The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nature and Art, by Mrs. Inchbald, Edited by
Henry Morley

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Title: Nature and Art

Author: Mrs. Inchbald

Editor: Henry Morley

Release Date: July 24, 2007 [eBook #3787]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURE AND ART***

Transcribed from the 1886 Cassell & Co. edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

NATURE AND ART

BY
MRS. INCHBALD.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.
1886.

INTRODUCTION

Elizabeth Simpson was born on the 15th of October, 1753, one of the eight
children of a poor farmer, at Standingfield, near Bury St. Edmunds. Five
of the children were girls, who were all gifted with personal beauty. The
family was Roman Catholic. The mother had a delight in visits to the
Bury Theatre, and took, when she could, her children to the play. One of
her sons became an actor, and her daughter Elizabeth offered herself at
eighteen--her father then being dead--for engagement as an actress at the
Norwich Theatre. She had an impediment of speech, and she was not
engaged; but in the following year, leaving behind an affectionate letter
to her mother, she stole away from Standingfield, and made a bold plunge
into the unknown world of London, where she had friends, upon whose help
she relied. Her friends happened to be in Wales, and she had some
troubles to go through before she found a home in the house of a sister,
who had married a poor tailor. About two months after she had left
Standingfield she married, in London, Mr. Inchbald, an actor, who had
paid his addresses to her when she was at home, and who was also a Roman
Catholic. On the evening of the wedding day the bride, who had not yet
succeeded in obtaining an engagement, went to the play, and saw the
bridegroom play the part of Mr. Oakley in the "Jealous Wife." Mr.
Inchbald was thirty-seven years old, and had sons by a former marriage.
In September, 1772, Mrs. Inchbald tried her fortune on the stage by
playing Cordelia to her husband's Lear. Beauty alone could not assure
success. The impediment in speech made it impossi