years in abject poverty, and Edmund Kean was at one time an equestrian, at another, the hero of a booth.

The life of Mrs. Inchbald is as full of variety and incident, as strange and discouraging at its commencement and as successful in the wished-for results, as any which has yet fallen under our notice. With regard to the present Memoirs, we are glad to perceive that her papers and letters have formed the groundwork, and that Mr. Boaden is content with remaining rather in the shade. There existed a manuscript auto-biography, as in the case of Byron, which Mrs. Inchbald, from delicacy to the feelings of the living characters who figured in it, destroyed. So interesting was this memoir considered, that she was offered for it a thousand pounds. The editor has availed himself of Mrs. Inchbald's diary, and of many notes, papers and familiar letters, by the aid of which he has made out two very interesting volumes, possessing the authenticity, if not exactly the charm of an auto-biography. We are told that the lady, in her fits of spleen, would occasionally animadvert pretty severely upon the character of contemporaries, whom she perhaps esteemed at cooler and better moments. Mr. Boaden has judiciously repressed all such ebullitions of excited feeling.

Mrs. Inchbald, whose maiden name was Simpson, was born of respectable parents, at Standingfield, in the county of Suffolk, in 1753. The Simpsons appear to have been substantial and intelligent people, rather popular with their neighbors, and mixing occasionally in high society. Mrs. Inchbald had the misfortune to lose her father at the age of eighteen. This event cast a heavy gloom over the prospects of the famiily; but her mother struggled on against difficulty, and they contrived to live through their misfortunes. Elizabeth (Mrs. Inchbald), and her sisters, were noted for their uncommon beauty, which was the theme of admiration in whatever company they chanced to enter. But, strange as it may appear, the future heroine of many a drama, was affected with an inarticulateness in her speech, so great and distressing, that it banished her almost altogether from society, those only who had been brought up with her from childhood being able to comprehend her meaning in discourse. In consequence of this impediment, she contracted an ardent love of solitude and of reading, so that the defect, which she at first regarded as an irremediable misfortune, laid the foundation of the fame and emolument of her after life. She was altogether self-taught,

and has remarked in one of her earlier memoranda, that her brother George, who had great advantages of education, could never be taught to spell, while she and her sisters spelled readily and correctly from childhood. We are at liberty to conjecture the nature of her solitary readings. It is not to be supposed that a young girl, left to select her studies without advice, and naturally of a cheerful disposition, could plunge into polemics and political discussion. On the contrary, her companions were romances and volumes of poetry, particularly that of Shakspeare, the favorite of all ages. We are not surprised to find, that in the bosom of retirement she nursed the desire of seeing the world, that is, London. She was not unmindful of the means, while thinking of the end, and resolutely determined to go upon the stage. The girl, whom an impediment of speech had exiled from the companionship of equals, was to appear before the élite of the world of fashion in a brilliant theatre, to draw forth tears and admiration as the affectionate Cordelia, to carry all hearts along with her as the gentle Juliet, and to dazzle, electrify and instruct as Lady Townly.

Her desire to see London was communicated to her friends, who attempted to reason her out of it. But the future Rosalind had resolution, and when told that a sight of the 'great world' would only make her glad to return to the point from which she proposed starting, she could reply with Rasselas in his Happy Valley, 'you have given me now something to desire; I shall long to behold the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is so necessary to happiness.' By perseverance, unaided and alone, she went to work to remedy the defect of her utterance, which she felt must be softened or removed, as a first step towards the accomplishment of her plans. She wrote out most of the long words in which she had encountered the greatest difficulty, and continually carried them about with her, frequently practising their pronunciation. She found also, that much of her stammering arose from the hurry and rapidity of conversation, and that stage declamation, being in a raised and artificial tone, and with fuller pauses, permitted a much greater time for enunciation. She accordingly enabled herself by practice, to go smoothly through passages of her favorite dramatic authors, and was encouraged to proceed in the course which she had chosen. Most of these trials must have been in secret, for her friends were opposed to her intention of going to VOL. XXXVII.-NO. 81.

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London and of acting. After having formed her determination and benefited by a little practice, she did not, like the heroine of a novel, immediately jump into a post-chaise, fly to London and throw herself on the protection of some manager, but she resolved to proceed with caution and regularity. In the beginning of the year 1770, we find her residing at Standingfield with her mother, her sister Deborah and her brother George. Four of her sisters were married; Anne and Dorothy to John and James Hunt, another sister to Mr. Huggins and another to Mr. Slender. Mention is made of these persons, in consideration of their agency in some parts of the London life of Mrs. Inchbald. The family appears to have been of a domestic turn, for the London sisters regularly corresponded with those at home. The duties of society, for Standingfield was by no means a mere hamlet, domestic avocations, and the weekly correspondence with the married sisters, prevented the residents at the old homestead from feeling the tedium of idleness. Mrs. Inchbald appears to have been a ready letter-writer, and extremely fond of epistolary communication. Mr. Boaden remarks, that the handwriting of the period of which we speak, was less systematic than it is at present, -individual character had a greater influence on chirography, and an inference could not unfrequently be drawn from the latter, directly at variance with that derived from the expressions of the writer. The observer, in such cases, must have been, we think, uncommonly clear-headed and intelligent. At this period, Miss Simpson applied by letter to Mr. Richard Griffith, manager of the Norwich Theatre, and asked hin at once for an engagement, enjoining secresy with regard to her intention of leaving home. His reply, which is more diplomatic than grammatical, we are tempted to subjoin.

Tuesday afternoon. (no date). 'Madam,—I was just favored with yours, the purpose of which, depend upon it, shall be an entire secret. From some treaties which I have now depending with different performers, and some proposals given under my hand, until I have received answers to them, I cannot yet say it is in my power, as much as it is in my inclination to oblige you: if it should, be assured I shall be happy to do it. When you come to town, I should be glad to see and speak with you on this subject. In the meantime, I am, madam, Your very humble servant, RICHARD GRIFFITH.

The correspondence was carried on to the satisfaction of Mrs. Inchbald, who, inexperienced as she was, appears to have founded great expectations on the conventional civilities and commonplace politeness of the manager's letters. He was a man of the world, politic and polite, ready doubtless to secure a promising debutante, but unwilling to commit himself with a lady he had never seen. The demand of an engagement which was made in her first note, argues a tolerable opinion of her own powers, which is farther borne out by her selection of the highest walks of the drama as her legitimate range. We are not disposed severely to scrutinize the early ideas of such a woman as Mrs. Inchbald, beautiful, inexperienced and unadvised, but we cannot help smiling at the common self-sufficiency of juvenile aspirants for dramatic honors. Thomas Holcroft, for example, who was finally an adviser and literary friend of Mrs. Inchbald, and, if we remember rightly, a suitor for her hand at one period of her widowhood, was a beggar, a Newmarket stableboy, and a cobbler, before he became an actor and an author. We do not make this allusion in the way of reproach, of course, but in proof of the self-confidence so necessary to an actor. Holcroft, with no opportunities of acquiring the manners of decent, not to say the highest society, started from the workbench to seek employment as the representative of the most exalted characters of the acted drama.

The idea of the Norwich manager had taken a strong hold upon the imagination of Mrs. Inchbald. On a leaf of her pocket-book, she had inscribed his name in large Roman capitals, like an inscription on an antique temple. RICHARD GRIFFITH. She adds, each dear letter of thy name is harmony.' The music of it appears rather equivocal to us, but we dare not question the lady's superior taste. Her brother George used frequently to amuse the family circle with dramatic readings, and, in his style, he daringly imitated the declamation of the Norwich actors. His taste for the stage grew rapidly upon him. After a while he became an actor, and his sister earnestly desired to follow his example. Her solitary hours were now assiduously devoted to the perusal of standard plays, and she wrote out at length the parts of Cordelia, Hermione, and others. Her mother was by no means adverse to the theatre, and accompanied her daughters to Bury, where they constantly attended the rehearsals of the morning and the representations of the evening. The annual

visit to Bury Fair was one of the treasured delights of the Simpson family, and, though but of few days' duration, gave intense pleasure both in anticipation and remembrance. It was to Elizabeth, what the annual gala of the race-ball' was to Lady Teazle, before her marriage with Sir Peter. It is not to be imagined that she attended rehearsals without coming into contact with the actors, and accordingly we find among the visiters of the party the names of Wilson, Crandell and others. Wilson was particularly attentive to Miss Simpson, and while Griffith still retained the place in her heart which he had gained by the euphony of his name, she scrupled not to receive a keepsake from the former, agreed to correspond with him, and received the welcome present of some books. Letters were accordingly exchanged, and Wilson ever after appeared in the light of a respectful and affectionate admirer. We cannot help observing here, that, like most beautiful women, even in her girlish years, she was rather a coquette.

Most of the brief memorials which preceded the work of Mr. Boaden, represented Mrs. Inchbald as flying from home to London in her sixteenth year, but it is now proved, that at eighteen she was still living with her mother at Standingfield. She then came to London on a visit to her sister Hunt. She determined, however, under cover of this visit to make applications to the director of some theatre, and go upon the stage. She naturally turned her thoughts to Griffith, with whom she had corresponded. During this visit she became acquainted with Mr. Inchbald, who was very attentive during her stay in London, and openly avowed the interest he felt in her. He was an actor of some talent, but apparently possessed of no great firmness or principle. Hypocrisy was not one of his faults; and he spoke with a tone of careless unreserve of the difficulties into which his former imprudent connexions had led him. His future wife seems to have regarded him with favor, but determined to proceed with caution and due deliberation. She was always ready to carry trifling to its utmost verge, but beneath a surface of levity there was a depth of character and a firmness of purpose which inspired respect, and finally insured success. She still meditated an engagement with Griffith, and, taking her sister as a companion, she called at the theatre, and had an interview with the admired manager. She appears to have been pleased