Editing David Garrick (section)

=== An easy, natural manner ===
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 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, 1st Baron Lyttelton|George Lyttelton]] as complimenting him by saying, "He told me he never knew what acting 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:
{{quote|his over-fondness for extravagant Attitudes, frequently affected Starts, convulsive Twitchings, Jerkings of 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 a graceful Cadence in the delivery.{{sfn|Sechelski|1996|p=380}}
}}

[[File:Zoffany-Garrick in Provoked Wife.jpg|thumb|"David Garrick in [[Vanbrugh]]'s ''[[Provoked Wife]]'', [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Theatre Royal]], Drury Lane" by [[Johann Zoffany]], 1763]]
But Garrick's legacy was perhaps best summarised by the historian [[Rev Nicolas Tindal]] when he said that:

{{quote|The ''deaf'' hear him in his ''action'', and the ''blind'' see him in his ''voice''.{{sfn|Nichols|Bentley|1812|p=554}}}}