CHAPTER IX.

The dramatic characters of Mr. Barry, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Pritchard, and Mrs. Clive. Strictures upon Mr. Quin's indelicacy to the ladies; and an apology for suppressing the relation of part of his amours.

ABOUT the year 1745, Mr. Quin was obliged, by the vicissitudes of Mr. Fleetwood's affairs, to quit Drury Lane theatre, and engaged once more with Mr. Rich at Covent Garden. It is almost needless to repeat here, that Mr. Garrick and Mr. Quin were considered as the two capital actors till Mr. Barry made his appearance upon the English Stage; but his walk was so entirely confined to tragedy, that he did not seem to be a competitor with either of them, but in some particular parts, which were of the more tender cast, and which was a province that Mr. Quin had never attempted. It must be acknowledged, however, that Mr. Barry's success in the parts of Romeo and Castalio, entitled him to a rank with either of them; and that, in the opinion of many, he surpassed even Mr. Garrick in these characters, though he fell far short of him in all others. A fine figure, with a most harmonious voice, added to a great command of expressive features, gave him that ascendancy in the lover's part which few beside him could ever claim.

It would be injurious to the memory of the actresses of the time, if we were to pass over in silence, the names of Cibber, Woffington, Pritchard and Clive.

Mrs. Cibber's first appearance on the stage was as a singer; in which capacity, the sweetness of her voice, and the strength of her judgment, rendered her very soon conspicuous. Her first attempt as an actress was in the year 1736, in the character of Tara, in Mr. Hill's tragedy of that name, being the first night of its representation; in which part she gave both surprise and delight to the audience, who were no less charmed with the beauties of her present performance, than with the prospect of future entertainment, from so valuable an acquisition to the stage; a prospect which was to the end of her days perfectly maintained, and a meridian lustre shone forth equal to what was promised from the morning dawn. Her person was perfectly elegant, and when she was even declined beyond the bloom of youth, and even

wanted that embonpoint, which sometimes is assistant in concealing the impression made by the hand of time, yet there was so complete a symmetry and proportion in the different parts that constituted this lady's form, that it was impossible to view her figure and not think her young, or look in her face and not think her handsome. Her voice was beyond conception plaintive and musical, yet far from deficient in powers for the expression of resentment, and so much equal cominand of features did she possess for the representation of pity or rage, of complacence or disdain, that it would be difficult to say whether she affected the hearts of the audience most, when playing the gentle, the delicate Celia, or the haughty, the resenting Hermione; in the innocent love-sick Juliet, or in the forsaken, the enraged Alicia. In a word she was excellent and inimitable in every cast of tragedy. She made some attempts latterly in comedy, which were not, however, in any degree equal to her excellence in the opposite walk. She departed this life the 30th of January, 1766, to the great regret of every admirer of theatrical merit, having left no one behind her that promises soon to supply her place with equal abilities.

Mrs. Woffington may be considered entirely as an original in her way; at the same time that she was an excellent actress in genteel comedy, and even in tragedy, there was no woman that ever yet had appeared upon the stage, who could represent with such ease and elegance the character of a man. Every one who remembers her must recollect that she performed Sir Harry Wildair, in the Trip to the Jubilee, far superior to any actor of her time. She was so happily made, and there was such symmetry and proportion in her frame, that she would have borne the most critical examination of the nicest sculptor. She had besides dispossessed herself of that awkward stiffness and effeminacy which so commonly attend the fair sex in breeches. In fine, she was the perfect contrast of the much celebrated Knayston, who, in King Charles's time, so successfully appeared in all the female characters, that it was a most nice point to decide between the gentlemen and ladies, whether she was the finest woman or the prettiest fellow.

We now approach a lady whose virtue was always irreproachable, and who has been as great an ornament to the stage as she was an honour to her sex. It were scarcely necessary after this to repeat her name, or say, I mean Mrs. Pritchard. If her figure is not so happily suited to the juvenile, gay and volatile characters, she has so melodious an elocution, so just an action, such expressive features, and with all that je ne scai quoi, which her

judgment so properly unites that we frequently forget Mrs. Pritchard is not eighteen, or that her waist is something more than half a yard round. In a word she is the only legal successor of Mrs. Oldfield, and in all her cast of parts is a most judicious and engaging actress.

Mrs. Clive whose maiden name was Raftor, was born in the year 1711, and displayed a very early inclination and genius for the stage. Her natural love of humour, and her pleasing manner of singing songs of spirit, induced some friends to recommend her to Colley Cibber. Her first appearance was in boy's clothes, in the character of a page in the tragedy of Mithridates, King of Pontus, in which she was introduced only to sing a song. Yet even in this she met with great applause. This was in the year 1728, at which time she was but seventeen years of age; and in the very same season we find that the audience paid so great attention to her merit in the part of Phillida, in Cibber's Love in a Riddle, which was damned, that they let her always peaceably go through her part. In the year 1730, she had an opportunity of displaying most amazing comic powers in the character of Nell, in the Devil to Pay. Her merit in this character occasioned her salary to be doubled, and not only established her own reputation with the audience, but fixed the piece itself on the constant list of acting farces; an honour which, perhaps, it would never have arrived at, had she not performed the capital character in it, nor may long maintain, when her support in it is lost. To expatiate on her merits as an actress, whilst she keeps within the extensive walk which is adapted to her excellence, would carry me far beyond my design, and indeed be superfluous to those who have ever seen her in these characters.

It is very remarkable that Mr. Quin and this last mentioned lady could never agree while they were united in the same company. There are several bon mots fathered upon him, which he is said to have spoken upon her account but they are of far too coarse and indelicate a character to find a place here. I am sorry to say that Quin's wit knew no bounds and that he was frequently severe and immodest even to the ladies. It is, indeed, averred, but upon what foundation I will not take upon me to say that the first disgust Quin took to this lady was upon his taking some liberties with her in her dressing room; she made a complaint to the manager, who rebuked him for his conduct.

CHAPTER X.

Mr. Garrick's theatrical pursuits. Mr. Rich's contemptible opinion of actors. The mild treatment the French players met with in 1748, and the severe treatment of the foreign dancers in 1755. Modern theatrical tumults and their causes, &c.

MR. GARRICK acted but one season at Goodman's Fields, notwithstanding the crowded and polite audiences he attracted thither from the west end of the town. Having very advantageous proposals made him from Dublin, he repaired to that city in the summer of the same year, where he found the like tribute to his merit, as he had received from his own countrymen. To the service of the latter, however, he esteemed himself more immediately bound, and therefore in the ensuing winter engaged himself with Mr. Fleetwood at Drury Lane, where he continued to perform till the year 1745; in the winter of which he again went over to Ireland, and continued there through the whole of that season, being a joint manager with Mr. Sheridan in the direction and profits of the Theatre Royal, in Smock Alley. From thence he returned to England, and was engaged for the season of 1746, with the late Mr. Rich at Covent Garden, where he played Ranger in Dr. Hoadley's Suspicious Husband, and Fribble in his own farce of Miss in her Teens. This however was his last performance as an hired actor; for in the close of that season, Mr. Fleetwood's patent for the management of Drury Lane being expired, and that gentleman having no inclination to pursue farther a design, by which from his want of acquaintance with the proper conduct of it, or some other reasons, he had already considerably impaired his fortune; Mr. Garrick, in conjunction with Mr. Lacey, purchased the property of that theatre, together with the renovation of the patent; and in the winter of 1747 opened with the best part of Mr. Fleetwood's former company, and the great additional strength of Mr. Barry, Mrs. Cibber, and Mrs. Pritchard from Covent Garden. These with Mr. Garrick and Mr. Quin, had all acted together the preceding winter at Covent Garden; but now Mr. Rich had no capital performer remaining but Mr. Quin, who never after quitted him, till he retired from the stage.

Mr. Garrick, upon the opening of Drury Lane theatre under his management, spoke an excellent prologue, which was written by

Mr. Samuel Johnson and which concluded with this address to the town:

"Then prompt no more the follies you decry,
As tyrants doom their tools of guilt to die;
'Tis yours, this night, to bid the reign commence
Of rescued nature and reviving sense;

To chace the charms of sound, the pomp of show,
For useful mirth and salutary woe;

Bid scenic virtue form the rising age,

And truth diffuse her radiance from the stage."

Nothwithstanding so formidable a company were united at Drury lane, under Mr. Garrick's banner, Quin alone brought full houses for a whole season at Covent Garden, and Rich was pleased to say, that he was glad he had got rid of such turbulent servants, who were better paid than the admirals of his majesty's navy, without being of any advantage either to him or the state. If he had spoke his mind, he did not think Quin's presiding at the head of his company was of any great benefit to him; for he attributed the good houses he had entirely to his pantomimes which he now instructed the town with and which he considered as a more rational entertainment than all Shakespeare's works together. This may perhaps be thought too severe by some of his friends, and it may be urged that though he gratified the vitiated of the town with Harlequinades, he was sensible that it was an invasion of Melpomene and Thalia's territories; but the amazing expense he was at for scenes and decorations, his performing Harlequin still himself in some particular scenes; his turning off three of his capital performers, and at length his dismissing Quin, will clearly prove that he looked upon pantomime as a superior kind of entertainment to either tragedy or comedy. After the peace of Aix la Chapelle, which was concluded in 1748, a troop of French actors once more paid us a visit in our capital. They hired the little Theatre in the Haymarket upon their own account, and obtained a license for representing French plays. On the first night of their performance, there was a monstrous tumult, which seemed to threaten a total demolition, but the young men of quality, who did not choose to be interrupted in any diversion that had the royal license, broke the heads of such of the audience as opposed the performance and by the superiority of numbers, at length turned them ont. the representation of French plays had but a very short run; the manager was ruined, and the performers begged about the streets. The French, or rather foreign, dancers did not meet with so mild a treatment at Drury Lane in 1755. It appeared by the list that was then printed, that there were not above two French