David Garrick
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
/5W BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF menrg m. Sage X891 iZ(^/ r'ifi ' s ^r Thf date shpwp when +his Wrme wc' ' Date Due iiE- r^ ieoA, ^- " . i' w rm^ »»^»n Mmrw ^rntf— PRINTED IN U. 5. A, CAT. NO. 23233 cSf Cornell University Library PN 2598.G24K69 1894 David Garrick 3 1924 027 133 614 DAVID GARRICK The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027133614 DAVID GARRICK from a painting by Gainsiorough in the posseseion of M''-? Kay. DAVID GARRICK JOSEPH KNIGHT, F.S.A. WITH ETCHED PORTRAIT BY W. BOUCHER From a Painting by Gainsborough in the possession of Mrs. Kay LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Ltd. Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road 1894 G^'^'^x^z PREFACE. Materials for a biography of Garrick overflow. Apart from the mass of letters edited in 1832 by Boaden, in two volumes, under the title of " The Private Correspondence of David Garrick," an im- mense amount of matter, much of it unedited and unused, is in the Forster Collection at South Ken- sington. These sources have been laid under contri- bution. Lives of Garrick have been written by Thomas Davies, the bookseller and actor (London, 2 vols., 1780, reprinted 1780, 178 1, 1784, and with notes by Stephen Jones, 1808) ; by Arthur Murphy, the dramatist (London, 2 vols., 8vo, 1801) ; by Boaden, prefixed to the correspondence mentioned above ; and by Mr. Percy Fitzgerald (London, 2 vols. life, long out of print, . Bvo, 1868). The last-named is inaccurate in some details, but is a work of much research and value, to which justice has not been done. What is almost a life is included in Forster's " Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith " (London, 2 vols., 8vo, 1877, sixth edition). Shorter lives are •in existence in the "Dictionary of National Bio- graphy " and elsewhere. The literature and the memoirs of the second half of the last century are full of anecdote concerning Garrick or references to him. vi Preface. The chief difficulty of the biographer has been accordingly that of selection. Indebtedness in the compilation of the following monograph to the sources named, and especially to Mr. Percy Fitz- gerald, is fully acknowledged. Among those to whom a special debt is due, are Mr. Walter Herries Pollock, who has placed at the compiler's service materia] accumulated with a view to a work on Garrick which, unfortunately for the lovers of litera- ture and the stage, has not been written ; and Mr. Sketchley, the erudite and obliging Librarian of the Dyce and Forster Collection at South Kensington. Originally intended to form one of a series of lives of actors, the biography aims only at supplying the leading facts of Garrick's career, and makes no pre- tension to furnish full information concerning the scenes and characters amidst which he dwelt or to chronicle the stories that have been invented con- cerning him. 27, Camden Square, September, 1893. ERRATA. p. 56, 1. 6, after exist insert a full stop, p. 108, 1. 26, for Howard read Havard. p. 140, 1. (),for Fitzgerald read Fitzpatrick. p. 200, 1. tyfor Fitzgerald r«fli/ Fitzpatrick. g, 203, 1. 4, for couroune r^a^ couronne. DAVID GARRICK. CHAPTER I. Among those whom the repeal of the Edict of Nantes drove to seek shelter in England was a Huguenot gentleman of the name of David Garric, a member, it is said, of a noble family, De la Garrique, established near Saintonge, and connected by birth or marriage with the most illustrious families of L'An- goumois and Perigord. At the period of his flight David Garric was living in Bordeaux. So hard pressed was he in his efforts to escape that he left behind him his wife and child. By way of St. Malo he reached Guernsey, and on the 5th October, 1685, arrived in London. Here, two months later, he was joined by his wife, who, after escaping by sea from Bordeaux, had undergone imminent risk of ship- wreck and capture. Not until the 22nd May, 1687, were they gladdened by the arrival of their son Peter, an infant of two years, who came over in the charge of Mary or Marie Mongorier, a nurse. Other children were born to David Garric after his arrival in England, where he was joined by a brother and sister, fugitives like himself, who came to him from Rotterdam. Of the children born to David most B David Garrick. in died in infancy, his wife, whom he had married 1682, dying in 1694. Three, however, survived— David, Peter, who was put into the English army ; Portugal who took to the wine trade and settled in ; and Jane, who married an exile of the name of La Conde. Concerning the early career of Peter Garric history is all but silent, and the name of the regiment which he joined is unknown. All that is known is that the young officer, whose first commission is dated 1 2th May, 1706, was quartered in Lichfield, where he married, on the 13th November, 1707, a Miss Arabella Clough, a lady of Irish descent, the daughter of a vicar-choral of the cathedral in that city. Promotion followed, and before the birth of his first son, Peter, 24th September, 17 10, Peter Garric was a lieutenant. A daughter, Magdalene, arrived 29th April, 1715; and on 19th February, 17^, a second son, David. Captain Garrick was then quartered in Hereford on recruiting service, and it was in the Angel Inn, in that city, that David Garrick, the future actor, first saw the light. Nine days later he was christened at All Saints' Church, in the same city, the register giving the name Garrick, as it is now spelt. Other children followed: Jane, born ist April, 1718; William, 8 th March, 1720; George, 22nd August, 1723; and Merriall, 19th December, 1724; besides Daniel, Arabella, and Anna Maria, all of whom died in infancy. At ten years of age David was put into the David Garrick. Grammar School at Lichfield. The head-master of this establishment at that time was Hunter, a man the severity of whose discipline has been commemorated by Samuel Johnson, the immediate predecessor of Garrick. Johnson charges Hunter with brutality, and with failure to distinguish between want of knowledge and neglect of knowledge. Men of this stamp were common at this time, and for a century later. His capacity to teach was owned by Johnson, who more than once spoke of him as a good master. The under-masters were, moreover, men of ability, and the school, on the whole, contrasted favourably with most schools of its epoch. Young David was not, however, destined to enjoy an un- broken course of tuition. He had, as may be sup- posed, from the first, much vivacity and a certain amount of mimetic power. A bent to the stage was acquired while he was still in his first years at school. A visit was paid to Lichfield by a company of stroll- ing players, whose performances were witnessed by the boy. A result of their visit was an amateur per- formance, of which he was the director, of "The Recruiting Officer " of Farquhar. That this piece should have commended itself to a youth whose earliest recollections of his father were as a recruiting officer is natural. In the representation Garrick played Sergeant Kite. Who were Captain Plume and Captain Brazen, Worthy, Melinda, and Sylvia history does not record. Lucy, the chambermaid, was assigned to one of Garrick's sisters. As the per- formance is reported to have come off about 1727, B 2 4 David Garrick. when the Sergeant Kite was ten years old, it may any well have been his earliest . appearance upon stage. Not long afterwards an invitation for David Garrick was received from his uncle David, now established as a prosperous wine merchant in Lisbon, to join him for the purpose of learning the business. An offer such as this was too good not to meet with immediate acceptance from Captain Garrick, who had now exchanged into a marching regiment, the same, it is said, once commanded by the infamous Colonel Kirke, and who subsequently found himself compelled to go on half-pay. In Lisbon the success of young David appears to have been social rather than commercial. We hear of his declaiming to the English community speeches from plays, and delighting them with exhibitions of mimicry and sprightly sallies of various kinds. Some aristocratic acquaintances were contracted, and the youth records his intimacy with the Duke d'Aveiro, who subsequently, on the 13th January, 1759, was broken on the wheel and then burnt alive for con- spiracy. Neither now, however, nor when he subse- quently adopted it, had the profession of wine merchant much attraction for the mercurial youth, who was found too volatile for trade, and was sent back to resume his studies under Hunter. An opportunity of exchanging his half pay for full pay and foreign service now presented itself to the captain, who, in 1731, proceeded to Gibraltar, the garrison of which had been largely augmented. Upon his progress to London he was accompanied by Mrs. — David Garrick. Garrickj whose health at this period was infirm, and who was for some time unable to return to Lichfield. David now presents himself in an engaging light. He corresponded constantly with his father, supplying him with the domestic particulars which are of keenest interest to an exile, and displaying a gaiety of spirits and a keenness of perception not wholly removed from humour.