entions that Macklin lost books and manuscripts in a shipwreck in 1771
(p. 150) and that play manuscripts may also have disappeared in the sale
of his books and papers at the end of his long life at the turn of the
eighteenth century. It is possible that more of Macklin's work may come
to light, like _The Fortune Hunters_ which appeared in the National
Library in Dublin. Until a complete critical edition of Macklin's plays
appears, making possible better assessment of his merit, such farces as
THE COVENT GARDEN THEATRE will have to stand as an example of one genre
of eighteenth-century theatrical productions.

There are many reasons why Macklin's plays are less well known than is
warranted by his personality and acting ability during his long
association with the British stage. His first play, _King Henry VII_,
a tragedy hastily put together to capitalize on the anti-Jacobite
sentiment following the invasion attempt of 1745, was an ambitious
failure. After this discouragement, he also had trouble with the
Licenser so that his comedy _Man of the World_ was not presented until
1781, twenty years after a portion of it first appeared at Covent
Garden.[3] Nor were censorship and a bad start his only problems as a
playwright. He also, and apparently with good reason,[4] was fearful
of piracy and was thus reluctant to have his plays printed. His
eighteenth-century biographer Kirkman mentions Macklin's threats to "put
the law against every offender of it, respecting my property, in full
force."[5] His biographers also mention his practice of giving each
actor only his own role at rehearsals while keeping the manuscript copy
of the whole play under lock, but this did not prevent whole acts from
being printed in such magazines as _The Court Miscellany_, where Act I
of _Love-a-la-Mode_ was printed as it was taken down in shorthand by the
famous shorthand expert Joseph Gurney. If Macklin had not been required
to submit copies of his plays to the Licenser, it is doubtful that as
much would have survived. The contentious Macklin had reason for
zealously guarding his manuscripts, with such provincial theatre
managers as Tate Wilkinson at York always anxious for new plays.

Finally, Macklin's best work as a playwright was satiric enough and
topical enough to be short-lived in popularity even in his own day. Sir
Pertinax McSychophant in the _Man of the World_ is a good character,
especially in his famous speech on the necessity of bowin