CHAPTER X. New reading of a passage in Macbeth, and a new lessee-Ambition defined-Bartley's value in a new speculation-His attempt to upset an old one-A good chance for all kinds of performers-A butcher's cur-For particulars inquire of Mr. Forster-Taking a chop with a manager-Singular proposal to Mr. Charles Kean, contrasted with a similar one made to his father by Mr. Charles Kemble-Difference between the pride of certain performersSymptoms of war between the two theatres-Announcement for announcement-The voice of the public press defined-outrageous exaggeration disposed of-Distress of overpaid performers, and a proposed remedy for it-The drama's laws-How to advance the British drama-And reasons for so doing-And the result of so doing "Look here upon this picture, and on this.”—A sure way of being deceived. TOWARDS the latter end of the season, the termination of which has just been recorded, Mr. Osbaldiston had signified to the proprietors of Covent Garden Theatre his reading of Macbeth's celebrated expression, "hold-enough!" and declined going on any further with the enterprise. It was evident from the first, that a perseverance in the system which induced that gentleman to take Covent Garden Theatre never could succeed, and no better proof of it can be adduced than Mr. Osbaldiston's relinquishing the undertaking. It was a speculation entered upon in error, carried on in error, and abandoned in prudence; and of his managerial career at Covent Garden it may be justly said, "Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it." His secession led to Mr. Macready's assuming the reins of government, inasmuch as he could not have become lessee if his predecessor had not seceded ; but when the field was open to him, his real motives for taking upon himself the responsibilities of lesseeship, though latent, were more powerful than will be at first imagined. I by no means seek to infer that Mr. Macready's ill feeling to me was the sole cause of his entering the arena of management against me. It was one reason, and no doubt operated very powerfully upon the other; and that other was the most extraordinary degree of conceit, backed by the most extraordinary degree of calculation, imaginable. It seemed to him fully evident that the prospect of his establishing himself in the situation of a leading tragedian in London, or of obtaining good engagements anywhere else, was very remote, unless he adopted some unusual expedient; for Covent Garden Theatre was tenantless, his outrage 244 AMBITION DEFINED. upon me had closed Drury Lane against him, and Mr. Forrest had returned to his native country to reap an additional harvest, arising from the additional fame he had obtained in England: and thus three great sources of emolument and renown were inaccessible to him. He must, therefore, either remain an ordinary (and ordinary enough, heaven knows!) stock actor, or make some desperate effort to be gazed upon in the light of a constellation. Mr. Counsellor Phillips was called into professional notoriety by a speech in a crim. con. case, in which, amongst other rhapsodies, he says, "Ambition has, "indeed, been called a vice, but then a vice so equivocal, it bordered upon virtue: that though it reposed on earth's pinnacles, it played in heaven's lightnings," and so on-and it was this sort of Hibernian ambition that haunted Mr. Macready— 66 66 66 That wouldn't let the gentleman go about his business ;" and determined him upon making a tremendous effort- —a kind of aut Cæsar aut nullus affair altogether. Had not Mr. Macready been a performer, and had the intentions upon which it was pompously announced that Covent Garden Theatre was to be conducted, been carried into execution, a more salutary system for the welfare of the drama could not in the present day have been pursued. Although this side of the question is perhaps the only MR. BARTLEY'S VALUE. 245 one with which the public has anything to do, yet, as private feelings so very frequently actuate conduct, and especially actuated his, we must enter a little upon that part of the business. Previous to the end of my last season, the rumour was rife that Mr. Macready was about to enter upon management; and it soon became known that, by the agency of a performer then engaged to me, and subsequently to him, he was trying to detach some useful servants belonging to Drury Lane Theatre; and in one or two instances, where little talent and no principle regulated the parties, he succeeded. The usual joke-“O it must succeed, it's so very respectable-Bartley's in it!" was then circulated about town, and the parties went to work in earnest. Notwithstanding the liabilities Mr. Macready undertook, he reserved to himself the power of abandoning them at pleasure; and thus, while he could terminate his season whenever he thought proper, and so put an end to farther loss, I was bound by a lease of three years, determinable only at the pleasure of the lessors. This novel state of things very materially altered my position, and induced me to seek a similar advantage from my landlords. They met on the 10th of August to discuss my application, and about an hour after their meeting had broken up, at which they had expressed a willingness to aid me in any possible way consistent with the duty they had to fulfil to their 246 MR. BARTLEY. constituency, the following specious letter came to hand : "Theatre Royal Covent Garden, "Mr. Bartley presents his compliments to Mr. "Dunn. In consequence of the circulation of state"ments respecting Mr. Macready's tenure of Covent "Garden Theatre, tending to prejudice his interests "with the public, and to injure the various parties holding property in the patent theatres, he (Mr. 66 66 Bartley) is requested by that gentleman, in justice "to himself and all such parties, and in contradic❝tion of the misrepresentations made on the subject, "to inform Mr. Dunn, as treasurer to the general "committee of Drury Lane Theatre, that Mr. Macready has taken Covent Garden Theatre from the 66 66 66 proprietors at a very heavy rent, to be paid in large nightly proportions, before any other demand "can be answered; and that the loss on his specu"lation, to whatever amount it may be allowed "to run, must be defrayed from his own private "funds. "Mr. Bartley begs to forward this declaration of "the real facts of the case, to obviate the necessity of a published statement. 66 "To William Dunn, Esq., "Treasurer to the General Committee of the "Theatre Royal Drury Lane, &c." |