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first time that ever I remember to have heard the organs, and singing-men in surplices in my life."

"July 25th.-I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink), of which I never had drank before."

Tea was sold in almost every street at this time, but was so valuable that the infusion of it in water was taxed by the gallon, in common with chocolate and sherbet.

"Dec. 1st.-This morning, observing some things to be laid up not as they should be by my girl, I took a broom and basted her till she cried extremely, which made me vexed; but, before I went out, I left her appeased.”

"Dec. 2nd (Lord's Day).-To church, and Mr. Mills made a good sermon; so home to dinner. My wife and I all alone to a leg of mutton, the sauce of which being made sweet, I was angry at it, and eat none, but only dined upon the marrow-bone that we had beside."

"March 23rd.-To the Red Bull* (where I had not been since plays came up again) up to the tireing-room; where strange the confusion and disorder that there is among them in fitting themselves, especially here, where the clothes are very poor, and the actors but common fellows. At last into the pit, where I think there was not above ten more than myself, and not one hundred in the whole house. And the play, which is called "All's Lost but Lust," poorly done; and with so much disorder, among others, in the music-room, the boy that was to sing a song, not singing it right, his master fell about his ears and beat him so, that it put the whole house into an uproar."

+ A minor theatre in St. John's Street, Clerkenwell, described as :

"That degenerate stage,

Where none of the untamed kennel can rehearse
A line of serious sense."

"April 2nd.-To St. James's Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at Pele Mele, the first time that ever I saw the sport."

Pele Mele, from the French paille maille,* the name of a popular game, and of the place where it was practised. A round box bowl had to be struck with a mallet through a high arch of iron or raised ring, standing at either end of an alley; and he who did this at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed on, won. Charles II., who was fond of the game, caused a Pele Mele to be made "at the further end of St. James's Park," what is now called the Mall; but one had formerly existed on the site of the present Pall Mall. Says Waller :

"Here a well-polished mall gives us the joy

To see our Prince his matchless force employ ;
His manly posture and his graceful mien ;
Vigour and youth in all his motions seen;
No sooner has he touched the flying ball,
But 'tis already more than half the mall.
And such a fury from his arm has got,

As from a smoking culverin 'twere shot."

"November 11th.-Captain Ferrars carried me the first time that ever I saw any gaming-house, to one, entering into Lincoln's Inn Fields at the end of Bell Yard, where strange the folly of men to lay and lose so much money, and very glad I was to see the manner of a gamester's life, which I see is very miserable, and poor, and unmanly. And thence he took me to a dancing-school in Fleet Street, where we saw a company of pretty girls dance, but I do not in myself like to have young girls exposed to so much vanity. So to the Wardrobe, where I found my lady had agreed upon a lace for my wife at £6, which I seemed much glad of that it was no more, though in my mind I

*Which was derived from the Italian Palagamio.

fully understood its meaning, and could render it with suitable expression. The management of the voice, the employment of appropriate gesture, the assumption of graceful attitudes; he neglected nothing which could render her proficiency indisputable; and to accustom her to the stage he superintended thirty rehearsals, twelve of which were "dress rehearsals of each of the characters she was to represent. In all these pains he was actuated by his love of the charming young actress, who, to judge from his letters, exercised a considerable influence over him to the very end of his career.

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About 1671 she appeared on the stage, but failed to captivate the fancy of her audience, until she enacted Isabella, the Hungarian Queen, in "Mustapha," Lord Brooke's once-famous tragedy. Thenceforward her progress was sure, if slow; and, in 1680, she placed herself at the head of her profession by her brilliant performance of Monimia, in Otway's tragedy of "The Orphan; or, The Unhappy Marriage." This was the nineteenth of her original characters; but the first with which she succeeded in really identifying herself. In 1682, all London flocked to see her Belvidera in Otway's finest drama, and to be moved to tears by the intensity of her pathos. Her genius was so true and profound that she could take the skeleton-character of the dramatist, and endue it with flesh and blood-a task she performed for Cassandra in Dryden's bombastic tragedy of "Cleomenes" (1692). "Mrs. Barry," says the poet in his preface, "always excellent, has in this tragedy excelled herself, and gained a reputation beyond any woman I have ever seen in the theatre." "In characters of greatness," says Colley Cibber, "Mrs. Barry had a presence of elevated dignity;

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her mien and motion superb, and gracefully majestic; her voice full, clear, and strong; so that no violence of passion could be too much for her; and when distress or tenderness possessed her, she subsided into the most affecting melody and softness. In the art of exciting pity, she had a power beyond all the actresses I have yet seen, or what your imagination can conceive. In scenes of anger, defiance, or resentment, while she was impetuous and terrible, she poured out the sentiment with an enchanting harmony; and it was this particular excellence for which Dryden made her the above-recited compliment, upon her acting Cassandra in his Cleomenes. She was the first person whose merit was distinguished by the indulgence of having an annual benefit play, which was granted to her alone in King James's time, and which did not become common to others till the division of this company, after the death of King William and Queen Mary."

In

Another of her finest impersonations was Isabella in Southern's drama of "The Fatal Marriage " (1694). 1697 she gave fresh proof of her versatility by enacting the two opposite characters of Lady Brute in Vanburgh's "Provoked Wife" and Zara in Congreve's "Mourning Bride." In 1703 she enacted Calista in Rowe's tragedy of “The Fair Penitent" (founded on "The Fatal Dowry" of Massinger); and in 1705, Clarissa, in Sir John Vanburgh's comedy of "The Confederacy." About three years later, ill-health compelled her to retire from the stage; her last new character of importance being Phodra, in Edmund Smith's tragedy of that name (1708). She returned, however, for one night, in the following year, to play with Mrs. Bracegirdle; and she performed Mrs. Frail, in Congreve's "Love for Love," on the occasion

of Betterton's benefit. Her last years were spent at Acton in the enjoyment of the wealth she had gained by her genius and preserved by her prudence; and she died of fever,*"greatly respected,"-in her case no mere form of words-on the 7th of November, 1713. She lies buried in Acton churchyard.

Two of her speeches, or phrases, which always commanded the applause of her admiring audiences, have been handed down to us: "Ah, poor Castalio!" in Otway's "Orphan," and "What mean my grieving subjects?" in Banks's "Unhappy Favourite." In the latter play she represented Queen Elizabeth, and with so much. dignity that Mary of Modena, the wife of James II., as a mark of her approbation, presented her with the dress she had worn upon her marriage.

The charm of Mrs. Barry's beauty lay in its expression. Her eyes and forehead were fine, but it was "the mind, the music breathing o'er the face" that rivetted the gaze of the beholder. Her rich dark hair, drawn back from her brow, revealed its gracious curve. Her mouth was mobile and full of expression, though, according to Tony Aston, it opened a little too much on the right side. She was not below the average height, and her figure was plump and well-made.

Her powers were seen to the best advantage in tragedy; but her comic characters were distinguished by their freedom and vivacity. "In comedy," says Tony Aston, "she was alert, easy, and genteel, pleasant in her face. and action, filling the stage with variety of gesture."

* Cibber says that during her delirium, she dropped into blank verse, saying-in remembrance, apparently, of Queen Anne's creation, in 1711, of twelve peers at once:

"Ah, ah! and so they make us lords by dozens."

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