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    must be divided , our nursery-maids are of more importance to us than our mothers . They are of more importance to us than our actors , lawyers , divines . They give the first twist to the twig . Miss Kemble ' s € principal employment was to read to the elder Mr . Greethead . ' It would have been more useful had it been to

    read to the junior master Greethead . * Servile , ' indeed ! If the nurse be servile , what will the child become ? These are the very persons to whom copies of Milton should be given . If families rarely do such a thing , why then Thomas Campbell , patriot and poet himself , should teach families that Milton is noble music for their young to grow to .

    Mrs . Siddons ' s first appearance in London was on the 29 th December , 1775 , in the character of Portia . A newspaper nex , t morning gave the following account : — ' On before us tottered , rather than walked , a very pretty , delicate , fragile-looking young creature , dressed in a most unbecoming manner , in a faded salmon-coloured saque and coat , and uncertain whereabouts

    to fix either her eyes or her feet . She spoke in a broken , tremulous tone ; and at the close of a sentence her words generally lapsed into a horrid whisper , that was absolutely inaudible . After her first exit , the buzzing comment went round the pit generally : She certainly is very pretty ; but then how awkward , and what a shocking dresser ! Towards the famous trial scene she became more collected , and delivered the

    firreat speech to Shylock with the most critical propriety , but still with a faintness of utterance which seemed rather the result of internal physical weakness than of a deficiency of Spirit or feeling . Altogether the impression made upon the audience by this first effort was of the most negative nature/—Vol . i . pp . 68 , 69 .

    Mr . Campbell ' s wrath with the vile newspaper critic' is only not quite so unreasonable as his horror at nursery-maid vulgarity . The description is graphic , and has every mark of being true to the writer ' s own impression , and not very far from the fact . The actress was ill and frightened ; and , moreover , her capabilities had not yet become powers . Her nature belonged to a class

    which is always of slow developement . If we may borrow a . (beautiful neologism of her biographer , we would say that her character , as well as her form , was sculpturesque . * Its qualities * were broad , grand , simple , and productive of similar effects fromi almost every point of view . In these it resembled the statue *

    rather than the painting , and required , like that , a more prolon ged toil and laborious touch to accomplish its perfection . The * rudiments of a majestic mind and heart may be visible in a child but their maturity is ever late . For many long years after this * period , nature went on moulding and polishing the Siddons .

    After occasionally walking the boards in subordinate characters ,, with little effect , ( though there were those who anticipated herr future greatness , ) Mrs . Siddons was allowed , at the close of thea reason , to drop back quietly into the country . It was seven yearsst

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    Campbells Life of Mrs . Siddons . 511

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 541, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/11/