The Life of 
 
 Mrs. Catherine Cliye. 
 
ay/'/y''' €&. 
 
 u/^/e-\ 
 
THE x.i:pe of 
 
 CATHERINE CLIVE 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HER 
 
 abventurce on anb off tbc Stage 
 
 A ROUND OF HER CHARACTERS 
 
 TOGETHER WITH HER CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 BY 
 
 PERCY FT TZ GERALD, 
 
 M.A., F.S.A. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 A. READER, ORANGE STREET, HOLBORN. 
 
 1888. 
 
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 FO. 
 
 Jnscribet) to 
 Josepb ikntgbt. 
 
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 C642 
 F55 
 
 )(9 G)(g> e)(s e)(s e) 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE task of calling up the images of departed actors 
 who have passed beyond the recollection of even the 
 oldest playgoers, seems all but hopeless. With the most 
 diligent examination of contemporary impressions the result 
 is barren enough ; for too often the reporter, supposing he 
 have felt the inspiration, lacks the power to reproduce his 
 impressions. It indeed needs ability of the highest order 
 to touch this instrument ; and it may be said that we have 
 but two critics who have left breathing portraits of the actors 
 of their time, namely, Colley Cibber and Charles Lamb. 
 Language fails, save in the case of such masters, to give an 
 idea of the style, the sympathetic graces, and the inde- 
 finable charm which render an actor popular, and secure 
 him his hold over an audience ; and tliis, though not 
 exactly described, is shadowed forth in the magical lines 
 of Shakespere — 
 
 " As when the well graced actor leaves the scene, 
 The eye is often idly bent on him that enters next." 
 
 '. '' 
 
 j;;-. 
 
vi. Preface. 
 
 Here we recognise this mysterious awe left on our minds 
 by the true player — the strange undefined mystery, with the 
 sense of a revelation beyond the hackneyed round of daily 
 life. We must therefore resign ourselves in the case of 
 ■departed performers to such accurate registers of their 
 manner and methods, or what is vulgarly called "business," 
 as diligent observers have collated. Of such records there 
 is an abundance. It is not unnatural that the public, 
 thus driven to content itself with this superficial and 
 imperfect ideal, should have formed some hasty and 
 erroneous conception of the old favourites. It reads as 
 it runs — it has not time, nor is it able to make nice 
 discrimination of character — all must be black or white. 
 It has thus settled for itself that " Davy " Garrick was a 
 close, clever, and knowing fellow ; that " Peg " Woffington 
 was a tender-hearted, rollicking Irish girl — one of a class 
 " who is no one's enemy but their own ;" that Kemble was 
 a solemn prig, always uttering stately periods ; that the 
 person with whom we are directly concerned — Mrs. Clive — 
 was a pert being, of an impudent chamber-maid cast. These 
 popular judgments are more or less erroneous, for the 
 three persons in question were almost the reverse of what 
 they were supposed to have been. Woffington had nothing 
 frivolous in her nature, but was saving, thoughtful, and 
 conscientious in her profession, which she never neglected. 
 
Preface. vii. 
 
 Garrick was liberal to a degree; Kemble often sat up, 
 whole nights over the bottle, and was excellent company. 
 In the case of Mrs. Clive, it has been settled according 
 to the conventional view, — that she was pert, impudent 
 and petulant. Dr. Doran is accountable for this use of 
 misleading epithets, speaking with affectionate sympathy 
 of imaginary " Pegs " and " Kittys " as though he had sat 
 with them. We are introduced to Kitty Clive, and see her 
 squaring her elbows and wrangling with Davy. Mrs. Clive 
 was a rather prosaic person, one of those who make their 
 profession and its earnings the first object of tlieir life ; 
 she was plain, and had few adventures in her life ; she 
 had a warm temper, she knew her value to the theatre in 
 vivacious, " bustling " characters, and resented any inter- 
 ference with her duties. From her writing she appears 
 to have been ill educated, but she had what Dr. Johnson 
 would have called a "strong bottom of sense." It has 
 become a common-place to speak of her bad spelling, 
 but this defect mended with years. She will be found 
 to be a genuine woman, sincere, firm, and fast in her 
 friendships ; while her downright character was exhibited 
 in many episodes scarcely known, and which will be found 
 interesting. 
 
 In the following pages will be found the first full and 
 formal account of the life and adventures of this accom- 
 
VUl. 
 
 Peepace. 
 
 plished actress. Many new incidents have been discovered, 
 while various curious little episodes illustrating the inde- 
 pendence or forwardness of our actress, are here, for the 
 first time, recounted. Some new letters are now given, 
 together with much that illustrates her style of performance 
 in various characters. 
 
Zbc %xtc of riDiu Catbcrine dim. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Raftor Family. — Kitty Introduced to the Stage. — 
 Engaged hy Gibber. — Her Success in ^^ Love in a 
 Riddle." — Her Ballad Singing. — Great Fiasco of the 
 Piece. — Her Marriage to Mr. Glive. 
 
 MRS. CATHERINE CLIVE— or "Kitty Clive " as 
 she was familiarly known to her associates — one of 
 the brightest and most spirited of actresses — came of an 
 Irish family, named Raftor, settled at Kilkenny. The 
 obligations of the English Stage to that country are extra- 
 ordinary. The names of Delane, Quin, Barry, Mossop, 
 Sheridan, Macklin, the infant Roscius, Betty, Cooke, 
 Macready, Barry Sullivan; with Woffington, Clive, Bellamy, 
 Catley, Miss Farren, Miss CNeil, and Mrs. Nesbitt, make 
 up quite a galaxy of talent, and indeed leave little more to 
 the other countries than the great leaders, Kembles, Sid- 
 dons, and Kean, with our own living tragedian Irving. Not 
 less remarkable are the dramatic writers who could equip 
 such a company with plays worthy of their talents : — 
 Steele, Farquhar, Goldsmith, Sheridan, O'Keefe, Sheridan 
 Knowles, and many more. Scotland so gifted in writers of 
 song and fiction is strangely deficient in this line. 
 
2 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Anything that we know of the Raftor family, and of the 
 early life of its gifted daughter we owe altogether to the 
 worthy Chetwood, who was long connected with tlie Dublin 
 Theatre, having written a little collection of sketches 
 of the performers he knew. He possessed a quaint, simple 
 style, as will be evident from his account of our heroine : 
 
 "This celebrated natural actress was the daughter of 
 Mr. William Raftor, a gentleman born in the City of 
 Kilkenny, Ireland. The father of her father was possessed 
 of a considerable paternal estate in the county where he 
 was born ; but tlie parents of our actress being unhappily 
 attached to the unfortunate King James the Second, the 
 late Revolution gave it, among many others to the Crown. 
 Mr. James Raftor, her brother, went over to Ireland some 
 years ago, in order to solicit for his grandfather's fortune, 
 but did not meet with success. Mr. William Raftor the 
 father was tied to the law ; however when King James was 
 in Ireland, he entered into his service, and after the decisive 
 Battle of the Boyne in the year 1690, he followed his 
 master's fortune, and by his merit obtained a captain's 
 commission in the service of Louis the Fourteenth ; but 
 gaining a pardon, with many other gentlemen in his con- 
 dition, he came to England where he married Miss Daniel, 
 daughter of an eminent citizen on Fish Street Hill, with 
 whom he had a handsome fortune. By her he had a numer- 
 ous issue. Miss Catherine was born in 1711. She had an 
 early genius for the stage, for she told me when she was 
 about twelve years old, Miss Johnston (afterwards Mrs. 
 Theo. Cibber, another rising genius, if death had not 
 overtaken her in the prime of youth), and she used to tag 
 after the celebrated Mr. Wilks (her own words) wherever 
 they saw him in the streets, and gape at him as a wonder. 
 
LiFK OF Mks. Catherine Clive. 3 
 
 Miss Raftor had a facetious turn of humour and infinite 
 spirit, with a voice and manner in singing songs of 
 ■pleasantry peculiar to herself." 
 
 These touches bring the young girl vividly before us. 
 The handsome fortune of Miss Daniel must have been 
 speedily dissipated by Captain Raftor, for we shall find the 
 whole burden of supporting him and his family cast upon 
 the young actress, who was all through life remarkable for 
 her family affection. 
 
 Through Miss Johnston, in whose company she used to 
 " tag after " Mr. Wilks — a pleasantly expressive phrase — 
 she became acquainted with Theo. Gibber — that extra- 
 ordinary and impish member of the profession. INliss 
 Johnston was Theo.'s first wife, and whose loss he bewailed. 
 "Should men say, for instance, I used my first dear and 
 
 well-beloved wife, of ever blessed memory, J — n — y C , 
 
 with ill usage ; should they affirm, that when her all pale 
 and bi'eathless corpse was laid in the coffin, and I, with 
 sobs and tears and intei^jected sighs, had moaned to many 
 a witness, my too unhappy fate, yet that same night had a 
 brace of Drurian doxies vile in the same house?" 
 
 There is an account given by Lee Lewes of " Kitty's " 
 original connection with the stage — which has a curious 
 probability — but which does not fit with the received 
 accounts. 
 
 " She was originally," he says, " servant to Miss Eleanor 
 Knowles, afterwards ]Mrs. Young, mother to the present 
 Sir Georjie Youncr and Mr. Thomas Youn" who in 1774 
 came out at Covent Garden Theatre in Maclieath, wliich he 
 performed some nights with much celebrity. When Mrs. 
 Clive lived with Mrs. Knowles, who then lodged at Mrs. 
 Snell's, a fan painter in Church Row, Houndsditch, Mr. 
 
4 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Watson, many years boxkeeper at Drury Lane and Rich- 
 mond, kept the Bell Tavern, directly opposite to Mrs. 
 Snell's. At this house was held the Beefsteak Club, insti- 
 tuted by Mr. Beard, Mr. Dunstall, Mr. Woodward, &c. 
 Kitty Raftor, being one day washing the steps of the house, 
 and singing, the windows of the club room being open, 
 they were instantly crowded by the company, who were all 
 enchanted with her natural grace and simplicity. This 
 circumstance alone led her to the stage, under the auspices 
 of Mr. Beard and Mr. Dunstall." . . I have given the 
 above anecdote as I received it from Mr. Thomas Young. 
 
 There is in this, an air of possibility ; but, it will be 
 seen that there are improbabilities. It is unlikely that the 
 daughter of a gentleman and an officer, would go out as a 
 servant or wash steps. Nor was the club in question likely 
 to have its meetings so far east as Houndsditch. It may 
 be, however, that there is a foundation for the story, 
 and that the girl was in place of service, as companion 
 perhaps, and was overheard singing by the actors in ques- 
 tion. Such legends are often questioned, but there is 
 generally some basis of truth in them. 
 
 Scarcely desirable, as an acquaintance for a young girl, 
 was Theo. Gibber's sister Charlotte, afterwards Mrs. Clarke 
 — a strange, wild, half-mad creature — -who had a disastrous 
 fate, which she herself has recounted. 
 
 "These talents," adds Chetwood, "Mrs. Theo. Cibber 
 and I (we were all at that time living together in one 
 house) thought a sufficient passport to the theatre — we 
 recommended her to the Laureate. Her teacher in music 
 was the luckless Henry Carey, who is claimed by his friends 
 to have been the author of " God save the King " — or Queen 
 — as it may be. He is better known however as the author 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clivr. 5 
 
 of the ever popular " Sally in our Alley " — which pleased 
 even the correct taste of 'Mr. Addison, and which " Kitty " 
 must have often warbled under his direction. We find her 
 furnishing her talent to entertainments given for his benefiit 
 on several occasions. 
 
 Dr. Burney says she was a favourite with Handel, and was 
 employed by him in his oratorios— singing in "Deborah." 
 He however adds, that she was quite unsuited to serious 
 or sacred music — which was indeed to be expected from a 
 comic singer. In the Garrick Club there is an important 
 portrait of her which represents her with a rather plain but 
 good-humoured face, buxom in figure — with a low dress, and 
 which is characteristic of her taste, a scroll of music in her 
 hand. This piece displays some of Milton's lines set by 
 Handel. 
 
 It was natural that in such companionship, she should 
 soon have turned her eyes to the stage. " We recommended 
 her to the Laureate (Mr. Cibber) says Chetwood," whose 
 infallible judgment soon found out her excellencies — and 
 the moment he heard her sing, put her down in the list of 
 performers at twenty shillings a week." This modest 
 salary is mentioned as something handsome for a beginner, 
 but it was good considering the times. Theatrical afiairs 
 at Drury Lane were not flourishing — and the prosperity 
 which the three managers, Cibber, Wilks, and Doggitt had 
 built up during many years, was showing signs of decay. 
 Still it was an excellent school for her, as Wilks was there, 
 whom, in her girlish days she had "tagged after," with 
 Mills, Harper, Cibber himself— Mrs. Booth, Mrs. Oldfield, 
 and Miss Porter, all sterling actors, and trained in the 
 best traditions. The progress of the young debutante was 
 ratified. " After this, like a bullet in the air, there was 
 
 c 
 
6 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 no distinguishing the track till it came to its utmost 
 execution " — the happy pointed phrase of the admiring 
 Chetwood. 
 
 It has been stated that the first part allotted to the 
 young postulant was that of the Page in " Mithridates, 
 King of Pontus," a tragedy of the kind which Johnson 
 happily styled the " Tig and Tiry " kind, from the usual 
 Tigranes or Tiridates that figured in them. This part was 
 specially garnished for her benefit, and we can suppose, set 
 out in the bill — 
 
 " Ismenes, page to Ziphanes (with a song) Miss Raftor." 
 
 which she performed " in boy's clothes," says Chetwood, 
 " with extraordinary applause." It is impossible, however, 
 to discover the date of this successful debut. We are not 
 even certain of the year, though the traditions which fixed 
 it to 1728 may be accepted. Even the laborious Geneste, 
 whom little escaped, could find no bill or newspaper to 
 throw light on the matter. His earliest ofiicial record is a 
 performance of "The Tempest," on January 2, 1729, in 
 which she played Dorinda. By searching moi'c carefully I 
 have found some yet earlier performances. Thus, on 
 October 12th, 1728, we have this programme: — 
 
 Not Acted this Season. 
 By His Majesty's Company of Comedians. 
 At the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, To-morrow (being Satur- 
 day), the 12th day of October, will be presented a Tragedy 
 call'd 
 
 OTHELLO, Moor op Venice. 
 
 The part of Othello to be performed by Mr. Elrington ; lago by 
 Mr. Cibber ; Cassio, Mr. Williams ; Roderigo, Mr. Roberts ; 
 Ludovico, Mr. Wm. Mills ; Montano, Mr. Watson ; Desdemona, 
 Mrs. Thurmond ; Emilia, Mrs. Butler ; Bianca, Miss Raftor. 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. T 
 
 From this I fancy slie must have appeared early in the 
 year. On the 22nd of the following month, Mr. Gibber 
 brought out the whole strength of his establishment in a 
 sort of Pantomime — competing with " Mr. Lunn," who was 
 exhibiting similar shows at the rival establishment. 
 
 N.B.— Not Acted these Two Years. 
 
 By His Majesty's Company of Comedians. 
 
 At the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, this present Friday, being 
 the 22 day of November (1728), will bo presented a Comedy, 
 call'd 
 
 ^SOP: 
 
 The part of -(Slsop by Mr. Gibber. 
 To which will bs added a New Dramatic Entertainment of 
 Dancing, in serious and grotesque characters, call'd 
 
 PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 RAPE OF COLUMBINE ; or, The Flying Lovers : 
 
 In five different interludes, viz.: three serious and two comic; 
 the serious composed by Mons. Roger. 
 
 The part of Andromeda by Mrs. Booth ; Perseus, Mr. Lally ; 
 Mercury, Mr. Essex ; Jupiter, Mr. Essex ; Medusa, Mr. Thur- 
 mond; Two Gorgons, Mr. Houghton and Mr. Burney; Followers 
 of Perseus, Mr. Boval, Mr. Rainton, Mr. Houghton, Mr. Burney ; 
 Attendants on Andromeda, Mrs. Houghton, Miss Walter, Miss 
 Lindar, Miss Robinson, sen.; The Houris of Sleep by Mrs. 
 Houghton, Miss Robinson, sen., Miss Walter, Miss Lindar ; 
 Tritons, Mr. Thurmond, Mr. Essex, Mr. Houghton, Mr. Rainton ; 
 Cephens, Mr. Fielding ; Cassiopea, Mrs. Shirebnrn ; Venus, 
 Miss Biddy ; Minerva, Miss Raftor ; Juno, Mrs. Shireburn j 
 Diana, Miss Smith ; Sailors, Mr. Barney, Mr. Gates, Mr. 
 Wright, Mr. Welteribb, Mr. Burnet, and Mr. Grey; Cupid, 
 Miss Robinson, jun.; Doctor (Columbine's Father), Mr. Burney ; 
 Pierrot (Doctor's Man), Mr. Roger ; Mezetius (Columbine's 
 Lover), Mr. Ray; Harlequin (Mezetius' Man), Mr. Cibber, jun.; 
 
8 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive, 
 
 Squire (designed for Columbine), Mr. R. Welterilf ; Clown 
 (Squire's Man), Mr. Weaver; Columbine (in love with Mezetius) 
 Miss Robinson, sen.; Mopsophil (Columbine's Maid), Mrs. 
 Walter. 
 
 The Scenery, Machines, Habits, entirely new. All the 
 Scenery painted by Mons. Devoto.* 
 
 Many of the performers, it will be seen, had to " double " 
 and even " treble " the characters. Minerva was not much 
 of a part for Miss Raftor ; but she was kept in company 
 by so good a player as Mrs. Booth, who condescended to 
 take part in this medley. 
 
 All readers know how potent was the effect of "His 
 casual Sight of an old Play Bill " on Elia ; and the faded 
 characters of these frail records act like a spell, bringing 
 us all into touch with the spirits of departed players. Here 
 is another connected with the opening of the young actress' 
 
 career : — 
 
 Acted but Once these Ten Fears. 
 
 At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality. 
 
 By His Majesty's Company of Comedians. 
 
 At the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, on Monday, the 29th day 
 
 of July, will be reviv'd a Comedy, call'd 
 
 WHIG AND TORY : or, The Double Deceit. 
 Revis'd by H. Aulius. 
 The Part of Sir John Indolent, by Mr. Griffin ; Young Indolent, 
 Mr. Cibber, jun.; Reyard, Mr. Watson ; Sir Ronald Heartfree, 
 Mr. Covey ; Young Heartfree, Mr. Roberts ; Philip, Mr. Berry ; 
 Cobblecase, Mr. Bridgwater ; John, Mr. Fielding; Annita, Mrs. 
 Butler ; Charlotte, Mrs. Heron ; Maria, Miss Raftor ; Tamwoud, 
 Mrs. Shirbnrn. 
 
 * Daring th-e elaborate preparations for this great show, young 
 Leigh had his arm broke by the machinery being let down too 
 rapidly at rehearsal. It will be noted that Fielding's name appears 
 in the cast. 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherink Olive. 9 
 
 With the original Prologue, to which, by desire, will be added 
 the Opera call'd 
 
 PHCEBE; OR, The Beggar's Wedding. 
 
 With Entertainment of Dancing. Between the Play and the 
 Opera will be performed a piece of Music on the Violin by Mr. 
 Clarke, accompanied by Mr. Magnes on the Harpsichord. Also 
 a Voluntary by Mr. Magnes alone, being the fii'st time of his 
 performance in publick. 
 
 At Common Prices. To begin exactly at Seven o'clock. 
 
 N. B. — The House is extraordinarily cool. Plans to be had 
 at Mr. Cook's, the Boxkeeper, in the Play House Passage. 
 Printed Books of the Opera, as it is now performed, will be 
 sold at the Theatre at fid. each. — 1729. 
 
 During this, her first season, we find her performing 
 Ilonoria in "Love makes a Man," on January 26, 1729; 
 Valleria in "The Rovers," on May 1; in "Wit without 
 Money," on May 3, where she is set down as Mrs. Raftor ; 
 in " Duke and no Duke," on August 5 ; as Arethusa in 
 "The Contrivances;" and as Kitty in "The Oxford Jilt," 
 on January 9, 1730. On February 10, she appeared as 
 Rosella in "The Constant Couple;" but it was not till 
 August 6, 1731, that she made her first great hit as Nell 
 in a version of " The Devil to Pay," altered and adapted 
 by Cofiey, where her boisterous vivacity made such an 
 impression, not merely on the public, but on the manage- 
 ment, that her salary was raised. In this part she became 
 a prime favourite of the public. There were plenty of 
 songs, and her rough, rattling, coarse humour in " The 
 Cobbler's Wife " was much relished. 
 
 In a company which included such great performers, 
 excellent lessons were to be learned. She there saw per- 
 formed some of the most sterling pieces. She was given 
 what seems to have been her first serious character, on 
 
10 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Jan. 2, 1729, when the "Tempest" was played, she taking the 
 part of Dorinda, Mrs. Booth playing Miranda, to Wilks' 
 Ferdinand ; but beyond this she seems to have played but 
 seldom, though she must have appeared often. For almost 
 every night we find the advertisement : " with an enter- 
 tainment of music and dancing." Thus on October 30, 
 1729, " The Stratagem," that is "The Beaux Stratagem" 
 was played, in which Oldfield and Porter had parts — and 
 which was followed by " select pieces of music " between 
 the acts." Her characters during the rest of the season 
 were Honoria in " Love Makes a Man ;" on January 26, 
 Valleria in "The Rover," or "What d'ye call it; with 
 a song by Miss Raftor." On May 21, she also appeared in 
 the version of " The Country Wife," and as Arethusa in a 
 one-act farce, with several new songs. On Jan. 9, 1730, 
 she played the congenial part of Kitty, the Oxford Jilt, in 
 the "Humours of Oxford." In that month also, "The 
 Tempest" was revived, on what was considered a scale of 
 magnificence, " with scenes, machines, and other decorations 
 suitable to the play"- — and among these attractions so 
 " suitable to the play," were the following : — "A Dance of 
 the Four Winds, a Dance of Infernal Spirits, as performed 
 before the Grand Signior, by the Eunuchs of the Seraglio, 
 at the Bairiam Feast (!). Also the song of 'Dear Pretty 
 Youth,' as composed by the late Mr. Henry Purcell, to be 
 sung in the character of Dorinda by Miss Raftor." This 
 wretched stuff shows to what the managers could condescend 
 to draw an audience. But on the production of a new 
 piece by the manager, Colley Cibber, she was to have her 
 first experience of the unruly manners of an audience. 
 
 Her bearing on this disastrous occasion was becoming her 
 character and conscientious spirit. " I remember," Chet- 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 11 
 
 wood tells us, " the first night of ' Love in a Riddle,' (which 
 was murdered the same year) which the hydra-headed mul- 
 titude resolved to worry without hearing, a custom with 
 authors of merit, when Miss Raftor came on in the part of 
 Phyllida ; the monstrous roar subsided, a person in the 
 stage-box next to my post, called out to his companion in 
 the following elegant style : ' Zounds ! you take care, or 
 this charming Utile devil will save all /' " This as we have 
 seen, she could not do. The Prince of Wales was present on 
 the second night, but was no restraint on the turbulence of 
 the audience. The piece, however, being cut down and 
 shortened, later became popular and was often acted. 
 There figured in it a "concealed courtier" played by Gibber 
 himself, with the inevitable Z^amon and Corydon. In 1734 
 she was painted in the same character, by Van Bleeck, and a 
 large mezzotint was published from the picture, exhibiting a 
 graceful pastoral figure, with a face full of interest, if not 
 pretty. 
 
 A writer who knew her and whose recollections stretched 
 back a long way, describes her pastoral air exactly: "At 
 this period, the sprightliness and vivacity of her disposition, 
 and an appearance scarce more than infantine, pointed her 
 out as the proper representative of parts in which youth and 
 simplicity were to be personated."* This air of infantine 
 innocence and simplicity is conveyed in the portrait. 
 
 DAMON AND PHYLLIDA. 
 
 CHAEACTERS. 
 
 Arcus, anobleman of great possessions in Arcadia. ..Mr. Winstone 
 
 ^gon (his friend) Mr. Cole 
 
 Corydon, an old Shepherd Mr. Turbntt 
 
 * European Magazine, 1784. 
 
12 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Mr. Miller 
 Mr. Gates 
 
 11, >■ Simple brothers, in love with Phyllida ■< 
 
 Damon, an inconstant Mr. Stoppelaer 
 
 Phyllida, daughter to Corydon Mrs. Clive* 
 
 The whole piece seems to have been written to bring out 
 the young actress' powers. Most of the songs, which are 
 set to old English tunes, are alloted to her, and seem to 
 anticipate our music hall ditties. Thus : — 
 
 What woman could do, I have tried, to be free. 
 
 Yet do all I can, 
 I find I love him, and though he flies me, 
 
 Still — still he's the man. 
 They tell me at once, he to twenty will swear : 
 When vows are so sweet, who the falsehood can fear ? 
 So when you've said all you can, 
 Still — still he's the man. 
 And again : — 
 
 Give over your love, yon great loobies, 
 
 I hate you both — you sir, and you too ; 
 Did ever a brace of such boobies 
 
 The lass that detests them pursue ? 
 Prepare then to hear my last sentence — 
 
 Before I'd wed either, much rather 
 I'd stand on the stool of repentance, 
 And want for my bantling a father ! 
 
 In later editions there is a pretty little etching by Van 
 
 der Gucht, a well-known theatrical portrait painter, of Mrs. 
 
 Clive in character, as a shepherdess, with crook, garlands, 
 
 and a low dress. 
 
 Mr. Gibber thus relates the story of his fiasco : — 
 
 " After the vast success of that new species of dramatic 
 
 poetry, ' The Beggar's Opera,' the year following, I was 
 
 * This is a later caste of characters, when the title of the piece 
 had been altered. 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Olive. 13 
 
 so stupid, as to attempt something of the same kind upon 
 quite a different foundation, that of recommending virtue 
 and innocence, which I ignorantly thought might not have 
 a less pretence to favour, than setting greatness and 
 authority in a contemptible light. But behold how fondly 
 I was mistaken ! " Love in Riddle " (for so my new-fangled 
 performance was called) was vilely damn'd and hooted at 
 as so vain a presumption in the idle cause of virtue could 
 deserve. Soon after this prohibition, my performance was 
 to come upon the stage, at a time, when many people were 
 out of humour at the late disappointment, and seemed 
 willing to lay hold of any pretence of making a reprisal. 
 Great umbrage was taken that I was permitted to have 
 the whole town to myself, by this absolute forbiddance of 
 what they had more mind to have been entertained with ; 
 and some few days before my bawble was acted, I was 
 informed that a strong party would be made against it : 
 this report I slighted, as not conceiving why it should be 
 true, and when I was afterwards told what was the pre- 
 tended provocation of this party, I slighted it. The report 
 it seems that had run against me was this : That, to make 
 way for the success of my own play, I had privately found 
 means, or made interest, that the second part of ' The 
 Beggar's Opera' might be suppressed. I had not con- 
 sidered, poor devil ! that, from the security of a full pit, 
 dunces might be critics, cowards valiant, and apprentices 
 gentlemen ! Whether any such were concerned in the 
 murder of my play, I am not certain; for I never en- 
 deavoured to discover any one of its assassins ; I cannot 
 afibrd them a milder name, from their unmanly manner of 
 destroying it. 'Tis true, it faintly held up its wounded 
 head, a second day, and would have spoke for mercy, but 
 
 D 
 
14 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 was not suffered. Not even the presence of a royal heir 
 apparent could protect it. But then I was reduced to be 
 serious with them ; their clamour then became an insolence, 
 which I thought it my duty, by the sacrifice of any interest 
 of my own, to put an end to. I therefore quitted the 
 actor for the author, and stepping forward to the pit, told 
 them that since I found they were not inclined that this 
 play should go forward, I gave them my word, that after 
 this night, it should never be acted again : but that in the 
 mean time, I hoped they would consider in whose presence 
 they were, and for that reason at least, would suspend what 
 further marks of their displeasure they might imagine I 
 had deserved. At this there was a dead silence ; and after 
 some little pause, a few civilized hands signified their 
 approbation. When the play went on, I observed about a 
 dozen persons of no extraordinary appearance sullenly 
 walked out of the pit ; after which, every scene of it, while 
 uninterrupted, met with more applause than my best hopes 
 had expected. But it came too late : Peace to its manes !" 
 After this scene, there followed some monotonous years, 
 during which she was learning her profession, appearing 
 almost every night. Such diligence and industry soon 
 attracted attention. We find Aaron Hill, one of the 
 popular playwrights, the author or adaptor of ponderous 
 tragedies, in his " Zara," proposing to aid in bringing her 
 forward, classing her with Griffin and Harper. " I will be 
 sure," he wrote in January, 1733, "to write for you such 
 a farce as Mr. Booth described, and you shall have it in a 
 day or two. I had a thought that came in my head last 
 night, that will take into the compass of an act, the different 
 humour and strength of Harlequin, Mr. Stoppelaer, Miss 
 Raftor, Mr. Griffin, and Mr. Harper." He added, that one 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 15 
 
 great cause of want of success is that "things are not 
 prepared on purpose to show the various talents in the 
 company." 
 
 The attractive Miss Raftor, when she had been two or 
 three years on the stage, was now to captivate a sober 
 gentleman of good family, who married her. This was Mr. 
 George Clive, a barrister without practice, brother to Sir 
 Edward Clive, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, and 
 nephew to another judge of the same family. It was 
 "a good match," the Clives being an old Hereford family; 
 the famous Robert, Lord Clive, was second cousin to 
 Mr. George Clive. The marriage is said to have taken 
 place in 1732, but the exact date is not known. The bills 
 however seem to furnish some evidence, for we find that on 
 October 3rd, 1733, "Rule a Wife and have a Wife" was 
 performed, in which " Miss Raftor " played ; while on the 
 5th she appears of a sudden as " Mrs. Clive, formerly Miss 
 Raftor." We might fairly assume that on the intermediate 
 day, when she did not perform, the ceremony took place. 
 The significant play chosen for the occasion seems to point 
 to something of the kind.* Yet we might have a suspicion 
 that in the case of mesalliance as this, certainly Mr. Clive 
 would not have been in such a hurry to have it so promptly 
 proclaimed to the world ; and it may be that this change 
 of name was in consequence of the separation which speedily 
 followed the marriage. 
 
 * When Mr. Charles Kean married Miss Tree, in Dublin, both 
 played in " The Honeymoon " on the day of the marriage. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Struggle with Mrs. Gibber for the imrt of " Polly." — How 
 the Town amused itself with their contentions. — The 
 revolt against Manager Highmore; "Kitty's" straight- 
 forward behaviour. — The praises of Fielding and 
 others. — Sejyarates from Mr. Clive ; visits Dublin. 
 
 T^ LL through her course, our actress showed herself 
 Xi. combative and even contentious, whenever she fancied 
 that " her rights" were encroached upon. Conscious of the 
 scrupulous fashion in which she did her duty to the public, 
 she claimed that the same regard should be paid to her 
 by her employers ; and when these attempted to take 
 advantage of her good nature, she was as spirited in 
 resisting such encroachments as the most troublesome of 
 her sex. We find her almost from the commencement, 
 engaged in some conflict with managers, or else in 
 vigorously resisting the attempt of some other performer 
 to encroach upon her privileges. But when she came to 
 be enlisted under the fair, firm, and equitable rule of 
 Garrick, we hear no more of these troubles, and she 
 settled down into the painstaking, conscientious actress, 
 thinking only how she could best perform her duties to 
 the public, to the theatre, and to herself. 
 
 We have spoken of the difficulty of calling up before us 
 the particular charm and gift which has made an actor 
 popular in his generation. But in the case of the captivating 
 Mrs. Susannah Gibber, we can realise perfectly what a 
 tender, sympathetic performer she was. Her letters are 
 those of a charming unobtrusive woman, full of a gentle 
 
Life of Mus. Catherine Clive. 17 
 
 raillery and subdued sorrow. The daughter of an accom- 
 plished musician, Arne, she herself possessed musical gifts 
 of no common order ; and her eagerness to make a figure 
 in this department, was to bring about a serious quari'el 
 with so redoubtable an antagonist as Mrs. Clive. These 
 two eminent ladies were now to be in conflict, struggling 
 for the possession of a favourite character. 
 
 The extraordinary success of the "Beggar's Opera" at 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields, with the singular interest excited by 
 the sympathetic character of Polly, whose representative 
 had won the coronet of a Duchess by her performance, 
 made every actress long for the opportunity of distinguishing 
 herself in so taking a character. Mrs. Clive was "in posses- 
 sion " of the part at Drury Lane, but it was naturally felt 
 that a good voice and a piquant style, were not all the 
 qualities requisite for a perfect Polly. The whole cast of 
 the character is sad and touching, as will be seen from the 
 description given by Mr. Cambridge to Boswell. " It was 
 saved," he said, " on the first night by the song, 
 'O ponder well, be not severe j' 
 
 the audience being much affected by the innocent looks of 
 Polly when she came to these two lines, 
 
 ' For on the rope that hangs, my dear, 
 Depends poor Polly's life.' " 
 
 There could have been little of this kind of sympatliy 
 furnished by the vivacious Kitty, who would naturally 
 emphasize, in her way, the more farcical portions. In 
 1736, unluckily, Mrs. Cibber conceived a wish to perform 
 Polly, and at the same time oust the actual possessor of 
 the part. The hubbub that followed was inconceivable; 
 Mrs. Clive appealed to her friends in The Town, Mrs. 
 
18 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Gibber did the same. But this ill feeling gradually de- 
 veloped from mere " clashing," into perfect animosity. " No 
 two women of high rank," says Davies, " ever hated one 
 another more unreservedly than these great Dames of the 
 theatre. But though the passions of each were as lofty 
 as those of the first Duchess, yet they wanted the courtly 
 art of concealing them." 
 
 These claims of Mrs. Gibber were at a later period very 
 unfairly pressed — and the honest Glive was often put aside 
 to gratify her whim. Thus in March, 1755, when the 
 comedy of " Rule a Wife," was brought out, Mrs. Gibber 
 insisted on having the light, lively part of Estifania, 
 thouf^h Mrs. Glive, "as the superior comic actress of the 
 theatre," was really entitled to it. The manager too, 
 wished to see her in it, though, as Davies suspected, he and 
 Woodward secretly wished to keep her " out of it." The 
 gay ladies of comedy, however, were surely not in her line, 
 for she lacked the refinement and delicacies, though not the 
 spirit, necessary to the part. 
 
 " When Mrs. Gibber was cast for Polly" wrote Victor to 
 Theo. Gibber, nigh twenty years later, "she was very 
 young, handsome, and an approved good singer. She had 
 every requisite to make the best Polly that had ever 
 appeared, and so had Mrs. Glive for Lucy : it would un- 
 doubtedly have been a fine entertainment so performed — 
 but Glive was there in possession of the public voice — she 
 was disgusted at the thought of leaving Polly, and lodged 
 her complaint. What a storm was raised ! but their 
 favourite, right or wrong was to be supported, though 
 against judgment and common sense. I remember I was 
 one of your friends that advised you to give it up — your 
 wife was then new to the stage, and the match was 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 19 
 
 perfectly unequal, and so the only opportunity of seeing the 
 " Beggar's Opera " in perfection was lost." 
 
 " I tind," says Fielding, speaking in the character of 
 Mrs. Gibber's husband, the little viper 'Theo,' "that by 
 our theatrical squabbles and altercations we make as much 
 amusement to the town in a morning as by our performance 
 in an evening. The contentions for the part of Polly 
 between Mrs. Clive and my late — I was going to say wife 
 — but a late woman who was called by many a name. — 
 That contest, I remark, furnished a copious topic for 
 conversation, argument, and publication, and ended with 
 noise and uproars in the playhouse. The consequence of 
 all these addresses has been this : the town is called into 
 the playhouse, as the deniier ressort, to judge of things." 
 This has always been the case with that supersensitive and 
 touchy corps, who, on the slightest assumed affront or 
 injury, carry all their dirty- linen to the market and wash 
 it there before the amused crowd. 
 
 So ludicrous was the contention between the two angry 
 ladies, that Woodward, then (1736) engaged at Lincoln 
 Inn Fields, brought out an apropos piece on the subject, 
 entitled : — 
 
 THE BEGGARS' PANTOMIME; 
 
 OR, THE CONTENDING COLUMBINES. 
 
 The printed version of which he dedicates to the two 
 actresses " who had a violent contention for Polly." 
 
 Here the two columbines are seen to contend with each 
 other for the part ; and no doubt burlesqued the manner 
 
 of the actresses. Thus : — 
 
 [^ Beggar enters in a ]iurry.\ 
 Beg. — Mr. Prompter, Mr. Prompter, [enter Prompter^ 
 What the devil is the meaning of this step ; have you a 
 design to ruin me ? 
 
20 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Prompt. — I assure you 'tis not my fault. Mrs. Roberts 
 and Mrs. Hamilton are quarrelling who shall be first 
 columbine. Thoy scolded as long as they had breath, 
 and now they have set themselves down to send letters 
 to the public papers to inform them of this ill usage. 
 
 Woodward, however, apologised in his Preface for the 
 liberty he took : — " When I publicly declare this trifling 
 piece was meant only to promote the theatre to which I 
 belong, I hope you will have more good nature than to 
 imagine I designed to affront two ladies I am utterly a 
 stranger to. Your paper was making such a bustle about 
 the town, and its being so much the public talk of coffee 
 houses, I thought it no bad scheme to make use of the 
 opportunity, and introduce something like your contention 
 on the stage. I immediately made use of the subject." He 
 adds that the whole was written, mounted, and produced 
 within ten days. 
 
 A ballad too, in the strain of " Chevy Chase " was also 
 published, ridiculing the squabble :— 
 
 Heaven prosper long our noble King, 
 
 Our lives, and save us all ; 
 A woeful quarrel lately did 
 
 In Drury Lane befall. 
 To charm the pit with speech and song 
 
 Dame Gibber took her way : 
 Players may rue who are unborn 
 
 The quarrel of that day. 
 Gibber, the syren of the stage, 
 
 A vow to heaven did make, 
 Full twenty nights in Polly's part 
 
 She'd make the playhouse shake. 
 When as these tidings came to Clive, 
 
 Fierce Amazonian dame : 
 " Who is it thus," in rage she cries, 
 
 " Dares rob me of my claim ? " 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 21 
 
 With that she to the green room ttew, 
 
 Where Gibber meek she found ; 
 And sure if friends had not been by, 
 
 She had fell'd her to the ground." — (Jan., 1737.) 
 
 Fielding too, in his " Historical Register," produced in 
 the same year, makes merry over the ladies and this contest. 
 One of the characters Sowrvit asks : 
 
 " Hey day ! what's become of your two Pollys ? " 
 Medley. — Damned — Sir, damned ! They were damned 
 at my first rehearsal : for which reason I have cut them 
 out, and, to tell you the truth, I think the town has 
 honoured them enougli, with talking of them for a whole 
 month. 
 
 Even Chetwood, her admirer, had his little fling, in the 
 "Dramatic Congress," 1743, where he makes Kitty give 
 a characteristic account of herself : — • 
 
 Dash. — Good manners oblige us to enquire on ladies 
 first ; therefore Miss Kitty, we shall be glad to know 
 what you have to allege against the Basha, and submit 
 it to yourself, whether he has not always behaved with 
 the strictest regard to your interests. 
 
 Kitty. — As to his regarding my interest he never did it 
 in particular, but when it very largely conduced to 
 his own. I look after the stage as a very precarious 
 situation. I have, by my assiduity, endeavoured to 
 please the town. If ever I met with any favour it was 
 from them not him ; . . . Did he not make use of 
 all the arts he was master of to depreciate me with the 
 audience ? Witness the contest he created about Polly, 
 when Callista and I stood the shock of the audience 
 alternately for several nights together. When Sylvia 
 
22 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 was engaged to him he endeavoured as much to set her 
 up as my rival, but the town would not permit it." 
 
 Daslb urges in reply that the manager's motive might 
 have been " to display the merits of the two ladies to an 
 equal degree. He certainly increased Kitty's salary so 
 extravagantly as to make it much above any woman's on 
 the stage now." 
 
 Kitty answers, " not near so much esteem as he showed 
 for his foreigners, who, at the weekly expense of near 
 eighty pounds, convinced him that they were almost 
 useless, whilst I and others at a much lower rate, con- 
 tributed to the payment of them : notwithstanding 
 which, he is about lowering the salary he previously 
 agreed with me for, and that before he has discharged 
 the little arrears due to me." 
 
 Dash. — Hold, madam, do you really think he could 
 reasonably afford to give you the salary he did. 
 
 Kitty. — As you have been so free with me, I must as 
 freely tell you that I wonder you can enter into a league 
 with one, who, though he would be thought a gentleman, 
 seduced several of your performers from you. 
 
 Dash. — O child, it is fair gaming. 
 
 Kitty. — Well I'll not be lowered whilst I am capable 
 of meriting what I have had all along, and that's my 
 resolution." 
 
 Yet in spite of the ill-will which such disputes must 
 have engendered, when the two ladies were engaged at 
 Drury Lane in 1747, under Garrick, we find Mrs. Gibber 
 (on Sep. 17th) performing the coveted Polly with great 
 effect, and her rival Glive taking the part of Lucy ; which, 
 however, must have fitted her far better. When Mrs. 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherink Clive. 23 
 
 Gibber was gone, she also tolerated one of her friends, Miss 
 Edwards — afterwards Mrs. Mozeen, in the same character. 
 Nay, before this, she was content not to figure in tlie piece 
 at all, when Mrs. Pritchard took the part of Lucy to Mrs. 
 Gibber's Polly. No better proof could be given of the 
 complaisance of this worthy actress, whenever the interests 
 of the theatre called for it. 
 
 We next find our heroine concerned, to some extent, in 
 a revolt against the managers, a rather entertaining episode, 
 in which she acquitted herself with moderation and credit. 
 Actors are mostly a sensitive and unreflecting race, and 
 are usually drawn into such rebellions, in consequence of 
 some sense of fancied injury. But Mrs. Clive here was to 
 show her usual good sense. 
 
 After the happy, judicious reign of Gibber and his col- 
 leagues, it was the fortune of Drury Lane Theatre to pass 
 from one bankrupt manager to another, under whose dis- 
 sipated rule the whole fell into disorder. The tirst of these 
 rash adventurers was " John Highraore, Esq., of Hampton 
 Gourt," a gentleman with ,£800 a year. Having offered by 
 way of frolic, to play Lothario for one night— it was for 
 a wager at White's Glub, with Lord Limerick, — he was 
 so transported with the applause he received and the great 
 receipts, that he at once purchased shares in the theatre 
 and became a manager. At this time, by a curious over- 
 sight, the players were not bound to have any agreements 
 or " articles," and they could leave almost without notice. 
 In his company was that truly detestable being, Theo. 
 Gibber, who seems to have been a bad son, a bad husband, 
 a bad actor, — who was always plotting some intrigue, and 
 finally lost in a storm, sailing to Ireland with a whole 
 cargo of properties, to say nothing of " Madox, the great 
 
.'24 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 wire-rope dancer." Before Highmore had been in office a 
 fortnight, Theo. had spirited up a revolt against the 
 manager : and, though his own father had just been paid 
 ,£3,000 for his share, the son did his best to get possession 
 of the theatre, and drive out the managers. There were 
 probably real grievances to complain of, but nothing to 
 warrant such a rebellion. The principal players all joined 
 him, such as old Mills, Johnson, Miller, Griffin, Harper, 
 and Mrs. Heron. But we find that Mrs. Clive and Mrs. 
 Horton, though they were dissatisfied, disdained to join 
 in the revolt, and held by their master. The fact that 
 two women — Mrs. Wilks, the widow of her old theatrical 
 idol, and Mrs. Booth — were in the direction, may have 
 contributed to this loyalty : — of which. Fielding expressed 
 his admiration in the warmest terms. 
 
 ' The part," he says,* " you have maintained in the 
 present dispute between the players and patentees of 1733, 
 is so full of honour, that had it been in higher life, it would 
 have given you the reputation of the greatest heroine of 
 the age. You looked on the cases of Mr. Highmore and 
 Mr. Wilks with compassion, nor could any promises or 
 views of interest sway you to desert them : nor have you 
 scrupled any fatigue (particularly the part which at so 
 short a warning you undertook in this farce) to support the 
 cause of those you imagined injured, and for this you have 
 been so far from endeavouring to exact an exorbitant 
 reward from persons little able to afi'ord it, that I have 
 inown you offer to act for nothing, rather than the 
 patentees should be injured by the dissensions of the 
 audience." 
 
 * Preface to " The Intriguing Chambermaid," 1734. 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 25 
 
 There is something hearty in this testimony, which fur- 
 nishes an admirable idea of the sterling, upright character 
 of this woman. " In short, if honour, good gratitude, and 
 good sense, joined with the most entertaining humour, are 
 titles to public esteem, I think you may be sure of it." 
 In this we liave homage to her behaviour in a particular 
 transaction — a warm and most genuine encomium ; we feel 
 that here is a thoroughly "good creature," spirited and 
 ready to sacrifice her interest to her feelings. And he goes 
 on : " But great a favourite as you are at present with the 
 audience, you would be much more were they acquainted 
 with your private character ; could they see you laying out 
 a great part of the profits which arise to you for entertaining 
 them so well, in support of an aged father ; did they see 
 you, tvho can charm them on the stage with personating the 
 foolish and vicious characters of your sex, acting in real life 
 the j)<^'>'t of the best wife, the best daughter, the best sister,' 
 and the best friend." 
 
 This is really an extraordinary testimony, and there is 
 something exceedingly welcome in the portrait. The old 
 Raftor supported by his promising daughter, with his 
 broken family, is pleasant to think of. Thus we find her 
 interesting character gradually filling in. It might almost 
 be added, that she was a good sister too, for we find her 
 brother at the same theatre, where she had, no doubt, got 
 him engaged, and coupled with her in benefits, which he 
 was certainly otherwise not entitled to. He did not emerge 
 at all, and made no figure in his profession. 
 
 At the praise of " a good wife" the experienced theatrical 
 reader may be inclined to pause and perhaps shake his 
 head ; for shortly after tliese encomiums were uttered, 
 she and her husband separated. Of the incident and its 
 
26 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 causes nothing is known, but they never came together 
 again. Victor, who knew her well, hints that the fault 
 was not hers, nor is it likely that it was ; though it may be 
 that her independent nature and temper would resent any 
 presumed superiority on the ground of station. A blunt, 
 sturdy woman, warm tempered also, would be unduly 
 sensitive on so delicate a point, and perhaps scornful in 
 reference to Mr. Olive's good family and " Baron Clive." 
 We have only a single glimpse of this obscure gentleman, 
 furnished by Taylor, the journalist : — 
 
 "He was," he says, "a very learned and intelligent 
 man, by all accounts : but without practice in his pro- 
 fession ; he was therefore invited to become the domestic 
 companion of Mr. Ince, a gentleman of fortune, and 
 reputed to be the Templar in the club of the Spectator. 
 Mr. Ince was well known to be a frequent contributor to 
 that admirable periodical work. My old friend, the Rev. 
 Richard Penneck of the British Museum, knew Mr. Ince, 
 and told me that he retained the practice, as mentioned in 
 the Spectator, of visiting the playhouse almost every 
 evening, as long as his health and age would admit." 
 
 This acceptance of the post of " gentleman companion " 
 — shows him to have been rather " a poorish creature " — 
 as Carlyle phrases it — and his vivacious lady may have 
 reproached him with a similar tendency to live upon her 
 earnings. This however, is all matter of speculation. 
 
 While the seceders retired to the Haymarket, the deserted 
 manager took some violent steps to force them back to their 
 duty. Such was the historic case of the arrest of Harper, 
 the player, &c. All ended in the return of the prodigals — 
 who, it seems in point of law, actually had a claim to 
 possession of the lease of the theatre, though not to the 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Olive. 27 
 
 patent, and it was so decided by the Court of King's Bench, 
 on Nov. 12, 1733, upon an ejectment. Highmore however 
 held the patent, without which they could do nothing, but 
 the struggle and the cost of legal proceedings utterly 
 ruined him. This "added to his constantly failing 
 audiences was sufficient to destroy a mucli larger estate 
 than his : and it was with the utmost difficulty he held out 
 through the season. He was a man of humanity and strict 
 honour : many instances fatally proved that his word, 
 solemnly given — which was his custom — was sufficient for 
 the performance, though ever so injurious to himself." 
 
 This in itself was a recommendation to our actress, and 
 accounts for her loyalty through the crisis. " As the 
 season," goes on Victor, " was advanced, he was reduced to 
 the necessity of beating his drum for volunteers — several 
 recruits offered from strolling companies, but I remember 
 none, of any promise, but Macklin. In this maimed con- 
 dition the business, of course, went tamely on." Poor Clive ! 
 During tlie season of 1743, and thus early in her career, 
 the impetuous spirit of the actress broke out on the score 
 of some grievance in the distribution of parts in Fielding's 
 " Wedding Day." The author could thus good-naturedly 
 exhibit her peculiarities — in some pleasant lines, — from 
 which it will be seen that our actress when roused, would 
 express her displeasure in good round oaths : — 
 " Where is this scoundrel poet ? 
 
 Fine work indeed ! By the town shall know it." 
 
 Fielding, who heard, and saw her passion rise, 
 Thus answered calmly : — " Prithee, Clive, be wise, 
 The part will suit your humour, taste, and size." 
 " Te lie ! ye lie ! ungrateful as thou art, 
 My matchless talents claim the lady's part ; 
 
 And all who judge, by J C , agree, 
 
 Xone ever played the gay coquette like me." 
 Thus said and swore the celebrated Nell." 
 
28 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Dublin was at this time a great nursery for the stage, 
 and theatrical entertainments were in high vogue. It had 
 two flourishing theatres and good companies, and the 
 managers were always eager to engage new and rising talent. 
 It was in the year 1741, when Garrick was to make the 
 town " horn mad," that she accepted an engagement to go 
 thither with Quin, Ryan, and a dancer — Madame Chate- 
 neuf. They appeared at the theatre in Aungier Street, 
 and the season commenced with " a brilliancy never before 
 known in Irish annals." She was " welcomed with the most 
 uncommon civilities, and received the greatest advantages," 
 which she acknowledged afterwards in the warmest and 
 most grateful terms.* 
 
 " Mr. Quin opened in liis favourite part of Cato, to as 
 crowded an audience as the theatre could contain. Mrs. 
 Clive next appeared as LajJpet in "The Miser;" she cer- 
 tainly was one of the best that ever played it ; and Mr. 
 Ryan came forward in lago to Mr. Quin's Othello. With 
 such excellent performers, we may naturally suppose the 
 plays were admirably sustained. Perhaps it will scarcely 
 be credited that so finished a comic actress as Mrs. Clive 
 could so far mistake her abilities as to play Lady Townly 
 to Mr. Quin's Lord Townly, and Mr. Ryan's Manly, 
 Cordelia to Mr. Quin's Lear and Mr. Ryan's Edgar, &c. 
 However, she made ample amends by her performance of 
 Nell, " The Virgin Unmasked," " The Country Wife," and 
 Euphrosyne in " Comus," which was got up on purpose and 
 acted for the first time in this kingdom. 
 
 * The Dublin folk have always been particularly cordial in 
 welcoming players — even the wretched Mrs. Sumbel, who had 
 a beautiful face. 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 29 
 
 "The "Masque of Conius," though one of the most beauti- 
 ful pieces of poetry in our language, yet requires to be 
 uncommonly supported to render it pleasing to an English 
 audience. But in this instance it was indeed a treat to the 
 judicious. Mr. Quin spoke Comus ; the Elder Brother was 
 played by IMr. Ryan ; Mrs. Clive, Euphrosyne, and the 
 other characters were disposed of with great care and pro- 
 priety. The celebrated Mr. Dubourg prepared the music, 
 Pasquilino led the band, and the dances were executed by 
 Monsieur Laluze, Mademoiselle Chateneuf, and others. This 
 was allowed to be the best entertainment presented to the 
 public for many years, and during the short time they had 
 to stay, was repeated three times. As soon as Aungier 
 street theatre closed, Mr. Ryan and Mrs. Clive returned to 
 London." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 RevoU against Fleetwood, headed hy Garrick. — Mrs. Clive 
 joins the Deserters. — Her ^^ ajypeal to the TownP 
 
 ON her return she found the whole theatrical community 
 in confusion. The manager of Drury Lane, having ex- 
 hausted all his resources, both of money and chicanery, had 
 been forced to withdraw, and utterly broken and bankrupt, 
 retired abroad, where he died in distress. A gay and 
 wealthy gentleman nauied Fleetwood now came in, only 
 twenty-one years old and enjoying £60U0 a year. He was 
 described as being "agreeable in his person, and the qualities 
 of his mind and amiableness of his disposition carried with 
 them invincible attractions. He was affable and engaging 
 in his address, which was the last and only remaining good 
 quality he had kept with hiui till his death ; and no doubt 
 that would have vanished with the rest if he had not found 
 it of constant use to him in his business with the world." 
 This neatly sarcastic touch came from Victor, a stage 
 manager, whom we have been quoting. It was unfortunate 
 for Mrs. Clive that she, after her sacrifices, found her- 
 self under the direction of another spendthrift, " though, 
 I am informed he came a ruined man into the management, 
 and that he was for some years a gainer by his purchase 
 gambling." The rough Macklin acted as his deputy and 
 dealt with the performers, who were ground down, left 
 with salaries unpaid, while mortgagees and bailifis held 
 the place. A money lender named Pierson was the virtual 
 controller of the theatre. He was favoured however by 
 one happy stroke which might have done for him what 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Olive. 31 
 
 the engagement of the obscure " Kean, from Dorchester," 
 did for the broken Drury Lane Committee. Meanwhile 
 his management staggered on. 
 
 The sudden rising of the star of Garrick, in this general 
 gloom, is a story too well known to be more than alluded 
 to here. He was fortunate in possessing that rare combina- 
 tion of administrative power — analogous to that of some 
 great political minister in leading the House of Commons — 
 with extraordinary histrionic ability — a happy union which 
 is found in the most prominent actor of our day. The 
 effect of two such powerful forces in a single person 
 becomes almost irresistible. The new actor had taken 
 service with Fleetwood, and had continued with him for 
 about a year ; but his sagacious eye soon saw that he was 
 wasting his powers in such a position. Still he enjoyed 
 what was then considered an enormous salary as will be 
 seen from the Drury Lane List for the season of 1742-43.* 
 
 The total salary list was computed at about £1,000. 
 The amount is of course calculated in the number of acting 
 weeks, which seem to have been about thirty-five in the 
 year. The treasurer added that in this account, " no com- 
 putation was made of gold tickets, which are sometimes 
 very considerable." These " gold tickets " were presents to 
 
 * Mr. Garrick, £630; with two clear benefits (one paying £50), 
 £500; total, £1130. Macklin, at 9 guineas per week, and 6 guineas 
 for his wife, £525 ; with a clear benefit (paying £50 to the house), 
 £230 ; total, £755. Mrs. Woffington, at 7 guineas a week, £364 j 
 and a clear benefit — say, £130 ; clothes, £50 ; total, £644. Mrs. 
 Pritchard, at £7 10s. certain, £250 ; clear benefit, £180 ; clothes, 
 £50; total, £480. Mrs. Olive, £15 15s. certain, £525; clear bene- 
 fit, £200 ; clothes, £50 ; tickets at her benefit, as per agent, £21 ; 
 total, £796. 
 
32 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 the amount of ten or twenty pounds, made by patrons or 
 admirers on the occasion of a benefit. 
 
 With so handsome a salary, and a leading position at the 
 first metropolitan theatre, it is likely that Garrick would 
 have been contented. But he found it impossible to obtain 
 his money ; and he, with the other players, was disgusted 
 at the introduction of vulgar shows ; for " monsters " were 
 hired from Sadler's Wells and the fairs, with rope dancers 
 and tumblers. His salary at last was some six hundred 
 pounds in arrears. Here the worm turned. In May, 1743, 
 he positively declined to act, and absented himself for three 
 weeks. Finding this step of no use, he planned the well- 
 known " revolt." 
 
 What must have more immediately led to this step, was 
 a rumour or a suspicion that the patentees had entered into 
 a secret agreement or " cartel," to deal with the players in 
 common ; so that if a deserter applied to the other house, he 
 was not to receive any increase of salary, or at least should 
 only obtain what the managers had agreed to give. This 
 put the players at their mercy, as there were only two 
 houses to give them employment. Garrick's plan, as he 
 unfolded it, was that they should all desert and set up for 
 themselves ; and he had been encouraged to believe that he 
 could obtain a license from the Duke of Grafton to open 
 the Opera House. Macklin, who was more or less lied with 
 the manager, suggested going to him first and announcing 
 their purpose, which might bring him to terms ; but Garrick 
 was against this course. About a dozen of the leading 
 performers joined in the revolt, including Havard, Barry, 
 Mills, Macklin, Mrs. Pritchard, and Mrs. Clive. Application 
 was made at once to the Duke of Grafton, who refused to 
 grant the license. Fleetwood speedily tilled up his thinned 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Olive. 33 
 
 ranks with recruits from country companies. The prudent 
 Garrick, seeing that the scheme had failed, at once opened 
 negotiations for reconciliation with the manager, for himself 
 and his friends. He was favourably received, and was 
 promised restoration ; a few of the others were not taken 
 back ; but Fleetwood could now pick and choose. Macklin, 
 whose conduct he considered treacherous in the extreme, 
 was proscribed. This actor was furious with Garrick, whom 
 he accused of betraying liim and his friends, and he insisted 
 that in honour and also by the terms of their signed agree- 
 ment, he was bound to sink or swim with the rest — that all 
 should be restored or all stand out. Garrick admitted this 
 strict interpretation of the bond, but urged the reasonable 
 view, that it was unfair that all the actors should starve for 
 his sake. It was a matter clearly of compromise and in- 
 demnification, and he handsomely offered to pay him out of 
 his own pocket six pounds a week, and secure from the 
 manager an engagement at three pounds a week for Mrs. 
 Macklin. But Macklin was a determined, rather turbu- 
 lent being, witli much of his countrymen's vindictiveness 
 in dealing with injuries real or supposed. He would hear 
 of nothing but the bond, and assailed Garrick in pamphlets 
 in which the mildest phrases were, "your treachery," "you 
 have no notion of honour," &c. To which the other replied, 
 tout bonnement, that " it was a falsehood." It ended by most 
 of the revolted players being restored, though at lower 
 salaries ; but the wrong-headed Macklin was cast out. But 
 there was to be another scapegoat — the intrepid Clive. She 
 had indeed joined the revolt at its early stage, for she could 
 never brook ill-treatment ; and it is characteristic that she 
 should have chosen to stand by the poor, cheated players 
 who had been cast off by the principals. We can see at 
 
34 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 once that her good nature was touched by the piteous 
 appeal those unhappy victims now addressed to Garrick, 
 now to Macklin, imploring them not to stand upon these 
 punctilios, but to arrange matters for them, or their families 
 would certainly starve. Our actress declined to follow 
 Mr. Garrick in his comfortable compromise, though not 
 unwilling to accept an engagement from the manager on 
 her old terms. 
 
 For this natural proceeding she was pursued with much 
 obloquy and abusive gossip, until she was at last driven 
 to lay her story before the town and vindicate her be- 
 haviour. To this mode of appeal she was rather too much 
 addicted, from a wish to stand well with her patrons. 
 There accordingly appeared 
 
 The Case of Mrs. Clive 
 Submitted to the Public, 
 a diminutive little pamphlet. It is well known that Kitty 
 was deficient, not only in style, but even in spelling : 
 so it is not unlikely that she was aided in this venture by 
 Fielding or some literary friend ; but the language is unmis- 
 takably hers, and there is one passage rather "Irish and 
 less nice," which comes perilously near to being "a bull."* 
 
 She began by saying bluntly, that the reason for her 
 not acting that season was the advice of her friends. "Such 
 appeals as the present," she went on to say, "were by 
 some thought presuming and pertinent, but where in- 
 justice and oppression were concerned — this could never 
 be a matter of indifference to the public — she appeals with- 
 out affectation to her own claims on her regard of that 
 public." 
 
 *Thi8 little brochure is in the Museum, and is likely enough to be 
 unique. I have not seen another, nor even the advertisement of 
 another, in any catalogue. 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 35 
 
 "I am tlie more encouraged to hope this from experience : 
 it having been observed that those performers, who have 
 had the happiness to please on the stage, and who never 
 did anything to offend the public, when they have been 
 injured by those who presided over theatres, have seldom, 
 if ever, failed of redress upon representing the liardships 
 they met with. If any tliink I treat this matter too 
 seriously, I hope they will remember that however trifling 
 such things may appear to them, to me, who am so much 
 concerned in them, they are of great importance, such as 
 my liberty and livelihood depend on." 
 
 She then proceeds to explain the condition of the actors 
 in reference to the managers. "They were quite helpless, 
 as only two theatres were authorised, and the managers, con- 
 nected together, complained of the actors' salaries being too 
 great, and accordingly a false account was published of 
 them in the daily paper, by whom I will not say. Whether 
 or no some particular salaries were so, I will not pretend 
 to determine. But whether the expense of the theatre was 
 too high or otherwise, it was not the refusal of the actors 
 to submit to a reduction that drove them to secede, but the 
 tyranny of the two managers." She then dwelt on her own 
 particular hardship. When the revolters were obliged to 
 return to their duty, she was offered by the manager of 
 Drury Lane such terms as bore no proportion to what he 
 gave other performers, or to those he had offered her at the 
 beginning of the season. These she accordingly refused, 
 and she applied to the other theatre, — " for I knew it had- 
 been settled by some sort of agreement that part of the actors 
 were to go to Covent Garden, and others to Drury Lane." 
 Yet though Covent Garden had before tempted her with 
 high offers, and offered exactly the same terms she had 
 
36 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 found at Drury Lane, she was, however, persuaded to 
 accept " some very little better," and had to submit to 
 paying a sum of money for her benefit, though she had 
 enjoyed one clear of all expense for nine years before. 
 
 " When I was fixed at this theatre, I determined to stay 
 there ; I did in all things which related to my profession, 
 submit entirely to the manager's direction, and with the 
 help of other principal performers, did greatly promote his 
 interest, as was evident from the audiences, after we went 
 to act there ; but I found by his behaviour, it was designed 
 I should not continue with him, but return the next season 
 to Drury Lane. 
 
 " The agreements betwixt that manager and me were 
 verbal, but made before two gentlemen of character and 
 fortune, on whom I must depend for the fulfilling of them : 
 they were for one year. At the end of the acting season, 
 the manager sent an office keeper to me with some salary 
 that was due, who required a receipt in full. I told him 
 a very great part of my agreement was yet due, and re- 
 quested to see the manager, who came and acknowledged 
 them, and promised to bring one of the gentlemen who was 
 present at our engagements in a day or two and pay me ; 
 but he has not paid me," adds Kitty in her downright style, 
 "nor have I ever seen him since, or as much as heard from 
 him." 
 
 " It has always been a custom in theatres, that if any 
 actor or actress was to be discharged, or their allowance 
 lessened, they were acquainted with it at the end of the 
 season : the reason of this will appear to be the giving 
 them a proper notice to provide for themselves. This the 
 manager of Covent Garden did to all his company whom 
 he designed to discharge, or whose allowance was to be 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 37 
 
 lessened, except to me, which made me actually then con- 
 clude he determined I should continue with him, till I was 
 undeceived by his play bills with the names of other 
 actresses in parts I used to perform. So that he has not 
 only broke through the customs of the theatre, but those 
 in practice almost everywhere, in dismissing me, and has 
 done me a real injury in such an unprecedented act of 
 injustice. For had I been informed of this design at the 
 end of the season, I could have made terms to have acted 
 in Ireland, where I had met with most uncommon civilities, 
 and received very great advantages, which I shall ever 
 remember with the utmost gratitude, and take this and 
 every other opportunity to acknowledge. 
 
 " It is pretended by the management that they have the 
 same right to discharge an actor that a master has to turn 
 away a servant, than which nothing can be more false and 
 absurd : for when a master dismisses a servant there are 
 many thousands besides to apply to, but when managers 
 dismiss an actor, where are they to apply to ? It is unlaw- 
 ful to act anywhere but with them. Necessity or inclination 
 briiigs eveiy one to the stage : if the former happens to be 
 the case, they will not readily find an employment, and if 
 the latter they will not be fit for one, so that it will appear 
 
 an act of great injustice and oppression But 
 
 there is a very melancholy instance that the actor's 
 demands is not the reason of dismissing them, but the will 
 of the manager alone. Since last season an actor and 
 actress returned to Drury Lane, under such abatements as 
 that manager thought proper, and such as were in no 
 degree equal to their merit : and yet at the beginning of the 
 season were dismissed after having been from their infancy 
 
 G 
 
38 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 on the stage and having no other profession to live by, and 
 very numerous families to support. 
 
 " The manager of Drury Lane, though he can't but know 
 I am disengaged from the other theatre, has not made any 
 application to me to act with him, which he has done to 
 several others who quitted that stage at the time I did. 
 The reasons which obliged me to leave him still subsist. 
 He owes me a hundred and fifty pounds, twelve shillings, 
 which he acknowledged to be justly due, and promised 
 payment of it by last Christmas to a pei'son of too great 
 consequence to mention here, the greater part of it (which ?) 
 money I expended for clothes for his use. He offered me 
 last season, not near half as much as he afterwards agreed 
 to give another performer, and less than he gave to some 
 others in his company, so that I must conclude that there 
 is a design to distress me, and reduce me to such terms as 
 I cannot comply with. 
 
 " I am sorry I am reduced to say anything in favour of 
 myself : but I think I merit as much as another performer, 
 and the managers are so desirous to convince me of the 
 contrary, I hope I shall be excused, especially when I 
 declare that at this time, I am not in the least vain of my 
 profession. 
 
 "As to my performances, the audiences are the only and 
 proper judges : but I may venture to affirm that my labour 
 and application have been greater than any other performer on 
 the stage. I have not only acted in almost all the plays, but 
 in farces and musical entertainments ; and very frequently 
 two parts in a night, even to the prejudice of my health. 
 I have been at great expense in masters for singing : for 
 which article alone the managers give five and six pounds 
 
Life op Mrs. CAxnERixE Clive. 39 
 
 a week. My additional expenses in belonging to the theatre 
 amount to upwards of one hundred pounds a year in clothes 
 and other necessaries ; and the pretended great salaries of 
 ten and twelve pounds a week, which have been so artfully 
 and falsely represented to the town, to the prejudice of 
 the actors, will, upon enquiry, appear to be no more 
 than half as much ; since they performed last season, at the 
 theatres, very seldom above three or four days a week. 
 
 " I have now finished all I proposed : I have shown in 
 how aggravating a manner, without any reason assigned, I 
 have been turned out of Covent Garden Theatre. The 
 manager of Drury Lane, though he cannot but know what 
 just reasons I had for quitting him, has never applied to 
 me to return, nor made the least excuse for not paying my 
 arrears. 
 
 " The reason of my taking the liberty to communicate 
 these things to the public is most earnestly to intercede 
 for their favour and protection, from whom I have always 
 met with great generosity and indulgence. For, as I have 
 always declared in a letter published by me last year in the 
 daily papers, that T had not a fortune to support me inde- 
 pendent of my profession. I doubt not, but it will appear 
 I have made any considerable acquisition to it since, 
 having not received two hundred pounds salary for acting 
 in plays, farces, and singing : though other performers 
 have received more than twice that sum. I have in con- 
 sideration of these hardships been promised the protection 
 of many ladies to whom I have the honour to be personally 
 known, and will not doubt the concurrence of a public in 
 receiving my performance in the best manner I am, at 
 present, capable of, which I shall always gratefully 
 acknowledge." — C. Clive. 
 
40 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Such was this pleasant and effective appeal — in which 
 we seem to hear the actual tones of the sturdy actress. 
 
 This scene of confusion was made worse confounded by- 
 broils between the actors as well as between the rival 
 houses. During the rebellion Mrs. Gibber proposed to give 
 a benefit for the purpose of raising soldiers, which the 
 manager of Drury Lane received with some disgust. But 
 it caused an uproar in the green-room. " I was cursed," 
 she says, "with all the elegance of phrase that reigns 
 behind the scenes ; and Mrs. Clive swore she would not 
 play the part of Lucy." She accordingly transferred the 
 scheme to the other house, where it was accepted and carried 
 out with great spirit. There was certainly no love lost 
 between these two ladies. 
 
 During the interval we find her appearing at the Hay- 
 market Opera House, on the occasion of a " Concert of 
 Yocal and Instrument Musick " given under the distin- 
 guished patronage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. 
 Here she sang in company with Mr. Lowe and Miss 
 Edwards. Her first appearance at Co vent Carden was on 
 December 7th, 1743, when she performed Lappet in "The 
 Miser," one of the usual chambermaids : with Ophelia on 
 the 14th, followed by Nell, Polly, and other favourite 
 characters. 
 
 At the various Fairs held in London at Bartholomew 
 and Southwark, it was the practise for some leading players 
 to open Booths, and perform popular plays. Mr. Fielding was 
 one of these entrepreneurs, — indeed we find him performing 
 himself. Here Mrs. Clive figured. "At the Booth of Fawkes 
 Pinchbeck will be performed 'Britons, Strike Home ;' Don 
 Superbo Hispaniola Pistole by Mrs. Cibber; Donna Ameri- 
 cana by Mrs. Clive, The Favourite of the Town." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mrs. Clive engaged by Garrick. — Her Style of Acting 
 described. — Disappearance of '■'■the chambermaid" as a 
 character. — Breadth of Acting. — Her Quarrels tvith 
 "Peg" IVoJington. — " Scenes " between the ladies 
 described. — Quarrels with Woodward — ivith Garrick 
 — amantium irse. 
 
 WHEN Garrick, in 1747, made his first venture as 
 manager, thus taking the inevitable step to which 
 every popular and engrossing actor is led, he gathered 
 about him a strong and judiciously selected company. 
 These by his admirable training and firm rule, he 
 moulded into an admirable company, whose effect on the 
 English stage has been remarkable, suggesting the in- 
 fluence of the great Comedie rran9aise in this country. 
 In his corps were found Mrs. Gibber, Mrs. Pritchard, 
 Macklin, Barry, Mrs. Woffington, and — to add brightness 
 to the composition — the vivacious Mrs. Clive as " leading 
 comick" (the old quaint phrase) or "singing chambermaid." 
 Being thus fixed in a well-regulated flourishing company, 
 6ur actress fell into the ranks, performing a round of 
 important characters, maturing her powers from practice, 
 and, in Johnson's phrase, " increasing the public stock of 
 harmless pleasure." In a company of such a kind the 
 opportunities for developing histrionic power are bound- 
 less ; for the " stock " pieces brought forward at regular 
 intervals belong to fixed " castes," and each character 
 belongs to one regular performer. His or her special gifts 
 become associated in the mind of the public with the 
 
42 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 particular part, — the appearance, the tones, and manner, 
 are curiously associated with it, — while a new per- 
 former appears strange and unfamiliar. It will be 
 remembered how the late Mr. Phelps became thus so 
 bound-up, as it were, with the vigorous eccentricities of 
 Sir Periinax, as to make it almost impossible for another 
 player to discharge the part. He was, in every point, 
 the old gnarled, cantankerous Scotch Baronet. It is 
 astonishing in these times to find what a number of 
 characters were thus undertaken by a well-established 
 performer during the course of a long career. We find 
 that Munden had a "list" that reached to over two hundred: 
 Mrs. Olive's included nearly the same. But of these 
 there are only a few in which she excelled, and which 
 were regularly called for, and these did not exceed a dozen. 
 There was JVell in " The Devil to Pay ;" Flora, the waiting 
 maid, in " The Wonder," which, it was declared, she made 
 almost as important as the leading character ; Lady Bab, 
 in the amusing " High Life below Stairs ;" Catherine, in 
 " Catherine and Petruchio ;" the vulgar Mrs. Heidleberg, 
 in " The Clandestine Marriage." 
 
 It is now difficult to form any idea of the great powers 
 with which she held her audiences. There is no actress 
 now on the stage of her peculiar genre — the type is lost : 
 for the reason, we may presume, that the type of the 
 vivacious, bustling, obstreperous lady has disappeared from 
 fthe ranks of society. The course of manners would appear 
 ^ to have abolished high spirits as indecorous. Mrs. Jordan 
 would seem to have been the last of the Irish, or hoydenish 
 players. Davies, who had seen her often, and who had 
 powers of critical analysis, tells us that " many dramatic 
 pieces are now lost to the stage, for want of her animating 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 43 
 
 spirit to preserve them " — a judicious remark of wide 
 meaning. It explains why revivals of old comedies in our 
 time fall so "flat." The actors, unfamiliar with many- 
 shaded characters, have not the skill to interpret or fill 
 them in. The performance has as bald and barren a result 
 as the reading of the piece in " the closet," — a dreary pro- 
 cess — save in the case of Congreve's comedies. This was 
 proved during a recent revival of " The Clandestine 
 Marriage," which was listened to with curiosity rather than 
 interest ; and all might wonder how Mrs. Clive could have 
 " made anything " of so poor a part as Mrs. Heidleherg. 
 He goes on : — " A more extensive walk in comedy than 
 hers cannot be imagined ; the Chambermaid in every varied 
 shape which art or nature could lend her ; characters of 
 caprice and aSectation, from the high-bred Lady Fanciful, 
 to the vulgar Mrs. Heidleherg ; country girls, romps, 
 hoydens and dowdies, superannuated beauties, viragos and 
 humourists. To a strong and melodious voice, with an ear 
 for music, she added all the sprightly action requisite." 
 Strong mimicry was also one of her gifts. " She had an 
 inimitable talent in ridiculing the extravagant actions, 
 impertinent consequence, and insignificant parade of the 
 female opera singers. Her mirth was so genuine, that 
 whether it was restrained to the arch sneer, and the sup- 
 pressed half laugh — widened to the broad grin, or extended 
 to the downright honest burst of loud laughter, — her 
 audience was sure to accompany her." 
 
 These graphic touches bring her vividly before us. 
 Fielding was no less judicious in his praise. " Mrs. Clive 
 is esteemed by all an excellent comic actress ; and as she 
 has a prodigious fund of natural spirit and humour off the 
 stage, she makes the most of the poet's on it. Nothing, 
 
44 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 though ever so barren, even though it exceeds the limits of 
 nature, can be flat in her hands. She heightens all 
 characters of humour she attempts; nor is she confined only 
 to the hoyden Miss or pert chambermaid, but in spiritous 
 gay characters of high life, she always appears with such 
 air, mien, and action, as speak the gay, lively, and desirable. 
 She has been, by persons who remember both, compared to 
 Mrs. Mountford ; and by their natural talents for the 
 stage, I am apt to believe the comparison not unjust. 
 I must however observe, Mrs. Mountford appeared with 
 great success, en Cavalier, and made an adroit pretty 
 fellow ; Mrs. Clive does not appear in these characters, the 
 concealing petticoat better suiting with her turn of make 
 than the breeches. It is not from want of spirit or judg- 
 ment to hit off the fop or the coxcomb, as she has evidently 
 proved in the ballad she sings, called "The Life of a Beau," 
 in which her action and gesture is as pleasing as in any 
 part she performs. I could wish she would never attempt 
 serious characters in comedy, and resign the part of 
 Ophelia in ' Hamlet,' in which she is very unequal to her- 
 self. Yet all will allow, that ' take her all in all,' she has 
 such talents as make her an excellent actress." 
 
 " If ever there were a true comic genius," breaks out the 
 enthusiastic Victor, "Mrs. Clive is one! She, perhaps, 
 never was equalled in her walk (as the stage term is) we 
 are convinced, never excelled ! She was always inimitable 
 whenever she appeared in strong mark'd characters of 
 middle, or low life — her Nell in " The Devil to Pay " was 
 nature itself ! — and the spirit, roguery, and speaking looks 
 of her chambermaids, accompanied with the most expressive 
 voice that ever satisfied the ears of an audience, has made 
 her loss irreparable !" 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 45 
 
 " As strong humour is the great characteristic mark of an 
 English comedy, so was it of this laughter-loving, joy-exciting 
 actress ! — her extraordinary talents could even raise a 
 dramatic trifle, provided there was nature in it, to a 
 character of importance — witness the Fine Lady in 
 " Lethe," and the yet smaller part of Lady Fuz, in "The 
 Peep behind the Curtain " — such sketches in her hands 
 became high finished pictures ! — But, that I may not be 
 thought too partial to this favourite comedian, I will 
 venture to assert, she could not reach the higher characters 
 in comedy, though she was ever excellent in the affectation 
 of them. When the high-life polish of elegance was to 
 appear in all the conscious superiority of a Lady Townly, 
 I cannot say that Mrs. Clive would have done justice to 
 herself, or the character. To show the great power of the 
 actress in question — I shall give an instance of it, where 
 she forced the whole town to follow, and applaud her in a 
 character, which she certainly did not perform as the 
 author intended it — but which could not be resisted, and 
 gave high entertainment to those critics, who frankly 
 acknowledged, they were misled by the talents of the 
 actress. — -The part I mean is Portia in "The Merchant of 
 Venice." — Li the first place — blank verse — as it wants the 
 truth and elegance of nature, was not uttered by Mrs. 
 Clive with that delightful spirit which she always gave to 
 prose ; the Lawyer's scene of Portia (as it is called) in the 
 fourth act, was certainly meant by Shakespeare, to be 
 solemn, pathetic, and affecting — the circumstances must 
 make it so — and therefore the comic finishing which Mrs. 
 Clive gave to the different parts of the pleadings (though 
 greatly comic) was not in character." 
 
46 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 "If therefore this theatrical genius was able to entertain, 
 contrary to the intention of the author — what must we say 
 of her, or what words can describe her merits, when she 
 appeared in the fulness of her powers, and was the very 
 person she represented ?" 
 
 From this we see what a special force and attraction was 
 in the old acting, viz., that of imparting " breadth " to the 
 performance. This idea of " breadth " is now almost lost, 
 and there is hardly a single performer who has the secret, 
 or to whom it is intelligible. Yet it is the most delightful 
 and effective of all histrionic gifts. It needs no exer- 
 tion, and comes of a large, thorough view, taken of the 
 character, in contrast to the laborious, or " niggling " (as 
 it may be called) treatment now in fashion. An actor of 
 "breadth," will convulse a house without moving a muscle, 
 and will make a single, colourless sentence as significant 
 as a whole dialogue. His eye, voice, manner, walk, all 
 combine. Such a power had the late inimitable Buckstone 
 during his reign. Then the public looked to him to furnish 
 them with recreation, and with the recollection of it. As 
 the hour of half-price drew on, the old Haymarket filled ; 
 and about half-past ten, the farce which was to charge the 
 air with Buckstonian humours, commenced. As the familiar 
 twang of his voice Avas heard behind the scenes, a chuckle 
 of delight passed over the house ; and when he entered, 
 brimming over with grotesque fun, a roar greeted him. 
 •' His voice," says a contemporary, " is in perfect keeping 
 with his person : it suggests distillation ; it seems to lazily 
 flow from a mind charged with fat thoughts and unctuous 
 conceits. He has the true low-comedy air in his walk and 
 gesture ; his face looks dry and red with long roasting 
 before the footlights. He is the son of Mirth and Vul- 
 
Life of Mits. Catherine Clive. 47 
 
 garity. His mind is a machine which manufactures afresh 
 the stuff it is fed on ; what is wholesome and plain is re- 
 produced in a new form, with a different colouring and an 
 original aroma. The downright speaking of the old 
 dramatists can never offend or shock wlien spoken by 
 refined lips ; but to such downright speaking Mr. Buck- 
 stone takes care to impart a meaning of his own, and 
 makes plain speech a sort of intellectual perspective." 
 
 Such plenteous vivacity and absorption of the wliole stage 
 seems to have been one of our actress' most potent charms. 
 In all the commendations of the gifts of this buoyant 
 woman, who may be truly said to have "increased the 
 gaiety " of the nation — we find that she was particularly 
 extolled for one line of character, and that it was in 
 the ^'■Chambermaid" she excelled. This a generic class — ■ 
 the original type of which is now completely lost. In 
 our own society the waiting maid has little to dis- 
 tinguish her from other servants, and little interest is taken 
 in her — but in the old days of intrigue, the chambermaid, 
 or rather, the confidential "ladies' maid," was a marked 
 personage — who from her position had to be gifted with 
 cleverness, versatility, skill, readiness of tongue, and a 
 goodly portion of deceit. She was in the service it might 
 be of a young heiress, followed by many suitors, and 
 watched over by angry and zealous guardians : or of some 
 dazzling beauty pursued by careless rakes. Here were 
 also rivals contending with each other : so that the 
 " chambermaid " was the intermediary, and in fact mistress 
 of the situation. No well conceived comedy was complete 
 without its saucy, amusing "chambermaid," thougli the 
 character had become well worn out by the time of 
 Sheridan, who in " The Rivals " presents a very " mild " 
 
48 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 and inefficient specimen. This suggests how curiously 
 marked types have become lost owing to the general 
 smoothing away of all social peculiarities — and such gro- 
 tesque but amusing figures as we find in the comedies of 
 Reynolds and Morton, would now be received with 
 incredulity, for the reason that the originals are un- 
 familiar to us. The amusement furnished by the stage has 
 certainly been impaired in consequence. 
 
 In this histrionic home she was destined to remain for 
 twenty-two years without a break. Other performers grew 
 touchy and techy, deserted on some affront or grievance, 
 often to return again. She never " budged " — once she 
 had enlisted, she stayed honourably by her colours ; her 
 talents ripening with practise, and growing more popular 
 every year. For the public is rarely inconstant, and relishes 
 and respects constancy in its favourite. At the same time 
 — like many a servant long in place — she was often trouble- 
 some to her masters and to her fellows ; and her sharp 
 tongue on the slightest grievance or fancied oppression, 
 was to make itself felt. Many a mauvais quart dlieure 
 was she to cause the indulgent Garrick. As Tate Wilkinson 
 said, " she knew every sore place in that sensitive being, 
 and could make his withers wince whenever she pleased." 
 To her companions, when they incurred her displeasure or 
 dislike, she could make herself no less disagreeable. 
 
 Among the ladies thus enrolled, was the tragedy queen, 
 Woffington, the well known " Peg," of whom the stage 
 historians are fond of drawing such flattering pictures. 
 She was in truth an interesting, good-natured, gifted 
 creature, full of a hearty Irish good nature — impulsive and 
 sometimes generous. Her wayward extravagant course 
 was redeemed by her singular and scrupulous devotion to 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 49 
 
 her duty, attested by prompters and managers — the best 
 witnesses. She often played six nights in one week, and 
 "never was known to have chose occasional illnesses, which 
 I have seen assumed by capital performers, to the great 
 vexation and loss of the manager." — -Thus Mr. Hitch- 
 cock of the Dublin Theatre. " She never," says another, 
 " disappointed one audience in three winters, either by real 
 or assumed illness ; yet I have often seen her on the stage 
 when she ought to have been in bed." " To her honour," 
 add a third, " be it ever remembered, that while thus in 
 the zenith of her glory, courted and caressed by all ranks 
 and degrees, she made no alteration in her behaviour ; she 
 remained the same gay, affable, obliging, good-natured 
 Woffington to every one around her. Not to the lowest 
 performer in the theatre did she refuse playing for, — out of 
 twenty-six benefits she acted in twenty-four." At the 
 same time, she could be coarse and violent, and her 
 squabbles and contests with other great ladies of the green- 
 room, were as amusing as they were notorious. 
 
 Between her and Mrs. Clive, there was a general temper 
 of hostility which gradually developed. Woffington had 
 soon found her situation with the manager uncomfortable, 
 and when he married — it was said that he had given her 
 a promise of marriage — she could not face her rather 
 mortifying position, and joined the rival theatre. In the 
 green-room Woffington reigned supreme. There she gave 
 way to her obstreperous spirits and boisterous humour. 
 When the Duchess of Queenberry was one night intro- 
 duced to the green-room, the first sight that presented 
 itself, was Mrs. Woffington with a pot of porter in her 
 hand, crying out — " Confusion to all order ! " " The lowest 
 canaille of a theatre surrounded a table covered with 
 
50 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 mutton pies, and seemed by their manner and appearance 
 to realise the sentiment just toasted by the beautiful 
 heroine." The visitor was horrified, and rushed away 
 asking — " Is hell broke loose 1 " This grotesque picture 
 brings the actress vividly before us. Yet with this reck- 
 less humour there was in her a strain of sentiment and 
 seriousness, — a combination often found on the stage. 
 Anticipating a little by a few years, we find ourselves 
 present at another exhibition in the green-room, when an 
 unseemly quarrel occurred between Mrs. Clive and Mrs. 
 Woffington, which amused and astonished " the town." 
 
 "In the year 1754, when Henry IV. was acted, a very 
 beautiful and accomplished actress ( Woffington ) con- 
 descended, in order to give strength to the play, to act the 
 trifling character of Lady Percy. The house was far from 
 crowded and a celebrated comic actress (Mrs. Clive) 
 triumphed in the barrenness of the pit and boxes : she 
 threw out some expressions against the consequence of 
 Lady Percy. This produced a very cool and cutting 
 answer from the other, who reminded the former of her 
 playing to a much thinner audience, one of her favourite 
 parts, and now the ladies, not being able to restrain them- 
 selves within the bounds of cool conversation, a most 
 terrible fray ensued : I do not believe they went so far as 
 pulling of caps, but their altercation would not have dis- 
 graced the females of Billingsgate. Wliile the two great 
 actresses were thus entertaining each other in one part of 
 the green-room, the admirer of Lady Percy, an old gentleman 
 who afterwards bequeathed her a considerable fortune, and 
 the brother of this comic lady (Raftor) were more seriously 
 employed. Mr. Swiney struck the other with his cane : 
 thus provoked he very calmly laid hold of the old man's 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 5\ 
 
 jaw. " Let go my jaw you villain " and " throw down 
 your cane ! Sir ! " were repeatedly echoed by the com- 
 batants." Barry, who was afraid lest the audience should 
 hear full as much of the quarrel as of the play, rushed 
 into the room and put an end to the battle. It is 
 characteristic that the whole quartet were Irish. — There 
 ■was published a caricature of the incident, entitled " The 
 Green Room Scuffle." It is Davies, who, not without 
 humour, reports the incident. Swiney, Swinney, or Mac. 
 Swiney, was an old dangler about the theatres, and had 
 been a manager himself, though ever pursued by ill luck. 
 
 The same chronicler, who is always agreeable, tells us, 
 that, even before their engagement at the same theatre, 
 the two ladies " had clashed on various occasions, which 
 brought forth squabbles diverting enough to their several 
 partisans among the actors. Woffington was well bred, 
 seemingly very calm, and at all times mistress of herself. 
 Clive was frank, open, and impetuous : what came upper- 
 most in her mind she spoke without reserve : the other 
 blunted the sharp speeches of Clive by her apparently civil 
 but keen and sarcastic replies : thus she often threw 
 Clive off her guard by an arch severity which the warmth 
 of the other could not easily parry." 
 
 Mrs. Clive was present on the disastrous night of the 
 Chinese Festival Riot, when Drury Lane Theatre was all 
 but wrecked. The Bill is interesting : — 
 
 Theatre Royal in Drury Laue, this present Wednesday, being 
 the 12t,h of November, will be presented a Comedy, call'd 
 
 THE INCONSTANT ! 
 
 Capt. Duretete, Mr. Woodward ; Young Mirabel, Mr. Palmer; 
 Old Mirabel, Mr. Yates; Dugard, Mr. Blabes; Petit, Mr. Usher; 
 Oriana, Mrs. Davies ; Lamorce, Mrs. Bennet ; Bizarre, Mrs. 
 Clive. 
 
§2 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 ' To which will be added a New Grand Entertainment of 
 ' Dancing, call'd 
 
 THE CHINESE FESTIVAL! 
 
 Compos'd by Mr. Noverre. 
 The Characters by Mons. Delaistre, Sig. Baletti, Mr. Lauchery, 
 Mr. Noverre (Jan.), Mr. Dennison, Mons. St. Leger, Mr. Shaw- 
 ford, Mr. Mathews, Mons. Pochee, Mons. L'Clert, Mr. Harrison, 
 Mr. Granier, Mr. Hust, Mons. Sarney, Mr. Walker, Mrs. Vernon, 
 Miss Noverre, Mr. Morris, Mr. Rooker, Mr. Start, Mr. Atkins, 
 Mr. Ackman, Mr. Walker, Sig. Pietro, Mrs. Addison, Mrs. No- 
 verre, Mrs. Gibbons, Mad. Charon, Mad. Rousselefc, Mrs. Preston, 
 Mad. Rouend, Mrs. Philips, Mrs. Lawson, The Little Pietro, 
 Miss Young, Master Simson, Master Pope, Master Blagden, 
 Master Host, Master Spilsbury, Miss Bride, Miss Poplin, Miss 
 Simson, Miss Heath, Mr. Scrase, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. 
 Burton, Mr. Marr, Mr. Vaughan, Mr. Chamness, Mr. Bullbrick, 
 Mr. Clough, Mr. Allen, Mr. Gray, Mrs. Bradshaw, Mrs. Hippis- 
 ley, Mrs. Mathews, Mrs. Simson, and Miss Mills. — With New 
 Music, Scenes, Machines, Habits, and other Decorations. 
 Boxes, OS.; Pit, 3s.; First Gallery, 2s.; Upper Gallery, Is. 
 
 Places for the Boxes to be had of Mr. Varney, at the Stage- 
 door of the Theatre. 
 *^* No persons can possibly be admitted behind the Scenes, or 
 
 into the Orchestra. Nothing under the Full Prices will be 
 
 taken during the whole performance. 
 
 Between her and one of the leading male performers 
 there also reigned a sort of hostility. This was that 
 excellent actor Woodward. His delightfully expressive 
 portrait looks down on us from the wall of the Garrick 
 Club. The fine face breathes the whole spirit of the 
 character, The Copper Captain ; it is full of life and ex- 
 pression ; the reckless Bobadil-like carelessness and vigour, 
 the flourish with which the hat is set on, the air of flash 
 and the strut, are all admirable. But what strikes us 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Olive. 53 
 
 most is the sense of power, resource, fire, and entertainment 
 in his bold eye, and bravura of expression. Such a picture 
 is the best memorial, and indeed revives the play and 
 character for the spectator. There are but a few of such 
 histrionic presentments, among which might be counted 
 the fine full-length portrait of Lewis as The Marquis — a 
 picture breathing the whole spirit of gallant comedy : the 
 better known one of Garrick as Abel Drugger, matchless 
 for its expression of low wonder and cunning ; and above all 
 the scene from " The Clandestine Marriage," also in the 
 Garrick Club, with its wonderfully painted figure of Lord 
 Ogleby. There might perhaps be added that of Kemble as 
 Hamlet, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The successful painter 
 in this line is nearly always a playgoer, not contenting 
 himself with conventional sittings, but fixing and carrying 
 away his impressions from the stage itself. Such were 
 Zofiany, De Wilde, Sir Martin Shee, and Clint. 
 
 Between Woodward and the actress there was a sort of 
 jealousy or lack of sympathy — which extended even to the 
 business of the scene. Neither seemed willing to co-operate 
 with the other, or the touchy actress fancied that he was 
 always struggling for " his own hand." The audience 
 were quite in the secret of this hostility, and were often 
 highly entertained by scenes between the pair. — Once in 
 January, 1756 — during the performance of the "Taming 
 of the Shrew " then called " Catherine and Petruchio " — a 
 strange scene took place. As Woodward made his exit, 
 he actually threw down Mrs. Clive with such violence, 
 Wilkinson tells us "as to convince the audience that 
 Petruchio was not so lordly as he assumed to be." The 
 actress was so enraged at this rough treatment, that " her 
 talons, tongue, and passions were very expressive to the 
 
54 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 eyes of all beholders, and it was with the utmost difficulty 
 that she suppressed her indignation." Wilkinson seems to 
 have witnessed the scene. Davies on another occasion, 
 noted, that she seemed quite intimidated by his violence, as 
 if by a tyrannical husband in real life. Once he stuck a 
 fork into her finger ! But the incidents are of so 
 obstreperous a kind, that this must have been an acci- 
 dent. With such performers, the whole must have been 
 a most entertaining spectacle. We could wish to see it 
 revived by Irving and Miss Terry, not in this maimed 
 farcical shape, but in the poetical form of the original, 
 where Sly's vision offers one of the most dramatic contrasts 
 conceivable. 
 
 Another passage occurred between the pair in the fol- 
 lowing year (1755), during the performance of "The 
 Double Dealer," and which, Davies tell us, " caused such 
 repeated laughter in the theatre as I scarcely ever heard" — 
 no great test of anything very humorous ; as the moving 
 of audiences to laughter are often regulated by Swift's 
 receipt, viz.: -^ the pulling away a chair when a person 
 is about to sit down. Mrs. Clive, who performed Lady 
 Froth, had by mistake, or in a hurry, laid on more rouge 
 than usual; and Brush, the valet, played by Woodward, 
 instead of saying "Your coachman, having a red face," 
 said " Your ladyship has a red face." This was no sooner 
 uttered, than peals of laughter were redoubled all over 
 the theatre. Woodward afiected to look abashed and 
 confounded : Clive bore the incident heroically. When 
 they were in the green-room, the players expected a scene 
 of altercation ; but the inimitable actress disappointed 
 them. " Come, Mr. Woodward," she gravely said, " let 
 us rehearse the next scene, lest more blunders should 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 55 
 
 fall but." In this Lady Froth, " Tom Davies," who 
 was enthusiastic on her merits, protests she was superior to 
 all actresses. " Happy the author who could write a part 
 equal to her abilities ! She not only in general exceeded 
 the writer's expectation, but all that the most enlightened 
 could conceive." 
 
 In 1761, the town was entertained by a quarrel between 
 Shuter, the "low" comedian, and the fiery actress, who 
 thought she had been injured by him. She was always 
 touchy about anything that related to her " benefit." On 
 this occasion she had chosen a translated French piece, — 
 " The Island of Slaves," — and some one writing from the 
 St. George's Coffee House, had addressed a malignant letter 
 to the papers on this score. " He exhorts the public," she 
 writes, " not to go to my benefit, because I was to have a 
 French farce, wrote by a poor, wretched author. There 
 is a malicious and wicked insinuation in his letter ; and 
 then with great malice and art, he jumbles together some 
 popular words — such as French farce, English liberty, Ac." 
 This production, she chose to assume was the work of 
 Shuter, and she attacked him with much fury. " I hope 
 I may be indulged, though a woman, to say I have always 
 
 , despised the French Politics, but I never yet heard we 
 were at war with their wit : it should not be imputed to 
 
 . her, as a crime, to have a translation produced, when one 
 part in three of all the comedies now acting are taken from 
 the French, besides those of modern authors that have 
 sneaked into the theatres without confessing from where 
 they came." Unluckily she went on to ridicule Mr. 
 Shuter's mode of composition. " It does not seem by the 
 style of his letter, that he is very intimately acquainted 
 
 ; with his own language, but it is evident he knows nothing 
 
56 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 of French." It was Mrs. Clive's fate always to furnish 
 entertainment to the town, and to her reader also. Shuter 
 had a retort ready which caused much amusement. His 
 benefit he said had been most successful, " as usual, thanks 
 to the indulgence of the public ; Mrs. Clive's I suppose 
 short of her expectations." Then, with malice, he printed 
 her letter, as a reply to her attack : — 
 
 " Sir. — I Much Desire you would Do Me the Favour to 
 let me know if you was the author of a letter in The Dayle 
 Gazeteer relating to his New Piece I had for my benefet ; 
 as it was intended to hurt my Benefet, and serve yours 
 everybody will naturely conclude you was the author if 
 you are not ashamed of being so I suppose you will own it : 
 if you really was not concerned in wrightin it I shall be 
 very glad : for I should be extreamly shock'd that an actor 
 should be guilty of so base an action ; I dont often take 
 the liberty of wrighting to the Publick but am Now under 
 a Nessity of Doing it — therefore Desier your answer. 
 
 " Henrietta street." 
 
 Shuter, to clear himself, actually swore an affadavit 
 before a magistrate that he was innocent. 
 
 But it was with her good-natured manager that this sort 
 of fracas most frequently occurred. The course of these 
 many wrangles offers a spectacle of high comedy, and 
 suggests the pleasant animosities of Benedick and Beatrix. 
 This hostility was maintained all through their twenty 
 years' relation. The superficial might suppose that a 
 deeply envenomed hatred was raging, and the actress 
 delighted in nothing so much as " plaguing " her manager 
 on every occasion. But it will be seen that in all this 
 bickering there was a real regard founded on a genuine 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 57 
 
 esteem, as indeed was to be expected between two such 
 sterling characters. As, indeed, it came out later, this was 
 but the ^^ amajitium irce !" She was all the time, chafing 
 under what she thought was lack of recognition of her 
 powers, and had real admiration for her manager's talent. 
 She also resented his eagerness to put himself forward and 
 secure all the praise. " It was the wish of her life," says 
 the worthy Davies, " to act characters of importance with 
 him whenever she could thrust herself into a play with 
 him." How happily this expresses her character — " she 
 exerted her utmost skill to excel him — she was true game 
 to the last." On the other hand, in a droll contradictory 
 spirit, when she saw he was only striving for his own word, 
 she did her best to frustrate his efforts — fixing her eyes 
 on the audience and allowing them to wander to her friends 
 in the boxes, at his most critical passages — this she knew 
 would fret him and put him out. On other occasions when 
 she was in better humour she entertained herself with 
 comic "asides" to her companion, who, though rigid on all 
 matters connected with stage discipline, could not control 
 his muscles and had after to retire, being driven off the 
 stage. All this was of course improper, and a foolish 
 frowardness — but, as has been said, the secret was re- 
 vealed later. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Lady Biot." — Specimens of Bow China. — Dispute with 
 Garrick. — Foote as " Othello" and Clive as "Portia." — . 
 "Bayes in Petticoats." — The Rosciad. — Lady Bah. — The 
 Clandestine Marriage. 
 
 ONE of Clive's important characters, and always associated 
 with her name, in which she took her farewell of the 
 stage, was Lady Riot, the "fine lady" in "Lethe." This 
 was an old farce of his own which he refitted entirely, intro- 
 ducing new characters, — an old nobleman. Lord Chalkstone, 
 afflicted with gout,* a "fine gentleman" for Woodward, 
 and this "fine lady" for Clive. — Evidence of the popu- 
 larity of these two characters — Garrick was a failure — is 
 found in the exquisite little figures of Bow china which 
 were issued at the time, and have now become the rarest 
 specimen of that manufacture. They are modelled with 
 a charming grace and spirit. " Kitty " is shown in a 
 monstrous petticoat, laces, and furbelows ; while Wood- 
 ward struts gaily, his enormous hat " cocked " — the very- 
 quintessence of a Town Beau. The pair of figures display 
 much dramatic action, and are full of interest ; and 
 good specimens sell for nearly £30 a piece. 
 
 * Human infirmities should never be brought on the stage ; 
 indeed Elia has laid down that even the grosser failings of 
 character, such aa misers, Ac, are to be excluded. When Dickens' 
 " Christmas Carol" was in rehearsal, a realistic stage manager was 
 for ordering a set of " irons " for Tiny Tim ; but the amiable author 
 took him aside, — " No," he said, " there may be parents in the 
 audience to whom it would be painful." 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 5% 
 
 The bringing out of this piece was attended by an 
 unpleasant dispute with the manager. He had good- 
 naturedly chosen it for her benefit, but the first deep ofience 
 was the mode of announcement in the bills. For here was 
 to be seen only, 
 
 " The New Character of Lord Oialkstone, by Mr. Garrick!" 
 Her part was of course named, but not in the proper 
 "displayed" style. "Madame Clive at noon came to the 
 theatre," says Tate Wilkinson, "and furiously rang the 
 alarm bell : for her name being omitted was an offence so 
 serious, that nothing but 'blood!' was the word. Could 
 she have got near him, and he had been severe in his 
 replies, I daresay she would have disarranged his wig and 
 dress. Mrs. Clive was a mixture of combustibles : she was 
 passionate, cross, vulgar, yet sensible ; a very generous 
 woman, and, as a comic actress, of genuine worth, — indeed, 
 indeed, indeed, she was a diamond of the first water !" The 
 sequel is admirably characteristic. She had great successes, 
 a capital " reception," and her mimicry of the Italian 
 singers was encored. In a moment all her humour 
 vanished. " She came ofi" the stage much sweetened in 
 temper and manners from going on." "Ay!" she said in 
 triumph " that artful devil would not hurt me with the 
 town, though he had struck my name out of his bill." She 
 laughed and joked about her late ill humour as if she could 
 have kissed all around her. Though that happiness was 
 not granted, but willingly excused, and what added to her 
 applause, was her inward joy, triumph, and satisfaction, in 
 finding the little great man was afraid to meet her, which 
 was of all consolations the greatest." This happily sketched 
 scene, showing a good knowledge of character, is rarely an 
 epitome of the relations of this actress and her manager. 
 
 / 
 
60 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 The bill speaks for itself, and shows that she had her 
 proper place : — 
 
 Not acted these Ten Years. 
 For the Benefit of Mrs. Clive. 
 At the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, on Saturday next, being 
 the 27th of March, 1756, will be revived a Comedy called 
 
 THE LADY'S LAST STAKE; 
 
 OR, THE wife's RESENTMENT. 
 (Written by Colley Cibber, Esq.) 
 Lord George Brilliant, Mr. Woodward ; Lord Wronglove, Mr. 
 Palmer ; Sir Friendly Moral, Mr. Berry ; Lady Gentle, Mrs. 
 Pritchard ; Mrs. Conquest, Mrs. Davies ; Miss Notable, Miss 
 Macklin ; Hartshorn, Miss Minors ; and Lady Wronglove, by 
 
 Mrs. Clive. 
 
 (Being the First Time of their Appearance in those Characters.) 
 
 To which will be added, a Dramatic Satire, called 
 
 LETHE ! 
 
 In which will be introduced a New Modern Character, to be 
 performed by Mr. Garrick. 
 
 The Fine Lady Mrs. Clive. 
 
 In which will be introduced a New Mimic Italian Song. 
 Part of the Pit xuill he laid into the Boxes. 
 
 Another of her amusing creations, which gave scope for 
 her unbounded humour, was in Foote's "Author," one 
 of those unwarrantable personalities sketched from living 
 persons, in which he revelled. In 1756, he was engaged 
 in Drury Lane, and played often with Clive. One of these 
 performances was his extraordinary attempt at Othello — 
 with Clive in Portia — a combination of two mimics, which 
 must have verged on burlesque. Cadwallader, was drawn 
 from a Mr. Apreece, or Aprice — who had a trick of sucking 
 his wrist as he spoke. Mrs. Clive was the wife, Becky. 
 What the inimitable lady would have made of her 
 
Life op Mus. Catherine Clive. 61 
 
 character, aided by the humours of her acting, will be 
 seen from his description of his spouse : — 
 
 " O Lord, Mr. Caper, this is Becky, my dear Becky ! 
 Child, this is a great poet, — ah, but she does not know 
 what that is — a little foolish or so, but of a very good 
 family. Here, Becky, child, wont you ask Mr. Caper 
 to come and see you 1 — Isn't she a fine girl 1 Do come 
 and look at her a little, do. He says you are as fine a 
 
 woman as ever he . Then go talk any nonsense 
 
 to her — no matter what — she's a great fool and wont 
 know the difference." 
 
 The ridiculed gentleman, however, obtained an injunction 
 from the Lord Chamberlain forbidding the piece, to the 
 confusion and annoyance of the whole green-room. Foote, 
 the frustrated mimic, was overwhelmed with despair and 
 misery because he was not allowed to make others miser- 
 able ; while Clive with piercing eyes and voice inveighed 
 against her disappointment. A more serious lack of 
 taste and decorum was shown in her attempt at Portia 
 in the " Merchant of Venice," — a character which she 
 " discharged " not as originally au serieux, but in quite a 
 burlesque spirit. In the Trial Scene she presented a comic 
 Portia, and lighted the character by mimicking in it the 
 manner of some leading counsel, such as Counsellor Dun- 
 ning, whose peculiarities she "took off"." The conjoined 
 efforts of the pair must have made the play a rather 
 ludicrous spectacle. 
 
 Unluckily she was too much addicted to such attempts, — 
 another of which was her essaying Bayes in " The 
 Rehearsal," which was a complete failure as a " breeches 
 part." Like most born comedians, she had a hankering 
 
 E 
 
62 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 after serious or even tragic characters. These she fancied 
 she could discharge with ability and success. It was thus 
 that for one of her benefits " the comic Clive put on the 
 Royal Robes of Zara : she found them too heavy, and 
 very wisely never attempted it again." * 
 
 It is to be suspected that the actress had always a fancy 
 for writing, from the letters and addresses she was fond of 
 addressing to the public ; and it must be said that her style 
 and matter is often excellent ; as in her letter to Garrick 
 on his retirement, which for feeling and description is of 
 the first class. In 1753 she ventured to write and perform 
 a little two-act piece, which has at least smartness and 
 spirit ; it was called 
 
 THE REHEARSAL: or, Bays in Petticoats; 
 A Comedy in Two Acts, as it is performed at the Theatre 
 Royal in Drury Lane. Written by Mrs. Clive ; the Music com- 
 posed by Dr. Boyce. 1753. Price One Shilling. Published by 
 the Dodsleys. 
 
 It was ushered by a simple, straight-forward address, in 
 which the author, as usual, shows her honest pride in the 
 favour she enjoyed : 
 
 " This little Piece is as written above three Years since, 
 and acted for my Benefit. — The last Scene was an Addition 
 the year after : whatever Faults are in it, I hope will be 
 
 * It would be tedious to give a list of her characters which will 
 be found in the laborious collections of the Rev. Mr. Genest. They 
 amount to almost two hundred ! How invaluable such variety of 
 characters must have been, may be well conceived. We may 
 contrast with it the present unhappy system, whereby the young 
 actor is sent out into the country charged with a single character, 
 which he plays from town to town often for several years 
 together. 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Olive. 63 
 
 pardoned, wlien I inform the Public I had at first no 
 Designe of printing it : and do it now at the Request of 
 my Friends, who (as it met with so much indulgence from 
 the audience) thought it might give some pleasure in the 
 reading. The songs were written by a gentleman. I take 
 this Opportunity to assure the Public, I am, with great 
 Gratitude and Respect, 
 
 Their most Ohliyd, 
 
 Humble Servant, 
 
 C. Clive." 
 
 The performers were Woodward, Shuter, Cross, the 
 prompter, — who appeared in his own character — Beard, - 
 and Miss Hoppisley. It seems to have been played 
 about the year 1750. Mrs. Hazard, played by Clive, is 
 bringing out a farce, and consults some fashionable visitors; 
 as she is about to rehearse ifc, some importunate visitors 
 come in and disturb the proceedings. But the trifle depends 
 entirely on the smart dialogue, chiefly referring to her own 
 personal relations with the audience, with hits at particular 
 follies : 
 
 "But don't your heart ache," asks Willing, "when 
 you think of the first night, hey?" 
 
 " Not in the least," she replies, " the town never hiss 
 anything that is introduced to them by a person of con- 
 sequence and breeding, because they are sure they'll have 
 nothing low." 
 
 "Aye," he replies, "but they may'nt be so sure 
 ; they'll have nothing foolish." 
 
 " Ha ! why perhaps they may'nt find out one so soon 
 
 ' as t'other, ha, ha, ha ! well, let me die if that is not a 
 
 very good thing ! But it is well that the town don't 
 
64 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 hear me, not that I mean quite what I say, neither, for 
 to do them justice, they're generally in the right in 
 their censure." 
 They talk of the music, and she gives a hit at the manager : 
 
 " O, if dear Garrick could but sing, what a Don 
 Quixote he'd make." 
 
 " Don't you think Barry would be a better? he's so tall 
 you know, and so finely made for it. — I could take it to 
 Covent Garden." 
 
 " Lord, I wouldn't think of it, it stands in such a bad 
 air." 
 
 "Aye, the actors can't play there more than three 
 times a week. They have more need of a physician than 
 a poet at that house." 
 
 She then explains she has given one of the characters to 
 Mrs. Clive : — 
 
 " I wish she don't spoil it, for she's so conceited and 
 insolent that she won't let me teach it to her. You must 
 know then, when I told her I liad a part for her in a 
 performance of mine in the prettiest manner I was 
 able (for one must be civil to these sort of people, when 
 one wants them,) says she, 'indeed madam, T must see 
 the whole piece, for I shall take no part in a new thing 
 without choosing that which I think I can act best. I 
 have been a great sufferer already by the manager's not 
 doing justice to my genius : but I hope I shall next year 
 convince the town what fine judgment they have : for I 
 intend to play a capital tragedy part for my own benefit.' '' 
 
 A girl " Miss," comes in asking to be engaged to sing, 
 and gives a specimen. — Mrs. Clive takes up her favourite 
 subject of ridicule : — 
 
I 
 
 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 65 
 
 " O fie, Miss ! That will never do : you speak your 
 words as plain as a parish girl : the audience will never 
 endure you in this kind of singing ; if you understand 
 what they say. You must give your words the Italian 
 accent, child." 
 
 She then mimics the singers. The scene now changes to 
 the theatre, for the " Rehearsal," when Cross says : — 
 
 " The music has been here this half hour, and every- 
 body but Mrs. Clive, and I dare say she'll not be long, 
 for she's very punctual." 
 
 " Well Mr. Cross," she replies, "you have had a great 
 deal of trouble with this thing : pray when is your 
 benefit — you have a benefit I suppose? set me down 
 all your side boxes and every first row in the front." 
 
 Cross then announces that : — 
 
 " Madam, Mrs. Clive, has sent word that she can't 
 possibly wait on you this morning, as she is oblig'd to 
 go to some ladies about her benefit ; but you may depend 
 upon her being very perfect." 
 
 " Mr. Cross, what did you say ? Mrs. Clive sent me 
 word she can't come, and is gone to some ladies about 
 her benefit ! Sir, she shall have no benefit. Very fine 
 indeed. To have the assurance to prefer her benefit to 
 my ' Rehearsal.' Mr. Cross, you need not give yourself 
 the trouble to set down any place for me at your benefit, 
 for I'll never come into the playhouse any more." 
 
 A rehearsal of the music follows, when Miss Giggle breaks 
 in, with a number of friends. They interrupt in the most 
 
66 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 annoying way, and finally the whole performance is given 
 up. Thus the trifle ends. 
 
 It was in 1761, that Churchill threw the whole theatrical 
 community into a state of alarm and indignation by his 
 publication of the famous " Rosciad," in which the merits 
 and defects of each player were sketched with a terrible 
 vigour and truth. The small performers suffered the most : 
 such as Tom Davies, who was told that he delivered his 
 lines much as " a cur mouths a bone." Some obscure 
 people were extravagantly praised ; some favourites as 
 outrageously abused. The performers were in terror, as 
 the burly ex-parson was seen " near the spikes of the 
 orchestra " making his observations. Mrs. Clive and her 
 friend Miss Pope, were let oS" with judicious praises. 
 Not long before she retired, a contemptible imitator of 
 Churchill published a similar gallery, entitled " Thespis," 
 in which was a scurrillous attack upon our actress. After 
 a malignant allusion to 
 
 " Olive's weak head and execrable heart," 
 He goes on to describe her : — 
 
 " Formed for those coarse and vulgar scenes of life, 
 Where low-bred rudeness always breathes in strife ; 
 "When in some blessed union we find 
 The deadliest temper with the narrowest mind, 
 The boldest front that never knew a fear, 
 The flintiest eye that never shed a tear, — 
 Then not an actress certainly alive 
 Can e'en dispute pre-eminence with Clive ! " 
 
 There can be no question but the authors of the 
 " Rosciad " and of " Thespis," would in our time have 
 been brought to the Law Courts, and have had to answer 
 in damages for such libellous attacks. 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 67 
 
 One of her happiest creations was that of Lady Bah 
 In that diverting piece, " High Life Below Stairs," which 
 may be still said to hold the stage. This is true comedy, 
 which it is impossible to witness without genuine enjoy- 
 ment. It is founded on the folly and affectation not merely 
 of one class, but on the general weakness of all, viz.: the 
 aping the manners and ways of our betters. Afy Lord 
 Duke, Sir Harry — how pleasant too the familiarity of Boh, 
 the Bishop, an unseen member of the fraternity ! — are all 
 delightful. But the art of personating these characters is 
 lost. The whole depends on the perfect genuineness of the 
 assumption, with a sort of state and pretension. Ordinarily 
 we are presented with servants of the existing type : there 
 is no attempt to pourtray the stately, conceited, pampered 
 menial, who wears his master's vices at second hand. 
 
 This merry piece has been generally ascribed to a master 
 of Merchant Taylors School, the Rev. Mr. Townly : but it 
 has also been considered Garrick's. The London footmen 
 were an important body, and were often sent by their em- 
 ployers to keep places for them at the theatres; and Garrick 
 would naturally shrink from having his name attached to 
 such a piece of ridicule. It may be conceived that Mrs. 
 Clive was at her best in this presentment of the " fine lady's 
 maid." That this was a dangerous piece to bring forward 
 ■was shown by its reception at Edinburgh, where all the 
 menials of the town assembled in the gallery and brought 
 about a regular riot. 
 
 Yet, another of her brilliant characters was that of Mrs. 
 Heidleherg, the vulgar old maid, in "The Clandestine 
 Marriage," a delightful comedy, but requiring to be per- 
 formed by well-gi-aced and well-trained comedians — nay, 
 the very atmosphere of the theatre should be one of calm 
 
68 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 high-class comedy, such as is found in the Theatre Fran9ais, 
 even before the curtain has risen. There should also be 
 the practice of years — when the details of the piece are 
 enriched by successive performances, and the players grow 
 with their characters. The composition of " The Clandes- 
 tine Marriage " might be a study for our dramatists, for it 
 was literally written in the theatre. The characters as the 
 piece was constructed, actually bore only the names of the 
 actors— the manager contributed as much as the author. 
 How excellent the whole is may be seen from the fact that 
 the French Valet is one of the most important characters. 
 No servant should be introduced merely for the mechanical 
 functions of service — but for his share in the plot, or for 
 the development of other charact?rs. In our own time it 
 is the fashion to open the play by the unmeaning device 
 of a conversation between two servants, who converse in 
 a supposed dialect of the servant's hall. 
 
 The bill of the performance is interesting as showing the 
 business-like character of the play bills : — 
 
 The Fifteenth Night. 
 
 By His Majesty's Company, at the Theatre Royal in Drury 
 Lane, This present Thursday, the 10th April, will be presented 
 a New Comedy, call'd 
 
 THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE ! 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS BY 
 
 Mr. Holland, Mr. Powell, Mr. Yates, Mr. King, Mr. Palmer, 
 
 Mr. Love, Mr. Lee, Mr. Baddeley, Mr. Aickin, Mr. Watkins, 
 
 Miss Pope, Mrs. Palmer, Mrs. Abington, Miss Plym, 
 
 and Mrs. Clive. 
 
 Boxes, 5s. Pit, 3s. First Gallery, 2s. Upper Gallery, Is. 
 
 Places for the Boxes to be had of Mr. Johnston, at the Stage 
 
 Door. 
 
 *#* No Money to be received at the Stage Door nor any Money 
 
 returned after the Curtain is drawn up. 
 
 Vivant Rex et Rejina. 
 
 To-morrow, " King John," With the " Capricious Lovers." 
 For the Benefit of Mr. Havard. 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Continued Wranglings with Garrick. — Correspondence. — 
 III Spelling. — " Quaviling." — Fined for Absence. — 
 ^^ Acting a Gridiron." — Dr. Johnson. — Retirement from 
 the Stage. 
 
 UNLUCKILY with advancing years the temper of our 
 actress seemed to grow soured, and her sense of 
 grievance, real or imaginary, more keen. She seemed to 
 look out for opportunities of quarrel, and made herself as 
 troublesome as she could. This unlucky spirit seems 
 presently to have actually driven her to the resolution of 
 retiring from the stage, when she was scarcely tifty-seven 
 years old. A single specimen of the style in which she 
 would comport herself in a wrangle of this sort, will be 
 found highly entertaining, as exhibiting her frowardness 
 and the placidity and tact of Mr. Garrick ; indeed it proves 
 what admirable gifts of " management," in the strictest 
 sense, he possessed. The quarrel arose on the subject of 
 the day of a benefit, on which the players were always 
 touchy. The letters speak for themselves, and I have 
 retained the bad spelling for which " Kitty " was famous, 
 as an additional contribution to the reader's amusement.* 
 
 * Some of these curious letters will be found in the Forster MSS. 
 at South Kensington ; some were published by Mr. J. Fitzgerald 
 MoUoy, in a Sketch of Mrs. Clive'a career. 
 
 L 
 
70 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Mrs. Clive to the Managers. 
 
 "Feb. 13, 2 o'clock. 
 
 " Gentlemen. — I am advised (I may say it is insisted in 
 by my best friends) not to be a dupe to your ill treatment 
 of me, by giving up above half of my income at a time 
 when I know I can have no alternetive. I know tis in 
 in vain to Expostulate with people in power : whether I 
 am injured or not will appear to all who are imparsial : as 
 to your sneering me about my consequence, you may take 
 what steps you please with your power, but you can't 
 mortitie me. Tis nessesary to explain one thing which 
 may be convenient to be forgot by you, that when Mr. 
 Lacy agreed with me in the summer he gave me his word 
 that everything relating to my engagement this season 
 shou'd stand as it did in my last article, where my Benefit 
 is perticularised to be on or before the 17 of March ; of the 
 truth of this I will take my oath. As to Mr. AVoodward 
 insisting upon haveing my day, he may insist on haveing 
 part of my Sallery — I have nothing to doe with him, and 
 have behaved allways to the managers of the Play-house 
 I belong'd to, in an honest and open manner, never haveing 
 had scheems or Desings to undermine or disapiont them in 
 there business. Therefore whatever mine may be, you 
 shan't have it to say I took the advantage of Mrs. 
 Pritchard's illness to distress your Plays. As to my Benefit 
 you shall do as you please, as I have no written agreement. 
 
 I am, gent., 
 
 Your Servt., 
 
 C. Clive." 
 
r 
 
 I 
 
 Life of Mrs. Catjherink Clive. 71 
 
 Mr. Garrick's Answer. 
 "Dear Madam. — You always choose to have some 
 quarrel at your benefit, and without reason ; but I do not. 
 I am surprised that you have not thanked the managers 
 for this kindness, instead of writing so peevish a letter. 
 Your benefit is now settled upon the best day of the week, 
 and six days sooner tlian you were last year. Tliis was 
 meant kindly for you, and every lady must see it in that 
 light. I shall be sorry that you will not accept of that 
 day (as you are pleased to say), because I wish you well, 
 and it will be of great service to you : therefore if you will 
 not advertise and fix your play, your folly be upon your 
 own head. I cannot do more than I have done for you, 
 and your friends must blame you. 
 
 I am, dear madam. 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 Friday night, U Feb., 1768. D. G." 
 
 Mrs. Olive to the Managers. 
 "Sir. — I am much surprised to hear that you have fixed 
 the 17 of March for my Benefit, and that Mrs. Dancer is 
 to have the Monday before (which as INIr. Hopkins tells me 
 was designed for Mr. Barry.) I hope I shall not be guilty 
 of vanity in saying that upon Drury Lane Theatre, nither 
 Mr. Barry nor Mrs. Dancer have a right to their Benefits 
 before me. I have done you great service this season, and 
 at every call, when they either cou'd not, or wou'd not 
 play, have been the stop gap in playing principle parts — 
 and even when I have been extremely ill ; I do not suppose 
 that expostulation will have any effect to alter what you 
 and the Lady have been pleased to settle. Therefore all I 
 
72 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 mean by giving you this trouble, is to assure you I will not 
 accept of that day, nor will I advertise for it. If I am 
 wrong in this determination, I may loose my friends, and 
 they will natui'ally think you have acted onorably. (?) 
 
 Your humble Servt., 
 
 Friday, Feb. 18, 1768. C. Clive." 
 
 Mrs. Clive to Mr. Garrick. 
 
 "Feb. 19, 1768. 
 " Sir. — I am sorry to give you this trouble, but I really 
 cannot comprehend what you mean by saying you exspected 
 I should thanke the managers for their tenderness to me. 
 I have allways been greatfull to every one who has obliged 
 me, and if you will be so good as to point out the obliga- 
 tions I have to you and Mr. Lacy, I shall have great 
 pleasure in acknowledging them. You tell me you have 
 done all you can for me, and you can do more. I don't 
 know how to understand that. Any one who sees your 
 letter wou'd suppose I was kept at your Theatre out of 
 Charitey. If you still look over the number of times I 
 have play'd this season — you must think I have desarvd 
 the monney you give me. You say you give me the best 
 day in the week. I am sorry to say I cannot be of your 
 opinion. St. Pati-ick's Day is the very worst to me that 
 can be. Mrs. Yates' might be the strongest Benefit, as her 
 interest and mine clash in the Box's. As to my quaviling 
 you are under a very great misstake. There is nothing I 
 dread so much, I have not spirits for that, tho' have for 
 acting. You say that you have tixt the day, and have 
 drawn a line under it that I may be sure I can have no 
 other : therefore I must take it — But I must think it (and 
 so will every impai'tial person) very hard that Mrs. Dancer 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 73 
 
 should have her Benefit before Mrs. Clive. You may de- 
 pend upon having no further trouble with nie. Indeed, 
 I flattered myself that as the greatest part was past of the 
 season, and I had done everything you asked of me, in 
 playing a very insignificant part on purpose to please you, 
 / say, I was in hope's it would have ended as it had gone 
 so far, without any unkindness. JJut I shall say no more 
 
 than that 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your most humble servt., 
 
 C. Clive." 
 
 Mr. Garrick to Mrs. Clive. 
 
 " Saturday. 
 " Dear Clive. — How can you be so ridiculous, and still 
 so cross, to mistake every word of my letter, that I could 
 have so low a thought as you suggest about cliarity, and 
 which I am ashamed to read in yours. Tlie insignificant 
 part which you said you acted to oblige me, is very insignifi- 
 cant indeed as well as the piece it is in, so you have 
 endeavoured to be rude to me without efi'ect — you speak of 
 these things, just as you are in or out of humour ; so it 
 shall stand for nothing. However, I have such a regard 
 for you, that I promise you for the future, you shall be no 
 more troubled with any nonsense of mine, and I am rejoiced 
 that you have cancelled the obligation you say you con- 
 ferred upon me by accepting the part, by ungenteely telling 
 me of it. You will find in your present humour objections 
 to any day, but we really meant you kindly in giving you 
 your own day, that you might avoid opera nights, and have 
 nobody to come immediately before or after you. This I 
 did not do out of cliarity, but out of that respect which I 
 
74 Life of Mrs, Cathkrine Clive. 
 
 ever pay to genius, and it is not my fault if Mrs. Clive will 
 not be as rational off the stage, as she is meritorious on it. 
 
 I am, my clear madam, 
 
 Your most sincere well wisher and servant, 
 
 D. Garrick." 
 P.S. — I drew a line under the day in speaking of it as I 
 wrote in your own words, and not with any other intention. 
 It is impossible to mistake it. 
 
 All which is truly entertaining, and "quaviling" is an 
 original form ; but the grievance rankled. It is droll to 
 note how in her letters the sense of injury worked itself 
 off, and when she had expended her vexation in some smart 
 biting phrases, she was only too ready to lower her colours. 
 
 Her perverseness, no doubt, gave Mr. Garrick a vast 
 deal of anxiety and annoyance — so much so that, it was 
 well known, he came to dread an altercation with her as 
 much as with an actor. Any yielding or complaisance, he 
 had to obtain by humouring her, or by compensation, 
 sooner than have the usual wrangle. As when she grew 
 old and was unsuited to the character of Miss Price in 
 " Love and Love " — a girl of sixteen — he could only " get 
 it from " her by giving her the more important character 
 of Mrs. Frail — to which, however, she was equally un- 
 suited. Nor had she much sense of restraint or decorum 
 in expressing her feelings. As when on the first night of 
 the ranting piece, " Barbarossa," he entered the green-room 
 arrayed in all his Eastern finery, expecting the flatteries of 
 the company, she coarsely said, " Make room for the Royal 
 Lamplighter," a rude speech which quite overset him, as 
 well it mijjht. 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 75 
 
 ' Once, "The Devil to Pay," was announced unexpectedly, 
 when the actress was dining in the country with some 
 persons of quality. She arrived too late, and was fined. 
 She resented, not the tine, but the implied failure in her 
 duty. Her defence is irresistible, and in her best style. 
 
 "I have great regret," she wrote, "in being obliged to 
 say anything tliat looks like contention. I wish to be quiet 
 inyself, and I am sure I never laid any scheme in my life 
 to make any one uneasy or unhappy. In regard to the 
 affair of 'The Devil to Pay,' I sent in complaints to the 
 managers by the prompter, to beg that it might not be 
 done till the weather was cool, as the quickness of the shift 
 puts me in a flurry, which gives me a violent swimming of 
 the head. I beg you would do me the favour to let me 
 know if it was by your order my money was stopped last 
 Saturday. You was so good indeed last week to bid me 
 take care or I should be catched — I thought you was 
 laughing, I did not know it was a determined thing. It 
 was never before expected of a performer to be in waiting 
 when their names are not in the papers or bills ; the public 
 are witness for me whether I have ever neglected my 
 business. You may (if you please to recollect) remember 
 I have never disappointed you four times since you have 
 been a manager ; I always have had good healtli, and have 
 ever been above subterfuge. I hope this stopping of money 
 is not a French fashion ; I believe you will not find any 
 part of the English laws that will support this sort of treat- 
 ment of an actress, who has a right, from her character and 
 service on the stage, to expect some kind of respect. I 
 have never received any favours from you or Mr. Lacy, nor 
 shall ever ask any of you, tlierefore hope you will be so 
 good to excuse me for endeavouring to defend myself from 
 
76 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 what I tliink an injury ; it has been too often repeated to 
 submit to it any longer. You stopped four days' salary 
 when I went to Dublin, though you gave me leave to go 
 before the house shut up, and said you would do without 
 me. If I had known your intention, I would not have lost 
 any of my salary, as my agreement with JVIr. Barry did not 
 begin till our house had shut up. I had my money last 
 stopped at the beginning of the season for not coming to 
 rehearse two parts that I could repeat in my sleep, and 
 which must have cost two guineas, besides the pleasure of 
 coming to town. 
 
 " When I was sent to, I recollected I had given my 
 servant leave to go out, as I did not want her, who had the 
 key of all my things : neither had I the necessary things 
 ready if she had been at home. I had a friend's equipage 
 come for me for Greenwich, to dine with them, and take 
 my leave, as they are going to Bath. I was very unhappy 
 after I was there, and the gentleman was so obliging as to 
 send one of his grooms at half-an-hour after four, to let you 
 know I would come if you could not do without me. I 
 had a carriage ready with the horses put to, when he came 
 back - it wanted then some minutes to six. It is very 
 happy for me that they happen to be people of consequence, 
 who know the truth of what I say, and who will be very 
 much surprised to hear how I have been treated. 
 
 " I am sure I have always done everything in my power 
 to serve and oblige you : the first I have most undoubtedly 
 succeeded in : the latter I have always been unfortunately 
 unsuccessful in, though I have taken intinite pains. I have 
 never envied you your equipage, nor grandeur, the fine 
 fortune you have already and must be still increasing. I 
 have had but a very small share of the public money. You 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 7T 
 
 gave Mrs. Gibber £600 for playing sixty nights, and £300 
 to me for playing 180, out of which I can make it appear 
 it cost me £100 in necessaries for the stage ; sure you need 
 not want to take anything from it." 
 
 We may be sure that the fine was remitted. 
 
 Mr. John Taylor, long one of the editors of the Suriy 
 and who knew most of the actors, suggests, that as she 
 was eminent before Garrick's appearance, his love of 
 excellence threw her and others in the shade, and she there- 
 fore took every opportunity of venting her spleen. This 
 was only the popular view. " One night " he tells us " as 
 he was performing King Lear, she stood behind the scenes- 
 to observe him, and in spite of the roughness of her nature, 
 was so deeply affected, that she sobbed one minute and 
 abused him the next, and at length overcome by his 
 pathetic touches, she liurried from the place with the 
 following extraordinary tribute to the universality of his 
 powers, ' D — n him, I believe he could act a gridiron.' " 
 
 This contention is often found when there is real regard. 
 
 The excellent Dr. Johnson, who knew most of the 
 guild, and supported Mrs. Abington's benefit, highly 
 esteemed our actress. So sterling a nature had the true 
 instinct for appreciating what was sterling in others. "He 
 used, at one time, to go occasionally to the green-room 
 of Drury Lane Theatre, where he was much regarded 
 by the players, and was very easy and facetious with 
 them." This is Mr. Langton's account. " He had a very- 
 high opinion of Mrs. Glive's comic powers, and conversed 
 with her more than with any of them." He said, " Glive 
 is a grand thing to sit by, she always understands what 
 you say." " A good thing to sit by," was no light praise 
 
 M 
 
78 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 from the Doctor, and she said of him " I love to sit 
 by Dr. Johnson, he always entertains me." His judicial 
 opinion upon her acting was equally favourable. "Mrs. 
 Porter in her vehemence of rage, and Mrs. Clive in the 
 sprightliness of humour, I have never seen equalled. 
 What Clive did best, she did better than Garrick ; but she 
 could not do half so many things well ; she was a 
 better romp than any I ever saw in nature." This nice 
 distinction sliows how admirable a critic Johnson was. 
 Here he was surely right; for the romp on the stage 
 should be better than any in nature; as histrionic 
 characters should not aim at mere imitation, but at 
 the selection of the best points.* 
 
 Only a few months later we find her in the most gracious 
 mood. And here again we see the sensitiveness of a regard 
 which she believed was unrequited. On Nov. 27, 1768, 
 she writes : — 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I am most extremely obliged to you for 
 your very polite letter. How charming you can be when 
 you are good ; I believe there is only one person in the 
 world who has never known the diflerence.f I shall cer- 
 tainly make use of the favour you offer me ; it gives me a 
 double pleasure — the entertainment my friends will receive 
 
 * When everyone was praising Garrick's Archer, in the disguise of 
 a " footman," how admirably he did the servant, " you would take 
 him for a real one," — " No ! no ! " said the sage " it is not a 
 good performance, he does not let the gentleman break out through 
 the footman." This is real dramatic criticism, and instruction 
 for the actor, of the highest order. 
 
 f The manager has endorsed this — 
 
 "A love-letter — the first I ever had 
 from that truly great comedian, Mrs. Clive." 
 
LiFK OF Mi{s. Catherine Clive. 79 
 
 from your performance, and the being convinced that you 
 have a sort of sneaking kindness for your Pivy. I suppose 
 I shall have you tapping nie on the shoulder (as you do to 
 Violante) when I bid you farewell, and desiring one tender 
 look before we part, though perhaps you may recollect and 
 toss the pancake into the cinders. You see I never forget 
 your good things. Pray make my best compliments to 
 Mrs. Garrick, and believe I shall always have sincere 
 pleasure when I can assure you 
 
 I am, your obliged and humble servant, 
 
 C. Clive." 
 
 It must be confessed there is a peculiar entertainment in 
 this production, a delicacy, and truth, surprising in one 
 commonly believed to have been of a coarse temperament. 
 
 When she had finally made up her mind to depart from 
 the theatre, she made a last display of frowardness. It 
 seems likely that this was owing to a sense of pique and 
 wounded pride, for she expected, no doubt, that great 
 exertions would be made to detain her. Garrick, however, 
 in most instances, was inclined to take his actors at their 
 word, and was, perhaps, relieved at the idea of being 
 released from their ceaseless jars and discussions. This 
 soreness was shown in the ungraciousness in which the 
 actress announced her departure. When it came to the 
 point, however, he deputed his prompter, Hopkins, to ask 
 if she were serious ; to him she disdained to give any satis- 
 faction. Geo. Garrick, the stage manager, was next sent, 
 but she told him bluntly that the manager himself must 
 come, if he wished to learn her sentiments. Mr. Garrick 
 arrived, and with many compliments on her services, hoped 
 that for her own sake, she would remain. She scornfully 
 
80 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 hinted that lie meant his own interest. He then asked 
 ^' How much she was worth ? " meaning what she valued 
 her services at. She answered briskly, " as much as him- 
 self." He, with a smile, assured her that he had not put 
 by so much as she fancied ; when she answered him that 
 *' she knew when she had enough, but he never did." 
 After this display of rude temper, ttie complacent manager 
 again begged of iier to change her mind, and stay with 
 them for a few years longer. But she bluntly refused : she 
 was tired of the trouble and annoyance of stage life. On 
 which he prepared to take his leave, assuring her that he 
 deeply regretted her loss ; when, with a last burst, she 
 said, " she hated hypocrisy," and that " she knew he would 
 light up candles for joy at her going, only for the money it 
 would cost him." Here again we see only the vexation of 
 a jealous spirit. The Drury Lane green-room was filled 
 with gossips of the Tate Wilkinson pattern, and particularly 
 with dissatisfied ladies, who were glad to repeat Mr. Garrick's 
 presumed speeches and opinions. Long after she solemnly 
 made confession that all this time he had no greater and 
 more genuine admirer. 
 
 As was to be expected, Garrick did all he could to gratify 
 the actress, in what he would have called " her last 
 moments." He offered to play for her in one of his best 
 characters. This favour she acknowledged affectionately, 
 though a little tartness breaks out in her allusion to her 
 husband. 
 
 Mrs. Olive to Mr. Garrick. 
 
 "London, April Uth, 1769. 
 " Dear Sir. — I could not stay till the ■24th to thank you 
 for your very kind letter. I am extremely glad to hear 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 81 
 
 you continue to be so well. I have often enquired after 
 you of your brother George : now do not say to yourself, 
 ay, for your own sake ; for when I heard you was in such 
 great pain, I was most sincerely sorry. In the next place, 
 to be sure, I am ylad you are well for the sake of my 
 audience, who will have the pleasure to see their own Don 
 Felix. What signifies fifty-two? they had rather see the 
 Garrick and the Clive at a hundred and four, than any of 
 the moderns ; — the ancients, you know, have always been 
 admired. I do assure you, I am at present in such health 
 and such spirits, that when I recollect I am an old woman, 
 I am astonished. My dear town are giving me such 
 applause every time they see me, that I am in great fear 
 for myself on my benefit night ; I shall be overcome with 
 kindness. Indeed, I have every day fresh instances of the 
 public aiSection for me. Lord Clive has behaved in a noble 
 manner ; he sent me the most polite note, and fifty pounds 
 for his box. I am greatly obliged to Sir William Stanhope : 
 if he should be at Bath when you receive this, I beg you 
 would do me the favour to return my thanks to him ; I 
 hope I shall have the pleasure of doing it at Twickenham. 
 You are very much mistaken if you imagine I shall be 
 sorry to hear ]\Ir. Clive is well ; I thank God I have no 
 malice or hatred to any body : besides, it is so long ago 
 since I thought he used me ill, that I have quite forgot it. 
 I am glad he is well and happy. 
 
 "Pray make my best respects to Mrs Garrick, who I 
 hope is so well as not to want the waters. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 Your most sincere friend and humble servant, 
 
 C. Clive." 
 
82 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Clive was not one of the class who make their farewell 
 bow only to return. — She had formed her resolution to 
 retire, in the plenitude of her powers, and adhered to it. 
 She was now but fifty-eight years old, and might have 
 entertained the town for fully ten years more, with mutual 
 advantage. But she knew the truth of the line : 
 
 " Inpflorions lags the veteran on the stage." 
 — whether the stage be one of politics, or any other. 
 
 The night fixed was April 24, and the plays were " The 
 Wonder " — which Garrick also chose for his own departing 
 effort — with " Lethe " — and in which she gave her incom- 
 parable " Fine Lady." — The rush for places was enormous. 
 As the bill has it ; "No tickets have been given out but to 
 those ladies and gentlemen who have the places secured in 
 the pit and boxes ; and to prevent any mistake or confusion, 
 no box tickets will be admitted into the gallery. Mrs. 
 Clive begs the favour of those whose places are in the pit 
 to be there by half-an-hour after five, and to let their 
 servants come to keep them a quarter before four. Pit and 
 boxes laid together." — That is, the pit was charged at box 
 price. 
 
 Mr. Garrick played, and played his best we may be sure. 
 In both pieces Mr. Walpole furnished an epilogue, a 
 form of relation between audience and actor (better 
 surely than the sj^eech now in fashion) which has long 
 passed away. 
 
 With glory satiate, from the bustling stage, 
 Still in his prime — and much about my age, 
 Imperial Charles (if Robertson says true) 
 Retiring, bai^le the jarring world adieu ! 
 Thus I, long honoured with your partial praise, 
 (A debt my swelling heart with tears repays ! 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 83 
 
 Source can I speak — forgive the grateful pause) 
 
 Resign the noblest triumph, your applause. 
 
 Content with humble means, yet proud to own, 
 
 I owe my pittance to your smiles alone ; 
 
 To private shades I bear the golden prize, 
 
 The meed of favour in a nation's eyes ; 
 
 A nation brave, and sensible, and free — 
 
 Poor Charles ! how little when compar'd to me ! 
 
 His mad ambition had disturb'd the globe, 
 
 And sanguine which he quitted was the robe. 
 
 Too blest, could he have dar'd to tell mankind, 
 
 When power's full goblet he forbore to quaff, 
 
 That, conscious of benevolence of mind. 
 
 For thirty years he had but made them laugh. 
 
 Ill was that mind with sweet retirement pleased, 
 
 The very cloister that he sought he teazed ; 
 
 And sick, at once, both of himself and peace, 
 
 He died a martyr to unwelcome ease. 
 
 Here ends the parallel, my generous friends, 
 
 My exit no such tragic fate attends ; 
 
 I will not die — let no vain panic seize you — 
 
 If I repent, I'll come again and please you. 
 
 That last sight of the audience, nightly friends and 
 companions for many years — a part of life itself — must 
 be a painful moment, Garrick declared tliat the thought 
 was agony, and a sort of theatrical deatJt. More acute still 
 must be the feelings in the dull monotonous evenings 
 that follow. Mrs. Siddons, as the night drew on, 
 would repeat with a sort of wistful distress, "Now 
 they are filling the theatre ! Now the curtain has risen." 
 She would recall the uproar that used to greet her. 
 It was like the chill on waking from a delightful 
 dream. Now there was only an old lady seated by her 
 humdrum fireside. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Twickenham. — Little Strawberry Hill. — "Jemmy RaftorP 
 — Friendship tvith Walpole. —3fiss Pope. 
 
 IT has been generally repeated that on her retirement 
 from the stage, Mr. Walpole invited her to take posses- 
 sion of a small house at Twickenham, where she resided for 
 the rest of her life. The fact is, this generous present was 
 made to her nearly twenty years before, and we find her 
 living at "little Strawberry Hill" so early as 1753 or 1754. 
 Walpole had a genuine and steady regard for her, founded 
 perhaps on the enjoyment of her society, for her ready wit 
 and stories entertained him. She was a constant guest at 
 his house, the companion of his walks, and often enjoyed 
 his hospitality at little suppers. 
 
 We now see the favourite actress retired, and living 
 altogether at pleasant Twickenham. After " the youth of 
 folly," came "an old age of cards," of agreeable society — 
 gossip it might be — and cordial friends. It is not generally 
 known that before taking up her abode at little Strawberry 
 Hill, she was established at a cottage of Mr. Walpole's, 
 known as " little Marble Hill," long since pulled down, its 
 place being taken by a pretentious mansion. This had 
 been her residence till little Strawberry Hill was got ready 
 for her. 
 
 The house which Mr. Walpole so handsomely presented 
 to his friend is still to be seen on the road-side, a little 
 beyond the old town of Twickenham, and facing the 
 meadows across which he so often walked to pay her a 
 
Life of Mrs. Catiif.rink Clive. 85 
 
 visit. An old and rather decayed red brick structure, two 
 stories in height, with stabling and gardens attached, and 
 altogether of more pretension than would be imagined from 
 the description. We can identify it by the arched sham 
 Gothic windows, in the style of old Strawberry Hill. The 
 gate displays two great stone acorns, but the whole has 
 been rather disfigured by modern additions. — It is indeed 
 quite an historical residence. After her death, he per- 
 suaded the attractive Misses Berry — pets and proteyefis of 
 his — to take up their residence there. They remained for 
 many years and were an inexpressible source of comfort and 
 entertainment to their host. Twickenham, when Clive 
 first went to reside, had quite a number of remarkable 
 people living there : — Sir John Hawkins, Lady Tweeddale, 
 George Steevens, and others. She had, therefore, plenty of 
 friends and acquaintances to make her retirement at this 
 old fashioned place pleasant.* 
 
 Here we find a member of the family — her brother, 
 James Raftor, "Jemmy," as he was called, to whom the 
 worthy Clive had clung all her life. She had again and 
 again given him benefits, played for him, and tried to get 
 him on — but fruitlessly. He was, as Lord Nuneham de- 
 scribed him, " a wretched actor, hideous in person and pace, 
 
 * The writer, when a boy, lived close to Twickenham, and re- 
 calls the choice and pleasant society — mostly of a literary cast — 
 then found there. In that quaint row of antique houses of Queen 
 Anne's time, now in decay, lived a sister of Horace Smith, who had 
 often heard Miss Pope talk of her friend Clive and her glories. I 
 was then in a sort of fashion : the " Jerry Builder " had not come 
 that way, and it was but little altered from the time of Clive. At 
 every turn there were old fashioned houses, old inns, and footpaths 
 across the meadows ; while in all the " great houses," distinguished 
 tenants were residing. 
 
 N 
 
86 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 and vulgarly awkward in his general appearance — but a 
 man of some information, of much observation and pos- 
 sessing an extraordinary fund of original humour. In his 
 talent of relating a story he was unrivalled." One of his 
 stories no doubt he told with humour, that of a town 
 lady, — who being asked why she did not live in the country, 
 said "she had just bought some rural object — a cuckoo 
 clock!" This entertaining fellow attracted Mr. Wal- 
 pole, who conceived quite a friendship for him, and always 
 asked him with his more-gifted sister. " Raftor," he says 
 in 1770, "has left the stage: Mrs. Clive has very kindly 
 taken him to live entirely with lier, and I hear he is 
 exceedingly happy at it." 
 
 At all petits soupers Mr. Raftor tigured. No matter how 
 fine the company, there the brother and sister were to be 
 found. Even at the Coronation, when seats were so eagerly 
 sought, Walpole found him a place at his town house, 
 among the noble ladies. When Twickenham was scared 
 by highway robberies, — people being stopped on the roads, 
 and Mrs. Clive's house broken into^he declared that he 
 would make Raftor his Sancho Panza — " only he has more 
 humour." Tn 1753, he writes: — "I met Mrs. Clive two 
 nights ago, and told her I had been in the meadows, but 
 would walk no more there, for here was her world." " Well" 
 says she " and don't you like the World. I hear it was very 
 clever last Thursday." And again in 1754: "My chief 
 employ is planting at Mrs Clive's, whither I remove all my 
 superabuudaucies. I have lately planted the green lane 
 that leads from her garden to the common." " Well" said 
 she " when it is done, what shall we call it?" " Why" said 
 I " what would you call it but Drury Lane T This was 
 ready pleasantry. Later, when she was regularly installed, 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 87 
 
 for during her theatrical career she only came there after the 
 season, he gave the little maison the happy name of 
 Cliveden. When such guests as Mr. Conway, and Lady 
 Ailesbury, and Lady Townshend, were staying with 
 him, he would take them over to see the actress, and 
 sup with her. Lady Townshend, notorious for her strange 
 coarse speeches, being taken over Strawberry Hill, said 
 to the host, "that it would be a very pleasant place, 
 if Mrs. Clive's face did not rise upon it and make it so hot."" 
 One evening in 1760, he met an odd adventure in one 
 of their walks, which is described in his best style. 
 "I was sitting with Mrs. Clive, her sister and brother, on 
 the bench near the road, at the end of her long walk. We 
 heard a violent scolding, and looking out saw a pretty 
 woman, standing by a high chaise, in which was a 
 young fellow and the coachman riding. The damsel 
 had lost her hat, her cloak, her temper, and her 
 senses ; and was more drunk, and more angry, than you 
 can conceive. She stood cursing and swearing at the 
 young man in an outrageous style, and wnen she had 
 vented all the oaths she could think of, she at last 
 wished perfidion might seize him. You may imagine how 
 we laughed. The fair intoxicate turned round and cried, 
 • Who is it ! What ! Mrs. Clive ! Kitty Clive ! No, Kitty 
 Clive would never behave so.' I wish you could have seen 
 my neighbour's confusion. She certainly did not grow" 
 paler than ordinary." Occasionally he could be merry at 
 ihe expense of his friend's full-blown face. She had been 
 Jeft a legacy by a neighbour, Lord Radnor, only fifty 
 pounds, but was immensely elated. " You never saw 
 anything so droll " he writes "as Mrs. Clive's countenance," 
 is the good natured remark of Walpole, on this event,. 
 
88 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive, 
 
 *' between the heat of the summer, the pride in her 
 legacy, and her efforts to appear concerned." 
 
 In the year 1760, she gave him an agreeable supper, 
 "with Miss West, my niece Choluiondely, and Murphy, 
 the writing actor, who is very good company, and two 
 or three more. Mrs. Cholmondely is very lively, you know 
 how entertaining the Clive is." Mrs. Cholmondely we may 
 assume was Peg Woffington's rather boisterous sister. 
 
 She had at this time some faithful friends whose regard 
 was the solace of her decline. There was her trusty brother, 
 Mr. Walpole, and her " dear Pope." " Easy natural Miss 
 Pope," cried Elia, as he dwelt on her part in " The School 
 for Scandal," the original Mrs. Candour, a title to boast of. 
 She was in fact Clive's pupil, who having a fancy for her 
 from the first, took immense pains to school her in the true 
 tradition. This admirable actress of the good old solid 
 school was so intimately connected with her friend in every 
 department, that she was considered a sort of reflection of 
 Clive's character and talent. There was the same honest 
 independence — the same sense of duty to their profession — 
 the same clear and open good sense in both their lives. A 
 true affection and sympathy bound them together to the last. 
 There was no jealousy in Clive's nature, and she saw her 
 friend take over her own characters with satisfaction, and 
 was eager that she should make as good an impression as 
 herself. " What principally matured her talents was to 
 have found so excellent a model before her as Mrs. Clive," 
 says a contemporary account " being in this actress's walk, 
 she had the advantage of copying her inimitable manner 
 and humour ; and though the ascent was great, emulation 
 was still greater. 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 89 
 
 "INIrs. Clive being on the retiring ;;/«h almost on Miss 
 Pope's commencement, gave her an opportunity to be let 
 occasionally into some of the former's principal parts ; such 
 as Phillis in 'The Conscious Lovers,' Beatrice in 'Much 
 Ado about Nothing,' &c.; each of which she was received 
 in with particular compliment. But what called out the 
 full extent of her powers, was the character of Kell, in 
 Coffey's ballad farce of ' The Devil to Pay ;' a circumstance 
 the more remarkable, as it was in this very part, thirty 
 years before, that Mrs. Clive gained the summit of her 
 reputation. Though this at first looked against her, yet it 
 turned out a point in her favour. Those who had seen 
 Mrs. Clive in the character, or remembered her first 
 appearance in it, were pleased with the thoughts of so able 
 a successor." — Churchill was more enthusiastic on her merits 
 than he was about Clive : — 
 
 " With all the native vigour of sixteen, 
 Among the merry troop conspicuous seen, 
 See lively Pope advance in jig and trip 
 Corinna, Cherry, Honeycomb, and Snip. 
 Not without art, but yet to nature true, 
 She charms the town with humour just yet new. 
 Cheer'd by her promise we the less deplore 
 The fatal time when Clive shall he no more." 
 
 The lines " not without art," &c., should be the comedian's 
 guide. 
 
 " I well remember " says Wilkinson, who was present, 
 "on the second night of 'The Confederacy,' jNIrs. Clive 
 called Miss Pope into the green room, before her going 
 on the stage as Corinna, and said to her, " My dear Pope," 
 — a sweet appellation indeed from Clive— "you played 
 particularly well on Saturday, as a young actress, but take 
 
90 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 from me a piece of advice, which I would have every 
 performer attend to. You acted with great and deserved 
 approbation, but to-night you must endeavour to act bettei', ■ 
 and expect to receive less applause. The violent thunder 
 of applause last Saturday, on your first appearance, 
 was not all deserved, it was only benevolently bestowed to 
 give you the pleasing information that they were well 
 delighted, and had their warmest wishes that you would 
 hereafter merit the kindness they bestowed you." This 
 plain spoken useful piece of advice was not thrown 
 away, and would be found not unprofitable by all 
 performers. 
 
 Once, on the eve of Garrick's retirement, the sensible 
 Miss Pope was betrayed into a little foolishness, which 
 was unlike her usual self. All her companions were 
 worrying the manager with their claims and complaints. 
 After many years' service, when the formality of renewing 
 her engagement, as a matter of course, was suggested, 
 she wrote to ask for an increase of salary. The managers 
 replied with compliments on tlie value of her talents, — her 
 place would be with difficulty supplied — and trusting 
 she would continue with them as before. She wrote back 
 in irritation, that as to her merit it had been more 
 than overpaid by the public, without even a paragraph 
 to prejudice them. She would put aside afi'ectiou and think 
 only, like the Swiss, of pay. She received a rather 
 cold reply to this taunt, with a reminder that they had lost 
 Mrs. Barry from wishing to keep her, and declining to 
 make any advance. The actress indignantly left the 
 theatre. It was plain there was here some other grievance,' 
 But as the season drew on and she found herself' 
 without an engagement at the great theatre, she repented 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 91 
 
 'of her folly, and applied to her friend Clive, to bring about 
 a reconciliation, who sent "Jimmy " Raftor to the manager. 
 But he declined to receive her back. She applied to 
 him herself in a very strong letter. She accused herself 
 of a foolish vanity, but her heart was not bad. "As I know 
 of no excuse to palliate my wrong conduct, I must rely 
 upon your generosity still, to forgive and be my friend." 
 But Garrick was inflexible. As the Duke of Wellington 
 put it later : " It was no mistake, and should be no 
 mistake." " The expressions 'want of affection,' ' turninf^ 
 Swiss," ' he said " were as harsh as unexpected, and had 
 given him great pain;" what rankled deeper, though he 
 did not name it, was the allusion to newspaper puffs. 
 Even, after his answer, he had waited two mouths, 
 hoping she might see her mistake and return to her duty, 
 and this in spite of her incivility to one who had always 
 been her best friend. Now her place was tilled. He was 
 deeply grieved. The actress submitted, and with a heavy 
 heart went to Ireland. But her case was in the hands of 
 a faithful ally. The irresistible Kitty took up the affair, 
 
 as if it were her own, and was not to be denied. Never was 
 cause pleaded so effectively. In a charming natural letter 
 of compliment to him, on his impending retirement, 
 which would have done credit to one of the professional 
 ■ letter writers, she appeals to him for the unfortunate Pope. 
 " Now let me say one word about my poor unfortunate 
 friend. Miss Pope, I know how much she disobliged you, 
 and if I had been in your place, I believe I should 
 have acted just as you did. But by this time I hope you 
 have forgot your resentment and will look upon her 
 late behaviour, as having been taken with a dreadful lit of 
 vanity, which for the tiuie took her senses from her. 
 
92 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 and having been tutored by an affected heart, which helped 
 to turn her head ; but recollect her in the other light, 
 a faithful creature to you, on whom you could always 
 depend, certainly a good actress, amiable in her character, 
 both in being a very modest woman, and very good to 
 her family, and to my certain knowledge, has the 
 greatest regard for you. Now my dear Mr. Garrick, 
 I hope it is not yet too late to reinstate her before 
 you quit your affairs here. I beg it ! I entx-eat it ! I shall 
 look on it as the greatest favour you can confer on 
 Your ever obliged friend, 
 
 C. Clive." 
 This we find endorsed " My Pivy excellent ! " 
 
 Need it be said that Garrick did not reject tlie suit of 
 his faithful Pivy. The glad news of her forgiveness and 
 restoration was despatclied to the actress, who was even 
 bidden to name her own terms. No wonder she wrote that 
 her heart was full, and that she could not express her 
 .feelings. She was his prodigal daughter, and was out of 
 her senses with happiness. The whole credit was owing to 
 the w^orthy honest Clive. 
 
 Garrick's own retirement, as we have said, was now at 
 hand, and she took the opportunity to unfold to him, in 
 characteristic style — what, perhaps, he never suspected 
 before, viz.: — that through all their bickerings, it was not 
 dislike or disdain that was at work ; it was her pride that 
 would not bend to own his superiority aud many good 
 qualities. " D — n him, he can act a gridiron ! " was but a 
 partial expression of her admiration. We have smiled at 
 her rude turns and sad spelling, but here nature and 
 warmth of heart furnished her with an admirable style : — 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 93 
 
 Mrs. Clive to Mr. Garrick. 
 
 "Twickenham, June 2.3, 1776. 
 
 " Dear Sir. — Is it really true that you have put an end 
 to the glory of Drury Lane Theatre 1 If it is so, let me 
 congratulate my dear Mr. and Mrs. Garrick on their ap- 
 proaching happiness : / knoiv what it will be ; you cannot 
 yet have an idea of it ; hut if you should still be so wicked 
 not to be satisfied with that 7inbotinded, unconnnon degree 
 of fame you have received as an actor, and which no other 
 actor ever did receive — nor no other actor ever can receive ; 
 — I say, if you should still long to be dipping your fingers 
 in their theatrical pudding (now without plums), you will 
 be no Garrick for the Pivy. In the height of public ad- 
 miration for you, when you were never mentioned with any 
 other appellation but Mr. Garrick, the charmiug man, the 
 tine fellow, the delightful creature, both by men and ladies ; 
 when they were admiring everything you did and every- 
 thing you scribbled, at this very time The Pivy was a 
 living witness that they did not know, nor could they 
 be sensible of half your perfections. I have seen you with 
 your magical haunner in your hand, endeavouring to beat 
 your ideas into the heads of creatures who had none of 
 their own. I have seen you with lamb-like patience, 
 endeavouring to make them comprehend you, and I have 
 seen you when that could not be done. I have seen your 
 lamb turned into a lion : by this your great labour and 
 pains the public was entertained ; they thought they all 
 acted very tine — they did not see you pull the wires. 
 
 "There are people now on the stage to whom you gave 
 their consequence ; they think themselves very great, 
 now let them go on in their new parts without your leading 
 
 o 
 
94 Life of Mrs. Catiiekine Clive. 
 
 strings, and they will soon convince the world what this 
 genius is. I have always said this to everybody, even when 
 your horses and mine were in their highest prancing. 
 While I was under your control I did not say half the 
 fine things I thought of you, because it looked like flattering, 
 and you know your Pivy was always proud, besides I 
 thought you did not like me then, but now I am sure 
 you do, which made me send this letter." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Battle with ''the Taxes.'' —Letter to Miss Pope.—Cobnan.— 
 Last Letter to Garrick.—Mr. Cole.— Story of a Foot- 
 man. — Death of Mrs. Clive. 
 
 MR. WALPOLE tells with enjoyment of a conflict 
 which his friend got into with the " taxes," and 
 "her tax-gatherer has gone off," he writes, "and she must 
 pay her window-lights over again ; and the road before the 
 door is very bad and the parish won't mend it." How the 
 " com})ustible " lady took this state of things is related by 
 her neighbour, Miss Hawkins, whose father 
 
 " Sir John Hawking 
 
 Without his shoes or stalkins," 
 
 was obliged to interfere : 
 
 " I remember a reply of the same hue, which she made to 
 two very decent respectful men, then in office as surveyors 
 of the roads in the parish, on my father's sending them to 
 her, as being the acting magistrate of the place, to demand 
 some payment which she had refused :— it was in the 
 laconic terms, " By the living G— I will not pay it." I 
 suppose this might destroy entirely all intercourse with our 
 house, for she was of course compelled to break her oath. 
 I suppose it was to show " what some actresses can do — 
 what some ndll do,"— that she worked for the Holbein 
 chamber at Strawberry-hill, the carpet with blue tulips and 
 yellow foliage." 
 
 I 
 
96 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 " Mrs. Clive, the comic actress, I believe, by her agreeable 
 or rather diverting society, paid rent for what is called 
 little Strawberry-hill. — Her memory still survives in the 
 place ; and her bounty to her indigent relations, is recorded 
 on a tablet affixed to the wall of the church. A virtue less 
 known, and perhaps less easily credited, considering her 
 manners in private, and her cast of characters in public, 
 was her perfect abstinence from spirituous liquors. She 
 told a lady, her neighbour, in Great Queen-street, Lincoln's- 
 Inn-Fields, from whom I had it, that she believed she could 
 say more than most players could, that she never kept any 
 of these exhilarating resources in her house. 
 
 "When one of her maid-servants, to whom she had given 
 an admission to see her act, was asked how she liked her 
 mistress on the stage, she said " she saw no difference 
 between her there and at home." It is most probable from 
 this, that the character in which she had seen her, was Nell 
 in the farce of " The Devil to Pay." 
 
 " I have heard it said that she once attempted tihylock, 
 and with the Jewish accent ; but the effect was too ludicrous 
 to be endured. 
 
 "Mrs. Clive visited my father and mother, but on my 
 mother's running out of the house one evening, when she 
 had called accidentally, to prevent her alighting from her 
 carriage, as the small-pox had made its appearance amongst 
 us and she knew Mrs. Clive not to have had it, — utterly 
 insensible to the politeness of her attention at a moment of 
 such anxiety, she roughly replied, " it was not you I 
 wanted to see it was your husband : send him out /" 
 
 Miss Pope used to recall her visits to Twickenham to see 
 her friend, and those which Mr. Walpole paid them. He 
 could be very agreeable she said, but often " very snarling 
 
Life op Mrs. Catiikrine Olive. 97 
 
 and sarcastic." " She was one of my earliest and best 
 friends," said she, speaking of her dear Clive, " I usually 
 spent a month with her during the summer recess, at her 
 cottage. One fine morning I set off in the Twickenham 
 passage-boat to pay her a visit. When we came to Vauxhall, 
 I took out a book and read." " Oh ma'am," said one of the 
 watermen, " I hoped we were to have the pleasure of hearing 
 you talk." "I took the hint," added the benevolent lady, 
 "and put up my book." A pleasing good Immoured trait. 
 Not long before Mrs. dive's death, we tind these two old 
 friends corresponding affectionately. 
 
 Mrs. Clive to Miss Pope. 
 
 "Twickenham, October 17th, 1784. 
 
 " My dear Popy. — The jack I must have, and I suppose 
 
 the cook will be as much delighted with it, as a tine 
 
 lady with a birthday suit. I send you v.ahiuts which are 
 
 fine, but pray be moderate in your admiration, for 
 
 they are dangerous dainties. John has carried about to my 
 
 neighbours above six thousand, and he tells me there 
 
 are as many still left, indeed it is a most wonderful 
 
 tree. Mrs. Prince has been robbed at two o'clock, at noon, 
 
 of her gold watch and four guineas, and at the same 
 
 time our two justices of sixpence a-piece ; they had like 
 
 to be shott, for not having more. Everybody enquires after 
 
 you, and I deliver your compts. Poor Mrs. Hart is dead — 
 
 well spoken of by everybody. I pity the jDOor old Weassel 
 
 that is left behind. 
 
 Adieu, my dear Popy, 
 
 yours ever, 
 
 C. Clive. 
 "The jack must carry six or seven and twenty pounds, the 
 waterman shall bring the money when I know what." 
 
98 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Miss Pope to Mrs. Clive. 
 
 "Monday, Feb. 22, 1779. 
 
 •' Dear Madam. — I have attempted several times to sit 
 down and answer your very kind letter, and have as often 
 been interrupted, but at length I am determined you must 
 know I never think of writing but when I fancy I have 
 some novelty to relate, and at present only one theme 
 obtains, which is respecting the admirals. This always ends 
 in breaking the windows— 
 
 " I am much mortified you did not spend Ash Wednesday 
 with us, as the whole party, I believe, sincerely expected it, 
 and would have been glad to see you : the RofFeys came 
 to town on purpose, and inquired after you immediately. 
 Miss Griffith spent the day with Miss Cadogan, who still 
 continues to weep for Mr. Garrick, like another Niobe, and 
 so romantic, it is astonishing : I believe love is at the 
 bottom with both of them, for that seems the most natural ; 
 however, they say you are vastly aflfected, and that you all 
 wept the other morning like the ladies in 'The Funeral,' and 
 Mr. Raftor came in like Counsellor Puzzle to fill up the 
 group. I wish I could give you something to laugh at, for 
 I do not think weeping becoming to you or to me : at least 
 it should be seldom — . . . What reason you liave to 
 applaud yourself for your conduct : every comfort and every 
 hour you enjoy, convince me you were right, and I pray 
 heartily I may tread in your steps (at least in some degree) 
 to share such a portion of happiness. I am tired with 
 subscriptions, for (I am sorry to say it) worthless people ; 
 yet did not one contribute, one would be considered a Bar- 
 barian. They are setting on foot something of that sort 
 for Mrs. Bellamy, who is, I hear starving ; she has wearied 
 everybody with her letters, and is penniless, without food, 
 
Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 99 
 
 fire, or candle — in short nothing can be more wretched : 
 and I should not be surprised if some ladies in the theatre, 
 who now carry their heads very high, were reduced some- 
 time or other, to the same state." 
 
 Horace Smith, who knew and admired her, has kept 
 a pleasing sketch of her. — " Miss Pope's private alias, 
 in certain theatrical circles, was Mrs. Candour; originating 
 partly from her playing that part, and partly from her 
 readiness to undertake the defence of any person who 
 happened to be run down, I owe it to truth to declare my 
 conviction that, in adopting that course, not a particle 
 of irony and sarcasm was mingled with her encomiums. 
 I never heard her speak ill of any human being. I have 
 sometimes been e\'en exasperated by her benevolence. In 
 cases of the most open delinquency, I could never entice 
 her into indignation. " I adore my profession," I have 
 heard her say more than once. She had bad health ; she 
 was attached to a young man who died at Monmouth ; she 
 is devoted to her sister's children. She gave an evening 
 party at her new residence, about a twelvemonth after her 
 retreat from the stage, at which I remember the late 
 Mr. Justice Grose was present, as well as a great number of 
 other higlily respectable persons of either sex, many of 
 them, as I then learned, from the purlieus of St. James's 
 Palace. Here I beheld her in society for the last time. 
 She was shortly afterwards attacked by a stupor of the 
 brain, and this once lively and amiable woman, who 
 had entertained me repeatedly with anecdotes of people 
 of note in her earlier days, sat quietly in an arm-chair 
 by the fire-side, patting the head of her poodle dog, 
 and smiling at what passed in conversation, without being 
 at all conscious of the meanin<j of what was uttered." 
 
100 Life of Mrs. Catherixe Clive. 
 
 A letter of condolence to sprightly writer, who had given 
 her his Mrs. Heidelburg : — 
 
 To Mr. George Oolman. 
 
 "April 12, 1771. 
 " Sir. — I hope you heard that I sent my servant to town 
 to inquire how you did ; indeed I have been greatly sur- 
 prised and sincerely concerned for your unexpected distress ; 
 there is nothing can be said upon these melancholy occa- 
 tions to a person of understanding. Fools can not feel, 
 people of sense must, and will, and when they have sank 
 their spirits till they are ill, will find that nothing but 
 submission can give any consolation to inevitable misfor- 
 tunes. I shall be extreamly glad to see you, and think it 
 would be very right, if you would come and dine hear two 
 or three days in a week, it will change the sceen, and by 
 the sincerity of your wellcome, you may fancy yourself at 
 
 home. 
 
 I am, dearly. 
 
 Your obligd. hum. Servt., 
 
 C. Clive." 
 
 In her retirement we find her old " friend-enemy " 
 Garrick reappearing occasionally. Her letters to him 
 showed, as we before said, what was the regard and affec- 
 tion subsisting between these two sterling natures, now 
 that all cause of friction was removed. Kitty would some- 
 times rally her old manager in lively fashion, as when she 
 heard he was devoting himself to vestry duties. 
 
 Mrs. Clive to Mr. Garrick. 
 " I schreamed at your parish business. I think I see you 
 in your churchwardenship quareling for not making those 
 brown loaves bis: enousrh : but for God's sake never think of 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 101 
 
 being a justice of the peace, for the people will quarel 
 on purpose to be brought before you to hear you talk, 
 so that you may have as much business upon the lawn, 
 as you had upon the boards. If I should live to be thaw'd, 
 I will come to town on purpose to kiss you ; and in the 
 summer, as you say, I hope we shall see each other ten 
 times as often, when we will talk, and dance, and sing, and 
 send our hearers laughing to their bed>s." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " jealousey thou raging pain, 
 Where shall I find my piece again." 
 
 " I am in a great fuss. Pray what is the meaning of a 
 quarter of a hundred of the Miss Moors coming purring 
 about you with their poems, and plays, and romancies ; 
 what, is the Pivy to be roused, and I don't understand it. — 
 Mrs. Garrick has been so good to say she would spare me a 
 little corner of your heart, and I can tell the Miss Moors 
 they shall not have one morsel of it. What do they pre- 
 tend to take it by force of lines : If that's the case I shall 
 write such versses as shall make them stare againe, and 
 send them to Bristol with a flea in their ear ! Hei'e have 
 I two letters, one and not one line, nay, you write to the 
 Poulterer's woman rather than the Pivy, and order her to 
 bring me the note : and the poor creature is so proud of a 
 letter from you, that it has quite turn'd her head, and 
 instead of picking her Poultry ; she is dancing about her 
 shop, with a wisp of straw in her hand, like the poor 
 Ophelia, singing : 
 
 ' How shou'd I your true love know.' 
 And I must tell you, if you don't write to me directly and 
 tell me a great deal of news, I believe I shall sing the next 
 of the mad songs myself. I see your run always goes on, 
 
102 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 which gives me great pleasure — I shall be glad if you ■will 
 lend it me (Colley Gibber); my love to my dear Mrs. 
 Garrick. I suppose you have had a long letter of thanks 
 from Miss Pope. I have had one from her all over trans- 
 port. I feel vast happiness about that afair, and shall ever 
 remember it as a great obligation you have confered on 
 your, PivY Clive." 
 
 Endorsed, " Pivy's letter about Miss Hannah More." 
 
 The Same to tub Same. 
 
 "Twickenham, Jan. 13th, 1774. 
 
 " Dear Sir. — I should suppose, when you see Twicken- 
 ham, you will not presently imagine whom the letter can 
 come from, you have so entirely forgot me. I write because 
 I am importuned by the bearer; and to solicit a great man 
 looks as if one had power, which, you know, is a charming 
 
 thing. Mr. C tells me he knows you very well : he 
 
 lives at Twickenham, is a wine-merchant, lives in good 
 credit, and has for many years. I have taken my wine of 
 him these four years, which is the reason he thinks I ought 
 to trouble you with a letter. He wants to get his son into 
 the excise. He tells me you are at the head of the com- 
 mission, and can do whatever you please : you could I know 
 
 informer days ; and if you can now, and will, Mr. C 
 
 ■will be very glad of it. I do not know anything of the 
 young man, therefore cannot recommend him, but I suppose 
 ■ his father can, for he is a fine chatter box ; he will be up 
 and tell you everything about him. 
 
 " Pray how does my dear Mrs. Garrick do ? for I will 
 love her, because I am sure she would me, if you would let 
 her. But you are a Rudesby (?) yourself, and it is your 
 < fault that she does not take notice of me^ 
 
Life of Mus. Catheuine Clive. 103 
 
 "I might date this letter from the Ark; we are: so 
 surrounded with water that it is impossible for any carriage 
 to come to me, or for me to stir out, so that at present my 
 heavenly place is a little develish. I beleive I must win 
 a house in the Adelphi, and come to town in winter : but 
 when I come T shall not have the happiness to see INIacklin 
 in " Macbeth." What a pity it is he should make an end 
 of himself in such a fine part. 
 
 "Your friend Jemmy and Mrs. Mestiver desire their 
 compliments to yourself and Mrs. Garrick, I suppose we 
 shall all meet next summer at Mr. Walpole's. 
 
 Adieu, yours ever, 
 
 C. Clive." 
 
 Mrs. Clive to Mr. Garrick. 
 
 "Twickenham, March 22nd, 1775. 
 "There is no such being now as Pivy, she has been 
 tilled by the cruelty of Garrick ; but the Clive thank God 
 is still alive, and alive like to be, and did intend to call you 
 to give an account, for your wicked wishes to lier. But 
 having been told of your good deeds and great acting 
 events, I concluded you was in too much conceit with 
 yourself to listen to my couiplaints. I must needs say that 
 I admire you with the rest of the world, for your great 
 goodness to Miss Moore (More) : the protection you 
 gave her play. I daresay she was sensible you were of the 
 greatest service to her ; she was sure everything you 
 touched would turn into gold, and though she had great 
 merit in her writing, still your affection for tragedy 
 ^children was a great happiness to hei\ for you dandled 
 it and fondled it, and then carried it in your arms to town, 
 to muse. Who behaved so kindly to it that it run alone in 
 a month. 
 
104 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 "I must now mention the noblest action of your life, 
 your generosity to nephew David ; all the world is 
 repeating your praises. The people who always envied 
 jou and wished to detract from you, always declaring 
 you loved money too much, ever to part from it, now 
 they will feel foolish, and look contemptible : all that I can 
 say is, / wish that heaven had made me such an uncle. 
 
 " I hope my dear Mrs. Garrick is perfect well ; happy she 
 must ever be ; she has a disposition which will make lier so 
 in all situations. You and I, you know, can alter our 
 tempers with the weathercock. We are all here at present 
 but queer. Mrs. Mastivre is not sick (but sorry) ; your 
 Jemsey is nither one thing nor the other — always dreaming 
 of Garrick and the opera. 
 
 " Everybody is raving against Mr. Sheridan for his supine- 
 ness. The country is very dull : we have not twenty people 
 in the village, but still it is better than London. Let me 
 see you — let me hear from you : and tell me all the news 
 you can to divert your ever aliectionate and forgiving 
 
 C. Clive.' 
 
 Our brother and sister join in compliments to your lady 
 and self. 
 
 Mk. Garrick to Mrs Clive. 
 
 " Hampton, Friday Morning. 
 " Has not the nasty bile which so often conhnes, and 
 has heretofore tormented you, kept me at home, I should 
 have been at your feet three days ago. If your heart 
 (wonderful combustible like my own!) has played off all 
 the squibs and rockets which lately occasioned a little 
 cracking and bouncing about me, and can receive again thp 
 more gentle and pleasing tire works of love and friendship. 
 
Life of Mrs. Catiieuine Clive. 105 
 
 I will be with you at six this evening, to revive by the help 
 of those spirits in your tea kettle lamp, that flame which 
 was almost blown out by the flouncing of your petticoat, 
 when my name was mentioned. . . , Can my Pivy know 
 so little of me, to think that I prefer the clack of Lords 
 and Ladies, to the enjoyment of humour and genius? . . . 
 In short your misconceptions about that fete Champetre 
 (devil take the word) has made me so cross about everything 
 that belongs to it, that I curse all squibs, crackers, rockets, 
 air balloons, mines, serpents, and Catherine wheels ; and can 
 think of nothing, and wish for nothing, but laugh, gig, 
 humour, fun, pun, conundrum, carri witchet, and Catherine 
 Clive. I am ever, my Pivy's most constant and loving, 
 D. Garrick." 
 
 Mrs. Clive to Mr. Garrick. 
 
 "Twickenhem, January 23rd, 1774. 
 
 "Wonderful Sir. — Who have been for thirty years 
 contradicting an old established proverb, ' you cannot make 
 bricks without straw ; ' but you have done what is infinitely 
 more difficult, for you have made actors and actresse.^ with- 
 out genius, that is you have made them pass for such, 
 which has answered your end, though it has given you 
 infinite trouble. You never took much pains with yourself 
 for you could not help acting well, therefore I do not think 
 you have much merrit in that, though to be sure it has 
 been very assuaging to yourself, as well as the rest of 
 the world ; for while you are laughing at your own conceits, 
 you was at the same time sure they would cram your iron 
 chests. What put the fancy in my head, was your desiring 
 a good character of young Crofts. It is a sad thing some 
 people would say, that such a paltry being as an exciseman, 
 
106 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 cannot get his bread unless he has behaved well in the 
 world ; and yet it is so perfectly right, that everybody 
 would have the same caution, not to give good characters 
 when they did not deserve them, nor receive people 
 into your family for servants, or any kind of business, who 
 had them not. If this was made an unalterable rule, the 
 world must in time become all sorts of good people. 
 
 " I send the enclosed, which may be depended on. Mr. 
 Costard is our rector, one of tlie most learned and best sort 
 of men in tlie world. They say he has more knowledge in 
 the stars, and among all the sky-people than anybody, 
 so that most of us take him for a conjuror. I ought to 
 make an apology for being so troublesome, when I come to 
 town I will make my excuse, when I shall at the same 
 time see Mrs. Garrick, which will always be a real pleasure 
 to dear sir. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 C. PiVY." 
 
 The spirit and vivacity of these epistles will strike every 
 one, and they deservedly excited the admiration of that 
 accomplished critic, Mr. John Forster. 
 
 To the very last the spirited actress sustained her humour. 
 When some Jewish visitors excused them from going to see 
 Strawberry Hill, as the day was one of their Feast, she sug- 
 gested that "they should change their religion " — a happy 
 compliment moreover to the host. In 17G6, when Lady 
 Shelburne was coming to Twittenham, "you know," Walpole 
 wrote, " Lady Suffolk is deaf, and I have talked much of a 
 charming old personi have met at Paris — Madm. Du Detfand 
 ■ — who is blind. " Well," said Clive, " if the new Countess 
 is but lame, I shall have no chance of ever seeing you." 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 107 
 
 No wonder he designed some venison for " tlie demidium 
 animce mere, Mrs. Clive (a pretty round half,)" he adds. 
 His letters, indeed, quite help us to follow her in that sleepy 
 district until her death — and a very pleasant sketch they 
 furnish. Thus in 1773; " except being extremely ill, Mrs. 
 Clive is extremely well. The papers said she was to act 
 at Covent Garden.* She has printed a very proper answer 
 in the Evening Po6t" When he invited a lady of quality 
 down, JNTrs. Clive was held out as an attraction : 
 
 To Lady Cecilia Johnstone. 
 
 Aug. 19, 1777. 
 
 Onr abdicated monarch Lear, 
 
 And bonuy Dame Cadwallader, 
 With a whole Theatre from France, 
 And Raftor, wont th' eclipse in Hays to dance, 
 
 Next Saturday, if fair or foul, 
 
 On bacon, ham, and chicken fowl, 
 
 Intend with Horace — no great bard, 
 
 In one of Epicurus herd, 
 To dine. 
 
 Mr. Cole, a laborious antiquarian, whose notes and 
 diaries fill many volumes, once in 1779, paid a visit to 
 Mr. Walpole, and gives this account of what he saw : 
 "Mrs. Clive, the celebrated actress and comedian, has 
 a little box contiguous to Mr. Walpole's garden, and 
 close almost to the chapel. Here she lives retired and 
 her brother, Mr. Raftor, with her, but he was not disposed 
 
 * When Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft revived " Masks and Faces," at 
 the flaymarket Theatre, Miss Wade, who performed the part of 
 Mrs. Clive, used Kitty's own walking stick. It had a china crutch 
 top, and was a present from Walpole to Mrs. Darner, from whom it 
 passed to my friend Mr. C;impbell Johnstone. 
 
108 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 to stir out. **** While I was at Strawberry Hill, I saw 
 on the table a scrap of paper, with the following verses 
 on Mrs. Clive, which I took a copy of, thoiigli I had 
 no leave from Mr. Walpole for so doing ; yet as they 
 lay publicly for anyone to see them, I thought it no breach 
 of honour to copy them. They seemed to me, from the 
 blotting and alterations of the writing, to have been lately 
 composed, probably the evening before, while Mrs. 
 Clive was present, and meant as a sportive and innocent 
 amusement, to divert the time. They were written by way 
 of epitaph, and on a supposition that Mrs Clive was 
 dead." 
 
 Her footman was recommended to her through an odd 
 adventure. A retired officer. Captain Prescott, who had 
 married a young wife, used to treat her with such violence 
 that his servant left him, and was engaged by Mrs. Clive. 
 When the young lady could endure it no longer, he assisted 
 her to elope. As some legal proceedings followed, he was 
 e.xamined, and when Lord Manfield asked him severely how 
 he could do such a thing, replied " that his late master would 
 have murdered his wife — so he had done him a service in 
 saving him from being hanged!" an answer that delighted 
 all at " Twittenham," and Mrs. Clive specially. 
 
 In December, 1780, the actress learned the death of her 
 husband, Mr. George Clive, at a great age, who had now 
 been separated from her nearly fifty years. He had long 
 since retired to Bath, to enjoy the easy competence be- 
 queathed to him by his friend Ince, of " Spectator " memory, 
 and according to the effusive testimony of the obituary 
 notices, was lamented as " a gentleman of extensive learning 
 and one of the first classical scholars of the age :" while 
 " his philosophic disposition " enabled him to support his 
 
Life of Mrs. Catuerixe Clive. 109^ 
 
 " various afflictions with a resignation which evinced his 
 goodness of heart." He was esteemed and " visited by 
 Mr. Mehnoth," and " all the literati thought themselves 
 honoured by his acquaintance." It was added that he 
 owed much to the teachings of "that great master of all 
 literature, Dr. Snape," on the mere " mention of whose 
 name he ever paid the grateful tribute of a sigh." If Mr. 
 George Clive was indeed such a paragon, it is to be feared 
 that the blame of the separation must be laid to the account 
 of the fractious and less perfect Kitty. 
 
 In 1782, she had serious attacks of illness, and her old 
 friend thought she could not survive. " I thought her in a 
 bad way, her house is little less than an infirmary." In 
 August, " poor Mrs. Clive is certainly very declining, but has 
 been better of late ; and, what I am glad of, thinks herself 
 better." But in September, she rallied, " Dame Cliveden 
 is the only heroine among all us old Dowagers ; she is so 
 much recovered, she ventures to go out cruising on all the 
 neighbours," and in October, he could write, " Mrs. 
 Cliveden, I flatter myself is nearly recovered, having had 
 no relapses since. She even partakes of the carnival, which 
 at Twickenham, commences at Michaelmas, and lasts as 
 long as there are four persons to make a pool. I am to go 
 to her this evening for what she calls only two tables." 
 
 In July, 1783, she had her favourite Miss Pope with her. 
 " Pope has been at Mrs. Clive's this week. I wrote a line of 
 excuse, but hoped very soon to salute Miss Pope's eye." 
 
 But, at last the intrepid old actress had to succumb : 
 
 " My poor old friend is a great loss. I had played cards 
 with her at Mrs. Gostlings, three nights before I came 
 to town, and found her extremely confused, and not 
 knowing what she did, indeed I had perceived something of 
 
 Q 
 
110 Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 the sort before, and had found her much broken this 
 autumn. It seems that the day after, she went to General 
 Lister's burial, and got cold, and has been ill for two 
 or three days. On the Wednesday morning, she rose to 
 have her bod made, with her maid by her, sunk down 
 at once, and died without a pang or a groan. Her brother 
 took the loss sadly to heart — poor Mr. Raftor is shrunk to 
 the greatest degree, and for some days would not see 
 anybody. I sent for him to town to me, but he will 
 not come till next week." 
 
 Her death occurred on December 6th, 1785. Her old 
 friend set up an urn in his gardens, to her memory — a testi- 
 monial then in fashion — with this inscription : — 
 
 " Ye smiles and jests still hover round ; 
 This is mirth's consecrated ground. 
 Here lived the laughter loving dame, 
 A matchless actress, Clive her name. 
 The comic muse with her retired, 
 And shed a tear when she expired."* 
 
 The old church at Twickenham, is a quaint and 
 comfortable structure of genial red brick, with a burly air, 
 and pleasantly situated on the river bank, in its own 
 churchyard. Walking round it, we find on the outside 
 
 * On which the venomous Walcot addressed some lines 
 
 TO MR. HORACE WALPOLE. 
 On his inscription on an urn dedicated to Mrs. Clive, 
 By Peter Pindar, Esq. 
 Horace of Strawberry Hill, I mean not Rome, 
 Lo ! all thy geese are swans I do presume — 
 Truth and thy trumpet seem not to agree : 
 Know comedy is heart, — all alive — 
 The sprightly lass no more expired with Clive, 
 Then Dame humility will die with thee." 
 
Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive. Ill 
 
 wall, in an obscure corner at the back, a poorish, rather 
 starved looking tablet, fixed against the wall, not a couple 
 of feet square. This is the memorial to the famous actress, 
 set up by Miss Pope, and which could not have cost her 
 friend more than a couple of pounds. 
 
 Sacred to the Memory of 
 
 MRS. CATHERINE CLIVE, 
 
 Who Lied December 6th, 17S5, 
 Aged 75 Years. 
 
 This meagre memorial is however embellished by some 
 indifferent verses, the composition of her sorrowing friend. 
 
 The faithful " Jemmy " Raftor did not long survive his 
 gifted sister. He died on September 30th, 1790, leaving 
 behind him the reputation of a jovial, humorous creature, 
 but of an indifierent performer. A friend recalled one last 
 touch of character : — " We remember," he says, with that 
 tone of good-natured contempt which ever follows the 
 Viveur, " her acting Bayes in ' The Rehearsal ' with her 
 brother, a very inferior actor, speaking (as usual) like a 
 mouse in a cheese, in the character of bold Thunder I ' O 
 fie, Mr. Raftor," said she, 'speak out like a man. Surely 
 you might have learned more assurance from your sister !' " 
 This was characteristic, and presents a happy sketch of 
 brother and sister. 
 
112 Life op Mrs. Catherine Clive. 
 
 Our actress was something of an authoress, and her 
 native vivacity, as we have seen, found vent in several 
 light productions, pamphlets, controversial letters, and a 
 few " pieces of occasion," — Among these were " Bayes in 
 Petticoats," already described,* " Every Woman in her 
 Humour," " Sketch of a Fine Lady's Return from a Rout," 
 " The Island of Slaves," a translation — attributed to her 
 on doubtful authority. She was never tired of ridiculing 
 ladies of extravagant fasliion, though she must have had 
 no opportunities of studying their weaknesses, for she was 
 not likely to have been admitted to their society. The 
 same lack of opportunities must vitiate all attempts to 
 pourtray the follies of the upper classes — the mere palpable 
 absurdities of dress and bearing being all the stock-in-trade 
 that is available. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 Such was Catherine Clive — whose character, as well as 
 whose performances have enriclied the associations of litera- 
 ture, besides increasing the gaiety of the nation. As will 
 have been seen from this trifling record, she was an interesting 
 woman, straightforward and honorable in her character — 
 bright, gay, and good-natured. We recall her image with 
 pleasure — even her little boutades : we could ill spare 
 her from the histrionic ranks, for she was an actress of the 
 first rank, well deserving the handsome encomium of Gold- 
 smith, who had seen the leading performers of Europe. 
 " She has more true humour," he wrote, "than any actress 
 upon the English or any other stage I have seen." 
 
 * In his article in the " National Biography," Sir T. Martin gives 
 this piece as " Boxjs in Petticoats," — a diverting mistake. 
 
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