ic and natural, The scenes and persons in their plays are taken from
the life around them, and appealed to the very models from which they were
drawn.

DAVID GARRICK.--First among these purifiers of the drama is David Garrick,
who was born in Lichfield, in 1716. He was a pupil of Dr. Johnson, and
came up with that distinguished man to London, in 1735. The son of a
captain in the Royal army, but thrown upon his own exertions, he first
tried to gain a livelihood as a wine merchant; but his fondness for the
stage led him to become an actor, and in taking this step he found his
true position. A man of respectable parts and scholarship, he wrote many
agreeable pieces for the stage; which, however, owed their success more to
his accurate knowledge of the _mise en scene_, and to his own
representation of the principal characters, than to their intrinsic
merits. His mimetic powers were great: he acted splendidly in all casts,
excelling, perhaps, in tragedy; and he, more than any actor before or
since, has made the world thoroughly acquainted with Shakspeare. Dramatic
authors courted him; for his appearance in any new piece was almost an
assurance of its success.

Besides many graceful prologues, epigrams, and songs, he wrote, or
altered, forty plays. Among these the following have the greatest merit:
_The Lying Valet_, a farce founded on an old English comedy; _The
Clandestine Marriage_, in which he was aided by the elder Colman; (the
character of _Lord Ogleby_ he wrote for himself to personate;) _Miss in
her Teens_, a very clever and amusing farce. He was charmingly natural in
his acting; but he was accused of being theatrical when off the stage. In
the words of Goldsmith:

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting;
'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting.

Garrick married a dancer, who made him an excellent wife. By his own
exertions he won a highly respectable social position, and an easy fortune
of L140,000, upon which he retired from the stage. He died in London in
1779.

In 1831-2 his _Private Correspondence with the Most Celebrated Persons of
his Time_ was published, and opened a rich field to the social historian.
Among his correspondents were Dr. Johnson, Boswell, Goldsmith, Gibber,
Sheridan, Burke, Wilkes, Junius, and Dr. Franklin. Thus Garrick catered
largely to the history of his period, as an actor and dramatic author,
illustrating the stage; as a reviver of Shakspeare, and as a correspon