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order to have so amiable and spirited a daughter, he must comply with my wifhes, and take the beautiful Woffington to wife. Mr. Quin was so pleased at this well-timed retort, wherein I retaliated with fuch promptitude his fevere defcription; and he was at the fame time fo charmed with my fpirit, having hitherto thought me too placid, that he restored me, from that moment, to his favour, and I prefided the fame night at fupper, as usual.

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When I found myself perfectly re-established in Mr. Quin's favour, I enquired of him the reason he had treated me with fo much coolnefs, after he had affured me of his being reconciled to me, and was well convinced of my innocence and fincerity? He informed me, that my indifcretion in leaving a London theatre, after I had received fo many marks of peculiar diftinction from the public, deferved the fevereft reprobation. He added, that whoever had been my adviser upon the occafion was not my friend. As I had every reason to conclude myfelf the favourite child of the public, he faid, they would certainly have cherished me; and it was treating them, as well as myself and him, ill, to defert them. That I could not avoid observing the difference of my prefent fituation, and it would be a confiderable time before I recovered the height from which I had fallen. That he felt the difappointment far more

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than I did, as he had fet his heart upon my rivalling the women at the other house.

All the company present appeared to be of the fame opinion. And as Mr. Quin's obfervations feemed to carry conviction with them, I perceived that I had been very imprudent in taking such a step without his affent. I went home, more oppreffed by his friendship than I had been unhappy through his difpleasure. And I from that moment formed a refolution to atone for my paft indifcretion, by applying, with unremitted ardour, to the duties of my profeffion, and to confult my newly-recovered monitor, upon every concern of the leaft importance.

Before I conclude this letter, I muft inform you. of the dire event which happened in consequence of my playing Sclima. Mr. Lee, who performed the character of Axalla, approaching with too much vio-. lence to embrace me, and not being attentive to the pofition of his fword, which he held in his hand, the point of it ran into the corner of my right eye. It is ufual for the performers to wear foils upon the flage; but by fome mistake or other, that which Mr. Lee then used was a fword. The wound did not indeed prove to be a dangerous one; but Mr. Town, of whom I have frequently made mention, obferving the accident, and apprehending that the confequences of it would be worse than they really were, he ordered

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dered, in a peremptory manner, the curtain to be dropped, and the piece to be concluded.

Mr. Lee's name bringing it to my remembrance, I must relate an incident to you that happened some years after. Upon the demife of the late Princefs of Wales, I was applied to to speak a monody which had been written upon the occafion, in conjunction with that gentleman, at Carlisle-Houfe, then under the direction of Mrs. Cornellys.

With this request I complied, and made every needful preparation for fulfilling the duty I had undertaken, with all the powers I was mistress of. But alas! when the trying hour approached, I found, to my very great mortification, that my feelings totally bereaved me of those powers. The occafion revived in my mind, in fuch strong colours, the partiality her Royal Highness had formerly honoured me with, and the lofs the public had sustained by the death of fo valuable a personage, that I was unable to go through the melancholy task.

G. A. B.

LET.

LETTER XXX.

May 22, 17

THE next character. I appeared in was that of Athenais, in "Theodofius." I had no fooner come upon the stage, on the night of its performance, than the first object that presented itself to my view was Lord Byron, who had placed himself in the ftage-box. The tremor I was thrown into, by feeing a person so near who had been the cause of so much difquietude to me, entirely deprived me of all my powers, and I flood for fome time motionlefs. Mr. Rich and his family, obferving from their box that I fuddenly turned pale, which was easily dif cernible from my complexion being usually too flo rid, he came immediately behind the fcenes to enquire the reafon of it. His Lordship had by this time quitted his feat, and placed himself against one of the fide scenes, in fight of the audience. Mr. Rich, having let himself in by a private door from the box paffage, of which he always had a key, found his Lordship in this fituation, and was no longer at a lofs to account for my trepidation.

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As Lord Byron knew that our proprietor had in his youthful days been a man of gallantry, he accofted him with an affured look, and faid," Well, "Rich; I am come to take away your Athenias!"

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Such a falutation could not fail to give offence to a person who had always treated me as a daughter, and who poffeffed no little share of perfonal cou rage, united with an humane difpofition. He ac cordingly reproved his Lordfhip, for avowing a de-fign of fo unjuftifiable a nature, fo'inconfiftent with humanity and the laws of fociety, and confequently fo much beneath the dignity of a peer. He at the fame time remonftrated with his Lordship on the cruelty of coming to alarm a young perfon, who had never given him any room to suppose she approved of his paffion, and who could not but be apprehenfive from his Lordship's prefent conduct. Mr. Rich then faid, in a refolute tone, “I defire, my1 વ "Lord, that you will quit the scenes, for I cannot "ftand tamely by, and fee my performers infulted."

His Lordship not chufing to resent this oppofition from the manager, fo as to make a serious affair of it, very prúdently retired to his feat in the ftage. bog, meditating revenge. But he was no fooner feated there, than the audience, who generally engage on the fide that humanity points out, took the alarm, and obliged his Lordfhip to retire from thence to the front boxes; in the back part of which he concealed himself from further insult.

Mr. Quin not playing that night, he was not at the theatre; but the next evening he was informed'

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