Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/332

  [European Magazine, 1808, i. 234; Chambers's Journal, 30 May 1863; Wilson's Wonderful Characters; Granger's Wonderful Museum; authorities cited.] 

TALBOT, MONTAGUE (1774–1831), actor and manager, the youngest son of Captain George Talbot, of the Irish branch of the Talbots, was born in 1774 at Boston in America, whither his mother had accompanied his father in or about 1774. His great-grandfather fell at the battle of the Boyne; many other members of his family died on service in India or America; and his father, when returning home in 1782, was lost in the Grosvenor East Indiaman off the coast of Kaffraria. After receiving an education in Exeter Montague became a student of law, and is said to have ‘entered at the Temple.’ He made the acquaintance of William Henry Ireland [see ], the Shakespeare forger, whose secret he surprised, conniving at it, and incurring suspicion of participation. After taking part in private theatricals at the margravine of Anspach's and elsewhere, he appeared, it is said, at Covent Garden, in performances, not now to be traced, of Young Norval in ‘Douglas.’ Emboldened by his success, he adopted the stage as a profession, forfeiting in so doing a fortune willed him by his uncle, Dr. Geech. In Dublin he appeared under the name of Montague as Orestes at the Crow Street Theatre, and from about 1792 to 1795 presented under that name leading youthful parts in tragedy and comedy, the best being George Barnwell and Cheveril. Though not too popular with his fellows, he was in Dublin a social and in some respects an artistic success. In September 1795, in company with Charles Mathews [q. v.], his friend in youth, and subsequently his enemy, he embarked for England, via Cork, for the purpose of seeing the first production of Ireland's ‘Vortigern.’ The journey was rough, and after some uncomfortable experiences he landed in Wales, where at Swansea he played Othello, Penruddock in the ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ and probably Doricourt and Charles Surface. He seems, after visiting London, to have returned to Swansea, but was again in Dublin on 8 Jan. 1796. In August 1798 Talbot (as Montague) left Dublin for Liverpool, where the townspeople, though ‘accustomed to the visits of first-rate London performers,’ esteemed him very highly. Here he played with Charles Mayne Young [q. v.], whose style he is believed to have influenced. On 27 April 1799, under his own name of Talbot, he made his first recorded appearance at Drury Lane as young Mirabel in the ‘Inconstant,’ and played during the season at least one other part. In the following season he was seen as Charles Surface, Sir Charles Racket in ‘Three Weeks after Marriage,’ and Roderigo in ‘Othello,’ and was on 28 April 1800 the original Rezenvelt in Joanna Baillie's ‘De Montfort,’ and on 10 May the original Algernon in Hoare's ‘Indiscretion.’ He then returned to Dublin, where he resumed the lead in comedy, playing also parts such as Tullus Aufidius in ‘Coriolanus,’ and Lysimachus in the ‘Rival Queens, or Alexander the Great,’ and sometimes venturing upon Romeo or Lothario. The author of ‘Familiar Epistles’ on the Irish stage, presumably John Wilson Croker [q. v.], speaks of him in 1804 as the head of the Dublin company, as the possessor of ‘a trifling air and girlish form’ and a ‘baby face,’ disqualifying him from competing in tragedy with John Philip Kemble, whose equal in taste and whose superior in feeling he is said to be. Talbot is said also to reign in ‘comedy supreme,’ the stages of Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Haymarket possessing no actor who Can paint the rakish Charles so well, Give so much life to Mirabel, Or show for light and airy sport So exquisite a Doricourt. Ranger, Rover, Rolando in the ‘Honeymoon,’ the Duke's Servant in ‘High Life below Stairs,’ Monsieur Morbleu in ‘Monsieur Tonson,’ and Lord Ogleby were numbered among his best assumptions.

Between 1809 and 1821 Talbot was manager of the Belfast, Newry, and Londonderry theatres, at which houses he played the leading parts. His management was spirited, and raised the north Ireland stage to a position higher than it previously held. He recognised the talent of Miss O'Neill two years before her appearance in London, and stimulated the powers of James Sheridan Knowles [q. v.], an actor in his company. For him Knowles adapted ‘Brian Boroihme, or the Maid of Erin,’ long popular in Ireland. ‘Caius Gracchus,’ by Knowles, is ordinarily supposed to have been given for the first time by Macready on 18 Nov. 1823 at Drury Lane. It had some time previously been played by Talbot in Belfast.

Talbot married at Derry in October 1800, and two months later was first seen in Belfast. His wife's local position in Limerick seems to have induced him to undertake in 1817 the management of the Limerick Theatre, a speculation, like others of the kind, not too successful. On 5 July 1812 Talbot made, as Ranger in the ‘Suspicious Husband,’ his first appearance at the Haymarket, where he played Duke Aranza in the ‘Honeymoon’ and other parts. 