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General Guise was at this time so feeble, that he used to be supported up the long flight of steps, to Langford's auction room, by his own servant, and one of Langford's men, to whom he used to exclaim, as they were ascending, Damme, Sirs, you let me fall, I'll knock you down!”

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Quin, through life, supported his independence of character, perhaps, far better than most eminent performers. He had not the vicious compliances of Cibber, to gain and preserve the company of the great world; nor the obsequiousness of Garrick. He knew the force of his own mind, which at least was on a par with those he lived with; and he preserved that power with respect and independence. The common run of the Great (or, as the late Kitty Clive used emphatically to call them, "the damaged Quality") were no objects of his choice; he therefore principally sought companions from the middle orders of life, remarkable for taste, learning, and understanding; or those possessed with the milder virtues of the heart. He reserved a fortune sufficient for the indulgence of this kind of life: and though he, perhaps, pursued the sensual pleasures too far for imitation, both by conversation and enjoyment, he appears, on the whole, to have been a very eminent actor; an accurate observer of life and manners; and, in point of integrity, and benevo lence of heart, a good and praise-worthy man.

MRS.

MRS. OLDFIELD.

Her forte was in those parts of comedy which required vivacity and high-bred manners; and in these, Macklin has often said he never saw her equalled. He was present at her first representation of Lady Townly in 1728: and though the whole of that pleasant and sensible comedy was received with the most unbounded applause, Mrs. Oldfield formed the centre of admiration, from her looks, her dress, and her admirable perform→ ance. Most of the performers who have played this part since her time, he complained had too much tameness in their manner, under an idea of its being more easy and well bred; but Mrs. Oldfield, who was trained in the part by the Author, gave it all the rage of fashion and vivacity: She rushed upon the stage with the full consciousness of youth, beauty, and attraction; and answered all her Lord's questions with such a lively indifference, as to mark the contrast as much in their manner of speaking as of thinking: but when she came to describe the superior privileges of a married above a single woman, she repeated the whole of that lively speech with a rapidity, and gaietè de cœur, that electrified the whole house. Their applause was so unbounded, that when Wilks, who played Lord Townly, answers "Prodigious!" the audience applied that word as a compliment

to the actress, and again gave her the shouts of their approbation.

He confirmed what Cibber says of her in his preface to The Provoked Husband; "that her natúral good sense, and lively turn of conversation, made her way so easy to ladies of the highest rank, that it is less a wonder, if, on the stage, she sometimes was, what might have become the finest woman in real life to have supported." Macklin had often seen her at Windsor, and at Richmond, of a summer's morning, walking arm in arm with Duchesses, Countesses, and women of the first situation, calling one another by their Christian names, (as was the fashion of those times,) in the most familiar manner. "The women then, Sir," said the veteran, "talked louder, laughed louder, and shewed all their natural passions more than the fine ladies of the present day."

Though Mrs. Oldfield, as is well known, had her intrigues, they were those of sentiment more than interest. Previously to her connection with Mr. Mainwaring, she was much sought after and solicited by the then Duke of Bedford: her affection, however, was so much in favour of the former, that she was on the point of surrendering, when the Duke called upon her one morning, and not finding her at home, left a paper on her dressing-table, including a settlement on her for life

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of six hundred pounds a year. When Mr. Mainwaring next called, and pressed a consummation of his happiness, she candidly confessed her regards for him, but told him, "He was an unlucky fellow, for that something had happened the day before, which must postpone their intended happiness." He pressed her to know the cause; but she would not tell him till some days afterwards, when she had returned the settlement to the Duke, and acquitted herself in all those points which trenched on her independence.

MRS. PORTER.

He complained that Cibber, in his Apology for his Life, did not notice Mrs. Porter with that degree of praise which her merits justly entitled her to. Though plain in her person, with not much sweetness in her voice from nature, yet, from great assiduity in her profession, with an excellent understanding, and a good ear, she acquired an elevated dignity in her mien, a full tone, and a spirited propriety in all characters of heroic rage. In the pathetic parts of tragedy she was no less eminent, as she performed the parts of Hermione and Belvidera for many years with great applause.

The power of mellowing the voice, from constant assiduity and attention, though it appears difficult,

cult, and to many, at a first blush, almost impos sible, has often been attended with success, as appears from the study of the Grecian and Roman actors, as well as from our own observation on some modern Performers. When Macklin first saw Mrs. Dancer (afterwards the celebrated Mrs. Barry, and late Mrs. Crawford) appear upon the York stage, her tones were so shrill and discordant, that even so experienced a judge as he was, thought she would never make an actress; yet such was the progress of her improvement under the tuition of the silver-toned Barry, that her Lady Randolph, Belvidera, Grecian Daughter, &c. &c. exhibited some of the finest notes of the tender and pathetic.

Of Mrs. Porter's Lady Macbeth, Macklin used to dwell with particular pleasure: he said it was better than Mrs. Pritchard's; " and when I say that," added the veteran, "I say a bold word; but she had more consciousness of what she was about than Pritchard, and looked more like a Queen." And Davies informs us, that he had

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* Cicero informs us, that the principal actors would never speak a word in the morning before they had expectorated methodically their voice; letting it loose by degrees, that they might not hurt the organs, by emitting it with too much precipitance and violence. And Pliny points out, in several parts of his Natural History, no less than twenty plants, which were reckoned specifics for that purpose.