1699?-1797 [McLaughlin]; b. Culduff, Co. Donegal, nr. Derry; son of Terence
McLaughlin, and Agnes, née Flanagan; his destitute mother m. Luke
O’Meally, prop. of the Eagle Tavern, Werburgh St., Dublin; ed. Islandbridge,
Co. Dublin; apocryphally described as having been carried away in a ‘turf-kish’
from the vicinity of the Boyne at the date of the battle by William Cooke;
served as a menial (or badge-man) at TCD; supposedly converted to Anglicanism
at artat. 40; played Lincoln’s Inn Field theatre, 1730; Drury Lane,
1733-44, and 1744-48; admired for his Macbeth and made reputation with
ferocious interpretation of Shylock, displacing George Granville, Lord
Lansdowne’s (Jewish Merchant, 1701), the long-established
favourite, attracted the encomium, ‘This is the Jew /That Shakespeare
drew’, apocryphally attributed to Pope [DNB]; tried for murder in
1735, following death of fellow actor with whom he had quarrelled and
injured, conducted own defense and was sentenced to be branded with cold
iron; lectured on Shakespeare and drew criticism for his impertinence
as an Irishman, in An Epistle from Tully in the Shades to Orator Ma---n
in Covent Garden (1755); played at Smock Alley, Dublin, for Thomas
Sheridan in 1748-50, again in 1761, and 1763-70; also at Crow St.; appeared
at Covent Garden in 1750-53, 1761, 1772, 1776 and 1781-89; retired, 1789
when his memory failed him on stage whilst playing Shylock; somewhat senile
in his last years; d. 11 July 1797, bur. St. Paul’s, Covent Garden;
successful plays include Love à la Mode (1759), a farce
in which Sir Callaghan O’Brallaghan, a former officer in the Prussian
army, courts Charlotte, an English lady, and stands by his offer when
all three suitors are persuaded that she is poor; The Man of the World
(1781), centring on Egerton, the son of Sir Pertinax Macsycophant though
a Scotsman raised by an English uncle, and exponent of the ‘common
cause’ of British nationality; called one of the best comedies of
the century; played successfully in the roles of Scotsman Sir Archy Macsarcasm
in Love à la mode, and Sir Pertinax Macsycophant in The
Man of the World, and also played Cadwallader in revival of Shadwell’s
Humours of the Army for his own benefit night; the sole extant
copy of The True-Born Irishman (1783) is to be found in the National
Library of Ireland; a portrait of Macklin by Zoffani, attired as Shylock
in Act 3 of The Merchant of Venice (CG, 1767-68), is permanently
displayed in the foyer of the National Theatre, London while an oil by
John Opie occupies the Garrick Club; a sales catalogue of his library
is extant. RR DNB PI JMC CBE OCEL DIW DIB DIL FDA OCIL
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First performances, Love-a-la-Mode (Drury Lane, 12 December, 1759), The Man of the World [5 acts; formerly 3 in Dublin version] (Covent Garden, 10 May, 1781); The True Born Irishman (Crow Street, Dublin, 1762).
Published, King Henry VII, or, The Popish Imposter (London: Dodsley 1746); The Fortune Hunters (London: McCulloh/Dublin: Powell 1750); The Man of the World, comedy in 5 acts, as performed at the Theatres-Royal of Covent-Garden and Smock-Alley [1781] (London: 1785), with Smock Alley cast list, 12o. [TCD]; and Love à la Mode (London: 1784; num.edns. incl. Bell 1793); The True Born Irishman (Dublin: Jones 1783) [NLI]; A[rthur] Murphy, ed., Man of the World, and Love à la Mode, 2 pt. (London: 1793), fol. Collected Plays, J. O. Bartley. ed. and intro., Four Comedies by Charles Macklin (London: Sidgwick & Jackson 1968; Hamden, Conn: Archon Books 1968), fol.; xi, 270pp., pls. & port. [contains ‘Love à La Mode’, ‘The True-born Irishman’, ‘The School for Husbands’, and ‘The Man of the World’].
Various Editions, Love a la Mode, 25pp., in Theatre Royal, Smoke Alley [sic], A Volume of Plays ... containing School for Scandal [sic], etc., pt. 5 (Dublin 1785); Man of the World, edns. in 1785, 1786, 1791, 1793 [in Jones’s edns., Vol. 6, 1795, pp.163-202], 1795, 1797 [Bell’s edns.], 1797, 1808 [Mrs Inchbald’s edns.], 1824, 1829, 1830, 1834, 1850, 1860, 1864, ?1874 [Dick’s Plays]; The True-Born Irishman, or Irish Fine Lady, a comedy as performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, Covent Garden, and Smock Alley […, &c.], Jones British Theatre, Vol 6 (1795), pp.101-161 12o.
Pamphlets, Zanga’s Triumph; or, The Harlequin and Othello at War. Being a full and impartial Account of a certain Theatrical Partnership lately dissolved, with all its attendant Circumstances ... By Charles McLoughlin, Esq; (Dublin 1762); The Case of Charles Macklin, comedian [against Garrick] (1743); Mr Macklin’s Reply to Garrick’s Answer ... dispute (1743), 8o; M-ckl-n’s Answer to Tully (1755), satire on the lectures of Macklin [not by Macklin]; An apology for the conduct of Mr Macklin, Comedian, which, it is hoped, will have some effect in favour of an aged player, &c. [The trial of Charles Macklin of the murder of Thomas Hallam - an account of the life of CM] (London 1773), 8o.; T. Leigh (tailor), Riot and Conspiracy ... for conspiring to ruin in his profession ... C Macklin [1775]; A Poetical Review [satire on Garrick and Macklin] (?1780); Proposals for publishing by subscription the Man of the World, a comedy in five acts, and Love à la Mode, a comedy, in five acts, written by Mr C Macklin, &c (London 1791), fol. [See Michael Arnott, Theatrical Literature (1972).]
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Early Commentary:
Francis Asprey Congreve, Authentic memoirs of the Late Mr. Charles Macklin, Comedian (London 1798).
James [Thomas] Kirkman, Memoirs of the Life of Charles Macklin, Esq., Principally Compiled from His Own Papers and Memorandums [..., &c.] 2 vols. (London: Lackington, Allen 1799), and Do., in French trans. (1822).
William Cooke [usually cited as Macklin’s biographer], Memoirs of Charles Macklin: Comedian (London: J. Asperne 1804; 1806), 444pp., 8o.
‘Charles Macklin’, in Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (London: 1821), Vol. II, pp.398-415.
E. A. Parry, Charles Macklin (London 1891) [in William Archer, ed., Eminent Actors with Cibber’s Thomas Betterton and Archer’s Macready].
J. Smith, A Collection of Materials towards an History of the English Stage [q.d.].
Modern criticism: W. Matthews, ‘The Piracies of Macklin’s Love a la Mode’, Review of English Studies, Vol. X (1934), pp.311-18.
Dougald MacMillan [on censorship of The Man of the World], Huntingdon Library Bulletin, 10 (1936), pp.79-101.
Constantia Maxwell, Dublin Under the Georges 1714-1830 [1936] (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1961), pp.244-45.
William W. Appleton, Charles Macklin: An Actor’s Life (Cambridge: Harvard UP 1960).
J. O. Bartley, Review, Theatre Notebook, 16 (1961), pp. 23-4.
Christopher J. Wheatley, ‘‘‘Our own good, plain, old Irish English’’: Charles Macklin (Cathal McLaughlin) and Protestant Convert Accommodations’, Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal, 4, 1 (Autumn 1998), pp.81-102.
Micheal O hAodha, Theatre in Ireland (Oxford: Blackwell 1974).
Philip Highfall, Kalman Burnam, & Edward Langhans, A Biographical Dict. of Actors &c., London 1660-1800 (Southern Illinois UP 1984) [frontis. port. Macklin by Opie, NPGall.], [M vol] pp.3-37.
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (Tralee: The Kerryman 1946).
G. C. Duggan, The Stage Irishman: A History of the Irish Play and Stage Characters from the Earliest Times (1937; NY: Benjamin Blom; reiss. 1969).
Jane Dunbar, Peg Woffington (London: Heinemann 1968).
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986), Mere Irish and Fíor Ghael (1986).
John McVeagh, ‘"A Kind of Comhar": Charles Macklin and Brian Friel’, in Alan Peacock, ed., The Achievement of Brian Friel (Colin Smythe 1993), 215-28.
Christopher J. Wheatley, ‘"Our own good, plain, old Irish English": Charles Macklin (Cathal McLaughlin) and Protestant Convert Accommodations’, in Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal, 4, 1 (Autumn 1998), pp.81-102.
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Dictionary of National Biography, notes that he played in Lincoln’s Inns Th., in 1730; Drury Lane, 1733-44 and 1744-8; made reputation by interpretation of Shylock; appeared for Sheridan in Dublin, 1748-50, and also in 1761 and 1763-70; Covent Garden, 1750-3, 1761, 1772, 1775, 1781-9; retired 1789; best works, Love a la Mode, farce (1759) and The Man of the World, successful com. (1781). DNB gives date for True Born Irishman as London 1793 [JMV].
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), cites the birth-date 1690; gives extract from The Man of the World (Scene with Sir Pertinax MacSycophant and his son Charles Egerton, the former lecturing the latter on his conduct towards Lord Lumbercourt whose dg. he intends him to marry], and also anecdotes of Macklin, including that in which Johnson quotes Greek to support his opinion, and defends his doing so to Macklin’s admission of ignorance, ‘Sir, a man who undertakes to argue should know all languages’, at which Macklin answers, ‘Oh very well, how will you answer this argument?’ and immediate treated him to a long quotation in Irish’. BIOG, b. Westmeath; father died in 1704; mother remarried, 1707; ran away with two others to London, 1708; brought back and acted as badgeman at TCD; became strolling player; returned to London in 1725; engaged by Rich at Lincoln’s Inn Fields career began in 1734; fellow actor wounded by him in the eye dies; tried for manslaughter; resumed acting in 1736; revised farcical Shylock as tragic figure; a gentlemen in the pit exclaims, ‘This is the jew that Shakespeare drew’; opened Haymarket with Foote, Hill and others, 1744; wrote tragedy, King Henry the Seventh (1746), failed; A Will or No Will, or a Bone for Lawyers, farce (Apr. 1746), no success; The Club of Fortune Hunters, or the Widow Bewitched also failed; quit stage and established tavern at Covent Garden on new principle, 1753, inviting ladies and providing lectures on the arts; venture ultimately failed; Love a la Mode (1760), successful, and The Man of the World (1764 [err for Dublin version, The True-born Scotsman]), his masterpiece; played on till his memory failed; publication of his two most popular plays when he was almost a hundred brought £2,600 to purchase an annuity; d. 11 July, 1797, at 107 years; visited theatre nightly.
William Smith Clark, Irish Stage in the County Towns (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), Appendix A, gives list of Macklin’s favorite plays on the Irish stage..
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), remarks that he was born in 1699 by his own account; appeared on English stage in 1733; according to legend Alex ander Pope said, "This is the jew that Shakespeare drew" [but see also Spranger Barry, and note Dictionary of National Biography, supra]; plunged the tip of his cane in another actor’s eye in a green-room quarrel, in 1735, and was condemned to branding with a cold iron; date and place of staging of The True-Born Irishman not given. [WORKS & CRIT as supra.]
A. N. Jeffares and Anthony Kamm, eds., An Irish Childhood, An Anthology (Collins 1987), incls. Charles Macklin: ‘Schooling of an Actor’, from Kirkman’s Life.
Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, gen. ed., Seamus Deane (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. , lists first Dublin edn. of The True-Born Irishman as 1783; Bibl., J. O. Bartley, Four comedies by Charles Macklin (London 1968) standard ed.; BIBL as supra. FDA2, name cited with Mossop, Sheridan, and Barry, in Le Fanu’s House by the Church-yard; acted in Dublin under Sheridan’s auspices, 1762-70 [W. J. McCormack, ed.], 889n; Thomas MacDonagh (Literature in Ireland, 1916), ‘the few Irish dramatists of the nineteenth century, from Macklin to the foundation of the Irish Literary Theatre, have little importance in literature’ (1916), p.990.
British Library holds [1] Charles Macklin. An actor’s life. [with plates, including a portrait.]. vi, 280pp. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass.; Oxford University Press: London 1961. 8o. [2] Memoirs of Charles Macklin, Comedian ... The second edition. [with a portrait]. 8, 444pp. James Asperne: London 1806. 8o. [3] Riot and conspiracy. The trial of Thomas Leigh and others for making ... a riot, on the 18th of November, 1773, at Covent Garden Theatre and conspiring to ruin in his profession as a player, Mr. C. Macklin, and for compelling Mr. Colman ... to discharge ... the said C. Macklin, etc. London [1775.] 12o.; [4] Love-à-l-a Mode [sic]; a comedy, etc.; [By Charles Macklin.] [another edition.] Love à la Mode, etc.; [By Charles Macklin.] [another issue.] Love à-l-a Mode [sic], etc.; [By Charles Macklin.]. pp. 25. The Booksellers: [Dublin,] 1786. 8o. 25pp. 1786. [5] Love a-la-mode, etc.; [By Charles Macklin.] [another edition.]. London 1793. 8o.; [6] M-ckl-n’s Answer to Tully; [A satire on the lectures of Charles Macklin.]. 19pp. Printed for S. Stonehouse ... sold by P. Davey & B. Law: London 1755. 8o.; [7] A Will and no will, or, A Bone for the lawyers, 1746. - The New play criticiz’d, or, The Plague of envy, 1747. Introduction by Jean B. Kern. vi, 78pp. William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: Los Angeles, 1967. 8o. [8] An apology for the conduct of C. Macklin, Comedian; which, it is hoped, will have some effect in favour of an aged player, etc. (The trial of Charles Macklin for the murder of Thomas Hallam.-An account of the life of C. M.). London 1773. 8o.; [9] Four comedies by Charles Macklin. Love à la mode, The True-born Irishman, The School for husbands, The Man of the world. Edited, and with a biographical and critical sketch of Macklin, by J. O. Bartley. [with plates, including a portrait.]. xi. 270pp. Sidgwick & Jackson: London, in association with Archon Books: Hamden, 1968. fol.; [10] Love à-la-mode ... As performed at the Theatres-Royal, Drury-Lane, Covent-Garden, and Smock-Alley, etc.; [with a titlepage dated 1793.] [another edition.] [11] Love à-la-mode, a comedy, of two acts, etc. pp. 16. London 1782. 8o. [12] Love-à-la-mode. A comedy of two acts [and in prose]; [London] 1784. 12o.; [13] Love à la Mode. A farce ... A new edition, etc. [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.] [Another edition] [another edition.]. 45pp. Barker & Son: London 1807. 8o.; [14] Love à-la-mode. A farce, in two acts.; [a reissue.] Love-à-la-Mode, etc. [another edition.] 1871. London, [1875?] 8o.; [15] Love à-la-mode, etc. (A new comedy.) [By Charles Macklin] London 1779. 29pp. 12o.; [16] Love a-la-mode, a comedy of two acts as it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. By Mr. Macklin. London: printed in the year 1782.; [2], 24[i.e.22]pp. (12o); 17cm; [17] Memoirs of Charles Macklin, Comedian, with the dramatic characters, manners, anecdotes, etc. of the age in which he lived: forming an history of the stage during almost the whole of the last century, etc.; [by W. Cooke.] [another copy.]. 444pp. J. Asperne: London 1804. 8o.; [18] Mr. Macklin’s reply to Mr. Garrick’s answer. To which are prefix’d all the papers which have publickly appeared, in regard to this ... dispute. London 1743. 8o.; [19] Proposals for publishing by subscription the Man of the World, a comedy, in five acts; and Love à la mode, a comedy, in two acts, written by Mr. C. Macklin, etc. London 1791. fol.; [20] The Case of Charles Macklin, Comedian [against Garrick].; [London 1743.] s. sh. fol.; [21] The Covent Garden Theatre; or Pasquin turn’d Drawcansir, (1752). Introd. by Jean B. Kern. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1965. vi, 73pp. 22 cm ...; [22] The genuine Arguments of the Council, with the opinion of the Court of King’s Bench, on cause shewn, why an Information should not be exhibited against J. S. James ...; [and others], for a ... conspiracy ... to deprive C. Macklin of his livelihood ... By a Citizen of the World [C. Macklin?]; [23] The Man of the World ... As performed at the Theatres-Royal, Drury-Lane, Covent-Garden, and Smock-Alley, etc. [with a titlepage dated 1793.] [another edition] [another edition] The Man of the World ... With remarks by Mrs. Inchbald. [another copy.] The Man of the World, etc. [another edition.]. 100pp. 76pp. [sic]. Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme. London [1806.] 12o. 77pp. London, [1806.] 12o.; [24] The Man of the World.; [A comedy in five acts and in prose.] Love à la mode; [A farce in two acts and in prose. Edited by A. Murphy.] [another copy.]. 2 pt. London 1793. fol.; [25] The Man of the World. A comedy, etc. [another copy.]. 86pp. John Bell: London 1793. 8o.; [26] The Man of the World. A comedy, etc. [another copy.] The Man of the World, etc. 72pp. Dublin, 1785. 12o. Dublin, 1785. 12o.; [27] The man of the world, a comedy, etc. [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.] [another edition.]. London: J. Barker, 1809. pp. 83. 8o. 79pp. 1824. 16o.; [28] The Man of the World: a comedy, in five acts ... Printed from the acting copy, with remarks, biographical and critical, by D.-G.; [i.e. George Daniel.] To which are added, a description of the costume, cast of the characters ... and the whole of the stage business, as performed at the Theatres Royal, London, etc. [another edition.]. 65pp. Davidson: London, [1860?] 12o.; [29] The Man of the World: a comedy in five acts [and in verse] ... Written by C-- M-- [Charles Macklin]. [another edition.] [30] The Man of the World, etc. London, [1874?] 8o.; [31] The Man of the World, etc. 72pp. W. Wilson: Dublin, 1793. 12o.; [32] The man of the world, 1792. With an introduction by Dougald MacMillan. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1951. iv, 68pp: plate; port. 21 cm ...; [33] The True-Born Irishman: or, Irish fine lady. A comedy ... As performed at the Theatres-Royal, Drury-Lane, Covent-Garden, and Smock-Alley, etc.; [With a titlepage dated 1793.] [34] A.B.C. Guide to Motor Law.; [35] The Skull of a Human Fetus of 43 millimetres greatest length ... With 5 plates, etc. Washington, 1921. 4o.; [36] The Poetical Review, a poem. Being a satirical display of the literal characters of Mr. G*rr*ck [Garrick], Mr. C*lm*n [Colman], Mr. Sh*r***n [Sheridan], Genl. B**rg***e [Burgoyne], Mr. M*ckl*n [Macklin], Dr. K*nr**k [Kenrick]. The canonical duellist [i.e. H. Bate], &c., &c., &c. With a word to the Critical, London and Monthly reviewers. The third edition, with additions. London, [1780?] 4o.; [37] A Scotsman’s Remarks on the farce of Love a la mode [by C. Macklin]. [another copy.]. 38 pp. J. Burd: London 1760. 8o.
Belfast Central Public Library (1956 Catalogue) holds Four Comedies, Charles Macklin.
Belfast Linenhall Library holds The Macklins of Ireland, (photocopy, n.d.) by William Macklin, Jacksonville Florida, formerly of Balgowan House, Lisburn.
Sir John Gilbert, History of Dublin (1854-59; rep. edn. Shannon 1972), contains extensive references to Macklin including some lines by Anthony Pasquin noticing his appearance at 95 yrs of age at Smock Alley for Richard Daly, ‘Revere sturdy Macklin, the dramatic sire/For nor age nor disease can extinguish his fire ..’; See also Anthony Pasquin, The Children of Thespis (1792)
Patrick Kennedy, Modern Irish Anecdotes (q.d.), reports that he died 11 July, at 104; note also that the remark, ‘This is the Jew/That Shakespeare drew’, is spoken by ‘a deformed little man’, leaning over the box as Macklin passed it (presumably intended for Alexander Pope), and further: ‘Macklin’s judgement decided that the play, as it came from Shakespeare’s brain, would prove a success’. (p.176); in the event, it played for nineteen nights in succession and was repeated to crowded houses.
Maria Macklin (d.1781), his daughter, appeared at Drury Lane in Richard III, 1743; left stage 1777; played Portia, Desdemona, and Rosalind;
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (Tralee: The Kerryman 1946) is apparently in error in saying that Lord Landsdowne wrote Jew of Venice.
A sales catalogue of his extensive library includes titles by [Sir John] Davi[e]s (1747), John Bush, Hibernia Curiosa (1766), Charles, O’Conor, Dissertations (1766); Charles Vallancey, Collecteana (1770), Smith’s Cork, Waterford and Kerry (1784), Wynne’s History of Ireland (1773), and Twiss’s Tour (1775) [Folger Pn 2598 M2 A3];
G. J. Cooke played Sir Pertinax MacSycophant in Man of the World, and Archy MacSarcasm in Love a la Mode, see J. O. Bartley, Teague, Shenkin and Sawney: Being an Historical Study of the Earliest Irish, Welsh and Scottish Characters in English Plays (Cork UP 1954), p.227, and plate 19 [after p.254].
The National Theatre, London, permanently displays a portrait by Zoffany of Macklin in the role of Shylock in Act 3 of The Merchant of Venice (Covent Garden, 1767-68) [BREF 147].
ALSO, John Opie’s oil portrait of Macklin is held by the Garrick Club [see Highfall, supra, and Anne Crookshank, Irish Portraits Exhibition, Ulster Mus. 1965.
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)