Celebrity fades, but people like Garrick and Sarah Siddons haven't faded out of all recollection (or at least anyone with a reasonable general knowledge of the era has probably come across them). I even knew of Peg Woffington and Kitty Clive, although I couldn't have told you anything about them other than passive recognition of their names as contemporary actresses and perhaps specifically as comediennes.
Samuel Foote was a complete blank to me, despite the fact that he was apparently a wildly successful and famous figure in his day, and a longstanding friend/rival equal actor-manager to Garrick, whom he had known since they were first taking drama classes together, and who was running Drury Lane at the same time as Foote was running (and indeed founded) the Theatre Royal at the Haymarket. I do think that being a famous comic has always held a lower status than being a famous tragedian -- even though, by what I've heard, the former tend to do much better in tragic parts than the latter in comic parts, since the art of comedy revolves so directly upon timing and delivery.
That said, Foote apparently tried tragedy early in his stage career (playing Othello in the days before he lost his leg) and failed to make any impact with it. His real talent was as an impressionist, and of course that is incredibly ephemeral, since it holds no humour at all unless the audience is familiar with the foibles and mannerisms of the person being imitated.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-07-12 07:01 pm (UTC)Samuel Foote was a complete blank to me, despite the fact that he was apparently a wildly successful and famous figure in his day, and a longstanding friend/rival equal actor-manager to Garrick, whom he had known since they were first taking drama classes together, and who was running Drury Lane at the same time as Foote was running (and indeed founded) the Theatre Royal at the Haymarket. I do think that being a famous comic has always held a lower status than being a famous tragedian -- even though, by what I've heard, the former tend to do much better in tragic parts than the latter in comic parts, since the art of comedy revolves so directly upon timing and delivery.
That said, Foote apparently tried tragedy early in his stage career (playing Othello in the days before he lost his leg) and failed to make any impact with it. His real talent was as an impressionist, and of course that is incredibly ephemeral, since it holds no humour at all unless the audience is familiar with the foibles and mannerisms of the person being imitated.