258 The Georgian Drama [CH.
the masterpieces of the Elizabethan drama were altered to suit
the powers of the actor. When Hamlet was reedited by Cibber,
and Lear by Nahum Tate, playwrights must have perceived that
literary talent was no longer a necessity. It became even rarer
as the theatre rose in public estimation. Thanks to actors, plays
had longer runs, and people paid more to see them. Those who
contributed towards the production of these fashionable enter-
tainments began to prosper, and the more dramatists enjoyed the
luxuries of conventional society, the less they retained touch with
the tragedy and comedy of real life. Quin1 was the last of the old
school, and Macklin was the first to bring his own personality into
his interpretations2. But the conflict between classical literature
and dramatic taste was undecided, till Garriek's genius showed that
gesture, pose and facial expression were so effective that even the
dumb-show of ballet-pantomimes could please an audience more
than old-time rhetoric*. An apparently trivial change in the
arrangement of the theatre drew the drama further from literature.
To give actors more space and to obviate interruptions, spectators
were removed from the stage in 17624, and, as the loss of these
seats would have fallen heavily on the recipient of a benefit, the
auditorium was lengthened. Thus, although the ' apron' still pro-
jected a few feet into the auditorium, the business of the play
had no longer the advantage of taking place among onlookers.
Before 1765, Drury lane was chiefly illuminated by chandeliers,
though candle-footlights had already been introduced. Garrick,
on returning from his continental tour5, engaged the services of
Barth&&non, whose violin won success for many worthless pieces,
and ordered Parisian scenery and lamp-footlights from Jean
Monnet6. The concentration of light threw into relief the
1 1693—1756.
* * I spoke so familiar Sir, and BO little in the hoity-toity tone of the tragedy of
that day, that the manager told me that I had better go to grass for another year or
two.' Macklin, alluding to Rich, -who had dismissed him from Lincoln's Inn fields.
See Kirkman, J., Memoir* of the Life of Charles Macklin (1799).
8 Noverre, in Lettres sin- les Art*, testifies to Garriek's skill in pantomime. Walpole,
hi describing Glover's Boadicea, gives conclusive evidence of the importance of acting
when he says ' Then there is a scene between Lord Sussex and Lord Cathcart, two
captives, which is most incredibly absurd : but yet the parts are so well acted, the
dresses so fine, and two or three scenes pleasing enough, that it is worth seeing.' To
George Montagu, 6 December 1753.
* See Knight, Joseph, David Garrick (1894), pp. 183 f.
8 19 September 1763—27 April 1765.
6 Connected, at different times, with the Opfra-Comique and the Theatre de la
Poire. Garrick also ordered costumes from SL Boquet, dessinateur d'iiabitt a Vo$ira.
See Jullien, A., L'Histoire du Cottume au Theatre (1880).