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of Drury-lane and Covent-garden were deserted: Mr. Garrick drew after him the inhabitants of the most polite parts of the town: Goodman's-fields was full of the splendour of St. James's and Grosvenor-square; the coaches of the nobility filled up the space from Templebar to Whitechapel. He had so perfectly convinced the publick of his superiour accomplishments in acting, that not to admire him would not only have argued an absence of taste, but the grossest stupidity; those who had seen and been delighted with the most admired of the old actors, confessed that he had excelled the ablest of them in the variety of his exhibitions, and equalled them all in their most applauded characters.

Mr. Pope was persuaded by Lord Orrery to see him in the first dawn of his fame: that great man, who had often seen and admired Betterton, whose picture he had painted, and which is now in the possession of Lord Mansfield,* was struck with the propriety and beauty of Mr. Garrick's action; and, as a convincing proof that he had a good opinion of his merit, he told Lord Orrery, that he was afraid the young man would be spoiled, for he would have no competitor.

Mr. Garrick shone forth like a theatrical Newton; he threw new light on elocution and action; he banished ranting, bombast, and grimace; and restored nature, ease, simplicity, and genuie humour.

We must not wonder that the comedians were the last who became proselytes to the new philosophy of the theatre: the players, from their limited station,

Mr. Pope's father designed to have bred his son a Painter.

and not from malignity of temper, are more liable to envy and jealousy than persons of most other professions. Encroachments and altercations, in a small circle, are as disagreeable as they are unavoidable. The superiour merit of one player is often detrimental to the interest of him who thinks himself a competitor. The loss of parts which the actor has played, and, perhaps, with approbation, for a considerable time, is attended with loss of reputation and diminution of income.

Quin, who had hitherto been esteemed the first actor in tragedy, could not conceal his uneasiness and disgust from the great success of Mr. Garrick. After he had been a spectator of his manner in some important character, which, I believe, was Richard the Third, he declared peremptorily, "That if the young fellow was right, he, and the rest of the players, had been all wrong" and upon being told that Goodman's-fields theatre was crowded every night to see the new actor, he said, "That Garrick was a new religion; Whitfield was followed for a time; but they would all come to church again."

Mr. Garrick, who had a quick and happy talent in turning an epigram, gave this smart reply to Quin's bon mot :

Pope Quin, who damns all churches but his own,
Complains that heresy infects the town;

That Whitfield Garrick has misled the age,
A taints the sound religion of the stage:
Schism, he cries, has turn'd the nation's brain;
But eyes will open, and to church again!
Thou great infallible, forbear to roar,
Thy bulls and errors are rever'd no more;
When doctrines meet with gen'ral approbation,
It is not heresy, but reformation.

Colley Cibber, from whom more candour might have been expected, after he had seen Garrick's Bayes, which the publick esteemed a master piece of comick humour, said, “Garrick was well enough, but not superiour to his son Theophilus," who had little more to recommend him in the part than pertness and vivacity.

Mrs. Bracegirdle, a celebrated actress, who had left the stage for more than thirty years before Garrick's first appearance, and was visited by many persons of condition and taste, thought very differently of this rising genius. In a conversation which she had with Colley Cibber, who spoke of him, with an affected derogation, she reproved his malignity, and generously said, "Come, come, Cibber, tell me if there is not something like envy in your character of this young gentleman; the actor who pleases every body must be a man of merit." The old man felt the force of this sensible rebuke; he took a pinch of snuff, and frankly replied, "Why, 'faith, Bracey, I believe you are right, the young fellow is clever."

Mr. Garrick's weekly income was, at first, very moderate, not exceeding six or seven pounds. But when it was evident, that the great emoluments from the playhouse treasury, were chiefly, if not entirely, owing to his labours, and that the benches of the playhouse were almost always empty when his name was not seen in the playbills, Mr. Giffard very heartily concurred with Mr. Garrick and his friends to allow him a full moiety of the profits; and in this the manager found his advantage, for the actor was constantly employed in consequence of his being perpe

tually admired. To a very long and fatiguing character in the play, he would frequently add another in a farce. The distresses which he raised in the audience by his Lear and Richard, he relieved with the roguish tricks of the Lying Valet, or the diverting bumours of the Schoolboy.

CHAPTER VI.

Managers of Drury-lane and Covent-garden uneasy at the success of Goodman's-fields theatre.... Threaten Giffard and Garrick with a law suit....They are engaged to Fleetwood....Mr. Garrick plays for Mrs. Harper at Drury-lane....Goes to Dublin....Returns to London.

Ir will not be thought strange, that the patentees of Drury-lane and Covent-garden theatres should be alarmed at the great deficiency in the receipts of their houses, and at the crowds which constantly filled the theatre of Goodman's-fields. Their well founded jealousy of Mr. Garrick's success caused them to unite their efforts to destroy the new raised seat of theatrical empire. For this purpose they intended to have recourse to law an act of parlia ment, which had passed in the 11th year of his late Majesty, equally co-operated with the designs of the managers, and the passions of Sir John Barnard, one of the most respectable chief magistrates of London, who, it seems, had reasons of a private nature to incense him against the comedians of Goodman'sfields.

Thus supported, they intimidated the managers of Goodman's-fields, who were reduced to the necessity of making a kind of compromise with them.

In consequence of this, Mr. Garrick entered into a stated agreement with Fleetwood, patentee of Drury-lane, for the annual income of 500l. Giffard and his wife, soon after, made the best terms they could with the same proprietor.

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