t morning I heard that there had been extreme deep
play, and that Harry Furnese went drunk from White's at six o'clock, and
won the dear memorable sum of one thousand guineas.
"I saw Garrick in _Othello_ that same night, in which, I think, he was
very unmeaningly dressed, and succeeded in no degree of comparison with
Quin, except in the second scene, where Iago gives the first suspicions of
Desdemona."
As the letter does not describe Garrick's dress, we can only suppose it to
have been remarkably absurd, when it could have attracted the censure of
any one accustomed to the stage in the middle of the last century. Nothing
could be more ignorant, unsuitable, or unbecoming, that the whole system
of theatrical costume. Garrick, for example, usually played Macbeth in the
uniform of an officer of the Guards--scarlet coat, cocked hat, and
regulation sword, were the exhibition of the Highland chieftain's wardrobe,
and the period, too, when the Highland dress was perfectly known to the
public eye. It must be acknowledged that we owe the reformation of the
stage, in this important point, to the French. It was commenced by the
celebrated Clairon, and perfected by the not less celebrated Talma.
"I supped that night, _tete-a-tete_, with Metham, who was d----d angry
with Hubby Bubby (Doddington) for having asked all the Musquetaires to
supper but him. He went to sleep at twelve, and I to White's, where _I
staid till six_. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day with my Lord
Coke at a _cock match_; and went, towards the latter end of Quin's benefit,
to Mariamne.
"The coaches rattle by fast, and George brings me word the House is up,
and I assure you I am extremely hungry."
We now come to the name of a man who attained a considerable celebrity in
his own time, but has almost dropped into oblivion in ours, Sir Charles
Hanbury Williams. He was the third son of John Hanbury, Esq., a
Monmouthshire gentleman, and took the name of Williams on succeeding to
the property of his grandfather. His mother was aunt to George Selwyn.
Entering Parliament early in life, he adopted the ministerial side, and
was a steady adherent to Sir Robert Walpole. He had his reward in
ministerial honours, being created a Knight of the Bath; and though Sir
Robert died in 1745, Williams had so far established his court influence,
that he was successively appointed envoy to Saxony, minister at Berlin,
and ambassador at St Petersburg. He was a man of great pl
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