that the patent was to be put up to sale under a decree in Chancery, and he was in this embarrassing position that he might be the owner of a theatre without a patent. After some negotiations two bankers in the Strand, Green and Amber, into whose house many of the county receivers were in the habit of depositing the land tax, proposed as a scheme to Lacy, whose steadiness and business habits had attracted attention, a sort of partnership on this basis. They were to pay Fleetwood an annuity of six hundred a year; the patent was to be set free, and paid off; More was to let his mortgage lie out at interest, and Lacy's third in the purchase was also to stand over, and be gradually discharged by his share in the profits. To this arrangement everybody agreed. A couple of years later came a money crisis; the Bank of England rocked and tottered; and the house of Green and Amber, called on suddenly by the Exchequer to pay in some large balance, nearly £20,000, had to stop payment; the theatre had been going from bad to worse; the audiences were growing thin, and the actors receiving no pay, assumed Mrs. Cibber's description of "Lacy's ragged regiment." Still he had struggled and with difficulties closing about him, with his mortgagée actually about to sell the green-room properties, and break up the whole concern, extricated the theatre with surprising skill and readiness. Riddle, a receiver for the county of Bedford, was father-inlaw to Green, and was being made accountable by the Government for the sum lodged with the bankers, which amounted to nearly £20,000. To him Fleetwood proposed that his interest in getting a new patent-the old one, which had but a couple of years to run, being only worth a trifle; and thus enormously increased the value of the security. Riddle at once agreed to so advantageous a proposal; and Lacy having taken steps to apply to the Duke of Grafton, at once thought of Garrick as the best partner he could have in such a speculation. As he was to be for many years the useful friend and assistant of the great actor in managing this great institution, a few words about his history and character would not be out of place, especially as Mrs. Cibber had just been found in a rather disagreeeble light. "A man of the name of Lacy," and "this man," as Sir John Hawkins contemptuously called him, was in trade in Norwich, about the year 1722. He belonged to the Irish family of the name; and having met with some misfurtunes in business, he went up to London and joined Rich's corps. He seems to have been a person of steady purpose and good business habits, had a clear head without genius, and, above all, a buoyancy of disposition and purpose not to be checked by reverses. Above all he had character; and the players, in some of their squabbles, had accepted his word as ample security that they were to be paid their claims. He had a rough boisterous manner which commended him to a particular class, and was, perhaps, an earnest of his honesty. He tried a great many schemes. He joined with Feilding in the unfortunate adventure at the Haymarket, and played the tragedy poet in the drama "Pasquin," which brought about the fatal Licensing Act. This, no doubt, led to his appearance as a lecturer at York Buildings, a natural protest against the persecution which had so injured him; for many of the actors were now wandering about destitute and unable to get their bread. This he called "Peter's visitation." It was maliciously said, that his object was to compete with the popularity of Orator Henly's show, but the explanation was, no doubt, what has been given. His strictures, however, as they gave great offence to Sir John Hawkins, from their dealing freely with "the great officers of state and the clergy," we may assume to have been harmless enough and founded in reason. This entertainment, however, seemed to have come under the power of the Act, and was stopped, which the pompous Tory knight vindictively describes as "he was seized, dealt with as a vagrant, and silenced." He it was who had started the idea of Ranelagh, that building which, according to Johnson, gave such an "expansion to the human mind." In this enterprise he was badly treated by his partner, but managed to withdraw from it successfully, having sold it at a profit of £4,000, to a Mr. Burnaby. Finally he was an assistant to Rich, at Covent Garden, when an opening came for the negotiation for Drury-lane. Lacy was about this time living in Quin- street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields, looking about for some new scheme, was "supposed to understand stage management," says Sir John, contemptuously, "and had some friends." An important one was the Duke of Grafton, the Chamberlain, whom he had met out on hunting parties, and used such opportunities as the field opened to him, having always refreshment ready, to ingratiate himself. It was supposed, too, that the Tory sympathies of the Duke leant towards the Irish Lacys. But Garrick, who was beginning to know dukes and lords in plenty, no doubt helped him; and as it is said that Lady Burlington had used her interest with the Devonshires, it is not unlikely that Garrick had already commenced the intimacy that was to end in his marriage. The new patent was readily obtained; and, indeed, it was likely that the authorities would be glad to have one theatre at least which was likely to be well conducted, by steady, respectable, clever men, instead of as hitherto, by adventurers and spendthrifts. Garrick had three friends, men of business and of substance, who assisted him through the negotiationDraper, the partner of Tonson; Clutterbuck, a mercer; and Doctor Sharpe, who afterwards wrote some Italian travels coloured by the grossest prejudices. On the 9th of April, 1747, an agreement was signed between the two future patentees, on the following terms : The total present liabilities of the theatre, including the mortgage to Green and Amber, the mortgage to Mr. Meure, arrears due to actors and tradesmen, were set down at twelve thousand pounds. There was besides an annuity of £300 to Cawthorpe, and another of £500 to Fleetwood. Of this twelve thousand Garrick, helped by his friends,* found eight.+ Each party was to draw weekly or otherwise, £500 a year as manager, and Garrick was to receive besides £500 a year salary for his acting, but was restrained from playing at any other house except on the terms of dividing profits ts with his fellow manager. By thus putting more money into the adventure and receiving more out of it, the greater weight and interest came to him. On the whole it was a fortunate investment for his money. Rarely, indeed, have the functions of a popular and "drawing" actor, and that of a skilful manager been so fortunately united. With the new season, and the new management there was to set in a hopeful era for the drama. At Drury Lane was to come the reign of judgment, sense, fine acting, lavish yet judicious outlay, excellent yet not "sensational" attraction, and skilful management; and on these characteristics was to follow prosperity. And not only financial prosperity; but almost at once came a sudden elevation of the social status with which the drama was to be recognised. It rose into respect and consideration. The other theatres shared in the general "rehabilitation;" and he would have been a bold magistrate who would have now dealt with a manager of Drury Lane or Covent Garden "as a common rogue or vagabond." On these principles the new managers went vigorously and at once to work. They were determined to get together "the best company in England;" and by the middle of July were busy remodelling the house. They shared the labour between them - Garrick undertaking the intellectual duties, engagement of actors, selection of plays, &c.; Lacy looking after the theatre, scenes, wardrobe, and expenses. And through all their long connexion they seem each to have kept within the domain they had marked out, and to have discharged their separate parts with an exceptional harmony. The interior of the theatre, as laid house, * "I have a great stake, Mr. Pritchard, and must endeavour to secure my property and my friends' to the best of my judgment."-Letter to Pritchard, "Garrick Correspondence," vol. i, 54. † This is on Davies' authority, for the agreement makes no mention of the contribution of each party. out by Wren, had one remarkable feature. The stage projected forward by many feet, in a sort of oval, into the body of the house, and followed the semicircular shape of the benches of the pit. The actors made the entrance through doors which were down near to the audience. Thus there was one more side-scene necessary. The player was thus in the middle of the house, every whisper and play of expression was perceptible, every rich or fine coloured habit had a more lively lustre, and the stage had a greater depth. Cibber looked fondly back to this arrangement, and reasonably, for it would be in favour with the old school of declamatory actors, who would wish their measured utterance and mouthings to be heard and seen to the best advantage. But it obviously interfered with stage illusion and abridged the space for the audience. Very soon, a little after the commencement of the century, alterations were made, the stage was shortened and thrown back, and for the first doors, where the actors entered, stage boxes were substituted. By this alteration the house was made to hold "ten pounds" more than it did before. By July the managers were "in the midst of bricks and mortar," and Lacy was busy making new approaches to the house, altering it internally, painting and decorating. By fresh arrangements they contrived to increase the paying accommodation by forty pounds a night. Thus the very first step of Garrick in his adventure was marked by that sound thought and profit which attended all his actions. He himself had gone down to his family at Lichfield, had found damp sheets at Coventry, and had to be bled. He was fast enlisting recruits; and it is characteristic that at the earliest moment he found on his hands, he used it to the service of all his friends. Barry, growing in prosperity, already pronounced superior to Garrick in many favourite parts, he retained at his house. Mrs. Cibber, his friend and correspondent, was of course engaged. Indeed it was whispered that the manager's favour was to place her in every leading part. This rumour even reached Bristol and brought up a petulant remonstrance from the Pritchards, husband and wife, and thus early gave Garrick his first managerial experience of the morbid sensitiveness of actors. A protest he answered in the good generous and reasoning way which afterwards became almost habitual with him in dealing with such wounded sensibilities. He showed him temperately that it was the proprietors' interest that Mrs. Pritchard should have her proper place at the theatre, and not be sacrified to the empire of "any haughty woman." An expression that seems to hint that there was a coldness between the former friends. Perhaps Mrs. Cibber was offended that her advances and advice as to the patent were passed over. And having reassured these jealous souls, he gave them the best proof of his regard by making their son treasurer to the theatre. He also engaged Macklin and his wife. A man who, under a fancied sense of gross injury, had attacked Garrick with both tongue and pen. now It is amusing to read Macklin's biographer on this act of Garrick's, which, even if it were an act of atonement, had a certain graciousness. "Although Mr. Macklin," he says, "had just cause to remember the cruel treatment he had formerly experienced at the hands of Mr. Garrick, yet the nobleness and generosity of his mind prompted him to dismiss it totally from his recollection." This is exquisite. Kitty Clive, "Peg" Woffington, Delane, Havard, Sparks, Yates, and Woodward, who was to join after a Dublin engagement was concluded, all made up a company that was not merely strong, but brilliant. Quin alone, still morose and aggrieved, refused an engagement and retired to Bath.t * Her Majesty's Theatre is constructed on this principle. + Later when he wished to join Rich's company, his curt application is well known:"Dear sir, I am at Bath. Yours, JAMES QUIN." And the answer as curt:-" Stay there and be d-d. Yours, JOHN RICH." At last, on September the 15th,* the playhouse opened brilliantly with a fine prologue, from the pen of Samuel Johnson, with Macklin as Shylock, and an epilogue spoken by Woffington. The prologue-weighty, impressive, and sonorous, contained these famous lines "Those who live to please, must please to live." Reforms were sadly wanted there for the greater actors had become careless as to learning their parts accurately, and were often heard appealing to the prompter. A strict attendance at rehearsal was enforced, the plays were better mounted, and the parts carefully prepared. Some of the older actors, who from habit supplied the defects of memory and carelessness by "a bold And the fine encomium of Shakes- front and forging matter of their peare "From bard to bard the frigid caution crept, Till declamation roared, while passion slept." And at the bottom of this bill the curious audience found another hint of reform-that there was to be no admission behind the scenes; and "it was humbly hoped" that the audience would not take it amiss. Significant too was the choice of Macklin's Shylock-a ready comment on Johnson's lines; for Macklin was of Garrick's own school of writing, and with them no declamation was likely to roar. Garrick himself fell ill a few days after the opening of the theatre, and as Johnson's fine prologue was repeatedly called for, it was at last published, with an apology from the manager, who hoped they would accept it in that shape. He himself was not able to appear until a month later, when he came on in Archer. Behind the scenes a new order and regularity had been introduced. own," were tacitly rebuked by being gently left aside for some time. The management relied principally on good stock-pieces, well supported with one or two strongly-cast revivals, and a new play or two. Barry was put forward as the leading actor. He played in Hamlet," "King Lear," in the "Provoked Husband," with Mrs. Woffington in "Henry V." Nights of special attraction were, when Mrs. Woffington came out in her famous "breeches part," Sir Harry Wildair, with Garrick as Fribble, to wind up the evening; or such nights as when Garrick and Barry played together in the "Orphan," in the "Fair Penitent;" or when Mrs. Cibber, Garrick, and Barry were joined in "Venice Preserved." The parts in this play seem to have been cast à travers, for Garrick took Jaffier, the weak, tender, loving, irresolute conspirator; while Barry was the fierce, impetuous, and unscrupulous Pierre; still with the "enchanting melody of Mrs. Cibber in Belvidera, and the nobleness and passionate tenderness of the play itself, it proved a great attraction. Later, on another stage Barry took his right part, and all this time artfully turned it to profit as an opportunity for studying Garrick. Mrs. Cibber had another opening for the enchanting melody in Polly; but the new comedy of the "Foundling," by Edward O'Moore, brought out a wonderful cast. Barry showed his grace and tenderness in Sir Charles; Macklin, as Faddle, found a part that suited his oddities and convulsed the audience. Faddle, said to have been modelled after "an ingenious young gentleman" who had some skill in taking off the opera singers, and was allowed by the ladies who had turned his head to be sent to gaol for forty pounds, was given to Macklin, who delighted the audience in a part eminently suited to his rough and broad eccentricities. Mrs. Cibber was all softness and music, and Woffington, in Rosetta, all pertness and prettiness; but Garrick, who had been given Young Belmont, a sort of walking gentleman, by his extraordinary spirit and versatility contrived to lift it into perfect prominence. No wonder the play had * Murphy and Davies both say the 20th; but Geneste, who was better acquainted with bills, &c., is likely to have been more accurate. a run. To Shakespeare due homage was paid in the "Tempest," and in a revival of "Macbeth;" but a Macbeth eleared from the "improvements" and decorations with which it had been daubed over by the clumsy mechanists of the stage. These were the features of the first season of the new management, which was certainly carried through with spirit and effect. For September the 2nd began, when the chief attraction at the commencement lay in Woodward and his special range of character, and Barry in "Othello" and "Hamlet." But the chief attraction before Christmas were two Shakespearian revivals. Never was there a more legitimate triumph than that of Garrick and Mrs. Pritchard in Benedick and Beatrice, for it was the triumph of true genius exercised in the most perfect and buoyant bit of comedy that could be conceived. So evenly matched were their famous powers, and so sparkling the alternations of their vivacious rivalry, that the town found it impossible to decide on the superiority between them. But a yet more important revival had been occupying his thoughts, and was the result of much pains and care. This was "Romeo and Juliet"-the play of poetry, grace, and tenderness, put into the appropriate hands of the very priest and priestess of grace, pathos, and tenderness-Barry and Mrs. Cibber. Here again we have that temperate self-denial of Gar rick; for it was a tempting opportunity, and though the part was infinitely more suited to Barry than to Garrick, the town would have readily found indulgence for the manager, who had seized on the prize for himself. But he took the play with him into his closet, and with an odd inconsistency, the man who just cleared "Macbeth" from the thick crusts and varnishes with which Davenant and other Shakespearian "restorers" had quoted it, did not shrink from putting an entirely new catastrophe to this story of the Verona lovers. There are many who go to our theatres now, and are melted over the wakening of Juliet in the tomb, and the long and touching scene between the lovers that follows, and never dream that Romeo should originally have died just after his combat with County Paris. The whole of the interview is a clever bit of sham Shakespearean writing, really well done, even to the "fathers have flinty hearts," which has been sometimes quoted as a bit of the true stuff. It is impossible to deny that the play gains in acting by this daring interpolation, which, besides, was in some degree justifiable, as being based on the version of the tale as told by Bandello.* But at the same time he deserves infinite credit for the manner in which he has fallen into the tone of the situation, and caught up the sweet key of Shakespeare's music. So dramatic is this finale, and now grown so indispensable, that the play is never played without it, and if it were revived or written as Shakespeare wrote, it would, no doubt, be sadly inefficient for the "star" actors playing it. Garrick himself attended all the rehearsals, gave his hints, watched it carefully, and the result was a marvellous performance, which drew the whole town for nineteen nights. Meanwhile his old friend and school-fellow "Mr. Samuel Johnson," struggling on through "garret toil and London loneliness," glad to get fifteen pounds for a masterly poem, busy with what must be called the * Murphy's praise of this alteration amounts to extravagance. "Garrick, beyond all question, has shown superior skill" (to Shakspeare!). "He rouses a variety of passions. We are transported with joy, surprise, and rapture, and by a rapid change we are suddenly overwhelmed with despair, grief, and pity. Every word pierces to the heart, and the catastrophe as it now stands is the most affecting in the whole compass of the drama !" |