Editing William Macready (section)

==Career==
{{More citations needed|section|date=August 2023}}
Macready was born in [[London]] the son of [[William Macready the Elder]], and actress Christina Ann Birch. Educated at [[Rugby School]] where he became headboy, and where now the theatre is named after him, it was his initial intention to go to [[University of Oxford]], but, in 1809, financial problems experienced by his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810, he made a successful first appearance as [[Romeo Montague|Romeo]] at [[Birmingham]]. Other [[William Shakespeare|Shakespearian]] parts followed, but a serious rupture between father and son resulted in the young man's departure for [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in 1814. Here he remained for two years, with occasional professional visits to other provincial towns.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}}

On 16 September 1816, Macready made his first London appearance at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] as Orestes in ''The Distressed Mother'', a translation of [[Jean Racine|Racine]]'s ''Andromaque'' by [[Ambrose Philips]]. Macready's choice of characters was at first confined chiefly to the romantic drama. In 1818, he won a permanent success in [[Isaac Pocock]]'s (1782–1835) adaptation of [[Walter Scott|Scott]]'s ''Rob Roy''. He showed his capacity for the highest tragedy when he played ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]'' at Covent Garden on 25 October 1819.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}}

In 1820, he played the title role in the tragedy ''[[Virginius (play)|Virginius]]'' by [[James Sheridan Knowles]]. Transferring his services to [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]], he gradually rose in public favour, his most conspicuous success being in the title role of Sheridan Knowles's ''[[William Tell (1825 play)|William Tell]]'' (11 May 1825). In 1826, he completed a successful engagement in the [[United States]], and, in 1828, his performances met with a very flattering reception in [[Paris]]. In 1829, he appeared as [[Othello]] in [[Warwick]].<ref>A History of Warwick and its People by Thomas Kemp. Published 1905 by Henry T. Cooke & Son, p. 75</ref>

On 15 December 1830 he appeared at Drury Lane as Werner, one of his most powerful impersonations. In 1833, he played in ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'', in [[George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron|Byron]]'s ''[[Sardanapalus (play)|Sardanapalus]]'', and in ''[[King Lear]]''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}} He was responsible, in 1834, and more fully in 1838, for returning the text of ''King Lear'' to Shakespeare's text (although in a shortened version), after it had been replaced for more than a hundred and fifty years by [[Nahum Tate]]'s happy-ending adaptation, ''[[The History of King Lear]]''.<ref>Grace Ioppolo: ''William Shakespeare's King Lear: A Sourcebook''. London, Routledge, 2003, p. 69.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Mullin|first=Emily|title=Macready's Triumph: The Restoration of King Lear to the British Stage|url=http://repository.upenn.edu/phr/vol18/iss1/3/|journal=Penn History Review|date=6 September 2011|volume=18|issue=1|publisher=Berkeley Electronic Press|access-date=1 August 2012}}</ref> He performed at the Georgian [[Wisbech]] theatre (now [[Angles Theatre]]) and other theatres of the Lincoln theatre circuit run by [[Fanny Robertson]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Already, Macready had done something to encourage the creation of a modern English drama, and after entering on the management of Covent Garden in 1837 he introduced [[Robert Browning]]'s ''[[Strafford (play)|Strafford]]'', and in the following year [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton|Bulwer-Lytton]]'s ''[[The Lady of Lyons]]'' and ''[[Richelieu (play)|Richelieu]]'', the principal characters in which were among his most effective parts. On 10 June 1838, he gave a memorable performance of ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]'', for which [[William Clarkson Stanfield|Stanfield]] prepared sketches, and the mounting was superintended by Bulwer-Lytton, [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]], [[John Forster (biographer)|Forster]], [[Daniel Maclise|Maclise]], [[William Johnson Fox|W. J. Fox]] and other friends.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}}

Dickens wrote to him in 1847: "The multitude of tokens by which I know you for a great man, the swelling within me of my love for you, the pride I have in you, the majestic reflection I see in you of the passions and affections that make up our mystery, throw me into a strange kind of transport that has no expression but in a mute sense of an attachment which in truth and fervency is worthy of its subject."<ref>{{cite book |last1=de la L. Oulton |first1=Carolyn W. |title=Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1317061533}}</ref>
[[File:Illustrirte Zeitung (1843) 16 254 2 Macready als Macbeth.PNG|thumb|upright|Macready playing 'Macbeth']]
The first production of Bulwer-Lytton's ''Money'' took place under the artistic direction of Count d'Orsay on 8 December 1840, Macready winning unmistakable success in the character of Alfred Evelyn. Both in his [[Actor-manager|management]] of Covent Garden, which he resigned in 1839, and of Drury Lane, which he held from 1841 to 1843, he found his designs for the elevation of the stage frustrated by the absence of adequate public support.

In 1843, he staged ''[[Cymbeline]]''. In 1843–44, he made a successful tour in the [[United States]], but his last visit to that country, in 1849, was marred by the [[Astor Place Riot]], in which between 22 and 31 rioters were dead, and more than 120 people injured.
{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}}

Judge [[Charles Patrick Daly]] later presided at the trial. Both Forrest and Macready were playing Macbeth in concurrent, competing productions at the time of the riot, a fact which added to the ominous reputation of that play. Playwright [[Richard Nelson (playwright)|Richard Nelson]] dramatized the events surrounding the riot in his 1990 play, ''Two Shakespearean Actors''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rich|first=Frank|title=War of Hams Where the Stage Is All|url=http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9E0CEFDA113CF934A25752C0A964958260&_r=1&|work=The New York Times|access-date=28 March 2013|date=17 January 1992}}</ref>

Macready took leave of the stage in a farewell performance of [[Macbeth]] at Drury Lane on 26 February 1851. The remainder of his life was spent in happy retirement, and he died at [[Cheltenham]] on 27 April 1873.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}