David Garrick, 1717–1779: A Theatrical Life exhibition material

This article offers a descriptive list of items included in the David Garrick, 1717-1779: A Theatrical Life exhibition.

This online exhibition showcases some of the Folger’s extraordinary wealth of Garrick-related printed texts, manuscripts, images, and objects in order to tell the story of his “theatrical life” both in the sense of David Garrick’s contributions to modern drama, and the drama that was his real life.

The Man

Garrick’s personal qualities have been much praised (“The chastity of Mr. Garrick…and his exemplary life as a man have been a great service to the morals of a dissipated age,” wrote Sir John Fielding), but he had his quarrels and his behavior was not without flashes of professional jealousy. His sense of humor still comes across in his letters, and he took ribbing about his modest height in stride. Plagued by ill-health much of the time, he neverthless enjoyed life to the fullest.

Childhood and Youth

David Garrick was born in Hereford in 1717, son of Peter Garrick (a Huguenot refugee who arrived in England as an infant and grew up to become an army officer) and his wife, Arabella Clough (a vicar-choral’s daughter from Lichfield). Peter Garrick’s regiment was based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and David grew up there with his six brothers and sisters. In 1737, he left Lichfield for London, over 100 miles to the south-east, traveling with his friend and (briefly) schoolmaster, the young Samuel Johnson. In London, twenty-year-old David Garrick considered a law career, then set himself up as a wholesale wine dealer with his elder brother, Peter. Over the next few years, Garrick’s long-held interest in acting and the theater grew. In 1740, two comic pieces he had written appeared on stage, and he acted the title role in an amateur performance of Henry Fielding’s The Mock Doctor. The respectable career in the wine trade wished for by his family became less and less attractive to him.

items included

• Samuel and Nathaniel Buck. The South West Prospect of the City of Lichfield. Engraving, ca. 1732. Shelfmark Uncat. Garrickiana Maggs no.203.
• William Holl after Sir Joshua Reynolds. Samuel Johnson LLD. Engraving, 1814. ART File J69 no.12 (size M). LUNA Digital Image.

Debut on the Stage

By his own account, Garrick made his professional stage debut anonymously and in disguise March 1741, taking over for an indisposed actor at Goodman’s Fields without the audience knowing. His first full performance took place that summer, in Ipswich. Unwilling to associate his good family name with acting, he appeared under the pseudonym “Mr. Lyddall” (the maiden name of the manager’s wife).

On October 19, 1741, Garrick made his formal debut on the London stage and soon became the talk of the town. The little east-end theater of Goodman’s Fields began to draw crowds, including the likes of Alexander Pope and William Pitt.

Still concerned for his family’s reputation, Garrick’s name did not appear on the playbills—at least, not at first. The part of Richard III on October 19, 1741 was played by “A Gentleman, (Who never appeared on any Stage).” Garrick triumphed as Richard III, acting with a naturalism audiences had not seen in the role before, and was next advertised as “the Gentleman who perform’d King Richard.” At the end of November, 1741, he finally went public as an actor, allowing his name to appear on the playbills.

By the end of the 1741–42 season, Garrick had made the leap to the west end, debuting at Drury Lane on May 26. Letters to his family reveal Garrick’s breathless enthusiasm for the theater as well as a genuine concern to re-assure them that he has met with great success, and is confident he can make a living as an actor. He went on to spend a triumphant summer season at the Smock Alley theater in Dublin before returning to Drury Lane in the fall.

William Capon (1757–1827) drew this watercolor of the theater in Goodman’s Fields in 1801. In addition to careful drawings like this, intended to preserve a record of local architecture, Capon worked as a scene painter, and as a theater designer. In 1794, he began painting scenes for Drury Lane, and became particularly known for his historically informed medieval buildings. The drawing comes from a collection of Garrick material compiled by writer and book collector George Daniel (1789–1864). Among the books Daniel collected was a First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s works now housed at the Folger. A digital edition created by Octavo appeared in 2001, and now in our Digital image collection.

items included

• William Capon. Theatre, Great Alie Street, Goodmans Fields where Garrick first appeared in London. Watercolor, 1801. ART Vol. d94 no.85a. LUNA Digital Image.
• Unknown artist. The Old Theatre in Tankard Street Ipswich. Watercolor, late 18th century. ART Vol. d94 no.84a. LUNA Digital Image.
• James Winston, compiler. David Garrick, a collection of engravings, manuscripts, playbills ... Manuscript, compiled ca. 1830. W.b.481.

Eva Maria

David Garrick was acting in Dublin when the Viennese dancer Mlle Eva Maria Veigel, “La Violette” made her London debut at the King’s Opera House (in Haymarket) on March 11, 1746 in a run of celebrated performances that led Horace Walpole to describe her as “the finest and most admired dancer in the world.”

After arriving in England in February 1746, La Violette signed a contract with the Italian company at the King’s Opera House. She moved to Drury Lane later that year, dancing to this minuet at her first appearance, a Command Performance with Giuseppe Salomon and others on December 3, 1746, the year before David Garrick and James Lacy became joint-patentees of that theater. Garrick was still at this point acting at Covent Garden, in this week playing the role of Lothario in The Fair Penitent.

Garrick was smitten from the beginning: when he first saw her perform at the King’s Opera House, he was observed switching to the Prince of Wales’ box for a better view. Although their professional paths apparently never crossed, and despite the early disapproval by Eva Maria’s patron, Lady Burlingon, the two were married on June 22, 1749 and honeymooned at the Burlington’s villa in Chiswick. Once married La Violette gave up her dancing career and they are said to have never spent a night apart.

This hand-colored engraving is after a portrait of a youthful Eva Maria done in crayon by Katherine Read (1723–1778). Read was a successful theatrical portraitist known for her work in pastels who also made portraits of Susanna Cibber and Peg Woffington. The original pastel is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a miniature copy can be found at the Garrick Club.

items included

• William P. Sherlock after Catherine Read. Mrs. Garrick. From the original picture by Cath. Reid. Hand-colored print. London: Published by Anthy. Molteno, 1802. ART File G241.5 no.1 copy 1 (size S). LUNA Digital Image.
• Ballo Endimione e Diana. Engraved score with manuscript annotations, 1746?. W.b.477. LUNA Digital Image.

Marriage

This playful portrait shows the couple with Garrick poised to write. Hogarth kept the original painting, and his widow gave it to Eva Maria when she herself was widowed. The Garricks had no children, so it went to auction when Eva Maria died at age 98 and is now in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. The chair that Garrick is depicted sitting in is itself in the Folger collection.

Garrick had a number of literary and theatrical friendships with women of social and cultural distinction. The hand-colored engraving depicting Peg Woffington is tipped in to Arthur Murphy’s biography of Garrick opposite words, “Previous to this match [with Eva Maria], it is certain that Garrick was on the point of marrying Mrs. Woffington.” The truth is a bit more complex than this perhaps fairly typical “talk of the town.” In fact the affair had cooled in 1745, before Mlle Eva Maria Veigel’s arrival in England. Mrs. Woffington continued to act under Garrick’s management at Drury Lane in later years.

The inscription on the Folger’s copy of An Ode to Garrick, Upon the Talk of the Town, says “Written, I believe, by Mr. Garrick himself” and is signed J.P.K. [i.e. by the actor John Philip Kemble (1757–1823)]. Garrick often published anonymous criticism of his own performances and management in order to take some of the wind out of the sails of his critics. But this title is in fact by Edward Moore (1712–1757), a writer whose first play, The Foundling, was “met with universal applause” according to the prompter at Drury Lane. It played there for thirteen nights in February 1748, with David Garrick acting in the role of Young Belmont and Mrs. Woffington achieving great success acting the part of Rosetta. Stanza XV of Moore’s Ode notes the public’s admiration for Garrick’s fiancee Eva Maria, but also their love for gossip about Garrick:

A Pox upon the tattling Town!—

The Fops that join to cry you down

Would give their Ears to get her.

The marriage certificate seen here documents the second ceremony, a Catholic service held at the chapel of the Portuguese Embassy at No. 74, South Audley Street. Presiding over the service was the English Carmelite and reviser of the Douay Bible, Chaplain-Major Francis Blyth (1705?–1772). David and Eva Maria were first married at 8:00 a.m. that morning by David Garrick’s friend the Reverend Thomas Francklin (1721–1784) in the chapel in Russell Street, Bloomsbury.

On July 18, 1749, Garrick wrote this letter to Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington. The Countess, Eva Maria's patron, was not initially inclined to see her protégée marry an actor. Yet this letter, written just weeks after the wedding, reveals some of the thaw that must have taken place: "she has more than once confess’d to Me, that tho She lik’d me very well, & was determin'd not to marry any body else, yet she was as determin'd not to Marry Me, if Your Ladyship had put a Negative upon Me."

items included

• John Sartain after William Hogarth. Mr. and Mrs. Garrick at home. Hand-colored engraving, 19th century. Uncat. Garrickiana Maggs no.33. LUNA Digital Image.
• Peg Woffington. Hand-colored etching, 18th century. in The life of David Garrick, illustrated with additional proof ... autograph letters by Arthur Murphy. Manuscript, 1801. W.a.167. LUNA Digital Image.
• Edward Moore. An Ode to Garrick, upon The Talk of the Town. London, 1749. PR3605.M3 O41 Cage. LUNA Digital Image.
• Mr. Garrick and Mademoiselle Violetti. Etching, 1749. ART File G241 no.3 (size XS). LUNA Digital Image.
• Official copy of the marriage certificate of David Garrick and Eva Maria Violette. Manuscript, 22 June 1749. Y.d.131. LUNA Digital Image.
• David Garrick. Collection of autograph letters signed (some incomplete) from David Garrick, Merton, Burlington House, London and Southampton St., London, to the Countess of Burlington. Manuscript, 18 July 1749-4 November 1749. Y.c.2600 (23). LUNA Digital Image.

Grand Tourist

On Drury Lane Theatre’s opening day of September 15, 1763, Garrick set out with Eva Maria for the Continent on a trip that was to last until the spring of 1765. Drury Lane Theatre was left in the hands of his partner James Lacy, his brother George Garrick, and his friend and theatrical collaborator George Colman the elder. Mr. and Mrs. Garrick both suffered chronic illnesses while abroad, but the trip was a great success. The Garricks were welcomed on their travels with enthusiasm by literary, theatrical, and high society.

In this caricature "par un ami intime de Mr. G," Garrick is assaulted by representatives of Paris theaters and the press in response to his 1765 visit. Note the boy’s abandoned coat with papers inscribed ‘J.J. Rousseau’ and ‘Voltaire.’ There was a lively debate in France over the merits of Shakespeare, and in England over these opinions of the French. In a 1772 conversation with Richard Neville (1717–1793) Voltaire is quoted as saying: “I am vilified in London as an enemy of Shakespeare; it is true that I am shocked and discouraged by his absurdities, but I am no less struck by his beauties…”

Garrick’s health was always fragile, and in 1764 he was sick enough — being laid up for five weeks — to have cancelled a planned visit with Voltaire who had prepared a theater ready to receive him. He found the strength, however, to rework his own epitaph with multiple crossings-out and substitutions. Revisions to the last two lines include the crossed-out line

Fitzp — k was my foe,

referring to actor Thaddeus Fitzpatrick who organized "half-price riots" at Drury Lane and Covent Garden just before the Garricks’ departure in 1763 over attempts to abolish the practice of charging half-price entrance after the third act. Jump to The Audience and The Stage for more on these riots.

In July of 1763 the Comédie Française provided Garrick with this “freedom of the theatre” naming him ”le Premièr Des comédièns De londre.” Arriving in Paris on September 19, 1763, Mr. and Mrs. Garrick the following day saw Mlle Marie-Françoise Dumesnil act on that stage in Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée’s La Gouvernante. Garrick noted in his Journal both his pleasure at receiving “…the freedom of the house not excepting the King’s box when unengaged by the Royal family…” and his displeasure with Mlle Dumesil’s acting, “…she is made up of trick; looks too much upon ye ground & makes use of little startings and twitchings which are visibly artificial….”

items included

• Ah le Bonhomme tout le Monde l'Aime, par un ami intime de Mr. G. Hand-colored etching, 18th century. ART 256917 (size S). LUNA Digital Image.
• Comédie-Française. Grant of the freedom of the theatre to David Garrick. Manuscript, 18 July 1763. Y.d.240. LUNA Digital Image.
• David Garrick. Journal of David Garrick's journey to France and Italy, begun at Paris, September 21, 1763. Manuscript, 1763–64. W.a.156. LUNA Digital Image.
• David Garrick. Garrick's epitaph written by himself in a fit of sickness at Munich in Bavaria. Manuscript, 1764. Y.d.120 (26). LUNA Digital Image.
• James McArdell after Jean François Liotard. David Garrick Esqr. done from the original picture painted at Paris. Mezzotint, 18th century. ART Vol. d45 no.18.

Portraiture: The Most Painted Man in England

The portrait of Garrick holding a copy of Macbeth shown here is based on another painting by Nathaniel Dance (1735–1811), now lost. A pencil version can be found in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Garrick first met Dance in 1764 while in Rome on Grand Tour, describing him in a January 2, 1764 letter as “a great Genius, & will do what he pleases when he goes to London.” Garrick presented this portrait in 1774 to his friend the landscape artist John Taylor of Bath (1735–1806), whose inscription in the lower right describes the work as:

…in my own opinion, as well as every other person’s, allow’d to be the most true & striking likeness of that great Man, that ever was painted…

The gift to Taylor was in recognition of Taylor’s own generosity: to reciprocate for complimentary poetry Garrick had penned about his landscapes, Taylor presented the Garricks with a painting in 1772 which hung in the Hampton dining room. Garrick had this to say about Taylor’s gift:

We have scarcely look’d at any thing Else till this moment … It makes a most Noble figure—but my dear Sir—I am all gratitude, amazement & distress! What shall I do! & about ye elegant Frame! & what not!—My face will be but a poor return, tho’ surrounded wth solid brass…

The portrait shown here by Robert Edge Pine (1730? –1788) is one of several the artist made of Garrick. It is possible the Folger’s portrait, where Garrick is seen holding a book with fluttering pages, is the painting Pine chose to show at the Royal Academy in 1780. Pine painted Garrick in character only twice, as Jaques in As You Like It, and Don Felix, Garrick’s farewell role, in The Wonder. Pine exhibited in England and America and his 1784 show in Philadelphia was the first one-man art exhibition in this country (27 works, 11 on Shakespearean themes), and the earliest art exhibition catalogue to be published in America.

Garrick sat for all the great artists of his day. This painting, produced under Sir Joshua Reynolds’ supervision, shows Garrick contentedly sitting with hands folded and pen put away, poised to enjoy his retirement. Henry and Hester Thrale commissioned a similar version of it to display alongside a dozen other Reynolds portraits of their friends, including Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, and Reynolds himself.

For more on the importance of portraiture to David Garrick, see Heather McPherson’s essay, "Garrikomania: Garrick's Image".

items included

• Nathaniel Dance. David Garrick. Oil on canvas, 1774. FPa17. LUNA Digital Image.
• Robert Edge Pine. David Garrick. Oil on canvas, ca. 1780. FPa44. LUNA Digital Image.
• Studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds. David Garrick, The Prologue Portrait. Oil on canvas, ca. 1776-79. FPb37. LUNA Digital Image.

City and Country Homes

The homes of Mr. and Mrs. Garrick were well known by friends and visitors for their warmth and tasteful appointment. For twenty-three years they owned a home five minutes’ walk from Drury Lane, at 27 Southampton St. Perhaps a bit too near the business of the theater there, Garrick later bought both another city house at the fashionably high-society address of Adelphi Terrace, and a country home in Middlesex on the London road to Hampton Court. Entertaining by the Garricks was famous both for the literary and aristocratic company, and for their beautiful interiors and gardens. Samuel Johnson was to remark to Garrick upon seeing the estate at Hampton that “it is the leaving of such places as these that makes a death-bed terrible.”

The Adelphi

In March 1772 David and Eva moved from Southampton St. to a townhouse at no. 5 on the new Adelphi Terrace at Durham Yard on the Thames. Built by architect Robert Adam and brothers and furnished by Chippendale, Haig and Co., the home was sumptuously outfitted and in grand surroundings. Neighbors included: at no. 3, Topham Beauclerk, a Royal Society fellow and avid book collector and the great-grandson of Charles II and actress Nell Gwynne; and at no. 7, Dr. John Turton, physician to the Queen’s Household and the doctor who ministered to Garrick during his illness in Munich.

Hampton House

Garrick acquired Hampton House, his Thames-side villa, from Lacey Primatt in 1762 after renting it for the previous eight years. He had it remodeled in 1775 by architect Robert Adam (1728–1792) with designer Robert Chippendale (d. 1779) supplying furniture and landscape architect Lancelot (Capability) Brown (d. 1783) designing the gardens. A grotto tunnel under the Westminster-Hampton Court Road led to the Shakespeare Temple, inspired by the Temple at the Burlington’s Chiswick House and built in 1755–56 on the bank of the river. The home kept at Hampton by the Garricks was much admired by their contemporaries for its decoration and charm. One night at a Hampton House dinner with Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Charles Burney, Miss Hannah More, and other friends, James Boswell exclaimed:

I believe this is about as much as can be made of life!

The Garrick Chair

This elaborate chair was installed in Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare on the grounds of his house at Hampton and was depicted (with artistic license) in a painting by William Hogarth of Mr. and Mrs. Garrick. The history of this Early English Rococo piece was described in 1782 by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) who explained that William Hogarth “designed for him [Garrick], as president of the Shakespeare Club, a mahogany chair richly carved on the back of which hangs a medal of the poet carved by Hogarth out of the mulberry tree planted at Stratford by Shakespeare.” But the surviving bas relief carving is of plaster. In 1794, Samuel Ireland called this piece “rather surcharged with ornaments,” and more recent art historians have described it as both “a kind of grim grotesque” and “demented baroque.” Despite these assessments, the “Garrick – Hogarth – Shakespeare Chair” was referred to in a 1779 inventory taken after Garrick’s death as “a very Elegant Antique Elbow Chair enriched with emblematical carved work.” Note the many symbols of literature, theater and the arts such as the surmounted dagger and sword representing the Tragedies and, alluding to the Comedies, satyr masks and cloven feet on the chair’s legs. Following the death in 1823 of Eva Maria Garrick, the chair went through several owners including Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

Roubiliac Terracotta and Rondeau

This terra-cotta sculpture is the second and larger of two preparatory models made for the full-length marble, commissioned by Garrick for a niche in his Hampton House Temple to Shakespeare and bequeathed by him to the British Museum. Although the depiction here is of a moment of inspiration, the final marble presents a more reserved figure, with finger on chin rather than cheek. Another significant difference is the finished back of this piece, left uncompleted on the final version. Garrick is likely to have posed for this statue, although Roubiliac also relied on a copy of the Chandos portrait (the earliest possibly authentic portrait of Shakespeare) which he borrowed from the Duke of Chandos and which Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) made an additional copy of for Roubiliac. This maquette is depicted in a portrait by Adrian Carpentiers (ca. 1713–1778) showing Roubiliac at work.

Roubiliac was a friend of David Garrick's, and was part of the Slaughter's Coffee House literary circle which included William Hogarth. Roubiliac worked on other pieces for the Temple in addition to the statue of Shakespeare, including a bronze bas-relief bust of Garrick now in The Garrick Club. This Rondeau, in Garrick's hand (and idiosyncratic spelling), is one of just a few pieces of writing attributable to Roubiliac. In addressing Garrick directly, it refers to the Garrick Club bronze, created for the Temple as a gift for Mrs. Garrick:

Garrick Intendant du valon

Dont Shakespear a fait la moisson

Ton merit exempt de tout blame

pour la posterité réclame

De tes traits l'imitation;

En Bronze dans ce Medaillon

J'en ai tenté l'echantillon,

Et pour Cadeau l'offre a Madame Garrick—

Imiter du front au Menton,

N'est pas grand chose dira-t-on—

mais quand aux passions de l'ame

Ce qui nous glace, nous Enflame

Qui le peindra? chacun repond

Garrick.

Roubiliac Rondeau, in English Translation

Garrick, steward of the vale

cultivated by Shakespeare,

Your merit beyond reproach,

Posterity calls for

an imitation of your features.

In this bronze medallion

I have attempted a representation

And offer it as a gift to Mrs. Garrick—

Imitating a face

Is no great thing, of course—

But as for the passions of the soul

Which chill us, enflame us,

Who will depict that? Everyone replies

Garrick.

items included

• Unknown artist. A View of the Adelphi (late Durham Yard). Etching, 1771. Uncat. Garrickiana Maggs no.206 folder 13. LUNA Digital Image
• Taylor. View of the seat of the late David Garrick, esqr. at Hampton, with a prospect of the Temple of Shakespeare in the Garden. Etching, late 18th century. Uncat. Garrickiana UCG-96. LUNA Digital Image.
• William Hogarth. The President's Chair of the Shakespeare Club, designed for David Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare at Hampton. Mahogany, ca. 1756. ART Inv. 1044. LUNA Digital Image.
• Louis François Roubiliac. Shakespeare. Terracotta, 1757. FSs1. LUNA Digital Image.
• Louis François Roubiliac. Rondeau by Roubiliac the famous statuary with a bas-relief in brass for Mrs. G. Manuscript, in David Garrick's hand, ca. 1758. Y.d.198. LUNA Digital Image.

The Actor

“Mr. Garrick is but of a middling Stature, yet, being well proportion’d, and having a peculiar Happiness in his Address and Action, is a living instance, that it is not essential to a Theatrical Hero, to be six Foot high.” So wrote an admirer early in Garrick’s career. Praise for his vocal and physical abilities on the stage only grew over the years.

The Entrepreneur

Not surprisingly, Garrick's talents and ambition drew him quickly towards theater management, where he could shape the entire spectacle. He cut his teeth as co-manager of Smock Alley in Dublin for the 1745-46 season, with Thomas Sheridan. Garrick then returned to London where he put in motion a plan to become co-manager of James Lacy's Drury Lane by playing the 1746–47 season for Lacy's rival, John Rich, at Covent Garden. Garrick's continued success under Rich had the desired effect, and he was able to strike a deal with Lacy for joint management of Drury Lane. He purchased a half-share of the patent for—and agreed to receive—£500 per year as co-owner, and £525 per year plus a benefit as a principal actor. Lacy took responsibility for everything relating to the building, while Garrick took responsibility for everything relating to productions.

The Playwright and Adapter

Garrick’s activity as a writer and adapter of plays was an essential part of his working life, perhaps because England’s greatest actor-manager flourished in an age of eminently forgettable dramas. Aside from a few works by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, author of The Rivals and School for Scandal, and Oliver Goldsmith, author of She Stoops to Conquer, there is little from the era of Garrick that survives in today’s repertory.

Throughout his career Garrick revived Shakespeare’s plays, in the process making careful use of the work of such contemporary editors and scholars as Samuel Johnson, Bishop William Warburton, Edward Capell, George Steevens, and others. But his reshaping of the plays also helped Garrick reshape Shakespeare’s image by personalizing and popularizing the characters. As a result, many pieces panned by critics and scholars were supported enthusiastically by the public. Garrick produced twenty-six Shakespeare plays, in the process performing seventeen roles himself.

Garrick's Legacy

Garrick’s legacy is by no means limited to his innovations on the stage. Garrick fueled the Shakespeare movement that turned a great English dramatist into the great English dramatist. He was the first theater manager to master the craft of public relations (and self-promotion). Drury Lane reached its zenith under Garrick. There was nothing like it until Sir Henry Irving’s reign at the Lyceum a century later.