SEASON OF
1784-1785
SEASON was a prosperous one at all the theatres — even
% rji M at the debt-ridden King’s. At Drury Lane the actor who of
Q y the entire company seems to have been, in general, the most
popular with all its members, Thomas King, returned to the
acting managerships He had held this post throughout one previous season,
that of 1782-1783 ; the intervening year he had spent in temporary retire¬
ment. He was perhaps influential in inducing Mrs Siddons to undertake,
f°t the first time in London, on 2 February, the part of Lady Macbeth,
■which part was, and still is, more closely associated with her name and her
celebrity than any other. As acting manager King remained in office for
another four years, when he was succeeded by John Philip Kemble.
On 24 May a benefit was arranged at this theatre for Mrs Bellamy,
who for many seasons in the middle of the century had acted leading parts
with Garrick, Barry, Quin and indeed all the principal actors of the time.
She had been in retirement for several years, and was now in severe financial
straits, as in fact she had continued to be for the better part of her flamboyant
career. On this night Mrs Yates, for many years England’s most distinguished
actress in tragedy, made her final appearance in London.
The frequenters of Covent Garden witnessed the debuts of two young
men, both aged twenty, Joseph Holman on 25 October, and Alexander
P°pe on 8 Januray, both of whom subsequently moved to the front rank of
their profession. It is on record that almost at once “Holman, attracting
In h*s Recollections, 1826, n, 38, John O’Keeffe notes that 1782-83 “was William Lewis’s
st season [at Covent Garden] as acting manager (in these latter times called stage manager).”
his m ^"rendered this office to Kemble in 1788 King published a long letter outlining
reasons for doing so; in it he recited some of the acting manager’s duties. See Genest,
46
727