On December 11, 1761, and for twenty-two consecutive days, King Henry IV, Part II, was presented at Covent Garden in honor of the coronation of King George III. For this performance an elaborate coronation pageant was devised which was used again in 1821 by Macready at the time of the coronation of William IV. Other revivals occurred at Drury Lane in 1764 and 1777, and at Covent Garden in 1773, 1784, and 1804. A sensational feature of the 1773 performance was the appearance of an anonymous 'Gentleman' as the King, 'his first performance on any stage,' and of Mrs. Lessingham, for whose benefit the play was given, as Prince Hal. In the 1804 production John Philip Kemble played the King, and Charles Kemble the Prince. Charles Kemble again appeared as the Prince in Macready's production in June, July, and August, 1821.
Of Macready's performance he himself writes in his Reminiscences; 'Kemble had revived the play in 1804, but produced little effect. Garrick had not given the prominence he had expected to the part of the King, and for these reasons I begged to be excused from appearing in it. But my objections were set aside. . . . To every line of it I gave the most deliberate attention, and felt the full power of its pathos. The audience hung intently on every word. The admission of the perfect success of the performance was without dissent. The revival rewarded the managers with houses crowded to the ceiling for many nights, nor was this attributable to the pageant only, for the acting was of the highest order. Fawcett was the best Falstaff then upon the stage, but he more excelled in other parts.' The per- fection of Macready's success was not, however, 'without dissent.' 'An old playgoer,' in a letter to Tallis's Dramatic Magazine for April, 1851, says of Macready's Henry IV: "In this role he approached nearest to an elocutionist, but generally the effect of
