ss, would never more tread those boards
which were dearer to her than life.[A] Before she disappears for ever
from these "Palmy Days" let us read a page or two about her from the
graphic pictures in that famous "Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley
Cibber":--

* * * * *

"As she was naturally a pleasant mimick, she had the skill to make
that talent useful on the stage, a talent which may be surprising in
a conversation, and yet be lost when brought to the theatre.... But
where the elocution is round, distinct, voluble, and various, as Mrs.
Montfort's was, the mimick there is a great assistant to the actor."

[Footnote A: A brief memoir of Mrs. Verbruggen and her first husband,
handsome Will Mountford, will be found in "Echoes of the Playhouse."]

* * * * *

Which reminds one that more than a baker's dozen of modern comedians,
so called, are nothing less than mimics. However, this is digressing,
and so we continue:

"Nothing, tho' ever so barren, if within the bounds of nature, could
be flat in her hands. She gave many heightening touches to characters
but coldly written, and often made an author vain of his work that in
itself had but little merit. She was so fond of humour, in what low
part soever to be found, that she would make no scruple of defacing
her fair form to come heartily into it;[A] for when she was eminent
in several desirable characters of wit and humour in higher life, she
would be in as much fancy when descending into the antiquated Abigail
of Fletcher ('Scornful Lady') as when triumphing in all the airs and
vain graces of a fine lady, a merit that few actresses care for. In
a play of D'Urfey's, now forgotten, called the 'Western Lass,' which
part she acted, she transformed her whole being, body, shape, voice,
language, look, and features, into almost another animal, with a
strong Devonshire dialect, a broad, laughing voice, a poking head,
round shoulders, an unconceiving eye, and the most bediz'ning, dowdy
dress that ever cover'd the untrain'd limbs of a Joan Trot. To have
seen her here you would have thought it impossible the same creature
could ever have been recover'd to what was as easy to her, the gay,
the lively, and the desirable. Nor was her humour limited to her sex;
for, while her shape permitted, she was a more adroit pretty fellow
than is usually seen upon the stage. Her easy air, action, mien, and
gesture quite chang'd, fro