feeling of fellowship may have
become weakened. Not that the actress was in any sense snobbish;
rather let it be said that the circumstances of her celebrity proved
quite enough, in the course of human affairs, to separate her from the
other players. Indeed, one of her biographers relates that Oldfield
always went in state to Drury Lane, accompanied by two footmen, and
that she seldom spoke to any one of the actors.[A]

[Footnote A: She always went to the house (_i.e._, the theatre) in the
same dress she had worn at dinner in her visits to the houses of great
people; for she was much caressed on account of her general merit, and
her connection with Mr. Churchill. She used to go to the playhouse in
a chair, attended by two footmen; she seldom spoke to any one of
the actors, and was allowed a sum of money to buy her own
clothes.--"General Biographical Dictionary."]

Nance may have made her entry into the green-room amid royal auspices,
but who can for a second believe that "she seldom spoke to any one
of the actors"? There was in her composition too much of sunshine to
warrant any such belief, and then we know that behind the scenes she
was ever affable and friendly. If she did not brook familiarity which
comes of contempt, and if she moved about among her companions with
dignity, then so much the better.

Of Nance's sweetness of temper and sterling common-sense, Cibber
has left us an attractive memory. It seems that when the Drury Lane
management determined to revive "The Provoked Wife" of Sir John
Vanbrugh (January 1726), Colley suggested that Wilks should take a
rest during the run of the piece, and allow Barton Booth to play the
lover, Constant. The idea did not meet with Wilks' approval; "down
dropt his brow, and fur'd were his features"; and the green-room
became the scene of a violent spat between Cibber and himself, with
Mrs. Oldfield and other members of the company as excited listeners.
Finally the author of the "Apology" said: "Are you not every day
complaining of your being over-labour'd? And now, upon the first
offering to ease you, you fly into a passion, and pretend to make that
a greater grievance than t'other: But, Sir, if your being in or out of
the play is a hardship, you shall impose it upon yourself: The part is
in your hand, and to us it is a matter of indifference now whether you
take it or leave it."

[Illustration: SIR JOHN VANBRUGH By Sir GODFREY KNELLER]

Upon this Mr. Wilks "threw down t