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VII.—The Rise of a Theory of Stage Presentation in England During the Eighteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Stage history has generally been regarded by the student of the arts as a thing apart. It has been assumed that the stage has developed its own art, influenced only by the art of the stage in other lands or in other times. In general, this assumption seems to me unjustified. Rather, the stage should, I believe, be regarded as giving expression in its art to the dominant artistic theory of the time. It is only in its medium of expression that the art of the stage differs from the other arts; its fundamental artistic theory is that held in common with the other arts. Certainly, it seems to me, it is only in this fashion that one can account for the changes in the theory of dramatic presentation that came about within the compass of the eighteenth century. It is my purpose in this paper, therefore, to show the development of the theory of acting in England in the eighteenth century, and to show that in its development the theory of acting followed the general artistic theory of the day.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1917
References
1 Roscius Anglicanus. A facsimile reprint of the rare original of. 1708. London, J. M. Jarvis and Son, 1886, p. 21.
2 Ibid., p. 24.
3 Thomas Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies (London, 1784), vol. iii, p. 126.
4 In Dodsley, A Select Collection of Old Plays (London, 1780), vol. xii, p. 339.
5 An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian and Patentee of the Theatre Royal. Written by himself. (Ed. Bell-chambers, London, 1822), pp. 208-215.
6 Reprinted in Grolier Society Edition of Colley Cibber. Cf. vol. ii, p. 321.
7 Davies, l. c, vol. ii, p. 278.
8 Quoted in Thomas Betterton, The History of the English Stage from the Restoration to the Present Time (1741), p. 146.
9 Davies, l. c., vol. ii, pp. 276, 277.
10 The Life of Mr. James Quin, Comedian, with the History of the Stage from his Commencing Actor to his Retreat to Bath (London, 1766), p. 17.
11 Cf. Works (1760), vol. i, pp. 24-26.
12 Davies, l. c., vol. i, p. 232.
13 W. J. Young, Memoirs of Mrs. Crouch (London, 1806), vol. i, p. 155.
14 Ed. of 1755, p. 5.
15 Ibid., p. 21.
16 Pepys, Cibber, Aston, and others of the lesser writers furnish abundant evidence for this statement. Cf. Dibdin, A Complete History of the Stage, vol. x, pp. 230, 231, for a summary.
17 Davies, l. c., vol. i, pp. 33, 34.
18 Aston, l. c., p. 311.
19 Downes, l. c., p. 51.
20 Hill, l. c., vol. i, pp. 148, 149.
21 Dibdin, l. c., vol. iv, pp. 419, 420.
22 W. Cooke, Memoirs of Charles Macklin (1806), p. 16.
23 Davies, l. c., vol. iii, p. 80.
24 Thomas Davies, Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, Esq. (London, 1780), vol. i, p. 40.
25 William Cooke, Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq. (1805), vol. i, pp. 38, 39.
26 Arthur Murphy, The Life of David Garrick, Esq. (London, 1801), vol. i, p. 17.
27 Davies, Life of D. G., vol. i, p. 28.
28 Ibid., p. 40.
29 Davies, Dram. Mis., vol. ii, p. 133.
30 Quoted in Joseph Knight, David Garrick (London, 1894), pp. 62, 63.
31 James Kirkman, Memoirs of the Life of Charles Macklin, Esq. (London, 1799), vol. i, p. 469.
32 Ibid., vol. i, p. 328.
33 James Boaden, The Life of Mrs. Jordan (London, 1831), vol. ii, pp. 22, 23.
34 Ed. of 1755, p. 246.
35 Page 43.
36 Pages 25, 26.
37 Dram. Mis., vol. i, p. 51
38 Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 154-190.
39 Kirkman, l. c., vol. i, p. 347.
40 William Cooke, Memoirs of Charles Macklin, Comedian (2nd ed., 1806), pp. 12, 13.
41 Davies, Life of D. G., vol. i, ckap. xiii.
42 Kirkman, l. c., vol. i, pp. 253-265.
43 The account has been repeated with variations by every chronicler of things theatric, but Cooke's description (cf. pp. 98, 99) is particularly interesting, because it stresses Macklin's interest in the success of Garrick.
44 John Genest, Some Account of the English Stage, from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830 (Bath, 1832), vol. iv, pp. 20-22.
45 See especially Cooke, Macklin, pp. 148, 149, and Kirkman, l. c., vol. i, pp. 292-295.
46 Kirkman, l. c., vol. i, p. 316.
It is interesting to note that Davies records that Mrs. Woffington went to Paris “to perfect herself in the grace and grandeur of the French theatre,” and that “here she was introduced to Mademoiselle Dumeseil, an actress celebrated for natural elocution and dignified action.” But since Davies gives no clue to the date of this visit, its significance cannot be estimated. Cf. Davies, Life of D. G., vol. i, p. 309.
47 Davies, Dram. Mis., vol. i, pp. 40, 41.
48 For a discussion of this source pamphlet see Knight, l. c., p. 211.
49 Macklin's popularity as a dramatic coach constantly increased after this time. He was employed by various persons of high rank and was engaged to instruct in elocution His Royal Highness, the Duke of York. Cf. Kirkman, l. c., vol. i, pp. 332, 333, and 463.
50 Hogarth (pp. 151-153) also gives expression to one of Garrick's favorite doctrines concerning the test of acting by a foreigner, ignorant of the language, who must base his judgment of the play upon the movements of the characters. It will be shown later in this paper that Garrick delighted to submit his own acting to this test.
51 Cooke, Macklin, pp. 199-209 and 212-214.
52 Hedgcock, l. c., pp. 96-107.
53 Pollock, W. H., The Paradox of Actimg, 1883, p. 1. Note.
Professor J. Bédier in Etudes Critiques, discusses a relevant question under the title of Le “Paradoxe sur le Comédien” Est-Il de Diderot? In any case Diderot's Paradoxe was, though written after Garrick's visit, not published for many years, and hence had no immediate effect on stage theory. It is of significance here because it shows the acting of Garrick to have influenced rather than to have been influenced by French ideals.
54 Austin Dobson, William Hogarth (1891), pp. 17, 18.
55 Davies, Life of D. G., vol. ii, p. 81. The story is repeated by all Garrick's biographers.
56 Many of these tales are suggested in James Northcote, The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, to the second edition (1819) of which work I have referred.
57 Kirkman, l. c., vol. i, pp. 246-249 and 259, 260. See also James Boaden, Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons (1827), vol. ii, p. 163. Also Boaden, Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, Esq. (1825), vol. i, p. 440. Incidental references to Garrick's great weakness are, however, numerous.
58 That these criticisms were occasionally offered to Garrick himself by anonymous well-wishers is evident from the letters preserved in the Garrick Correspondence. Cf. vol. i, pp. 109-111 particularly.
59 Boaden, l. c., vol. ii, p. 163.
60 Cor., vol. i, pp. 177 and 509.
61 Ibid., pp. 358, 359.
62 Knight, l. c., p. 214.
63 For a history of the matter see Karl Mantzius, A History of Theatrical Art (1905).
64 John Watkins, Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of the Right Honorable R. B. Sheridan, with a particular Account of his family and Connexions (3rd ed. London, 1818), vol. i, pp. 46 seq.
The facts hereafter recorded are the facts recorded in common by all the biographers of the Sheridans.
65 Northcote, l. c., vol. i, p. 107.
66 Cor., vol. i, pp. 334, 335.
67 Bosanquet in his History of Aesthetic comments on Reynolds's Theory as an attempt “to dissociate the grand style from decorative formalism and explain it with reference to a normal or central ‘inclination of nature.‘”
68 Percy Pitzgerald, The Garrick Club, (p. 210) makes comment on the portraits of Henderson, saying they make him seem to have had the rude methods of the conventional player in elocutionizing. But such was not the contemporary judgment upon his acting.
69 Boaden as the friend of the Kembles was perhaps their most sympathetic interpreter. His comment upon Henderson, too, is significant. The difficulty he found in Henderson was that which resulted from an effort to make natural on the stage what was written as artificial dialogue, Dr. Johnson's Irene, for instance. The Kembles were better able sympathetically to interpret this sort of dialogue, he felt. Cf. Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons, vol. ii, pp. 48, 49.
70 Boaden, Mrs. S., vol. ii, pp. 290, 291.
71 Ibid., pp. 284-290.
72 William Hazlitt, The Collected Works of, ed. Waller and Glover, 1903, vol. viii, p. 312. An account of Mrs. Siddons published in The Examiner for June 16, 1816.