The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-02 00:00:00

_
This oracle spoke—and fashion, for once,
wore her bells beneath the casque of Minerva.
All could then discern what they had been un-
able to discover till it was discovered for them.
Even the cotillons languished on the nights
when Mrs. Siddons performed ; and dancing
was renounced for the pleasure of weeping, sigh-
ing, and trembling at the theatre. What a
triumphant moment must that be, when a mind
long conscious of the things it can do (as every
mind is which can do any thing worthy of im-
mortality), finds itself at last fairly entered upon
the bright path where all its lonely musings of
long-neglected years start into realities ! Such a
moment this was to Mrs. Siddons. She had
gained the only point that true genius desires—
opportunity to develop itself. Even had her's
been less than it was, and so incapable of re-
sponding to the estimate of her judges, still it
was a moment the consequences of which were
most precious to her ; for, so long as the world
chooses to call us great, we are in po!oession of
all the advantages of being great.
It is not surprising that the fame which now
gathered round her should have prompted the
London managers to make proposals for securing
her services ; but it is surprising that the Bath
manager should have suffered her to escape
from him in the way he did ; for it is stated by
one of her biographers, upon " unquestionable
authority," that a very inconsiderable income of
salary would have induced her to relinquish all
idea of appearing in LOndon again, at least for
many years. That increase, however, the manager
hesitated to offer till it was too late. The fact
was, seeing herself esteemed and followed by the
first people at Bath, Mrs. Siddons had com-
pletely acquiesced in her situation there ; the
more so, probably, because of the distaste which
her experiment of the London boards in 1775
had produpd. The growing demands of her
family, hovkver, determined her to accept a pro-
posal which would enable her to meet those de-
mands with more comfort to herself than she
could hope to do if she declined it.
When it was finally settled that she should
enter into an engagement with the manager of
Drury-lane (an engagement, it is said, mainly
resulting from the influence of the late Duchess
of Devonshire with Sheridan), she invited her
friends and admirers to her farewell performance
on the Bath stage, and to receive from her three
reasons for quitting them. The night came, and
Mrs. Siddons recited a poetical address of her
own writing, in which she supposes they would
feel some astonishment at listening to verses the
composition of one who had hitherto aspired no
higher than to " repeat with decency the verses
of others ;" and some curiosity to know what
the reasons were which she intended to submit
to them. At length she produced her " rea-
sons," leading on the stage her three children,
—and, as she pointed to them, exclaimed :--

"These are the moles that heave me from your side,
Where I was rooted—where I could have died!"

The appeal was irresistible, and the mother
and the actress were alike gratified.—;-Annual
Biography and Obiluaryfor 1832.

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