A SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER.' 223 poetry, cut jokes with Beckett the bookseller, explain an unintelligible passage to Phil Butler the carpenter, blame Hopkins the prompter for having the gout because he was at the expense of chair hire, rebuke Messink, the pantomime trick maker, for attempting to be witty like him, chuckle at newspaper criticisms that he intended to buy off, or burn cards and letters of dukes, lords, judges, and bishops to strike his dependants with awe and admiration. Whether at Court he honoured men of title with the hopes of bolstering up the reputation of some dramatic brat produced with the assistance of the chaplain, whether ladies were promised that their friends should be disappointed of boxes that had never been let, or that the new fashion they last produced should be noticed in the next epilogue, or that an epitaph on a favourite parrot should grace the toilet-table, or whether he appeared distressed that he could not be set down. by an ambassador because he had given a prior promise to a countess-dowager.* Whether at the rehearsal of a piece, his own, he demanded an acknowledgment that every passage was the acme of perfection, or at the rehearsal of a piece not his own, he himself allowed praise in proportion as he * His aristocratic associations, however, did not render him neglectful of others, he always kept well with his City friends, was member of a City club, and was frequently to be seen at City coffeehouses. was permitted to make alterations; or, to be brief, in whatever manner by managing, not the minds, for many of them were too ponderous for him to wield, but the tempers of men, both of the first worldly and professional distinction, he so played his part as to be courted, caressed, admired, and looked up to by rank and talent, with very slight pretensions to the character of eminent abilities himself, otherwise than as an actor.” Strange as it may sound, a contemporary says: "Garrick's misfortune was, he had never due confidence in his talents, his love of fame was unbounded, but it was tremblingly alive all o'er;' he lived in a whispering gallery, always listening and always anxious about himself; upon such a disposition, they who lacquied after him could make what impression they pleased, a word was sufficient, he took fire at the slightest hint, and they who had sinister purposes to answer saw the avenues by which they were obliged to approach him." He was perpetually acting, whether upon the stage, in his own house, in the houses of his friends, or even in the streets. He would suddenly stop in the midst of a public thoroughfare and look up at the sky, as though he saw something remarkable, until a crowd gathered about him, then he would turn away with the wild stare of insanity. He could not sit down to have his hair dressed without terrifying the barber by making his face assume HIS ECCENTRICITIES. 225 every shade of expression, from the deepest tragic gloom to the vacancy of idiotcy; and so plastic were his features, that it is said he could draw them into the exact representation of any person familiar to him. His enemies ascribed these freaks to a restless egotism that must always be conspicuous, but might they not rather have arisen from the over exuberant animal spirits of "the cheerfulest man of his age." When Johnson said hyperbolically that his death eclipsed the gaiety of nations, he was probably thinking as much of the private man as of the actor. VOL. 1. CHAPTER III. CHARLES MACKLIN. His Early Adventures-Original Ideas upon Acting-Engaged by Rich-Sadler's Wells in the Last Century-A Man About Town -Victimised-His Quarrel and Reconciliation with Quin-" The Jew that Shakespeare Drew"-His Quarrel with Garrick-Turns Innkeeper and Lecturer-Foote's Witticisms upon the SubjectsBankruptcy-A Dramatic Author-A Riot-His Characteristics -His Law Suits-Proposes to turn Farmer at eighty-five—“ The Man of the World"-Anecdotes of Macklin's Longevity-His Last Appearance upon the Stage-Anecdotes of his Last YearsA Wonderful "Cram." ACKLIN'S career extended through so many MACK generations, commencing as it did among the contemporaries of Betterton, and not terminating until the Kemble school was firmly established, that it is a little difficult to decide the exact era in stage history to which he belongs. As an actor, he stands alone; he followed no school, although but for the appearance of Garrick he might have founded one, for he certainly anticipated his great rival in introducing a more natural style of acting. The year of Macklin's birth is believed, from contemporary recollections, to have been 1690. But there were no registers in those times, and in his latter days, and no wonder, he was a little confused upon the point, usually referring to his HIS EARLY ADVENtures. 227 daughter, who, he used to say, had a better memory for dates than he had. The lady, from a feminine weakness perhaps, fixed a later date, but the weight of evidence, into the particulars of which I have no space to enter, is against her. His real name was M'Laughlin, abbreviated afterwards, to suit Saxon tongues, to Macklin. His family claimed to be descended from some of the kings of Ireland. He was born two months before the battle of the Boyne, in which his father was engaged on the side of King James, and at which his mother was present. In the flight the poor infant was carried away in a "kish" (one of two wicker baskets placed across a horse's back, in which to carry provisions). His first recollections were of living with his father and mother on a small farm in Ulster. An uncle, a Catholic priest, undertook his education, but finding his pupil too obstreperous, gave up the attempt in despair; after which a lady took him into her house, where at nine years old he played Monimia, in "The Orphan," in some private theatricals, and so made his first step in his future profession. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a saddler, but did not take at all kindly to the business. There is a story told by one of his biographers of his running away from Dublin, where he was apprenticed, and in company with some other scapegraces coming over to London; of his lodging at a low tavern in Southwark, where he |