In 1839, Dickens dedicated The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby to a close friend, "W. C. Macready, Esq." Macready was the leading actor of the day, renowned for his sensitive interpretations of Shakespearean roles, among them Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, and Othello. He worked to prune Shakespeare's plays of alterations by Colley Cibber and Nahum Tate, and restore the original texts. Macready also did his best to encourage contemporary dramatists. He struggled to make Byron's Marino Faliero and Browning's Strafford succeed on the stage, and gave Sheridan Knowles, Thomas Talfourd, and Edward Bulwer Lytton at least a brief period of theatrical success. But it was his misfortune to preside over an arid period of English drama. Very little from the century between the death of Sheridan and the advent of Shaw and Wilde has survived in the dramatic repertoire, partly because managers preferred to have plays translated from French, since there was no copyright and so no royalties to pay: "'There, just turn that into English, and put your name on the title page,'" Mr. Crummles orders Nicholas, handing him the French play which the company performs a few days later (Nicholas Nickleby 288; ch. 23). Macready also struggled against the careless performance standards of the contemporary theatre, where rehearsals were often perfunctory, costumes and scenery inappropriate, and actors drunk or indifferent, even at the "national" theatres, Drury Lane and Covent Garden. Dickens had applauded Macready in various roles from 1832 on. Novelist and actor met for the first time in June 1837, when John Forster brought "Dickens, alias Boz" to Macready's dressing room at the Haymarket Theatre (Macready 416). They immediately became friends, and from then on were frequently together. Their wives and children also became close, and Dickens and Macready each acted as godfather to one of the other's children. Dickens's dedication to Macready testifies to his "admiration and regard" for one who had become a close and valued friend and would remain so for the rest of his life, and at the same time recognizes the theatrical content of Nicholas Nickleby.
