Peg Woffington

of metropolitan grocers, are recommended not to leave a roomful of their acquaintances until the last but one. Yes, they s

hear a woman w

one sit astride on

ot on her husband

folk's side, and made the best of a bad

ay Lotharia-illi aes triplex; that me

ce his wife will alway

ing with passion; "but I observed her talent, and I notic

itty here would tell us why she hates Mrs. Wof

I don't trouble m

r; for you never

nch of venison, Qu

unnatural monste

ver miss a cut at one

r tempers, but spoil your own. Peggy there hates George Anne Bellamy, because she has gaudy silk dresses from Paris, by paying for them, as she could, if not too stingy. Kitty here hates Peggy because Ri

y stage, where now dwarfs crack and bounce like parched peas. They played Roxana and Statira in the 'Rival Queens.' Rival queens of art themselves, they put out all their strength. In the middle of the last act the town gave judgment in favor of Statira. What did Roxana? Did she spill grease on Statira's robe, as Peg Woffington would? or stab her, as I believe Kitty here capable of doing? No! Statira was never so tenderly killed as that night; she owned this to me. Roxana bade the theater farewell that night,

ra answer, sir?" sa

madam, I am the best judge-that off the stage you have just conquered me. I shall wear with pride any dress you have honored, and shall feel inspired to great exertions by your pre

stiff old things

y, this was the lofty courtesy of two great minds no

e their n

rs. Oldfield. Roxana you

sed a se

y loud applause from the theater; the pre

-horse cock

speaking the epi

gth of their foot, someh

r hands, too," said Poma

their hearts she has

ed up hill and down dale, and torn limb from jacket; even in Parl

u, I lack words to convey a just idea of her double and complete supremacy. But the comedians of t

ow brightened into joy: the air seemed to fill with singing-birds, that chirped the pleasures of fashion, love and youth in notes sparkling like diamonds and stars and prisms. She was above criticism, out of its scope, as is the blu

the mote in his brother's eye; the old maid, her grudge against the two sexes; the old man, his gray hairs and his lost hours. And can it be, that all this which should have been immortal, is q

re golden and i

than lark to

een, when hawtho

ack over many years. Then, with

f there must have seen

aid Quin, "and I wa

n a great comedian, and my son The's wife, with her hatchet face,

and t'other always makes me laugh,

t no answer, but a look

ticism. There were two candles in this room, one on each side; the call-boy had

p!" cried a

er, ma'am," said the boy pertly, a

eader. First he had been astonished at the freedom of sarcasm these p

seldom met an imaginative repartee, except in a play or a book. "Society's" repartees were then, as they are now, the good old tree in various dresses and

when she spoke to him, a stranger, how sweet and gentle her voice was! Then it w

is in Mrs. Woffington!" said he; "the rest, male and female, are all so affected; she is so

licity is her refined a

I never saw a more

e no more-he sat pensive. He was sorry he had come to this place, where everybody

sed by Cibber falling on Garrick, whom Pomander had maliciou

is his idea of a tragic scene: A little fellow comes bustling in, goes bustling about, and runs bustling out." Here Mr. Cibber left the room, to give greater effect to his description, but presently returned in a mighty pother, saying: "'Gi

mpany were obliged to laugh; but in the midst of their

way, m

I know the way better than you, child;" and

le," said

nterest. She was dressed in a rich green velvet gown with gold fringe. Cibber remembered it; she had played the "Eastern Queen" in i

was tall and straight as a dart, and her noble port betrayed none of the weakness of age, only it was to be seen that her

er the company's heads as if she did not see them, regarded the four walls with some interest. Like

t used to be," sai

her the chair; and this action gave, with some of the ill-constituted minds that are ever on the

used to be," rem

for everything,"

ghty little David, first act

ast in its indiscriminate attack upon the present, he was much mis

c; and in trifles like acting, that take nobody to heaven, to please all the world, is to be great. Some pretend to higher aims, but none ha

ccountable snappishness of tone to which the brisk old are su

the points of her fingers delicately, and divested the crime

woman, though!" whis

ir? for I'm a little deaf." (

dam, is equal to the re

t as a tower. She then made an oblique preliminary sweep, an

t; and while he was transacting it, the graceful Cibber stepped gravely up, and looked down and up the process with his glass, like a nat

ying the young fellow's talent; but his O

hought it was Desdemona's little blac

ghed upr

more than Mr. Quin's Fals

! Snuff!" In the

d his good opinion o

, "if you would but favor us wi

do it now, I see. Bless my soul! our words used to come out like brandy-

r chu

men carry yoursel

at question," s

ent up to her ears-then she fell into a half reverie. "Yes, we were distinct," said she; "but I must own, children, we were slow. Once, in the midst of a beautiful

he page, "we are not behi

he air of one drawing scientific distinctions. "N

boy," said Cibber, with his gl

e; Peg something, plays Lothario,

med Mrs. Clive; "why, she is the

e about the jade. Don't contradict me," added

ber, will you try and prevail on Mrs. Br

neat and silvery; but not one bit like the way people speak in streets, palaces, fields, roads and rooms. They had not made the grand discovery, which Mr. A. Wigan on the stage, and every man of sense off it, has made in our day and nation; namely, that the stage is a representa

how these young people how ladies and g

emn dancing" done. Certainly it was not gay, but it must be owned it wa

ried she, and bade the fiddler play, "The wind that shakes the barley," an ancie

r yards forward. She made unaccountable slants, and cut them all over in turn if they did not jump for it. Roars of inextinguishable laughter a

ughter

uch agony that they were

eminine as they were heart-rending and piteous. "Oh, my back!

r. Vane offered his pe

me," said she, sadly, "I don't deserve it;" then, lifting her eyes, she excla

irl; "'twas your great complaisance for us, not vanity. Oh

t an old 'oman could do; and I have humiliated myself, trying to outshine you

y painful,"

aid to him, slowly, gently, but impressively "Colley, at threescore years and ten this was ill done of us! You and I are here now-for what?

dog h

man's, she added, with calm solemnity: "And now we must go quietly toward our

d of them and myself, and the human craft of writing, which, though commoner

ly dream they are words, but which are the shadows of the corpses of words; these word-shadows then were livi

shed, and mindful of his failing life, was silent, and pr

e the dead too well, and the days when I was what you are now. Drat the woman," continued

woman?" said the old la

, and make us cry, madam;

ess! Better it, Cibber and Bracegirdle, if you

nd walked coolly and rapidly out of th

Then Cibber opened and read the note aloud. It was from Mrs. Bracegirdle: "

cegirdle was washing the gray from her hair, and the wrinkles from her face-ah! I wish

e Irish jade!"

; "and it's not the furst time we put t

minds; and they broke forth into clapping of hands, and gave this accomplished mime thre

uld so paint a man as to deceive his species. This was acting, but not like the acting of the stage. H

theories had received a shock (and we all love our theories)

But there is a class of

e; this barbarous logic prevails against the logic in Barbara, and the syllogism is in the predicament of Humpty Dumpty. In this predicament was the Poet Laureate. The miscreant Proteus (could not) escape these chains!" So the miscreant Proteus-no bad name for an old actor-took his little

Mr. Quin, who took him upon the stage and showed him by what vulgar appliances that majestic rise of the curtain he so admired was ef

he was talking nineteen to the dozen, and Mrs. Woffington was listening with an appearan

introdu

hat coldly received. Sir Charles, on the contrary, spoke more like a critic. "Had you given us the stage cackle, or any of those traditionary symptoms of old age, we should have

ber cannot see well without his glasses, and I got rid of one of the candles; I sent one of the imps of the theater to knock it down. I know Mrs. Bracegirdle by heart. I drink tea

tell

s not a wicked man like you, and perhaps does not

ant as he looks," r

act, which I abominate, but to chronicle small beer and teach an army of little brats their letters; so this word 'wife,' and that word 'chimney-corner,' took possession of my mind, and a vision of darning stockings for a large party, all my own, filled my heart, and really I felt quite grateful to the little brute that was to give me all this, and he

ays before the marriage, with a little coalblack mustache, regimentals, and what no

t I let her know that her intended was a villain. I showed her letters of his; protestations,

g Woffington! an actress! Oh, the villain!' cried she; 'let him marry the little va

ttle hypocrite dismissed the little brute; in

window, and at the same moment smell the honeysuckles and see my perfide dismissed u

; and when I got home, if I remember right, I c

remorse for having trifled with that poor y

little way, and wicked and good-for-nothing, etc. He would have deceiv

as she passed since then, how many times has she strained her eyes to see her angel lover returning to her! She will not for

taste he had been guilty of; and this feeling was not lessened when he saw Mrs. Woffington color up to the temples. Her eyes, t

n't waste your sympathy," and turned the talk into another channel; and soon after, Mrs. Woffington's maid appearing at

her innocence?" w

it in her immense ta

the reply; "but I noticed you were a little shocked with her indeli

think that 'a little brute' might have married that angel, and actually broke

No? Then take my word for it, you ha

prejudiced

. And I know that if Satan were to enter the women of the stage, with the wild idea of impairing their veracity, he would come out

is friend, leaving his sting in him like a friend; the other's reflections as he saunte

ht to have said, 'Nay, madam; could your wit disguise your person, it would betra

ose lost opportunities; and made the smart things, and beat the air with them. Then his cheeks tingled when he remember

gle practice of sitting upon eggs no longer chickenable, carried to a habit, is ca

hat he will not do it every night; and we f

a defi

Vane and Mrs. Woffington, asked the former whether he admired the latter, and whether the latter responded, straightf

escendebat in fossam; it fell on its nose with gymn

om of the Theater Royal, Covent Garden. By this Pomander learned nothing, because Mrs. Woffi

he gave a mighty impulse and opportunity to Vane's love; an opportunity whi

sagacious reader has perhaps divined, Si