lost "half its soul" in the elder Palmer, who had opened the Royalty. Kemble, utterly unsustained, (for Mrs. Siddons was extremely ill,) was acting Lord Gayville in The Heiress,' and touching the gay fine gentleman like a doctor of the Sorbonne. Mrs. Inchbald did not see much of him; for Twiss this year carried his lovely wife and child to reside in Devonshire, and Kemble finally proposed to the widow of poor Brereton, and married her at the close of it. Mrs. Inchbald was the Muse herself in Topham's world of fashion, and her attachment to Mrs. Wells we may be sure did not injure her genius, or her virtue, in the estimation of its writers. Este, in private life, was strictly decorous; but he made allowance for a man of the world, and remembered his Virgil as to the people of Saturn :

"Saturni gentem, haud vinclo nec legibus æquam,

Sponte suâ, veterisque Dei se more tenentem."

EN. VII. v. 202.

"Self-will'd, they placed all law upon the shelf,
And lived as loosely as their God himself."

COTTON MSS.

There was no reason to court hostility by assuming austerity; and when the ladies had agreed in September to drop all intimacy, the intercourse was renewed by the desire of Mrs. Inchbald, as she candidly confesses. One is apt to wonder that our fair widow did not discover a probable defeat of her highest hopes, a second marriage, as

the sure result of this latitude in female connexions. As to Sir Charles Bunbury, whenever he was in town he came to her door three or four times every week, and was as often repelled as endured; but he resolved to persevere in asserting his right to see her,

"Nor from that right to part an hour,

Smile she or low'r."

Davis, too, was a faithful follower not to be discarded. Among her callers we find old Bellamy, who was publishing a life of her, with her portrait, in a magazine. As he came several times on this business, we have considered her to authorise what he has stated of her early life, and have received such particulars as are not at variance with her written diary; which is higher authority than the best recollections that can be supplied in conversation, though held for the express purpose of giving correct materials to a friend whom she trusted. Among the male visitors this year, of note, we find, Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Moore (Zeluco'), Mr. Nares, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Harris, M. Le Texier, the Woodfalls, and, of theatrical people, every body of professional and private value.

Mr. Glover, though rejected, came with the gales of vernal and autumnal equinoxes, thrice in each, to her door; which he found always open to him, as a gentleman who had honoured her by his addresses, and was entitled to her lasting esteem.

CHAPTER XI.

Fate of the Hue and Cry'-' Animal Magnetism,' its profits-Le Texier- The Child of Nature'-Removes to Frith Street-Dr. Warren; greatly admires him Her near connexions - The Whitfields-Female Glee-Mr. Babb visits Rome-Spring of 1789-Close of her Covent-Garden engagement-Colman's season: acts there but once-Re-engagement offered by Mr. Harris, refused: retrenchment in consequence-Horace Walpole, Gen. Conway-Recovery of the King-Public reception of the Queen -The Married Man '-Her two novels; combines them in one story-Davis-Holcroft's bad advice: Mrs. Broadhead's The World'-Topham and Este-Mr. Hastings-Mrs. Wells imitates the Impeachment-Mrs. Inchbald has her fortune told-Her illness in 1790-Dr. Warren's kindness- Sells her Simple Story' to George Robinson-Sundry adventures-Sits to Russel, the crayon painter.

THE French piece which Mr. Harris had brought for her translation was rendered into English at the close of January, 1788, and returned for alterations; these being read, the Covent-Garden manager made up his opinion, and refused to accept it. Nothing disconcerted by rejection, in February she sent it to Mr. Colman, and against the grain it was read in the Haymarket in the

month of August. The Hue and Cry' was the title prefixed to this play, though it would have been better placed after it. When at length it was done, three years after, for some benefit, it failed, as may be readily imagined; for what can be expected in the way of effect from a drama refused by the managers both summer and winter, and in its very original flimsy? However, Le Texier soon followed with the Animal Mag

netism' he was to get from Paris. On the 3rd of March Mrs. Inchbald began her task; on the 19th she finished it, and placed it in Mr. Harris's hands the day following: it was put in rehearsal and brought out with all possible celerity, and met with the greatest applause. Le Texier had himself very excellent judgment in these matters; and, besides using his connexions with Paris to purvey for Harris, he had his own transcendent French readings in Lisle Street to enliven, with any popular novelty from the French wits; who, though unequal to Molière, were many of them writers of ready invention and lively parts, and all of them turned to structure in their performances, and working by a regular plan to a reasonable catastrophe. The comedy of Animal Magnetism' produced her, she says, one hundred and thirty pounds. Le Texier this year brought her, on his own account, a piece to translate: she finished it for him, and we suppose he paid her for her labours, but she says nothing more about it. In Sep

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tember Mr. Harris was again at her door with a French comedy for her to prepare for his theatre; it was the fascinating Child of Nature,' taken from the Zelis' of Madame Genlis. No time was to be lost; she immediately locked herself up, closed her shutters, and was denied to every human being till she had completed her translation in four acts. In ten days this indefatigable spirit accomplished it, and on the 11th of September wrote to Mr. Harris stating her terms. They met afterwards to consult about the cast of it. She pursued her other designs without an hour's pause; but on the 11th of November the

Child of Nature' was read, and brought out on the 28th of the month with the greatest effect, and to the entire satisfaction of the author. Mr. Dive was sent to offer her terms about it: she went to rehearsal at twelve o'clock, and there had high words with Mr. Harris upon the subject. She left the house in anger. Lewis, however, followed her home, and settled the affair to her mind. How it happened I cannot say, but her payment for this piece, fifty pounds, was much below what had previously been given for The Midnight Hour' and 'Animal Magnetism.' Perhaps there was some middle person whom the manager had also to pay, and he might have learned to consider mere translation as intitled but to slender remuneration. The habit was now confirmed among us of looking entirely to French

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