CONTENTS.

	PAGE
CHAPTER I.—Parentage and Childhood	[1]
CHAPTER II.—Marriage	[18]
CHAPTER III.—“Davey”	[33]
CHAPTER IV.—Work	[48]
CHAPTER V.—Success	[67]
CHAPTER VI.—Dublin and Edinburgh	[81]
CHAPTER VII.—Clouds	[95]
CHAPTER VIII.—Lady Macbeth	[115]
CHAPTER IX.—Friends	[130]
CHAPTER X.—1782 to 1798	[149]
CHAPTER XI.—Sheridan	[172]
CHAPTER XII.—Hermione	[186]
CHAPTER XIII.—Sorrows	[202]
CHAPTER XIV.—Westbourne Farm	[216]
CHAPTER XV.—Retirement	[239]
CHAPTER XVI.—Old Age	[255]

MRS. SIDDONS.

CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.

The lax morality prevailing in England at the time of the Restoration, produced a literary and dramatic school of art suited to the taste of the public. Congreve wrote Love for Love, and coolly remarked, when accused of immorality, “that, if it were an immodest play, he was incapable of writing a modest one.”

The reaction from the almost overstrained energy and chivalry of the Elizabethan age, which a century of Stuart rule effected in the minds of Englishmen, had brought them thus low. Manners were looked upon as better than morals. Scepticism as better than belief, as well when it concerned the tenets of the Bible as the honour of their neighbours’ wives.

CONTENTS.

MRS. SIDDONS.

CHAPTER I.PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.

CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.