Inhabiting the Character

In a letter to William Powell, he advised the aspiring actor to “give to Study, and an Accurate consideration of Your Characters, those Hours which Young Men generally give to their Friends & fflatterers [sic]” because public favor “must be purchas’d with Sweat & labour.” An observer in 1742 gave the following example of Garrick’s range and depth in characterization: “In the Parts of Richard III, King Lear, the Lying Valet, and Bays in the Rehearsal, he is as different as they are opposite, and enters into their Spirit with great Justness and Propriety.” That is, he became the character.

This Worcester porcelain saucer depicts Garrick as King Lear, and forms part of a theatrical tea service painted in the London studio of James Giles.