David Garrick

NAME David Garrick. His surname derived from the French family name Garric or de la Garrique, reflecting his paternal Huguenot ancestry. (1), (2)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, producer and theatre manager who dominated the 18th-century British stage. Celebrated in both tragedy and comedy, he replaced the prevailing declamatory style of acting with a more immediate approach based on natural speech, expressive movement and close observation of human behaviour. As joint manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he also improved production standards and helped to establish Shakespeare as Britain’s national dramatist.  (3)

BIRTH Garrick was born on February 19, 1717, at the Angel Inn in Widemarsh Street, Hereford, where his soldier father was temporarily stationed on recruiting duty. He was baptised at All Saints Church on February 28. Some older records give his birth year as 1716 because England was still using the Old Style calendar, under which the legal year began on March 25. (4)

FAMILY BACKGROUND David was the second son and third of the seven surviving children of Captain Peter Garrick and Arabella Clough. 

His paternal grandfather, David de la Garrique, was a French Protestant who fled Bordeaux after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685; Peter was subsequently brought to England as a small child. Arabella was the daughter of a vicar-choral at Lichfield Cathedral and came from a family of Irish extraction. (1)

CHILDHOOD Although born in Hereford, Garrick grew up chiefly in Lichfield, Staffordshire. The family lived respectably but economically while his father served for long periods at Gibraltar, and the teenage David kept him informed of events at home in lively letters. His theatrical instincts appeared early: as a boy he reportedly entertained army officers by reciting speeches and played Sergeant Kite in an amateur production of George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer. 

Around the age of eleven he spent several months in Lisbon, where an uncle attempted to train him for the wine trade. Garrick soon returned to England, having shown little enthusiasm for a merchant’s life. (5)

EDUCATION Garrick attended Lichfield Grammar School, where he received the classical education expected of a respectable middle-class boy. In 1736 he became a pupil at the small private academy run by Samuel Johnson at Edial, near Lichfield. Johnson’s establishment had only three known pupils: David, his brother George Garrick and Lawrence Offley. (6)

Edial Hall School failed after little more than a year. Johnson’s conspicuous involuntary movements and facial contortions may have discouraged some prospective pupils, but it is too definite to say that his tics alone caused the failure. On March 2, 1737, Johnson and Garrick left for London to seek their fortunes; according to Johnson, they possessed fourpence between them—two-and-a-half pence belonging to Johnson and one-and-a-half to Garrick—and accounts describe them taking turns to ride their single horse. (3)

Garrick was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn on March 9, 1737, intending to study law, but his legal ambitions were brief. The deaths of his parents and a legacy of £1,000 from an uncle enabled him to reconsider his future. (5)

CAREER RECORD 1737 Johnson left for London with his former pupil David Garrick on March 2, 1737 to make their fortunes. They had four pence between them and took turns to ride their one horse. Garrick then partnered with his brother Peter in a wine merchant business operating out of London and Lichfield. 

1740 Garrick saw his first written play, the satirical farce Lethe: or, Aesop in the Shades, produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

1741 He made his professional acting debut under the stage name "Lyddal" during a summer tour in Ipswich. On October 19, 1741, he made his legendary London debut as Shakespeare's Richard III at the Goodman's Fields Theatre, becoming an overnight sensation. 

1742 Engaged by Drury Lane, he established himself as the premier actor of his generation, performing 18 distinct tragic and comic roles in his first six months on stage. 

1745–1746, Served as joint-manager and principal actor at the Theatre Royal, Smock Alley in Dublin, Ireland. 

1747–1776 Took over the management and joint-ownership of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with James Lacy, leading Europe's premier repertory theatre for nearly three decades until his retirement from the stage in 1776.

APPEARANCE Garrick stood about 5 feet 4 inches tall and was initially slight and well proportioned, although he gained weight with age. His most memorable features were his dark, brilliant eyes and extraordinarily mobile face. Thomas Gainsborough complained that Garrick’s eyebrows seemed to rise and fall so rapidly that capturing a fixed likeness was like trying to paint a passing cloud. 

For convenience when changing theatrical wigs, Garrick kept much of his head shaved, retaining hair at the back to form a queue. His modest stature became a frequent subject for jokes, but on stage the energy of his movement and the commanding expression of his eyes made him appear larger. (6)

Portrait of David Garrick by Angelica Kauffman, 1764

FASHION In private Garrick dressed fashionably but generally avoided excessive ornament. Portraits show him in the elegant coats, waistcoats, breeches, silk stockings and powdered wigs expected of a prosperous Georgian gentleman. (6),

His reputation as a theatrical reformer did not extend consistently to historical costume. Garrick might perform Hamlet in fashionable mourning clothes or Macbeth in an 18th-century military uniform, although he occasionally experimented with older-looking dress and preferred costumes that allowed expressive movement. (7), (8)

CHARACTER Garrick combined restless ambition, theatrical sensitivity and considerable commercial common sense. He worked intensely, studied parts carefully and expected similarly disciplined preparation from his company. Highly sociable and eager to please, he enjoyed the company of writers, artists and aristocrats but remained acutely sensitive to criticism. (9)

Enemies accused him of vanity, jealousy and meanness, yet friends recorded numerous acts of professional and personal generosity. His attitude to money was contradictory: he could haggle over a small expense while lending, donating or investing much larger sums without hesitation. (1), (10)

SPEAKING VOICE Garrick’s innovation lay less in sheer vocal power than in his control of tone, pace, pauses and emotional colouring. Instead of declaiming verse in a stately, singsong manner, he altered his voice to suit the character and situation. A contemporary description of his Hamlet recalled a low, trembling delivery in the ghost scene, with the words apparently forced out by terror. (9)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Garrick was a gifted mimic, practical joker and lively conversationalist. He could imitate friends with alarming accuracy and amused fashionable gatherings by reproducing Samuel Johnson’s gestures, twitches and domestic exchanges with his wife Tetty. Johnson valued Garrick’s wit but sometimes worried that his “buffoonery” would overwhelm serious conversation. (6), (11)

His comic instinct also appeared in farces such as The Lying Valet, satirical prologues and the minute physical characterisation of such roles as the foolish tobacconist Abel Drugger. (1), (9)

RELATIONSHIPS Garrick had a passionate relationship with the celebrated Irish actress Peg Woffington during the 1740s. They acted together, travelled to Dublin and lived for a time in the same household; marriage was discussed, but their differing temperaments and Garrick’s desire for respectability contributed to their separation. Woffington later worked under his management at Drury Lane. (9)

On June 22, 1749, Garrick married Eva Maria Veigel, an Austrian dancer famous as “La Violette.” Because she was Roman Catholic and he was Protestant, they underwent both Protestant and Catholic ceremonies. Their affectionate marriage was childless, and they were reputed never to have spent a night apart after marrying. Eva survived him by more than 43 years. (9)

Garrick and his wife, Eva Marie Veigel, painted by William Hogarth. 

Samuel Johnson remained Garrick’s lifelong friend, despite frequent teasing and occasional quarrels. Garrick was elected in 1773 to the celebrated dining society known as “The Club,” which Johnson and Joshua Reynolds had co-founded in 1764. Its members included Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon and James Boswell. (12)

MONEY AND FAME Garrick transformed acting from a socially suspect occupation into one capable of producing wealth, influence and cultural prestige. His earnings from performing, playwriting and almost three decades of theatre management made him exceptionally rich; his estate was valued at approximately £100,000. (6)

He also pioneered important elements of modern celebrity management. Garrick sat repeatedly to leading artists including Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, Pompeo Batoni and Johann Zoffany, and encouraged the reproduction of theatrical portraits as engravings. His face appeared on prints, medals, porcelain, tiles and other collectable objects, carrying his image into private homes. There is no clear evidence of “licensing” in the modern contractual sense, but Garrick deliberately exploited portraiture and mass reproduction to keep himself before the public. (13), (14)

FOOD AND DRINK Garrick’s first London occupation was selling wine, although the business became the subject of jokes after acting displaced his commercial interests.

Later wealth allowed David and Eva to become renowned hosts, entertaining theatrical, literary and aristocratic guests at well-appointed tables in London and Hampton. 

His correspondence suggests that turbot and claret could tempt him to abandon dietary restraint when illness permitted. (15)

THEATRE CAREER David Garrick’s career began in a rather unlikely place for one of the 18th century’s most celebrated actors: the wine trade. In 1737 he settled in London and went into the wholesale wine business with his elder brother Peter. Garrick managed the London end of Garrick & Co. from premises at Durham Yard, just off the Strand, but the bottles and barrels were soon competing for his attention with actors, writers and theatre managers. The theatre was clearly winning.

In 1740 Garrick’s first comedy, Lethe; or, Esop in the Shades, was staged at Drury Lane, followed by The Lying Valet at Goodman’s Fields. The following year he began acting secretly, appearing as Harlequin at Goodman’s Fields before joining a summer company at Ipswich. Because acting was still regarded as a distinctly dubious profession for a respectable gentleman, he used the name “Mr. Lyddall” to spare his family the social embarrassment. Under that name he played Aboan in Oroonoko and Captain Duretête in The Inconstant. It was not, in other words, the sort of career change one announced over dinner.

On October 19, 1741, Garrick made his formal London debut as Richard III at Goodman’s Fields. The theatre advertised him merely as “A Gentleman, Who never appeared on any Stage,” which was an intriguing way of selling a performance. Audiences were astonished by his emotional intensity and physical energy. Within a very short time, Garrick had gone from an obscure young wine merchant to one of the most talked-about actors in London.

Between 1742 and 1745 he performed at Drury Lane and at Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre, taking on an extraordinary variety of roles. He played Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth, but was equally convincing as Abel Drugger in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist and Archer in The Beaux’ Stratagem. This ability to move from tragedy to comedy and then into broad farce was one of the qualities that distinguished him from many of his contemporaries. Garrick did not seem to regard the boundaries between theatrical genres as particularly important.

Garrick (right) as Abel Drugger in Jonson's The Alchemist painted by Johann Zoffany

His growing reputation did not prevent him from having arguments about money. In 1743 he sued Drury Lane manager Charles Fleetwood for £600 in unpaid salary and helped lead his fellow actors in a dispute with the theatre management. The great tragedian was discovering that even the most exalted theatrical career occasionally came down to the rather less glamorous question of whether somebody had actually paid you.

Garrick spent the 1746–47 season at Covent Garden, where his naturalistic style was contrasted with the grander, more formal approach of the veteran actor James Quin. When the two appeared together in The Fair Penitent, their performances were viewed almost as a symbolic confrontation between two generations of acting. Quin represented the older theatrical tradition, while Garrick’s livelier and more realistic manner pointed towards a different future.

In 1747 Garrick and James Lacy acquired the patent and management of Drury Lane. Garrick invested £8,000 in the venture and took responsibility for productions, performers and the theatre’s repertory while continuing to appear on stage himself. He remained associated with Drury Lane until 1776, combining the rather different jobs of actor, director, producer and theatre manager. Anyone who has ever complained about having too much to do at work may take some comfort from this.

As actor-manager, Garrick introduced more disciplined rehearsals and encouraged actors to work as an ensemble rather than simply treating the stage as a collection of competing stars. He improved scenery and lighting and gradually removed spectators from the acting area, helping establish a clearer division between the performers and their audience. He also produced numerous Shakespeare plays. His devotion to Shakespeare was genuine, although modern readers might raise an eyebrow at the amount of cutting and adaptation he considered necessary to make the plays suit contemporary tastes.

From 1763 to 1765 Garrick and his wife travelled through France, Italy and Germany. Garrick was now sufficiently famous to be received as a celebrity in theatrical, literary and aristocratic circles across Europe. Illness delayed their return, but when he eventually came back to London in 1765 he made a triumphant return to the Drury Lane stage.

One of Garrick’s most ambitious ventures came in 1769, when he organised the Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon. The celebrations were intended to honour Shakespeare and included an elaborate outdoor pageant, but the British weather had other ideas. Torrential rain disrupted the proceedings and forced changes to the programme. Despite the soggy spectacle, the publicity was enormous and helped establish Stratford permanently as a place of Shakespeare pilgrimage, encouraging the literary tourism that continues to this day.

In 1776 Garrick finally sold his share of Drury Lane to a consortium headed by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. On June 10 he made his final stage appearance as Don Felix in Susanna Centlivre’s The Wonder. After 35 years as a professional actor, he retired from the stage. Garrick had transformed not only his own career but the way acting itself was regarded, helping move British theatre away from declamatory performance towards a more natural and emotionally responsive style. He had arrived in London as a young man involved in selling wine and left the theatre as its most celebrated actor-manager. Not a bad return on an investment in drama.

MUSIC AND ARTS Garrick wrote the words to “Heart of Oak,” composed by William Boyce for the 1759 entertainment Harlequin’s Invasion. It became the official march of the Royal Navy and remains his most enduring lyric. He also wrote songs, prologues, epilogues and the elaborate ode performed with music by Thomas Arne at the 1769 Shakespeare Jubilee. (16), (17)

The Garricks collected paintings, prints, sculpture and decorative art. Their collection included works attributed to Watteau, Hals, Poussin, Gainsborough and Hogarth, while Garrick’s own friendships with Reynolds, Hogarth and other artists strengthened the relationship between Georgian theatre and portraiture. (9)

LITERATURE Shakespeare was the central literary influence on Garrick’s life. He performed at least seventeen Shakespearean roles, promoted 24 of the plays at Drury Lane and created the Shakespeare Temple at Hampton. His adaptations were not always faithful—his Hamlet, for example, cut much of the final act—but his productions brought Shakespeare to a broad popular audience. (18),

Garrick also assembled one of the finest private collections of early English drama. Approximately 1,300 printed items were bequeathed to the British Museum, and the collection is now held by the British Library. (19)

NATURE At Hampton, Garrick and Eva took pride in their riverside garden, planting trees and creating lawns, serpentine paths and flowering borders. Capability Brown is traditionally credited with advising on the landscape, although the precise extent of his involvement is uncertain. (20), (21)

PETS The Garricks were fond of dogs. Contemporary accounts name Dragon as a guardian of the Hampton house, while Eva’s lapdog Biddy accompanied her on the continental tour and was said to recognise Garrick on stage regardless of his disguise. Another household pet was a dog called Sweet-lips. (22)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Garrick’s principal recreations were collecting books and art, improving his Hampton estate, entertaining guests and observing other performers. During his Italian travels he visited antiquities, galleries, theatres and opera houses and purchased books, prints and paintings. 

No particular competitive sport is closely associated with him, although a Johann Zoffany painting shows his brother George fishing while the family takes tea beside the Thames. (23), (24)

The Garden at Hampton House, with Mr and Mrs David Garrick taking tea by Johann Zoffany 1763

SCIENCE AND MATHS Garrick applied practical experimentation to theatrical mechanics. At Drury Lane he introduced concealed stage lighting and carefully measured the timing of acts and performances, treating production as an organised technical craft rather than a loose succession of speeches. (25)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Garrick was raised within the Protestant tradition inherited from his Huguenot family. His willingness to marry the Catholic Eva Maria Veigel in ceremonies accommodating both faiths suggests that domestic affection mattered more to him than sectarian division. 

His chief artistic principle was that acting demanded observation, study and labour and deserved recognition as a liberal art. (9), (25)

POLITICS Garrick generally avoided open disputes between Whigs and Tories, but his friendships and writings placed him comfortably within influential Whig circles. He was close to Edmund Burke and other political figures and sometimes attended debates in the House of Commons. His patriotic entertainments celebrated constitutional liberty, the armed forces and British national identity without turning him into a conventional party politician. (10)

SCANDAL Garrick’s management provoked disputes over salaries, casting and ticket prices. In 1763 attempts to end the custom of admitting spectators at half price after the third act contributed to disturbances known as the half-price riots. He was also accused of planting anonymous praise—or even carefully controlled criticism—of himself in the press, demonstrating that his sophisticated command of publicity could seem manipulative as well as ingenious. (26)

MILITARY RECORD Garrick never served in the armed forces, despite being the son of an army officer. His closest military association was cultural: the patriotic “Heart of Oak” praised British sailors during the Seven Years’ War and later became the Royal Navy’s official march. (16)

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Garrick was physically energetic on stage but suffered recurring illness. During his continental tour he was confined for several weeks by a serious fever in Munich, while later life brought increasing problems associated with his urinary system. An examination after his death found that he possessed only one functioning kidney. (9)

HOMES For approximately 23 years the Garricks maintained a London home at 27 Southampton Street, conveniently close to Drury Lane. In March 1772 they moved to the fashionable No. 5 Adelphi Terrace, an elegant Thames-side development created by the Adam brothers and furnished by Chippendale, Haig & Co. (9)

Garrick acquired Hampton House, later known as Garrick’s Villa, after initially renting it. He remodelled the property and erected an octagonal Temple to Shakespeare beside the Thames, containing a life-size statue by Louis-François Roubiliac. A tunnel beneath the road connected the villa with its riverside lawn. (21) 

TRAVEL Apart from childhood months in Lisbon and professional seasons in Dublin and Ipswich, Garrick’s most important journey was the Grand Tour undertaken with Eva between September 1763 and spring 1765. They visited Paris, Turin, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Parma, Venice and Munich. Garrick studied European acting, attended operas and social events, sat for artists and was welcomed abroad as Britain’s leading theatrical celebrity. (23)

DEATH David Garrick died at his home in Adelphi Terrace, London, on January 20, 1779 aged 61. A blockage affecting his only functioning kidney caused his final illness. Eva recorded that he sighed and died peacefully shortly before eight in the morning. (9)

His funeral took place on February 1, 1779. A procession of nearly 50 coaches travelled to Westminster Abbey through crowded streets, and Garrick was buried in Poets’ Corner near the monument to Shakespeare. His grave was later shared by Eva, while his memorial linked the names of Shakespeare and Garrick as “twin stars.” (27)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA T. W. Robertson’s popular comic drama David Garrick, first performed in London in 1864, presented a heavily fictionalised romantic story about the actor. It inspired several silent films, including a 1913 British version starring Seymour Hicks and a 1916 American film directed by Frank Lloyd with Dustin Farnum in the title role. 

The first theatre to be named after an actor was the Garrick Theatre, London, in 1889.

ACHIEVEMENTS Garrick transformed acting by making emotion, gesture, facial expression and responsive ensemble playing central to performance. He managed Drury Lane for nearly 30 years, widened Shakespeare’s popular appeal, improved theatrical discipline and production methods, wrote or adapted dozens of stage works and helped raise actors to a new level of social respectability. 

Sources: (1) Encyclopaedia Britannica (2) David Garrick Hereford (3) National Portrait Gallery (4) Dictionary of National Biography (5) Dictionary of National Biography: David Garrick (6) EBSCO Research Starters (7) Shakespeare and Costume (8) V&A: Garrick as Benedick (9) Folger Shakespeare Library: A Theatrical Life (10) University of St Andrews Research Repository (11) The Hudson Review (12) London Review of Books (13) Folger Shakespeare Library: Garrickomania (14) Oxford Academic: Theatrical Celebrity (15) David Garrick’s Correspondence (16) IMSLP: Heart of Oak (17) Oxford Academic: Garrick’s Jubilee Ode (18) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (19) V&A: Garrick’s Library (20) The London Gardener (21) Folger Shakespeare Library: The Hampton Villa (22) Garrick and His Circle (23) The Grand Tour: David Garrick (24) The Bowes Museum (25) Victoria and Albert Museum (26) Taylor & Francis: Garrick’s Acting and Management (27) Westminster Abbey