton ; Icilius 
 = Anderson ; Virginia = Miss Faucit ; Servia=Mrs. Warner. 
 Twice. 
 
 April i : Pacini's Sappho : Phillips, Allen, Stretton, J. 
 Reeves, Clara Novello (first appearance on the English 
 stage), Mrs. Alfred Shaw (first appearance at this Theatre). 
 13 times. 
 
 April 17 (Easter Monday) : Macbeth: Lady Macbeth = 
 Miss Faucit ; Gentlewoman = Mrs. Alfred Wigan. New 
 Piece, Foriunio [by J. R. Planchd] : Hudson, T. IMatthews, 
 Miss P. Horton, etc. 40 times. 
 
 April 24 : New Play, The Secretary, by Sheridan 
 Knowles : Earl of Byerdale = Phelps ; Colonel Green = 
 Macready ; Wilton Brown = Anderson ; Lady Laura 
 Gaveston = Miss Faucit. Thrice. 
 
 May I (Anderson's benefit) : Julius Ccesar : Caesar = 
 Ryder ; Antony = Anderson ; Brutus = Macready ; Cassius 
 -Phelps; Lucius = Mrs. A. Wigan; Calphurnia = Miss 
 Ellis ; Portia = Miss Faucit. Thrice. May 16: Casca = 
 Slieridan Knowles. 
 
 M.w 5 : Acts ami Galatea (see Oct. 3, 1842) : Acis = 
 Allen ; Polyphemus = Staudigl (first appearance at this 
 Theatre) ; Galatea = Clai-a Novello. 
 
 May 6 (Mrs. Nisbett's benefit) : The School for Scandal: 
 Sir Peter = Compton ; Sir Oliver = Lambert ; Backbite = 
 Keeley ; Crabtree = W. Bennett ; Joseph = Macready (this 
 night only); Charles = Hudson ; Moses = Morris Barnett ; 
 Trip = A. Wigan ; Sir Harry (with song) = Allen ; Lady 
 Teazle = Mrs. Nisbett ; Lady Sneerwcll = Miss Ellis ; 
 Mrs. Candour = Mrs. Stirling; Maria = Miss P. Horton. 
 Once. 
 
 ]May 10 (Mr. and Mrs. Keeley's benefit) : The Jealous 
 Wife: Mr. Oakly = Macready ; Major Oakly = Phelps ; 
 Charles Oakly = Anderson ; Sir Harry Beagle = Keeley ; 
 Captain O'Cutter = A. Wigan ; Mrs. Oakly = Miss Faucit ; 
 Lady Freelove = Mrs. Stirling; Toilet = Mrs. A. Wigan, 
 Once. 
 
 May iS (Miss Faucii's benefit): New Play, Athelwold, 
 by W. Smith, Esq. : *Alhcl\v()ld = Macready ; Elfrid - Miss
 
 A/ A NA GEMENT. 1 59 
 
 Faucit ; Anderson, Phelps, Ryder, Keeley, Mrs. Kecley, 
 Mrs. Stirling. Twice. 
 
 May 29 (Performance in aid of the Siddons Memorial) : 
 2)id Henry IV., act iv. : King = Macready ; Prince = 
 Anderson ; Gascoigne = Phelps ; Pages = Selby and A. 
 Wigan. Two chief acts of Z)6'r /vv/.f(r/////r. Is ]ie yealous ? 
 Hudson, Mrs. Warner, Mrs. Nisbctt, Mrs. Kecley. Fo-tiinio. 
 Tributary address, spoken by Miss Faucit. 
 
 May 30 (Phelps's benefit) : The Winters Tale : Leontes = 
 Macready ; Polixenes = Ryder ; Florizel = Anderson ; 
 Camillo = Elton ; Antigonus = Phelps ; Autolycus = 
 Compton ; Shepherd = W. Bennett ; Clown = Keeley ; 
 Hermione = Miss Faucit ; Perdita — Mrs. Nisbett ; Paulina 
 = iMrs. Warner ; Mopsa and Dorcas = IMrs. Keeley and Miss 
 P. Horton. Twice. 
 
 June 3 (Saturday) announced as last night but one of 
 the season ; but on 
 
 June 5 (Monday) " The public is respectfully informed 
 that, in pursuance of arrangements with the Proprietary of 
 this Theatre, Mr. Macready will relinquish its direction 
 upon the close of the present season, which, in consequence, 
 is e.\tended to Monday, June 12, on which night he will 
 make His last appearance in a London Theatre for a 
 very considerable period." 
 
 June 12 (Royal command) : As Vote Like It and A 
 Thumping Legacy. 
 June 14 (last night) : Macbeth and Fortiinio. 
 Minor Pieces : The Attic Story., 10; La Sonnanibula^ 
 8 ; TJie Duenna., i ; The Windmill , 2 ; Catherine and 
 Fetruchio, i ; La Gazsa Lad?'a, 5 ; Der Freischiitz (whole 
 or part), 16 ; The Prisoner of War., 3 ; The Midtiight Hour., 
 I ; Tlie Loan of a Lover., 2. 
 
 Macready's Characters : King John, 26 ; Jaques, 22 ; 
 Melnotte, 12 ; *Mordaunt and Benedick, 11 ; Macbeth, 10; 
 Othello, 7 ; Hamlet, 5 ; lachimo, 4 ; Brutus and *Coloncl 
 (jreen, 3 ; lago, Leontes, Werner, Comus, Virginius, and 
 *Athelwold, 2 ; Henry IV., Stranger, Hastings, Beverley, 
 Joseph Surface, and '"Six. Oakly, i. 133 performances.
 
 i6o WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 Macreadv's Characters. 
 
 1837-1843. 
 
 (Not under his own management.) 
 
 Haymarket : 1837 : *Melantius, 23 ; Hamlet, Othello, 2 ; 
 Richard III., Ion, Lord Townly, Mr. Oakly, i. 
 
 1838 : *Thoas, 17 ; Lord Townly, 4 ; Kitely, Mr. Oakly, 
 Duke Aranza, 2 ; Melantius, i. 
 
 1839-40: *Norman, 38 ; Melnotte, 26 ; Shylock, 16 ; 
 Othello, Stranger, Mr. Oakly, 3 ; Lord Townly, 2 ; lago, 1. 
 
 Drury Lane : 1840: *Ruthven, 20 ; Macbeth, 7. 
 
 Haymarket: 1840-41 : *Alfred Evelyn, 80; Melnotte, 
 29 ; *Halbert Macdonald, 22 ; Richelieu, 1 5 ; Sir Oswin 
 Mortland, 14; Werner, 12; Hamlet, 10; ^Master Clarke, 
 9 ; Jaques, 8 ; Mr. Oakly, Stranger, 4 ; Shylock, 3 ; Nor- 
 man 2 ; Lord Townly, i . 
 
 1841: Alfred Evelyn, 30; *Spinola, 18; Melnotte, 15; 
 Werner, Virginius, 11 ; Luke {Riches), 7 ; Hamlet, Tell, 4 ; 
 Sir 0. Mortland, Stranger, 3. 
 
 Note.— After the most diligent inquiry, I have failed to 
 ascertain whether the Mr. Darley who wrote riighied Trcih 
 (p. 132) was George Darley, the mathematician and poet. 
 I am inclined to think that it was not he. The play was 
 announced for repetition on April 21, but was withdrawn, on 
 the pretext of " the indisposition of a princip.-xl performer."'
 
 ( i6i ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HOMEWARD P.OUND. 
 
 1843-1851 ; 1851-1873. 
 
 " Oh, my cottage, my cottage ! " Macready mused in his 
 diary some time after his retirement from Covent Garden : 
 " shall I die without seeing thee ? " Drury Lane had 
 been abandoned in its turn, 5nd the coveted retreat 
 seemed as far off as ever. He was now just fifty, and 
 there was evidently no time to be lost. A large sum was 
 still needed to secure what he considered a fair provision 
 for his old age and for his family. He must gird up his 
 loins, and make the most of his hard-earned position 
 while his vigour was yet unimpaired ; for both his self- 
 respect and his disrespect for his calling made him shrink 
 from the bare idea of lagging superfluous on the stage. 
 
 The first thing to be done was to exploit in America 
 the new renown acquired in his managerial experiments. 
 He sailed from Liverpool early in September, 1843, 
 Dickens relinquishing his intention of seeing him off, 
 lest this public show of friendship should do him injury 
 amid the justly incensed countrymen of Elijah Pogram 
 and Jefferson Brick. Ryder accompanied him (Phelps 
 having declined), to play " seconds," and look after tlie 
 details of the tour. They opened in New York on Scp- 
 
 M
 
 i62 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 tember 25, travelled as far south as New Orleans, as far 
 west as St. Louis, as far north as Montreal, and ended 
 the tour at Boston on October 14, 1S44. Macready's 
 repertory consisted of Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, lago, 
 I.ear, Shylock, Brutus, Cassius, Benedick, King John, 
 King Henry IV., Wolsey, Virginius, Tell, Werner, Marino 
 Faliero, ]\Ielantius, Claude Melnotte, Richelieu, The 
 Stranger, Lord Townly in a three-act version of The 
 Provoked Husband, and JosejDh Surface in a similar cur- 
 tailment of The School for Scandal, His heavy Shake- 
 spearian parts seem to have been the most attractive. 
 " Hamlet," he notes, " has brought me more money than 
 any play in America 3 " and I find that at Mobile, in 
 March, 1844, his Hamlet drew %'iT,2> ) Macbeth, Jg666 ; 
 Othello, K475 J ^^'l^ile William Tell brought in but K269, 
 and Richelieu only K13S. The tour was very successful 
 on the whole, and ended*in a clear profit of over ;^55oo. 
 I emphasize the fact of his success, because the origin of 
 the Forrest feud has sometimes been traced to Macready's 
 rage at the " failure " of this visit to America. It was 
 during this tour that he encountered Charlotte Cushman, 
 then a struggling actress of twenty-seven. " She has to 
 learn her art," he noted in his diary, after playing Mac- 
 beth to her Lady Macbeth ; " but she showed mind and 
 sympathy with me." She, on her part, attributed to 
 Macready's influence and encouragement the true begin- 
 ning of her artistic life. Everywhere throughout the 
 Republic he was received with great social distinction. 
 Charles Sumner and Judge Story were his intimate friends, 
 and he met Emerson, Longfellow, Bryant, Prescott, 
 Webster, Clay, and many other *• prominent citizens." 
 
 Soon after his return from America he paid his second 
 professional visit to Paris. The company, under Mitchell's 
 management, included Miss Helen Faucit, whose "grace
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 163 
 
 aiiglaise un peu manieree des keepsakes et des livres de 
 beaute " enraptured Theophile Gautier and the other 
 critics, in spite of the fact that the plays in which she 
 most excelled (all except Romeo and Juliet) were cut out 
 of the repertory by Macready. She played Desdemona 
 to his Othello on the opening night (Theatre Italien, 
 December 16, 1844), and afterwards Ophelia to his 
 Hamlet, Virginia to his Virginius, and Lady Macbeth to 
 his Macbeth, She seems, however, to have escaped the 
 shadowy Josephine of Werner. The visit was (at least) a 
 success of esteem. 
 
 " On the night on which we were present," says a writer in 
 the Edinburgh Review for January, 1846, "the house was 
 crowded. At least half the audience held books in their 
 hands, between which and the stage they managed to divide 
 their attention. Some were incessantly occupied in inter- 
 preting what was going on to their less learned neighbours. 
 Many appeared resolutely absorbed, and one might discern 
 considerable anxiety to look as if they understood all that 
 passed, and to be moved by pity or by terror in the right 
 place. Some, on the contrary, looked honestly vSiCant, and 
 not a few deeply and sincerely interested. In front of the 
 pit sat the critics, triumphantly conscious of English, and 
 boldly enthusiastic for Macready, or passiones for Miss 
 Faucit. The boxes were lined with rous of the blanches 
 epaules, long locks, and impassive countenances which 
 marked the countrywomen of the mighty poet." 
 
 The critics' " consciousness of English " seems to have 
 been somewhat vague, since we'findeven Gautier admiring 
 in IVerner " la fermete male du style." Janin preferred 
 Macready's Hamlet to his Othello, and Gautier, though 
 he does not say so explicitly, seems to have been of the 
 same opinion. "If the French public," George Sand 
 wrote, "has seemed to Mr. Macready attentive and 
 deeply affected rather than excited and noisy, he must
 
 i64 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 not conclude that he has not been understood by us , . . 
 I should like hmi to carry away a good opinion of us ; 
 and from myself, individually, my sincere homage. 
 Eugene Delacroix, Louis Blanc, Chassoir, and all who 
 saw him with me were enraptured with him. I cannot 
 console myself for not having seen his Othello." Alex- 
 andre Dumas, Eugene Sue, and other leaders of the 
 literary world were also warm in their praises ; and there 
 is a legend that, at the gala performance in the Tuileries, 
 Victor Hugo, who was in the parterre, could not restrain 
 his enthusiasm within the bounds of court etiquette. This 
 performance took place on January i6, 1845, in presence 
 of the royal family, the diplomatic, body, M. Guizot, 
 Marshal Soult, and five or six hundred military and civil 
 notables. The programme consisted of Hamlet (with 
 the Gravediggers omitted), and The Day after the Wed- 
 ding, in which Mdlle. Plessy, of the Comedie Frangaise, 
 played Lady Elizabeth Freelove in English. She excited 
 Gautier's admiration by remaining beautiful, "meme en 
 s'extirpant de I'anglais de la bouche, operation qui . . . 
 ne parait meme pas fort aisee pour ces insulaires, s'il faut 
 en juger d'apres les grimaces et les contractions muscu- 
 laires qui accompagnient leur debit." We can scarcely be 
 wrong in reading this as a side-fling at Macready's facial 
 mannerisms. Mdlle. Plessy repeated this feat on the 
 following evening, when the English company gave a 
 farewell performance, Macready playing tlie death-scene 
 of Henry IV., and Miss Faucit, Juliet. 'I'he series of 
 performances would have been prolonged had not the 
 director of the Grand Opera contended that his privilege 
 was infringed by the opening of the Tiiedtre Italien on 
 the three "off-nights" of the week. On January 18 
 Macready played the death-scene of Henry IV. at the 
 Opera Comitiuc, for the benefit o^ the Society for the
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND- 165 
 
 Relief of Distressed Authors. In recognition of this 
 courtesy, the Dramatic Authors' Society presented him 
 with a gold medal struck in his honour, and a letter of 
 thanks, signed by Scribe, Me'lesville, Victor Hugo, Halevy, 
 and others. The visit, in short, was an artistic, if not a 
 financial, triumph. It was not so memorable, in a literary 
 sense, as the English performances of 1827-28, for the 
 romantic movement now needed no reinforcement. In 
 1844-45 Shakespeare was placed in opposition, not to 
 classicism, but to the prevalent triviality of the Scribe 
 school of mere adroitness. *' Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth^' 
 cries Gautier, " cela nous lave de bien des vaudevilles et 
 de bien des melodrames." 
 
 From the beginning of 1845 till the middle of 1848, 
 when he started on his farewell visit to America, Mac- 
 ready made only desultory appearances in London, 
 devoting himself for the most part to provincial wander- 
 ings. The Princess's Theatre, Oxford Street, erected in 
 1840, had been opened for dramatic performances in 
 1842 under the management of J. M. Maddox, a Jewish 
 speculator. AVith him Macready made a series of short 
 engagements, generally for a stated number of weeks 
 at three nights a week. In 1845 he appeared at the 
 Princess's between October 13 and November 21, play- 
 ing Hamlet, Lear, and Othello, to the Laertes of Leigh 
 Murray, the Edgar and lago of Wallack, and the Cordelia 
 and Desdemona of Mrs. Stirling. Cooper, Granby, 
 Compton, Ryder, and Mrs Ternan were also in the 
 company. Next year, from January 26 to February 27, 
 he repeated the same parts, and added Richelieu to the 
 list. During a third engagement (April 13 to June 19, 
 1846) he performed the above-mentioned parts, along 
 with Macbeth and Virginius, and created the character 
 of James V. of Scotland, in The King of the Commons,
 
 i66 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE ADV. 
 
 by the Rev. James White, of Bonchurch. There Avas a 
 good deal of life and vigour in the dialogue of this 
 romantic drama ; but its construction was rambling, and 
 the underplot unduly hindered the action. " The part 
 of James," says i\\t AthencBum, "fiery, moody, passionate, 
 cheerful, generous, and mistrustful — all things by turns — 
 was exactly suited to Mr. Macready's stjHe of acting. It 
 was, indeed, composed of Macreadyisms — painfully so." 
 Mrs. Stirling played the heroine, and Ryder, Cooper, 
 Leigh Murray, and Compton were in the cast. In the 
 autumn of 1846 (September 7 to November 7) Mac- 
 ready gave a very successful series of performances 
 at the Surrey Theatre, under the management of Mrs. 
 Davidge. 
 
 In 1847 1"'6 played two engagements with Maddox. 
 During the first (May 24 to June 18) his parts were 
 Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Werner, and Melantius, and 
 his supporters Creswick. Ryder, Mrs. Warner, and Mrs. 
 Stirling. The second engagement (October 11 to 
 December 3) was of more importance. He played 
 Macbeth, Wolsey, and Othello to the Lady Macbeth, 
 Queen Katharine, and Emilia of Charlotte Cushman ; 
 and on November 22 he produced a stage-arrangement, 
 by himself, of the first part of [Sir] Henry Taylor's 
 Philip von Artcvelde. Perhaps we should rather say a 
 stage-disarrangement — 
 
 " The nine written scenes of the first act," says the 
 Athciucu))!^ "have been reduced to four — and this not by 
 the mere omission of five scenes, but by a recomposition of 
 the material. The curtain opens on what is in the book the 
 third scene of the act ; but this is again recast and pieced 
 out with passages taken from other scenes. . . . Speeches 
 are torn from the dialogue and treated as soliloquies. ... As 
 we advance further into the performance we find even the 
 text changed — enlarged as well as abridged. ... In fact,
 
 HOMEWARD BOUXD. 167 
 
 ]Mr. Taylor has been treated (perhaps with his own consent) 
 as a dead dramatist. ... He has, while yet living, had the 
 honour of having his work mutilated for the stage." 
 
 It was with Ills own consent that Mr. Taylor had been 
 so treated, and lie was not dissatisfied with the result. 
 The piece was finely mounted (though extreme parsi- 
 mony was the rule at the Princess's in tliose days), but 
 was very inadequately acted by Cooper as Occo, James 
 Vining as the Earl of Flanders, Miss Emmeline Mon- 
 tagu as Adriana, and Miss Susan Cushman as Clara. 
 Ryder as Van den Bosch seems to have been good. 
 
 " I thought Macready acted his part admirably," wrote 
 Sir Henry Taylor, in his Autobiography, " and I did not find 
 so much fault as he and many did with others of the per- 
 formers ; and whatever might be his own feeling, so long as 
 the audience was of the cultivated class, the play seemed to 
 persons of that class to be successful ; but of course the 
 literary audiences could only be few ; and the Press, which 
 either leads or follows the many, took the part of blaming 
 the attempt to bring on the stage a work which was designed 
 only for the library." 
 
 The fact is that those of the audience who did not 
 know the play beforehand had difficulty in following 
 the action, which never properly seized their interest. 
 It attained only five performances, to Macready's bitter 
 disappointment. Philip van Artevelde was his last new 
 part, and it is pleasant to think that the roll of his 
 creations ends with so noble an effort, even if unsuccess- 
 ful. " I never saw you more gallant and free than in the 
 gallant and free scenes last night," Dickens wrote to 
 him on the morning after the production. " It was 
 perfectly captivating to behold you." 
 
 On December 7, 1847, Macready played the death- 
 scene of King Henry IV. at Covent Garden, on what
 
 lOS WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 was called a "Shakespeare Night," designed to raise 
 money for the purchase of Shakespeare's birthplace. 
 Macready's scene came first (Leigh Murray appearing as 
 the Prince of Wales), and was followed by selections 
 from no fewer than nine plays of Shakespeare, played by 
 Harley, Buckstone, Farren, Webster, Keeley, Granby, 
 Charles Mathews, Phelps, George Bennett, and Henry 
 Marston ; Mrs. Butler (Miss Fanny Kemble), Miss 
 Faucit, Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Nisbett, Madame Vestris, 
 Mrs. Stirling, Miss Priscilla Horton, Miss Laura Addison, 
 and Mrs. Warner. The performance was a remarkable 
 one, and added p^8oo to the fund. 
 
 In 1848, before his departure for America, Macready 
 played two engagements in London, The first — at the 
 Princess's — lasted from February 21 to April 14. 
 During the first four weeks he played Macbeth, Wolsey, 
 Othello, Hamlet, and Lear, to the Lady ALacbeth, 
 Queen Katharine, Desdemona, Ophelia, and Cordelia of 
 Mrs. Butler, the daughter of his old adversary, Charles 
 Kemble. On the expiry of Mrs. Butler's engagement 
 he added Virginius, Richelieu, and ^^'erner to the list, 
 and on April 5 resumed a part which he had long 
 dropped — that of Brutus in Julius Cccsar — to Ryder's 
 Cassius and Cooper's Antony. From April 24 to May 8 
 he appeared at the Marylebone Theatre, where INIrs. 
 Warner, having seceded from Sadler's Wells, was carry- 
 ing on an enterprise similar to that which she had 
 assisted Phelps to launch in Islington. On July 10, 
 before starting for America, he took a farewell benefit at 
 Drury Lane, "commanded" by the Queen. His parts 
 were Wolsey in the first three acts of Ilcnry VIII., to 
 the Queen Katharine of Charlotte Cushman ; and Mr. 
 Oakly in T/ie Jealous IVife, to the Mrs. Oakly of Mrs. 
 A\'arner. Phelps assisted in imlh pieces, and the great
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 160 
 
 Braham came forth from his retirement to take part in 
 the National Anthem. The house was so crowded tliat, 
 after some disturbance, many of the audience departed, 
 receiving their money back. Nevertheless, over ;^i 100 
 were realized. 
 
 ^ Macready's farewell tour in America in 1848-49 is 
 chiefly noteworthy for its lurid ending. In order fully 
 to understand the causes and circumstances of the Astor 
 Place catastrophe, it is necessary to follow up the 
 Forrest feud from its insignificant beginnings. This I 
 shall now do; premising that the greater part of the 
 evidence may be read at length in two pamphlets pub- 
 lished in New York in 1849 — the first entitled, The Replies 
 from England, etc., to Certain Statements circulated in this 
 Country respecting Mr. Macrcady ; the second entitled, 
 A Rejoinder to " The Replies from England, ..." together 
 with an Impartial History and Revieiv of the Lamentable 
 Occurrences at the Astor Place Opera-House on the \oth 
 of May, 1849, by an Americari Citizen. 
 
 Edwin Forrest was thirteen years younger than Mac- 
 ready. His parentage was obscure, his boyhood un- 
 settled. He had tried his hand at printing and other 
 trades ; had been (we are assured) a circus athlete ; and 
 had found a place on the stage before he was fifteen, in 
 virtue of his handsome face and commanding presence. 
 When Macready was in New York in 1826, Forrest, then 
 barely twenty, had just made his first marked success 
 at the Bowery Theatre. Writing long after the events 
 which made the name of Forrest one of tragic import 
 to him, Macready professes to have recognized his 
 promise at this early date, and to have foreseen danger 
 in the preponderance of his physical over his mental 
 powers. Ten years passed, in whicli Forrest acquired 
 great popularity in his own country. He was the first
 
 I70 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 distinguished American actor, his predecessors and rivals, 
 Cooper and Booth, being Enghsh by birth. Accordingly, 
 when he came to England in 1836, his countrymen felt 
 the honour of America concerned in his success. On 
 the night of his appearance at Drury Lane, under Price's 
 management (October 17), Macready heard from Dow 
 that the play, T/ie Gladiator, had failed, but that Forrest 
 had succeeded. Recording this in his diary, Macready 
 notes, "When I saw him nine years ago, he had every- 
 thing within himself to make a very great actor." Forrest 
 dined with IMacready at Elstree; Macready made a 
 cordial speech at a dinner given to Forrest at the 
 Garrick Club ; and all was friendship and amenity. 
 "Mr. Macready," Forrest wrote, "has behaved in the 
 handsomest manner to me." Their paths did not cross 
 again until Macready visited America in 1843-44. Soon 
 after his arrival in New York he dined with Forrest, and 
 notes, "Our day was very cheerful; I like all I see of 
 Forrest very much. He appears a clear-headed, honest, 
 kind man: what can be better?" Five months later 
 he met Forrest again in New Orleans, still in friendly 
 fashion, though the local critics seem to have done their 
 best to make mischief between them. We have seen 
 that the theory whicli finds the germ of the subsequent 
 strife in Macready's rage over the " failure " of this tour 
 is totally untenable. The feud really dates from Mac- 
 ready's visit to Paris in 1844-45. Forrest also was in 
 Paris at the time, and naturally wished to show the 
 Parisians that America had her tragedian as well as 
 England. To that end he tried to open negotiations 
 with the manager, Mitchell, who (oddly enough) refused 
 to see him. This refusal Forrest attributed to the 
 hostility of Macready ; but he never adduced one tittle 
 of evidence, and Mitchell afterwards solemnly asserted
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 171 
 
 in writing that Macready neither directly nor indirectly 
 influenced his action in the matter. 
 
 Still smarting under this rebuff, Forrest came to 
 London to fulfil an engagement with Maddox at the 
 Princess's, where Charlotte Cushman had made her 
 first appearance in England only a few days earlier. 
 Among his American supporters, and perhaps in his own 
 mind, the belief subsequently grew up that Macready 
 and Forster had suborned the press in his disfavour, and 
 had packed the house on his opening night (February 
 17, 1845) with a body of roughs hired to drive him from 
 the stage. After careful examination of the evidence, I 
 am convinced, not only that Macready had no hand in 
 any such attempt, but that no such attempt was ever 
 made. The writer of the Rejoinder to the Replies (repro- 
 duced almost word for word by Forrest's biographer, 
 James Rees), asserts that "it was evident from the number 
 of hisses, and the pertinacity with which they persisted 
 in expressing their disapprobation of Mr. Forrest himself 
 — not his acting, for they scarcely heard him — that the 
 movement was preconcerted." If this were so, how comes 
 it that not one of the critics who were present seems to 
 have heard any hisses at all? The Times (one of the 
 papers supposed to have been bought by Macready) 
 stated that Forrest's Othello was greatly applauded ; the 
 John Bull says that it " merited the immense applause it 
 received ; " and I have sought in vain for the record of 
 a single hiss. On the other hand, when he played 
 Macbeth four days later, Oxenford remarks that " the 
 tragedy was not announced for repetition, probably on 
 account of the general disapprobation that Mr. Forrest's 
 peculiarities elicited, in spite of the unanimous applause 
 awarded to Miss Cushman." It seems, then, that Forrest's 
 imagination, and that of his partisans, converted the
 
 172 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 *' general disapprobation " of his third performance into 
 an attempt to drive him from the stage on his opening 
 night ! That the Times critic was an impartial witness 
 is sufficiently proved by his warm praise of Forrest's 
 subsequent performances of King Lear and Metaraora. 
 The engagement came to an end — prematurely, I suspect 
 — after eighteen performances, and Forrest retreated with 
 rage in his heart, which the praise bestowed on Miss 
 Cushman by no means tended to allay. He probably 
 felt himself a better actor than he had been at the time 
 of his first success, nine years before, and was irritated to 
 find himself treated with comparative indifference. In 
 this morbid frame of mind he found solace in imagining 
 himself the victim of jealous machinations on the part of 
 a rival tragedian ; and these imaginings soon grew into 
 a sort of monomania. 
 
 It must be admitted that the conduct of Forster, as 
 critic of the Examiner, gave a faint tinge of colour to 
 Forrest's suspicions. In 1836 Forster had stood almost 
 alone among the critics of the day in condemning the 
 blusterous style of the American tragedian. He found a 
 good deal to praise in his non-Shakespearian parts, but 
 utterly condemned his Othello and his Lear. I know of 
 icw criticisms which convey so clear an idea of the 
 l)crformances criticized as these two articles of Forster's. 
 They are full of masterly analysis and vivid description. 
 Damaging they certainly were; but it was the writer's 
 obvious sincerity and thoughtfulness that made them so. 
 Macready, according to Albany Fonblanque, the editor 
 of the Exctmifier, "repeatedly entreated Mr. I'^orster to 
 be lenient or silent, but Mr. Forster very properly 
 maintained his independent judgment." He must have 
 known that his intimacy with Macready might subject 
 lK)t]i of them to injurious imputations in the matter;
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 173 
 
 but no one who reads his articles will blame him for 
 taking the risk. Very different was his conduct on 
 Forrest's second visit. Instead of criticizing him frankly, 
 as before, or ignoring him altogether, he wrote, or allowed 
 to be written, two or three contemptuous paragraphs, 
 after this fashion — 
 
 " Our old friend, Mr. Forrest, afforded great amusement to 
 the public by his performance of Macbeth on Friday evening' 
 at the Princess's. Indeed, our best comic actors do not often 
 excite so great a quantity of mirth. The change from an 
 inaudible murmur to a thunder of sound was enormous ; but 
 the grand feature was the combat, in which he stood scraping 
 his sword against that of Macduff. We were at a loss to 
 know what this gesture meant, till an enlightened critic in 
 the gallery shouted out, ' That's right ! sharpen it I ' '' 
 
 Jibes like this, proceeding from the friend and satellite 
 of another tragedian, were in flagrant ill taste. The most 
 perfect sincerity does not justify a man in wantonly ex- 
 posing himself and others to misrepresentation. Forster 
 certainly helped to start the snowball of misunderstanding 
 which was soon to become an avalanche. 
 
 It was now Forrest's turn to put himself openly in the 
 wrong. On March 2, 1846 — a year after Forrest's 
 retreat from London — Macready was playing Hamlet in 
 Edinburgh. At the phrase, " I must be idle," immedi- 
 ately before the entrance of the court for the play-scene, 
 it was his custom to wave his handkerchief fantastically, 
 and assume an air of exaggerated jauntiness. Great 
 was his astonishment on this evening when the waving 
 of the handkerchief called forth a loud and determined 
 hiss from some one in the upper boxes. He " bowed 
 derisively and contemptuously to the individual," who 
 was soon put to silence by the applause of the audience. 
 The incident was, of course, discussed in the green-room,
 
 174 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 and the rumour began to get abroad that Forrest was the 
 hisser. Macready at first refused to beheve it, averring 
 that Forrest was " too much of a gentleman." Convic- 
 tion grew upon him, however, until the question was 
 set at rest by a letter from Forrest to the Times, con- 
 fessing that he hissed his rival's " fancy dance," stating 
 that he was not alone in so doing, arguing that, having 
 paid for his admission, he had a right to express his 
 opinion, and alleging that he more than once started 
 applause at points which he held to deserve it. It was 
 afterwards maintained that, some nights later, the 
 Edinburgh audience again hissed what Forrest called 
 the pas de mouchoir. As to this there is some conflict 
 of evidence ; but I am strongly inclined to believe that, 
 as Ryder put it in an affidavit, " there was not one single 
 hiss from any other person [than Forrest] through that 
 evening, nor during any night of Mr. Macready's engage- 
 ment." The point is quite immaterial. What is certain 
 is that Forrest did, deliberately and obtrusively, hiss his 
 brother-actor, and that in so doing he was guilty of 
 an unpardonable error. Not even Forrest's warmest 
 partisans have found a word to say for him in this 
 instance. They have tried to i)rove that the pas dc 
 mouchoir deserved to be hissed, but they have freely 
 admitted that Forrest should have left the duty to some 
 one whose motives were less open to suspicion. 
 
 The report of these events naturally crossed the 
 Atlantic in all sorts of garbled forms. Forrest himself 
 had now far passed the stage of exasperation at which it 
 is still possible to distinguish fiict from fancy. No one 
 who has ever had to sift the testimony of untrained 
 intellects, even on the simplest matters of foct, can have 
 failed to observe how soon the mythopceic faculty, 
 spurred by interest or by passion, takes the bit between
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 1 75 
 
 its teeth and dashes off into the region of pure romance. 
 Forrest's intellect was essentially imtrained. His percep- 
 tions were at the mercy of his passions. Without any 
 mendacious intent (as we can easily believe) he put in 
 circulation the most flagrant falsehoods. He " had met 
 with persecution in every corner — in Paris, in London, 
 in Edinburgh ; " though in Edinburgh, at any rate, he 
 was, by his own admission, the aggressor. " The whole 
 house had hissed" the pas de )nouchoir ; whereas the 
 immense preponderance of testimony goes to show that 
 his was the solitary hiss. He had been " most out- 
 rageously assailed by the venal London press in 1845 ;" 
 whereas the files are there to show that the leading 
 papers treated him with respect, and in some cases 
 praised him very highly. His American adherents, how- 
 ever, were in no frame of mind to examine his assertions 
 critically. The lampoons of Mrs. Trollope and of 
 Dickens had touched the national susceptibilities on the 
 raw. There was a large class or party to whom Forrest 
 was endeared no less by his patriotism than by his talent. 
 He was in their eyes the genius of democracy, while 
 Macready was the toady and tool of the bloated aris- 
 tocracy of an effete civilization, and his American 
 admirers were little short of traitors to their country and 
 its institutions. I am not conjecturing these sentiments ; 
 they are set forth at length and with emphasis in the 
 documents of the case. The feud between the two 
 tragedians may be said to have passed from the artistic 
 into the political sphere, and we are now approaching the 
 sanguinary close of the sordid " international episode." 
 
 Scarcely had ]\Iacready landed in America, in the 
 autumn of 1848, when the Forrest party on the press 
 began to decry him. Their taunts were of the sort 
 best met by perfect silence, and Macready certainly
 
 1-6 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 blundered when, on the night of his first appearance 
 (New York, October 4), he made a short speech, thank- 
 ing the audience for having, by their applause, con- 
 futed his detractors. This mistake, of openly braving 
 hostility, he repeated at the close of his New York en- 
 gagement, three weeks later. The foe retaliated by 
 publishing in the Boston Mail, on the very day of his 
 first appearance in Boston (October 30) a violent and 
 detailed account of the "persecutions" endured by 
 Forrest. The Bostonians, however, were not stirred up 
 to any demonstration ; it was in Philadelphia, on 
 November 20, that the first disturbance took place. 
 The play was Macbeth, and a noisy opposition was kept 
 up throughout it, though the great majority of the audi- 
 ence were in Macready's favour. A copper cent and 
 a rotten egg were thrown on the stage, but no serious 
 violence was attempted. At the close, Macready managed 
 to deliver a speech, thanking the well-disposed among 
 the audience for their support, and asserting strongly 
 that he had never in act or word shown the slightest 
 hostility towards Forrest. Two days later there ap- 
 peared in the Philadelphia papers a so-called " Card " 
 from Forrest, categorically reaftirming his accusations 
 against Macready and his " toady " Forstcr, while deny- 
 ing the existence of any "organized opposition" to 
 the English invader. " Many of my friends," Forrest 
 continued, "called upon me when Mr. Macready was 
 announced to perform, and proposed to drive him from 
 the stage. . . . My advice was — Do nothing; let the 
 superannuated driveller alone ; to oppose him would be 
 but to make him of some importance." The document, 
 as a whole, was conceived in the worst possible temi)er 
 and taste. It elicited from Macready a denial that any 
 notice of Forrest liad appeared in the Exainiiwr in 1845,
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 177 
 
 and a statement that he intended to seek " legal re- 
 dress" for Forrest's other allegations. Macready was 
 wrong as to the Examiner. Knowing that Forster had 
 been ill at the time of Forrest's performances in London, 
 he felt sure that no "notice" of his acting had ap- 
 peared ; he had not seen, or did not remember, the 
 contemptuous paragraphs of which I have given a speci- 
 men. With a view to his contemplated libel suit, he 
 wrote to England for evidence on the points in dispute, 
 and the Replies from England, published in New York 
 on May 8, 1849, two days before the grand catastrophe, 
 were the result of these inquiries. His American lawyer, 
 however, advised him to abandon his action, not because 
 it did not lie, but because the proceedings would certainly 
 outlast his stay in America, and involve indefinite trouble 
 and expense. In the mean time, the matter seemed to 
 have blown over. Macready enjoyed a prosperous and 
 pleasant tour in the south and west. At New Orleans, 
 in March, he was entertained at a great banquet, amid 
 much enthusiasm. At Cincinnati, during the perform- 
 ance of Hamlet, a sportive gentleman threw half the 
 carcase of a sheep upon the stnge ; but this seems to 
 have been a mere ebullition of amiable vivacity, not an 
 expression of opinion. The beginning of ISIay found 
 him once more in New York, ready for the farewell 
 engagement which was to be so tragically cut short. 
 
 He was curiously free from apprehension, though 
 Forrest was in the city, and the enthusiasm of his ad- 
 mirers was running high. Macready's opening night at 
 the Astor Place Opera-House was Monday, May 7. 
 Macbeth was the play announced, and on the same night 
 Forrest appeared in the same character at the Broadwny 
 Theatre. It was probably on this occasion that the 
 whole audience rose and cheered the lines — 
 
 N
 
 178 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 "What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug 
 Would scour these Enghsh hence ? " 
 
 A pretty drastic purgative was, in fact, being exhibited 
 at the Opera-House. The theatre was crowded with a 
 very demonstrative audience, but until he was actually on 
 the stage Macready did not anticipate hostility. He was 
 received with thunders of applause, which at first grati- 
 fied him. He bowed and bowed ; the applause went on 
 and on ; and gradually he realized that his friends were 
 doing their best to drown the groans and howls Avhich 
 nevertheless made themselves audible from the parquette. 
 He tried to address the audience, but his words were lost 
 in the clamour. Placards were displayed, with the 
 words, "You have been proved a liar," and "No apo- 
 logies : it is too late." " Down with the English hog ! " 
 yelled the malcontents, and again " Three groans for the 
 codfish aristocracy ! " A rotten egg fell on the stage at his 
 feet. He waited calmly for a quarter of an hour, in the 
 hope that the tumult would subside, then went on with 
 the play in dumb-show. "Copper cents were thrown," he 
 says ; " some struck me ; four or five eggs, a great many 
 apples, nearly — if not quite— a peck of potatoes, pieces of 
 wood, a bottle of assafcetida, which splashed my own dress, 
 smelling, of course, most horribly." So the first and 
 second acts passed. At last, during the third act, a 
 man in the gallery tore up a chair, and sent it crasliing 
 upon^ the stage. " Mr. Macready," said the New York 
 HerdlJ, on the whole a hostile organ, " stood (juile 
 iinuKjved — not the slightest licnior visible, nor the least 
 bravado eitlier, in his manner." Presently a second 
 chair descended from aloft ; and then Macready thought 
 "lie had fulfilled his obligation to Messrs. Niblo and 
 Hackett ; " the curtain dropped, and the rioters were 
 triumphant.
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 179 
 
 The better class of newspapers, and all men of the 
 more intelligent sort, were indignant at this outrage. It 
 was Macready's intention to relinquish his engagement 
 altogether, but a requisition, signed by forty-eight leading 
 citizens (among them Washington Irving and Richard 
 Grant White), induced him to alter his mind. It was 
 represented that the riot had been totally unforeseen ; 
 that such a surprise could not occur again ; and that it 
 would be unjust to deny Americans who had the credit 
 of their country at heart an opportunity of making him 
 reparation, and at the same time signally rebuking his 
 assailants. Thus invited, Macready could scarcely 
 decline ; and the following Thursday, May 10, was fixed 
 for his reappearance as Macbeth. In the interval the 
 Replies from Etigland were published in a twenty-one 
 page pamphlet. 
 
 The seats for Thursday evening were bought up with 
 ominous rapidity, many of the purchasers being suspi- 
 ciously like the " b'hoys " of Monday. Determined to 
 nip rowdyism in the bud, the city authorities stationed 
 posses of police at various points of vantage in the 
 auditorium, especially so as to command the parquette, 
 or pit. The house was filled to the very dome soon 
 after the doors were opened, but it is said that only 
 seven ladies were present. An increasing crowd as- 
 sembled outside ; but until the curtain rose there was no 
 disturbance. Macready's appearance was greeted with 
 tremendous applause, but it soon became evident that 
 there was a determined opposition present, though its 
 numerical strength was not so great as before. This 
 time no pause was made in the performance. Macready 
 went right on with his part, the rioters howling and 
 shaking their fists at him savagely, and the well-disposed, 
 admonished by a placard, remaining silent, so as to
 
 i8o WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 make the offenders more conspicuous. At the end of 
 the first act, as Macbeth Avas leading Lady Macbeth ofif, 
 the chief of the pohce gave the signal by raising his hat, 
 and his men bore down upon the rowdies in the par- 
 quette, clearing them out at one swoop. Four ring- 
 leaders were arrested, and, being temporarily confined in 
 a room under the pit, tried to set fire to the house. The 
 attempt, fortunately, was discovered in time, and frus- 
 trated. The others, being forcibly ejected into the 
 street, seem to have excited the fury of the mob outside, 
 for a bombardment almost instantly began. It hap- 
 pened, by a fatal chance, that a sewer was being repaired 
 in the street, so that a plentiful supply of loose paving- 
 stones was ready to hand. To shiver the windows was 
 the work of an instant, but the barred shutters inside 
 resisted for some time. Presently they too gave way, 
 and missiles began to crash into several parts of the 
 auditorium. Meanwhile the play went steadily on, in 
 spite of the pandemonium outside and the bowlings of 
 the rioters who still held their places in the gallery. 
 The name of the Lady Macbeth who remained gallantly 
 at her husband's side throughout this dismal scene de- 
 serves to be recorded. It was Mrs. Coleman Pope — " a 
 very beautiful and cpieenly-looking woman " — who thus 
 showed an ''undaunted metal" not unworthy of the 
 character she represented. At the end of the third act 
 Macready found his dressing-room drenched with water, 
 some pipes having been shattered in the bombardment. 
 Throughout the fourth act the hubbub increased. A 
 stone struck the chandelier. The audience shrank to- 
 gether into sheltered spots, and many left the theatre. 
 During the fifth act the inside noises ceased, and Mar- 
 ready acted his best, in spite of the roar from without. 
 His death was loudly cheered, and he was called before
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. i8i 
 
 the curtain, where he mutely thanked his supporters, and 
 then made his last bow on the American stage. He 
 retired to his room to change his dress, the riot mean- 
 while raging more furiously than ever outside. He had 
 barely finished his hasty toilet, amid a crowd of pale and 
 anxious onlookers, when a rattling detonation suddenly 
 crashed through the hubbub. " Hark ! what's that ? " 
 he asked. It was a volley of musketry. Soon there 
 came another, and yet another; then the noise of the 
 riot rolled gradually back, and stillness fell upon the 
 scene. 
 
 The civic authorities had arranged early in the day 
 that the military should be at hand if required. It is 
 almost certain that, if the pohce had acted with prompti- 
 tude and determination when the bombardment began, 
 they could have dispersed the rioters, who at that time 
 were comparatively few. They were mostly youths 
 between fifteen and twenty, animated by sheer love of 
 mischief rather than by any great enthusiasm for Forrest 
 or hatred of Macready. They seem to have entertained 
 no serious design of storming the theatre. The great 
 majority of the crowd (which was not at this time 
 unmanageably dense) were mere indifferent onlookers. 
 The police, however, made no decided sortie ; the mob 
 increased ; and many policemen, disabled by stones, had 
 to be carried into the theatre. At last, shortly before 
 nine o'clock, the Sheriff sent for the military, who were 
 soon on the ground. First came a troop of cavalry, 
 forty strong, followed by infantry to the number of a 
 hundred and seventy, in two detachments. As soon as 
 the cavalry entered Astor Place, they were assailed with 
 a shower of stones and brickbats. Almost every one of 
 them was hurt, their horses became unmanageable, and 
 they rode ignominiously from the field. Tlius the foot-
 
 182 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 soldiers were left unsupported in the midst of a dense 
 crowd of from ten to twenty thousand people, howled 
 at, cursed, and stoned by the aggressive section of the 
 mob, whom their very presence infuriated. To make 
 confusion worse confounded, the night w^as as dark as 
 pitch, the street-lamps around having been extinguished. 
 For some time the troops tried, by marching and counter- 
 marching, to clear the space round the theatre. It was 
 useless. Little by little they were more and more closely 
 hemmed in, until, when orders were given for a bayonet- 
 charge, they found themselves at too close quarters with 
 the mob even to attempt it. Many of them, both soldiers 
 and officers, were severely injured by stones; a pistol, 
 loaded with small shot, was tired by one of the rioters, 
 and wounded two or three men ; some of the mob were 
 even wrenching the muskets from the soldiers' hands. 
 When things had come to this pass, Generals Sandford 
 and Hall, who were in command, told the Sheriff and the 
 Recorder that unless their men were ordered to fire they 
 could not hold their ground. Still the civic authorities 
 hesitated for several minutes, warning the mob that they 
 would be fired upon, and exhorting them to desist. 
 There was not even a pause in the shower of missiles ; 
 the Sheriff saw that the troops could- not stand there to 
 be annihilated ; and finally he gave the re(iuisite per- 
 mission. The number of soldiers at this point was 
 about seventy, the others being engaged at the back 
 of tlie theatre, where the disturbance was less acute. 
 General Hall gave orders to fire above the heads of the 
 crowd, against the wall of a house opposite ; but the 
 hubbub was so terrible that the order was imperfectly 
 heard. Most of the troops obeyed it ; but some fired 
 into the crowd, one or two of whom fell. The majority 
 of the mob, however, imagining that no harm was done,
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 183 
 
 concluded that the soldiers had only blank cartridges, 
 and, raising a howl of scorn and execration, rushed again 
 to the attack. This time the order was given to aim 
 low ; a second volley was fired ; several people dropped ; 
 and the mob, now alive to the seriousness of the situa- 
 tion, recoiled considerably. Still the hailstorm of missiles 
 continued, and it was evident that the rioters were not 
 really quelled. They rallied, indeed, and began to ad- 
 vance once more, in two bodies. The troops were 
 ordered to fire obliquely, one half to the right, the other 
 to the left ; and this volley, which was so desultory that 
 some witnesses describe it as two separate discharges, did 
 great execution, and finally broke the spirit of the mob. 
 An advance was made in two directions, the rioters 
 fliUing gradually back, though still keeping up a running 
 fire of stones. Presently the military were left in undis- 
 puted possession of the space around the theatre. Two 
 brass pieces, loaded with grape-shot, were brought upon 
 the scene, and placed so as to command, one the Broad- 
 way, the other the Bowery. The battle over, the crowd 
 vanished very quickly, bearing its dead and wounded 
 away with it ; and the soldiers, largely reinforced, bivou- 
 acked for the night on the scene of their melancholy 
 victory. The number of the dead is variously stated, 
 but seems to have been about seventeen ; many of them, 
 of course, mere chance onlookers, who cared no straw 
 for the rival tragedians. 
 
 Within the theatre, Macready and his friends were in 
 a state of not unnatural trepidation. Shots had been 
 fired ; men had been killed ; even if the military were 
 for the moment victorious, could Macready hope to get 
 out of New York without falling into the hands of 
 rioters eager to avenge their comrades ? " There was 
 nothing for it," he writes, "but to meet tlie worst with
 
 iS4 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 dignity." He was persuaded to exchange overcoats with 
 one of the actors, and to wear a cap in place of his hat. 
 Otherwise undisguised, he joined the last stragglers of 
 the audience leaving the theatre, and passed with them 
 into the street. Accompanied by one friend, he made 
 his way unrecognized to that friend's house, where a 
 council of war was held. It was decided that he must 
 leave New York at once. He sat up all night, smoking 
 and talking, until, at the peep of day, a carriage and 
 pair, ordered " to take a doctor to some gentleman's 
 house near New Rochelle," sped him out of the city. 
 At New Rochelle he took train for Boston. Some 
 fellow-passengers recognized him on the way, but he 
 was quite unmolested, and soon found himself safe in 
 the house of his friend George Curtis. Even in Boston 
 he did not at first feel quite secure, though the Mayor 
 called to assure him that the authorities had both the 
 will and the power to protect him from outrage. He 
 remained in Boston for ten days, and then started for 
 home in the steamer Hibeniia. " I never felt sucli 
 relief," he writes, " as in planting my foot upon that 
 vessel's deck." 
 
 Supersensitive as his conscience was, Macready could 
 not feel that any drop of the blood shed on the loth of 
 May v>'as on his head. In the last analysis, the riot is 
 to be regarded simply as an acute outbreak of a long- 
 standing international irritation. But for tliat pre-exist- 
 ent condition, not even Forrest's alleged ''persecution" 
 could have worked people up to such a pitch of frenzy. 
 Local rancours, too, came into pla}'. It is evident that 
 the support given to Macready by the upi)er classes and 
 the upper-class press did mucli to cxas[)crate the mob. 
 If we must distribute the responsibiHty among indi- 
 viduals, there can be no doubt tliat Forrest's wounded
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 185 
 
 vanity Jay at the root of the misunderstanding. The 
 jibes of tlie Examiner gave him some shadow of ex- 
 cuse for suspecting Macready of liostility to him ; and 
 this suspicion grew into a monomania which rendered 
 him subject to delusions on the plainest matters of fact. 
 Forrest, however, seems to have given no direct en- 
 couragement to violence. Apart from his angry letters 
 to the newspapers, he pursued a policy of masterly 
 inactivity, Macready, on the other hand, cannot be 
 acquitted of injudiciously braving an opposition which 
 he ought to have ignored. His speeches on the opening 
 and closing nights of his first New York engagement 
 should have remained unspoken. Otherwise, I cannot 
 find that any tittle of blame attached to him, and, at the 
 crisis, even his opponents admitted the dignified intre- 
 pidity of his conduct. Surveying the whole matter with 
 every desire to be impartial, I should say that Forrest 
 was thrice as much to blame as Macready, while fatality 
 — the unhappy convergence of a hundred deplorable 
 circumstances — was thrice as much to blame as Forrest. 
 Macready returned from America in June, 1849, and 
 retired from the stage in February, 185 1. The interven- 
 ing twenty months were occupied with farewell visits to 
 the provinces and two engagements at the Hay market. 
 The first of these extended from October 8 to Decem- 
 ber 8, 1849. He played only four parts — Macbeth, 
 Hamlet, Lear, and Othello, supported by James Wallack, 
 Howe, Rogers, Keeley, Mrs. Warner, Miss Reynolds, 
 and Miss Priscilla Horton. On February i, 1850, he 
 took part in the Windsor Castle theatricals, arranged by 
 Charles Kean, playing Brutus in Julius Ccesar to Kean's 
 Antony, \Vallack's Cassius, and Mrs. Warner's Portia. 
 This was the only time he ever appeared on the same 
 stage with Kean, whom he did not love, ll is reported
 
 1 86 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 that on this occasion, after the play was over, Kean sent 
 some message of courtesy to him in his dressing-room, 
 which was met by the gruff rejoinder, " If Mr. Kean has 
 anything to say to me, let him say it through my solicitor !" 
 Kean's share in the Windsor theatricals was rewarded by 
 the gift of a diamond ring, which he afterwards lost ; 
 whereupon a wit reported that it had been found " stick- 
 ing in INIacready's gizzard." The second Haymarket en- 
 gagement began with INIacbeth on October 28, 1850, and 
 ended with Lear on February 3, 185 1. In the course 
 of the engagement he played Hamlet, Othello, Shylock, 
 Richelieu, Werner, Virginias, Brutus, and afterwards 
 Cassius, in Julius Ccssar (Mr. Howe making a great 
 success as INIark Antony), Wolsey, King John, the 
 Stranger, Benedick, Henry IV. (in the death-scene), Mr. 
 Oakly, and (for the first time in London) Richard 11. 
 The revival oi Richard IT. (which was acted with "singu- 
 lar fidelity to the text") excited Httle interest, and was 
 repeated only once. The American actor, E. L. Daven- 
 port, played seconds during this engagement, in place of 
 Wallack ; the support, for the rest, being much as before. 
 Macready, I fear, cannot be acquitted of conniving at 
 what he calls " play-bill trickery " in the announcement 
 of "last appearances," which, as a matter of fact, were 
 only penultimate, or even antepenultimate. But the 
 phrase, "last time for ever," meant what it said; and 
 during the last weeks of January it was appended to each 
 of his great characters in turn, except Macbeth. That 
 favourite part was reserved for his last farewell. 
 
 So early as two o'clock on February 26, 1851, crowds 
 had gathered round the pit and gallery doors of Drury 
 Lane Theatre, then under the management of James 
 Anderson. An old playgoer, who witnessed the throng 
 later in the day, said that " Jenny Lind was nothing to
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 187 
 
 it " — there was no slight crowd to sec the crowd. Phelps 
 closed his own theatre in order to play Macduff to his 
 old leader's Macbeth ; Howe was the Banquo ; Mrs. 
 Warner, the Lady Macbeth. When the curtain rose every 
 corner of the house was densely packed. 
 
 "And what a sight that was!" writes George Henry 
 Lewes. " How glorious, triumphant, affecting, to see every 
 one starting up, waving hats and handkerchiefs, stamping, 
 shouting, yelling, their friendship at the great actor, who now 
 made his appearance on that stage where he was never more 
 to reappear ! There was a crescendo of excitement enough 
 to have overpowered the nerves of the most self-possessed ; 
 and when, after an energetic fight — which showed that the 
 actor's powers bore him gallantly up to the last — he fell 
 pierced by Macduff's sword, this death, typical of the 
 actor's death, this last look, this last act of the actor, struck 
 every bosom with a sharp and sudden blow, loosening a 
 tempest of tumultuous feeling such as made applause an 
 ovation. 
 
 " Some little time was suffered to elapse wherein we 
 recovered from the excitement, and were ready again to 
 burst forth as Alacready the Man, dressed in his plain black, 
 came forward to bid ' Farewell, a long farewell, to all his 
 greatness.' As he stood there, calm but sad, waiting till 
 the thunderous reverberations of applause should be hushed, 
 there was one little thing which brought the tears into my 
 eyes, viz. the crape hatband and black studs, that seemed 
 to me more mournful and more touching than all this vast 
 display of sympathy [his eldest daughter, ' Nina,' died 
 February 24, 1850, aged twenty]. . . . Perhaps a less delibe- 
 rate speech would have better suited the occasion ; . . . but 
 under such trying circumstances a man may naturally be 
 afraid to trust himself to the inspiration of the moment. 
 Altogether I must praise Macready for the dignity with 
 which he retired, and am glad that he did not act. There 
 was no ostentation of cambric sorrow ; there was no well 
 got-up broken voice to simulate emotion. The manner was 
 calm, gra\e, sad, and dignified."
 
 1 88 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 His children were among the audience. They had 
 also been allowed to witness his farewell performances 
 at the Haymarket.* 
 
 The inevitable public dinner followed on the ist of 
 jSIarch, in the Hall of Commerce. Sir E. L. Bulwer 
 was in the chair; Dickens, Thackeray, and Bunsen 
 spoke. Forster read Tennyson's sonnet of farewell 
 to '•' Macready, moral, grave^ sublime ; " and the whole 
 company stood up and cheered when Charles Kemble, 
 at the age of seventy-six, rose to stammer a few words 
 of reply to the toast of '-The Stage." On the follow- 
 ing day Macready betook himself to his "cottage" — a 
 substantial house at Sherborne, Dorsetshire — and entered 
 upon the twenty-two years of his retirement. 
 
 The evening of his life was full of sorrows. Death 
 was busy around him. The first victim was his wife, 
 who survived his retirement only some eighteen months, 
 dying on September i8, 1852. A son, Walter Francis 
 Shell, died on February 3, 1853, aged thirteen ; another 
 son, Henry Frederick Bulwer, died after a lingering illness 
 on August 12, 1857, aged nineteen; a daughter, Lydia 
 Jane, died of scarlatina, June 20, 1858, aged sixteen ; 
 and his "sister and friend," Letitia, died four months later 
 (November 8, 185S), aged sixty-four. Death now stayed 
 its hand for eleven years — a period of tranquillity and 
 happiness. In i860 (April 3) Macready married again. 
 His wife, Miss Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer, was 
 many years his junior ; yet the union was a happy 
 one. About the same time he removed from Sherborne 
 to Wellington Square, Cheltenham, where he spent the 
 rest of his life. A son was born of the second marriage 
 
 * One of his sons, Edward, went on tiie stage in Australia, 
 apparently without success.
 
 I/O ME WARD BOUND. 1S9 
 
 (May 7, 1862), and life rolled on unruffled until the 
 sixties drew to a close. Then his eldest surviving 
 daughter, " Katie," a young lady of strong character and 
 some poetic talent, fell ill, and was sent to Madeira in 
 search of health. She died on the homeward voyage, 
 March 24, 1869, at the age of thirty-four. From this 
 blow Macready never fully recovered; and it was 
 followed two years later (November 26, 1871) hy the 
 death, in Ceylon, of his eldest son, William Charles, 
 aged thirt3'-nine. 
 
 At Sherborne Macready had busied himself greatly, 
 not only with the bringing up of his own children, but 
 with the spread of education among the people. He 
 founded, or revived, a literary institution, at which he 
 induced Dickens, Thackeray, Forster, Bellew, and others 
 to give readings and lectures. He himself frequently 
 read and lectured, not only at Sherborne, but in other 
 towns of the south and west. After the removal to 
 Cheltenham these public appearances were almost, if not 
 entirely, discontinued; but he still gave frequent private 
 readings, to which the boys of Cheltenham College were 
 sometimes admitted. During the last two or three years 
 of his life he could not hold a book or read for himself ; 
 hut he still enjoyed being read to, and, failing a reader, 
 would go over the stores of literature in his memory. 
 "I have been reading //<r////d'/," he said on one occasion ; 
 and added, touching his forehead, " Here." Asked if 
 he could remember the whole play, he said, '' Yes, every 
 word, every pause ; and the very pauses have eloquence." 
 Time had softened the asperities of his countenance. 
 " We now think with pleasure," says a not too friendly 
 writer, '''of his venerable and noble head as we saw it 
 last in 1872, and of the sweet smile of his beautiful 
 mouth, which spoke of the calm wisdom of a gentle and
 
 190 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 thoughtful old age." Death came upon him in the 
 shape of gradual decay, but a slight bronchial attack was 
 the immediate cause of the end. After three days' con- 
 finement to bed, he passed away peacefully on Sunday, 
 April 27, 1873. His second wife, one son and one 
 daughter by his first marriage, and one son by his 
 second marriage, survived him. 
 
 Macreadv's Ch.aracters. 
 
 1 843-1 85 1. 
 
 Princess's : 1845 '■ Hamlet, 8 ; Lear, 7 ; Othello, 3. 
 
 1846 (January and February) : Richelieu, 5 ; Hamlet, 4 ; 
 Lear, Othello, 3. (April — June) : *James V. {King of the 
 Commons), 13 ; Macbeth, 5 ; Virginius, 4 ; Lear,'Othello, 3 ; 
 Richelieu, 2 ; Hamlet, i. 
 
 Surrey : 1846 : INIacbeth, Lear, 8 ; Hamlet, 7 ; Othello, 
 Richelieu, 3 ; Werner, Virginius, 2 ; Shylock, i. 
 
 Princess's : 1847 (May and June) : Lear, Macbeth, 3 ; 
 Hamlet, Werner, Mclantius, 2. (October — December) 
 Wolsey, 12; *Philip van Artevelde, 5; Macbeth, 3; 
 Hamlet, 2 ; Othello, Richelieu, r. 
 
 CoVENT Garden (December 7): Henry IV. (death-sccne\ 
 
 Princess's : 1848 (February Aprir : Othello, Hamlet, 
 5 ; Lear, 4 ; Macbeth, Wolsey, Brutus, 2 ; Virginius, 
 Richelieu, Werner, i. 
 
 MARYLE130NE: 1848: INhicbcth, Lear, 2 ; Hamlet, Ollicllo, 
 Wolsey, Henry IV., Mr. Oakly, i. 
 
 Drury Lane : 1848 (July 10) : Wolsey, Mr. Oakly, i. 
 
 Havmarket : 1849 (October — December) : Macbeth, 10 ; 
 Lear, 8 ; Hamlet, 6 ; Othello, 3. 
 
 1850-51: Lear, Richelieu, 7; Macbeth, Henry IV^., Mr. 
 Oakly, 6 ; Othello, 5 ; Wolsey, King John, Virginius, 4 ; 
 Hamlet, Werner, 3 ; Shylock, Hrutus, Cassius, Richard II., 
 2 ; Benedick, Stranger, i. 
 
 Drury Lane: 185 i (February 26): Last appearance, 
 Macbeth.
 
 191 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 
 
 Was Macready an actor of the first, or only of the 
 second, order ? Could he have held his own beside the 
 giants of the stage — beside Betterton, Garrick, Kemble, 
 Kean ? Or did he seem great only in comparison with 
 the lesser men of a degenerate age — Wallack, Phelps, 
 Vandenhoff, and Charles Kean ? Let us assemble and 
 sift the evidence. 
 
 The very fact that this question presents itself shows 
 that his position is not assured. We may discuss and 
 analyze the genius of Garrick or Mrs. Siddons, Talma or 
 Rachel, but its general supremacy we take for granted. 
 Macready holds no such unassailable eminence. His 
 place is assigned him by a i)reponderance of suffrages, not 
 by acclamation. 
 
 The first thing to be observed is that he did actually 
 hold his own beside Kean, and was treated as an actor 
 of the highest order by critics who had seen John 
 Kemble and his greater sister in their prime. There is 
 a curious passage in Oxbcrrys Dramatic Biography^ 
 1826, as to the esteem in which Macready was then 
 held— 
 
 "About five-eighths of London declare Kean to be the 
 first English actor, two of the remaining three perhaps vote
 
 192 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 for Young, and one-eighth for Macready ; but, singular to 
 say, all the Keanitcs say Macready is next to their favourite, 
 and all the Youngites rank iNIacready above Kean : so that, 
 in fact, Mr. Macready is more generally considered a great 
 actor than either Kean or Young." 
 
 No one of any authority, however, places Macready quite 
 on a level with Kean. Hazlitt, writing of the beginnings 
 of his London career, ranks him next to Kean among 
 the younger actors of the day, but evidently at a long 
 interval. 
 
 "Mr. Kean," writes "T" in the New Monthly (i82o\ 
 *' represents simple man in his fiercest passions, his most 
 terrific agonies, or his deepest sympathies. Mr. Kemblc 
 delineated him chiefly as surrounded with the pomp and 
 external circumstance which gave a stateliness to all his 
 actions and distresses. Mr. ]\Iacready depicts him as elate 
 witli high enthusiasm, attired on great occasions in sudden 
 brightness, or wearing the pensive livery of fanciful sorrow. 
 ... If Mr. Kean is the most intensely human, and Mr. 
 Kemblc the most classical, Mr. Macready is the most 
 romantic of actors. ••' 
 
 Leigh Hunt, writing ten years later (the Tai/cr, 1830), 
 thus formulates the difference between Kean and 
 Macready— 
 
 " The former has an instinctive natural reason for all that 
 he does, and never acts at random ; is never loud when he 
 might as well be low, or 7'ice versa ; ... in a word, has a 
 finer conception of the character throughout, and adapts 
 himself to it as naturally, as gracefully, and with as much 
 self-possession as the limbs do to the motions required of them. 
 Now, we do not hold tliis to be the case with Macready. He 
 is striking throughout : often fine, sometimes extremely 
 affecting and masterly : but the level of his style is of a more 
 gratuitous order than Kcan's. Wc do not always sec the 
 reason for his for/es and f'ianos: his grace looks more the 
 effect of study than of habit . . . Mr. Macready has scnsi-
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 193 
 
 bility, tenderness, passion : he suffers : his passion masters 
 him : he knows how to undergo it with deHcacy . . . Kean, 
 on the other hand, though undergoing passion more terribly, 
 still surmounts it with the grace of moral grandeur. He feels 
 the poetry of it more ; that is to say, all the elegance and 
 idealism of which it is capable, compatible with nature. . . . 
 His tragedy [is] as superior to Mr. Macready's in general, as 
 poetry is to mixed poetry and prose, or as the mixed poetry 
 and prose of Macready is the declamatory verse of the purely 
 artificial tragedian." 
 
 It must not be forgotten that while Kean was at the 
 zenith of his powers, Macready gained a signal victory in 
 a part which his rival seemed to have made peculiarly 
 his own — Richard III. to wit. Impartial and intelligent 
 critics compared the two performances to Macready's 
 advantage. Macready, too, was far ahead of Kean as 
 a creator, an originator, of characters ; and when Kean 
 tried to annex one of his parts— Virginius — he wa? 
 anything but successful. Still, it may be taken for 
 granted that Kean had inborn powers and graces denied 
 to Macready, playing more by instinct and less by intel- 
 lect. Macready always declined to play Kean's great 
 parts of Sir Edward Mortimer and Sir Giles Overreach. 
 He said that Kean's delivery of three words in the 
 part of Mortimer, "I answer— No!" was sufficient to 
 make him despair of rivalling him. We may perhaps 
 say that Kean was a greater actor, but not so great an 
 artist. And we may add with tolerable confidence that 
 the gap between Kean and Macready was not nearly so 
 wide as the gap between Macready and the other tragic 
 actors of his time. 
 
 Let us now try to summarize the leading characteris- 
 tics of Macready's style. He was consciously and of set 
 purpose an eclectic actor, trying to combine the dignity 
 of the Kemble school with the vivacity of Kean. He is 
 
 o
 
 194 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 reported to have said that " his aim was to present an 
 amalgam of Kean and Tahna." Natural grace, unfor- 
 tunately, he did not possess. Though, as years went on, 
 he could scarcely be called ugly, he was always harsh- 
 featured. Mr. George Scharf, whose lifelong study of 
 physiognomy gives his words authority, informs me that 
 he greatly resembled the portraits of Lorenzo de' Medici. 
 His eyebrows had a curious upward slope from the nose ; 
 that feature itself was very irregular ; his mouth was 
 much depressed at the corners ; and his jaw was exces- 
 sively large and square. In his make-up he seems never 
 to have aimed at comeliness. Character-portraits, drawn 
 by friendly artists with no bent towards caricature, are 
 apt to make him out ill-favoured, if not positively hideous. 
 Theophile Gautier complained that in Othello Macready 
 " s'e'tait compose un masque de singe anthropophage." 
 His motions were abrupt, his attitudes frequently un- 
 graceful, or, as Oxenford put it, "unsculptural." He 
 seems to have been particularly fond of standing in 
 profile, or semi-profile, to the audience, with his shoulders 
 thrown very far back, the weight of his body resting on 
 one leg, and the other bent forward at a sharp angle. 
 It is evident, too, that the stage-costume of his day did 
 nothing to soften these eccentricities. In parts belong- 
 ing to a definite historical period (such as Strafford) 
 he would sometimes dress admirably ; but where any 
 licence was admissible he seems ito have been apt to 
 go astray. Gautier ridicules as grotesque his dress in 
 Othello ; and Mr. John Coleman, who was present when 
 Forrest hissed Macready in Edinburgh, gives the follow- 
 ing sketch of his Hamlet costume on that occasion : — 
 
 " He wore a dress the waist of which nearly reached his 
 arms ; a hat with a sable plume big enough to cover a 
 hearse ; a pair of black silk gloves much too large for him ;
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 
 
 195 
 
 a ballet shirt of straw-coloured satin, which looked simply 
 dirty ; and, what with his gaunt, awkward, angular figure, 
 his grizzled hair, his dark beard close shaven to his square 
 jaws, yet unsoftened by a trace of pigment, his irregular 
 features, his queer, extraordinary nose, . . . and his long 
 skinny neck, he appeared positively hideous. But, after all, 
 ' mind is the brightness of the body,' and, O ye gods ! when 
 he spoke, how he brightened, illumined, irradiated the at- 
 mosphere ! " 
 
 His voice was by nature very fine and rich. Miss 
 Mitford, in 1820, spoke of it as " so delicious that there 
 is a pleasure in listening to it, quite unconnected with 
 the words he utters." Again, four years later, she writes, 
 " I have a physical pleasure in the sound of Mr. 
 Macready's voice, whether talking, reading, or acting 
 (except when he rants). It seems to me very exquisite 
 music, with something instrumental and vibrating in the 
 sound, like certain notes of the violoncello." In 1828 
 a hostile critic in the Athenceum admitted that his voice 
 had been "magnificent," but added that he had "injured 
 it intrinsically by the constant use of that pumping roar 
 with which he interlards all passages of passion." So 
 early as 1826 we find him accused, in Oxberrfs Dra- 
 matic Biography, of a habitual catching of the breath, 
 resembling a burr, which became painful to the hearer. 
 The same writer also states that he imitated from Kean 
 the system of sudden transitions—" Kean's worst pecu- 
 liarity "—his voice " suddenly rising and dropping, like 
 the waterspout in the Temple." So late as 1846, that fine 
 critic William Robson (The Old Playgoer) inveighs against 
 his practice of " falling in the midst of a burst of passion 
 from the loudest tones to audible whispers — one of the 
 vilest of stage tricks." But Robson was too bigoted 
 a Kembleite to admit any merit at all in Macready. He 
 even goes the length of remonstrating with Young for
 
 196 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 " degrading himself" by speaking at the Macready 
 dinner in 1839. Other critics complain of Macready's 
 " peculiar and imnatural intonations," and even of 
 his vocal dissonances. Yet there can be no doubt 
 that, in spite of faults in his method of using it, his 
 voice was one of his chief natural advantages. His 
 enunciation was somewhat too laboriously precise. In 
 his anxiety to avoid any slur or liaison between a final 
 consonant and the initial letter of the next word, he fell 
 into the irritating mannerism of inserting an explosive 
 a (or, as some writers represent it, an er) at the end 
 of certain words, and even of prolonging the intercalated 
 sound into a sort of rumble, something after this fashion — ■ 
 
 " Be innocenttta of knowledge, dearesttta chuck, 
 Till thou applauddda the deed." 
 
 James Murdoch gives an amusing account of Macready's 
 struggle with an American utility actor, who, in announc- 
 ing the approach of Bimam Wood, insisted on saying — 
 
 " Within these three miles you may see it a-coming." 
 
 "Good Heavens, sir!" cried Macready, "have you no 
 ears ? You are not speaking common language : it is 
 blank verse, sir, and a single misplaced syllable destroys 
 the metre. . . . You know how to spell coming, which 
 begins with a c — no preceding sound of a ; therefore you 
 should say — 
 
 ' Within these three miles you may see it-a-a-coming.' " 
 
 The actor tried it over and over again, but could not 
 eliminate the a. Goaded to despair at last, he turned 
 upon the tragedian, and said, " Mr. Macready, I don't see 
 the difference between my way of doing it and yours, 
 unless it is that I put only one a before * coming,' and 
 you put half a dozen little ones."
 
 ART AND CflARACTER. 197 
 
 As he belonged, in the main, to what is called the 
 " natural " school of actors, Macready was more apt to 
 slur than to emphasize the rhythm of blank verse — a 
 habit which probably grew upon him. So early as 1827 
 the friendly critic of the Neiv Monthly complained of his 
 " too fitful, hurried, and familiar " delivery of the verse 
 in Macbeth. The Athenceum, in 1830, made similar 
 complaint, suggesting, in allusion to the newly opened 
 railway, that his " speed had probably been acquired 
 between the Manchester and Liverpool theatres." Leigh 
 Hunt, in the Tailer (1831), blames him for being "afraid 
 of the poetry of some of his greatest parts, as if it would 
 hurt the effect of his naturalness and his more familiar 
 passages." This remark (taken in its context) involves 
 a criticism of his treatment of metre, though its whol 
 bearing is much wider. It is difficult, however, to be- 
 lieve that Fanny Kemble is not exaggerating when she 
 says that " his want of musical ear made his delivery 
 of Shakespeare's blank verse defective, and painful to 
 persons better endowed in that respect. It may have 
 been his consciousness of his imperfect declamation of 
 blank verse that induced him to adopt what his admirers 
 called the natural style of speaking it ; which was simply 
 chopping it up into prose." He was certainly not con- 
 scious of any defect of ear, and I doubt whether it ex- 
 isted. He records with gratitude the value of his mother's 
 training in cultivating his sense of rhythm, and it is 
 incredible that any one who lacked that sense should 
 have read Milton finely, as Macready unquestionably did. 
 The truth probably is that in speaking dramatic verse he 
 paid more attention to logical than to rhythmic struc- 
 ture ; whereas the Kemble tendency was to take care of 
 the measure, and let the sense take care of itself. The 
 practice of survivors of the Macready school^ as well as
 
 igS WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 the testimony of old playgoers, amply proves that, how- 
 ever " natural " his delivery, Macready was incapable of 
 murdering the metre after the fashion of so many actors 
 of to-day. 
 
 What seems to be a very fair estimate of his general 
 characteristics was published in the Daily News at the 
 time of his retirement — 
 
 " In speaking," says the writer, " he paid less attention to 
 the modulation of his tones, and to the rhythmical flow of 
 verse, than any other great actor whom we remember. In 
 the whirl and tempest of passion he cared not what became 
 of his voice ; he often forced it, as one would do in real life, 
 to a harsh and dissonant scream. He gave some pain to 
 the ear, but then he gained his object by placing before the 
 audience the very being he represented, and carrying them 
 with him in a flood of sympathy. Nor did Macready's 
 utterance deprive really fine poetry of any part of its beauty. 
 Take the lines we heard last night — 
 
 'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,' etc. 
 
 {Macbeth^ act v. sc. 5) — when' did these words ever fall 
 upon the ear with a deeper or more mournful cadence ? " 
 
 In collecting evidence as to Macready's art, we must 
 bear in mind that he was always progressing, or at any 
 rate trying to progress ; so that a criticism might be just 
 at one period, and very unjust at another. No one ever 
 laboured more assiduously at his art. Murdoch tells an 
 anecdote of an American senator, on a visit to London, 
 being disturbed in the small hours of the night by hearing 
 some one, as he thought, shout " Murder ! " repeatedly 
 in all sorts of tones. He rushed into the passage, and 
 shouted, " Hallo, there ! hallo ! " when his landlady put 
 her night-capped head out at a door, and begged him not 
 to be alarmed, as it was only Mr. Macready the tragedian. 
 The next morning an apologetic note brought an expla-
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 199 
 
 nation. Macready had that night been playing Macbeth, 
 and, being dissatisfied with his treatment of the murder- 
 scene, had been " submitting the words * murder ' and 
 * murdered ' to a kind of aspirated and husky utterance 
 in different degrees." This took place during his early 
 years at Drury Lane ; but to the very end he never " put 
 a part to bed." We find him writing to his friend 
 Wightwick, in 1840 — 
 
 " I think it cannot be wrong to endeavour to preserve in 
 my acting an equal, or to supply a greater, quantity of 
 passion, with less of exaggerated attitude and overstrained 
 expression — i.e. distortion of countenance — a more sustained 
 deportment with less quantity of voice — and to avoid the 
 melodramatic practices you speak of, which in Kean {the 
 Kean) himself were blots upon the bright genius of a super- 
 latively great actor, and which were never — never — to be 
 detected in Mrs. Siddons, in Talma, in Kemble, or in Miss 
 O'Neill." 
 
 He liked to think that his latest performance of any 
 character was the best he had ever given, and he laboured 
 untiringly to that end. 
 
 Macready's detractors were fond of asserting that he 
 was not a Shakespearian, but a melodramatic actor. 
 
 " In any sense that I can affix to this phrase," says George 
 Henry Lewes, " it is'absurd. He was by nature unsuited for 
 some great tragic parts ; but by his intelligence he was fitted 
 to conceive, and by his organization fitted to express 
 characters., and was not, like a melodramatic actor, limited to 
 situations. Surely Lear, King John, Richard II., Cassius, 
 and lago are tragic parts ! In these he was great ; nor could 
 he be surpassed in certain aspects of Macbeth and Coriolanus, 
 although he wanted the heroic thew and sinew to represent 
 these characters as wholes." 
 
 F. G. Tomlins, on the other hand, writing in 1851, 
 ».»-~-- _ ^y^^^ Macready could not be called a Shake-
 
 200 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 spearian actor because he had no " plasticity "—he could 
 not personate. 
 
 " Instead of being subdued to the character, he subdues 
 the character to himself. Like Le Brun, he can give you 
 certain abstract passions, but of these only a limited number : 
 grief on its petulant side, rage on its demoniac, pathos and 
 affections ; but all modifications of himself, not representa- 
 tions of a person. . . . Now, this generalizing personification 
 is the mode of the old French tragedies. ... In all 
 Shakespeare's characters we have the particular. ... It may 
 be said, in answer to this charge of want of personification, 
 that Mr. Macready has a great deal of reality, that he is 
 logically correct. True ; but we want imaginative truths, 
 not harsh facts. It is true Macbeth might find his state of 
 man shaken when he goes to murder Duncan, but he is very 
 different from a cowardly burglar. Lear is a choleric, 
 barbaric chief, but he would not bully every one he comes 
 near. lago is a designing ruflfian, but he is not an exagge- 
 ration of deceit." 
 
 His vehemence and earnestness, the critic continues, 
 would always move audiences by mere emotional con- 
 taeion, and he had always " the utmost comprehension 
 of his author that a highly cultivated understanding could 
 give." But he was prosaic, unimaginative, and conse- 
 quently lacked the power of personification, which, in 
 Mr. Tomlins's judgment, was the first essential of the 
 Shakespearian actor. Those who know how cheap and 
 futile is the accusation that such-and-such an actor is 
 " always himself," will be at no loss to estimate the value 
 of this criticism. I quote it as a fair specimen of the 
 arguments of Macready's detractors. 
 
 It was quite natural that people should find more to 
 cavil at in his Shakespearian parts than in his Virginius, 
 Werner, and Richelieu. We have each our ]M-ivate ideal 
 of Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Lear; we h-^-- " ^'
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 201 
 
 read of, if we have not seen, great performances of these 
 parts; so that every actor who undertakes them has to 
 pass through a triple ordeal, encountering, first, our 
 imagination, kindled by Shakespeare ; second, our ideal- 
 ized memory of performances which used to please our, 
 perhaps unripe, judgment ; third, our conceptions of the 
 great actors of the past, gathered from the often extrava- 
 gant panegyrics of contemporaries. On the other hand, 
 it was left to Macready to create Virginius, Werner, and 
 Richelieu, so to speak, in his own image. He had no 
 preconceptions, no reminiscences, to contend against. 
 In these parts he could, and probably did, expand, 
 illuminate, and subtilize the author's conception ; in the 
 heroes of Shakespeare he could at best hope not to fall 
 notoriously short of the ideal. Thus it was only natural 
 that his Shakespearian characters should be much criti- 
 cized, while others, the chief of which he himself created, 
 met with almost unqualified admiration. The legitimate 
 conclusion is that he was good in the latter parts, not 
 that he was bad in the former ; for what actor was ever 
 admitted to solve unimpeachably the vast and complex 
 problems presented by Shakespeare ? 
 
 His best Shakespearian parts, beyond a doubt, were 
 Macbeth and Lear, though authorities differ as to which 
 of these two deserves the preference. He himself would 
 have voted for Macbeth ; but the lack of kingliness in 
 the murder-scene, noted by almost all critics from Leigh 
 Hunt onwards, was commonly held a grave defect. " He 
 stole into the sleeping-chamber of Duncan," says G. H. 
 Lewes, " like a man going to purloin a nnv'^'') not like a 
 warrior goin^^ to snnf^'-'- ~ ^luwn," Westland Marston, 
 ^^ .1.^ ouier hand, found " the moral of the play made 
 visible" in the contrast between "the erect martial 
 figure that entered in the first act," and " the crouching
 
 202 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 form and stealthy, felon-like step of the self-abased 
 murderer." Lady Pollock, a keen and delicate critic, 
 notes how, in the first act, Macready produced a great 
 effect by " his singular power of looking at nothing," so 
 that " when he spoke ' Into the air ' we could almost see 
 the hags pass away " like a wreath of vapour. In the 
 scene with Banquo's Ghost he surpassed even his greatest 
 predecessors, and there are no two opinions as to the 
 magnificence of his playing in the last act. " He turned 
 upon Fate, and stood at bay." In Lear he found 
 ample scope for that subtlety of psychological suggestion 
 which was one of his great qualities. He marked the 
 gradual encroachments of insanity by the most delicate 
 touches ; and the irresistible tenderness of the last act 
 contrasted beautifully with the overwhelming vehemence 
 of the first and second. Westland Marston suggests 
 (not with special reference to Lear) that his psycho- 
 logical analysis was sometimes overdone, that "various 
 mental states seemed too sharply defined and sepa- 
 rated ; " but this is so obviously the mere exaggera- 
 tion of a rare quality that it can scarcely be reckoned 
 a defect. Hamlet was, perhaps, Macready's own fa- 
 vourite among his characters, but neither public nor 
 critics could entirely get over his physical disqualifi- 
 cations. Lewes found him " lachrymose and fretful ; 
 too fond of a cambric pocket-handkerchief to be really 
 affecting." James Spedding, on the other hand, says, 
 " An advantage attaches to him which I have observed 
 'n no other Hamlet : it is easy to credit him with the 
 thoughts 1.^ "fters." Othello, though he played it fre- 
 quently, was one of his ..^-..^ narts." He made the 
 initial mistake of giving him the complexion ^c . „^aro 
 rather than a Moor. " His passion," says Lewes, "was 
 irritability, and his agony had no grandeur." His lago
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 203 
 
 was almost universally admired ; so was his King John ; 
 so, too, his Cassius ; and his death-scene in Henry IV. 
 was one of his greatest achievements. It must be 
 admitted, as bearing out in a certain measure the 
 strictures of Mr. Tomlins, that he always succeeded best 
 in expressing some phase of his own character. He had 
 a strong sense of the supernatural, the " metaphysical," 
 and he was fine in the witch-scenes of Macbeth, the 
 ghost-scenes of Hamlet. Irritability was his chief foible, 
 and he was great in Lear and Cassius. He possessed a 
 keen analytic intellect, and he shone in lago. He was 
 deficient in what may be called majesty of character and 
 passion, and he failed in Othello.* 
 
 * I append a statement of the number of times that Mac- 
 ready played each of his principal parts in London, the statis- 
 tics for the country and America not being attainable. These 
 figures afford a fair test of the comparative popularity of his different 
 parts with metropolitan audiences. A chance circumstance may 
 in one or two cases place a part unduly high or low in the scale ; 
 for instance, the spectacular success of The Tempest at Covent 
 Garden gives Prospero an apparent advantage over Lear and other 
 far more important characters ; but the reader, with the help of 
 the foregoing narrative, will easily allow for these aberrations. The 
 first of the two figures attached to each character represents the 
 number of performances before Macready went into management in 
 1837 — a point which may be taken as marking a new departure in 
 his career — the second represents the number of performances after 
 that date. I do not vouch for the absolute accuracy of my reckon- 
 ing in all cases ; but I have done my best to avoid errors, and any 
 that may have crept in are certainly trifling. Macbeth, for instance, 
 may in fact have been played 147 or 149 times ; it remains none 
 the less clearly at the head of the roll. 
 
 Macbeth, 60 : 88 = 148 ; Hamlet, 16 : 69 = 85 ; Othello, 29 : 48 
 = 77; Prospero, 16:55 = 71; Lear, 3:61=64; King John, 
 25=30 = 55; Jaques, 16:33=49; Henry IV. (including the 
 times when he played the fourth act alone), 35 : 9 = 44 ; Shylock, 
 1:37 = 38; Wolsey, 15:22 = 37; Henry V., 5:23 = 28; 
 Leontes, 21 : 6 = 27 ; Brutus, 13 : 10 = 23 ; Richard HL, 21:0:
 
 204 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 The same principle of self-expression may be clearly 
 traced in his non-Shakespearian performances. Domestic 
 tenderness, and especially paternal affection, formed a 
 most potent factor in his character ; it is not surprising, 
 then, that for more than thirty years Virginius should 
 have held a prominent place in his repertory, ranking 
 among his noblest performances. Along with family 
 affection, sensitive pride and moroseness entered largely 
 into his disposition; and all these characteristics found 
 utterance in Werner, whom he transmuted from shadow 
 
 lago, 13:6=19; Coriolanus, 9 : 9 = 18 ; Valentine, 0:13; 
 Benedick, o : 12 ; Posthumus, 9:0; lachimo, 2 : 4 = 6 ; Antony 
 [Antony and Cleopatra), 3:0; Romeo, 3:0; Edmund, 3:0; 
 Friar Laurence, o : 2 ; Richard II., 0:2; Duke {Measure for 
 Measure), 2 : o; Hubert, Petruchio, Ghost {Hamlet), and Antonio 
 {Merchant of Venice), once each, all before 1837. This is, I believe, 
 a complete list of the Shakespearian parts he pla3'ed in London. 
 They number 32, and he appeared in them 8S9 times. The 
 following list includes all his more important non-Shakespearian 
 parts : — 
 
 Melnotte, o : 144 ; Rob Roy, 114 : o ; Alfred Evelyn, o : no; 
 Virginius, 70 : 27 = 97 ; Werner, 30 : 46 = 76 ; Richelieu, 0:71; 
 Tell, 46 : 18 = 64 ; Gambia, 54 : o ; Henri Quatre, 47 : o ; Joseph 
 Surface, 39: 1=40; Norman {Sea- Captain), 0:40; Melantius, 
 23 : 10 = 33 ; Ludovico {Evadne), 30 : o ; Mr. Oakly, 8 : 19 = 27 ; 
 Walsingham ( Woman's IVit), O : 25 ; Sardanapalus, 23 : O ; Ion, 
 22 : I = 23 ; Halbert {Glencoe), o : 22 ; Stranger, 7 : 14 = 21 ; 
 Ruthven {Mary Stuart), o : 20 ; Gisippus, o : 20 ; Pescara (Apos- 
 tate), 19 :o; Spinola {Nina Sforza), o : 18 ; Alfred the Great, 
 17 : O; Thoas {Athenian Captive), O : 17 ; Lord Townly, 4 : 12 = 
 16 ; Pierre, 13 : i = 14 ; James V. {Kifig of the Com/nons), o : 13 ; 
 Mordaunt {Patrician's Daughter), o : 1 1 ; Bragelone {La Valliire), 
 8:0; Caius Gracchus, 7:0; Strafford, 5:0; Van Artevclde, 
 0:5; Y. p'oscari, 0:4; Polignac {Huguenot), 3:0; Marino 
 Faliero, o : 2. 
 
 Macready appeared in Bulvver's plays 373 times ; in Knowles's 
 (including The Bridal), 241 times ; in Byron's, 105 times ; in 
 Talfourd's, 62 times ; and in Shell's (including Evadne, but not 
 Damon and Pythias), 52 times.
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 
 
 205 
 
 into substance. " In Werner," says Lewes, " he -re- 
 presented the anguish of a weak mind prostrate, with a 
 pathos almost as remarkable as the heroic anguish of 
 Kean's Othello. The forlorn look and wailing accent 
 when his son retorts upon him his own plea, ' Who pro- 
 claimed to me. That there were crimes made venial by 
 the occasion ? ' are not to be forgotten." Other critics 
 join with one voice in declaring Werner to have been 
 one of his greatest achievements. Richelieu, on the 
 other hand, was one of the characters in which he ex- 
 hibited his art of composition. Here, too, we can trace 
 a certain measure of self-expression ; but for the most 
 part it was a piece of what we now call character-acting, 
 interspersed with magnificent passages of rhetoric. Riche- 
 lieu was probably the most modern of his performances. 
 In most of his other parts, were he to appear to-day, we 
 should doubtless find much to annoy and bewilder us, 
 much that we should have to accustom ourselves to, not 
 without difficulty. But in Richelieu, I imagine, we should 
 find nothing antiquated — except his declamatory vigour. 
 His Claude Melnotte, and still more his Ion, were feats 
 of will and skill, performed in spite of nature and in the 
 teeth of time. "In Melnotte," says Lewes, "you lost all 
 sense of his sixty years [he never played it in London 
 after fifty, but that was late enough] in the fervour and 
 resilient buoyancy of his manner;" but the part was 
 never one in which he could develop his full powers. 
 Among many fine parts which did not take a permanent 
 place in his repertory, Melantius in The Bridal was 
 probably the most remarkable. It deserved to rank, we 
 are assured, beside Virginius and Werner. 
 
 Some critics altogether denied Macready's claim to 
 praise, or even toleration, as a comedian ; others went 
 into ecstasies over his Benedick and his Mr. Oakly. It
 
 2o6 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 is almost always the case that when a tragedian essays 
 comedy, one section of the public resents his claim to 
 versatility, while another finds a peculiar piquancy in 
 seeing him descend from the tragic pedestal. That 
 Macready had a strong, though limited, sense of humour 
 cannot be doubted. Without humour he could not have 
 succeeded in Rob Roy, in lago, in Richelieu. His Joseph 
 Surface, too, was popular and much admired at a time 
 when there was as yet no clique of worshippers sworn to 
 find merit in whatever he chose to attempt. Thus we 
 have no difficulty in accepting, as pretty near the truth, 
 Oxenford's statement that " when he did really play 
 comedy, when he allowed his native humour a free 
 course, it was a high treat for the audience. The state 
 of fidget in which the temper of his wife maintains Mr. 
 Oakly, and the mental perplexity of Benedick, are 
 instances ... of his admirable skill in representing 
 comic dilemma, worthy to be classed with the deeper 
 anguish of his Lear or his Werner." " Macready," says 
 Lady Pollock, " could be humorous, but could not be 
 light, and where an airy manner was wanted he was sure 
 to fail." This delightful critic admits that in the Prince 
 of Como scenes in The Lady of Lyons he was stiff, 
 serious, and over-emphatic ; but she thought his Benedick 
 "perfectly conceived, and on the whole very well exe- 
 cuted," while his Mr. Oakly she declares to have been 
 " a perfect performance throughout." Westland Marston, 
 too, praises the "spontaneous humour" of his Benedick, 
 which "roused the house to such shouts of mirth, one 
 might have thought Keeley, not Macready, was on the 
 stage." The same critic praises his Alfred Evelyn, which 
 must have been a highly effective performance. But 
 Macready was certainly not at his ease in modern dress 
 upon the stage. The Duke of Wellington, no slight
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 207 
 
 authority on the subject of manners, is reported to have 
 said that George the Fourth was no gentleman, though 
 an excellent actor of one for ten minutes — " like Mr. 
 Macready, he could not support it longer." Had it 
 reached Macready's ears, this unkind comparison would 
 probably have brought him to a premature grave. 
 
 Even if the publication of his diaries had not given 
 him a prominent place among those fascinating persons, 
 the self-revealers of literature, Macready would stand 
 forth in our theatrical chronicles as a remarkable 
 character. No one who came in contact with him could 
 help being deeply impressed, though it might be far 
 from favourably, by the sheer force of his personaHty. 
 What rendered him peculiarly interesting was his in- 
 ability to conceal the perpetual struggle between the Jekyll 
 and Hyde in his composition. That struggle, which we 
 trace in every page of his diary, was no less obvious in 
 daily life. Hence the fact that Macready was loved by 
 many people, hated by still more, but respected by all. 
 To some people (and especially, one admits with regret, 
 to his fellow-actors) he was apt almost constantly to wear 
 the face of Mr. Hyde ; but even they felt that this was 
 not the real man : that there was a higher nature behind, 
 resisting and suffering from' the excesses of the lower : 
 and that this higher nature was the substantial and 
 abiding force, which might be trusted in the long-run to 
 gain the mastery. To those who habitually brought the 
 better side of his nature into play, his personality was 
 singularly attractive. They were accustomed to see him 
 in the moment of victory, for their presence and influence 
 helped to put the evil spirit to rout. Few men have had 
 more faithful and devoted friends. Dickens writes to 
 and of him in terms of almost fulsome affection, and
 
 2o8 WILLIAM CHARLES M ACRE AD Y. 
 
 Dickens may be said to have given the key-note, in this 
 respect, to a whole chorus of adherents. But it is note- 
 worthy that the band of the faithful did not include a 
 single actor. He had serviceable henchmen among the 
 subordinate members of his companies, but not one 
 friend who stood on anything like equal terms with him. 
 This puts us on the track of what I believe to have been 
 the true tragedy of Macready's spirit. It lay in his false 
 relation to his life-work. It seems to me almost certain 
 that in another career he would have been able habitually 
 to conquer the tendency to irritability which he doubtless 
 inherited from his father. In youth he seems to have 
 been high-spirited, but neither morose nor exacting. It 
 was as the sense of personal degradation in his calling 
 grew upon him that Mr. Hyde began to get the upper 
 hand. Whenever his foot touched the boards, his self- 
 respect, like Acres's courage, began to ooze out at his 
 finger-tips, and the great check upon his lower nature 
 was removed. The knowledge, in the background of 
 his mind, that conscience lay in wait for him with a rod 
 in pickle, would ofien tend to intensify his paroxysms 
 while they lasted. " As well be hanged for a sheep as 
 for a lamb," he would think, or rather feel ; " since I am 
 doomed to a fit of remorse, why not unpack my whole 
 heart while I am about it ? " As soon as he was freed 
 from the galling yoke of his profession, his better self 
 resumed undivided mastery. He was the affectionate 
 if somewhat over-scrupulous and exacting husband and 
 father, the urbane and even formally courteous gentle- 
 man, the man of sane and liberal instincts, just to him- 
 self, generous towards others. His fragment of autobio- 
 graphy, written during the early years of his stay at 
 Sherborne, is a work of excellent temper. The man who 
 was accused of never having a good word for a fellow-
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. log 
 
 actor here writes witli warm and evidently unaflfected 
 admiration of men who were his rivals, and to some 
 extent his successful rivals, in years gone by. One is 
 inclined to think him a trifle unjust to Booth, and he 
 makes one or two allusions to Bunn which might have 
 been spared. Otherwise these pages show no sign of the 
 lower part of Macready's nature, except in the scattered 
 remarks depreciating the profession of acting. That 
 was the fundamental error of his life. The great Snob 
 family falls into two classes — the worshippers of nobility 
 (or tuft-hunters) and the worshippers of gentility, Mac- 
 ready belonged, not at all to the former class, but very 
 distinctly to the latter. He never fully realized that the 
 contempt of the world (which his morbid sensitiveness 
 exaggerated) was in itself a thing to be contemned. By 
 brooding over it he in some measure justified it. In 
 his soreness of spirit over the fact that his profession did 
 not ennoble him, he forgot, or failed, to ennoble his 
 profession. 
 
 It must be remembered, in extenuation of Macready's 
 foibles of temper, that the best hours of his life were 
 given up to a task which is notoriously trying to the most 
 angelic disposition — that of drilling careless, inefficient, 
 and over-worked actors in country theatres. The life of 
 a " star " must in those days have been one unceasing 
 round of annoyances and humiliations, only to be 
 mitigated by abundant humour or extreme artistic callous- 
 ness. Macready could now and then see the humorous 
 side of his embarrassments, but only now and then. 
 "Surely you wouldn't shake hands with Hamlet!" he 
 said to an American Guildenstern who insisted on 
 coming close up to the Prince of Denmark. " Well, I 
 don't know ; " replied the citizen of the Great Republic. 
 " I shake hands with our President." At such a sally 
 
 p
 
 210 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 even the austere tragedian would surely unbend. But 
 if humour now and then came to his aid, callousness 
 never did. Much of his unpopularity with " the pro- 
 fession " arose from a perfectly justified artistic puncti- 
 liousness, which, to a lax and haphazard generation, 
 seemed like pedantic tyranny. Even as a young man 
 in London, he incurred some ridicule and odium by 
 always acting at rehearsal. His success in America, 
 according to his detractors, was largely due to his close 
 attention to the minutiae of stage-business and stage- 
 management, which before his time were habitually 
 neglected. He did what Mr, Irving has since done on 
 a much larger scale — he showed the Americans the im- 
 portance of scrupulous care and thought in every detail 
 of a performance. There are many anecdotes of the 
 resentment he incurred on the part of actors who felt 
 their personal liberty infringed by what they called his 
 trigonometrical calculations as to their position on the 
 stage at any given moment. They would chalk crosses 
 or drive in nails at the points indicated, and decline to 
 budge from them on any account. This artistic scrupu- 
 lousness, however, was accompanied by a large amount 
 of the inartistic unscrupulousness of the typical " star." 
 His own part was everything ; the opportunities of his 
 fellow-actors, and even the poet's text, must all give 
 place to the complete development of his effects. " When 
 he played Othello," says George Vandenhoff, "lago was 
 to be nowhere ! . . . lago was a mere stoker, whose 
 business it was to supply Othello's passion with fuel, and 
 keep up his high-pressure. The next night, perhaps, he 
 took lago ; and lo ! presto ! everything was changed. 
 Othello was to become a mere puppet for lago to play 
 with ; a pipe for lago's master-skill to ' sound from its 
 lowest note to the top of its compass.' " He would
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 211 
 
 probably have glozed the egoism of this policy by arguing 
 that the opportunities should be to him who can make 
 use of them, and that, with country companies, it was 
 useless to strive for an " all-round " effect. But the 
 tendency, alas ! was dominant whatever his surroundings. 
 Even Fanny Kemble, as Lady Macbeth, had to sacrifice 
 her legitimate opportunities to his self-aggrandizement. 
 
 The incessant worry and strain of London manage- 
 ment was even more trying to his temper than the 
 annoyances of "starring." His stiff-necked struggle 
 against the long run system involved an infinite amount 
 of labour from which a modern manager of any fairly 
 successful theatre is free. A theatrical paper of the 
 time gives an amusing and (by all accounts) a scarcely 
 exaggerated sketch of " Macready at Rehearsal." The 
 scene is the Covent Garden stage ; the manager speaks — 
 
 " Where is the tailor-man, that Head, fool, brute, beast, 
 ass? How dare you annoy me, sir, in this manner? Have 
 you got a soul or sense ? . . . Look, who wrote these calls ? 
 Gentlemen, look about you, read for yourselves : here is 
 ' Macbeth ' spelt ' Mackbeth ' and Mr. Serle's ' Afrancesado ' 
 spelt ' Hafifrancishardo.' , . . Who is that talking at the 
 wings ? Henry ! Henry ! go down and tell the stage door- 
 keeper I expect him to go away — to leave the theatre imme- 
 diately. . . . Mr. Forster — oh, show Mr. Forster to my 
 room ; no, stop ! My dear Dickens, how d'ye do ? Tal- 
 fourd ! your hand ; another and another ! Browning ! 
 Bulwer ! — a — a — walk into the green-room. Mr. Bender, 
 get on ; why do you wait ? Where is Mr. Willmott ? I — I 
 — this is exceedingly bad ! Will you make a beginning ? 
 Where are the— the officers ? Where is that — a — Paulo 
 man ? Mr. Beckett ? Mr. Smith ? What cat is that ? Do 
 — do — do — a — a — a — a — damn it 1 are you all asleep ? . . . 
 Why do we wait, gentlemen ? The band ? I — I really 
 will enforce fines without any respect of persons. . . . 
 Where's the supernumerary-master ? Sir, I desired you not
 
 212 WILLIAM CHARLES MAC READY. 
 
 to employ that person without stockings. Do — do find me 
 decent, intelHgent men. Gentlemen of the band, be kind 
 enough to discuss your — a— a— ^« dits — outside the theatre. 
 It is — it is — a — a — preposterous. . . . What is that horrible 
 hubbub in the green-room? I — I really I — Where is the 
 gas-man? Are we rehearsing the— the — a — Black Hole of 
 Calcutta? Do — do — do pray lighten our darkness. Man, 
 I have spoken several times about these pewter pots. I — 
 I will not have the theatre turned into a — a cookshop. . . . 
 You — you — you cannot possibly dine at ten o'clock in the 
 morning. . . . Send in your beds, gentlemen ; let us have a 
 — a — a caravansery at once." 
 
 There is no doubt that, in his fits of temper, Macready 
 used very violent language. "Beast!" muttered be- 
 tween his teeth, was his favourite term of opprobrium ; 
 and by way of a superlative, he would now and then 
 add, " Beast of hell ! " Mr, Howe avers that he only on 
 one occasion heard him use this expression. He was 
 standing at the wing one warm night, holding a pair of 
 lighted candles, on which the effect of his entrance 
 depended. Half stifling in the sultry atmosphere, he 
 murmured to his dresser, " Puff, puff ! " meaning that 
 he should put some powder on his face. The man, 
 mistaking his intent, instantly " puffed " out the candles ; 
 and at that moment the cue was given. Macready 
 withered the culprit with a look, and went on, growling, 
 " Beast — beast — beast of hell ! " A curious anecdote 
 is told of his struggle with an actor named Roberts, 
 who, having to deliver a simple message, insisted on 
 striking a spread-eagle attitude before opening his mouth. 
 Again, again, and yet again he was sent back, pro- 
 mising amendment ; but, in spite of himself, he always 
 fell into the old pose. At last, says Anderson, Macready 
 "raised his eyes and hands to the flies, and made us all 
 scream with laughing, as he exclaimed in agony, ' O
 
 ART AND CHARACTER. 213 
 
 God ! — a — will you not out of your — a — goodness and 
 mercy, release me — a — from the infliction — a — of this 
 blank split-crow — a!'" For a somewhat similar story 
 we have the authority of Mr. Edmund Yates. A brother 
 of Mr. George Augustus Sala, calling himself Wynn, was 
 a member of the Princess's company; and to him 
 Macready had an intense objection. At rehearsal he 
 would close his eyes tightly while Wynn was on the 
 stage, and before reopening them would ask the prompter, 
 " Has it gone ? " When Henry VIII. was in prepara- 
 tion, Macready implored Maddox to see that Cardinal 
 Campeius was furnished with a costume which should 
 not seem entirely ridiculous beside the splendid robes 
 he himself wore as Wolsey ; but Maddox, of course, dis- 
 regarded the injunction. 
 
 " At the dress rehearsal," says Mr. Yates, " Macready, 
 enthroned in a chair of state, had the various characters to 
 pass before him : he bore all calmly until, clad in scarlet 
 robes bordered by silver tissue-paper and wearing an 
 enormous red hat, Wynn approached. Then, clutching both 
 arms of his chair, and closing his eyes, the great tragedian 
 gasped out, ' Mother Shipton, by God ! ' " 
 
 In such episodes as these there is a sad discrepancy 
 between the real man and the " Macready, moral, grave, 
 sublime " of the poet's fancy and of his own ideal. West- 
 land Marston's suggestion, that he was inclined delibe- 
 rately to exaggerate his bursts of temper, " that they 
 might contrast with his after-smoothness," can scarcely 
 be accepted as a plea in mitigation. 
 
 One could devote whole chapters to balancing the 
 faults against the virtues of this fascinatingly complex 
 character. But it is time, to sum up. I shall not do 
 so in my own words, but in those of two keen observers 
 of character, both of whom knew him intimately.
 
 214 WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. 
 
 " Macready's sensitiveness," said Harriet Martineau, 
 " shrouded itself within an artificial manner ; but a more 
 delightful companion could not be — not only on account of 
 his learning and accomplishment, but of his uncompromising 
 liberality of opinion and his noble strain of meditative 
 thought. . . . But there was, besides the moralizing tendency, 
 a chivalrous spirit of rare vigilance, and an unsleeping 
 domestic tenderness and social beneficence, which accounted 
 for and justified the idolatry with which he was regarded, 
 through all trials occasioned by the irritable temper with 
 which he manfully struggled." 
 
 The second estimate is that of Robert Browning 
 
 &' 
 
 kindly communicated to me by the poet himself — 
 
 " I found Macready as I left him — and happily, after a long 
 interval, resumed him, so to speak— one of the most ad- 
 mirable and, indeed, fascinating characters I have ever 
 known ; somewhat too sensitive for his own happiness, and 
 much too impulsive for invariable consistency with his nobler 
 moods." 
 
 Macready in a nutshell !
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Abbott, William, 34, 53, 60, 78, 
 
 80, 89 
 Addison, Miss Laura, 168 
 Allen, R., 129 
 Anderson, James, 108, 111-113, 
 
 119, 121, 122, 129, 131-133, I37> 
 
 142, 186, 212 
 Atkins, Miss Catherine Frances. 
 
 See Macready, Mrs. W. C. (first 
 
 wife) 
 , — (scene-painter), 17 
 
 Balfe, Michael, 91 
 Banim, John, 56 
 Barham, R. H., 125 
 Barlley, George, no, 114 
 Becher, Sir W. W., 49 
 Bellew, J. M., 189 
 Bennett, George, 109, 119, 129, 168 
 Berlioz, Hector, 78, 79 
 Betterton, Thomas, 191 
 Betty, W. H. W., 9, 10, 23, 25 
 Billington, Mrs., 6 
 Birch, Christina Ann. See Mac- 
 ready, Mrs. (W. C. M.'s mother) 
 
 , William, 7 
 
 Blanc, Louis, 164 
 Blisset, — (actor), 6 
 
 Booth, Junius Brutus, 38, 40-42, 
 
 52, 76, 170, 209 
 
 , Miss S., zz 
 
 Braliam, John, 84, 169 
 
 Browning, Robert, 96, 99-101, 120, 
 
 136, 214 
 Bryant, William Cullen, 162 
 Buckstone, J. B., 107, 124, 168 
 Buller, C, 123 
 Bulvver, Sir E. L. (Lord Lytton), 
 
 99, loi, 114, 120, 121, 123, 124, 
 
 126, 140, 188, 204 
 Bunn, Alfred, 66, 69, 72, 78, 81, 
 
 85-89, 91-95, 97-99, 103, 106, 
 
 112, 114, 119, 209 
 
 , Mrs., 46, 68, 69, 71, Ti 
 
 Bunsen, Chevalier, 188 
 
 Butler, Mrs. See Kemble, Fanny 
 
 Byron, Lord, 28, 59, 88, 204 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 117 
 Chassoir, — , 164 
 Chester, Miss, 82 
 Chippendale, — , 78 
 Clay, Henry, 162 
 Clifford, Mrs. W., no 
 Coleman, John, 122, 194 
 Compton, Henry, 129, 133, 165, 166
 
 2l6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Conway, W. A , 14, 76, 77 
 Conyngham, Lord, 123 
 Cooke, G. F., 13, 50, 76 
 
 , Tom, 120, 129 
 
 Cooper, John, 78, 82, 85, 88, 124, 
 
 165-168 
 
 , Thomas Abthorpe, 76, 170 
 
 Cornwall, Barry, 43, 45, 54, 56 
 
 Creswick, William, 166 
 
 Curtis, George, 184 
 
 Cushman, Charlotte, 162, 166, 
 
 168, 171, 172 
 , Susan, 167 
 
 Dale, — (actor), 100 
 
 Daly, Richard (Dublin manager), i 
 
 Darley, — (author), 132, 160 
 
 Davenant, Sir W., 140 
 
 Davenport, E. L., 186 
 
 , Mrs., 56 
 
 Davidge, Mrs., 166 
 
 Delacroix, E. , 164 
 
 Denvil, H. G., 90 
 
 Desmond, Miss. See Macready, 
 Mrs. W., W. C. M.'s step- 
 mother 
 
 De Wilde, — (artist), 18 
 
 Dibdin, J. C, 49 
 
 Dickens, Charles, 45, 102, 121, 
 123, 126, 127, 135, 161, 167, 
 175, 188, 189, 207 
 
 Diddear, C. B., 109 
 
 Dimond, — (Bath manager), 26, 27 
 
 Dow, — , 94, 1 70 
 
 Dowton, William, 49, 60, 82, 84, 
 90, 91 
 
 Ducrow, Andrew, 87 
 
 Dumas, A., the elder, 78, 79, 164 
 
 Edgeli, — (Birmingham school- 
 master), 6 
 
 Edwin, J. P., 15 
 
 Egerton, Mrs., 34, 43 
 
 Elliston, R. W., 5, 10, 13, 22, 45, 
 
 49, 59, 60, 63, 69, 72, 75, 107, 
 
 140 
 
 , William Gore, 75 
 
 Elton, E. W., loi, 106-108, 125, 
 
 129, 142 
 Emerson, R. W. , 162 
 Emery, John, 13, 25, 39, 56 
 Everard, Cape, 15 
 
 Fairbrother, Miss, 134 
 
 Farren, William (sen.), 46, 52, 56, 
 
 58, 60, 82, 84, 90, 99, loi, 107, 
 
 168 
 Faucit, Miss H. (Lady Martin), 96, 
 
 97,99-101, 109, III, 114, 117. 
 
 121, 124-129, 137, 138, 163, 164, 
 
 168 
 Fawcett, John, 13, 29, 46, 56, 60, 
 
 no 
 Fisher, Claia, 73 
 Fitzgerald, Edward, 131 
 Fonblanque, Albany, 123, 172 
 Foote, Miss Maria (Countess of 
 
 Harrington), 33, 52, 53, 72, 77- 
 
 79 
 
 Forbes, — (Covent Garden man- 
 ager), 58 
 
 Forrest, Edwin, 76, 162, 169-177, 
 181, 184, 185, 194 
 
 Forster, John, 45, 94, 96, loi, 115, 
 121, 123, 137, 171, 172, 176, 
 177, 188, 189 
 
 Fortescue, Miss, 130 
 
 Fo.x, W. J., loi, 120, 121, 138 
 
 Galindo, Mr. and Mrs., 10 
 Garrick, David, 19, 191 
 Gaspey, Thomas, 89, 90
 
 INDEX. 
 
 217 
 
 Gautier, Theophile, 82, 163, 165, 
 
 194 
 Genest, Rev. — , 27, 28, 54, 57 
 George HI., 52 
 
 IV., 53, 207 
 
 Glover, Mrs., 34, 49, 60, 66, 69, 
 
 loi, 102, 107, no, 127, 168 
 Gould, Miss, 129 
 Granby, — (aclor), 165, 168 
 Griffin, Gerald, 132 
 Guizot, Monsieur, 164 
 
 Hackett, J. H., 178 
 
 Halevy, F., 165 
 
 Hall, General, 182 
 
 Hamilton, Lady, 7 
 
 Hammond, W. J., no, 125 
 
 Harley, J. P., 49. 69, 71. 73, §4. 
 
 no, 168 
 Harness, Rev. W., 73, 96 
 Harris, Henry (Covent Garden 
 
 manager), 27, 35, 37, 46, 50, 52, 
 
 53, 57, 62 
 Haynes, James, 125 
 Hazlitt, William, 35, 37, 38, 53 
 Henderson, John, 20 
 Hook, Theodore, 68 
 Horton, Miss Priscilla(Mrs. German 
 
 Reed), no, 113, n8, 125, 127, 
 
 129, 138, 168, 1S5 
 Howe, Henry, 109, 124, 185-187, 
 
 212 
 Huddart, Miss. See Warner, Mrs. 
 Hudson, James, 129, 133 
 Hugo, Victor, 47, 79, 82, 164, 165 
 Humby, Mrs., no, 121 
 Hunt, Leigh, 43, 192, 197, 201 
 
 Inglis, Dr. (of Rugby), 8 
 Irving, Henry, 20, 141, 142, 210 
 , Washington, 179 
 
 Janin, Jules, 80 
 Jerdan, William, 45 
 Jerrold, Douglas, 132 
 Jordan, Mrs., 22 
 
 Kean, Charles, 77, 88, 108, n6, 
 
 128, 185, 191 
 , Edmund, 1 1, 20, 22, 27, 32, 
 
 35, 39, 46, 49-53, 58, 60, 69, 72, 
 
 73, 76, 80, 85, loi, 191-195 
 Keeley, R., 129, 133, 137, 168, 185, 
 
 206 
 
 , Mrs. R., 129, 132, 133, 142 
 
 Kelly, Miss F. 49 
 
 , Miss F. H., 60 
 
 Kemble, Charles, 13, 25. 33, 35, 
 
 41, 48, 49, 52, 53, 56-58, 60, 61, 
 
 63. 78, 79, 93. 97, 98, no, 124, 
 
 137, 188 
 
 , Mrs. C, 25, 48 
 
 , Fanny (Mrs. Butler), 168, 
 
 197, 2n 
 
 , John Mitchell, 124 
 
 John Philip, 5, 13, 20, 32, 
 
 36-38, 42, 51, 58, 59, 61, 86, 
 
 114, n5, 141, 191-193, 199 
 Kenney, James, 74, 82 
 King, Thomas, 6 
 Knowles, J. Sheridan, 53, 68, 72, 
 
 89, 90, 97, loi, 107, n6, ng, 
 
 138, 204 
 
 Lacy, Walter, 124, 127, 142 
 
 , Mrs. W. See Taylor, Miss 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 45, 53, 54 
 Landor, W. S., 96 
 Lee, Alexander (musician), 82, ni 
 Leffler, Adam, no 
 Lekain, 80 
 
 Lewes, G. II., 187, 199, 201, 202, 
 205
 
 2l8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lewis, "Gentleman," 6 
 
 Lind, Jenny, i86 
 
 Liston, John, 13, 36, 39, 43, 48, 
 
 49, 5i> 52, 57, 59, 60, 77, 78, 
 
 no 
 Lloyd, Charles, 45, 53, 54 
 Longfellow, H. W., 162 
 Lovell, G. W., 92 
 , Mrs., 90, 92 
 
 Macklin, Charles, 1-3, 20 
 
 Maclise, Daniel, 121 
 
 Macready, Edward N. (W. C. ^L's 
 brother), 8, 25, 44 
 
 , Letitia (W. C. M.'s sister), 
 
 71, 188 
 
 , William (W. C. M.'s 
 
 father), parentage, i ; comes to 
 England, 2 ; marriage, 3 ; at 
 C. G., 3 ; adapts plays, 4 ; man- 
 ager at Birmingham, 5 ; at Royalty 
 Theatre, 6 ; engages young Ros- 
 cius, 9 ; takes T. R., Manchester, 
 and fails, 10 ; arrest and release, 
 14 ; controversy with J. P. Edwin, 
 15 ; manager at Bristol, 49 ; 
 second marriage, 70 ; death, 81 ; 
 character, 15-17, 24 ; anecdotes, 
 16, 17, 24 ; parts played by him, 
 
 2, 3, 16 
 -, Mrs. W., (W. C. M.'s 
 
 mother), ancestry and marriage, 
 3 ; death, 8 ; parts played by 
 her, 2, 5 
 
 , Mrs. W. (W. C. M.'s step- 
 mother), 70 
 
 , William Charles, birth, 
 
 4 ; schools — Kensington 4, 
 Birmingham 6, Rugby 7 ; learns 
 to recite, 6 ; early theatrical me- 
 mories, 6 ; Rugby theatricals, 
 
 7 ; glimpse of E. Kean, II ; 
 chooses theatrical profession, 1 1 ; 
 classical acquirements, II; at 
 Manchester and Newcastle, 13 ; 
 in London during O. P. riots, 13 ; 
 management at Chester and 
 Newcastle, 14 ; first appearance, 
 17; De Wilde's portrait, 18; 
 first criticism, 18 ; early perform- 
 ances, 19-29; at Newcastle, 20, 
 22, 24, 25 ; performs with Mrs. 
 Whitlock and Mrs. Siddons, 21 ; 
 with Mrs. Jordan at Leicester, 22 ; 
 accused of kicking an actress, 22 ; 
 performs with Betty at Glasgow, 
 23 ; at Dumfries, 23 ; quarrels 
 with father, 24, 26 ; adaptations 
 of Mannion and Rokehy, 25 ; per- 
 forms with Mr. and Mrs. C. 
 Kemble, C. Young, and Emery, 
 25 ; accident at Newcastle, 26 ; 
 at Bath, 27-29 ; negotiations 
 with Covent Garden, 27 ; with 
 Drury Lane, 28 ; meets Kean, 
 
 27 ; anecdote of Byron, 28 ; 
 meets Miss Atkins at Glasgow, 
 
 28 ; at Dublin, 28 ; humours of 
 Dublin audience, 29 ; engage- 
 ment at C. G., 29; condition of 
 the stage, 32 ; choice of opening 
 character, 33 ; first appearance 
 at C. G. (season 1S16-17), 34; 
 criticisms on it, 35 ; his ugliness, 
 36 ; dissatisfied with unsympa- 
 thetic parts assigned him, 37, 39, 
 41, 46 ; The Slave, 39 ; season 
 1817-18 at C. G., 42 ; Kob Koy, 
 43 ; thinks of going into the 
 Church, 44 ; friendship with Wal- 
 lace, Shiel, Lloyd, Lamb, Tal- 
 fourd, etc., 45 ; season 181S-19
 
 INDEX. 
 
 219 
 
 at C. G., 46; "cock-grumbler," 
 46 ; Wightwick on his Dumont, 
 46 ; rivalry with Young, 48 ; 
 retirement of Mrs. Siddons and 
 Miss O'Neill, 48 ; visits Scot- 
 land, 49 ; season 1819-20 at C. 
 G., 49; success in Richard III., 
 50; compared with Kean, 51 ; 
 declines to play Lear, 52 ; Vir- 
 giniiis, 53 ; criticisms, 54 ; second 
 meeting with Miss Atkins, 55 ; 
 season 1820-21 at C. G., 55 ; 
 attempt to restore Shakespeare's 
 Richard III., 56 ; season 1821-22 
 at C. G., 57 ; quarrel with C. 
 Kemble, 58, 61 ; letters of com- 
 plaint to C. G. management, 58, 
 
 62 ; tour in Italy, 59 ; revolt of 
 
 C. G. company, 59; season 1822- 
 23 at C. G., 60 ; Shell's Hitgtce^wt 
 and Miss Mitford's Julian, 60 ; 
 dispute as to salary with C. G. 
 management, 62 ; pamphlet by 
 M., 63 ; engages with Elliston, 
 
 63 ; season 1823-24 at D. L., 
 66 ; attack in John Bull, 66, 
 68 ; myth of the rescued child, 
 67 ; Cuius Gracchus, 69 ; Kean 
 refuses to appear with M., 70; 
 marriage, 70 ; season 1824-25 at 
 
 D. L. , 71 ; The Fatal Dowry, 
 71 ; serious illness, 71 ; attack by 
 Harness in Blackwood, 73 ; at 
 D. L., 1826, 75 ; first American 
 tour, 76 ; season 1827-28 at D. 
 L., 77 ; English actors in Paris, 
 1827-28, 78 ; Shakespeare and 
 the French romanticists, 79 ; 
 M. appears in Paris, 79 ; criti- 
 cisms by Janin and others, 80 ; 
 starring in provinces, 1828 to 
 
 1830, 81 ; receipts, 81 ; season 
 1830-31 at D. L., 82 ; Werner, 
 The Pledge (Hernani), and 
 Knowles's Alfred the Great, 82 
 season 1831-32 at D. L., 83 
 Serle's Merchatit of London, 83 
 season 1832-33 at D. L., 84 
 Serle's I/ottse of Colberg, 84 
 Waverley Pageant, 84 ; appears 
 with Kean, 85 ; Trueba's Alcii of 
 Pleasure, 85 ; Bunn manager of 
 both C. G. and D. L. , 86; season 
 1833-34 at D. L. , 87 ; Sardana- 
 I>alns, 88 ; Knowles's benefit, 89 ; 
 letters to Gaspey, 89, 90 ; The 
 Bridal at Dublin, 90 ; manage- 
 ment at Bath and Bristol, 90 ; 
 season 1835-36 at D. L. , 91 ; 
 friction with Bunn, 92 ; Provost 
 of Bruges, 92 ; further quarrels 
 with Bunn, 93 ; assault upon 
 Bunn, 94 ; M.'s remorse, 95 ; re- 
 ception and speech at C. G., 95 ; 
 Ion, 96 ; supper at Talfourd's, 96 ; 
 Bunn V. Macready — Talfourd's 
 speech, 97 ; damages awarded, 
 98 ; season 1836-37 at C. G., 98 ; 
 C. Kemble's retirement, 98 ; The 
 Duchess de la Vallicre, 99 ; 
 Straffo7-d, lOO ; M.'s position 
 summed up, loi ; his clique, 
 loi ; probable improvement in 
 his acting, 102 ; motives for going 
 into management, 105 ; at Hay- 
 market, 1837, 106 ; The Bridal, 
 106 ; pecuniary arrangements at 
 C. G., 107 ; selection of company 
 for C. G., 107-111; restricts 
 " improper intrusion," ill; com- 
 position of programmes, 112; 
 season 1837-38 at C. G., 112;
 
 2 20 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Winters Tale, Hamlet, Othello, 
 Macbeth, Henry V., 112; Lear, 
 Lady of Lyons, 113; Coriolanus, 
 114; Two Foscari, 115; Woman's 
 Wit, 116 ; general results of 
 season, 116 ; at Haymarket, 
 1838, 117 ; Athenian Captive, 
 117; season 1838-39 at C. G., 
 117; letter from Carlyle, 117; 
 The Tempest, 1 18 ; William Tell, 
 119 ; Richelieu, 120 ; As You Like 
 It, Henry V., 121 ; reasons for 
 relinquishing management, 122 ; 
 public dinner, 123 ; applies for 
 Licensership, 124 ; at Hay- 
 market, 1839, 124 ; The Sea- 
 Captain, 125 ; at D. L., 1840, 125 ; 
 Mary Stuart, 125 ; season 1840- 
 41 at Haymarket, 125; Glencoe, 
 Master Cla?-ke, Money, 126 ; 
 letter from Dickens, 127 ; season 
 1841 at Haymarket, 128 ; re-enters 
 management, 128; company se- 
 lected, 129; season 1841-42 at 
 D. L., 129; Merchant of Vetiice, 
 T-wo Gentlemen of Verona, Game- 
 ster, Acis and Galatea, 130 ; 
 Gisippus, Plighted Troth, 132 ; 
 season 1842-43 at D. L., 133; 
 As You Like It, King John, 133 ; 
 Ki7ig Arthur, Love for Love, 
 134; The Patrician'' s Daughter, 
 Cytnbeline, 135; A Blot in the 
 'Scutcheon, 136 ; Mtich Ado, 137 ; 
 Fortunio, The Secretary, \ 38 ; 
 again relimiuishes management, 
 138; general review of his man- 
 agement, 139 ; American tour, 
 1843-44, 161 ; performances in 
 Paris, 1844, 163; at Tuilcries, 
 764; at Princess's, 1845-46, 165; 
 
 The King of the Commons, 165 ; 
 at Surrey Theatre, 166; at Prin- 
 cess's, 1847, 166; Philip van 
 Artevelde, 166 ; " Shakespeare 
 night" at C. G., 167; at Prin- 
 cess's, 1848, 168 ; at Marylebone 
 Theatre, 168; benefit at D. L., 
 168; American tour, 1S48-49, 
 169; origin of Forrest feud, 169; 
 Forrest's first visit to England, 
 170; his rebuff in Paris, 170; 
 his engagement at Princess's, 171 ; 
 Forster's criticisms, 172 ; Forrest 
 hisses M. in Edinburgh, 173; 
 exasperation of his American 
 admirers, 174; M. arrives in 
 America, 175; disturbances at 
 Philadelphia, 176; southern tour, 
 177 ; first riot in New York, 178 ; 
 second riot, 179; scene inside 
 theatre, 180; military called in, 
 181 ; they fire on the mob, 182 ; 
 M.'s escape, 183; the episode 
 summed up, 184 ; farewell per- 
 formances at Haymarket, 185, 
 186; at Windsor Castle, 185; 
 last appearance at D. L., 186; 
 G. H. Lewes's description, 187 ; 
 public dinner, 1S8; in retire- 
 ment, 188; second marriage, 1S8; 
 death, 189 ; his rank as an actor 
 not clearly determined, 191 ; 
 compared with Kean by Leigh 
 Hunt and others, 192; an eclectic 
 actor, 193 ; physiognomy and 
 costume, 194 ; voice and vocal 
 mannerisms, 195, 196; treatment 
 of verse, 197 ; criticism from 
 Daily Neivs, 198 ; a progressive 
 actor, 198; letter to Wighlwick, 
 199; a "Shakespearian" or
 
 INDEX. 
 
 221 
 
 " melodramatic " actor ? (criticisms 
 by Lewes and Tomlins), 199, 200 ; 
 his best parts, 201 ; self-expres- 
 sion in acting, 203 ; statistics of 
 leading parts, 203 ; was he a 
 comedian? 205 ; struggle of higher 
 and lower elements in character, 
 207 ; extenuating circumstances, 
 209 ; artistic scrupulousness and 
 artistic egoism, 210; M. at re- 
 hearsal, 211; violence of lan- 
 guage, 212; character summed 
 up by Miss Martineau and Mr. 
 Browning, 214; M.'s CHILDREN, 
 81, 93, 126, 131, 187-190; M.'s 
 
 CHARACTER, 12, I9, 29, 61, I4I, 
 142, 207-214; ANECDOTES, 22, 
 
 24, 46, 61, 72, 73, 78, 85, 115, 
 
 121, 122, 131, 142, 186, 196, 
 198, 207, 209, 2II-213; PRIN- 
 CIPAL CHARACTERS : Alfred 
 Evelyn, 127, 206 ; Antony {An- 
 tony and Cleopatra), 22, 87 ; 
 Benedick, 25, 26, 28, 137, 205, 
 206 ; Bertulphe, 92 ; Beverley, 
 21, 130; Bragelone, 99 ; Brutus, 
 168, 185; Caius Gracchus, 69; 
 Cassius, 48, 59, 199, 203 ; Claude 
 Melnotte, 113, 205, 206 ; Corio- 
 lanus, 51, 112, 199; Damon, 56; 
 Dumont, 46 ; Duke {Measure for 
 Measure), 70 ; Edmund, 52 ; 
 Faulconbridge, 24 ; Francesco 
 Foscari, 115; Friar Lawrence, 
 141 ; Ford, 90; Gambia, 39, 73, 
 90 ; Ghost {Hamlet), 83 ; Gisip- 
 pus, 132 ; Grimwood, 132 ; Hal- 
 bert Macdonald, 126; Hamlet, 
 21, 27, 56, I 2, 162, 163, 173, 
 194,202; Harii.iny, 130 ; Henri 
 Quatre, 52; Henry IV,, 56, 89, 
 
 164, 167, 202; Henry V., 28, 
 73, 112, 121 ; Hotspur, 27, 75 ; 
 Lachimo, 56 ; lago, 37, 199, 200, 
 202, 206, 210; Ion, 96, 205; 
 James V., 166; Jaques, 71, 121, 
 133, 141 ; King John, 61, 71, 
 '^Zl-: 199. 203 ; Joseph Surface, 
 49, 82, 206; Kitely, 29, 84, 117; 
 King Lear, 86, 89, 112, 199-202; 
 Leontes, 29, 69, 71 ; Ludovico, 
 47; Macbeth, 55, 61, 77, 80, 91, 
 95. "2, 143, 162, 176, 178, 179, 
 187, 197-201; Melantius, 90, 
 107, 205 ; Mentevole, 29, 37 ; 
 Michael Ducas, 46 ; Mirandola, 
 56 ; Mordaunt, 135 ; Mordent, 
 49 ; Norman, 125 ; Young Nor- 
 val, 19, 21 ; Mr. Oakly, 83, 168, 
 205, 206 ; Orestes, 34 ; Othello, 
 26, 37, 81, 112, 162, 163, 194, 
 202, 210; Pescara, 41 ; Petruchio, 
 83 ; Philip van Artevelde, 166 ; 
 Prospero, 56, I18 ; Richard II., 
 22, 27, 186, 199; Richard III., 
 22, 50, 56, 68, 83, 93, 193 ; 
 Richelieu, 120, 162, 201, 205, 
 206 ; Rob Roy, 43, 73, 84, 206 ; 
 Romeo, 18, 26, 43 ; Romont, 71 ; 
 Sardanapalus, 88 ; Shylock, 124, 
 130; Spinola, 128; Strafford, 
 100; Stranger, 26; Thoas, I17; 
 Lord Townly, 29 ; Valentine 
 {Tivo Gentlemen), 130; Virginius, 
 53, 76, 80, 201, 204; Wallace, 
 55 ; Werner, 65, 82, 201, 204 ; 
 William Tell, 65, 72, 80, 162 ; 
 Wolsey, 61, 168 
 Macready, Mrs. W. C. (first wife), 
 28, 55, 70, 188 
 
 , Mrs. W. C. (second wife), 
 
 188
 
 222 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Maddox, J. M., 165, 166, 171, 213 
 
 Malibran, Madame, 85, 88, 95 
 
 Manvers, — (vocalist), IIO ^ 
 
 Mardyn, Mrs., 88 
 
 Mars, Mdlle., 59 
 
 Marshall, — (scene-painter), in, 
 
 129 
 Marston, Henry, 129, 168 
 
 • , J. Westland, 120, 121, 135, 
 
 201, 206, 213 
 Martineau, Harriet, 214 
 Mathews, C. J., 123, 133, 134, 168 
 Matthews, T., in 
 Mattocks (Liverpool manager), 2 
 Meadows, Drinkwater, no 
 Melesville, A. K. J. (Duveyrier), 
 
 165 
 Milnes, Monckton (Lord Hough- 
 ton), 123 
 Mitchell, J. (manager), 162, 170 
 Mitford, Miss, 60, 73, 96, 195 
 Montague, Miss Emmeline, 167 
 Mudford (editor of Courier), 66, 67 
 Munden, Joseph, 10, 13, 49, 60, 
 
 69, 70, no, 129 
 Murdoch, James, 196, 198 
 Murray, Leigh, 165, 166, 168 
 Musset, Alfred de, 47 
 
 Nelson, Lord, 6 
 
 Niblo, — , 178 
 
 Nisbett, Mrs. (Lady Boothby), 107, 
 
 133. 134, 168 
 Noel, Rev. J., 28 
 Novello, Clara, 137 
 Nugent, Lord, 123 
 
 O'Neill, Miss (Lady Bechcr), 28, 
 
 32, 33. 38. 41. 43, 45.46,48,49. 
 199 
 Orsay, Count d', 127 
 
 Osbaldiston C. G. (manager), 95, 
 
 96, 99, 100, 106 
 Oxenford, John, 171, 194, 206 
 
 Payne, W. H., in 
 
 Phelps, Samuel, 108, in, Il8, 121, 
 
 124-126, 129, 133, 136, 142, 161, 
 
 168, 187, 191 
 Phillips, H., 129 
 
 , Miss, 82, 87 
 
 Piozzi, Mrs., 14, 29 
 
 Planche, J. R., 74, 91, 138 
 
 Plessy, IMadame, 164 
 
 Polhill, Captain, 82, 83, 91 
 
 Pollock, Lady, 202, 2o5 
 
 Poole, Miss, 129 
 
 Pope, Mrs. Coleman, 180 
 
 Porch ester. Lord, 78 
 
 Power, Tyrone, 84, no 
 
 Prescott, W. H., 162 
 
 Price, Stephen, 76-78, 170 
 
 Pritchard, J., 98, 109 
 
 Procter, B. \V. See Cornwall, 
 
 Barry 
 Piickler-Muskau, Prince, 77, in 
 
 Rachel, 191 
 
 Reed, Mrs. German. See Horton, 
 Miss P. 
 
 Rees, David, 127 
 
 , James, 171 
 
 Reeves, Sims, 134 
 
 Reynolds, Frederick, 77 
 
 , J. H., 54 
 
 , Miss, 185 
 
 Roberts, " Split-crow," 212 
 
 Robinson, H. Crabb, 45 
 
 Robson, William ("The Old Play- 
 goer"), 22, 133, 195 
 
 Rogers, James, 185 
 
 Konier, Miss, 1 29
 
 INDEX. 
 
 223 
 
 Rooke, T. B., 113 
 Roscius, Young. See Betty, W. H. 
 Ryder, John, 133, 161, 165-168, 
 174 
 
 Sala, G. A., 213 
 
 Sand, George, 163 
 
 Sandford, General, 182 
 
 Scharf, George, 194 
 
 Schiller, 113 
 
 Schroder-Devrient, Madame, 85 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 43, 84 
 
 Scribe, Eugene, 165 
 
 Serle, T. J., 83, 109, 113, 126, 
 129 
 
 Shaw, Mrs. Alfred, 138 
 
 Shell, Richard Lalor, 41,42,44,45, 
 47. 56, 60, 123, 204 
 
 Shelley, P. B., 59 
 
 Shirley, James, 47 
 
 Shirreff, Miss, no 
 
 Smith, C. J., Ill 
 
 , James, 1 15 
 
 , William, 138 
 
 Smithson, Harriet (Madame Ber- 
 lioz), 78-80 
 
 Somerville, Miss. See Bunn, Mrs. 
 
 Soult, Marshal, 164 
 
 Spedding, James, 202 
 
 Spencer, Miss C. L. F. See Mac- 
 ready, Mrs.^W. Q. (second wife) 
 
 Stanfield, Clarkson, 96, 113, 121, 
 
 130, 134 
 
 Stephens, "Kitty" (Countess of 
 Essex), 39, 43, 48, 49, 51, 52, 
 58-60, 63 
 
 Stirling, Mrs., 128, 133, 165, 166, 
 168 
 
 Strickland, Robert, no, 125, 127 
 
 Sue, Eugene, 164 
 
 Sussex, Duke of, 123 
 
 TalfoLird, Justice, 45, 96-98, loi, 
 
 117, 123, 126, 204 
 Talma, 42, 59, 80, 191, 194, 199 
 Taylor, Miss (Mrs. W. Lacy), 107, 
 no 
 
 , Sir Henry, 166, 167 
 
 Telbin, W., 129, 133 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 188 
 
 Ternan, Mrs., 165 
 
 Terry, Daniel, 43, 53, 71 
 
 Thackeray,;W. M., 86, 125, 188, 189 
 
 Thesiger (Lord Chelmsford), 97 
 
 Tieck, Ludwig, 41 
 
 Tilbury, W. H., no 
 
 Tomlins, F. G., 199, 203 
 
 Tree, Ellen (Mrs. C. Kean), ^T, 88, 
 
 92, 96, 97, 128 
 Trollope, Mrs., 175 
 Troughton, R. Z,, 128 
 Trueba, Telesforo de, 85 
 Twiss, Mr. and Mrs., 28 
 
 VandenhofF, George, 210 
 
 , John, 92, 99, 100, loi 
 
 , Miss, 117 
 
 Vestris, Madame, 60, 123, 133, 134, 
 
 168 
 Vigny, A. de, 79 
 Vincent, Miss, no 
 Vining, F., no, 127 
 , James, 167 
 
 Waldron, — (actor), 109 
 Walker, C. E., 55 
 Wallace, William, 45, 94 
 Wallack, James, 66, 69, 71, 77, 82, 
 
 126-128, 165, 185, 1S6, 191 
 Warde, James, 109, 125 
 Warner, Mrs., 82, 83, 106, 107, 
 
 109, n7, 124-126, 129, 166, 168, 
 
 185, 187
 
 224 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Watson, — (Cheltenham manager), 
 
 II 
 Watts, Alaric, 45 
 Webster, Benjamin, 106, 117, 124- 
 
 127, 168 
 
 , Daniel, 162 
 
 , J., 100 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 206 
 
 West, Mrs. W., 60, 66, 69, 71, 98 
 
 White, Rev. James, 166 
 
 , Richard Grant, 1 79 
 
 Whitlock, Mrs., 21 
 Wigan, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred, 138 
 Wightwick, George, 46, 108, 199 
 Willett, — (Covent Garden 
 
 manager), 58 
 
 Willmott, — (prompter), 94, 136, 
 
 142 
 Wilson, John, no 
 Wood, Mr. and Mrs. (Miss Paton), 
 
 90, 91 
 Wordsworth, William, 45, 96 
 Woulds, — (Bath manager), 90 
 Wrench, Benjamin, 127 
 Wynn, — 213 
 
 Yates, Edmund, 213 
 
 , Mrs., 71 
 
 Young, Charles Mayne, 13, 25, 33, 
 
 35. 37, 41 > 44, 48, 49, S7-6o, 70, 
 
 73, 83, 123, 192, 195 
 
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 3 1158 00435 4659 
 
 AA 000 411 622 4
 
 
 Univeri 
 Sout 
 Lib 
 
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