instalment of his public lectures, called an ‘Introduction to the School of Shakespeare. … To which is added a Retort Courteous on the Criticks,’ &c., 8vo, London [1774].
Kenrick wrote for the stage, and for a time was patronised by Garrick. An abridgment of his comedy ‘Falstaff's Wedding,’ in continuation of Shakespeare's ‘Henry IV’ (published in 1760), was performed once at Drury Lane, 12 April 1766 (Genest, v. 95). Two editions were issued in 1766; others in 1773 and 1781. Garrick's refusal to risk a further representation produced Kenrick's ‘Letter to David Garrick, Esq., on the non-performance of “Falstaff's Wedding,” &c.,’ 4to (two editions). Another of his comedies, ‘The Widow'd Wife’ (printed in 1767 and 1768), was acted on 5 Dec. 1767, and reached a ninth night, though only through Garrick's judicious alterations (ib. iii. 405–7). Garrick is said to have acted ungenerously in the division of the profits (European Mag. x. 19–21), and a quarrel followed. Kenrick challenged Garrick to a duel, but had not the courage to fight (Garrick Correspondence, ii. 341). When in 1772 Isaac Bickerstaffe [q. v.] was driven from society, Kenrick grossly connected it by allusion with Garrick in a satire entitled ‘Love in the Suds; a Town Eclogue. Being the Lamentation of Roscius for the Loss of his Nyky,’ fol. London, 1772, ostensibly edited for an anonymous author. Prefixed is a most impudent letter to Garrick signed ‘W. K.’ Despite Garrick's attempts to suppress it, five editions of the libel were published during the year, each with additional papers and letters. The last edition contains ‘The Poetical Altercation between Benedick and Beatrice,’ extracted from the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ and written in defence of Garrick by Joseph Reed, the ropemaker and dramatist, though he had himself quarrelled with Garrick (Lysons, Environs, ii. 431; Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ix. 118). Kenrick gave a minute account of his quarrel in ‘A Letter to David Garrick, Esq.; occasioned by his having moved the Court of King's Bench against the publication of “Love in the Suds,”’ &c., 4to, London, 1772. Kenrick finally inserted an abject apology in the newspapers for 26 Nov. 1772, with which Garrick professed to be satisfied (Garrick Correspondence, i. 477). Kenrick afterwards told Thomas Evans (1742–1784) [q. v.], the bookseller, that he did not believe Garrick guilty, but ‘did it to plague the fellow.’ Evans never spoke to him again. In 1773 Kenrick published a venomous anonymous ‘Letter to D. Garrick, Esq., on his Conduct as principal Manager and Actor at Drury Lane. With a Preface and Notes by the Editor,’ 4to, London [1773].
Kenrick now offered his plays to Colman at Covent Garden. He had had in 1768 a violent quarrel with Colman, who in his ‘True State of the Differences, &c.,’ 1768 (p. 60) had ridiculed the ‘philosophical experiments’ of Kenrick, and hinted that Kenrick was treacherously trying to supplant him as manager. Kenrick retorted with a verse ‘Epistle to G. Colman,’ 4to, London, 1768; 2nd edition same year. By March 1771 they had composed their differences (Colman, Posthumous Letters, 1820, pp. 158–61), and on 20 Nov. 1773 (Genest, v. 414) Colman produced Kenrick's comedy ‘The Duellist,’ of which three editions were printed in the same year. The play was damned at once, on account, says Kenrick in his preface, of the resentment of the audience at Macklin's discharge. His comic opera, ‘The Lady of the Manor,’ with music by James Hook, altered from Charles Johnson's ‘Country Lasses,’ failed in 1778 (ib. vi. 89). Three editions and an altered version appeared in the same year. Another farce, called ‘The Spendthrift, or a Christmas Gambol’ (not printed), was acted for two nights also in 1778 according to the ‘Biographia Dramatica’ (iii. 295).
It was perhaps with some desire to propitiate Kenrick that Goldsmith consented in 1768 to take part in editing Griffin's ‘Gentleman's Journal,’ in which Kenrick was a leading writer. In 1771 Kenrick, having grossly libelled Goldsmith in the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ was forced by Goldsmith, upon an accidental meeting in the Chapter Coffee-house, to admit that he had lied. As soon as Goldsmith had left the room Kenrick abused him to the company, repeating various slanders. He was probably also the author of the atrocious attack upon Goldsmith and Miss Horneck, published in the ‘London Packet’ in 1773, for which Goldsmith thrashed the publisher, Evans [see under Goldsmith, Oliver, where the date is misprinted 1771]. Kenrick is said to have been in the house at the time, and to have separated the combatants, and sent Goldsmith home in a coach (Forster, Life of Goldsmith, 1888, ii. 347–351).
Kenrick ceased writing for the ‘Monthly Review’ in 1766, when he announced in the newspapers that he was about to establish a new literary review. The first number of his ‘London Review of English and Foreign Literature’ did not appear until January 1775. In the editing Kenrick was latterly assisted by his son, William Shakespeare Kenrick, who carried it on after his father's death until June 1780. The review contains attacks upon members of every profession. Kenrick's ‘Observations on S. Jenyns's “View
