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150
MRS. SIDDONS.

cacy seems to date, for we now find her continually complaining and incapacitated from appearing by ill-health.

After Desdemona she appeared in Rosalind, which we can dismiss with the criticism of Young, the actor: "Her Rosalind wanted neither playfulness nor feminine softness, but it was totally without archness—not because she did not properly conceive it; but how could such a countenance be arch?" Her dress, too, excited great amusement—"mysterious nondescript garments." We have a letter of hers to Hamilton the artist, asking "if he would be so good as to make her a slight sketch for a boy's dress to conceal the person as much as possible." The woman who was capable of taking this view of the representation of Rosalind was not capable of acting the part.

Imogen, Ophelia, Catherine in the Taming of the Shrew, and Cordelia, all acted with her brother, followed in quick succession. This hard work entitled her to a salary of twenty-four pounds ten shillings weekly, while her brother drew ten pounds. Not contented with this, however, she made a tour in the provinces, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, &c. These country tours were not only fatiguing in consequence of the amount of travelling to be done, but also in consequence of the unsympathetic audiences to be faced, and the discomfort of country theatres. The system, also, of absorbing all the profits of provincial actors made her very unpopular in the profession. Some ridiculous stories are related of these tours.

When playing the "sleeping scene" in Macbeth, at Leeds, a boy who had been sent for some porter appeared by mistake on the stage, and walking up, presented it to her. In vain she motioned him away,