Charles Macklin

Charles Macklin , 1697?-1797, English actor and dramatist, whose original name was Charles McLaughlin, b. Ireland. He began his career as a strolling player. His style of acting was radically different from the prevailing declamatory style of James Quin and Barton Booth. At first unsuccessful, he won fame with his dignified, tragic portrayal of Shylock in his production (1741) of The Merchant of Venice. This performance foreshadowed the naturalistic school of acting which was to be realized with David Garrick. His production (1772) of Macbeth, in which he used Scottish dress, was noted as an early attempt to achieve historical accuracy in costuming. Macklin's eccentricities and violent temper were notorious. He wrote and acted in Love à la Mode (1759) and The Man of the World (1781).

Bibliography: See biographies by E. A. Perry (1891) and W. W. Appleton (1960).

Macklin, Charles [ Charles M'Laughlin] (c.1700–97), Irish actor, who in 1716, after a wild and restless boyhood, joined a company of strolling players. Four years later he was in Bath, and in 1725 was engaged by Christopher Rich for Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. There his natural manner of speaking, which preceded Garrick's reforms in stage delivery, was unacceptable in the high-toned tragedies of the day, and he returned to the provinces and minor theatres, playing Harlequin and Clown at fairs and at Sadler's Wells. In 1730 he again appeared at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and two years later was engaged for Drury Lane, where he played secondary comic parts before persuading the management in 1741 to revive The Merchant of Venice, with himself as Shylock. He became famous overnight, rescuing the character from the clutches of the low comedian, and making him a dignified and tragic figure, drawing from Alexander Pope the memorable couplet: ‘This is the Jew / That Shakespeare drew’.

With advancing years Macklin became extremely quarrelsome and jealous (he had already killed another actor in a fight over a wig), and moved erratically from one theatre to another, causing trouble backstage and engaging in constant litigation. Apart from Shylock and his Iago to the Othello of Garrick and Spranger Barry, his most memorable part was Macbeth, which he first played at Covent Garden in 1773 in something approximating to the dress of a Highland chieftain in place of the red military coat favoured by Garrick. He was the author of several plays, of which two survived well into the 19th century—Love à la Mode (1759), in which he himself played the leading role, Sir Archy McSarcasm, and The Man of the World (1781), in which, in spite of his great age, he again played the lead, Sir Pertinax McSycophant. He made his last appearance on the stage in 1789, when he essayed Shylock but was unable to finish it.