It seems hard to believe that two factions should gather behind two actors, eventually to end in open war with each other, and with many lives lost. But so it happened in 1849. William Charles Macready counts amongst the most influential actors of 19th century Britain. He was both director of Covent Garden and later of Drury Lane, and his performances of various Shakespearean characters, be it Othello , Lear , or Macbeth , were highly and widely acclaimed. Across the Atlantic