MRS. SIDDONS AS QUEEN KATHARINE, ETC. 79 



this of the sickness of Katharine. The voice subdued to softness, 

 humility, and sweet calmness. The soul too much exhausted to 

 endure or risk great emotion. The flash of indignation of her former 

 spirit very fine at Guildford's interruption. 



Unfortunately there is only one more remark ; it is appended 

 to Katharine's verdict on Wolsey, which in Mrs. Inchbald's 

 edition runs as follows : 



Queen. So may he rest ; his faults lie gently on him ! 

 Yet thus far, Cromwell, give me leave to speak him, 

 And yet with charity. He was a man 

 Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking 

 Himself with princes. 



His promises were, as he then was, mighty ; 

 But his performance, as he is now, nothing. 

 Of his own body he was ill, and gave 

 The clergy ill example. 



Professor Bell says of this : 



Beautifully spoken, with some mixture of energy ; but the 

 subdued voice throughout. 



Probably the writer was too much affected by this scene to 

 be able to make minute critical observations. 



Of Mrs. Siddons' readings, Professor Bell says : 



Mrs. Siddons in her readings was like the tragic muse. She 

 sat on a chair raised on a small platform, and the look and posture 

 which always presents itself to me is that with which she contem- 

 plates the figure of Hamlet's ghost. Her eyes elevated, her head 

 a little drawn back and inclined upwards, her fine countenance filled 

 with reverential awe and horror, and the chilling whisper scarcely 

 audible but horrific. Sir Joshua Reynolds's picture of Mrs. Siddons 

 as the tragic muse gives a perfect conception of the general effect of 

 her look and figure in these readings. 



In her readings the under parts, which in acting are given 

 offensively by some vile player, were read with a beauty and grace 

 of utterance which was like the effect of very fine musical recitation, 

 while the higher parts were the grand and moving airs. It was like 

 a fine composition in painting : the general groundwork simple, the 

 parts for effect raised and touched by a master's hand. 



In the higher parts it was like the finest acting. The looks, 

 the tones, the rapid hurry of the tumultuous emotions, the chilling 



