the furviving one the whole of her fortune, the companion of my return was mistress of more than twenty thousand pounds. The fum I borrowed of this lady amounted to fix hundred pounds.

G. A. B.

LETTER LVII.

March 9, 17.

WHEN the winter campaign at the theatre.

commenced, I found that Barry was gone to Ireland in difguft; this had arifen from Mr. Rich's not thinking proper to comply with the exorbitant demands he made relative to the engagement of Mifs Noffiter. Mr. Sheridan was engaged for fome nights. I was not upon the best terms with that gentleman, for more reasons than one. In the first place I could not forgive his making me pay for the orders I had iffued during my being with him in Ireland; and in the next, from a letter he had wrote me, in which he offered me a pecuniary reward, if I would recommend a friend of his to Mr. Calcraft, as an Irifh agent. I.. was so displeased at this affronting mode of application, that, although I had heard of the gentleman's worth and could have wifhed to have ferved him, I returned no anfwer to Mr. Sheridan's letter; in order to fhew, that I was fenfible of the affront. I have always

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always been very particular in refusing every application that has been attended with the offer of a douceur. And if a laudable delicacy in points of this kind was more general, places would not fo often be filled by the ignorant and unworthy, to the exclufion of merit.

Having very little profpect of employment at the theatre, I requested Mr. Rich to give me up my articles; in which, befides the ftipulation for my falary, there was an agreement that I fhould have my choice of parts in all plays which might be acted at that house; but this he would not consent to do. A gentleman of the name of Sparks, was engaged by Mr. Rich this season; he had great merit in his line of acting; but his chief excellence lay in the infinite humour he was mafter of when in company, which made his fociety greatly courted by all his ácquaintance.

Early in the feafon a rehearsal of "The Diftreffed Mother" was called. Being rather later than usual in my attendance, for I always made a point to be one of the first, to my great furprife, I found Mrs. Woffington repeating the part of Andromache. Upon my expreffing my disapprobation, that lady, walking up to me, told me, that as my youth and elegance better fuited the character of Hermione, and that I might also enjoy the happiness she knew I fhould have in fhewing my new Parifian finery, she had been induced

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induced to take the part of the Queen. Without deigning to return an answer to my infulting rival, I immediately fent for Mr. Rich, and told him what was going forward. The manager, without any hesitation, reinftated me in my character; and Mrs. Woffington was obliged, against her will, to appear in Hermione, and to her very great mortification, in a drefs that was not over clean.

"Oedipus" was foon after revived. And in order to fhew the hero and heroine of the piece to the greatest advantage, Mrs. Woffington, upon account of her figure, was chofen to reprefent the latter, and I was to appear in the character of a young princefs I did fo. But on the first night of its reprefentation, overcome by the horror of the piece, and by my fright at seeing the ghost of Laius, notwithstanding. I had been fo long used to the stage, and all its feigned terrors, I fainted away, and was carried off in a state of infenfibility. When I recovered my fenfes, I was informed, that ta udience, as much terrified as myfelf, had retired, and left Oedipus and Jocafta to croak at one another, in a difmal tête-à tête.

"Phædra and Hippolytus," in which I was honoured with the part of another princefs, was alfo got up. Of this character, from the piece's being fo fhort-lived, I recollect as little as I do that of Hip- ́ polytus, which I have been trying to call to memory, but without fuccefs. The illness, which proceeded from

from the fright just mentioned, lasted a considerable time, and prevented my playing much, till the bene fits, when I was fully employed.

After I had received the emoluments of my own benefit, I propofed to fettle all my bills; and for this purpose I fhewed Mr. Calcraft thofe which had been left unpaid at the time we quitted Brewer-ftreet; thefe, by their accumulation between the period of their being delivered in, and our removal from thence, were now encreased to upwards of thirteen hundred pounds; having deliberately looked over them, and feen their amount, he plainly told me, that he could not pay them: he faid, that his expences were very great; and as my income was fo confiderable, it was more than fufficient, with economy, to fupport fo fmall a family, with the four hundred a year he had allowed towards it. He then afked me what I had done with the thousand pounds in bank notes, that I had receiv▴ ed at the time of my quarrel with Mr. Metham, of which he now acknowledged himself the donor, as well as of the fifty for my Tunbridge horses. I was thunder-ftruck at this direct refufal of his paying thefe debts, for I not only flattered myfelf that he would have difcharged them, but the fix hundred pounds I had borrowed of Mifs Meredith.

As foon as I could recover from my confusion, I arofe up to leave the room; but he prevented me from going, fearing I fhould quit the house: this I certainly

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certainly should have done, as I defpifed him for his meannefs. I must here ftop to remark, that even in the midst of my chagrin at Mr. Calcraft's behaviour, I received great pleasure from the information, that I was not indebted to the nobleman I fufpected for the thousand pounds; especially as his Lord hip had feemed to confider himself at liberty to folicit my favour ever since my difunion with Mr. Metham.

Mr. Calcraft having detained me, he concluded with saying, that if I would once convince him that I knew the value of money, he would give me a thousand pounds for every hundred I then required. Tired with this pecuniary converfation, which always was the most unpleafing to me of any, and now holding him in fovereign contempt, I replied, that I left it to plodders like him, who were poffeffed of no other knowledge, to fet a value upon fuch trash. Upon this he pulled out his pocket-book, and laying down three hundred and odd pounds, which with the thousand and fifty before received, juft made up the amount of the bills owing, he walked down to his desk, there to bless the Mammon, by which he hoped at fome future period, to purchase himself a title, or at leaft to become through it, a leader in the House of Commons. That these were his fentiments, I fhall hereafter have occafion to evince.

I had been told, a few days before the above converfation between Mr. Calcraft and myself took

place,