Domestic and Foreign. 



1827.] 



affirm, because wecannot make the necessary 

 comparison ; nor exactly to confide in the 

 eulogist, because, when we meet with eulo- 

 gies, we feel a disposition to look to the 

 judgment of the parties making the eulogies, 

 as well as to the merits of those respecting 

 whom they are made. 



Mrs. Siddons was born in 17<5.5. Her pa- 

 rents, it is very well known, were managers 

 of a country theatre. She herself was suckled 

 and cradled on the stage; and, in her thir- 

 teenth year, possessing an agreeable voice, 

 sustained the heroines of all the operas, and 

 sang the incidental music of other pieces. 

 The person to whom she was afterwards 

 married was the leading performer of her 

 lather's theatre, playing every thing from 

 Hamlet to Harlequin ; and, before Miss 

 Kernble was fifteen, there was between them 

 a declared attachment. The father disap- 

 proving of so early an union, removed her, 

 and placed her under the " protection of Mrs. 

 Greathead ;'' what this " protection" means 

 we know not, or why so ambiguous a phrase 

 should be used. If Miss Kemble was a ser- 

 vant, no body will suppose that condition of 

 life to reflect any real disgrace on her after- 

 superiorities. But Mr. Boaden twaddles of 

 her father's expecting her to look beyond the 

 precarious profession of the stage which 

 must be nonsense ; turning her upon the 

 stage, as he had done, from her very leading- 

 strings, for what else was she likely to be 

 fit? And again, of the brighter prospects 

 opening to her under the protection of Mrs. 

 Greathead, which must be a little flight of 

 imagination. With Mrs. G. however, let the 

 situation have been what it may, the young 

 lady resolved not to remain her soul was in 

 the scenes an intercourse by letter had been 

 kept up with Siddons ; and, at the end of two 

 years, an application was made, not of course 

 likely then to succeed, to Mr. Garrick; 

 which failing, she resolutely quitted Mrs. 

 Greathead, returned to the stage, and married 

 Mr. Siddons before she was eighteen. 



When about twenty, she did succeed in her 

 attempts to present herself on the London 

 boards, in the character of Portia ; and, in 

 the course of the season, in a few other less 

 significant ciiaracters, but made little sensa- 

 tion. This Mr. Boaden attributes to " esta- 

 blished favourites.' 5 In his opinion she was 

 then equal to any thing, and any body, <fec. 

 This, of course, is highly improbable. The 

 sensation she made six years after was in- 

 stantaneous and unequivocal ; and there were 

 reigning favourites still. At the end of the 

 season, feeling her disappointment, she with- 

 drew to the country, and was for some time 

 the popular performer at Bath. No attempt 

 was made to return to London for six years. 

 This interval of six years not to be lost 

 Mr. Boaden occupies, not with any account 

 of Mrs. Siddons, but with the history of the 

 stage ; and her absence he compares, after 

 liis manner, to the retirement of Achilles 

 from the field of Troy, when insulted by 

 Agamemnon ; and himself to Homer. Homer 



195 



compensates the absence of his hero by th 

 catalogue of commanders and ships, and Mr- 

 Boaden that of his heroine with a catalogue 

 of all the actors and actresses that strutted 

 their hour till the recall of Mrs. Siddons. 



IB 1782 under better auspice^ perhaps, 

 and doubtless much improved she re-ap- 

 peared in London, and was at once acknow- 

 ledged the first actress of her day ; an emi- 

 nence which she maintained till her final re- 

 treat in 1812. 



The manifest superiorit}' of the young per- 

 former she was not twenty-seven on her 

 return excited the envy of some, and the 

 jealousy of others among her competitors; 

 and some very base means were used to turn 

 the tide of popularity against her, particularly 

 by charging her with refusing to play for a 

 charity, and a decayed actor, except at a higher 

 price than was usual ; the effects of which 

 were, however, averted by the promptitude 

 of her friends, and still more by her own 

 firmness. From her first introduction too 

 we speak of 1782 she met with extraordi- 

 nary attentions from the higher classes of so- 

 ciety, and maintained from the first a bearing 

 of equality among them, which speaks, as 

 we say, volumes of her for strength of cha- 

 racter, and propriety of demeanour. With 

 the power of moving in this elevated sphere, 

 so flattering to the vainer feelings of the 

 lowly-born, it is no wonder she shunned the 

 society of her compeers ; but this alienation 

 again excited the ill-will of those with whom 

 she was compelled to come i n close contact, 

 and occasioned her frequent vexation. Her 

 dresses, too, were magnificent, and were said 

 to dip deep into the treasury ; and inacces- 

 sible as such splendour was to the rest of the 

 ladies, was another source of envy, and one 

 which finally involved her in her brother's 

 unpopularity. On two or three occasions, 

 after her retirement in 1812, particularly her 

 brother Charles's benefit, she presented her- 

 self again to the public ; and, for a season or 

 two, gave her readings from Milton and 

 Shakespeare, in a style of excellence which 

 has never been surpassed, and will long be 

 remembered. 



Transalpine Memoirs, or Anecdotes and 

 Observations, shewing the actual State of 

 Italy and the Italians. By an English 

 Catholic; 1826. 



" A curious sight, 



And very much unlike what people write." 



So quotes the writer ; for our own parts we 

 have not been able to discover this mighty 

 difference. The author's remarks bear 

 chiefly upon Rome and Naples ; and not- 

 withstanding the imposing title-page, are 

 confined, pretty much, to the description 

 of buildings and the detail of ceremonies; 

 but these buildings have been described, and 

 these ceremonies detailed, a thousand times ; 

 and the only difference appears to us to be 

 in the tone in which the said ceremonies 

 are spoken of. He does not, and as a Ca- 

 tholic, he could not, ridicule them ; and though 

 2 C 2 



