1793-1808.

KEAN IN EMBRYO.

23

house was the Alonzo and Ferdinand; my parts were Zanga and Lazarillo. The success was great; we were all much applauded, and I remember the remark of a Mr. Caldecot, reported to me, "I should be uneasy if I saw a son of mine play so well." I had, however, no thought of this but as an amusement, and my pride would have been wounded if a suspicion had been hinted that I could regard it in any other light. The half-year closed with speeches before an auditory consisting only of the school and the gentry of the town. My place was the last among the speakers, and I can now remember the inward elation I felt in marking, as I slowly rose up, the deep and instant hush that went through the whole assembly; I recollect the conscious pride I felt, as the creaking of my shoes came audibly to my ears whilst I deliberately advanced to my place in the centre of the school. My speech was the oration of Titus Quintius, translated from Livy. It was a little triumph in its way, but the last I was doomed to obtain in dear old Rugby.

It was on my return home for one of my Christmas holidays that in passing through Birmingham I found the manager of the theatre there (which my father had relinquished on entering on his Manchester speculation) had sent tickets for a box. Conceiving it proper that the civility should be acknowledged by the appearance of some of our family, I went with one of my sisters and a friend. Richer, the Funambulist!" was the large-lettered attraction of the playbills. The play was 'The Busy-body,' very badly acted, and the after-piece a serious pantomime on the ballad of Alonzo and Imogene.' Richer represented the Baron "all covered with jewels and gold," and a female porpoise, rejoicing in the name of Watson, being the manager's wife, ungainly and tawdry, was the caricature of the "fair Imogene." As if in studied contrast to this enormous "hill of flesh," a little mean-looking man, in a shabby green satin dress (I remember him well), appeared as the hero, Alonzo the Brave. It was so ridiculous that the only impression I carried away was that the hero and heroine were the worst in the piece. How little did I know, or could guess, that under that shabby green satin dress was hidden one of the most extraordinary theatrical geniuses that have ever illustrated the dramatic poetry of

England! When, some years afterwards, public enthusiasm was excited to the highest pitch by the appearance at Drury Lane of an actor of the name of Kean, my astonishment may easily be conceived on discovering that the little insignificant Alonzo the Brave was the grandly impassioned personator of Othello, Richard, and Shylock!

1808-11.

FATHER IN DIFFICULTIES.

25

CHAPTER II.

1808-1811.-Father's pecuniary difficulties-Removal from Rugby-Father's theatrical tastes-Holman, Henderson, and Kemble in Hamlet'-Anecdotes of Macklin-Letter from William Birch-Visit to London-O.P. riotsActors of the day-Earliest gas in London-Father a prisoner for debtUndertake charge of his company-Journey from Chester to NewcastleTheatrical season at Newcastle-Country theatres-Father lessee of theatre at Birmingham-Début at Birmingham in Romeo (7th June, 1810)— Lothair in Adelgitha '-Norval-Zanga'-' George Barnwell'-Practice on the stage of the empty theatre-Portrait as Romeo by Dewilde-Catalani at the Opera House-Engagement at Newcastle-Achmet in Barbarossa' -Osmond in 'The Castle Spectre'-Rolla-Holiday at Tynemouth, practice on the seashore-Capture of a fish-Performance at Leicester and Birmingham-Albyn in 'The Countess of Salisbury,' Luke in 'Riches'-Hardyknute in The Wood Demon'-Coach travelling of the period-An escape from danger-Death of grandfather.

IN penning this record the continual recurrence of the "first person" grates against my taste and inclination, but an autobiography cannot dispense with I's.

My views had been to strive for one of the exhibitions to help me forward at Oxford, where a degree would have accelerated the period of being called to the Bar. But it was otherwise decreed. My father, who had accumulated a little property in the Funds by his successful management of the Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, and other theatres, outbid his competitors for the lease of the new Manchester Theatre, recently built, the expense attending which, its painting, furniture, and complete fitting up, swallowed the whole of his investment. A partner who could not fulfil the conditions of his contract added to his embarrassment, and a disastrous season left him minus to a very considerable amount. On my return home for the holidays of the winter, 1808–9, I was not

apprised of the difficulties under which my father was labouring. He was a man of a very sanguine temperament, and clung to hope till affairs became desperate. This was made known to me in a very painful way. I had given offence-I cannot

remember in what way, but I recollect that I did not conceive myself to blame. Chiefly owing to the interposition of the lady then staying in our house, my father inflicted a severe punishment upon me, which I conceived unmerited, and I took the truant boy's resolution to leave my home. Through my sisters this became known to the lady alluded to, and she took occasion to talk to me-to remonstrate with me, informing me of the desperate state of my father's affairs, and of his inability to pay my bills at Rugby for the last half-year. I was determined not to go back to Rugby under such circumstances. What then was to be done? Would not my going on the stage relieve my father from the further expense of my education? My expectations did not go beyond this result. The extravagant views however of my counsellor looked to another Young Roscius furore (I being not yet sixteen years of age), and speculated on a rapid fortune! I had neither the vanity nor the folly to entertain for one instant such ideas; but if I could lighten the load then pressing on my father by foregoing the cost of my education, and could aid him by my co-operation, that I was willing and ready to do. She advised me to go at once to my father, then at the theatre, about a mile distant, make my peace with him, and propose this alternative to him. I fancy she had prepared him for it, in signifying her intention to speak to me on the subject.

I found him in his private room in the theatre, and expressing my regret for having offended him, stated my wish, as my bills at Rugby could not be paid, to take up the stage as a profession. He made a slight demur to the proposal, intimating that Mr. Birch would arrange for the non-payment of the bills-that it had been the wish of his life to see me at the Bar, but that if it was my real wish to go upon the stage, it would be useless for him to oppose it. I gave him to understand that my mind was made up, and the die was cast. I was not then aware of the distance between the two starting-points of life. My father was impressive in his convictions that the stage was a gentlemanly profession. My experience has taught me that whilst the law, the church, the army, and navy give a man the rank

1808-11.

ADOPTS THE STAGE.

27

of a gentleman, on the stage that designation must be obtained in society (though the law and the Court decline to recognise it) by the individual bearing. In other callings the profession confers dignity on the initiated, on the stage the player must contribute respect to the exercise of his art. This truth, experienced too late, has given occasion to many moments of depression, many angry swellings of the heart, many painful convictions of the uncertainty of my position. I was not aware, in taking it, that this step in life was a descent from that equality in which I had felt myself to stand with those of family and fortune whom our education had made my companions. I had to live to learn that an ignorant officer could refuse the satisfaction of a gentleman on the ground that his appellant was a player, and that, whilst any of those abovenamed vocations, whatever the private character, might be received at Court, the privilege of appearing in the sacred precincts was too exclusive for any, however distinguished, on the stage. In giving once a very liberal subscription to a charity, Macklin was asked what name was to be placed before it.

"Why," he replied, "according to law I believe it should. be 'Charles Macklin, vagabond,' but you may enter it, by courtesy, 'C. Macklin, Esq.' Molière and Shakespeare, as stageplayers, would have come within the English law's category of "vagabonds!"

to

But at the early age of sixteen my lot was decided, and henceforward my resolve was taken to do the best I could with the means presented to me. My kind friend Birch undertook pay the Rugby bills, exceeding £100. My brother Edward, younger than myself by five years, continued his studies at a day-school at Manchester, whilst I, making myself as useful as I could to my father in his struggle through the remainder of his theatrical season, divided the time at my disposal between occasional snatches of work at my old classic authors, taking lessons in fencing, and getting by heart the words of such youthful characters in the drama as would seem most likely to suit my age and powers. I have had reason to question the judgment of my father in much that he would recommend and insist upon in my preparation for the stage. With a certain amount of cleverness, his notions and tastes were what I may call too "stagey" to arouse or nurse the originality of a first-rate