Successive appearances in Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear demonstrated his mastery of the range of tragic emotion. His triumph was so great that he himself said on one occasion, "I could not feel the stage under me."
His opening at Drury Lane on 26 January 1814 as Shylock roused the audience to almost uncontrollable enthusiasm
A celebrated British Shakespearean stage actor
Performed in London, Belfast, New York, Quebec, and Paris.