THE MANAGER'S NOTE-BOOK.-NO. II.* MRS. MARDYN. THIS lady, whose maiden name was Ingram, is a native of Chichester, where she was born in 1789 or 1790. She made her first appearance at Drury-lane Theatre, on the 26th of September, 1815, as Amelia, in "Lovers' Vows," and was announced as an importation from the Theatre Royal, Dublin. In the year 1811 she had been a figure-dancer at the Tottenham-street Theatre, where her principal speaking part was the Housemaid in "Love in a Village.' "Her first performance at Drurylane gave no idea of the simple, artless Amelia; she made her a forward, artful girl, reminding the audience, in some degree, of her occupation in Tottenham-street. She, however, contrived to secure an engagement for five years at ten pounds a week, from the committee under whose direction the theatre at that period was placed-a committee of unquestionable taste, who avowedly preferred beauty to talent in their actresses; indeed, to such a pitch did they carry that feeling, that one of them, when out of office, actually made a complaint to Elliston (then lessee) of his female chorus, and inquired where he picked up such a wretched set of creatures. Elliston, with all his wonted animation, appealed to the director, who assured him that they were, taken altogether, the best set of chorus-singers he had ever directed. "You mistake me," said the committee-man; "I don't find fault with their singing-I don't care a straw about that; but you ought to have pretty girls-that was our plan; but yours are all so infernally ugly that the theatre will be ruined !" It must be confessed that personal charms go a great way in exciting favourable feelings as regards actresses, and certainly as an actress Mrs. Mardyn had but little to recommend her. "Her face was her fortune ;” and she was much indebted to the press; for though they could not speak very extravagantly in praise of her acting, they most justly eulogised her figure;-" beautiful features"-" elegantly-proportioned"-" finelyformed"—" clear, powerful, and harmonious voice "-" fascinating sweetness"-" all the freshness and bloom of youth"-" easy and graceful deportment"-" elegant and captivating person"-" matchless charms"- " inimitable grace countenance delicate yet marked and animated." These, and a great many more such criticisms, crowded our journals for a few days after her debut. This course of review, whatever other advantages might have been derived from it, produced the following lines from the pen of one of the authors of the "Rejected Addresses," which, I believe, have never been published: THE NEW ACTRESS. "Awake the lyre, O Muse of Fire! From Dublin drove, the Queen of Love, * Continued from p. 333, No. cciii. My new lord mayor, your cits to spare, "A Persian fair, on spotted mare, Kill'd men by tens and twenties, "One can't get through, Scott's Waterloo, "The tides of Love, around her rove, In that bright surge, bards ne'er immerge, Out, out, alas! ill-fated gas, That flam'st round Covent-garden, Thy ray how flat, compared with that "Though round her flit, each green-room wit, Her flowing curls entangle earls Her ancle, county members; Then lest false hope, to bowl or rope, Should draw the love-sick bard in, In time 'tis fit, this lay to quit, Of love and Mrs. Mardyn." The following lines in her praise were also written about the same period: Replete with every fond, unstudied grace, A form like Venus, with a Hebe's face, On her soft cheek the dimpled Graces sport, Fancy, forbear! 'twere vain to paint the rest, In 1816 Mrs. Mardyn was engaged for a few nights at the Dover Theatre, upon which the manager put forth as follows: "By permission of the Worshipful the Mayor, positively for two nights only. Mr. Copeland, ever anxious to merit the support and approbation of the public, feels the highest gratification in having the honour to inform the numerous patrons of the drama, that he has, at a very great expense, engaged the celebrated Mrs. Mardyn, of the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, for two nights only, whose unequalled beauty, elegant accomplishments, and transcendent talents, have placed her at the top of her profession, and which have been attested by the enthusiastic shouts of the enraptured audiences which nightly crowded to the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, to witness her fascinating performance. "On this occasion the manager respectfully solicits a liberal patronage, to support the very heavy expense he is at to indulge the admirers of superior talent." This reminds me of Mr. Watson, the Cheltenham manager, who once set the crier to announce through the town that Mr. Holman, " the handsomest man in the world," had arrived, and would play that evening. In the zenith of Mrs. Mardyn's fame the following paragraphs appeared in one of the newspapers: A noble lord, who is now, it seems, chief acting manager of Drury, is said to have accepted a tragi-comic piece, entitled The Unwedded Bard; or, Hymen kicked out of Doors !' The heroine of this singular drama is destined for the display of the appropriate talents of Mrs. Mardyn. The prologue, in the truly moral cast, is volunteered by the author of the 'Pleasures of Memory;' and the epilogue, in the most gloomy flow of amatory numbers by Anacreontic Moore." "On Friday night some persons thought proper to express their disapprobation of Mrs. Mardyn, by hissing-disapprobation not of her acting, as is generally supposed, but of her moral character, on the supposition, arising from the report of some very evil-disposed persons, that an attachment to this lady, on the part of Lord Byron, was the cause of the recent separation from his lady. It is highly improper to take such a step as this against the character of any female, without the most unequivocal proof of guilt; and in the present case, the only source from which scandal has originated, is, that Mrs. Mardyn is very handsome, and may excite the jealousy of her contemporaries on that account, and that she has also been successful in her professional pursuits, which may perhaps excite the jealousy of others; but to those who feel no interest in injuring the character of an innocent female, it may be gratifying to learn that there is not any foundation whatever for the scandalous report which had been circulated against this lady. At the time when the unfortunate separation took place between Lord and Lady Byron, and for some time before, Mrs. Mardyn was engaged in Mr. Dowton's company in the country. We should not have said so much, were we not well convinced, and that, too, on very strong grounds, that there is not any room whatever for this foul calumny." This, and other similar attacks, produced the following letter:"To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle. "Arundel Street, Strand, 3rd of March, 1816. "Sir,-Accept, I beseech you, every fervent acknowledgment the heart can dictate, or an unpractised pen express, for the protection your columns have volunteered to a defenceless and calumniated woman. For several months past my feelings have been harassed and my spirits depressed, almost to despair, by a persecution the most unproved and unaccountable that the records of slander can supply. Without one accidental error-nay, without one equivocal circumstance in my conduct, my name has been associated under à cruel variety of invective malice, with the recent disagree ment in a noble family. I cannot expatiate on so delicate a subject; respect for the feelings of my superiors would willingly impose on me absolute silence; but there is a regard which the humblest individual owes to its own moral character, and to the opinion of society paramount to all other considerations. It is that imperious sentiment which now compels me to protest, in the most sacred, as well as public manner, that the nobleman alluded to never met me but within the walls of Drury-lane Theatre; and about twenty minutes would comprise the total conversation with which I was honoured by him, and that these sentences were delivered most probably within the hearing, and most certainly within the view, of the whole assembled in the green-room. "This plain statement, which even the hardiest malevolence cannot contradict, will, I trust, be considered as a sufficient explanation from me, on so embarrassing a subject. I feel, most painfully feel, the cruel indelicacy of the situation into which my persecutors have driven me. To obtrude myself in a private capacity upon the public attention, is an apparent presumption, which I would have embraced almost any misery to have avoided: this course, however, has become at last inevitable to me-any further silence, under injurious report, would have been construed into an admission of the truth. How, whence, or wherefore, slander, so utterly unprovoked, has thus preyed upon my name, I wish not even to guess, but will merely add, that my situa tion in society, while it exposes me to every insult, denies me the power of resenting one; and that I am a friendless, unprotected female, entirely dependent on the public estimation for my support. This acknowledgment of my helplessness will, I am convinced, be my future strength with all generous and feeling minds. I have the honour to subscribe myself, "Your deeply obliged, and very grateful servant, The following were the results of this appeal : "It gives us great pleasure to inform such of our readers as may not have been present, that when Mrs. Mardyn appeared, on Thursday evening, for the second time, in the character of the Widow Brady, in the 'Irish Widow,' that she was received with such strong and decided marks of public approbation, as prove that the late calumnious attack on her private character has spent its force. Such are the advantages of a free press in this happy country: not only the professional, but the private character of a female performer is under the shield of public protection. And now that Mrs. Mardyn is perfectly restored to public favour, a word or two on the Irish Widow:-The dialogue of the piece is so languid, the characters so feebly drawn, the incidents so few, and, in a word, the whole of the farce so very uninteresting, with the exception of the caricature, the Widow Brady herself, that hardly any exertions, on the part of the actress, can ensure complete success, where the author has been so very deficient in his part. Mrs. Mardyn, however, was as entertaining as her part would admit her to be, and played with such a degree of spirit in her assumed rusticity and broad brogue, as highly to amuse and please the audience, as was evident from the frequent marks of applause which burst forth from all parts of the house." On the 4th of November, 1817, her husband died at Cheltenham. They had long lived apart: he was an actor not of low comedy, but of low habits. At the expiration of her five years' engagement, she quitted Drury Lane, and in the summer of 1820 was engaged at the Haymarket Theatre, where she added nothing to her reputation as an actress. She performed Sir Harry Wildair for her benefit, which was a complete failure. Shortly after she quitted England. Mrs. Ingram, her mother, died in February, 1821; and her father also died suddenly at Chichester in his 83rd year, within a week or two of her husband. The following sonnet, having reference to these events, was, it is said, written by our heroine in a churchyard, 1824. I pace the churchyard path! o'er my lone way The antique yew and cypress, murmuring, wave Or shudder lest the peace-committed dead With throbs of present pain-with fears of future ill." Mrs. Mardyn was not heard of again publicly till the year 1834; when, after a few preparatory paragraphs industriously introduced into the newspapers, the Drury Lane bills of the 2nd of April announced in red letters: "Lord Byron's celebrated tragedy of Sardanapalus is postponed until next week, under the following circumstances:-The noble author having written the part of Myrrha for Mrs. Mardyn, the lessee has the gratification to inform the public that he has entered into an engagement with that lady for the performance of that character, and she will accordingly have the honour of appearing in it on Thursday week, April the 10th. On which evening it will be positively produced.” The next step was the publication of the following letter in the "Sunday Times," April 6th, 1834, which Mrs. Mardyn, who, by the way, is now married to a French peer, wrote to the lessee of Drury Lane Theatre from Paris, dated 21st March. An English newspaper has just informed me that Lord Byron's tragedy of Sardanapalus' has been adapted by yourself for representation at Drury Lane Theatre. The paragraph has awakened thoughts and impulses which had long lain dormant with me. My late regretted friend paid me the flattering compliment that, in the portrait of Myrrha, I had been associated by his muse in every image of his fancy, and that if ever the poem strayed into public beyond the closet, it was his wish the Greek girl's sandals should be worn upon the stage by me. I know not how the engagements of the theatre stand; but if they admit of such a disposition, I am ready to waive all individual feelings and interest for the moment, and engage with the proprietors. "P.S. I am perfectly prepared in the character of Myrrha-I mean not merely in the words, but in the more recondite touches of feeling and action, having had each sentence impressed on my memory viva voce by the immortal author's own delivery; so that, however retrenched or transposed portions of the dialogue may be, not the difficulty of an hour could occur to me." This red paragraph was continued in the play-bills until the 10th, the day of performance, when the play was produced, and the bill stated"In consequence of a letter received yesterday from Paris, announcing the severe illness of Mrs. Mardyn, Miss E. Tree has, in the most obliging manner, undertaken, at the very short notice, to resume the character of Myrrha." The fabricated letter was rather unfortunately put together: for, at the bottom of the bill, in reference to the postponement of the production of "Sardanapalus" until the 10th, it appeared that the lessee had |