David Garrick was an English actor, writer and theatre manager. He was born in 1717 at Hereford and died in 1779. His grandfather was a French refugee, his fattier a captain in the army. He was educated at Lichfield grammar-school, spent a short time at Lisbon with an uncle, and returning to Lichfield was placed under Samuel Johnson, who was induced to accompany him to the metropolis in 1737. Garrick then began to study for .the law, but on the death of his father joined his brother Peter in the winetrade. He had, however, as a child a strong pasaion for acting, and in 1741 he joined Giffard's company at Ipswich under the name of Lyddal. At Giffard's theatre in Good-man's-fields he achieved a great success as Richard III, and in 1742 was no less successful at Drury Lane. In 1745 he became joint manager with Sheridan of a theatre in Dublin, and after a season at Covent Garden in 1746 purchased Drury Lane in conjunction with Lacy, opening it on the 15th of September, 1747, with the Merchant of Venice, to which Dr. Johnson furnished a prologue. From this period may be dated a comparative revival of Shakespeare, and a reform both in the conduct and license of the drama.
In 1763 he visited the Continent for a year and a half. He had already written his farces of The Lying Valet, Lethe, and Miss in her Teens; and in 1766 he composed, jointly with Colman, the excellent comedy of The Clandestine Marriage. After the death of Lacy, in 1773, the sole management of the theatre devolved upon David Garrick, until 1776, when he sold his moiety of the theatre for 37,000 pounds, performed his last part, Don Felix in The Wonder, for the benefit of the theatrical fund, and bade an impressive farewell to the stage. He died on January the 20th, 1779, and was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. Besides the pieces mentioned he wrote some epigrams, a number of prologues and epilogues, and a few dramatic interludes. As a man David Garrick was highly respected, the chief defect of his character being vanity. As an actor he has probably never been excelled, and he was almost equally great both in tragedy and in comedy. He left a large fortune. Research David Garrick
Abbreviations
Research David Garrick
