David Garrick

English actor

• Born: February 19, 1717
• Birthplace: Hereford, Herefordshire, England
• Died: January 20, 1779
• Place of death: London, England

Garrick raised acting to a new level of expression and respectability, further popularized the plays of William Shakespeare, and brought creative management to the Drury Lane Theatre in London.

Early Life

David Garrick came from a French Huguenot family who had migrated from the arid lands of southern France when their religion was banned in 1685. The family name was changed from Garric to Garrick when David’s grandfather was naturalized in 1695. David’s father, Peter, was commissioned in the British army and met Arabella Clough while stationed in Lichfield. They were married in 1706 and had seven children. Although David was born in Hereford, his true family home was Lichfield—also the home of his famous contemporary Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Peter Garrick was assigned to military duty in Gibraltar for much of David’s youth. In his father’s absence, Johnson and Gilbert Walmesley (a court official in Lichfield) had great influence on the young Garrick. Garrick was enrolled for a brief time in Johnson’s school at Edial. Early in 1737, Johnson and Garrick departed for London, where Walmesley had made arrangements for Garrick to enter Rochester School in preparation to study law at Lincoln’s Inn. Within weeks, Garrick’s father died, and his brother Peter went to London, where the two began a wine business—David working London and Peter, the Lichfield area.

Garrick’s wine shop was located in the theater district, later to be the site of the Adelphi, his town house. Because of his shop’s location, Garrick made contact with several people involved in dramatic arts. Meanwhile, Johnson’s editor was encouraging Garrick to write and act. In addition, Charles Macklin, a well-known actor, became Garrick’s friend and acting coach. In 1741, Garrick played a Harlequin (his mask concealing his identity) and authored a short play, Lethe: Or, Aesop in the Shades (1740), a farce, for Henry Giffard, an actor-manager who had helped him obtain wine business at the Bedford Coffee House. In the summer of 1741 he played a number of parts at Ipswich under the name Lyddall. His decision to act anonymously or under a false name can be attributed both to the low reputation of actors and to concern about his family’s opposition.

Garrick was about five feet, four inches tall, reasonably well proportioned until he put on weight in his later years. As an actor, he did not appear short. His eyes were dark yet piercingly bright. For acting purposes, he kept his head shaved except for a ponytail to which wigs could be attached. He dressed stylishly but not extravagantly so. He was a witty, lively conversationalist and liked to play practical jokes and mimic friends. He wished to please others and disliked criticism and disputes. Although he did not come from wealth and noble status, Garrick was a gentleman, and he cultivated well-bred companions.

Life’s Work

On October 19, 1741, Shakespeare’s Richard III (1592-1593) was performed at Goodman’s Fields Theatre with “a gentleman (who never appear’d on any stage)”—David Garrick—playing the leading role. Garrick was instantly acclaimed as an actor, and the fashionable theater crowd abandoned the licensed establishments of Drury Lane and Covent Garden to witness his Shakespearean performance. By December, he was playing the lead in the premiere of his own farce, The Lying Valet. Early in 1742, his success led to offers from both of the licensed theaters. After contracting with Charles Fleetwood, the owner of the Drury Lane Theatre, to act during the 1742-1743 season, he spent the summer season acting at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, where his costar was Peg Woffington, an actor with a questionable personal reputation.

Upon their return to London, Garrick, Woffington, and Macklin took a house together. When Fleetwood failed to pay his actors, Garrick led his fellow actors on a strike against him. The eventual settlement returned all the performers to the stage except Macklin, who was viewed as the ringleader. In December, 1744, Garrick was interrupted onstage by a riot instigated by supporters of Macklin. Two days later, Fleetwood used thirty prizefighters to prevent a similar outbreak. Garrick and Macklin were less friendly thereafter, even though the former had offered financial assistance and later would direct Macklin in plays that he had written. Garrick continued to live with Woffington until 1745; he probably wished to marry her but was concerned about her reputation and his respectability. They remained friends until her death in 1760, never discussing their affair.

In March, 1746, a dancer from Vienna, Austria, became the lead performer at the Haymarket Opera House and was immediately acclaimed by aristocratic English audiences. As the two most popular stage performers of the day, “Violette” (Eva Maria Veigel) and Garrick were invited to a party, where they first met. Garrick was instantly enamored of Violette. Before he could marry her, however, he needed to convince Dorothy, countess of Burlington, who had given Violette a home, that he was a proper mate. They were married June 22, 1749, and in the course of their life together, they were never known to have spent a single night apart. She was quiet, gentle, and supportive, a perfect counterpoint to his ebullience and flamboyance. The one obstacle to their happiness was the absence of children, particularly painful because they both adored them.

While Garrick was acting at Drury Lane during the 1744-1745 season, Fleetwood sold the theater to James Lacy. In April, 1745, illness forced Garrick to stop acting; poor health increasingly interfered with his work as he got older. Soon after, he rejected a proposal to join other actors in buying Lacy’s interest in the Drury Lane operation. Instead, he went back to Ireland to act, and receive part of the profits from his roles. In May, 1746, Garrick was back in London acting at Covent Garden, where he also performed during the 1746-1747 season. On April 9, 1747, he signed a contract to become half owner of the Drury Lane (with Lacy), paying œ8,000 for his share.

From 1747 to December, 1776, Garrick was joint owner-manager of the Drury Lane patent. (The patent was the government-ordained right to sell entertainment in the theater.) Lacy served as the financial administrator and saw after the physical properties—costumes, scenery, lighting; Garrick performed, directed, and produced. He had a good grasp of the audience’s tastes and while catering to them still was able to revive a number of plays from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was good at organization and effectively managed temperamental actors and actresses by demanding their participation in rehearsals and imposing fines for tardiness. He recruited the best musicians and scene painters and hired such experts as Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, a Frenchman, to perfect lighting. Loutherbourg introduced footlights and silk screens for colored light effects. In 1762, Garrick redid the interior of the theater, enlarging its capacity to an estimated two thousand; in 1775, he commissioned Robert Adam, an architectural innovator, to redecorate the inside once again and to add a streetside facade entryway. Garrick attempted to halt the traditional practice of permitting half-price entrance after the third act but gave up when riots caused damage at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. One other failure occurred in 1755, when he imported a troop of French dancers to perform Jean-Georges Noverre’s The Chinese Festival and was forced to abandon the project when anti-French riots caused œ4,000 worth of damage. Finally, Garrick established a theatrical fund comprising money earned from benefit shows to be used for disabled, retired performers. The fund was given legal status by an act of Parliament in 1776 through the efforts of his friend Edmund Burke, whose maiden speech, supporting the American colonists, he had witnessed.

In the period of his co-ownership of Drury Lane, Garrick limited his acting to about thirty performances per year. From August, 1763, to April, 1765, he and his wife were on tour of France, Italy, Austria, and other European states. Much of the time, however, was spent recovering from illness. Late in 1775, Garrick decided that he would retire at the end of the season. Beginning in April, 1776, he performed a series of his most famous roles before packed, emotionally enthralled audiences. His final performance was on June 19, when he played Don Felix in Susannah Centlivre’s The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret. In 1777, he helped prepare the premiere performance of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal. (Sheridan was one of the purchasers of his share in Drury Lane.) In January, 1779, Garrick became fatally ill. He returned to his London apartment, where he died on January 20. His funeral, on February 1, 1779, attracted a throng of onlookers, stretching from the Adelphi to Westminster Abbey, where he was buried. In 1797, a monument was placed in Poets’ Corner near his grave.

Significance

David Garrick raised acting to a new height. He made a fortune at his profession, leaving an estate of œ100,000 at his death. He became the ultimate Shakespearean: reviving and staging original versions of plays such as Macbeth (1606); erecting his Temple of Shakespeare on the lawn of Hampton House (his country home); collecting editions of plays for his, and other, libraries; directing a Stratford-upon-Avon Jubilee in 1769 (which was rained out but which created an opportunity to stage Ode, a poem that Garrick had written to be performed and that packed Drury Lane for 153 performances over a three-year period—more than any Shakespeare play during his twenty-nine years as manager); and seeking to popularize the Bard in France, despite the criticism of Voltaire (the most influential French writer of the day).

Since actors were not by profession considered important personages, the striking feature of Garrick’s life is the breadth of his acquaintanceships and influence. The Garricks were friends with some of the most powerful political aristocrats, with whom they stayed in the summers. He met and corresponded with a number of leading literary lights of the age, among them Edward Gibbon, James Boswell, Hannah More, and Henry Fielding. Garrick continuously supported the arts, not only employing artists at Drury Lane and his residences—the Adam brothers as designers, Lancelot Brown in landscape architecture—but also finding patrons for their creative work. Johann Zoffany, for example, was discovered by Garrick and obtained the patronage of King George III. Thomas Gainsborough, the founder of the English school of painting and the Royal Academy, painted a number of portraits and landscapes for Garrick. Garrick was also elected to the select club, founded by Johnson in 1764, that would later be the Literary Club.

As a man of wealth, Garrick was generous in support of others, starting with his family. His brother George made a comfortable living as his assistant at Drury Lane. He watched over the financial well-being of his nieces and nephews. He found employment for down-and-out actors, playwrights, and friends. He gave his troupe the chance to earn extra money through benefit performances at Drury Lane and elsewhere. Thus, in his generosity, Garrick not only supported his immediate family and friends but also, more important, bequeathed a valuable cultural legacy to future generations.

Bibliography

Benedetti, Jean. David Garrick and the Birth of Modern Theatre. London: Methuen, 2001. Benedetti maintains that Garrick was the father of modern theater, reforming theater practice to become its first international superstar.

Boas, Frederick S. An Introduction to Eighteenth-Century Drama, 1700-1780. London: Oxford University Press, 1965. An account of dramatists of the period, with chapters devoted to Joseph Addison, John Gay, Henry Fielding, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and other playwrights. Boas analyzes the characters of some of Garrick’s plays and his performances in them.

Garrick, David, and George Colman. Plays by David Garrick and George Colman the Elder. Edited by E. R. Wood. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Includes a short sketch of Garrick and Colman, a biographical chart, and a full listing of writings. Plays by Garrick reprinted are The Lying Valet, The Irish Widow (1772), Bon Ton: Or, High Life Above Stairs (1775), and The Clandestine Marriage (1766; with Colman).

Kendall, Alan. David Garrick: A Biography. London: Harrap, 1985. A heavily illustrated account with particular emphasis on the use of letters to tell the story. The bulk of the middle part is treated topically, rather than chronologically.

McIntyre, Ian. Garrick. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1999. An exhaustively detailed, well-researched recounting of Garrick’s life, career, and circle of friends.

Nicoll, Allardyce. A History of Late Eighteenth Century Drama, 1750-1800. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1927. Places Garrick in the context of the general developments of theater during the era. A standard reference source for the subject containing details on the variety of forms, individual drama houses, and extensive lists of plays written and performed.

Parsons, Florence M. Garrick and His Circle. 2d ed. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969. Parsons first published this account in 1906, utilizing The Private Correspondence of David Garrick (1831), unpublished letters from the Victoria and Albert Museum—where much Garrick memorabilia is held—four packs of Garrick material sold at Christie’s auctioneers in 1905, and the four prior biographies. It is a sympathetic account with considerable insight into eighteenth century drama.

Price, Cecil. Theatre in the Age of Garrick. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1973. A survey of the nature of the theater, including acting styles, costuming, its role as entertainment, ways of the audiences, non-London forms, and opera and ballet’s place. Price describes in detail the mannerisms, voice inflections, and facial expressions that made Garrick the dominant performer.

Smith, Helen R. David Garrick, 1717-1779. London: British Library Board, 1979. A brief sketch on the occasion of the bicentennial of Garrick’s death. Essentially, a book that deals with him topically as actor, author, book collector, manager, and supporter of the visual arts. Includes a number of illustrations.

Woods, Leigh. Garrick Claims the Stage, Acting as Social Emblem in Eighteenth-Century England. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984. An analytical look at Garrick and his profession using the tools of modern disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Woods’s perspective is suggested by the title of the last chapter, “The Actor as Trickster: Illusionism on the Eighteenth-Century English Stage.”