MACREADY, William Charles (1793-1873), was born in London 3d March 1793, and educated at Rugby. His intention was to proceed to Oxford, but the embarrassed affairs of his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management, in which he showed great prudence and address. In 1810 he made a successful debut as Romeo at Birmingham; and the fame which he had acquired in the provinces gave exceptional interest to his appearance in 1816 at Covent Garden, in the character of Orestes in the Distressed Mother. In London his choice of characters was at first confined chiefly to the romantic drama, but he showed his capacity for the highest tragic parts when he played Richard III. at Covent Garden in 1819, and in the following year his performance of Virginius, in the new play of Sheridan Knowles, assisted to give solidity to his reputation. Transferring his services to Drury Lane, he gradually rose in public favour, till, on the retirement of Kean and Young, he was regarded as the legitimate successor of these tragedians. In 1826 he completed a successful engagement in America, and in 1828 his performances met with a very flattering reception in Paris. Already he had done something to encourage the creation of a modern English drama through the interest awakened by his performances in Virginius, Gaius Gracchus, and William Tell, and after entering on the management of Covent Garden in 1837 he introduced, besides other new plays, Bulwer’s Lady of Lyons and. Richelieu, the principal characters of which were among his most effective parts. Both, however, in his management of Coveut 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 ...’ hampered and finally frustrated by the sordid aims of the proprietors and the absence of adequate public support. In 1843-44 he made a prosperous tour in the United States, but his last visit to that country, in 1849, was marred by a riot at the Astor Opera House, New York, arising from the jealousy of the actor Forrest, and resulting in the death of twenty-two persons, who were shot by the military called out to quell the disturbance. Macready retired from the stage in 1851; and the remainder of his life was occupied chiefly in superintending the education of his family, and in schemes for the welfare of the poorer classes. He died at Cheltenham 27th April 1873.
Macready’s performances always displayed fine artistic perceptions developed to a high degree of perfection by very comprehensive culture, and even his least successful personations had the interest resulting from thorough intellectual 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 most characteristic features of the great tragic ]>arts of Shakespeare, King Bear perhaps excepted, which in some degree afforded scope for his pathos and tenderness, the qualities in which he specially excelled. With the exception of a voice of good compass and capable of very varied expression, Macready was not in a special degree gifted physically for acting, but the defects of his face and figure cannot be said to have materially influenced his success. He created a considerable number of parts, which still retain their hold on the stage, and, although not by virtue of natural genius worthy of a place among tragedians of the first rank, he is almost entitled, to this on account of the high degree of perfection to which he had cultivated his powers, and from the fact that there is no tragedian of the second rank who can be named his equal. See Macready's Reminiscences, edited by Sir Frederick Pollock, 2 vols., 1875.
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