MACKLIN, CHARLES, an eminent actor and dramatic writer, was born in the county of West Meath, Ireland, about 1690. He was apprenticed to a saddler at the age of fourteen, but not relishing that occupation, he ran away, and after some adventures in England, became badgerman at Trinity College, Dublin, a position which he gave up in 1716 to try his fortune as an actor at the theatre of Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. Macklin's success in this new sphere was very encouraging; and in 1741 he established his fame as a player in the character of Shylock, a part to which he gave the tragic reading since universally adopted. He absented himself from the stage from 1753 to 1759, and was engaged as a tavern-keeper and lecturer on oratory and criticism in the Piazza, Covent Garden. Failing in this scheme, he resumed his histrionic art at Drury Lane; but his mind giving way, he was compelled finally to leave the stage in 1789. Macklin died in 1797, at the great age of 107. Of his ten dramatic pieces, the most noted are,—The Man of the World, and Love à la Mode. (See his Memoirs by Kirkman, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1799.)