RECOLLECTIONS OF THE OLD ACTORS, &C. &C. 519 



nature coming without knowledge into this land of civilization, and 

 believing that he could arrive at excellence in the art of acting, 

 should study the great actor under whom he was employed, acquire 

 a knowledge of the principles by which he was directed, convert the 

 knowledge, so acquired, to his own advantage, and having succeeded 

 in this, he would naturally make it the subject of conversation with 

 those he associated with. Now it is quite certain, that before Garrick 

 appeared on the stage, he associated intimately with all persons con- 

 nected with his intended profession, from whom he hoped to obtain 

 knowledge that might promote his success. It is well known that 

 such intimacy existed between Garrick and Macklin, till subsequent 

 misunderstandings estranged them from each other* 



Macklin, during his whole life, was strongly imbued with the 

 spirit of reformation or improvement ; it showed itself on all occa- 

 sions, but on one that was attended with singular inconvenience to 

 himself. After Powell died, the property of Covent-garden theatre 

 was purchased by several persons, at the head of which was the elder 

 Colman : they engaged new performers in various ways ; among 

 others, Macklin was engaged, by way of what would now be called a 

 star ; it had been found, for many years previously, that his per- 

 formance of Ski/lock, with his own farce of " Love-a-la-Mode/' would 

 certainly produce full houses several nights in the season, and for that 

 number of nights he had, for several years, been engaged upon shares 

 that was, a division of the profits between the parties ; but, on this 

 occasion, they went even farther. Though Macklin was much beyond 

 seventy years old, he resolved to astonish the natives by performing 

 the character of Macbeth, which he never had performed before, and 

 with improvements which would throw all former performances into 

 the shade ; and how were these promises to be performed, after the 

 public attention had been called into action by this announcement ? 

 Many, many years before, Garrick and Barry had acquired the very 

 highest reputation for their admirable performance of this important 

 character ; Smith and Reddish, at that time thought excellent actors, 

 were still performing the same character, much to the public satis- 

 faction ; what then could the reformer Macklin do to improve his 

 reformation or representation of it ? 



The theatre, in the days of Garrick and long afterwards, was not 

 critically correct in arranging or altering the text of their authors, 

 their scenes, dresses, or decorations. When Garrick determined to 

 separate speeches or scenes from his author, he did not attempt to 

 unite the parts separated by language that might seem to belong 

 to the part separated, but made any thing serve his purpose ; he never 

 would perform a character in tragedy without having a dying speech 

 in it, because he thought he had the knack of wriggling about on a 

 carpet to make himself interesting to his audience : but in this play 

 of Macbeth, he had more of these absurdities than in almost any other. 

 Macbeth and Banquo were always dressed in the scarlet court-dresses 

 of British modern generals ; Duncan and all his courtiers were dressed 

 as nearly in the court dresses of St. James's as could be represented, 

 but there was one absurdity that exceeded all this, that is to say, when 

 Macbethimagmes he sees the air-drawn dagger," and having followed 



