ssary to a
heroine, no external appearance could be much less calculated to
personify a Thalestris than Miss Brunton's--but the mighty mind soon
made itself to be felt, and every idea of personal dimensions vanished.
"The audience (says a British author) expected to see a mawkin, but saw
a Cibber--the applause was proportionate to the surprise: every mouth
emitted her praise, and she performed several parts in Bath and Bristol,
a phenomenon in the theatrical hemisphere." Though the trepidation
inseparable from such an effort diminished her powers at first, the
sweetness of her voice struck every ear like a charm: the applause that
followed invigorated her spirits so far that in the reciprocation of a
speech or two more, her fine clear articulation struck the audience with
surprise, and when, more assured by their loud approbation, she came to
the speech:

"Melanthon, how I loved, the gods who saw
Each secret image that my fancy formed,
The gods can witness how I loved my Phocion,
And yet I went not with him. Could I do it?
Could I desert my father?--Could I leave
The venerable man, who gave me being,
A victim here in Syracuse, nor stay
To watch his fate, to visit his affliction,
To cheer his prison hours, and with the tear
Of filial virtue bid each bondage smile."

she seemed to pour forth her whole heart and soul in the words, and
emitted such a blaze as filled the house with rapture and astonishment.
In a word, no actress at the highest acme of popularity ever received
greater applause. Next day her performance was the topic of every circle
in Bath. Horatia in the Roman Father, and Palmyra in Mahomet, augmented
her reputation, and in less than a month the fame of this prodigy, for
such she appeared to be, had reached every town and city of Great
Britain and Ireland.

It was natural to imagine that such extraordinary powers would not be
long suffered to waste themselves upon the limited society of country
towns. Mr. Harris, as soon as he received intelligence on which he could
depend, upon the subject of Miss Brunton's talents, resolved to be
himself an eye-witness of her performance, and set off to Bath with a
view, if his judgment should concur with that of the public of that
city, to offer her an engagement at Covent Garden. To see her was to
decide; he resolved to have her if possible, and lost no time to make
such overtures at once as could not well be refused. These included an
engageme