of comic utterance, and aware of all the infinite varieties which modify the effects of the human voice. Henderson had the same sort of talent without the perfect voice. It was best displayed in his reading. A reflection upon this hint will shew what a narrow, imperfect, and even delusive record printing must needs be, of what in living speech accompanied the utterance of the mere words. Such was Mrs. Jordan when she burst upon the metropolis, in the year 1785. Perhaps no actress ever excited so much laughter. The low comedian has a hundred resorts by which risibility may be produced. In addition to a ludicrous cast of features, he may resort, if he chooses, to the buffoonery of the fair; he may dress himself ridiculously; he may border even upon indecency in his action, and be at least a general hint of double entendre, to those whose minds are equally impure. But the actress has nothing beyond the mere words she utters, but what is drawn from her own hilarity, and the expression of features, which never submit to exaggeration. She cannot pass by the claims of her sex, and self-love will preserve her from any willing diminution of her personal beauty. How exactly had this child of nature calculated her efficacy, that no intention on her part was ever missed, and, from first to last, the audience responded uniformly in an astonishment of delight. In the third act they more clearly saw what gave the elasticity to her step. She is made to assume the male attire; and the great painter of the age pronounced her figure the neatest and most perfect in symmetry that he had ever seen. This distinction remained with her a long time, notwithstanding the many family encroachments upon the public pleasure. But her fertility as an actress was at its height in the letter scene, perhaps the most perfect of all her efforts, and the best jeu de théâtre known, without mechanism. The very pen and ink were made to express the rustic petulance of the writer of the first epistle, and the eager delight that composed the second which was to be dispatched instead of it to her lover. King was her Moody upon this occasion, but I thought Wroughton afterwards gave more effect to the intimidation. He had a vast deal of truth in his comedy, and concealed every appearance of the actor's art. There was a seeming coincidence in the ages of the actress and the character she played. The play concludes with some rhymes, no great achievement, it is true; I suppose them Garrick's; in which Miss Peggy apologizes for deserting her Bud. "I've reasons will convince you all, and strong ones; 'Twas a sad life-and then he was near fifty!- Perhaps Mrs. Jordan looked rather more, not in her action, which was juvenile to the last, but the comic maturity of her expression seemed to announce a longer experience of life and of the stage than could have been attained at nineteen. She retired that night from the theatre, happy to the extent of her wishes, and satisfied that she would not long be rated on the treasurer's books at four pounds per week. Smith congratulated with her very sincerely. He had bestowed upon the theatre, which he loved, a new and a powerful magnet, able to attract on the off nights of Mrs. Siddons, and even strengthen those of tragedy; which, with no greater force than Cumberland evinced in the Carmelite, began to need something auxiliary. Henderson was now acting the Roman Father at the other house, in which he made wonderful effect. He had seen Mrs. Jordan in Ireland and at York, and was fully satisfied of her great merit; but Mr. Harris did not feel it, or was on the opposition side of the house; he said she would be an excellent Filch; and here he prophesied, for she stole away the hearts of the town, and tried all his skill as a manager, great as it confessedly was. The Country Girl was repeated on the third night of performance at Drury Lane, that is Braganza and Measure for Measure only intervening; so that they allowed her till the Monday of the following week, when the two houses commenced acting together for the season, and she had the honour of dividing the town that evening with Henderson, who repeated his Roman Father, with Mrs. Inchbald's amusing farce of Appearance is against them. The sudden passage of this lady's muse, from neglect to managerial welcome-the talent and the specimens remaining exactly the same during the opposite sentences, shews how little real judgment enters into such decisions. The success of a Mogul Tale, a farcical extravaganza, founded on the balloon mania, and unworthy of the press, at length rendered Mr. Harris and Mr. Colman alike willing to afford her a clear stage for her talents as a writer. As an actress she had been some time in the Covent Garden company. Her beauty had suggested her as a successor to Mrs. Hartley; but she never could absolutely clear her utterance from the effects of an impediment, which has given rise to some amusing stories among the minor wits of the theatre. Mrs. Jordan was said to have discovered some partiality to this lady's stepson by Mr. Inchbald's first wife. The humble Nell, of the York stage, had not the necessary weight in the balance to determine the gentleman. After her town experiment, he began to estimate her value by the popular standard, and brought himself to make proposals, which were seriously declined. He might have been honoured, had his delicacy forbad him to entertain any notion of a union, circumstanced as the young lady was; but when he could teach his principle to give way to his interest, he merited the rejection of his temptation for a weightier. The mention of Mrs. Inchbald introduced this anecdote before its actual period; but if the lady's turn to refuse was subsequent to our present date, the gentleman's took place before it; and it may, |