Transcribed from the 1886 Cassell & Co. edition by DavidPrice,
by
MRS. INCHBALD.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited:
london, paris, newyork & melbourne.
1886.
Elizabeth Simpson was born on the 15th of October, 1753, oneof the eight children of a poor farmer, at Standingfield, nearBury St. Edmunds. Five of the children were girls, who wereall gifted with personal beauty. The family was RomanCatholic. The mother had a delight in visits to the BuryTheatre, and took, when she could, her children to theplay. One of her sons became an actor, and her daughterElizabeth offered herself at eighteen—her father then beingdead—for engagement as an actress at the NorwichTheatre. She had an impediment of speech, and she was notengaged; but in the following year, leaving behind anaffectionate letter to her mother, she stole away fromStandingfield, and made a bold plunge into the unknown world ofLondon, where she had friends, upon whose help she relied. Her friends happened to be in Wales, and she had some troubles togo through before she found a home in the house of a sister, whohad married a poor tailor. About two months after she hadleft Standingfield she married, in London, Mr. Inchbald, anactor, who had paid his addresses to her when she was at home,and who was also a Roman Catholic. On the evening of thewedding day the bride, who had not yet succeeded in obtaining anengagement, went to the play, and saw the bridegroom play thepart of Mr. Oakley in the “Jealous Wife.” Mr.Inchbald was thirty-seven years old, and had sons by a formermarriage. In September, 1772, Mrs. Inchbald tried herfortune on the stage by playing Cordelia to her husband’sLear. Beauty alone could not assure success. Theimpediment in speech made it impossible for Mrs. Inchbald tosucceed greatly as an actress. She was unable to realiseher own conceptions. At times she and her husband prosperedso little that on one day their dinner was of turnips, pulled andeaten in a field, and sometimes there was no dinner at all. But better days presently followed; first acquaintance of Mrs.Inchbald with Mrs. Siddons grew to a strong friendship, and thisextended to the other members of the Kemble family.
After seven years of happy but childless marriage, Mrs.Inchbald was left a widow at the age of twenty-six. Inafter years, when devoting herself to the baby of one of herlandladies, she wrote to a friend,—“I shall neveragain have patience with a mother who complains of anything butthe loss of her children; so no complaints when you see meagain. Remember, you have had two children, and I never hadone.” After her husband’s death, Mrs.Inchbald’s beauty surrounded her with admirers, some ofthem rich, but she did not marry again. To one of those whooffered marriage, she replied that her temper was so uncertainthat nothing but blind affection in a husband could bear withit. Yet she was patiently living and fighting the world ona weekly salary of about thirty shillings, out of which shehelped her poorer sisters. When acting at Edinburgh shespent on herself only eight shillings a week in board andlodging. It was after her husband’s death that Mrs.Inchbald finished a little novel, called “A SimpleStory,” but it was not until twelve years afterwards thatshe could get it published. She came to London again, andwrote farces, which she could not get accepted; but she obtainedan increase of salary to three pounds a week by unwillinglyconsenting not only to act in plays, but also to walk inpantomime. At last, in Ju