CHAPTER VII.

JUNIUS KENRICK'S LIBEL-MURPHY-HAMLET, WITH

ALTERATIONS.

1771-1772.

Now came an event, which to his sensitive soul must have been like a shock, and have robbed him of his rest, at nights. One day, a terrible letter reached him. It was only a few lines long, but it warned and threatened, and was signed "JUNIUS." JUNIUS." When we know that in his heart he shrank from the cheapest, and meanest anonymous rascal, who wrote to him, we may imagine the effect of this awful power who was striking in the dark. He had done a foolish thing. Woodfall, the printer, had mentioned carelessly, in one of his letters, that Junius would write no more, and Mr. Garrick had sent this joyful news with all speed to the king, by one of the court pages, Ramus, whom he knew very well.* In fact he thought it so important, that there was scarcely a letter he wrote during that time, which he did not fill up with this interesting information. The king, however, mentioned the matter to his friends, and perhaps to those whom it most seriously concerned, and it thus speedily came to the knowledge of the unseen power. His warning to Garrick ran originally some

* Woodfall receiving this SECRET, alarming warning: "Beware of David Garrick! He was sent to pump you, and went directly to Richmond to tell the king I would write no more."

VOL. II.

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what in this shape: "I am very exactly informed of your impertinent inquiries, and of the information you so busily sent to Richmond, and with what triumph and satisfaction it was received. I knew every particular of it next day, through the indiscretion of one, who makes it a rule to betray everybody that confides in him. Now mark me, vagabond! Keep to your pantomimes, or be assured you shall hear of it. Meddle no more, thou busy informer! It is in my power to make you curse the hour in which you

dared to interfere with JUNIUS."

Woodfall, who had some regard for Garrick, remonstrated humbly with the tremendous writer. But he received a stern order; "the letter to D. G. must go forward,”—all he allowed was, that "impertinent inquiries" should be changed into "practices." But Woodfall went further and cautiously took out the allusion to the king, through fear it would compromise himself. Garrick was aghast. "Mark me, vagabond!" was offensive enough, a hint of an Act of Parliament, still in the statute book, and very significant. After some deliberation, he wrote to Woodfall a curious letter, which was dignified and confident, and yet seemed to appeal to Junius's forbearance, with many artful compliments of superior strength, talents, &c. "However mighty may be the power with which he is pleased to threaten me, I trust with truth on my side and your assistance, to be able to parry the vigour of his arm, and oblige him to drop his point, not from want of force to overcome so feeble an adversary as I am." He then explains the matter, and justifies himself. "I beg you will assure Junius, that I have as proper an horror of an informer as he can

have, that have been honoured with the confidence of men of all parties. I have always declared that were I by any accident to discover Junius, no consideration should prevail on me to reveal a secret productive of so much mischief.". This was sent forward by Woodfall, and it elicited a half-satisfied acceptance from Junius. "If he attacks me again, I will appeal to the public against him; if not, he may safely set me at defiance." This was thrown in contemptuously, in a letter full of more important subjects, but from such a quarter it seems a good deal, and must have comforted Garrick's sensitive heart. Junius alluded also to Wilkes, no friend of Garrick's, though he wrote him letters full of false bonhomie, and compliments, and a jovial affection. Horne Tooke accused him of having sent Garrick a threatening letter, telling him not to play "Jane Shore." Wilkes replied, denying the accusation. He said, indeed, that it was noticed that Mr. Garrick had altered his manner of playing Hastings, and leant with undue emphasis on certain passages which could be And also that some applied to Wilkes' case. แ warm friends" talked of showing their disapproval, and had waited on Mr. Garrick. This looked very like "intimidation." Garrick replied, simply, and with spirit, that he had made no alteration, and continued to play the piece in the same way. This furnishes a glimpse of the true character of the demagogue, and of the sort of "liberty" that was meant by "Wilkes and Liberty." How Wilkes and Johnson could talk together over their dead friend has been seen.

All this was vexatious enough; but his enemies were now to be delighted with news of a fresh trouble, which

must have tried him, and his gentle wife, sorely. It was hard for him, certainly, to be gay and diverting at those great houses, where he was made so welcome.

For happy as the manager of Drury Lane might be considered, wealthy, prosperous, enjoying the friendship of the best and noblest natures in the land, few knew what secret trials he had to endure, and what persecution his own yielding, or perhaps weak, temper invited. The brigands of Grub Street, the scoundrels who found a profession in publishing, or suppressing, libellous pamphlets, who were to be hired as lords used to hire bravos, to waylay and beat actors whom their dignity would not allow them to challenge-the whole tribe of Kenricks, Purdons, Smarts, knew that in his complacent and timorous nature they were sure to find their account. Of these Kenrick, or Dr. Kenrick as he was always deferentially called, was the most unscrupulous and infamous. He stands apart from his fellows, is a marked character of the time, and like one of the bullies who sometimes infested the taverns, is seen striving to fasten on men like Goldsmith, Johnson, Colman, even Boswell, and on Garrick himself. A manager who had influence and riches, was a far more profitable object, than needy poets or journalists. He began with the usual advance, a play, which Garrick, on his return from abroad, brought out at once. It was called "Falstaff's Wedding," and intended as a continuation of "Henry IV.," but was promptly damned. Later he came with another piece, which Garrick could not bring himself to refuse. A few years later, he came again with a comedy; but here Garrick was obliged to make a stand. He gave excuses about being pledged to other plays, promised that he would

consider it carefully, and if suitable, would accept it. He then declined it, and turned the man he had been trying to conciliate, into a furious assassin. At the first opportunity, a scurrilous and unscrupulous onslaught might be looked for, and that opportunity came speedily.

Bickerstaff, a man of undoubted talent, and with a true vein of pleasant comedy, who has given to the English stage many fresh agreeable pieces, was, as we have seen, one of Garrick's most useful aides-de-camp. The manager found him serviceable in a hundred ways. He could alter an old comedy like the "Nonjuror" with fair skill, and fit it to the fashion of the day. Garrick always treated him with true kindness, a perfect equality, and a delicacy, quite characteristic of himself, towards one who was really a dependant.

Yet he, too, was following the desperate calling of the hack, now begging, now borrowing, and at last, in this very year it became known on town, that Bickerstaff had fled suddenly, to avoid the certain penalty which would have overtaken him, for a shocking and monstrous crime. There were, no doubt, plenty who thought this was no more than incident to the degrading life of such creatures; but the scoundrel Kenrick was on the watch. He knew of their friendship; and, in a few days, a malignant and scurrilous pamphlet, full of dark yet unmistakeable hints, had appeared, entitled "Lamentation for the loss of his Nykey."

* From the miserable wretch who was hiding at St. Malo came a piteous appeal to Garrick, in which shame and despair are strangely blended," Si votre cœur a conservé jusqu'à présent, la moindre trace de cette prévention que vous avez autrefois avoué pour un homme, qui est aujourd'hui le plus