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    mind , to examine and reflect upon the minute and watchful skill by which every part was made to conduce to that wondrous general impression received while witnessing the performance . Yet , perhaps , those little touches which mark and preserve individuality of character start off in

    the strongest light of remembrance ; such as the indignant reproof with which she chides the rude and irreverent entrance of the messenger , and shows that , in her dejected state , " she will not lose her wonted greatness ; " and the peculiar moral sweetness and royalty of manner witb which she makes her last request : —

    * " When I am dead , Let me be used with honour . Strew me o ' er With maiden flowers , that all the world may know I was a chaste wife unto my grave ! Although unqueen'd , inter me like a queen ; And pay respect to that which I have been . "

    1 additional beauty of her performance remains for us to notice . The astonishing nicety with which her powers are made gradually to decay from the beginning to the end of the scene ; when her anxious directions to the Lord Catnpeius seem to have exhausted her ; when " her eyes grow dim , " and her bodily and mental powers but just suffice , as she is supported off , to lay upon her servants the last pathetic and solemn injunctions we have quoted .

    • The oppressive truth of her representation in this scene is remark * tbly indicated by the minds of the audience being always so weighed down with the load of sorrow , tenderness , and respect , that it is not until she is no more seen , and reflection has relieved them from their sensations , that they ever once think of paying the customary tribute of applause , which then cannot be too long and loud ; but in the course of the scene , the heart cannot once yield to or suffer the usual theatrical sympathy of the hands /—Vol . ii . p . 149—152 .

    It has not been our purpose in this article either to trace the events of Mrs . Siddons ' s life , or minutely analyze her character aa an actress , or as a woman ; or to give a complete account of these Tolumes ; but merely to introduce them to our readers by the expression of some of the thoughts which have been excited in our own minds , and the citation of some of the passages b y which we have been most struck in the perusal . For the rest , we must

    refer to the book itself . We are obliged to pass over much which we should willingly have introduced : many characteristic and therefore noble and beautiful specimens of the biographer ' s style of writing and modes of thought ; many illustrations of the effects which Mrs . Siddons produced , not only on the audience , but on the other performers ; some touching instances of her deportment

    m private life , and the manner in which she sustained those calamities and bereavements which most strongly try the feelings ; and above all , the indications of her state of mind as she advanced towards and throug h the period of her professional retirement , of which she said , ' In this last season of my acting I feel as if I were mounting the first step of a ladder conductin g

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    Ctmpbdh Lift of Mm . Siddon * . 541

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 547, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/17/