Such was the univerfal approbation which followed our young actor, that the more eftablished theatres of Drury-Lane and CoventGarden were deferted: Mr. Garrick drew after him the inhabitants of the most polite parts of the town. Goodman's Fields was full of the fplendor of St. James's and Grofvenor-Square. The coaches of the nobility filled up the space from Temple Bar to White-Chapel. He had fo perfectly convinced the public of his fuperior accomplishments in acting, that not to admire him would not only have argued an abfence of taste, but the groffeft ftupidity; thofe who had feen and been delighted with the molt admired of the old actors, confeffed that he had excelled the ableft of them in the variety of his exhibitions, and equalled them all in their molt applauded characters. Mr. Pope was perfuaded by Lord Orrery to fee him in the first dawn of his fame: that great man, who had cftien feen and admired Betterton, whofe picture he had painted, and which is now in the poffeffion of Lord Mansfield, was ftruck with the propriety and beauty of Mr. Garrick's action; and, as a convincing proof that he had a good opinion of his merit, he told Lord Orrery, that he was afraid the young man would be spoiled, for he would have no competitor. Mr. Garrick fhone forth like a theatrical Newton; he threw new light on elocution and action, he banished ranting, bombaft and grimace, and restored nature, cafe, fimplicity and genuine humour. • We must not wonder that the comedians were the last who became profelytes to the new philofophy of the theatre: the players, from their limited flation, and not from malignity of temper, are more liable to envy and jealoufy than perfons of most other profeffions. Incroachments and altercations, in a fmall circle, are as difagreeable as they are unavoidable. The fuperior merit of one player is often detrimental to the intereft of him who thinks himself a competitor. The lofs of parts which the actor has played, and, perhaps, with approbation, for a confiderable time, is attended with lofs of réputation and diminution of income. Quin, who had hitherto been esteemed the first actor in tragedy, could not conceal his uneafinefs and difguit from the great fuccefs of Mr. Garrick. After he had been a fpectator of his manner in fome important character, which, I believe, was Richard the Third, he declared peremptorily, "That if the young fellow was right, he, and the rest of the players, had been all wrong" and, upon being told that Goodman's-Fields theatre was crowded every night to fee the new actor, he said, "That Garrick was a new religion: Whitefield was followed for a time; but they would all come to church again." 'Mr. Garrick, who had a quick and happy talent in turning an epigram, gave this fmart reply to Quin's bon mot, Pope Quin, who damns all churches but his own, Schifm, he cries, has turn'd the nation's brain; But eyes will open, and to church again! Thou great infallible, forbear to roar, P 3 Colley Colley Cibber, from whom more candour might have been expected, after he had teen Garrick's Bays, which the public esteemed a malter-piece of comic humour; faid, "Garrick was well enough, but not fuperior to his fon Theophilus, who had little more to recommend him in the part than pertnefs and vivacity." Mrs. Bracegirdle, a celebrated actress, who had left the flage for more than thirty years before Garrick's first appearance, and was vifited by many perfons of condition and tafte, thought very differently of this rifing genius. In a converfation which he had with Colley Cibber, who spoke of him with an affected derogation, the reproved his malignity, and generously said, “Come, come, Cibber, tell me, if there is not fomething like envy in your character of this young gentleman. The actor who pleases every body must be a man of merit." The old man felt the force of this fenfible rebuke; he took a pinch of fnuff, and frankly replied; " Why faith, Bracey, I believe you are right-The young fellow is clever." Mr Garrick's weekly income was, at firft, very moderate, not exceeding fix or feven pounds. But when it was evident, that the great emoluments from the playhouse treasury were chiefly, if not entirely, owing to his labours, and that the benches of the playhouse were almost always empty when his name was not seen in the playbills, Mr. Giffard very heartily concurred with Mr. Garrick, and his friends, to allow him a full moiety of the profits; and, in this, the manager found his advantage, for the actor was conftantly employed in confequence of his being perpetually admired. To a very long and fatiguing character in the play, he would frequently add another in a farce. The diftreffes which he raised in the audience by his Lear and Richard, he relieved with the roguish tricks of the Lying Valet, or the diverting humours of the School-boy.' The great arrear of articles now before us, all preffing for admiffion into our journal, obliges us to rife, fomewhat abruptly, from our prefent entertainment;—but to which we hope again to fit down, with a good appetite, at a future opportunity. We must not, however, part company without remarking, from our Author's previous advertisement, that he acknowledges himself greatly indebted to his learned friend, Dr. Samuel Johnfon, for his encouragement in the profecution of his defign, and particularly for many of the anecdotes relative to the early part of the life of his hero: for which the Doctor was well qualified, having been familiarly acquainted in the family, and with the neareft relations of Mr. Garrick. [To be concluded in our next.] ART. ART. X. A Complete Body of Heraldry; containing an Hiftorical Inquiry into the Origin of Armories, and the Rife and Progrefs of Heraldry, confidered as a Science: the Inftitution of the Offices of Conftable, Marfhal, and Earl Marshal of England; their concurrent and feparate Jurifdictions, Functions, Powers, &c. the Creation and Etablishment of Kings, Heralds, Purfuivants, and other Officers of Arms, with their feveral and refpective Duties, Badges, Liveries, Wages, Vifitations, &c. The proper Method of blazoning and marshalling Armorial Bearings; and therein of Ordinaries, Charges, Marks of Cadency, Additions and Abatements of Honour; Affumptions, Grants, Augmentations, Alienations, Exchanges, &c. The Arms, Quarterings, &c. of all Sovereign Princes and States; as alfo the Atchievements of the Peers, Peereffes, and Baronets of England, Scotland, and Ireland. An Hiftorical Catalogue of all the different Orders of Knighthood. The Arms of the Counties, Cities, &c. of England, Scotland and Wales. The Arms of Archiepifcopal and Epifcopal Sees in England and Ireland. A Difcourfe on the Origin, Ufe, and Abuse of Funeral Trophies. GLOVER's Ordinary of Arms, augmented and improved. An Alphabet of Arms, with a copious Gloffary explaining technical Terms. Illuftrated with Copper-plates. Carefully compiled from the best and most undoub ed Authorities by Jofeph Edmondfon, Efq; F S. A. Mowbray Herald Extraordinary; and Author of the Baronagium Genealogicum, and Genealogical Tables of the English Peers. Folio. 2 Vols. 31. 3 s. unbound. DodЛley, &c. 1780. TH HIS title-page feems fufficiently copious, although we have taken the liberty of fometimes inferting the &c. a little fooner than is done in the original. The whole work, indeed, as well as its title, is rather verbofe; and, in too many inftances, inaccurate. Among our rude ancestors, when military valour was the only virtue in request, because war was the great business of fociety, gentlemen were principally diftinguifhed by their bravery and conduct in the field. The bravery, indeed, of fuch an age, was little better than fierce brutality, and the perfection of military conduct was nothing more than the artificial ftratagem of crafty barbarians. It is probable, therefore, that many families have been ennobled by exploits, which would fcarcely, at prefent, do honour to the meaneft of mankind. Yet fuch exploits being in ancient times thought worthy of general applause and admiration, they formed the main foundation of the diftinction of ranks, which afterwards gave birth to the important prerogatives of nobility. But in an improved, commercial age, many new fources are opened to the active ambition of The progress of arts, learning, laws, and government, furnish a wide field of emulation; pre-eminence may be attained by the elegant arts of conversation and literature; and it man. is expected that a gentleman fhould be diftinguished from a peafant, not merely by his fuperior courage and more delicate fenfe of honour, but by the juftnefs and extent of his ideas, and the propriety of his expreffion. In carefully examining the different branches of this very voluminous performance, a Reader may extract a fatisfactory account of the rife and progrefs of gentilitial distinctions, as well as of the prefent ftate of that art by which they are ascertained and perpetuated. The Author firft examines the much difputed queftions, whether armorial enfigns, analogous to our present coats of arms, were known to the ancients. He allows that the Egyptians, Affyrians and Greeks made ufe of fymbolical devices, as public and national ftandards; and alfo that their principal leaders reprefented a variety of figures on their fhields and armour. But the former, it is plain, were intended to diftinguish communities, and not, as our coats of armour, families and individuals. The latter, he obferves, were not hereditary and permanent marks of gentility, but merely perfonal and cafual ornaments, which were affumed or laid afide according to the whim, fancy, or caprice of the wearer. As to the Romans, it is obferved by SILIUS ITALICUS, that the family of the Corvini conftantly bore a raven for their creft; and SUETONIUS, in the life of Caligula, feems to infer, that the Torquati had a chain, and the Cincinnati a tuft of hair, for their family enfigns. The words are, "Vetera familiarum infignia nobiliffimo cuique ademit, Torquato torquem, Cincinnato crinem, & Pompeio ftirpis antiquæ magni cognomen." The Author explains this paffage: Caligula ordered the chain and tuft of hair to be taken from the respective ftatues of Torquator and Cincinnatus :' and he justly remarks, that this meaning is confirmed by the order for erazing the word magnus from the infcription under the ftatue of Pompey. The Romans were indeed divided into nobiles, novi, and ignobiles; a diftin&tion taken from the jus imaginum, or the right of having the ftatues and images of their ancestors. But there is an effential difference between the jus imaginum and the armories of later times. The former was eftablifhed in favour of those families whose ancestors had executed fome important office in the ftate, and was therefore a civil honour; the latter was established in favour of thofe only who had fignalifed thems felves in battle, or who held fome command in the army. Having fufficiently refuted the opinion of thofe writers who maintain the high antiquity of armorial bearings, the Author explains their real origin. Upon the whole, the Romans were the first people who thought of diflributing the conquered lands amongst the foldiery, to hold by military fervice; that is, on condition of their fighting for, and de fending fending them whenever attacked by the enemy. The northern nations, on their irruption into the Roman empire, from the great oppofition which they every where met with on the frontiers, plainly faw the advantages which accrued from the lands being thus granted out in property to thofe whofe intereft it was, and who had in themfelves power, to defend them: wherefore, as foon as they had driven out the Romans, and had got poffeffion of their territories, they adopted the fame plan; and the conquering general allotted his new acquifts to the fuperior officers under his command, who fubdivided them amongst their inferiors, to hold likewife by military service. Thefe military benefices, or, as Sir Henry Spelman very juftly ftyles them, prædia militaria, afterwards were called feuda, or feuds †, and evidently became the basis of the feudal fyftem. At first the allotments or military benefices were perfonal, and granted during the life only of the poffeffor, after whofe decease they reverted to the prince or original grantor: but the feudal fyftem being enlarged and improved, thefe feuds occafionally and by degrees became hereditary; and accordingly we find that, towards the clofe of the ninth century, feudatories frequently obtained the Prince's confent, that they might tranfmit their beneficiary lands to their pofterity; and they not long after had the like permiffion to divide them amongst all their children, charged however with military service in the defence of the kingdom. The obligations which each principal feudatory was under of affembling and keeping together his quota of foldiers in time of fervice, and the neceffity there was that the prince or principal commander fhould be fatisfied that his army was joined by all the chief military tenants, with their feveral powers according to the obligations of their respective tenures, pointed out the utility of each leader's carrying with him fome mark or token, whereby not only he himself might be known by his followers, but his place and station in the hot might likewife be particularifed, and diftinguished by those whofe duty it was to note down his attendance, to mufter the whole body, to regulate its line of march, and to mark out the encampment for each party. In the preceding times, each leader had been habituated to charge his fhield and other pieces of armour either *Pofthumous Treatife on Feuds. Mr. Somner fuppofes that the word Feud is a German compound, which confifts of Feb, Feo, or Feob, hgnifying a Salary, Stipend, or Wages; and of Hade, Head, or Hode, importing Quality, Kind, or Nature: fo that, fays he, Feudum, Fee, or land holden in Fer, is no more, confidered in its firft and primary acceptation, than what was holden in Feo-bode, by contraction Feud, or Feed, i. e. a Stipendiary conditional mercenary way and nature; with the acknowledgement of a fuperior, and a condition of returning him fome fervice for it, upon the withdrawing whereof the land was revertible unto the lord. This etymon, according to Sir Martin Wright, not only fuggefts the most probable account of the word, but gives the clearest defcription of the thing tfelf, and is agreeable to the book of Feuds, lib. II. tit. xxiii. which fays that Beneficium (Feudum) uiud eft quod ex benevolentia ita dabatur alicui, ut proprietas rei penes dantem remaneret, ulus fructus ad ac ipientem ejufque hæredes pertineret, ad boc, ut ille ejus hæredes domino fidenter fervirent. Ihe fenfe whereof is thus expreffed by Mr Selden: Feuds or Feuda, being the fame which in our laws we call Tenancies, or Lands held, and Feuda alio, are poffeffions to given and held, that the poffeffor is bound to do fervice to him from whom they were given.-Wright's Introduction to the Law of Tenures. |