PASQUIN TURN'D DRAWCANSIR***


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      The primary text was handwritten, probably by a professional
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          The Augustan Reprint Society


                CHARLES MACKLIN

              _THE COVENT GARDEN_
                   _THEATRE,_

                       OR
          _Pasquin Turn'd Drawcansir_

                     (1752)

                 _INTRODUCTION_
                       by
                  JEAN B. KERN

                  [Decoration]

             Publication Number 116
     WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
     University of California, Los Angeles
                      1965




GENERAL EDITORS

  Earl R. Miner, _University of California, Los Angeles_
  Maximillian E. Novak, _University of California, Los Angeles_
  Lawrence Clark Powell, _Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library_


ADVISORY EDITORS

  Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_
  John Butt, _University of Edinburgh_
  James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_
  Ralph Cohen, _University of California, Los Angeles_
  Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_
  Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_
  Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_
  Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_
  Everett T. Moore, _University of California, Los Angeles_
  James Sutherland, _University College, London_
  H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_


CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

  Edna C. Davis, _Clark Memorial Library_




EDITORS' NOTE

Although of considerable interest in itself, this hitherto unpublished
manuscript play is reprinted in facsimile in response to requests by
members of the Society for a manuscript facsimile of use in graduate
seminars.




INTRODUCTION


The Larpent collection of the Huntington Library contains the
manuscript copy of Charles Macklin's COVENT GARDEN THEATRE, OR
PASQUIN TURN'D DRAWCANSIR in two acts (Larpent 96) which is here
reproduced in facsimile.[1] It is an interesting example of that
mid-eighteenth-century phenomenon, the afterpiece, from a period when
not only Shakespearean stock productions but new plays as well were
accompanied by such farcical appendages.[2] This particular afterpiece
is worth reproducing not only for its catalogue of the social foibles of
the age, but as an illustration of satirical writing for the stage at a
time when dramatic taste often wavered toward the sentimental. It
appears that it has not been previously printed.

As an actor Charles Macklin is remembered for his Scottish dress in the
role of Macbeth, for his realistic portrayal of Shylock, for his quarrel
with Garrick in 1743, and for his private lectures on acting at the
Piazza in Covent Garden. He is less well known than he deserves as a
dramatist although there has been a recent revival of interest in his
plays stimulated by a biography by William W. Appleton, _Charles
Macklin: An Actor's Life_ (Harvard University Press, 1960) and evidenced
in "A Critical Study of the Extant Plays of Charles Macklin" by Robert
R. Findlay (PhD. Thesis at the State University of Iowa, 1963). Appleton
mentions that Macklin lost books and manuscripts in a shipwreck in 1771
(p. 150) and that play manuscripts may also have disappeared in the sale
of his books and papers at the end of his long life at the turn of the
eighteenth century. It is possible that more of Macklin's work may come
to light, like _The Fortune Hunters_ which appeared in the National
Library in Dublin. Until a complete critical edition of Macklin's plays
appears, making possible better assessment of his merit, such farces as
THE COVENT GARDEN THEATRE will have to stand as an example of one genre
of eighteenth-century theatrical productions.

There are many reasons why Macklin's plays are less well known than is
warranted by his personality and acting ability during his long
association with the British stage. His first play, _King Henry VII_,
a tragedy hastily put together to capitalize on the anti-Jacobite
sentiment following the invasion attempt of 1745, was an ambitious
failure. After this discouragement, he also had trouble with the
Licenser so that his comedy _Man of the World_ was not presented until
1781, twenty years after a portion of it first appeared at Covent
Garden.[3] Nor were censorship and a bad start his only problems as a
playwright. He also, and apparently with good reason,[4] was fearful
of piracy and was thus reluctant to have his plays printed. His
eighteenth-century biographer Kirkman mentions Macklin's threats to "put
the law against every offender of it, respecting my property, in full
force."[5] His biographers also mention his practice of giving each
actor only his own role at rehearsals while keeping the manuscript copy
of the whole play under lock, but this did not prevent whole acts from
being printed in such magazines as _The Court Miscellany_, where Act I
of _Love-a-la-Mode_ was printed as it was taken down in shorthand by the
famous shorthand expert Joseph Gurney. If Macklin had not been required
to submit copies of his plays to the Licenser, it is doubtful that as
much would have survived. The contentious Macklin had reason for
zealously guarding his manuscripts, with such provincial theatre
managers as Tate Wilkinson at York