William Charles Macready

Background

William Charles Macready was born in London on March 3, 1793. He was the son of a provincial manager, he first appeared as Romeo in his father's company in 1810.

Career

On the 7th of June 1810 William Charles Macready made a successful first appearance as Romeo at Birmingham.

On the 16th of September 1816, Macready made his first London appearance at Covent Qarden as Orestes in The Distressed Mother, a translation of Racine's Andromaque by Ambrose Philips.

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 the 25th of October 1819.

In 1826 he completed a successful engagementin America, and in 1828 his performances met with a very flattering reception in Paris.

On the 15th of 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.

On the 10th of June 1838 he gave a memorable performance of Henry V, for which Stanfield prepared sketches, and the mounting was superintended by Bulwer, Dickens, Forster, Maclise, W. J. Fox and other friends.

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.

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.

(1875); William Charles Macready, by William Archer (1890).

Connections

William Charles Macready married twice, firstly in 1823 to Catherine Frances Atkins. In 1860, aged 67 he married the 23 year old Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer (1827–1908), by whom he had a son, Nevil Macready.

Father:

William Macready

Mother:

Christina Ann Birch

Spouse:

Catherine

Spouse:

Louise

Son:

Nevil