Elizabeth Younge

The timing was fortunate for Younge, as it was during that season that the actress Hannah Pritchard retired, and Garrick was having difficulties with Ann Barry.

Garrick liked to keep a good actress in reserve, and not only hired Younge for the Drury Lane company, but also gave her personal tuition.

This was followed by Alcmena in Amphitryon, Lady Easy in The Careless Husband,[4] and Almera in The Mourning Bride, but after quarrelling with Garrick over her salary, she left Drury Lane for the short-lived Capel Street Theatre in Dublin,[5] where she met with considerable success.

She spent the summer of 1771 in Bristol, and, after coming to some agreement with Garrick, returned to Drury Lane to play Imogen once again on 26 September.

Her relationship with Garrick seems to have been an uneven one: he greatly respected her talent, but was irritated by her temperament, and at one stage gave a leading role to a lesser actress to belittle her.

Younge was the fifth highest paid actress at Drury Lane theatre at the time of Garrick's retirement, earning £12 per week.