Garrick and Shakespeare in Europe

Abstract

This article falls into two parts. In the first I show how David Garrick's performances and responses to them in various media intersected with a particular understanding of Shakespeare's beauties while also projecting across Europe a set of ‘Garrickean' attributes. The second section considers a French and a German translation of Macbeth, the composition and reception of which bear the marks of a Garrickean Shakespeare. Such marking indicates the joint influence of Garrick and Shakespeare outside England, and indicates how celebrity performance, despite the transience of the original events, can be reinscribed through translation and other kinds of international circulation.