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A Century of Great Actors, 1750-1850

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A Century of Great Actors, 1750-1850 CO • ^'.ofiijiN f r'HI"""'!-.,, . 'i 1 • I :'' ' i 1. .' : - ' '!:. 1 ' ' 1 : i ' !' ' . 5 .- ' i « f i ' ;;liiili!lllil!li!llfl!ililiililli!i!iii' . , li 1 , iiliii!iiiai'iiiiiii,iniii. I Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/centuryofgreatacOOarmsuoft A CENTURY OF GREAT ACTORS 1750-1850 A SELECTION FROM MILLS & BOON'S LIST OF GENERAL LITERATURE MY PARISIAN YEAR. By Maude Annesley. With 20 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, lOS. 6d. net. MY SUDAN YEAR. By E. S. Stevens. With 40 Illustra- tions. Demy 8vo, los. 6d. net. THE MAN WHO SAVED AUSTRIA : The Life and Times of Baron Jellacic. By M. Hartley. With 18 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, los. 6d. net. A MYSTIC ON THE PRUSSIAN THRONE: Frederick William II. By Gilbert Stanhope. With 12 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, los. 6d. net. A CENTURY OF GREAT ACTORS. By Cecil F. Arm- strong, Author of " The Dramatic Author's Companion." With 16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, los. 6d. net. THE ROMANCE OF THE MEN OF DEVON. By Francis Gribble, Author of "The Romance of the Oxford Colleges." With a Frontispiece in Photogravure and 16 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 6s. FORTY YEARS OF A SPORTSMAN'S LIFE. By Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, Bart. With 18 Illustrations. Popular Edition. 6s. SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS ON THE STAGE. By Mrs. Charles Calvert. With a Photogravure and 17 Illustrations. Popular Edition. 6s. A CENTURY OF BALLADS (1810-1910). Their Composers and Singers. By Harold Simpson. With 49 Illustrations. Popular Edition. 6s. BRITISH MOUNTAIN CLIMBS. By George D. Abraham, Fully Illustrated with Photographs and Diagrams. Pocket size. New Edition. 5s. net. SWISS MOUNTAIN CLIMBS. By George D. Abraham. Uniform with the above. New Edition. 5s. net. THE ZOO CONVERSATION BOOK (Hughie's Second Visit), liy Edmund Selous. With 12 Illustrations by J. A. Shepherd. Crown 8vo, 53. net. RAMBLES IN FLORENCE. By G. E. Troutbeck, Author of "Stories from Italian History." With 8 Illustrations in Colour, and 32 from Photographs. Crown 8vo, 6s. RAMBLES IN IRELAND. By Robert Lynd, Author of " Home Life in Ireland." With 5 Illustrations in Colour, and 24 from Photographs. Crown 8vo, 6s. DAVID GARRICK. (From the portrait, by Gainsborough, in the collection of Mrs. Fleischmann.) — A CENTURY OF GREAT ACTORS 1750-1850 BY CECIL FERARD ARMSTRONG AUTHOR OF "the DRAMATIC AUTHOR'S COMPANION," "the actor's COMPANION," ETC. ETC. " All the world's a stage." Shakespeare WITH 16 ILLUSTRATIONS MILLS & BOON, LIMITED 49 RUPERT STREET LONDON W. Published igi2 PA/ CONTENTS PAGE Introductory I TRAGEDY David Garrick 1717-1779 8 S PRANGER Barry . 1719-1777 72 I John Henderson 747- I 785 87 George Frederick Cookk 1756-1811 102 John Philip Kemble 1757-1823 Edmund Kean 1787-1833 146 William Charles Macready 1793-1873 220 Charles John Kean 181 i (?)-i868 288 PRODIGY William Henry West Betty i 791-1874 316 COMEDY Charles Macklin . 1690 (?)-i797 . 327 Joseph Shepherd Munden . 1758-1832 . 358 Joseph Grimaldi . 1779-1837 . 371 Charles James Mathews . 1803-1878 . 381 COMEDY AND TRAGEDY Frederick Robson . 1822 (?)-i864 . 402 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS David Garrick (from the portrait by Gainsborough in the collection of Mrs. Fleischmann) Frontispiece TO PACE PAGE Garrick as "Abel Drugger" 70 Spranger Barry 72 John Henderson as "Macbeth" 87 G. F. Cooke as "Richard III" 102 John Philip Kemble . 116 Edmund Kean 146 Edmund Kean as "Richard III" . 214 William Charles Macready . 220 Charles John Kean . 288 William Henry West Betty (" Master Betty ") 316 Charles Macklin (from the portrait by John Opie, r.a, 327 Joseph Shepherd Munden 358 Joseph Grimaldi . 371 Charles James Mathews 381 Frederick Robson . 402 The Medallion on the Cover is a portrait of David Garrick. A CENTURY OF GREAT ACTORS 1750-1850 INTRODUCTORY IT is not easy to write about actors. There is danger if they are alive and the risk of dullness if they are dead. Few things apparently interest the average person more than a real live actor, and few things bore them more than a dead one ! This is partly because too much attention is generally paid to the personality of the actor, but principally because his reign, like a king's, ceases when he dies—sometimes before. But we can read the history of that reign, and can, to a certain extent, tell what manner of man the king was. Moreover, we are, some of us, that is to say, naturally interested in those who have tended the sacred lamp of the drama and kept it burning for some definite period of time. Actors do leave foot-prints on the sands of time. Tradition keeps their memory green, traditional pieces of business are sometimes remembered when their originator is forgotten. Sometimes both are remembered and always associated. Macklin and his Shylock are a living force in the drama to-day. Irving's business of Shylock's returning to his empty house will B 2 A CENTURY OF GREAT ACTORS for ever be associated with him. It may be said that it is not in Shakespeare, but it is, though not actually written down. Shylock certainly did return to his empty house, and why should we not see him do it. Now there are more things in our drama than Shakespeare ever dreamt of, with all his wonderful dreaming. Great actors do, in a measure, live after they are dead. Garrick, Kean, Robson, still thrill us and make the blood course and curdle in our veins, though we never had the good fortune to see them act. But we read their lives, we study their characters, and we know that the age of such giants as Johnson, Burke, Sheridan, Pope, Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Hogarth went "horn-mad" over a little man, whose wonderful features have been handed down to us by a dozen of great painters ; whose life and character those who run may read, in his hundreds of letters ; whose consummate abilities were recognized by colleagues whom they had supplanted, and whose greatest triumph was Lear, a. garbled Lear it is true, but still Lear. Such was David Garrick. Those who had seen him, had seen Quin and Betterton, and we have the advan- tage of their comparison. Then came Barry, Hender- son, Cooke, Kemble, Macklin ; after that, a slight pause, and Edmund Kean flashes into the limelight. We read of the effects of his playing, and are thrilled at the mere mention of some of the happenings amongst his audience. There were those who saw both Kean and Garrick, and again we have the benefit of their comparisons. We read contemporary criticisms of his playing, study the characters he played and his own character, and, so to speak, reconstruct the crime. His two greatest performances were ''Richard III " and '• OthelloJ" In each of them he was great in the most INTRODUCTORY 8 vital and essential points in the play. The opening of his Richard is all bustle and business ; he is bitter with his shrivelled arm, and feels as intensely as only de- formed people can and do feel. A curious saturnine compelling grace makes the scene with the Lady Anne convincing. Like Richard himself, Edmund Kean rose superior to physical disabilities and fought them to the last. In Othello^ Kean was best in the best parts. In the great third act, perhaps the most terribly tragic moment in the play — for Othello is stumbling over the precipice, and we cannot stop him, can only lean over and watch for the crash—Kean was sublime. The raging in the Tubal scene in '''The Merchant of Venice'''' was never forgotten by those who were for- tunate enough to see it. That handful of an audience did not nearly shout the house down because they were taken in by spurious coin, but carried away by the real article, by acting such as they had seen in their dreams, knew in their hearts, and had been wait- ing for all their lives. In circumstantial evidence three things count especially : the quantity of evidence, the quality of the evidence, and the character and qualifica- tions of the witnesses who give the evidence. Three kingdoms and two continents bore testimony to Kean's powers. Much of the evidence was expert evidence. There was not much about acting that Munden or Macready did not know. Nothing but a paralytic stroke would make such a pig-headed old stager as Munden change his views, and he very nearly got one when Kean set out to change them and show what he could do with Sir Giles Overreach. Byron actually did get convulsions. Macready's praise was not easy to get, but Kean got it. Talma was doubly amazed, partly at Kean's powers, partly that such a gem should 4 A CENTURY OF GREAT ACTORS be allowed to remain uncut so long in our midst. Mrs. Garrick, in her admiration, forsook a very feminine failing and actually admitted merit in some one other than her ideal. After Kean's sad departure, tragedy was mainly in the hands of Macready, who came near being a very great tragedian. Charles Kean and Samuel Phelps followed and carefully and honourably tended the flame, after which it burned lower in tragedy but more brightly in comedy ; and out of comedy sprang the last great dramatic genius, little Frederick Robson. On his comic little shoulders he bore the burden of tragedy as well as burlesque, and those who saw him knew that the real thing was come again. There were some who said that the little man's electric flashes re- minded them strangely of Kean. Robson went all too soon, and was succeeded by a great actor who was a still greater man.
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