Lecture 1 - David Garrick: Bravura & Bardolatry

David Garrick was the most famous English actor of the eighteenth century, and the most celebrated. He was also a highly successful writer and manager and he was a master of self-promotion . In an age of growing celebrity status he was painted more than any other actor of the age, with famous portraits by Hogarth, Zoffany and Reynolds. He burst on to the stage in 1741 as Richard III and achieved great critical acclaim for his performances but he also succeeded in transforming the role of the actor into a more acceptable career. It was his friend and mentor Samuel Johnson who famously noted that "his profession made him rich and he made his profession respectable." He was also largely responsible for the growing popular status of Shakespeare, culminating in the Stratford Jubilee of 1769, which firmly placed the Bard’s home town on the tourist map.