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BELLAMY'S APOLOGY. Vol. III.

MrBellamy & Lady Lindsey & Son

Printed for J Bell, British Library Strand London Feb 22.
2.1786,

Late 57

AN

APOLOGY

FOR THE

LIFE

OF

GEORGE ANNE BELLAMY,

LATE OF COVEVT-GARDEN THEATRE.

WRITTEN BY HERSELF.

TO WHICH IS ANNEXED,

Her original Letter to JOHN CALCRAFT, Efq. advertised to be pubished in October 1767, but which was then violently fuppreffed.

"The Web of our Life is of a mingled Yarn, Good and Ill "together; our Virtues would be proud if our Faults whipt "them not; and our Crimes would defpair, if they were not "cherished by our Virtues."

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Activ. Scene 3.

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PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR,

And Sold by J. BELL, at the BRITISH LIBRARY, STRAND.

MDCC LXXXVI.

ENGLISH

OXFORD

LIBRARY

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Feb. 16, 17-.

I HAD HAD cleared at my benefit the last season upwards of eleven hundred pounds. This was owing to several causes. I had for fome time been allowed to be fole dictatress among the polite ranks in the article of drefs. My judgment in this point was held in fo much eftimation, that the ladies would have been wretched who did not confult me relative to their birth-day or fancy cloaths. A masquerade had been given by the foreign Ambassadors, which was the moft fplendid entertainment of the kind ever seen in England. This afforded me and my dreffer, Mrs. Tinno, (whom I had left behind me at Drury-lane when I removed from that Theatre) B

VOL. III.

fuf

fufficient employment. Fancy was tortured to fix on different dreffes for the crowds of ladies that applied to us. Had I fuffered it, there would have been a hundred Eltrudas. Lady Kildare and Lady Granby were now added to my lift of patroneffes. In return for the affiftance I had given the numerous ladies upon this occafion, they each of them made a point to employ all their intereft to encrease the emoluments of my night.

Dr. Francis having been promoted through my application to Mr. Fox, and his promotion much talked of, I was looked up to as a proper perfon through whom to seek for preferment. All the military gentlemen, therefore, seized this opportunity to court my favour; and as the fureft way to do so paid a handsome tribute to my theatrical merit. Lord Kildare, Lord Granby, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Digby, who was now returned from abroad, took four tickets at one hundred pounds each; and the three laft continued their liberality to me till death. All these circumstances combined, account for the largeness of the before-mentioned fum.

I befides received prefents from Afia, Africa, and America, together with others the produce of our own climate. 'n fhort I was now in poffeffion of every thing that could excite the envy of the world. And yet amidst all this, even in the very zenith of

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