Yet the King Lears of later times have been all beard, or very nearly so.

With regard to Garrick's appearance in the part of Lusignan, Davies relates how, two days before his death, the suffering actor, very wan and sallow of countenance, slow and solemn of movement, was seen to wear a rich night-gown, like that which he always wore in Lusignan, the venerable old king of Jerusalem; he presented himself to the imagination of his friend as if he was just ready to act that character.
Charles Mathews, the elder, no doubt possessed much of Garrick's power of changing at will his facial aspect.

At the theatre of course he resorted to the usual methods of making-up for the part he played; but the sudden transformations of which his "At Homes" largely consisted were accomplished too rapidly to be much assisted by pencilling the face, as were indeed the feats he sometimes accomplished in private circles, for the entertainment of his friends.

In the biography of her husband, Mrs.Mathews relates how his advice was once sought by Godwin the novelist, just before the publication of his story of "Cloudesly," on a matter--the art of making-up--the actor was held to have made peculiarly his own.

Godwin wrote to him: "My dear Sir,--I am at this moment engaged in writing a work of fiction, a part of the incidents of which will consist in escapes in disguises.