was at her post, but does not seem to have joined in the émeute. Nearly three months had passed by, and still Garrick did not appear. Strange reports had been going round the town as to the reason of this extraordinary suspense, and these were not favourable to him. On the eve of concluding his engagement he appealed to the town in a letter to the public journals, in which he shortly explained the true reason -a very modest and judicious letter. He was sensible, he said, that his affairs were too inconsiderable to be laid before the public; but as he was their servant, and had been treated with such indulgence, he thought it was his duty to show that it was not "obstinacy or exorbitancy" that kept him from their service, but a wish to bring about a reconciliation with the manager, which was now almost accomplished. In a few days it was known that all was accommodated, and Mr. Garrick was announced in his great part of Bayes, in "The Rehearsal." This news caused a commotion. Macklin had a number of Bohemian allies-Dr. Barrowby (the physician), Corbyn Morris, and others--who met at the Horns Tavern in Fleet-street, and debated the wrongs of their friend, and what Macklin's biographer absurdly called "the imperishable infamy of Garrick's apostasy." It was determined to take action in more ways than one. On December the 5th Garrick was announced; and on that day a "Case," hastily got up, and written by Macklin, was launched upon the town.* A handbill was presently circulated about the town and the theatre, signed by the great actor, in which he humbly begged the public to suspend their judgment for a day or two, until an answer to that appeal had been prepared. When the curtain rose on Tuesday, the following night, the pit was found to be filled with Macklin's friends, led by the party from the Horns Tavern. When Garrick appeared, the uproar burst out. He was saluted with yells of "Off! off!" He bowed low, and, with extraordinary submission and humility, entreated to be heard. But no hearing would be vouchsafed him. Then eggs and apples and peas came showering on the stage, while the great actor was seen calmly standing high up at the wing to escape the attack. The play was not allowed to go on, and the curtain had to be let down. On the next day, Garrick having secured an ally in Guthrie, Macklin's biographer, Kirkman, gives Corbyn Morris as the author; but Davies "has authority for saying" that it was by Macklin himself. The truth may be between, such productions being then the common work of the author and his friends. a Scotch "hack-writer," rapidly drew up a reply. But for the next night he took counsel with his friends. Some of them, with Colonel Wyndham, of Norfolk, a man of note, repaired to the theatre in force.* Fleetwood's low tastes for once brought him profit. A crowd of his pugilist friends, headed by Broughton and Taylor, were privately admitted into the pit, before the doors were opened. Just before the curtain rose, the leader of this formidable band stopped the music, and standing up, said, in a loud, rough voice, "Gentlemen, I am told some persons have come here with an intention of interrupting the play. Now, I have come to hear it, and have paid my money, and advise those who have come with such a view to go away, and not hinder my diversion." This plain and sensible speech raised a terrific uproar. The bruisers drew together, began the fray, and very soon cleared. the pit of the Macklinites. Then the piece began. Mr. Garrick appeared with many respectful bows, and went through his part amid the acclamations of his friends. This was his first theatrical battle. one On the next day his answer appeared. There was passage which had a certain warmth, and which, when read in Ireland, must have won him many friends-namely, his kindly declaration of affection for the people of that country, and grateful acknowledgment of their kindness. In this struggle Macklin was worsted, and the victory was with his rival, of whom he became the bitter enemy. From that time his tongue never ceased its busy slanders, ringing the changes on Garrick's "meanness," though in course of time he could bring himself to ask favours from the man he had so treated. The whole episode proves his rough, illconditioned, and violent character; his "Case" is full of phrases as "your treachery" "you have no notion of honour" your mean disposition," and such language. Even then he was glad to have the opportunity of repeating his favourite charge-"not only treacherous, but also an avaricious disposition; be so good as to tell whose picture it is; for you very well know, and are a fond admirer of the original." Mrs. Clive had shown her spirit; during the first stages of the quarrel she adhered to the manager, but joined the malcontents later.† Had Macklin been temperate and Colonel Wyndham was one of the men of fashion of the day. He had served Maria Teresa; was a handsome man, an accomplished swordsman, and father to the better-known William Windham. + See a particular account of her straightforward behaviour in "The Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive" (1888), by the author of this work. loyal, his proscription would have been an eternal claim, which Garrick would never have ignored; and he would certainly have shared in the latter's great good fortune. Proscribed by all parties, the unlucky actor seemed to be shut out of every house, and was driven to open that strange histrionic academy at the Haymarket, where he brought out Mr. Foote and Dr. Hill. CHAPTER VI. * SHERIDAN QUARREL WITH WOFFINGTON.-1743-1745. AFTER this inauspicious opening, the season proceeded. Garrick's popularity had not been impaired, and he added the new characters of Macbeth "as written by Shakspeare,' Biron, Lord Townly, Zaphna, and Regulus, to his stock. The two latter were bald, conventional figures, mere sketches, poor lath and plaster constructions, without nature, blood, or feeling, and mere vehicles for frothy declamation. Yet they were the beginning of a long line; and it is inconceivable that Garrick should, even in the way of business, have associated himself with such parts. It must have been a real treat to have seen him and Mrs. Woffington in Lord and Lady Townly a true exhibition of pleasant comedy, done with infinite spirit. During the season, old Cibber played his own parts of Fondlewife and Sir John Brute, while his son, afterwards to be one of Garrick's most scurrilous enemies, was also of the company, and played Abel Drugger a few nights after Garrick had played it. He could even challenge his enemy in Bayes. Well might a friend of Garrick's ask "what demon possessed him thus to exhibit himself?" It was thought he never performed it so ill-leaving out half his grimaces and buffoonery-it was supposed because he saw Garrick among the audience. Another feature of the season was the engagement of a gentleman, from Macklin's curious show in the Haymarket, who appeared in Othello and Foppington. The name of this actor was not given; but he was already well known to Garrick, and perhaps already feared by him. For his voice was heard loud enough at the coffee-houses, supporting claims to be the exponent of the true # At his benefit, five rows of the pit were railed into boxes, and the ladies were desired to send their servants three hours before the doors opened. The Dublin Theatre was the only one in the kingdom where ladies were not admitted to the pit. school of natural acting, allowing that Garrick was natural and easy, but not natural and easy enough; and that "he wanted the due amount of spirit and courage to take tragedy completely off its stilts."* He was of course on Macklin's side in the Fleetwood quarrel, and this intimacy, beginning on a footing half war, half peace, was to continue in the same curious tone for nearly forty years. Foote was the name of the young player, then only three-and-twenty, even then "a most incompressible fellow," of ready wit and tongue; dreadful in exposing what he thought "humbug," or any false assumption of decorum, and destined to the end to be the sharpest of the many thorns in Garrick's side. At the other house Quin and Ryan, reinforced by Mrs. Clive who in the late quarrel had contrived to offend both Fleetwood and Garrick-kept up the struggle. They chose nearly the same round of plays. The town had an opportunity of comparing two Macbeths, and the contrast must have been extraordinary. Garrick himself was among Quin's audience, and described that most singular conception of the part, which shows how absurd and mistaken were some of the principles that regulated the old school, In the famous scene he clutched at the dagger not once, but several times, first with one hand, then with the other, at the same time ludicrously striving, as it were, to keep on the ground, much as a drowning man plunges and strikes out wildly. In the ghost scene he drew his sword, and kept making passes at the spectre until he had driven him quite off the stage. But Garrick owned his great merit, which triumphed over these absurdities, "his slow, manly, folding-up of his faculties, his body gradually gathering up at the vision, his mind keeping the same time, denoting by the eye its strong workings. He did not dash the goblet to the ground, but let it gently fall from him, as if unconscious of having such a vehicle in his hand." Quin, only a few months later, had set off for Dublin, where he had always been a favourite, and was sure to find his reign undisputed there. But his gradual fall seemed to be marked with a series of mortifications, and on his arrival he was told he could not even have a night, as the town was running "horn mad" after a new local actor of the most wonderful powers. When Mr. Garrick was in Dublin he had met a young student of Trinity College, son to a well-known clergyman of the city-Doctor Sheridan, Swift's friend. This young gentleman-at that time well stage-struck-unable to resist the * Forster's essay on Foote, p. 350. spell, had only a few months later himself gone on the stage, to the consternation of his friends, who were shocked at the disgrace. He succeeded, and became the rage of the hour. Garrick took infinite interest in his career, and with that kindness for beginners which was always his characteristic, wrote over to invite him to stay the whole summer with him, and proposed that they should play together at Drury Lane, offering to give him up any of his own characters. In the young man's answer to this handsome offer, though put with affected diffidence-"a well cut pebble," he said, "may pass for a diamond till a fine brilliant is placed near it "-can be seen traces of the arrogance and temper which later made him so impracticable a character to deal with. His head was already turned. As to playing at one house, it was impossible; they would "clash too much" in regard to characters. He then hinted a rather conceited proposal of their playing alternately in London and Dublin, "dividing the kingdoms" between them, for he was convinced that Dublin was as well able to pay one actor for a winter as London was. They were to be like the two buckets in a well. But this was the vanity of supposing that both buckets were of equal strength and weight; and the difference Sheridan was to discover later, by the sure test of thin houses and empty boxes. It was pleasure, not business, he said, that was taking him to town for "a jaunt of three weeks." He had hardly time to do anything, having had "to study and act three new characters within a fortnight," one of which was Othello! This lightness contrasted ill with Garrick's thoughtful and diligent preparation. When he did come to town he was engaged, not at Drury Lane, but at Covent Garden. That new season of 1744-5 was to have troubles of its own. The Drury Lane company was strengthened with the tender Cibber "From scheming, fretting, fuming, and despair, |