 It was performed on 14 December 1756 with overwhelming success, in spite of the opposition of the presbytery, who summoned Alexander Carlyle to answer for having attended its representation.Home wisely resigned his charge in 1757, after a visit to London, where "Douglas" was brought out at Covent Garden on 14 March.David Hume summed up his admiration for "Douglas" by saying that his friend possessed "the true theatric genius of Shakespeare and Otway, refined from the unhappy barbarism of the one and licentiousness of the other."