ry difficult to
be attained.

What demonstrated his thorough skill in dramatic entertainments,
was, his own performance, which was sufficient to establish a high
reputation, independent of his other merit. As he had the happiness to
pass through life without reproach, a felicity few attain, so he was
equally happy in the choice of a wife, with whom he spent his days in
domestic quiet, though they were of very different tempers; he was
naturally gay and chearful, she of a melancholy reserved disposition.
She was so strongly affected by his death, which was, in some measure,
sudden, that she ran distracted, tho' she appeared rather a prudent and
constant, than a fond and passionate wife: She was a great ornament to
the stage, and her death, which happened soon after, was a public loss.

The Laureat, in his Apology, thus characterises her: 'She was, says he,
though far advanced in years, so great a mistress of nature, that even
Mrs. Barry, who acted Lady Macbeth after her, could not in that part,
with all her superior strength, and melody of voice, throw out those
quick and careless strokes of terror, from the disorder of a guilty
mind, which the other gave us, with a facility in her manner that
rendered them at once tremendous and delightful. Time could not impair
her skill, though it brought her person to decay: she was to the last
the admiration of all true judges of nature, and lovers of Shakespear,
in whose plays she chiefly excelled, and without a rival. When she
quitted the stage, several good actresses were the better for her
instruction. She was a woman of an unblemished and sober life, and had
the honour to teach Queen Anne, when Princess, the part of Semandra in
Mithridates, which she acted at court in King Charles's time. After the
death of Mr. Betterton, that Princess, when Queen, ordered her a pension
for life, but she lived not to receive more than the first half year of
it.' Thus we have seen, that it is not at all impossible for persons
of real worth, to transfer a reputation acquired on the stage, to the
characters they possess in real life, and it often happens, as in the
words of the poet,

That scenic virtue forms the rising age,
And truth displays her radiance from the stage.

The following are Mr. Betterton's dramatic works;

1. The Woman made a Justice; a Comedy.

2. The Unjust Judge, or Appius and Virginia; a Tragedy, written
originally by Mr. John Webster, an old poet, who lived in the