CONCLUSION. HAVE arrived at the proper termination of these memoirs. And, with a few considerations that press themselves forward upon revising my labours, I shall close these volumes. That the existence of Mrs. Jordan might have been somewhat prolonged, under circumstances less annoying, is possible. But her real life, like that of every other divinity of our fancies, ceased with its worshippers. The separation, in 1811, greatly shocked and distressed her mind-she never, in fact, recovered it. The woman, in her, was too powerful for the genius. In the meantime, nature herself was beginning to pronounce a limit to her professional excellence. Devoted as an actress to the gay exhibition of youth, it was impossible for her to be a veteran on the stage. The leading events of her private life have been, for the first time, illustrated by authentic and indisputable documents. And as a judge, in reading over to the jury his minutes of the evidence, though he leaves to their wisdom the whole of the case, may allow his own impressions to be here and there inferred, so, through the interesting occurrences of her life, my own feeling occasionally would not be concealed. But I willingly trust the professional and personal merits of Mrs. Jordan to the taste, the judgment, the sympathy, and, above all, the candour of the public. THE END. |