1767. in treaty with Beard; but another rumour was with greater Et. 39. difficulty believed, to the effect that inducements had been successfully thrown out to Powell, notwithstanding his habit, according to his own letters, of teaching his wife and children to bless Garrick's name, to withdraw him from his Drury Lane engagements and enlist him in hostility to Garrick. "I "have not always met with gratitude in a playhouse," had been the latter's remark, while Powell's gratitude was overflowing; and here was an illustration of it quite unexpected. There is no reason to doubt the interest which, in the midst of all his jealousies of temperament, the great actor had evinced for his young competitor; and from a narrative which necessarily throws into prominence the weaker points of his character, it should not be omitted that he really loved his art, and desired always to see it advanced in esteem. "Make sure of your ground in every step you take," had been his advice to Powell. "The famous Baron of France used to say, "that an actor should be nursed in the lap of Queens; by "which he meant that the best accomplishments were 66 66 * necessary to form a great actor. Read at your leisure other "books besides plays in which you are concerned. Do not "sacrifice your taste and feelings to applause: convert an "audience to your manner, do not be converted to theirs." It was ill return to find Powell now secretly deserting to the camp of the enemy! "It is impossible that it should hurt us," Garrick nevertheless wrote to his brother, with a sense that it would hurt them visible in every line. "If Powell "is to be director, we have reason to rejoice; for he is "finely calculated for management. What a strange affair! * The French actor, Baron. Grimm records the saying in proof of Baron's preposterous vanity. The letter quoted is that of December 1764. Gar. Cor. i. 177-8. See ante, i. 375-6, and 418-19. 66 "We shall know all in time. I am satisfied, be the news 1767. "true or false."* He knew more when he next wrote, Et.39. and was less able to comprehend it; but protested that every body would be surprised at the ease and little concern he should manifest on the occasion, and proceeded to give his brother amusing proofs of equanimity. "I am sure there is something in it; and yet, the more I think of it, the more I "am puzzled. Who finds money? what is the plan? who "are the directors? Damn me if I comprehend it, but I "shall know more. What! has Holland no hand in this? "-is he hummed? I have not the least idea of the matter, nor have I the least notion of their doing anything to give us one moment of uneasiness." t Holland, though a young actor in the same walk, and of ambitious expectations, had a most romantic friendship for Powell; had first introduced him to Garrick; had surrendered parts to him which at the time were understood to be his own; and, strangely enough, while the sudden death of Powell was matter of general regret in less than two years from this time, himself very suddenly died. But he had not the means to join Powell in such a scheme as the present, and the doubt of Powell's own means was a very natural one on Garrick's part. The money required, as he had himself before stated, was sixty thousand pounds, of which Harris and Rutherford contributed half; and with whatever reason he had questioned Powell's tact for the management, his inability to supply the money might at any rate be held as unquestionable. But even Garrick seems as little to have known what a fashion his handsome young rival had become, without as well as within the theatre, as that in two short years this fashion, and its attendant dissipation, would claim their victim.‡ + Ibid, i. 255. * Garrick Correspondence, i. 254. Powell died at Bristol, on the 7th July 1769, of a rheumatic fever and sore 1767. Et. 39. Eleven thousand pounds were advanced towards Powell's share in the patent, by the means and intercession of a famous beauty; and Colman, having added to his mother's legacy by a loan from Becket the bookseller, consented to supply Powell's ignorance of management, and become purchaser of the fourth share. The matter was finally arranged; another important desertion was effected from Drury Lane in the person of Yates and his wife (an exquisite, gentle actress, though Kitty Clive, in one of her letters,* objects to her habit of "totering about to much, and flumping down "to often"); and the agreements were signed; before Garrick again wrote from Bath to his brother. He was now uneasy enough. "Powell is a scoundrel," he said, "and Colman "will repent his conjunction in every vein . . . I hope to "God that my partner has not talked with Powell of an agreement, or a friendly intercourse, between the houses; "that would be ruin indeed! I cannot forgive Powell." + His partner, Lacy, had so spoken, and had indiscreetly promised a continuance of friendship; which Garrick at once withdrew; and exacting, as he had a perfect right to 66 throat, and a very handsome monument to his memory testified the general regret. Colman wrote rather a poor poetical inscription for the marble, which however sufficed to raise a hornet's nest of deans and prebends round his ears. * Penes me. Sir Joshua Reynolds related that when he and Garrick sat together in the orchestra on the first night of Jephson's Braganza, he saw Garrick suffused with tears at Mrs. Yates. James Harris (the author of Hermes) thus describes to Doctor Hoadly her benefit in the following Covent Garden season. "Never a fuller-pit and boxes thrown together: she acted the part of Electra, in "the Orestes of Voltaire, translated on purpose for her. For tone, and justness of "elocution, for uninterrupted attention, for everything that was nervous, various, "elegant, and true in attitudes and action, I never saw her equal but in Garrick, "and forgive me for saying I cannot call him her superior . . fame reports her to "have had interviews this summer at Paris with the incomparable Madame "Clairon. She is soon to act Medea, for the benefit of her husband." Wooll's Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton, 342. + Gar. Cor. i. 256. And see this great theatrical feud intelligently and fairly stated in the prefatory memoir to Garrick Correspondence, i. xliv-v, xlvii-viii. See also Murphy's Life of Garrick, ii. 48-9; and Peake's Colman Family, i. 192-8. 1767. do, Powell's bond of a thousand pounds forfeited by the breach of his engagement, he brought over Barry and Mrs. Et. 39. Dancer to Drury Lane by a bribe of £1500 a-year, and openly prepared for war. From the Yateses, with whom he was well acquainted, Goldsmith probably heard of all this while in progress, and naturally with some satisfaction. He made immediate overtures to Colman. By midsummer, Powell being in Bristol and the other two partners abroad, Colman was in the thick of his new duties; and, fortunately for Goldsmith, being left to make his preparations alone, his first acts of management (as he afterwards stated during his disputes with his fellow-patentees) were "the receiving a comedy of Doctor "Goldsmith, and making an engagement with Mr. Macklin," without consulting Harris and Rutherford, as he knew not where to direct to them. Very creditable, in all its circumstances, was this manifestation of sympathy on Colman's part to an untried brother dramatist; and Goldsmith, though so wearied already with his dramatic experience as to have resolved that his first should be his last comedy, might fairly think and rejoice, for others if not for himself, that dramatic poets were likely for the future to have a protector who would decline taking advantage of their dependant situation, and scorn the importance derivable from trifling with their anxieties. The words are in a letter he addressed to Colman, which now lies before me; which was found the other day among the papers of Colman's successor at the Haymarket;* and of which I here present a fac-simile to the reader. A man's handwriting is part of himself, and helps to complete his portraiture. * For this letter, found among the papers of the late Mr. Morris, the proprietor of the Haymarket Theatre, I am indebted to the kindness of his executor, my friend Mr. George Raymond, the biographer of Elliston. VOL. II. F 1767. Et. 39. Temple, Garden Court; Dear Sir, I am very you, much obliged to both for your kind/par tiality in my favour, and expres your tenderness in shortening to know, but objections I well happy that it is in hands the most ca remov hable in the word of you |