room criticisms-generally favorable | were spent in reading aloud to each -and compensation for many struggles other, sometimes sermous. in its brilliant success with the public. She acted in it herself, and it was noted that her nervous excitement was so great, that on this one and only occasion she stammered on the stage. As it was in an expression of surprise and alarm, it probably heightened the effect. In 1786 Mrs. Inchbald's prosperity and popularity were great. As usual, she largely helped her family and friends, and her unmarried sister Dolly was sent for to share her rooms, which were so besieged by visitors that she had literally to lock her doors when she required undisturbed quiet for writing. In Kemble's letter of congratulation The charming Miss Farren, afterwards he says: Your uncommon talents, having now forced themselves into notice, will crown you with growing reputation. If I could write, I would. I cannot -so you must receive esteem instead of flattery, and sincerity for wit, when I swear there is no WOMAN I more truly admire, nor any MAN whose abilities I more highly esteem. Her friend Davis paid her a more amusing tribute. "Next to that immortal man, the late Mr. Garrick," he used to say, "Mrs. Inchbald is lord of the ascendant." Sir Charles Bunbury now became a frequent visitor at Mrs. Inchbald's humble lodgings. And as his name was not exactly a voucher for propriety, jealous people said ill-natured things, which called forth from Harris, the manager, the indignant reply: "That woman Inchbald has solemnly devoted herself to virtue and a garret." Her next production, the comedy, "I'll Tell You What!" accepted and named by Colman, helped her a little way out of the garret. She received £300 for it, and her faithful friends Kemble and his future brother-in-law Francis Twiss carried her in triumph to the City to invest it in the Three per Cents. Twiss had acted the unpopular part of the "candid friend" in some letters commenting on her plays, and the sums she demanded for them, in which he unmercifully "quizzed" her "vanity and avarice," and while admitting their merits laughed at her for believing the exaggerated praises of her flatterers; but she seems to have taken his strictures quite in good part, and when he returned to town resumed her habit of dining with him and Kemble on Sundays, when their evenings Countess of Derby, was a favorite friend, so was Mrs. Pope, and old Mrs. Kemble, the Swiss farmer's daughter from whom Fanny Kemble inherited her longing love for the snow-clad Alps. Amongst her lovers was Dr. Wolcot, who suspended his Pindaric odes to write sentimental verses, not of the most refined order, to her. A more desirable suitor—indeed, one to whom there could have been no objection, but the somewhat important one that his affection was not returned was Mr. Glover, a man of good character, fortune, and family, who had fallen in love with Mrs. Inchbald in the first year of her widowhood, and who twice proposed to her, offering a settlement of £500 a year, and, what was far more essential in her eyes, promising to be as kind to her somewhat exacting and unsatisfactory relations as she was herself. Boaden attributes her final refusal to an unfortunate preference for Sir Charles Bunbury, whose pertinacious attentions, he says, led Mrs. Inchbald to hope that he meant to make her his wife. It is difficult to understand how so intelligent a woman, so well acquainted with all phases of society, and generally so acute a judge of character, could have deceived herself to such an extent. Sir Charles was at that time divorced from his first wife, the lovely Lady Sarah Lennox, and Mrs. Inch 1 Walpole wrote to Sir Horace Mann in a prophetie vein, on hearing of the engagement of his ish" unreliability and inconsistency in the House of Commons, he adds: “To show himself more a man he is going to marry Lady Sarah Lennox, who But as she has no features, and her beauty is not is very pretty from exceeding bloom of youth. likely to last so long as her betrothed's, he will "chief angel." After describing Bunbury's" child Her play of "Such Things Are," put on the stage by Harris in the following year, and ordered by George III. and Queen Charlotte on the sixth night, was founded to a certain extent on the career of the then living philanthropist Howard, called by her Haswell. One of the incidents in the play is the theft of Haswell's pocket-book by a slave in a dungeon which he is visiting on his errands of charity. It was an odd coincidence that Howard himself returned to England while this drama was running, and that during the coach journey from Canterbury he was robbed of a case containing papers and jewels. bald might have been assured that, tons', and her sympathetic imagination even had his principles been higher, may have found something inspiriting his matrimonial views, as a man of in the associations with Steele and fashion and a politician, would be very Addison and their brother wits by different. Five years the intimate ac- which she was surrounded. quaintance between them continued, letters being constantly exchanged during the intervals between his frequent visits. Sometimes Sir Charles offended her by breaking an appointment or by an appearance of indifference, but he was always forgiven, and Mrs. Inchbald indulged her dream until, in 1791, some very serious explanation took place, which made her extremely melancholy, and Sir Charles was relegated ́to the position of a mere acquaintance. During these years of delusion Mrs. Inchbald sadly needed the kind and wise support which Mr. Glover might have afforded her. Too warm a heart and too open a hand led her to make some undesirable acquaintances whom she could not be induced to give up on the ground of a prudence which she considered selfish, and made her the prey of all the impecunious. Her brother George, who had married an actress, but quitted the stage on his mother's death for the farm at StandIt is not possible to follow Mrs. Inchingfield, failed disastrously. Mrs. Inch-bald step by step through the work and bald had settled her own share of what her mother had to leave on her sisters, but this by no means relieved her from family calls. Mr. Twiss came to the rescue of her brother, whose difficulties were beyond her unaided arbitraAt dark she and I and her son William tion. Her stepson, George Inchbald, walked out. of whom she had been very fond, Street and King Street and ran away. I rapped at doors in New made many starts in life, failing in all, and coming to her at each crisis for assistance; and her own health had for many years been so fluctuating, and her frequent illnesses so severe, that it is astonishing that she could have found strength for her continuous labors as author and actress. A translation from the French play "Guerre Ouverte," called by Mrs. Inchbald "The Midnight Hour," was her next triumph, to the wrath of Lady Wallace and the courteously expressed disappointment of Mr. MacMahon, each of whom was engaged in translating the same comedy. pleasure of the next few years, but one entry in her journal for 1788 is too characteristic to be passed over : On the 29th of June (Sunday) dined, drank tea, and supped with Mrs. Whitfield. Kemble's "dear muse" had then arrived at the responsible age of thirtyfive. - Hard-working women - and men too especially the brain-workers in all departments, frequently find their most disinterested and generous friends in In 1786 she produced, under Col- their doctors; and 1788 also inaugurated man's auspices, a successful farce Mrs. Inchbald's friendship for Dr. called "The Widow's Vow." She Warren, who, first consulted by her was at that time living in the second on professional subjects only, soon befloor of the house that had been But- came one of her most trusted advisers; probably repent this step, like his motions." (Let- and whom she grew to regard with ters of Horace Walpole. Bentley & Son, edit. 1891. such romantic tenderness that she Vol. iii., p. 489.) would walk up and down Sackville 66 Read, worked, and looked at my print." Street at night merely to see whether | sonal independence more unusual then there were lights in his rooms, and his than they would be now, his friendship shadow might cross the windows. for whom partook of the jealous ardor Having been told that a certain shop of passion, and was in strong contrast window contained a portrait of her to the cold philosophy on which he physician, she ran out before breakfast piqued himself. In 1790 Godwin read to look at it; purchased it a few days and criticised her "Simple Story," and afterwards, and entered in her jour- Mr. Kegan Paul says its "plot was in nal: a measure altered in deference to his advice." One would like to know what were the changes made in that charming tale at his suggestion. It was published in the following year by Robinson, who gave her £200 for it, Woodfall (of "Junius" notoriety) being the printer in the first place; his famous newspaper, according to Boaden, interfered with other business, and Mrs. Inchbald's novel was transferred to Cooper; but she continued on amicable terms with Woodfall, and mentions with pleasure a day spent at his beautiful house at Barnes. Notwithstanding all her toils and all her successes, she was so handicapped by the incessant demands made upon her, principally by her sisters Dolly and Debby (the former apparently helpless, the latter worthless), that her home at this time was a single room up two pair of stairs in Frith Street, in which she sat with her shutters closed, that no distraction from without should withdraw her thoughts from business. Here her familiar friends were sometimes admitted, whilst titled visitors The "Simple Story" appeared in and others on ceremonious terms were February, and a second edition was shown into her landlady's drawing-ordered in March. It has become a classic, and nothing need here be said in praise of its pathos, its knowledge of human nature, and the epigrammatic touches in which it abounds. novel brought her not only money and fame, but a flock of new friends, amongst whom were Mr. Phillips, the king's surgeon, and his family, and Mrs. Dobson (the translator of Petrarch), who presented Mrs. Inchbald with an Æolian harp. room. The Soon after settling in London Mrs. Inchbald met that singular man Thomas Holcroft, ex-cobbler, democrat, dramatist, journalist, novelist, who, like every one who saw her, was interested and charmed. He gave her much advice, some good, some bad, with regard to her plays, and introduced her to a large and mixed group of acquaintances. Their friendship knew many vicissitudes. Sometimes they quarIn curious contrast with the lists of relled, sometimes they parted forever, noble and wealthy admirers who now sometimes he addressed her in verses sought her acquaintance, we read of breathing passionate admiration. On her distress and perplexity when comone occasion she broke off her acquaint-pelled to leave her Frith Street garret ance with him, disapproving of a novel owing to the bankruptcy of her landhe had just published. lady. At last she found an unfurnished room in Leicester Fields in the house of a man appropriately (to her dramatic pursuits) named Shakespear. The servant was not allowed to give the new lodger any assistance, and she Godwin, as we have seen, was also a plaintively chronicles: "I was above member of her London circle, and she an hour striking a light; fetched water speedily took a prominent place in up three pair of stairs, and dropped a that cluster of brilliant and beautiful few tears into the stream as any other women, leading unconventional lives wounded deer might do." But there under conditions of intellectual and per- were alleviations. But when, shortly afterwards, he was committed to Newgate for high treason, she immediately took Robinson the publisher there to visit him, and see what could be done to soften his captivity. Sir Joshua Rey nolds was her opposite neighbor, and occasioned an immense sale for the she delighted in the enclosed planta- play when published by Robinson. tion, with private walks," which formed the centre of the square. Mrs. Shelley, in the notes she appended to her father's papers, when she contemplated writing his biography, comments on the conflicting elements which made Mrs. Inchbald's life and character so interesting :— Living in mean lodgings, dressed with an economy allied to penury, without connections, and alone, her beauty, her talents, and the charm of her manners gave her entrance to a delightful circle of society. Apt to fall in love and desirous to marry, she continued single because the men who loved and admired her were too worldly to take an actress and a poor author, however lovely and charming, for a wife. Her life was thus spent in an interchange of hardship and amusement, privation and luxury. Her character partook of the same contrast. Fond of pleasure, she was prudent in her conduct; penurious in her personal expenditure, she was generous to others. Vain of her beauty, the gown she wore was not worth a shilling. Very susceptible to the softer feelings, she yet could guard against passion; and though she might have been called a flirt her character was unimpeached.1 While living in Leicester Square she received a visit from Mrs. Opie, then Amelia Alderson, who told Mrs. Taylor, her accomplished Norwich friend and correspondent, that she found Mrs. Inchbald As pretty as ever, and much more easy and unreserved in her manner than when I last saw her. With her we passed an hour, and when I took my leave she begged I would call on her again. She is in charming lodgings, and has just received two hundred pounds from Sheridan for a farce containing sixty pages only.3 Mrs. Inchbald's second novel, "Nature and Art," published in 1794, never attained the popularity of the "Simple Story;" it is hardly more than known by name now. But Leigh Hunt quotes some powerful scenes from it, and says, Passages more beautiful and pathetic than those which we have selected are not to be found in the whole range of English prose." 4 66 A great sorrow, to which was added the sting of self-reproach, befell her this year, in the death, under deplorable circumstances, of her sister Debby. Mrs. Inchbald had helped her repeat Her next production was "The Wed-edly; but on one occasion, disgusted at ding Day," written for Mrs. Jordan, who was pleased with it, and purchased by Sheridan for £200.2 In 1792 she resisted Kemble's persuasions to accept an engagement at Drury Lane, and devoting her thoughts to authorship, wrote herself, at the close of the year: "Cheerful, content, and sometimes rather happy.” the mode of life from which no arguments or persuasions could withdraw her, she refused to see her. On hearing of Debby's illness, Mrs. Inchbald hastened to supply her with every possible help and comfort; but after its fatal termination she bitterly reproached herself for having once turned her sister from her door, when she was "a Her next comedy, "Every One Has suppliant and perhaps a penitent." His Fault," produced at Covent Garden Another family tragedy occurred in the in January, 1793, with brilliant success, following year. Her brother George, was attacked in the True Briton for after his failures as actor and farmer, containing seditious sentiments. She had been living for some time in an defended herself with spirit in one of inn at Hamburg with a friend named Woodfall's papers, and the controversy Webber. They quarrelled, fought a duel, and George was shot dead. Web 1 William Godwin, his Friends and Contempo-ber was captured and imprisoned. raries. King & Co., 1876. Vol. i., p. 74. 2 There was a delay (puzzling to any one unacquainted with Sheridan) in the payment for this farce. At last Kemble called to explain that the manager had lost it, and if she would send another copy, the money should be forthcoming. For a wonder, it was. bles at this time, and accompanied Mrs. Mrs. Inchbald never appeared to less Kemble to Stanmore Priory, where the advantage than on the death of Mary Marquis and Marchioness of Abercorn Wollstonecraft, which occurred in 1797. (always ready to add a new lion or She strongly disapproved of Godwin's lioness to their menagerie) were enter-marriage to the author of "The Rights taining Sir George Beaumont and other of Woman," for reasons not made clear visitors. Lord Abercorn soon called in Mr. Kegan Paul's account of the on Mrs. Inchbald after her visit to the Priory. He was a sworn admirer of beauty and originality, and must have fallen under the spell of whose potency Mrs. Shelley says: I have heard that a rival beauty pettishly complained that when Mrs. Inchbald came into a room and sat in a chair in the middle of it, as was her wont, every man gathered round it, and it was vain for any other woman to attempt to gain attention. It is not surprising to find that she was soon again one of the guests at Stanmore Priory. quarrel that followed; but if Godwin's own letters speak correctly, her conduct was certainly ungenerous, and her letters to him after his wife's death are singularly unsympathetic, and compare ill with Godwin's dignified expression of heartfelt grief. She tells him in effect that he will very soon forget his sorrow, and that had Mrs. Godwin lived longer he might have added remorse to regret! Lawrence was now one of Mrs. Inchbald's friends, and painted her portrait, as did several less famous artists. Rogers, too, sharp-tongued, but kindhearted and generous beyond contem Amongst Mrs. Inchbald's papers was one written about this time, and indorsed in her own writing, "Descrip-porary belief, was much interested in her. Curran, after sending her "his tion of Me." Boaden attributes it to Charles Moore, who will be heard of admiration," called at her rooms, and again later. Age: between thirty and forty, which in the register of a lady's birth means a little turned of thirty. Height: above the middle size and rather tall. Figure: handsome and striking in its general air, but a little too stiff and erect. Shape: rather too fond of sharp angles. Skin: by nature fair, though a little freckled, and with a tinge of sand, which is the color of her eyelashes, but made coarse by ill-treatment upon her cheeks and arms. Hair: of a sandy auburn, and rather too straight as well as thin. Face: beautiful in effect, and beau tiful in every feature. Countenance: full of spirit and sweetness; excessively interesting, and, without indelicacy, voluptu ous. Dress: always becoming, and very seldom worth so much as eightpence. 1 Fanny Kemble relates an amusing encounter with one of Mrs. Inchbald's acquaintances in the "great" world: "An aristocratic neighbor of hers, driving with his daughter in the vicinity of her very humble residence, overtook her walking along the road one very hot day, and stopping his carriage, asked her to let him have the pleasure of taking her home. She instantly declined, with the characteristic excuse that she had just come from the market gardener's, And, my lord, I—I— I have my pocket f-f-full of onions'- an unsophisticated statement of facts which made them laugh extremely." made an attempt to reconcile her to Godwin, not at that time effectual. Lady Cork invited her to dinner, adding: I should have done myself the pleasure of calling on you, but my carriage is painting, and I hate a chair in the morning or walking the streets when people are about. I would walk to you any morning, at or before eleven o'clock, if you would admit me, but I suspect your time is better employed than in paying and receiving morning visits. The beautiful Duchess of Devonshire made an appointment with her in Kemble's box, but, as was frequently the case with that erratic though fascinating woman, was detained, and sent Lady Elizabeth Foster "in her place." 2 Mrs. Inchbald was present at most of the fashionable gatherings of the day, including a grand masquerade, for which, she wrote to an intimate friend, she meant to be At no expense at all. My domino is lent me. Have you an old blue handkerchief, 2 Lady Elizabeth afterwards "took her place" in a more important sense - becoming the Duke of Devonshire's second wife. |