Their Majesties' Servants. Annals of the English Stage (Volume 3 of 3)

Dr. Doran no doubt means that Macklin's father was not killed at the Battle of the Boyne.

10

14th of February (2d edition).

11

Macklin does not seem to have been at Covent Garden in 1754. He had a farewell benefit at Drury Lane, 20th December 1753, after which he opened his tavern.

12

Miss Macklin made her first appearance, as a woman, on 10th April 1751, on the occasion of her father's benefit.

13

Cooke, whose account of this matter is very full, says 3s. a head.

14

Macklin was at Drury Lane, 1759-60; Covent Garden, 1760-61; and was in Dublin, at Crow Street, in 1761-62.

15

Sheridan was not manager after 1759. Macklin acted under the management of Dawson also.

16

1781. The "Man of the World" was produced 10th May 1781.

17

Should be 1781.

18

Her English playing ended in 1777, after which year she acted only in Ireland.

19

Her last appearance was 26th May 1780.

20

I cannot find any mention of her earlier than 1735.

21

1780.

22

Mrs. Cibber died on 30th January 1766.

23

Mrs. Bellamy calls this lady Godfrey.

24

The benefit took place on 24th May 1785.

25

Mrs. Pope's name is in the bills for the last time on 26th January 1797.

26

Mrs. Abington played the Widow Belmour, in "The Way to Keep Him," at Drury Lane, on 27th November 1765, being "her first appearance there for five years."

27

"The Miniature Picture" is not by Mrs. Robinson, but by the Margravine of Anspach.

28

Her last appearance was no doubt on 31st May 1780, when "Rule a Wife," and the "Miniature Picture" were played.

29

Miss Stephens died February 22, 1882.

30

Should be 5th of May.

31

He commenced with Essex – "Earl of Essex" – 3d October 1757. He played Hamlet on the 8th.

32

Ross left Covent Garden at the end of 1766-67. He appeared at the Edinburgh Theatre, in the Canongate, on 9th December 1767.

33

The money was partly subscribed by shareholders, and Ross seems to have owed most of the balance.

34

Ross died suddenly in 1790 (2d edition).

35

1783.

36

1788 (2d edition).

37

Not King's farewell benefit.

38

Should be Haymarket.

39

Johnstone's first appearance in England took place on 2d October 1783.

40

This is more than doubtful. The immoderate length of this part contributed largely to the condemnation of the play.

41

Her first appearance as an actress was made 23d April 1765.

42

According to Thomas Bellamy's Life of Parsons, he was a Londoner.

43

Bellamy gives Sir Fretful Plagiary as his last part – 19th January 1795.

44

Bellamy mentions that there was such a story as this current, but characterises it as false.

45

First appearance on any stage, 20th May 1762.

46

Should be 20th.

47

Ireland, Henderson's biographer, states that he was born in February 1747. He is said to have been baptized on 8th March.

48

"Walpole availed himself of Henderson's triumph to say something malicious of Garrick: 'Garrick is dying of yellow jaundice on the success of Henderson, a young actor from Bath,' which was not true" (2d edition).

49

I think this Garrick-worshipper was Tom Davies.

50

I can find no authority for this date. The birth of Mrs. Siddons is always stated to have taken place on 5th July 1755.

51

As a child. —Doran MS.

52

Sergeant Kite is the character which Lee Lewes, who tells the story, says that Mrs. Furnival taught Roger to play. Both characters are in the same play, the "Recruiting Officer."

53

The Earl of Coventry was said to be an admirer of her mother.

54

This seems to have been at Wolverhampton.

55

Two interesting letters were published in the Courier many years ago, which proved that Sir Henry Bate Dudley (then Mr. Bate) was Garrick's ambassador on this occasion. Garrick's letter contains some remarks on Mrs. Siddons's condition which are more expressive than elegant.

56

Should be the 13th.

57

This incident is said to have occurred at a rehearsal.

58

I do not know why Dr. Doran says "alleged" sister.

59

Campbell's account of this incident makes its meaning quite clear. He says that when, after a supreme effort, the silence was broken by the solitary "that's no' bad!" the audience was convulsed at the "ludicrous parsimony of praise." But the laughter was followed by such thunders of applause that it seemed as if the galleries would come down.

60

This is inaccurate. The play was a success, and Mrs. Siddons was said to have been seldom more admired than in it.

61

Walpole's letter is dated Christmas 1782.

62

This was the notorious Mrs. Curtis, previously mentioned. Mr. Percy Fitzgerald (Kembles, ii. 98) gives an admirable account of her life.

63

If this means that his supporters changed about and asked him to apologise, it is a strange perversion of the story.

64

These ladies appeared in the beginning of 1783, previous to both brothers' appearances.

65

The "Gamester" preceded "King John," being played on 22d November, while "King John" was not played till 10th December.

66

They almost certainly played in the "Countess of Salisbury" together on 13th April 1784; they undoubtedly were both in "Tancred and Sigismunda" on 24th April 1784, in the "Carmelite" on 2d December 1784, and in the "Maid of Honour" on 27th January 1785.

67

This must refer to Kemble's benefit, 6th April 1786.

68

Dr. Doran evidently considers that Kemble became manager about 10th October 1788 – the date of his address to the public on the subject of his new position. On the 30th September he had acted Hamlet; on 16th October he played Macbeth; on 20th October Lord Townly.

69

Kemble and Mrs. Siddons retired from Drury Lane in 1802.

70

I can find no record of his having played this part.

71

7th October 1802.

72

Henry Kemble sank into abject distress; he and his wife were glad to be allowed to take care of unoccupied houses. —Doran MS.

73

Is Dr. Doran not thinking of John Kemble's public apology?

74

His appearance as Lucia was after his becoming bound to a printer, and his crying is apocryphal.

75

Should be 31st October 1800.

76

Should be fourteen times. See note in vol. ii. page 82.

77

Cooke was playing at Providence, with the Boston company. Dunlap does not say, or imply, that he was taken ill specially on that night, which finished his engagement at Providence.

78

Died 24th August 1874, aged eighty-two.

79

This is somewhat fanciful. Jackson says nothing about Home, who was seated at the wing, "blubbering."

80

It is generally stated that the terms were fifty guineas and a clear benefit.

81

Should be twenty-eight nights.

82

This is wrong. Betty did play Zanga.

83

He again played at both houses, but his attraction was already waning.

84

Garrick dressed Macbeth in a suit of scarlet and gold. Macklin, in 1774, was the first to introduce any Scottish character into the costume.

85

Judging from Tate Wilkinson's account of this lady and her mother, this was not a slip.

86

Poets' beneficiary nights were of much earlier date. —Doran MS.

87

This benefit took place on 31st March 1720.

88

That is, the next season; the "Roman Father" was produced 24th February 1750.

89

It was Lewis's father who quited business for the stage.

90

His success over Mossop was only in one part, a comedy character utterly unfitted for the latter.

91

Some valuable remarks on this subject will be found in the article "Lewis Hallam, the Second," by Edward Eggleston in Brander Matthews' and Laurence Hutton's "Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States": New York, 1886.

92

Tate Wilkinson says she played Calista, and sang a song after the tragedy.

93

It is generally held that Wilkinson himself gave her the name of Jordan.

94

Should be 1794-95.

95

I do not know any reason for saying that he was in want.

96

Should be 1796. The date was 25th June.

97

1824, 31st May.

98

Mrs. Lefanu's "Prejudice" may be added.

99

That is, no new piece of any importance.

100

There were at Covent Garden also Young, and Mrs. Jordan.

101

Henry Carey hanged himself. I am not aware that his son committed suicide.

102

"I was born in the year 1787, and if anybody asks you who was my mother, say Miss Tidswell, the actress; my father was the late Duke of Norfolk, whom they called Jockey. I am not the son of Moses Kean, the mimic, nor of his brother, as some people are pleased to assert, though I bear the same name. I had the honour of being brought up at Arundel Castle till I was seven years old, and there they sometimes, I do not know why, called me Duncan

103

Miss Tidswell gives the date as 17th March 1789; but there can be little doubt that 1787 is the correct year.

104

In Notes and Queries, 4th series, iii. 535; Kean's real name is said to have been Carter. —Doran MS.

105

At Stroud, in Gloucestershire, July 17, 1808. The bride and her sister Susan, witness, wrote their names Chambres. —Doran MS.

106

26th of January (second edition).

107

Dyce called him "a pot-house Richard." —Doran MS.

108

When Rae played Hamlet in 1806, at the Haymarket, Kean was his Rosencrantz. —Doran MS.

109

There is a cipher too many here. In the 2d edition the sum is given as £17,000. Barry Cornwall says, "Upwards of £20,000."

110

The adaptation was by Wroughton.

111

The name of the tragedy was "Ina."

112

Barry Cornwall relates a precisely similar circumstance, to which Dr. Doran probably refers.

113

Miss O'Neill played Juliet on the 6th October (corrected in 2d edition).

114

Miss O'Neill (Lady Becher) died 29th October 1872, aged 80.

115

After Miss O'Neill married Becher and left the stage, she affected not even to know at what time the play began, and once, when some one quoted a line from one of her popular parts, she pretended not to know from whence it came. So says Payne Collier, but I know she went to see Kate Terry's Juliet, and that she sent to her the praise of "one who had played Juliet." —Doran MS.

116

I see no reason to suppose that it was not Wroughton's alteration that was performed this season also.

117

He played Achmet and Paul for his benefit. He played Eustace de St. Pierre ("Surrender of Calais") for the first time during this season.

118

Buckstone told me that, when young, he starved with a company at Hastings, and that Kean relieved them by leaving his yacht and playing for them two nights, gratis. Mr. York, of Penzance, told us that Kean came with his yacht into Mount's Bay, and that he acted superbly Richard, Othello, and Sir Giles, at the Penzance Theatre, – which is now a carpenter's shop. 1871. —Doran MS.

119

Alderman Cox was as much to blame as Kean. Kean, in 1824, writing to Mr. Vizell (?) says: "I imagine Mrs. Cox's age to be about forty-five. When she first flapped her ferret eyes and affections on me, I was about twenty-seven." —Doran MS.