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Happy ending (disambiguation)

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A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which there is a positive outcome for the protagonist or protagonists, and in which this is to be considered a favourable outcome.

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73-542: A happy ending is a type of plot conclusion. Happy Ending or Happy Endings may also refer to: Happy ending In storylines where the protagonists are in physical danger , a happy ending mainly consists of their survival and successful completion of the quest or mission; where there is no physical danger, a happy ending may be lovers consummating their love despite various factors which might have thwarted it. A considerable number of storylines combine both situations. In Steven Spielberg 's version of War of

146-412: A Building and erecting a Statue, to Shakespeare read by Garrick and written by his friend, Dr Johnson. The ode promised the patrons that "The drama's law the drama's patrons give,/For we that live to please must please to live." Certainly, this statement could be regarded as succinctly summing up Garrick's management at Drury Lane where he was able to balance both artistic integrity and the fickle tastes of

219-537: A Christian as a means to save his soul (cf. Romans 11:15). In later times, Jews (and non-Jewish opponents of anti-Semitism) strongly objected to that ending, regarding it as depicting a victory for injustice and oppression and as pandering to the audience's prejudices. Similarly, for sixteenth-century audiences, the ending of The Taming of the Shrew – a formerly independent and assertive woman being broken and becoming totally submissive to her husband – might have counted as

292-548: A Romance: Interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality (Edinburgh 1797). At the age of 19, Garrick, who had been educated at Lichfield Grammar School , enrolled in Samuel Johnson 's Edial Hall School . Garrick showed an enthusiasm for the theatre very early on and he appeared in a school production around this time in the role of Sergeant Kite in George Farquhar 's The Recruiting Officer . After Johnson's school

365-402: A brief summary describing Scudder's rise, prefacing the novella If This Goes On— which ends happily with the overthrow of the theocracy and the restoration of a democratic regime. In another Heinlein work, Podkayne of Mars , the author's original text ended tragically. The book's eponymous protagonist, an interplanetary adventuring teenage girl, flees the scene of an impending nuclear blast in

438-401: A concluding sequence which he felt offered a fair compromise: a tender farewell scene between Higgins and Eliza, followed by one showing Freddy and Eliza happy in their greengrocery-flower shop; this would have been a happy end from the point of view of Freddy, who in other versions is left trapped in hopeless unrequited love for her. However, Pascal did not use Shaw's proposed ending, opting for

511-529: A graceful Cadence in the delivery. But Garrick's legacy was perhaps best summarised by the historian Rev Nicolas Tindal when he said that: The deaf hear him in his action , and the blind see him in his voice . I am disappointed by that stroke of death that has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure. To paint fair Nature, by divine command, Her magic pencil in his glowing hand, A Shakespeare rose: then, to expand his fame Wide o’er this breathing world,

584-490: A happy ending also for later adaptations such as the musical and film My Fair Lady . As seen in one of his preserved notes, Shaw wanted the play to end with Eliza becoming independent and assertive and shaking off Higgins' tutelage: "When Eliza emancipates herself – when Galatea comes to life – she must not relapse". This might have made it a happy ending from the point of view of present-day feminism . In 1938, Shaw sent Gabriel Pascal , who produced that year's film version ,

657-471: A happy ending, which it would not under present-day standards of women's place in society (see The Taming of the Shrew#Sexism controversy ). Most interpretations of the legend of Don Juan end with the protagonist rake being dragged off to Hell , in just retribution for his many sins (for example, the ending of Mozart 's Don Giovanni ). However, José Zorrilla – whose 1844 play Don Juan Tenorio

730-435: A happy ending; such definitions can considerably vary with time and cultural differences. An interpretation of The Merchant of Venice ' s forced conversion of Shylock to Christianity is that it was intended as a happy ending. As a Christian, Shylock could no longer impose interest, undoing his schemes in the play and ending the rivalry between him and Antonio, but more important, contemporary audiences would see becoming

803-599: A love interest by the end. If characters died it was in some expected way that left you feeling warm and fuzzy about their 'sacrifice'. Death shouldn't leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Akkarin was a casualty of war. War is a cruel and random killer. It doesn't kill based on who deserves it more or less. And, hey, you're never going to forget that ending!". However, many of the fans refused to accept Akkarin's death as final. A fan identifying herself as RobinGabriella wrote and posted an alternate ending letting Akkarin live: "The ending I really wanted but never got. Akkarin lives! This

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876-480: A name and a face are saved by the courageous Schindler, and their survival in the midst of all the horrors does provide the audience with a satisfying happy ending. The presence of a happy ending is one of the key points that distinguish melodrama from tragedy . In certain periods, the endings of traditional tragedies such as Macbeth or Oedipus Rex , in which most of the major characters end up dead, disfigured, or discountenanced, have been actively disliked. In

949-565: A new adventure needed to begin with Holmes barging into the Watson family home and taking Watson off to an adventure after apologizing to Mrs. Watson for "borrowing" her husband. Rather than having to regularly initiate stories with such scenes, Conan Doyle summarily killed off Watson's wife. In The Adventure of the Norwood Builder , Watson is seen back in his old Baker Street quarters and the readers are told that his wife had died some time before;

1022-692: A number of events held in the town to celebrate (five years too late) 200 years since Shakespeare's birth. In a speech made on the second day of the Jubilee in Stratford Garrick recognized the Shakespeare Ladies Club as those who "restor'd Shakespeare to the Stage," protecting his fame and erecting "a Monument to his and your own honor in Westminster Abbey." No Shakespeare plays were performed during

1095-502: A nurse when he was deemed old enough to make the journey. David Garrick became a British subject upon his arrival in Britain and later Anglicised his name to Garrick. Sometime after David Garrick's birth the family moved to Lichfield , home to his mother. His father, a captain in the army, was a recruiting officer stationed in Gibraltar through most of young Garrick's childhood. Garrick was

1168-429: A slightly ambiguous final scene in which Eliza returns to Higgins' home, leaving open how their relationship would develop further. Several decades later, My Fair Lady ended similarly. The Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four included, in addition to the normal detective plot, also an important romantic plot line. While investigating the book's mystery, Holmes' faithful companion Dr. Watson falls in love with

1241-791: A total of 18 roles in all in just the first six months of his acting career. His success led Alexander Pope , who saw him perform three times during this period, to surmise, "that young man never had his equal as an actor, and he will never have a rival". With his success at Goodman's Fields, Charles Fleetwood, manager of Drury Lane, engaged Garrick to play Chaumont in Otway's The Orphan (a role he first played in Ipswich) on 11 May 1742 while he used his letters patent to close down Giffard's theatre. That same month, Garrick played King Lear opposite Margaret "Peg" Woffington as Cordelia and his popular Richard III. With these successes, Fleetwood engaged Garrick for

1314-445: A tyrannical theocracy which would last to the end of his life and several generations after; the second - depicting the successful revolution which finally brings down the theocracy and restores democracy. In fact, as Heinlein explained to his readers, he found himself unable to write in full the first part - which would have been "too depressing", ending as it had to with the villain's total victory. Rather, Heinlein contented himself with

1387-606: A wine merchant. He was supposedly a pupil at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School . In 1740, four years after Garrick arrived in London, and with his wine business failing, he saw his first play, a satire , Lethe: or Aesop in the Shade , produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane . Within a year he was appearing professionally, playing small parts at the Goodman's Fields Theatre under

1460-423: Is changing and becoming increasingly strange and incomprehensible to him. For example, he is appointed as the commanding officer of a "strike force" whose soldiers are exclusively homosexual, and who resent being commanded by a heterosexual. Later in the book, he finds that while he was fighting in space, humanity has begun to clone itself, resulting in a new, collective species calling itself simply Man . Luckily for

1533-493: Is for all you people who wanted Sonea to be happy at long last, wanted a happy ending, or just wanted Akkarin for yourselves. Enjoy!" In numerous cases, Hollywood studios adapting literary works into film added a happy ending which did not appear in the original. David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout

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1606-564: Is not described as particularly loud. From his first performance, Garrick departed from the bombastic style that had been popular, choosing instead a more relaxed, naturalistic style that his biographer Alan Kendall states "would probably seem quite normal to us today, but it was new and strange for his day." Certainly, this new style brought acclaim: Alexander Pope stated, "he was afraid the young man would be spoiled, for he would have no competitor." Garrick quotes George Lyttelton as complimenting him by saying, "He told me he never knew what acting

1679-461: Is notable. In addition, he adapted many older plays in the repertoire that might have been forgotten. These included many plays of the Restoration era. Indeed, while influencing the theatre towards a better standard he also gained a better reputation for theatre people. This accomplishment led Samuel Johnson to remark that "his profession made him rich and he made his profession respectable." Garrick

1752-603: Is the version most well known in the Spanish-speaking world – believed that a story should never end sadly, and must always have a happy ending. In Zorrilla's depiction, Don Juan is saved at the last moment from the flames of Hell by the selfless pure love of Doña Inés, a woman whom he wronged but who forgave him; she had made a deal with God to offer her own blameless soul on behalf of Don Juan's, thus redeeming Don Juan and taking him with her to Paradise . The Octoroon , an 1859 anti-slavery play by Dion Boucicault , focuses on

1825-601: The Future History , a series of stories attempting to depict the future of humanity (particularly, of the United States). Heinlein's plan included the writing of two interlinked novellas set in the Twenty-First Century (then a distant future time). The first would have depicted a charismatic preacher named Nehemiah Scudder getting himself elected President of The United States, seizing dictatorial power and establishing

1898-573: The Bedford Coffee-house , an establishment patronised by many theatrical and literary people and a location Garrick frequented. He made his debut as a professional actor on a summer tour to Ipswich with Giffard's troupe in 1741, where he played Aboan in Oroonoko at the theatre in Tankard Street. He appeared under the stage name Lyddal to avoid the consternation of his family. But, while he

1971-472: The 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Samuel Johnson . He appeared in several amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare 's Richard III , audiences and managers began to take notice. Impressed by his portrayals of Richard III and several other roles, Charles Fleetwood engaged Garrick for a season at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the West End . He remained with

2044-535: The Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan is the developing relations of protagonist Sonea with the powerful magician Akkarin. At first she fears and distrusts him, but as she grows to understand his motivations and to share his difficult and dangerous struggle, the two fall very deeply in love with each other. However, at the end of the final part, The High Lord, Akkarin sacrifices himself, giving all his power to Sonea and dying so that she could defeat their enemies,

2117-602: The Body, Sprawling of the Fingers, slapping the Breast and Pockets:-A Set of mechanical Motions in constant Use-the Caricatures of gesture suggested by pert vivacity,-his pantomimical Manner of acting every Word in a Sentence, his Unnatural Pauses in the middle of a sentence; his forc'd Conceits; -his wilful Neglect of Harmony, even where the round Period of a well express'd Noble Sentiment demands

2190-507: The Drury Lane company for the next five years and purchased a share of the theatre with James Lacy . This purchase inaugurated 29 years of Garrick's management of the Drury Lane, during which time it rose to prominence as one of the leading theatres in Europe. At his death, three years after he retired from Drury Lane and the stage, he was given a lavish public funeral at Westminster Abbey where he

2263-555: The Getuli, shows up in the nick of time to save Dido from herself, and she ends up happily marrying him. Fifty years later, Tomaso Albinoni wrote the opera Zenobia, regina de’ Palmireni (Zenobia, Queen of the Palmyrans) - loosely based on the historical life of the 3rd-century queen Zenobia of Palmyra , who for many years defied the might of the Roman Empire until finally overcome by

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2336-558: The Jedi . The concept of a permanent happy ending is specifically brought up in the Stephen King fantasy/fairy tale novel The Eyes of the Dragon which has a standard good ending for the genre, but simply states that "there were good days and bad days" afterwards. A happy ending only requires that the main characters be all right. Millions of innocent background characters can die, but as long as

2409-615: The Jubilee, and heavy rain forced a Shakespeare Pageant to be called off. The Pageant was first staged a month later at Drury Lane Theatre under the title The Jubilee and proved successful enjoying 90 performances. The song " Soft Flowing Avon " was composed by Thomas Arne , with lyrics by Garrick, for the Jubilee. Garrick would manage the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, until he retired from management in 1776. In his last years he continued to add roles to his repertoire; Posthumus in Cymbeline

2482-577: The Northern Hemisphere is wiped out for good measure. Thank god that Jack, Sam, Laura, Jason and Dr. Lucy Hall survive, along with Dr. Hall's little cancer patient." In Spielberg's Schindler's List , the Jewish Holocaust is a grim unchangeable background; viewers know that six million Jews would be murdered by the Nazis, and nothing can change that. Still, the specific Jews who in the film have

2555-451: The Worlds , the happy ending consists of three distinct elements: The protagonists all survive the countless perils of their journey; humanity as a whole survives the alien invasion; and the protagonist father regains the respect of his estranged children. The plot is so constructed that all three are needed for the audience's feeling of satisfaction in the end. A happy ending is epitomized in

2628-587: The armies of the Roman Emperor Aurelian . She was overthrown and taken captive to Rome, and her kingdom summarily annexed to the Roman Empire. However, Albinoni changed the historical ending of Zenobia's drama. In Albinoni's ending, after various plot twists the magnanimous Aurelian becomes impressed with Zenobia's honesty and integrity, and restores her to her throne. Tchaikovsky 's ballet Swan Lake , as originally presented in 1895, ends tragically with

2701-413: The changed ending turned a tragedy into a mere adventure, and not a very well constructed one at that. This restored tragic ending has appeared in all subsequent editions. A basic theme of Joe Haldeman 's The Forever War is the protagonist being trapped in a centuries-long, futile space war. While remaining young due to traveling at relativistic speeds, he feels a growing alienation as human society

2774-461: The characters that the reader/viewer/audience cares about survive, it can still be a happy ending. Roger Ebert comments in his review of Roland Emmerich 's The Day After Tomorrow : "Billions of people may have died, but at least the major characters have survived. Los Angeles is leveled by multiple tornadoes, New York is buried under ice and snow, the United Kingdom is flash-frozen, and much of

2847-457: The circumstances of her death were never told, nor were readers given a chance to share the widowed Watson's grief in the direct aftermath. Readers accepted Mary's death without serious demur, though in Sign of Four she had been a sympathetic and likeable character. In Sherlock Holmes stories, a happy ending usually consisted of Holmes solving the mystery with Watson's help and the criminal turned over to

2920-530: The client, Mary Morstan , and by the ending she consents to marry him. A fairly conventional and satisfying happy ending worked well for The Sign of Four , but Watson's matrimonial bliss with his Mary proved cumbersome for the normal format of the Sherlock Holmes stories in general, which involved Holmes and Watson setting out on a new adventure at a moment's notice. With Watson no longer sharing quarters with Holmes on Baker Street but having his own married home,

2993-428: The ending and told Shaw: "My ending makes money; you ought to be grateful. Your ending is damnable; you ought to be shot." The irritated Shaw added a postscript essay, "'What Happened Afterwards", to the 1916 print edition, for inclusion with subsequent editions, in which he explained precisely why in his view it was impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza marrying. Nevertheless, audiences continued wanting

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3066-440: The evil Ichani. The grieving Sonea is left to bear Akkarin's child and carry on his magical work as best she can. Many readers were shocked by this ending. To repeated queries on why Akkarin had to die, Canavan answered "When the idea came to me for this final scene I knew I had a story worth giving up full time work to write, because at the time I was utterly sick of books where all the characters are alive and happily shacked up with

3139-850: The full 1742–43 season. At the end of the London season, Garrick, along with Peg Woffington, traveled to Dublin for the summer season at the Theatre Royal, Smock Lane . While in Dublin, Garrick added two new roles to his repertoire: Shakespeare's Hamlet , Abel Drugger in Ben Jonson 's The Alchemist (a role that earned him much acclaim ) and Captain Plume in Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer . Some of his success could be attributed to one of his earliest fans, John Boyle, 5th Earl of Cork , who wrote letters to many noblemen and gentlemen recommending Garrick's acting. His writings led Garrick to exclaim that it must have been

3212-407: The giant kills Jack, we have missed the whole point of the story. " George Bernard Shaw had to wage an uphill struggle against audiences, as well as some critics, persistently demanding that his Pygmalion end happily with the marriage of Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle . To Shaw's great chagrin, Herbert Beerbohm Tree who presented the play in London's West End in 1914 had sweetened

3285-459: The last page) and featured a "pick the ending" contest, in which readers were asked to submit essays on which ending they preferred. The 1995 edition included both endings, Jim Baen 's own postlude to the story, and twenty-five of the essays. The ending in which Podkayne dies was declared the winner. Among the reasons why readers favored this ending were that they felt Heinlein should have been free to create his own story, and also that they believed

3358-638: The lovers Odette and Siegfried dying together, vowing fidelity unto death to each other. However, under the Soviet regime, in 1950 Konstantin Sergeyev , who staged a new Swan Lake for the Mariinsky Ballet (then the Kirov), replaced the tragic ending with a happy one, letting the lovers survive and live happily ever after. Similar changes to the ending of Swan Lake were also made in various other times and places where it

3431-523: The management of Henry Giffard . The Goodman's Fields Theatre had been shuttered by the Licensing Act 1737 which closed all theatres that did not hold the letters patent and required all plays to be approved by the Lord Chamberlain before the performance. Garrick's performances at the theatre were a result of Giffard's help with Garrick's wine business. Giffard had helped Garrick win the business of

3504-399: The most iconic of Victorian images and the play's tragic end was finally accepted by the general public. Most subsequent critics have not found Tate's amendments an improvement, and welcomed the restoration of Shakespeare's original. Happy endings have also been fastened – equally, with no lasting success – to Romeo and Juliet and Othello . There is no universally accepted definition of

3577-408: The police (or, in some cases, released magnanimously by Holmes), and readers were satisfied with that. However, when Conan Doyle attempted to kill off Holmes himself, at the tragic ending of The Final Problem , readers refused to accept this ending, made strong and vociferous protests, and eventually forced the author to bring Holmes back to life. Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein published

3650-501: The protagonist, Man has established several colonies of old-style, heterosexual humans, just in case the evolutionary change proves to be a mistake. In one of these colonies, the protagonist is happily reunited with his long-lost beloved and they embark upon monogamous marriage and on having children through sexual reproduction and female pregnancy – an incredibly archaic and old-fashioned way of life for most of that time's humanity, but very satisfying for that couple. A central element in

3723-497: The public. After the Woffington affair, there were several botched love affairs, including possibly fathering a son with Jane Green . Garrick met Eva Marie Veigel (1724–1822), a German dancer in opera choruses who emigrated to London in 1746. The pair wed on 22 June 1749 and were preserved together in several portraits, including one by William Hogarth . Hogarth also made several drawings and paintings of them separately. The union

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3796-519: The reader as well, in that the characters they sympathize with are rewarded. However, this can also serve as an open path for a possible sequel. For example, in the 1977 film Star Wars , Luke Skywalker defeats the Galactic Empire by destroying the Death Star ; however, the story's happy ending has consequences that follow in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back that are reversed in 1983's Return of

3869-541: The reason he was "more caressed" in Dublin. Five years after joining the acting company at Drury Lane, Garrick again traveled to Dublin for a season where he managed and directed at the Smock Alley Theatre in conjunction with Thomas Sheridan , the father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan . After his return to London, he spent some time acting at Covent Garden under John Rich while a farce of his, Miss in Her Teens ,

3942-634: The riverside at Hampton to house his collection of memorabilia. Hogarth collaborated with Garrick on the furnishing of this temple, and their relationship to, and self-identification with, Shakespeare has been extensively examined by Robin Simon . In September 1769 Garrick staged the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon . It was a major focal point in the emerging movement that helped cement Shakespeare as England's national poet . It involved

4015-819: The seventeenth century, the Irish author Nahum Tate sought to improve William Shakespeare 's King Lear in his own heavily modified version in which Lear survives and Cordelia marries Edgar. Tate's version dominated performances for a century and a half and Shakespeare's original was nearly forgotten. Both David Garrick and John Philip Kemble , while taking up some of Shakespeare's original text, kept Tate's happy ending. Edmund Kean played King Lear with its tragic ending in 1823, but he reverted to Tate's crowd-pleaser after only three performances. Only in 1838 did William Macready at Covent Garden successfully restore Shakespeare's original tragic end – Helen Faucit 's final appearance as Cordelia, dead in her father's arms, became one of

4088-532: The standard fairy tale ending phrase, " happily ever after " or "and they lived happily ever after". ( One Thousand and One Nights has the more restrained formula "they lived happily until there came to them the One who Destroys all Happiness" (i.e. Death); likewise, the Russian versions of fairy tales typically end with "they lived long and happily, and died together on the same day".) Satisfactory happy endings are happy for

4161-431: The swamps of Venus, only to remember that an extraterrestrial baby was left behind. She goes back and gets killed in the blast, saving the baby by shielding it with her own body. This ending did not please Heinlein's publisher, who demanded and got a rewrite over the author's bitter objections. In a letter to Lurton Blassingame , his literary agent , Heinlein complained that it would be like "revising Romeo and Juliet to let

4234-446: The theatre-going public, many of his reforms eventually did take hold. Garrick also sought reform in production matters, bringing an overarching consistency to productions that included set design , costumes and even special effects . Garrick's influence extended into the literary side of theatre as well. Critics are almost unanimous in saying he was not a good playwright, but his work in bringing Shakespeare to contemporary audiences

4307-571: The third of seven children and his younger brother, George (1723–1779), served as an aide to David for the remainder of his life. The playwright and actor Charles Dibdin writes that George, when on occasion discovering his brother's absence, would often inquire "Did David want me?" Upon Garrick's death in 1779, it was noted that George died 48 hours later, leading some to speculate that David did indeed want him. His nephew, Nathan Garrick, married Martha Leigh, daughter of Sir Egerton Leigh , and sister of Sir Samuel Egerton Leigh, author of Munster Abbey;

4380-508: The tragic love between the white George Peyton and the Octoroon girl Zoe. Her one-eighth black ancestry is enough to prevent their marrying. In the American society of the time, it would have been unacceptable to present a play ending with a mixed-race couple consummating their love. Rather, the play ends with Zoe taking poison and dying, the grief-stricken George at her side. However, when the play

4453-456: The young lovers live happily ever after." He also declared that changing the end "isn't real life, because in real life, not everything ends happily." Despite his objections, Heinlein had to give in and when first published in 1963, the book had an amended ending, in which Podkayne survives though needing prolonged hospitalization. Heinlein, however, did not give up. At his insistence, the 1993 Baen edition included both endings (which differ only on

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4526-556: Was a dozen dukes a night at Goodman's Fields". Following his rousing performance, Garrick wrote to his brother requesting withdrawal from the partnership to devote his time completely to the stage. Having found success with Richard III, Garrick moved onto several other roles including Tate's adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear and Pierre in Otway's Venice Preserv'd as well as comic roles such as Bayes in Buckingham's The Rehearsal ;

4599-465: Was also produced there. With the end of the 1746–1747 season, Fleetwoods' patent on Drury Lane expired in partnership with James Lacy , Garrick took over the theatre in April 1747. The theatre had been in decline for some years, but the partnership of Garrick and Lacy led to success and accolades. The first performance under Garrick and Lacy's management opened with an Ode to Drury Lane Theatre, on dedicating

4672-570: Was among his last famous roles. Shortly before his death he worked on the production of The Camp with Sheridan at Drury Lane and caught a very bad cold. The Camp satirized the British response to a threatened 18th-century invasion by France , leading some to jokingly claim that Garrick was the only casualty of the ultimately abandoned invasion. He died less than three years after his retirement, at his house in Adelphi Buildings , London, and

4745-649: Was born at the Angel Inn, Widemarsh Street, Hereford in 1717 into a family with French Huguenot roots in Languedoc , Southern France . His grandfather, David Garric, was in Bordeaux in 1685 when the Edict of Nantes was abolished, revoking the rights of Protestants in France. Grandfather Garric fled to London and his son, Peter, who was an infant at the time, was later smuggled out by

4818-418: Was childless but happy, Garrick calling her "the best of women and wives", and they were famously inseparable throughout their nearly 30 years of marriage. Garrick's increasing wealth enabled him to purchase a palatial estate for Eva Marie and himself to live in, naming it Garrick's Villa , that he bought at Hampton in 1754. He also indulged his passion for Shakespeare by building a Temple to Shakespeare on

4891-497: Was closed, he and Garrick, now friends, traveled to London together to seek their fortunes. Upon his arrival in 1737, Garrick and his brother became partners in a wine business with operations in both London and Lichfield with David taking the London operation. The business did not flourish, possibly due to Garrick's distraction by amateur theatricals. Playwright Samuel Foote remarked that he had known Garrick to have only three quarts of vinegar in his cellar and still called himself

4964-594: Was interred in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey . Mrs. Garrick survived her husband by 43 years, living to the age of 98. His great-grand-niece was the soprano Malvina Garrigues and her first cousin, the Danish-American doctor Henry Jacques Garrigues . Perhaps it was Garrick's acting, the most showy of his careers, that brought him the most adulation. Garrick was not a large man, only standing 5'4", and his voice

5037-496: Was laid to rest in Poets' Corner . As an actor, Garrick promoted realistic acting that departed from the bombastic style that was entrenched when he first came to prominence. His acting delighted many audiences and his direction of many of the top actors of the English stage influenced their styles as well. During his tenure as manager of Drury Lane, Garrick also sought to reform audience behaviour. While this led to some discontent among

5110-580: Was performed in England, where prejudice was less strong, it was given a happy ending, culminating with the young lovers happily getting together against all odds. In 17th-century Italy, Francesco Cavalli wrote the opera Didone , based on Virgil 's Aeneid (Book 4 in particular) and set to a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello . However, Busenello's libretto changed the tragic ending provided by Virgil, in which Dido commits suicide after Aeneas abandons her. In Busenello's version Iarbas, King of

5183-454: Was presented (see Swan Lake#Alternative endings ). A Times review of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold strongly criticized John le Carré for failing to provide a happy ending, and it gave unequivocal reasons why in the reviewer's opinion (shared by many others) such an ending is needed: " The hero must triumph over his enemies, as surely as Jack must kill the giant in the nursery tale. If

5256-446: Was successful under Giffard, the managers of Drury Lane and Covent Garden rejected him. On 19 October 1741, Garrick appeared in the title role of Richard III . He had been coached in the role by the actor and playwright Charles Macklin and his natural performance, which rejected the declamatory acting style so prevalent in the period, soon was the talk of London. Of his performance at Goodman's Fields, Horace Walpole remarked, "there

5329-503: Was till I appeared." Even James Quin , an actor in the old style remarked, "If this young fellow be right, then we have been all wrong." While Garrick's praises were being sung by many, there were some detractors. Theophilus Cibber in his Two Dissertations on the Theatres of 1756 believed that Garrick's realistic style went too far: his over-fondness for extravagant Attitudes, frequently affected Starts, convulsive Twitchings, Jerkings of

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