When, as their festal influence glow'd, Witness the lays that still engage Meek DAVIES + thine, whose feeling mind "With vigorous mind, whose efforts bend Here DARWIN won the muse's smile; Of brightest glow and richest chime ; And ne'er, O Bard, their power disclaim, For thou canst gem each link they frame." We shall be happy to pay due attention to the continuation of this valuable account of Staffordshire, when another volume shall appear. Wall..e ART. XIII. Mr. Kirkman's Memoirs of the Life of Charles Macklin, Esquire. [Art. concluded from p. 112.] IN the year 1767, Macklin returned from Dublin to London, with a determination to end his days in the English capital. On his arrival, he immediately entered into an agreement with the managers of Covent-Garden Theatre; and on the 28th of November he brought out his True-born Irishman, under the new title of The Irish fine Lady. This was its first representation in London. The several parts were very strongly cast; yet it is allowed by his biographer, who in the first volume had already spoken pretty fully concerning the merits of this piece,' that The late Rev. Arch-Deacon of Lichfield. Epigrams and gay ballads of exquisite spirit flowed ex tempore from his lips, but he declined publishing them.' + Late Dr. Davies, Canon of Lichfield.' Dr. Darwin, author of Botanic Garden-inhabitant of Lich field from 1757 to 1781.' & It It is rather too long, and calculated only for the meridian of Dublin, where it was repeatedly performed with great approbation; and where several local witticisms, which it contains, particularly of a political nature, contributed greatly to its success. Here, however, it was so universally condemned, that Mr. Macklin, at the end of the representation, thought it necessary to make the following apology to the audience : "Ladies and Gentlemen, "I am very sensible, that there are several passages in this Piece which deserve to be reprobated, and I assure you, that they shall never offend your ears again." As soon as Mr. Macklin had finished this address, the audience testified their approbation of his determination, by loud and reiterated plaudits. The Farce was immediately withdrawn, and has not been performed since.' After this concession, nearly 30 pages are expended in blackening the memory of the late Mr. Colman: but to revive theatrical quarrels, and relate only the provocations received on one side, at the distance of so many years from the trans action, can be of no use but to fill the author's book. What ever were Mr. Colman's, faults, as their effects at the time can now have no power of injuring either the public or individuals, we think that, without the exercise of great Christian charity, the humane and merciful Pagan axiom, De mortuis nil nisi bonum, ought to have saved his memory from this attack. With Mr. Kirkman, however, the precept is to operate only in favour of Macklin. Throughout the work, he has exalted his hero at the expence of Garrick, Quin, Barry, Colman, Mossop, &c. When we reached the end of the first volume, we were unable to divine whence materials for a second could be supplied: but, to our surprize, we found 200 pages occupied a circumstantial account of a trial. Previously to this detail, however, the author tells us, with great truth and propriety, that In the year 1768 many events took place, which proved highly distressing to the Drama. That excellent Actress, Mrs. Pritchard, died in the fifty-eighth year of her age; and Mr. O'Brien left the stage. This Gentleman, Mr. Macklin has declared, was the only Actor who ever filled the Parts of Mr. Wilks in genteel Comedy, with elegant deportment. In the course of this year Mrs. Clive also retired from the Stage. This admirable Actress was long the darling of the public. If ever there was a true comic genius, Mrs. Clive was one; she perhaps was equalled, certainly never excelled. We cannot describe her better than by introducing the following lines from a celebrated poet, which may, with great propriety, be applied to her never by "Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, And Laughter, holding both his sides." In 1769 Macklin lost his mother, at the advanced age of upwards of 99, bequeathing to her son a still more extended longevity. In this year, the stage was deprived of two actors of considerable merit, Powell and Holland; and This year was also remarkable for the eclebration of a Jubilee in honour of Shakspeare, which lasted three days, during which time entertainments of Oratorios, Concerts, Pageants, Fireworks, &c. were presented to a very brilliant and numerous company, assembled from all parts of the Kingdom. Many persons of the highest quality and rank, of both sexes, some of the most celebrated beauties of the age, and men distinguished for their genius and love of the elegant arts, thought themselves happy to fill the grand chorus of this high Festival. There was an Amphitheatre erected at Stratford, upon the plan of Ranelagh, decorated with various devices. In the Town-hall Shakspeare's most striking characters were seen, and the old House, where the immortal Bard was born, was covered with a curious emblematical transparency; the subject was, the Sun struggling through clouds to enlighten the World? In 1771 our hero made a trading voyage to Leeds, Liverpool, and Dublin; and though we have been told, when he fast quitted that city, that he had determined never again to leave England, his biographer now says that when he left London, in 1771, he shipped all his furniture, plate, pictures, and a very choice and valuable library of books, worth upwards of five thousand pounds, on board a Dublin trader, then lying in the River Thames; but, unfortunately, this ship was stranded on the coast of Ireland, off Arklow, and almost the whole of Mr. Macklin's property was lost.' This seems to imply a resolution to end his days in Ireland. Notwithstanding the extreme bitterness with which he speaks of and writes to Mr. Colman, in 1768, Mr. K. informs us that On the 12d of December, 1772, Mr. Macklin wrote from Dublin to Mr. Colman in London, and offered his services at CoventGarden Theatre; and on the 24th of January, 1773, Mr. Colman answered Mr. Macklin's Letter, and concluded his Epistle in the following inviting terms." Draw up your own plan, and send it to me, and I make no doubt of the matter being settled to our mutual satisfaction." On the 17th February, 1773, Mr. Macklin, in conformity to Mr. Colman's kind invitation and request, sent him his plan, and at the same time informed him of the Parts that he intended to act. Amongst other things he told him, "that he had thought of Richard III. Macbeth, King Lear, and other Parts, such as would suit his time of life, in new or revived Tragedies." A variety of other Letters passed between the Parties, the purport of which being satisfactory to Mr. Macklin, he immediately came to London, to perform at Covent-Garden Theatre in pursuance of the agreement between him and Mr. Colman, the then Acting Manager.' Macklin's consummate vanity, and his envy at the constant and unbounded applause which Mr. Garrick received in Tragedy, increasing in proportion as his own favour increased in Shylock, lago, and a few other parts in which he was unrivalled, he not only imagined that he was able to point out Mr. G.'s defects, in lectures, coffee-houses, pamphlets, and paragraphs, but that he could convince the public of the superiority of his own execution, by performing Garrick's best tragic parts on the stage. Unluckily, the public were not persuaded of the universality of his genius. When he attempted Macbeth, he was constantly hissed; and ascribing this opposition to rival. actors, whom he named in speeches and paragraphs, they and their friends denied the charge, and probably set every engine to work in order to drive him off the stage. The opposition to his appearance in Tragedy at length became so violent, that it was construed into a Conspiracy; and, in consequence of a furious riot raised at Covent-Garden playhouse by his enemies, even on a night when he had postponed his performance in Macbeth, and meant to appear in two of his best comic parts, a suit was commenced in the King's Bench, against six persons who had been marked as the most violent in their hostility. This is the trial which occupies so large a portion of the volume before us; and almost all the great Lawyers of the time (1774) were employed in it. Lord Mansfield sat as Chief Justice: Messrs. Dunning and Murphy were of counsel for the Prosecutor; and Messrs. Wallace, Bearcroft, Serjeant Davy, Mansfield, Norton, and Buller, were for the Defendants. The proceedings are given at full length, from Gurney's short-hand; and they form a valuable part of these memoirs. The determination to effect Macklin's dismission was doubtless an excess of resentment and punishment, for his presumption in pronouncing that the public had been mistaken in their ideas of tragic declamation, by admiring Garrick during so many years in Richard III. Macbeth, King Lear, and other serious parts; and for insisting that they should take a lesson from his (Macklin's) performance of those parts, which would enable them to judge of the merits of tragic acting by the examples which be alone was qualified to set. By the opposition to these attempts, the town got rid of his arrogant pretensions as a tragic actor, and drove him back to comedy, in many parts of which he was admirable; and the managers gained by the event of the trial, which gave a check to theatrical riot and outrage. It must be owned, therefore, that, whatever it cost the champions who fought the battle without a regular plan, or prudence for their guide, a service was done to the lovers of the drama, and, eventually, to Macklin himself; who, returning to his inherent talent for comedy, recovered the favour of the public, which he enjoyed to the last dregs of memory and intellect. When Mr. Dunning had concluded his speech, which was of great length, and replete with wit, humour, and jurisprudential abilities of a higher kind, the whole of the witnesses were examined; and the evidence was summed up with great candour and attention to the most minute circumstances of This recapitulation of the the case, by Mr. Justice Aston. trial, and observations on the spirit of the several depositions, Occupy 36 pages. The verdict of the Jury was in favour of Macklin; and, on May 12, 1775, the Defendants came up to the King's Bench to receive judgment. It appears from the trial that Macklin thought that Garrick was at the bottom of the ill treatment which he had experienced at Covent-Garden Theatre; and he insinuates it in his speech, when he says, "The advocate, my lord, talks of affidavits; I have affidavits of a tremendous nature:-not affidavits, but witnesses, to shew that this cause has not yet been bottomed." He had said just before, that "a gentleman 1:as thrown out that I want revenge. My lord, I have no such idea. I never had-I am not a man of revenge."- How does this agree with the answer which he returned to Leigh, one of the defendants, who sent his wife to him to say that "the consequences might be fatal to them all; and if he would suffer her husband to wait upon him, he would tell him the reason how certain insinuations came:" Macklin answered that "he would not see Mrs. Leigh, nor her husband, nor none of the family, for they might all be d-d."-He closes his speech in the following manner: "I prosecuted from the first law of nature, self-defence-and a public example. My Lord, I have a feeling and resentment too, but I have compassion. My Lord, I defy them to make me an offer, liberal in an ordinary degree, that I would not accept of, without troubling the Master. I have only my expences in view.-Besides, my daughter has suffered to the amount of 250l. I have now proposals from Scotland; I have proposals from Ireland; I could get money here; but, if I am sent before the Master, I must lose all that 1 |