Garrick came off so well in his contest with Quin, that he probably had no fears of trying the fall to which he was challenged, with Barry. For this struggle Spranger Barry passed over to Drury Lane, to wrestle with David on his own ground. Drury may be called peculiarly his, for, by purchasing a share in the patent, he now commenced that career of management which lasted during his theatrical life, and the brilliancy of which was spoken of in every part of the world where an interest was felt in the intellectual enjoyments of the people.
The Drury Lane season of 1747-48 found Garrick joint-patentee with Lacy; Garrick directing the stage without interference, and receiving between six and seven hundred a year, as an actor, exclusive of his profits as part-proprietor. Garrick's company included Barry, Macklin, Delane, Havard, Mills, Yates, Barrington, Sparks, Lowe; and Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Clive, and other bright but lesser stars.
In this season the chief attractions were Macklin's Shylock, Barry's Hamlet, Othello, and Pierre; and in less degree, his Bajazet, Henry V., and Orestes. Garrick drew full houses by Archer and Abel Drugger, Lear and Richard, Sir John Brute and Plume, Hamlet and Macbeth; but the greatest attraction of all was when Garrick and Barry played together, as Chamont and Castalio ("Orphan") Hastings and Dumont ("Jane Shore"), Lothario and Horatio ("Fair Penitent"), and Jaffier and Pierre. Against such attractions as were here presented, with the addition of Mrs. Woffington as Sir Harry Wildair, and Mrs. Clive, in all that was light, airy, impertinent, and tuneful—Covent Garden was more than usually weak. The latter, however, depended on the "Beggar's Opera," on Ryan and Delane,[49] the younger Cibber, the Giffards, and especially Mrs. Horton; Woodward was in Ireland. Quin had withdrawn to Bath. Garrick's triumphs had soured him. He desired to be asked back, but Rich would not humour him. The one wrote, "I am at Bath; yours, James Quin:" and the other answered, "Stay there and be d——d; yours, John Rich." The old actor returned, however, to play Othello, without fee, on occasion of a "charity benefit." Drury Lane alone produced a new piece, with new characters for Garrick and Barry, namely, Moore's "Foundling," in which Garrick played Young Belmont with great éclat; Barry, Sir Charles Raymond, with dignity and tenderness, and Macklin, a knavish fop, Faddle, with wonderful power.
Moore, like Gay, had originally served in a draper's shop, and like Gay, wrote "Fables,"—"for the female sex." His "Foundling" bears some resemblance to the "Conscious Lovers;" but there is more art in the construction of the plot, and it is far purer than that piece which was written to inaugurate an era of purity. In the part of Faddle, he satirised a well-known individual, named Russell, who was the delight of ladies of ton, because of his good looks, crowning impudence, and his "imitations" of opera-singers. These qualities made him a guest, for whom ladies contended; and some displeasure arose, in aristocratic breasts, at Macklin's close mimicry of the man,—who, after all, on being arrested for a debt of £40, was left to pine, starve, and finally to die mad, in the Fleet prison. Such was the fate of this once favourite of fashion.
With the season of 1748-49, came increase of opposition between the two houses. At Drury Lane, Garrick and Barry played alternately Hamlet and Macbeth—the Hamlet of Garrick drawing by far the greater crowds. In the same pieces they played—Barry, Henry V., Garrick, the Chorus; Garrick, Horatio, Barry, Lothario; Garrick, Othello, Barry, Iago;[50] and Mahomet by Barry to the Demetrius of Garrick in Johnson's "Irene." Garrick also revived "A New Way to Pay Old Debts," in which King, springing from a coffee house, acted Allworth with great spirit and delicacy. It is strange that Garrick failed to perceive the golden opportunity he might have had as Sir Giles; he assigned the part to an inferior actor named Bridges, and preferred playing Fribble in "Miss in Her Teens." Garrick's greatest triumph this season was in playing Benedick to the Beatrice of Mrs. Pritchard. The town had not had so exquisite a delight for many a long day; and Garrick's happiness would have been supreme, but for the fact that Barry and Mrs. Cibber produced as great a sensation, though of another quality, in Romeo and Juliet. This last piece was not repeated,[51] to the great annoyance of Barry; and Garrick, at the close of the season married the pretty Violetti to the intense disgust of Mrs. Woffington, who now joined Rich.
At Covent Garden Quin, Delane, Ryan, Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Horton, and Miss Bellamy, were the chief attractions. Quin played many parts which Garrick would not attempt. Of those played by both actors, Quin is said to have surpassed Garrick in Sir John Brute. But the most exciting event of this season was the abduction of Miss Bellamy, while playing Lady Fanciful to Quin's Brute. A gentleman named Metham begged to be allowed to speak with her in the hall of the theatre, and thence carried her off and bore her away, little loth, I think, in his carriage. Quin explained the matter to the audience, who enjoyed it as a good thing done and a pleasant thing to hear of.
While the houses were thus contending, Foote was filling the little theatre in the Haymarket with an entertainment of his own; but there were authors of a higher class offering more intellectual pieces to the town. Fourteen years before, when Samuel Johnson was keeping school near Lichfield, he wrote his tragedy "Irene," which, in its rough state, he brought to London, when he and Garrick came up together in search of fortune. With poet, as with actor, the aspects of life had improved; but most with the latter. Johnson, now about forty, had been long known for his London, and had at this time put the finishing touches to his Vanity of Human Wishes. Garrick produced his friend's tragedy, and Johnson was present on the first night in gala dress, but not to be crowned, as Voltaire was, when the lively old Frenchman attended the representation of his "Irene." For nine nights, yielding the poet three benefits—Garrick, Demetrius; Barry, Mahomet; and Mrs. Cibber and Mrs. Pritchard as Aspasia and Irene, exerted themselves—with indifferent success. There is no local colour in this Turkish piece; the language and sentiment are elevated, but they are never oriental in form or spirit. The unities are strictly preserved, but not nature; and therewith the piece was set aside, and Johnson never tried the drama again.
In this season, too, kindly, over-speculating, fanciful Aaron Hill, brought his efforts to a close, with "Merope;"—and creditably, although he challenged comparison with Corneille, and in some things was allowed to have stood it with advantage. The piece was successful, but the author did not live to profit by it.[52] His family were weeping for his death, while audiences were shedding tears at the acting of Garrick, Dorilas; and Mrs. Pritchard, Merope. Not only did this tragedy long hold the stage, but the subject of a mother suffering because of a lost son, was so agreeable, it would seem, that Browne, Whitehead, and Home, adopted it in "Barbarossa," "Creusa," and "Douglas."
Covent Garden, too, had its classical tragedy, in "Coriolanus," brought forward by Quin, after his friend Thomson's death. Quin played the hero of Thomson's play; Ryan, Tullius; Delane, Galesus; Mrs. Woffington, Veturia; and Miss Bellamy, Volumnia. This tragedy is worth reading, if it be only to see how very civil and colloquial the hot leader of the Volsci could be made by the Scottish poet in Kew Lane. In Shakspeare's tragedy, we have the annals of a life put into action. In Thomson's, as in Laharpe's "Coriolan," we have a single incident diluted through five acts;—the secession from Rome, and its consequences, forming the staple of a play which ends with a tag of trotting rhymes, which are as natural, and not half so amusing, as if the grave speaker of them had danced a hornpipe in his cothurni. In 1749-50, symptoms were discernible of a break up in the Drury Lane company. Mrs. Cibber, at odds with Garrick, withdrew; and Barry, not allowed to play Romeo, was often indisposed to act in other plays. So it was said: but he publicly protested against any feigned indisposition. He repeated many of his old parts with Garrick, and created Publius Horatius to Garrick's Horatius, in Whitehead's "Roman Father." At Covent Garden, Delane exerted his dying efforts fruitlessly against Barry; and Woffington opposed Woodward in Sir Harry Wildair.
The above tragedy, by the son of a Cambridge baker, and one of Clare Hall's most honoured Fellows, was not the only novelty produced at Drury;—whither William Shirley brought from Portugal, where he had written it in his leisure hours, his "Edward, the Black Prince." Garrick played Edward; Barry, Ribemont; and Mrs. Ward, Marianne. It will suffice, as a sample of Shirley's insight into the Prince's character, to say, that he makes Edward, for love of Marianne, desert to the French side! A more absurd violation of history was never perpetrated by poet.[53] In the way of novelty, excepting pantomimic trifles, Covent Garden offered no sign.