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William Macready

April 26, 2024

For his father of the same name, see William Macready the elder.

William Charles Macready (3 March 1793 – 27 April 1873) was an English stage actor. The son of Irish actor-manager William Macready the Elder he emerged as a leading West End performer during the Regency era.

William Macready
Born(1793-03-03)3 March 1793
London, England
Died27 April 1873(1873-04-27) (aged 80)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
OccupationActor
Years active1810–1851
Spouses
  • Catherine Frances Atkins
    (1823–1852; her death)
  • Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer
    (1860–1873; his death)

Career edit

He was born in London the son of William Macready the Elder, and actress Christina Ann Birch. Educated at Rugby School where he became headboy, and where now the theatre is named after him, it was his initial intention to go to University of Oxford, but, in 1809, financial problems experienced by his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810, he made a successful first appearance as Romeo at Birmingham. Other Shakespearian parts followed, but a serious rupture between father and son resulted in the young man's departure for Bath in 1814. Here he remained for two years, with occasional professional visits to other provincial towns.[1]

On 16 September 1816, Macready made his first London appearance at Covent Garden as Orestes in The Distressed Mother, a translation of Racine's Andromaque by Ambrose Philips. Macready's choice of characters was at first confined chiefly to the romantic drama. In 1818, he won a permanent success in Isaac Pocock's (1782–1835) adaptation of Scott's Rob Roy. He showed his capacity for the highest tragedy when he played Richard III at Covent Garden on 25 October 1819.[1]

In 1820, he played the title role in the tragedy Virginius by James Sheridan Knowles. Transferring his services to Drury Lane, he gradually rose in public favour, his most conspicuous success being in the title role of Sheridan Knowles's William Tell (11 May 1825). In 1826, he completed a successful engagement in the United States, and, in 1828, his performances met with a very flattering reception in Paris. In 1829, he appeared as Othello in Warwick.[2]

On 15 December 1830 he appeared at Drury Lane as Werner, one of his most powerful impersonations. In 1833, he played in Antony and Cleopatra, in Byron's Sardanapalus, and in King Lear.[1] He was responsible, in 1834, and more fully in 1838, for returning the text of King Lear to Shakespeare's text (although in a shortened version), after it had been replaced for more than a hundred and fifty years by Nahum Tate's happy-ending adaptation, The History of King Lear.[3][4] He performed at the Georgian Wisbech theatre (now Angles Theatre) and other theatres of the Lincoln theatre circuit run by Fanny Robertson.[citation needed]

Already, Macready had done something to encourage the creation of a modern English drama, and after entering on the management of Covent Garden in 1837 he introduced Robert Browning's Strafford, and in the following year Bulwer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons and Richelieu, the principal characters in which were among his most effective parts. On 10 June 1838, he gave a memorable performance of Henry V, for which Stanfield prepared sketches, and the mounting was superintended by Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens, Forster, Maclise, W. J. Fox and other friends.[1]

Dickens wrote to him in 1847: "The multitude of tokens by which I know you for a great man, the swelling within me of my love for you, the pride I have in you, the majestic reflection I see in you of the passions and affections that make up our mystery, throw me into a strange kind of transport that has no expression but in a mute sense of an attachment which in truth and fervency is worthy of its subject."[5]

 
Macready playing 'Macbeth'

The first production of Bulwer-Lytton's Money took place under the artistic direction of Count d'Orsay on 8 December 1840, Macready winning unmistakable success in the character of Alfred Evelyn. Both in his management of Covent Garden, which he resigned in 1839, and of Drury Lane, which he held from 1841 to 1843, he found his designs for the elevation of the stage frustrated by the absence of adequate public support.

In 1843, he staged Cymbeline. In 1843–44, he made a successful tour in the United States, but his last visit to that country, in 1849, was marred by the Astor Place Riot, in which between 22 and 31 rioters were dead, and more than 120 people injured. [1]

Judge Charles Patrick Daly later presided at the trial. Both Forrest and Macready were playing Macbeth in concurrent, competing productions at the time of the riot, a fact which added to the ominous reputation of that play. Playwright Richard Nelson dramatized the events surrounding the riot in his 1990 play, Two Shakespearean Actors.[6]

Macready took leave of the stage in a farewell performance of Macbeth at Drury Lane on 26 February 1851. The remainder of his life was spent in happy retirement, and he died at Cheltenham on 27 April 1873.[citation needed]

Personal life edit

He married twice, firstly in 1823 to Catherine Frances Atkins (died 1852). Of a numerous family of children only one son and one daughter survived. In 1860, aged 67, he married the 23 year old Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer (1827–1908), by whom he had a son, Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, known as "Nevil", who would become a General in the British Army, and a baronet. Macready's son from his second marriage was General Sir Nevil Macready, a distinguished British Army officer as was his brother, Major Edward Nevil Macready, who commanded the Light Company of the 30th Regiment of Foot in the closing stages of the Battle of Waterloo.[7]

His daughter, Catherine Frances Macready, was a minor Victorian poet. Her book, Leaves From the Olive Mount, published by Chapman & Hall in 1860, began with a one-page dedication poem, 'To My Father'. Writer Rowena Farre (Daphne Lois Macready) was a great-granddaughter of William Macready. [citation needed]

Upon his death, William Macready's remains were deposited in the catacomb below the Anglican Chapel at Kensal Green Cemetery.

Evaluation and legacy edit

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:

Macready's performances always displayed fine artistic perceptions developed to a high degree of perfection by very comprehensive culture, and even his least successful personations had the interest resulting from thorough intellectual study. He belonged to the school of Kean rather than of Kemble; but, if his tastes were better disciplined and in some respects more refined than those of Kean, his natural temperament did not permit him to give proper effect to the great tragic parts of Shakespeare, King Lear perhaps excepted, which afforded scope for his pathos and tenderness, the qualities in which he specially excelled. With the exception of a voice of good compass and capable of very varied expression, Macready had no especial physical gifts for acting, but the defects of his face and figure cannot be said to have materially affected his success.[8]

When Macready retired, Alfred Tennyson dedicated the following verse to him:

"Farewell, Macready, since to-night we part:
  Full-handed thunders often have confessed
  Thy power, well used to move the public breast.
We thank thee with one voice, and from the heart.
Farewell, Macready, since this night we part.
  Go take thine honours home; rank with the best;
  Garrick, and statelier Kemble, and the rest,
Who made a nation purer through their art.
Thine is it that the drama did not die.
  Nor flicker down to brainless pantomime.
  And those gilt gauds men-children swarm to see.
Farewell, Macready; moral, grave, sublime,
Our Shakespeare's bland and universal eye
  Dwells pleased, through twice a hundred years on thee."

In 1927, the Cheltenham Local Tablets Committee placed a bronze tablet at No. 6 Wellington Square recording Macready's residence there from 1860 to 1873.[7]

The London County Council affixed a blue plaque to Macready's birthplace, 45 Stanhope Street, Regent's Park on 25 June 1928.[9] The house was subsequently demolished, the plaque being donated to the Theatre Museum c1965, the object passing to the V&A in 2007.[10]

Actor Frank Barrie wrote and performed the one-man play Macready!, which was first performed in 1979 and eventually staged in 65 countries.[11] A television adaptation of the play was broadcast on Channel 4 in 1983 as a one-hour special, again starring Frank Barrie.[11]

Selected roles edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911, p. 268.
  2. ^ A History of Warwick and its People by Thomas Kemp. Published 1905 by Henry T. Cooke & Son, p. 75
  3. ^ Grace Ioppolo: William Shakespeare's King Lear: A Sourcebook. London, Routledge, 2003, p. 69.
  4. ^ Mullin, Emily (6 September 2011). "Macready's Triumph: The Restoration of King Lear to the British Stage". Penn History Review. 18 (1). Berkeley Electronic Press. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  5. ^ de la L. Oulton, Carolyn W. (2016). Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317061533.
  6. ^ Rich, Frank (17 January 1992). "War of Hams Where the Stage Is All". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  7. ^ a b "W. C. Macready and Cheltenham: Unveiling of memorial tablet". Gloucester Citizen. 16 March 1927. Retrieved 26 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 268–269.
  9. ^ Indication of houses of historical interest in London Volume VI. County Hall, Spring Gardens S.W.: London County Council. 1938. pp. 2–3.
  10. ^ "Plaque". V&A Collections. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  11. ^ a b [1] Macready!

References edit

Attribution:

  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Macready, William Charles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 268–269. which in turn cites:
    • William Charles Macready, Reminiscences, and Selections from his Diaries and Letters, Sir Frederick Pollock, ed., 2 vols. (London and New York, 1875)
    • William Archer, William Charles Macready (1890).

Further reading edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Charles Macready.
 
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
William Macready
  • Nigel Cliff, The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America (New York, 2007)
  • Lady Pollock, Macready as I Knew him (London, 1884)
  • Baker, English Actors from Shakespeare to Macready (New York, 1879)
  • George Henry Lewes, On Actors and the Art of Acting (London, 1875; New York, 1878)
  • Marston, Our Recent Actors (London, 1890)
  • Richard Nelson, Two Shakespearean Actors (London, 1849)
  • , University of Bristol
  • Building History: The former theatre in Warwick where Macready played in 1829
  • Pollock, Sir Frederick, ed. (1875). Macready's reminiscences. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  • Archer, William (1890). William Charles Macready. New York: Macmillan & Co.

External links edit

  • Dictionary of National Biography entry
  • Macready! Television adaptation

April 26, 2024
william, macready, father, same, name, elder, william, charles, macready, march, 1793, april, 1873, english, stage, actor, irish, actor, manager, elder, emerged, leading, west, performer, during, regency, macready, john, jackson, national, portrait, gallerybor. For his father of the same name see William Macready the elder William Charles Macready 3 March 1793 27 April 1873 was an English stage actor The son of Irish actor manager William Macready the Elder he emerged as a leading West End performer during the Regency era William MacreadyMacready by John Jackson National Portrait GalleryBorn 1793 03 03 3 March 1793London EnglandDied27 April 1873 1873 04 27 aged 80 Cheltenham Gloucestershire EnglandOccupationActorYears active1810 1851SpousesCatherine Frances Atkins 1823 1852 her death Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer 1860 1873 his death Contents 1 Career 2 Personal life 3 Evaluation and legacy 4 Selected roles 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksCareer editThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources William Macready news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message He was born in London the son of William Macready the Elder and actress Christina Ann Birch Educated at Rugby School where he became headboy and where now the theatre is named after him it was his initial intention to go to University of Oxford but in 1809 financial problems experienced by his father the lessee of several provincial theatres called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first appearance as Romeo at Birmingham Other Shakespearian parts followed but a serious rupture between father and son resulted in the young man s departure for Bath in 1814 Here he remained for two years with occasional professional visits to other provincial towns 1 On 16 September 1816 Macready made his first London appearance at Covent Garden as Orestes in The Distressed Mother a translation of Racine s Andromaque by Ambrose Philips Macready s choice of characters was at first confined chiefly to the romantic drama In 1818 he won a permanent success in Isaac Pocock s 1782 1835 adaptation of Scott s Rob Roy He showed his capacity for the highest tragedy when he played Richard III at Covent Garden on 25 October 1819 1 In 1820 he played the title role in the tragedy Virginius by James Sheridan Knowles Transferring his services to Drury Lane he gradually rose in public favour his most conspicuous success being in the title role of Sheridan Knowles s William Tell 11 May 1825 In 1826 he completed a successful engagement in the United States and in 1828 his performances met with a very flattering reception in Paris In 1829 he appeared as Othello in Warwick 2 On 15 December 1830 he appeared at Drury Lane as Werner one of his most powerful impersonations In 1833 he played in Antony and Cleopatra in Byron s Sardanapalus and in King Lear 1 He was responsible in 1834 and more fully in 1838 for returning the text of King Lear to Shakespeare s text although in a shortened version after it had been replaced for more than a hundred and fifty years by Nahum Tate s happy ending adaptation The History of King Lear 3 4 He performed at the Georgian Wisbech theatre now Angles Theatre and other theatres of the Lincoln theatre circuit run by Fanny Robertson citation needed Already Macready had done something to encourage the creation of a modern English drama and after entering on the management of Covent Garden in 1837 he introduced Robert Browning s Strafford and in the following year Bulwer Lytton s The Lady of Lyons and Richelieu the principal characters in which were among his most effective parts On 10 June 1838 he gave a memorable performance of Henry V for which Stanfield prepared sketches and the mounting was superintended by Bulwer Lytton Dickens Forster Maclise W J Fox and other friends 1 Dickens wrote to him in 1847 The multitude of tokens by which I know you for a great man the swelling within me of my love for you the pride I have in you the majestic reflection I see in you of the passions and affections that make up our mystery throw me into a strange kind of transport that has no expression but in a mute sense of an attachment which in truth and fervency is worthy of its subject 5 nbsp Macready playing Macbeth The first production of Bulwer Lytton s Money took place under the artistic direction of Count d Orsay on 8 December 1840 Macready winning unmistakable success in the character of Alfred Evelyn Both in his management of Covent Garden which he resigned in 1839 and of Drury Lane which he held from 1841 to 1843 he found his designs for the elevation of the stage frustrated by the absence of adequate public support In 1843 he staged Cymbeline In 1843 44 he made a successful tour in the United States but his last visit to that country in 1849 was marred by the Astor Place Riot in which between 22 and 31 rioters were dead and more than 120 people injured 1 Judge Charles Patrick Daly later presided at the trial Both Forrest and Macready were playing Macbeth in concurrent competing productions at the time of the riot a fact which added to the ominous reputation of that play Playwright Richard Nelson dramatized the events surrounding the riot in his 1990 play Two Shakespearean Actors 6 Macready took leave of the stage in a farewell performance of Macbeth at Drury Lane on 26 February 1851 The remainder of his life was spent in happy retirement and he died at Cheltenham on 27 April 1873 citation needed Personal life editHe married twice firstly in 1823 to Catherine Frances Atkins died 1852 Of a numerous family of children only one son and one daughter survived In 1860 aged 67 he married the 23 year old Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer 1827 1908 by whom he had a son Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready known as Nevil who would become a General in the British Army and a baronet Macready s son from his second marriage was General Sir Nevil Macready a distinguished British Army officer as was his brother Major Edward Nevil Macready who commanded the Light Company of the 30th Regiment of Foot in the closing stages of the Battle of Waterloo 7 His daughter Catherine Frances Macready was a minor Victorian poet Her book Leaves From the Olive Mount published by Chapman amp Hall in 1860 began with a one page dedication poem To My Father Writer Rowena Farre Daphne Lois Macready was a great granddaughter of William Macready citation needed Upon his death William Macready s remains were deposited in the catacomb below the Anglican Chapel at Kensal Green Cemetery Evaluation and legacy editAccording to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Macready s performances always displayed fine artistic perceptions developed to a high degree of perfection by very comprehensive culture and even his least successful personations had the interest resulting from thorough intellectual study He belonged to the school of Kean rather than of Kemble but if his tastes were better disciplined and in some respects more refined than those of Kean his natural temperament did not permit him to give proper effect to the great tragic parts of Shakespeare King Lear perhaps excepted which afforded scope for his pathos and tenderness the qualities in which he specially excelled With the exception of a voice of good compass and capable of very varied expression Macready had no especial physical gifts for acting but the defects of his face and figure cannot be said to have materially affected his success 8 When Macready retired Alfred Tennyson dedicated the following verse to him Farewell Macready since to night we part Full handed thunders often have confessed Thy power well used to move the public breast We thank thee with one voice and from the heart Farewell Macready since this night we part Go take thine honours home rank with the best Garrick and statelier Kemble and the rest Who made a nation purer through their art Thine is it that the drama did not die Nor flicker down to brainless pantomime And those gilt gauds men children swarm to see Farewell Macready moral grave sublime Our Shakespeare s bland and universal eye Dwells pleased through twice a hundred years on thee In 1927 the Cheltenham Local Tablets Committee placed a bronze tablet at No 6 Wellington Square recording Macready s residence there from 1860 to 1873 7 The London County Council affixed a blue plaque to Macready s birthplace 45 Stanhope Street Regent s Park on 25 June 1928 9 The house was subsequently demolished the plaque being donated to the Theatre Museum c1965 the object passing to the V amp A in 2007 10 Actor Frank Barrie wrote and performed the one man play Macready which was first performed in 1979 and eventually staged in 65 countries 11 A television adaptation of the play was broadcast on Channel 4 in 1983 as a one hour special again starring Frank Barrie 11 Selected roles editEmperor of Byzantium in Adelgitha by Matthew Lewis 1817 Valencia in The Conquest of Taranto by William Dimond 1817 Pescara in The Apostate by Richard Sheil 1817 Chosroo in Retribution by John Dillon 1818 Amurath in Bellamira by Richard Sheil 1818 Winterland in A Word to the Ladies by James Kenney 1818 Ludovico in Evadne by Richard Sheil 1819 Wallenberg in Fredolfo by Charles Maturin 1819 Virginius in Virginius by James Sheridan Knowles 1820 Wallace in Wallace by Charles Edward Walker 1820 Damon in Damon and Pythias by John Banim and Richard Sheil 1821 Duke of Mirandola in Mirandola by Barry Cornwall 1821 Caius Gracchus in Caius Gracchus by James Sheridan Knowles 1823 Julian in Julian by Mary Russell Mitford 1823 William Tell in William Tell by James Sheridan Knowles 1825 Henry in Don Pedro King of Castile by Lord Porchester 1828 Don Leon in The Pledge by James Kenney 1831 Alfred the Great in Alfred the Great by James Sheridan Knowles 1831 Scroope in The Merchant of London by Thomas Serle 1832 Colberg in The House of Colberg by Thomas Serle 1832 Sardanapalus in Sardanapalus by Lord Byron 1834 Ion in Ion by Thomas Talfourd 1836 Bertulphe in The Provost of Bruges by George William Lovell 1836 Melantius in The Bridal by James Sheridan Knowles 1837 Strafford in Strafford by Robert Browning 1837 Marquis De Bragelone in The Duchess de la Valliere by Edward Bulwer Lytton 1837 Thoas in The Athenian Captive by Thomas Talfourd 1838 Walsingham in Woman s Wit by James Sheridan Knowles 1838 Richelieu in Richelieu by Edward Bulwer Lytton 1839 Richard Cromwell in Master Clarke by Thomas Serle 1840 Halbert MacDonald in Glencoe by Thomas Talfourd 1840 Earl of Ruthven in Mary Stuart by James Haynes 1840 Gisippus in Gisippus by Gerald Griffin 1842 Mordaunt in The Patrician s Daughter by John Westland Marston 1842 Colonel Green in The Secretary by James Sheridan Knowles 1843 See also editMacready Theatre theatre in Rugby named after William MacreadyNotes edit a b c d e Chisholm 1911 p 268 A History of Warwick and its People by Thomas Kemp Published 1905 by Henry T Cooke amp Son p 75 Grace Ioppolo William Shakespeare s King Lear A Sourcebook London Routledge 2003 p 69 Mullin Emily 6 September 2011 Macready s Triumph The Restoration of King Lear to the British Stage Penn History Review 18 1 Berkeley Electronic Press Retrieved 1 August 2012 de la L Oulton Carolyn W 2016 Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature Routledge ISBN 978 1317061533 Rich Frank 17 January 1992 War of Hams Where the Stage Is All The New York Times Retrieved 28 March 2013 a b W C Macready and Cheltenham Unveiling of memorial tablet Gloucester Citizen 16 March 1927 Retrieved 26 October 2015 via British Newspaper Archive Chisholm 1911 pp 268 269 Indication of houses of historical interest in London Volume VI County Hall Spring Gardens S W London County Council 1938 pp 2 3 Plaque V amp A Collections Retrieved 4 December 2023 a b 1 Macready References editEminent persons Biographies reprinted from the Times Vol 1 6 D Vol I 1870 1875 Macmillan amp Co 1892 pp 157 159 Wilson J G Fiske J eds 1900 Macready William Charles Appletons Cyclopaedia of American Biography New York D Appleton Attribution nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Macready William Charles Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 17 11th ed Cambridge University Press pp 268 269 which in turn cites William Charles Macready Reminiscences and Selections from his Diaries and Letters Sir Frederick Pollock ed 2 vols London and New York 1875 William Archer William Charles Macready 1890 Further reading edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Charles Macready nbsp Wikisource has original text related to this article William Macready Nigel Cliff The Shakespeare Riots Revenge Drama and Death in Nineteenth Century America New York 2007 Lady Pollock Macready as I Knew him London 1884 Baker English Actors from Shakespeare to Macready New York 1879 George Henry Lewes On Actors and the Art of Acting London 1875 New York 1878 Marston Our Recent Actors London 1890 Richard Nelson Two Shakespearean Actors London 1849 Bristol theatre archives at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection University of Bristol Building History The former theatre in Warwick where Macready played in 1829 Pollock Sir Frederick ed 1875 Macready s reminiscences New York Harper amp Brothers Archer William 1890 William Charles Macready New York Macmillan amp Co External links editDictionary of National Biography entry Macready Television adaptation Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title William Macready amp oldid 1215093891, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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