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she, however, pursued her public profession till the year before her death, when her disorder increasing, she retired from the stage in 1759, and died on the 28th of March, 1760.

Her death was considered at that time as a general loss to the stage; and Mr. Hoole, (the ingenious Translator of Ariosto, &c.) who knew her perfectly well, has in the following lines (which we have extracted from his Monody to her Memory) drawn her public and private character so faithfully, that we cannot better conclude this sketch, than by giving them a repetition in this place.

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Blest in each art, by Nature form'd to please,
With beauty, sense, with elegance and ease,
Whose piercing genius study'd all mankind,
All Shakspeare opening to thy vigorous mind
In every scene of comic humour known,
In sprightly sallies, wit was all thy own:
Whether you seem'd the Cit's more humble wife,
Or shone in Townly's higher sphere of life,
Alike thy spirit knew each turn of wit,
And gave new force to all the poet writ.

Nor was thy worth to public scenes confin'd,
Thou knew'st the noblest feelings of the mind;
Thy ears were ever open to distress,
Thy ready hand was ever stretch'd to bless;
Thy breast humane for each unhappy felt,
Thy heart for others' sorrows prone to melt.
In vain did Envy point her scorpion sting,
In vain did Malice shake her blasting wing,
Each gen'rous breast disdain'd th' unpleasing tale,
And cast o'er every fault Oblivion's veil.

WILKS, THE CELEBRATED ACTOR.

THOUGH We have no very favourable account of Wilks from Colley Cibber, who hated him personally, as well as Dogget, (though he had more prudence in concealing it during Wilks's life,) and though he always preferred Powel to him, "who," he says, "excelled him in voice and ear in Tragedy, as well as humour in Comedy ;” yet he, on the whole, is obliged to allow him qualifications which leave him a very considerable actor; particularly in his Sir Harry Wildair, Essex, Mark Antony, Valentine, Plume, &c. &c. To these he adds his uncommon attention to be perfect in his parts, which he was so exact in, that "I question," says Cibber, " if, in forty years, he ever five times changed or misplaced an article in any one of them."

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Of his determined perseverance in this exercise of

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memory, he adds the following curious instance: " In
some new Comedy he happened to complain of a crabbed
speech in his part, which he said gave him more trouble
to study than all the rest; upon which he applied to the
author, either to soften or shorten it. The author, that
he might make matters perfectly easy to him, fairly cut
it all out but when Wilks got home from the rehearsal,
he thought it such an indignity to his memory that any
thing should be too hard for it, that he actually made
himself perfect in that speech, though he knew it was
never to be made use of."

Wilks's general merits as an actor may be divided
into the gay and fashionable characters of Comedy, and
the animated and pathetic scenes of Tragedy. As a lover,
no person, since the death of Mountford, who was his
predeces or, could reach him; nor was he, perhaps,
ever equalled, till the laurel descended upon Barry; and
Davies, who had seen him act, speaks highly of his
Edgar, Macduff, Mark Antony, Prince of Wales, &c.

Of Mark Antony, he says, "As soon as Wilks en-
tered on the stage, without taking any notice of the
conspirators, he walked quickly up to the dead body of
Cæsar, and knelt down: he then paused for some time
before he spoke, and, after surveying the corpse with
manifest tokens of the deepest sorrow, he addressed it in
a most affecting and pathetic manner.”

Of his Prince of Wales he speaks in still higher terms.
"The Prince, by Wilks," says he, "was one of the
nost perfect exhibitions of the Theatre, who, with great
skill and nature, threw aside the libertine gaiety of Hal
when he assumed the princely deportment of Henry. At
the Boar's-head he was lively and frolicksome: in the re-
conciliation with his father, his penitence was gracefully
becoming, and his resolution of amendment manly and
affecting.

"In his challenge of Hotspur, his defiance was equally
gallant and modest in his combat with that nobleman,
his fire was tempered with moderation; and his reflections
on the death of the great rebel generous and pathetic.
The Hotspur of Booth, though a noble portrait of cou-
rage, humour, and gallantry, was not superior to the
Prince of Wales by Wilks."

Macklin used to praise him in three parts, which, per-
haps, were the only characters he might have seen him
in; and these were, his Mark Antony, Captain Plume,

and Lord Townly. He spoke highly of the first, but with the most unqualified applause of the two last, which were perfect models of ease and good breeding. To these testimonies we shall add that of an Irish Barrister, of great eminence, who died about thirty years ago, and who was always considered not more eminent in the walks of his profession than in those of dramatic criticism. From him we have been informed," that whatever Wilks did upon the stage, let it be ever so trifling, whether it consisted in putting on his gloves or taking out his watch, lolling on his cane or taking snuff, every movement was marked with such an ease of breeding and manner, every thing told so strongly the involuntary motion of a gentleman, that it was impossible to consider the character he represented in any other light than that of a reality."

"But what was still more surprising," said the Gentleman, in relating this anecdote, "that the person who could thus delight an audience, from the gaiety and sprightliness of his manner, I met the next day in the street hobbling to a hackney-coach, seemingly so enfeebled by age and infirmities, that I could scarcely believe him to be the same man." Such is the power of illusion, when a great genius feels the importance of character * !"

With Wilks's general talents for tragedy, there were some parts that he was unequal to; and in particular the Ghost in Hamlet. One day, at rehearsal, Booth took the liberty to jest with him upon it. "Why, Bob," says he, "I thought last night you wanted to play at fisty-cuffs with me, (Booth played Hamlet to his Ghost,) you bullied me so, who, by the bye, you ought to have revered. I remember, when I acted the Ghost with Betterton, instead of my awing him, he terrified me-but there was a divinity hung round that man!"

To this rebuke, Wilks, feeling its propriety, modestly replied, "Mr. Betterton and Mr. Booth could always act as they pleased; but, for my part, I must do as well as I can.'

*The above event took place in the year 1729, two years before the death of Wilks, who, as Cibber tells us, was much more enfeebled by the constant irritations of his temper than he was by his declining years."

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