Mrs. Pope died on 15 March following, in Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, and was buried on the west side of the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, near Spranger Barry [q. v.] and ‘Kitty’ Clive. She had twenty guineas a week from Covent Garden, and left behind her to her husband—twenty-two years her junior—over 7,000l. and her house in Half Moon Street.
Mrs. Pope was not only one of the brilliant stars in the constellation of which Garrick was the centre—she was one of the foremost of English actresses. She had to encounter the formidable competition of Mrs. Siddons [q. v.] in tragedy, and Miss Farren in comedy. Her Lady Macbeth, Euphrasia, Calista, and Jane Shore were inferior to those of Mrs. Siddons, who surpassed her in power, energy, conception, majesty, and expressiveness, and in all tragic and most pathetic gifts; and her Estifania, Mrs. Sullen, and Clorinda were inferior to those of Miss Farren. Her range was, however, wider than that of either. She was invariably excellent in a remarkable variety of characters, and was held on account of these things not only the most useful but the principal all-round actress of her day. In comedy she was different from, but not in the main inferior to, Miss Farren. In tragedy she was at times declamatory, though her delivery was always audible and generally judicious. In addition to ease, spirit, and vivacity, she displayed in comic characters close observation of nature; her delivery imparted life to indifferent dialogue, and deprived the dialogue of the Restoration dramatists of much of its obscenity. Her Portia was greatly praised, and in the portrayal of distressed wives and mothers, as Lady Anne Mordant, Mrs. Euston, Lady Eleanor Irwin, &c., she distanced all competitors. Lætitia Hardy was perhaps her most bewitching performance.
George III is said to have detected in the actress a close resemblance to the goddess of his early idolatry, Lady Sarah Lennox [see under Lennox, Charles, second Duke of Richmond]. Her features were soft, her eyes blue, and her complexion delicate. She was commanding in stature, but pliant. Her voice was powerful. She was never accused of imitation, and of all Garrick's pupils is said to have most nearly approached her master. Her private life was irreproachable, and her manners pleasing. Garrick treated her with respect, but without much affection. Playing Lear to her Cordelia on 8 June 1776, his last appearance but one on the stage, Garrick said with a sigh, after the performance, ‘Ah, Bess! this is the last time of my being your father; you must now look out for some one else to adopt you.’ ‘Then, sir,’ she said, falling on her knees, ‘give me a father's blessing.’ Greatly moved, Garrick raised her up and said, ‘God bless you!’
A portrait by Dupont, as Monimia in the ‘Orphan,’ is in the Garrick Club. A print of her, by Robert Laurie, as Miss Young [sic], was published on 1 March 1780. A portrait as Viola with Dodd as Sir Andrew, Love (Dance) as Sir Toby, and Waldron as Fabian, was painted by Francis Wheatley, and engraved by J. R. Smith. Others are mentioned by Bromley.
[Genest's Account of the English Stage; Monthly Mirror, vol. iii.; Theatrical Manager's Notebook; Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror; Thespian Dictionary; Wheatley and Cunningham's London Past and Present; Jesse's London; Knight's Garrick; the Garrick Correspondence; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, p. 458; Smith's Mezzotinto Portraits; Dibdin's Hist. of the Stage Doran's Annals (ed. Lowe).]
POPE, Miss JANE (1742–1818), actress, born in 1742, was the daughter of William Pope, who kept a hairdresser's shop in Little Russell Street, Covent Garden, adjoining the Ben Jonson's Head, and was barber in ordinary and wig-maker to the actors at Drury Lane. Garrick on 3 Dec. 1756 brought out at Drury Lane his one-act entertainment ‘Lilliput,’ acted, as regarded all characters except Gulliver, by children. In this Miss Pope, then fourteen years of age, played Lalcon, Gulliver's housekeeper. Vanbrugh's ‘Confederacy’ was acted at the same house 27 Oct. 1759, when as Corinna Miss Pope, as ‘a young gentlewoman,’ made her first definite appearance. On 31 Dec. she was the original Dolly Snip in Garrick's ‘Harlequin's Invasion.’ She played admirably a part in which she was succeeded sixty years later by Madame Vestris (Mrs. Lucia Elizabeth Mathews [q. v.]). She took during the season Miss Biddy in ‘Miss in her Teens,’ Miss Prue in ‘Love for Love,’ Miss Notable in the ‘Lady's Last Stake,’ and Miss Jenny in the ‘Provoked Husband.’ Cherry in the ‘Beaux' Stratagem’ was allotted her next season, and she gained great applause as the original Polly Honeycombe in Colman's piece so named. Besides playing in 1761–2 Phædra in ‘Amphitryon,’ Sophy (an original part) in Colman's ‘Musical Lady,’ and Charlotte in the ‘Apprentice,’ she appeared, for her benefit, as Beatrice to the Benedick of Garrick in ‘Much Ado about Nothing.’ A full list of the very numerous characters in which she was seen is given by Genest. These are all comic, and were all given at
