David Garrick - Actor-manager of Drury Lane Theatre
Biography
Birth: Feb 19, 1717 in Hereford
Death: Jan 20, 1779 at his house in Adelphi Buildings, London
English actor, dramatist and theatre manager of the Drury Lane theater. Son of Peter Garrick (1681-1736/7) and Arabella Clough (1694-1740). Brother of George Garrick. He arrived in London in 1737 together with his former mentor Dr. Johnson. He had his breakthrough in 1741 when he starred as Richard III in Shakespeares play, and he was one of the most (if not the most) popular London actor for the following 30 years. In 1747 he became the manager of Drury Lane, a position which he kept until 1776.
Life with James Boswell
According to BLA, Boswell had met David Garrick as early as 1760. They next met on January 13, 1763 in Garrick's own home in London, where Garrick extended a permanent breakfast invitation to Boswell. On January 20 of that year he predicted that "you [Boswell] will be a very great man". On January 21 they breakfasted together, in the company of James Love and John Brown. Boswell didn't see much more of him during the remainder of his 62-63 stay in London. Years later they were both members of the famous literary club.
Recommended literature
From Amazon.co.uk
- Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick: Interspersed with Characters..
- The Clandestine Marriage
- [Boswell's] Correspondence with David Garrick, Edmund Burke and Edmund Malone
From Questia Online Library - the Internet's Largest Library
- Burnim, Kalman A. (1961) David Garrick, Director. (Read it now!)
- Oman, Carola. (1958) David Garrick. (Read it now!)
- Bergman, F.L. (1980). The Plays of David Garrick, Vol. 1. (Read it now!)
If you find nothing of interest on Amazon or Questia, you might try the AbeBooks used books search engine.
Related links
Mentioned in
David Garrick is mentioned in:
- London Journal 1762-1763
