MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 89 



Mrs. Butler cares very little for reviews, and may never read ours. 

 Besides these excuses for harshness, we have some long-standing tempta- 

 tions towards it, of which we shall say but enough to show the merit of 

 our own resistance. 



Ev.en the children of celebrated actors are considered public property, 

 about whom the world will talk. Thanks to the set of spies and in- 

 "formers by whom their domestic privacy is invaded, ** little Fanny " 

 had a kind of fame long ere she trod the stage ; it was sworn that she 

 early determined so to do ; and, though the passion afterwards lay dormant 

 for awhile, yet it is possible that some one, of unpardonable memory, 

 ventured to echo Mr. Burchel's emphatic monosyllable, when Miss 

 Kemble's printed letter (thanking the company for a bracelet, soon after 

 her triumphant debut) assured them that " their firm adherence to her 

 father, in his adversity, was the FIRST thing that suggested to her mind 

 the idea of exerting her own humble talents in their profession," or 

 words to that effect. It is possible, we say, that some old-fashioned 

 lover of truth did cite the exclamation of Goldsmith's hero ; but the voice 

 was drowned in ravings on " the self-sacrifice and filial piety of this 

 exemplary Euphrasia." Her harshly, coldly clever, performances were 

 successful, and well paid. She was be-rhymed, he-pictured, and, in a 

 certain head-tire, called like Mrs. Siddons ; though Mrs. Jamieson, " to 

 make use of a strong- expression," admits that Miss Kemble has been "ex- 

 celled in beauty !" 



The girl herself is not to be blamed for the extravagances of her par- 

 tisans. She looked no way ambitions to be praised for any body's sake 

 but her own. We therefore assert that her appearance, voice, acting, 

 writing, and manner, far from reminding us of her accidental ties, 

 curiously contrasted her with both parents and kindred. She was 



** Among them, but not of them ; " 



and, had she been quite as masculine as, perhaps, she wished, might have 

 said, with Prince Arthur, 



" Is it my fault that I am Geoffry's son ? 

 No, indeed, it's not! " 



We are aware that the almost repulsive, equable lowliness with 

 which she used to receive homage, rendered it impossible to decide 

 whether she disdained or accepted it but as her due. It is the duty of 

 daughters to furnish their papas with dilemmas ! For her did the pacific 

 Charles Kemble turn thresher, and then concede a sort of apology ; after 

 which the party least in the wrong is never forgiven. For her did he 

 produce a drama, against which, had it emanated from any other pen, his 

 pure taste might have revolted. "Miss Fanny's Tragedy" was an- 

 nounced still longer than has been Mrs. Butler's Journal. In spite 

 of gorgeous appointment and good acting, the town brooked but a short 

 time a play exceptionable in plot as " Bertram" or the "Orphan," yet 

 unlike them in its grating sounds and hackneyed ideas. It was, however, 

 an extraordinary effort of maiden fancy, remarkable for finishing just as 

 well without its last act, as it could have done with; which is more than 

 any of Shakspeare's would do. Its adulators vaunt that, " though soon 

 lost to the many, it may still be read by the few," which we translate 



Hurl'd from the stage, the dull pretender's lays 

 Sink amid Lethe's water ** Closet plays." 



She left us. It was said that, whether married or single, she would 

 MM. No. 7. M 



