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And a light wind blew fresh from sea to May match the Athenian's master-work of

66

From Temple Bar.
ELIZABETH INCHBALD.

the assistance of such of her children as remained single.

GODWIN, condescending for once to Four of her daughters married early, epigram, described Mrs. Inchbald as and went to live in London, which a piquante mixture between a lady thenceforward became the promised and a milkmaid." Sheridan declared land to Elizabeth, who, at thirteen, that she was the only authoress whose declared that she "had rather die than society pleased him; and the passing not see the world." In early youth, glimpses we obtain of her in the me- though her charming manner and gay moirs and letters of contemporaries disposition eminently fitted her to be excite the wish that they were fuller popular in society, she shrank from it and more frequent. nervously, because of a stammer which Few things in the annals of biography in later years was considered only an are more to be regretted than the evil addition to her many attractions. Yet, fate which, making a never-to-be- oddly enough, her great ambition was to become an actress. forgiven Dr. Poynter its instrument, robbed the reading world of Mrs. Inch-in view she persistently endeavored to bald's "Memoirs written by Herself," improve her enunciation, writing the and substituted the materials collected words which she found most difficult, for those memoirs, manipulated afresh and carrying them about with her, so by the prosy and that she might lose no opportunity of pompous James Boaden. practising them.

The publishers of that day knew that Mrs. Iuchbald was compiling her recollections, and competed eagerly for them, offering a thousand pounds without seeing the manuscript, and in one case even proposing to settle an annuity on her. But she demurred and held back; and only a memorandum found amongst her papers rather mysteriously indicates the fate of the precious work.

Query. What I should wish done at the point of death.

Dr. P.-Do it now.
Four volumes destroyed.

The bright anecdotes and sketches of famous contemporaries that must have flowed from the pen of the author of "The Simple Story," when relating her own chequered career, are lost beyond recall. But it is still possible to disentangle the facts of her life from the wearisome platitudes and yet more intolerable puns of her historian.

With this end

Elizabeth's taste for the drama was shared by all her family; one of their favorite amusements was to read plays aloud, each taking a part. When the theatre at Bury St. Edmunds was open the Simpsons were regular attendants; they made friends among members of the companies performing there, and in 1770 Elizabeth applied to Richard Griffith, manager of the Norwich Theatre, for an engagement. Nothing came of the application then, but a friendly correspondence and an amusing entry in her pocket-book: "R-i-c-ha-r-d G-r-i-f-f-i-t-h. Each dear letter of thy name is harmony.!??.

In the same year her brother George exchanged the farm for the stage. His frequent letters, which no doubt dwelt rather on the lights than the shadows of theatrical life, increased Elizabeth's desire to follow the same course.

Visiting Mrs. Hunt, one of her marElizabeth, the fairest of several fair ried sisters, in 1771, Elizabeth became daughters of John Simpson, a Roman Lacquainted with Mr. Inchbald, an actor Catholic farmer living at Standingfield, of respectability, who promptly fell in near Bury St. Edmunds, was born in love with her, accompanied her on 1753, only eight years before her father's death. Her mother, who seems to have been a seusible and energetic woman, brought up her large family well, and long carried on the farm with

sight-seeing expeditions, and after her return wrote to her mother and herself what was evidently an offer of his hand. Her answer was more candid than encouraging :

In spite of your eloquent pen [she con- | back to the farm if any of her family cludes] matrimony still appears to me with knew where she was to be found, Elizless charms than terrors to enter into abeth did not join her sisters when she marriage with the least reluctance, as fear-arrived in London "in the Norwich ing you are going to sacrifice part of your Fly," but went in search of some life, must be greatly imprudent. Fewer friends who had been living at Charing unhappy marriages, I think, would be occa

sioned if fewer persons were guilty of this

indiscretion - -an indiscretion that shocks me, and which I hope Heaven will ever preserve me from; as must be your wish, if the regard that you have professed for me be really mine, of which I am not wholly undeserving; for, as much as the strongest friendship can allow, I am yours E. Simpson.1

pro

Cross, only to find that they had quitted London for Wales. She appears then, if one may judge from an account of her proceedings which Boaden nounces founded on fact (on the ground that it was published in her lifetime and not contradicted by her), to have become distraught with nervous excitement, to have run away from houses It seems, from some brief but signifi- where she would have been kindly recant entries in her journal, that at this ceived, to have wandered aimlessly time she was wavering between Mr. about the neighborhood of Holborn, Inchbald, who loved her, and Mr. and finally to have obtained a room at Griffith, whom she fancied she loved : the White Swan, under the pretext January 22nd. — Saw Mr. Griffith's pic-that she had been disappointed of a

ture. 28th. 29th.

Stole it.

seat in the York coacli. But her hosts
must have regarded her with some sus-

- Rather disappointed at not receiv-picion, for they locked her into her ing a letter from Mr. Inchbald. room at night! In March she records receiving a She remained there, however, living note from Mr. Griffith which "almost on "a roll or two and a draught of distracted her." Whether its contents water," until her failure to obtain an were personal or professional does not immediate theatrical engagement, and appear, but undoubtedly it put the fin-her rapidly dwindling funds, frightened ishing touch to her determination to her into communicating with her sisleave home, and as her family, despite ters. She then received her mother's their theatrical predilections, had per- forgiveness and help, and met Mr. sistently opposed her desire to become Inchibald again at the house of her Some an actress, she ran away to London, brother-in-law, Mr. Slender. leaving on her dressing-table-as be- incidents during her negotiations with came a heroine of romance a farewell managers, peculiarly revolting to a girl letter to her mother. of her high spirit and natural refinement, no doubt sharpened her appreciation of Mr. Inchbald's unwearied devotion. She had evidently begun to realize acutely the difficulty of making her way in London alone and unprotected. Two months after her arrival in town they were married by a Catholic priest and afterwards by a Protestant clergyman, and in the evening the

Elizabeth was then eighteen years old, and very lovely. Even Boaden waxes eloquent in describing her :

She was in truth a figure that could not

be seen without astonishment at its loveliness — tall, slender, straight, of the purest complexion and most beautiful features. Her hair of a golden auburn, her eyes full at once of spirit and sweetness; a combination of delicacy that checked presumption and interest that captivated the fancy.2

Dreading lest she should be sent

4

3 The fragments of her diary which escaped destruction contain excellent descriptive touches. She says of her brother-in-law: "Mr. Slender was in reality good natured, but his good nature cona Memoirs and Correspondence of Mrs. Inchbald, sisted in frightening you to death to have the edited by James Boaden. London: Richard Bent-pleasure of recovering you; in holding an axe over ley, 1833. Vol. i., p. 15. your head for the purpose of pronouncing a re

2 Memoirs and Correspondence of Mrs. Inchbald. prieve." Val. i., p. 25.

• Yet Boaden declares they were "both Roman

bride accompanied Mrs. Slender to the theatre to see the bridegroom act Mr. Oakley in "The Jealous Wife," which the superstitious might regard as ominous of troubles that only too quickly followed.

only twenty, and her beauty and grace no doubt compensated for the absence of histrionic genius, to which she appears never to have risen. Her journal shows that both she and her husband possessed tastes and aspirations beyond the limits of their profession. While she was studying French and busying herself with translations, he was painting her portrait and giving her drawing-lessons.

A letter from Digges, manager of the

On the following day they started for Bristol, where Mr. Inchbald had an engagement, and there, in the September of the same year, Mrs. Inchbald made her first appearance on any stage as Cordelia to her husband's Lear. She must have looked the character Dumfries Theatre at this period, sugenchantingly, but did not, it would seem, declaim it equally well, for she relates many painstaking lessons bestowed on her by her husband, both indoors and out, wandering over the hills or sitting by the fireside, with a view to curing the mechanical and monotonous utterance she adopted as a I should wish you'd be so good as to dress precaution against her stammer. She it in a matron-like manner; much depends was industrious, and certainly not fas- on that. And if you would suffer your face tidious as to the parts in which she to be a little marked, as I have seen Mrs. appeared, for we read of her as Anne Woffington's in "Veturia," it must greatly Boleyn, one of the witches in "Mac-serve you.

gests an occasional conflict between the feelings of the artist and the woman. After asking her to take the part of Zaphira, as he “cannot depend on any other person's attention or punctuality with safety to the welfare of the theatre," he adds:

beth," Jane Shore, a Bacchante in No doubt she complied; at all events, Comus," Desdemona, the Tragic Mr. Digges was so pleased with her Muse in the "Jubilee," and a long et that in the following month he precetera.1 sented her with a handsome necklace

The seven years of Mrs. Inchbald's and pair of earrings. Perhaps as conmarried life were chiefly spent in trav-solation for her temporary disfigureelling from theatre to theatre in the ment!

United Kingdom, sharing her hus- In June, 1776, we are told, while band's professional labors a much Mrs. Inchbald was playing Jane Shore more arduous existence 66 hundred in the Edinburgh Theatre, a as they expected, there was a riot on Mr. Inchbald's account." Why they should have "expected" a disturbance, or in what way he had incurred the wrath of the canny Scots, is not explained, but the manifestation must have been serious, for the Inchbalds quitted Edinburgh and spent their unpremeditated holiday in a long-desired visit to France.

years ago than we can easily realize. On one occasion they took ship from Leith to Aberdeen, but encountered such bad weather, that after a night's tossing and terror, the captain put his passengers ashore at a little village, whence the Iuchbalds had to depart on foot-literally "strolling players" thankful for an occasional lift in a coal cart.

At Aberdeen, Mrs. Inchibald must have been a favorite; she performed there in thirty characters, from August to November, 1773. She was then

Catholics, who professed the religion of their fa thers."

1 She once acted Hamlet, for the benefit of her stepson, George Inchbald, to his Horatio, while Suett doubled Rosencrantz and the Grave-digger!

In Paris, Mrs. Inchbald's grace and intelligence made her popular at once, and the fact that she and her husband were Roman Catholics opened many

2 One charm she seems to have possessed in common with Mrs. Jordan -a spontaneous, infectious, musical laugh. She says that in playing comedy she could not resist laughing much more often than had been set down for her.