re, and that now and then reforms had been attempted,
without however resulting in any particular success. Garrick had
rendered the theatre invaluable services both as actor and as
stage-manager, but he had been unable to effect any very beneficial
change in the matter of dress. Indeed, it seems probable that his
attempt to appear as Othello had failed chiefly because he had
followed Foote's example and attired the character after a Moorish
fashion, discarding the modern military uniforms in which Quin and
Barry had been wont to play the part. The actor's short stature, black
face, and Oriental dress had reminded the audience of the turbaned
negro pages in attendance upon ladies of quality at that period:
"Pompey with the teakettle," as Quin had said, having possibly a plate
of Hogarth's present in his mind; and the innovation, which was
certainly commendable enough, was unfavourably received, even to
incurring some contempt. Garrick's dress as Hotspur, "a laced frock
and a Ramilies wig," was objected to, not for the good reason that it
was inappropriate, but on the strange ground that it was "too
insignificant for the character." A critic writing in 1759, while
timidly advocating the amendment of stage dress, proceeds to doubt
whether the reform would be "well received by audiences who have been
so long habituated to such glaring impropriety and negligence in the
other direction." Clearly alteration was a matter of some difficulty,
and not to be lightly undertaken.

It is well known that Garrick, in the part of Macbeth, wore a court
suit of scarlet and gold lace, with, in the latter scenes of the
tragedy, "a wig," as Lee Lewes the actor says in his Memoirs, "as
large as any now worn by the gravest of our Barons of the
Exchequer"--a similar costume being adopted by other Macbeths of that
time--Smith and Barry for instance. When the veteran actor Macklin
first played Macbeth in 1774, however, he assumed a "Caledonian
habit," and although it is said the audience, when they saw "a clumsy
old man, who looked more like a Scotch piper than a general and a
prince of the blood, stumping down the stage at the head of an army,
were generally inclined to laugh," still the attempt at reform won
considerable approbation. At that time it was held to be
unquestionable that the correct costume of Macbeth should be that of
the Highlander of the snuff-shop; but in later days it was discovered
that even the tartan was an anachronism in s