Garrick, David

Garrick, David (1717–79), one of the greatest English actors, who effected a radical change in the style of acting by replacing the formal declaration favoured by James Quin with an easy, natural manner of speech. Of Huguenot descent, he showed an early inclination for the stage, and at the age of 11 appeared as Sergeant Kite in a schoolboy production of Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer. Later he was sent to study under Dr Johnson at Lichfield, accompanied him to London, and there indulged in amateur theatricals at the expense of his business career in the wine trade, which he soon abandoned. In 1741 he was playing small parts at Goodman's Fields Theatre, where on 19 Oct. he made his formal début as Richard III with such success that he was soon drawing crowds. He was then engaged for Drury Lane, embarking in 1742 on a triumphant career which continued until his retirement in 1776. A small man, with a clear though not resonant voice, he appeared unsuited to tragedy, but was nevertheless unsurpassed in the tragic heroes of contemporary works as well as in such great parts as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Lear. He was not at his best as Romeo, a part he soon resigned to Spranger Barry, nor as Othello, partly because blacking his face deprived him of the marvellously expressive play of his mobile features. He was much admired in comedy, one of his earliest and most acclaimed performances being Abel Drugger in Johnson's The Alchemist; he was also good as Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing. Garrick's fiery temper, vanity, and snobbishness, as well as his sudden rise to fame, brought him many enemies, among them Samuel Foote who lampooned him mercilessly. He also had to contend with the petulance of unacted authors and disappointed small-part actors.

Garrick became joint manager of Drury Lane in 1747, and sole manager in 1774. His management was marred by two serious riots, the first in 1755, occasioned by the appearance of French dancers as war between France and England was about to break out, and the second in 1762, when the concession of ‘half-price after the third act’ was abolished but had to be restored. This led Garrick to retire for a time, and from 1763 to 1765 he travelled on the Continent with his wife, a Viennese dancer he married in 1749 after her appearances at the Haymarket as Mlle Violette (also found as Violetta and Violetti). They were well received everywhere, particularly in France. Garrick's ‘Shakespeare Jubilee’ at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1769 was remarkable for the number of odes, songs, speeches, and other effusions by Garrick and for the complete absence of anything by Shakespeare.

In spite of the cares of management and constant appearances on stage, Garrick was a prolific dramatist, vivacious and competent. The best of his works were the farces Miss in her Teens; or, The Medley of Lovers (1747), in which he played Fribble, and Bon Ton, usually known from its subtitle as High Life above Stairs (1775). Much of his energy was expended on rewriting old plays, the most successful being The Country Girl (1766), a bowdlerization of Wycherley's The Country Wife (1675) which held the stage for many years. He was also a great writer of prologues and epilogues, for both his own and other men's plays; he was responsible for a production of Hamlet with the Grave-diggers omitted, of King Lear without the Fool, and of a Romeo and Juliet which allowed the lovers a scene together in the tomb before dying; and he concocted a Katharine and Petruchio and a Florizel and Perdita (both 1756) from The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter's Tale respectively. He had, however, to contend with the taste of the time and the prevailing ignorance and lack of appreciation of Shakespeare's genius.

Garrick made his last appearance on the stage in 1776 as Don Felix in Mrs Centlivre's The Wonder, a Woman Keeps a Secret, which he had first played 20 years earlier and in which he was unequalled for spirit and vivacity. His death, felt as a personal loss by many admirers, drew from Dr Johnson the memorable epitaph: ‘I am disappointed by that stroke of death which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.’ His younger brother George, for many years his right-hand man at Drury Lane, died a few days later because, said the wits of the time, ‘Davy wanted him’.