68 Sir Squire Bancroft [March 17, 



carved in marble, nor lives on canvas, although our poor inheritance 

 is but " The Griorj and the Nothing of a name," there is a bright and 

 buoyant compensation in the thought that no other calling enjoys 

 the ecstasy which belongs, I think alone, to the actor in his moments 

 of supreme triumph. 



" Look at life, it is a comedy ; think of it, it is a tragedy." By 

 the way, you may know well that Yoltaire in his anxiety not to 

 imperil the success he had achieved in tragedy, when he wrote his 

 first comedy did so anonymously. The main plot of a tragedy is 

 generally the consideration of whether one or more of its principal 

 characters shall, or shall not, commit murder ; the main plot of a 

 comedy, until recent years, being whether one or more of the couples 

 concerned in it should or should not commit matrimony : and the 

 curtain fell upon the expected sound of wedding bells. To jump for 

 a moment to the present time, that is no longer the method ; nowa- 

 days plays begin where they used to end ; w^hen the curtain rises, 

 more frequently than not, the last strain of Mendelssohn's march has 

 long since died away and we look upon what has occuiTed "for better 

 or worse." 



Tragedy, when true, must ever command our admiration, but as 

 one loves the sunshine better than the shade, I pay my homage to 

 the allurement, the enchantment of Anne Bracegirdle — the darling 

 of the theatre in her day — to Nance Oldfield : perhaps the most 

 beautiful woman who ever trod the English stage ; 



" Each look, each attitude, new grace displays, 

 Her voice and motion life and music raise." 



To Catherine Clive : whose transcendent talents compelled Dr. 

 Johnson to describe her as the best actress he ever saw : adding that 

 what Kitty Clive did best she did even better than David Garrick, 

 but could not do half so many things well. To Margaret "Woffington : 

 a most enchanting and very witty woman : whose brilliant career 

 was achieved despite the drawback of a harsh, unmusical voice. She 

 earned this tribute : 



•' Nor was her worth to public scenes confin'd ; 

 She knew the noblest feelings of the mind ; 

 Her ears were ever open to distress, 

 Her ready hand was ever stretch'd to bless." 



To Dorothy Jordan : truly an extraordinary, an exquisite creature : 

 superior to all her contemporaries in her particular line of acting. 

 It was said that Mother Nature had formed her when in a happy 

 and prodigal mood ; and when really in the humour to make a 

 delightful woman she can do it supremely. What would we not 

 give to summon those Queens of Comedy from the Silent Land and 

 see them act ! But, alas, no wealth could buy for us a single echo 

 of their once merry voices : nor kindle one spark of the divine fire 

 which burnt in all of them. 



