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Charles MacklinTHE MAN OF THE WORLD(1792)
With an Introduction by
Dougald MacMillan
Publication Number 26
Los Angeles
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1951
H. RICHARD ARCHER, Clark Memorial Library
RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan
EDWARD NILES HOOKER, University of California, Los Angeles
JOHN LOFTIS, University of California, Los Angeles
W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan
EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington
BENJAMIN BOYCE, Duke University
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, University of Michigan
CLEANTH BROOKS, Yale University
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago
SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota
ERNEST MOSSNER, University of Texas
JAMES SUTHERLAND, Queen Mary College, London
H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles
During his extraordinarily long career as an actor, Charles Macklin wroteseveral plays. The earliest is King Henry VII; or, The Popish Imposter,a tragedy based on the Perkin Warbeck story, performed at Drury Lane 18January 1745/6 and published the same year. As the Preface states, it "wasdesign'd as a Kind of Mirror to the present Rebellion"; and it providedthe author with a part in which he could express, through the character ofLord Huntley, his own aversion to foreign influences in the land, to"French and Priest-rid Weakness" and "Romish Tyranny." This and hissucceeding plays were obviously composed to provide parts for himself; sono others were published until he had retired. They were his stock intrade, since Macklin seldom maintained a stable connection with one of thetheatres. Instead he appeared now here now there for brief engagements oron special occasions, rather than as a regular member of the company,often carrying his plays with him. Thus a number have survived only inmanuscript. The Larpent Collection contains seven,—the tragedy justmentioned, four farces, and two five-act comedies, one of these in threestates.[1] This is The Man of the World here reproduced for the firsttime in over a century and a half, despite the opinion expressed by IsaacReed, in 1782, that "This play, … in respect to originality, force ofmind, and well-adapted satire, may dispute the palm with any dramaticpiece that has appeared within the compass of half a century…."[2]Originally it had been performed in Dublin in 1764 under the title TheTrue-born Scotchman, but in 1770 the Examiner of Plays in London refusedto license it. It was re-submitted in 1779 and again forbidden, but wasfinally allowed and performed at Covent Garden on 10 May 1781, with theauthor in the part of Sir Pertinax Macsycophant.
Himself irascible and passionate, Macklin had been the most admiredShylock of his century. His specialty was the performance of characterparts, often dialect roles, either broadly comic or cruel and ironic. Thecentral figure of this, h