2-888-587 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. MacReady, as Richard II, at the Haymarket Theatre, [London], 1850. '...the scene of the Monarch's deposition, and particularly that beautiful part of it where the poet, giving the rein to his fancy, represents the fallen and disconsolate King as contemplating his countenance in the mirror...we are grateful for the opportunity of seeing Mr. Macready in the part; it is one remarkably well suited to his genius and style. The recklessness and arrogance of the spendthrift and unscrupulous Monarch - his boundless confidence in the divine prerogative - his right royal method of thinking on all occasions, even when acting wrongfully - his filial love and reverence for bis native soil - his exultation on returning to it his pride his dejection, his humiliation - his grief, and wrath, and utter destitution - all these phases of character were alternately depicted by Mr. Macready with wonderful force and precision'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.