or, an interview between the ghost of Shakespear and D-v-d G-rr–k, Esq.
Anonymous
London: printed for the author, and sold at C. Corbett’s State-Lottery-Office, opposite St. Dunstan’s Church, Fleet-Street, and by the pamphlet shops in London and Westminster, 1755
This brief poem indicates that the famous Shakespearean actor David Garrick had accrued some detractors by 1755. Indeed, he cuts a cowardly figure when the spirit of Shakespeare appears to him in this visitation (“the little hero” is “struck with Fear … mad like Lear”). The Bard chastises Garrick for his “haughty Spirit” and the introduction of dances, music, and other distractions into performances of his plays. Garrick forswears dance, pantomime, and airs, promising to perform Shakespeare’s plays as Shakespeare wrote them. —VH