Location: Les circulations musicales et théâtrales, 1750-1815, MSHS, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis

This paper tests out an idea from the end of my thesis, namely that the actor’s Shakespeare (and particularly Garrick’s Shakespeare) is particularly visible from abroad. Employing eighteenth-century diplomatic and missionary practice as a usefu l analogy for Garrick’s relationship with Shakespeare, I show two things. First, that Garrick was seen by others and presented himself as a substitute for Shakespeare. Second, that Garrick was in turn substituted and spread across Europe in his own right. In this way, the actor became both a means and an object of cultural circulation. For a while at least, a paradoxical situation obtained, one where, in France and Germany, Garrick was greater than Shakespeare but Shakespeare greater than Garrick.