As I said in last week’s post, there is a lot of stuff in the Folger Library that I could talk about. I spent my week looking at as much as I could, in the hope of one day returning to work in more detail around a specific project. For the post, I thought I’d concentrate on another interesting tidbit. It concerns the following object

This is a page from one of the notebooks David Garrick kept between 1767 and 1778. I didn’t know much about these volumes before coming to the Folger, and, on the whole, there isn’t too much in them that I found exciting. I should mention, however, that I did find proof that Garrick travelled through Hertfordshire, near where I grew up, some time around 1770, but that is the kind of thing that only a small nmber of people would be curious about.

This page, however, is exciting enough to give anyone pause. Garrick is well known for never really saying very much about how he acted, much to the frustration of his contemporaries and everyone who has studied his work since (including me). This notebook page, entitled, ‘Art of Acting’ seems to offer a little-known window into his thoughts on performance, but – alas – it only seems to do so, and is, like much of Garrick’s writing about acting theory, simply derides those who would codify the skills of the player.

Here’s a rough transcription (do comment if you can do better!)

While to the wise some dedicate their pains,

I dedicate to those who have no brains:

Who to the rich give alms have little merit,

I feed the poor in knowledge, wit & spirit.