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CHAP. Il.J DAVID GARRICK.

" come bounding on the stage, and pointing at the wittol 1759.
" Altamont and heavy-paced Horatio—Heavens! what a Mi. 31.
" transition! it seemed as if a whole century had been
" stepped over in the passage of a single scene ; old
" things were done away, and a new order at once brought
" forward, bright and luminous, and clearly destined to dispel
" the barbarisms of a tasteless age, too long superstitiously
" devoted to the illusions of imposing declamation."

Such was the actor whose Eichard first blazed forth on the
night of the 19th October 1741, to the sudden amazement
of all whom, sympathy or chance had brought to Goodman's
Fields, and the abiding delight of the few who had the taste
or powers of appreciation of this Westminster scholar. But
if any such were present, they have made no sign for us, and
the glories of that night are passed away. "What survives of
it, and I can alone exhibit, are the fears which clashed the
triumph; the misgivings inseparable from the calling on
which little David had entered; the sense as of a shameful
forfeiture of station, which had lowered the son of a marching
captain into a mean stage-player; and the trembling deference
and deprecation with which tidings had to be conveyed to
the sedate and respectable Lichfield wine-merchant, that
his younger brother had taken that fatal step in life, which
at no distant day was to associate him with whatever the
land contained illustrious by birth or genius, to open to him
such instant means of giving innocent pleasure to great
masses of his fellow creatures as any other human being
has perhaps never enjoyed, to load himself with wealth, to
lift above necessity all who were related to him, and to make
the name they bore a pleasant and long-remembered word
all over England.

One of the audience on that 19th of October was a staid,



	CHAP. Il.J DAVID GARRICK. " come bounding on the stage, and pointing at the wittol 1759. " Altamont and heavy-paced Horatio—Heavens! what a Mi. 31. " transition! it seemed as if a whole century had been " stepped over in the passage of a single scene ; old " things were done away, and a new order at once brought " forward, bright and luminous, and clearly destined to dispel " the barbarisms of a tasteless age, too long superstitiously " devoted to the illusions of imposing declamation." Such was the actor whose Eichard first blazed forth on the night of the 19th October 1741, to the sudden amazement of all whom, sympathy or chance had brought to Goodman's Fields, and the abiding delight of the few who had the taste or powers of appreciation of this Westminster scholar. But if any such were present, they have made no sign for us, and the glories of that night are passed away. "What survives of it, and I can alone exhibit, are the fears which clashed the triumph; the misgivings inseparable from the calling on which little David had entered; the sense as of a shameful forfeiture of station, which had lowered the son of a marching captain into a mean stage-player; and the trembling deference and deprecation with which tidings had to be conveyed to the sedate and respectable Lichfield wine-merchant, that his younger brother had taken that fatal step in life, which at no distant day was to associate him with whatever the land contained illustrious by birth or genius, to open to him such instant means of giving innocent pleasure to great masses of his fellow creatures as any other human being has perhaps never enjoyed, to load himself with wealth, to lift above necessity all who were related to him, and to make the name they bore a pleasant and long-remembered word all over England. One of the audience on that 19th of October was a staid,