Randolph ? By no means; the answer yields no relief: persisting in her notion of his fate, she now, incensed as well as afflicted, exclaims—

'Inhuman that thou art !

How could'st thou kill what waves and tempests spar'd?'

I am certain that Mrs. Siddons thus reasoned the passage, and that it was the conviction of her mind such an explosion was unsuitable that led her into a manner less alarming but more natural. It was, therefore, neither ambition of dif ference, evasion of difficulty, or fear of competition that produced her hurried, breathless mode of putting that question, on whose effect the Lady Randolph of her rival principally rested.

Often have I examined, by the only steady lights-the page of the author and that of human nature-these tours de force on the French stage, as well as our own; and very rarely indeed is there one of which an accurate reading does not dispel the charm. In a crowded theatre, with beauty before you, and the most affecting thing in the world, a woman's voice thrilling to your soul, the nerve is gained, and the judgment dethroned. When the Dumesnils and Crawfords were, therefore, said to know the readiest way to the heart,' it may always be proper to inquire whether they did not surprise that fortress into a surrender whose garrison they had 'frighted with false fire.' However delightful the charming agonies may be, inflicted by these enchantresses, we should yield only to true emotion; and even in ecstasy itself be found cum ratione insanire.

Having thus, perhaps, disposed of the great point of comparison, I believe the effects of the minor passages were uniformly on the side of Mrs. Siddons her narrative had more interest, her attention more intelligence, her ascendency more awe. In the scene with Glenalvon, villainy sunk under her glance, and her action added definition to a general term. Thou art known to me,' was the most expressive of dignified but contemptuous menaces.

The narrative to Anna in the opening of the play evinced the soundness of her taste. The poet never failed her, and she in perception was another self. She knew the magnifying power of a diminutive as the representative of hasty

joy, and used it exquisitely in the description of her union with Douglas.

'Three weeks, three little weeks, with wings of down'—

One of the lines of this narrative has done the most delicate service in nature ever since the play was written— 'I found myself—

As women wish to be, who love their lords.'

But we can hardly, current as it is, expect to hear it again so spoken, as it mournfully lingered from the half-alarmed modesty of this finished orator.

If Doctor Johnson had intended to do justice to any writer of the North, he might have commended Home for the beautiful image which follows, so very Shakespearean, and yet not his

'Can thy feeble pity

Roll back the flood of never-ebbing time?'

He has in Othello what might have suggested it 'his Pontick sea'

'Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on.'

But genius only can thus employ the materials of genius. Any inspiring subject found in Home deep pathos and the true poetic style; but his mind was not fertile in combinations, and he seems not to have mastered any great variety of characters. I read Agis and the Siege of Aquileia languidly, in spite of prepossession; and wished, for the fame of the modern stage, that their author had written only Douglas.

A few points of that chef-d'oeuvre still await us which derived an accession to their beauties from the inimitable actress. The comparison of the fancied happy mother of Norval with herself-the discrimination between two persons whom the audience so keenly anticipated to be one'She for a living husband bore her pains,

And heard him bless her when a man was born :'

a feminine feeling beautifully announced by the poet

'Whilst I-to a dead husband bore a son,
And to the roaring waters gave my child.'

She was sweetly interesting, too, while comparing her boy with blooming Norval

'Whilst thus I mus'd, a spark from fancy fell

On my sad heart,' etc.

This spark from fancy (how could it fail?) kindled a flame in every maternal bosom around her. Her eye was so humid and lustrous, and her brow looked the chosen seat of fancy. She then determines to be the artist of young Norval's fortune.' I wish she had dared to break through the cross-bars upon the prompter's copy, and allow Lady Randolph to utter the following beautiful simile as it came from the imagination of Home :

"Tis pleasing to admire !-most apt was I
To this affection in my better days!—
Though now I seem to you shrunk up, retir'd
Within the narrow compass of my woe.
Have you not sometimes seen an early flower
Open its bud, and spread its silken leaves,
To catch sweet airs and odours to bestow ;1
Then, by the keen blast nipt, pull in its leaves,
And, though still living, die to scent and beauty?
Emblem of me; affliction, like a storm,

Hath kill'd the forward blossom of my heart.'

It was reserved for Home to vary at least the application of the famous Ut flos in septis' of Catullus, in the Carmen Nuptiale

'Quem mulcent auræ, firmat sol, educat imber.'

Through all the Italian and Spanish and French poets, down to the homely version of Gay in The Beggar's Opera, the subject compared has been the virgin preserving or losing her purity. But there is nothing, even in the poet of Verona himself, equal to this line of Home's

'And, though still living, die to scent and beauty.'

There is, in the fourth act of this play, some little inconsistency. Lady Randolph had written by old Norval, to the youth, her son, to meet her at midnight in privacy, to explain to him' circumstances of such moment as not to be trusted to the very air of Lord Randolph's residence. 1 Stealing and giving odour.-Shakespeare.

1

By accident Lord Randolph and his kinsman Glenalvon are summoned to meet the valiant John of Lorn, and his Lady and Norval are left together. She addresses him thus

"This way with me. Under yon spreading beech,
Unseen, unheard, by human eye or ear,

I will amaze thee with a wondrous tale.'

There is no indication of the scene changing; yon beech must be at some distance-a more removed ground,' suited to the disclosure; yet here, without retiring, she shows him the jewels-tells him who was his father; and throwing herself upon his neck, acknowledges that she is his mother. The wondrous tale is already told; nothing remains but the recovery of his lands. For the stage arrangement no more would be necessary than thus to change the first line

'While Randolph entertains his gallant friend,

Unseen, unheard,' etc.

In the fifth act the meeting in the wood takes place, and at the midnight hour, as previously arranged. With respect to Mrs. Siddons, in this act, there was no question about her superiority, and her passions were displayed in the tones of harmony. Her great rival seemed to me the first of a school, in later periods much admired, which deemed discordance the natural ally of anguish, and tortured the ear to overpower the heart-forgetful of the great master's precept

'In the very torrent, tempest, and whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.'

Mrs. Siddons, a little deferring to costume, relieved the sable body and train of Lady Randolph by a great deal of white covering upon the bosom, which took with graceful propriety the form of the ruff. And this was much, in those easy times, when nobody thought of risking the laughable in the correct.

S

CHAPTER XIV

AFTER all petty cavils and prejudices long radicated, the character of Lady Randolph may be considered as sealing the reputation of Mrs. Siddons. The natural tendency of popularity so vast and lasting might be conceived to beget a confidence which no previous instance had sanctioned; and notwithstanding the serious disclaimer of all pride, published in the early effusion of her gratitude,1 some caution seemed to be necessary, lest she should imagine herself to hold by a tenure not extended to such giddy habitations as the hearts of the multitude.

A very intelligent contemporary, a member, too, of the profession, and a man of letters, thus, perhaps, more than cautions the delightful novelty. 'Mrs. Siddons has in Belvidera, as well as many other parts, not only attracted the attention, but absolutely fixed the favour of the town in her behalf. This actress, like a resistless torrent, has borne down all before her. Her merit, which is certainly very extensive in tragic characters, seems to have swallowed up all remembrance of present and past performers; but as

1 'She knows the danger arising from extraordinary and unmerited favours, and will carefully guard against any approach of pride, too often their attendant. Happy shall she esteem herself if, by the utmost assiduity, and constant exertion of her poor abilities, she shall be able to lessen, though hopeless ever to discharge, the vast debt she owes the public.-D. L. T., Dec. 17th, 1782.

Johnson would have said—perhaps, did say-'She has raised herself and her family from the honours of Wolverhampton to those which a theatre royal can confer; she has established her sway over the passions of all, from the sovereign to the mechanic; she sees respect and affluence the produce of her genius, and has a right to be proud.'