efforts to
interpret Shakespeare in the playhouse were eclipsed in public esteem by
the concentrated energy and intelligence of David Garrick. Garrick's
enthusiasm for the poet and his histrionic genius riveted Shakespeare's
hold on public taste. His claim to have restored to the stage the text
of Shakespeare--purified of Restoration defilements--cannot be allowed
without serious qualifications. Garrick had no scruple in presenting
plays of Shakespeare in versions that he or his friends had recklessly
garbled. He supplied 'Romeo and Juliet' with a happy ending; he
converted the 'Taming of the Shrew' into the farce of 'Katherine and
Petruchio,' 1754; he introduced radical changes in 'Antony and
Cleopatra,' 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,' 'Cymbeline,' and 'Midsummer
Night's Dream.' Nevertheless, no actor has won an equally exalted
reputation in so vast and varied a repertory of Shakespearean roles. His
triumphant debut as Richard III in 1741 was followed by equally
successful performances of Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, King John, Romeo, Henry
IV, Iago, Leontes, Benedick, and Antony in 'Antony and Cleopatra.'
Garrick was not quite undeservedly buried in Westminster Abbey on
February 1, 1779, at the foot of Shakespeare's statue.

Garrick was ably seconded by Mrs. Clive (1711-1785), Mrs. Cibber
(1714-1766), and Mrs. Pritchard (1711-1768). Mrs. Cibber as Constance in
'King John,' and Mrs. Pritchard in Lady Macbeth, excited something of the
same enthusiasm as Garrick in Richard III and Lear. There were, too,
contemporary critics who judged rival actors to show in certain parts
powers equal, if not superior, to those of Garrick. Charles Macklin
(1697?-1797) for nearly half a century, from 1735 to 1785, gave many
hundred performances of a masterly rendering of Shylock. The character
had, for many years previous to Macklin's assumption of it, been allotted
to comic actors, but Macklin effectively concentrated his energy on the
tragic significance of the part with an effect that Garrick could not
surpass. Macklin was also reckoned successful in Polonius and Iago.
John Henderson, the Bath Roscius (1747-1785), who, like Garrick, was
buried in Westminster Abbey, derived immense popularity from his
representation of Falstaff; while in subordinate characters like
Mercutio, Slender, Jaques, Touchstone, and Sir Toby Belch, John Palmer
(1742?-1798) was held to approach perfection. But Garrick was the
accredited chief of the theatrical p