CHAPTER II. The year 1798 commences with illness-Her family losses-Juno brings her a German play to model- The Child of Love'— Her production of Lovers Vows'—The Kemble family-Maria Siddons-Mr. Twiss-Year 1799 Kotzebue sends his MS. 'Writing Desk' to Harris, who brings it to Mrs. Inchbald--She proposes terms for her ' Wise Man of the East'—Fashionable parties-Curran Godwin, his letter, and the reply to it-Letter to Mrs. Phillips-Mr. Shakespear-More Prizes in the LotteryGeneral Martin's death, her account of him-Sir Charles Bunbury-A letter from him-Her bounties. THE year 1798 commenced with illness. Mrs. Inchbald had a severe cold upon her in January, and in the month following she had an alarming fever, which obliged her friend Mr. Phillips to see her twice a day. On the 25th she found herself much better, and, in the language of her hasty record, which we prefer greatly to the modern "In the evening prayed, cried, and felt jargon, purely." Let no one disdain the sensibility, who could not write The Simple Story:' the few who could, will see all that it implies. Similar bad health, we find, attended several of her rela -- tions this year. Her sister Dolly recovered by great care; but their cousin, Mrs. Hunt, died in the month of June. Mr. Bigsby wrote to her to lament the sad condition of his wife: she, however, at last got better, and he himself was the sudden victim in November. All these occurrences made terrible inroads upon her studies. However, she carried on the 'Memoirs of her Life,' which Robinson would have purchased for an annuity had she chosen absolutely to sell; and she worked with care and caution at a five-act comedy, her grandest card in the deal, when it fell to her turn. In the month of June Mr. Harris brought her a translation, made by a German, of Kotzebue's Child of Love,' and desired her to fit it to the English stage; which Mrs. Inchbald felt to be a task of so much difficulty, that she was often on the point of abruptly closing her labour. She at length surmounted all difficulties, and happily, in her 'Lovers Vows,' produced a play so purified, that no English reader has ever for a moment endured the rival publication of Miss Plumptre. The version used by Mrs. Inchbald was in bad English and German idioms; added to which, we should remember, much feeling so outrageously tudesque, that the purest diction would never have passed it upon English critics. At this distance from the performance, it would be inexcusable to go deeply into the subject for proofs of all this; and Mrs. Inchbald's own concise declaration may be safely taken. With the exception of a few common-place sentences only, she has totally altered the characters of Count Cassel, Amelia, and Verdun the butler. The Baron (Wildenheim) is changed in the most important point-his behaviour towards his son as a robber; and the audience are thus carefully prepared for the grand effect which closes the fourth act. Among minor points, (if it be a minor one,) she has rendered the fondness of Amelia more delicate. There is no reserve at all in German passion to use the classical reference to the state of the Romans under Trajan, and their mental liberty "It feels at will, and what it feels declares." The conduct of the English lady allows of no license, but that which conducts her to the altar. A wretched and vulgar fame was, a few years back, achieved by a few women (very few) of high rank among us, who "gave their worst of thoughts the worst of words;" but this "cat-amountain" phraseology gave real disgust to the laughing loungers who heard and reported itand this impudent swagger has now sunk into a disgrace from which may it never again arise! In three months Lovers Vows' was completed, by close application; and during the first week of October, its anxious author attended the rehearsals regularly. On the 11th it was per formed for the first time, and received with unbounded applause. Mrs. Inchbald was herself in the house, and gratified in the fullest extent. For several days her knocker was the most frequented of any in the Square; and on the 24th she was again in the theatre, when her play was honoured by a Royal command. Mr. Harris, this year, once asked her to meet his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, we suppose at dinner; but she probably declined it, as we find no account of such an interview. Harris seems now to have adopted the less liberal style of paying for an altered play differently from an original one. Alas! what strictly can be original? He desired her "to make a demand for her trouble:" but, after some chaffering, he unconditionally put the MS. into her hands, which she sold to Robinson, who paid for it immediately, and it was published on the 28th of December. She got £150 from her bookseller, who, at the same time, issued a fourth edition of her Simple Story.' Thus she filled no small space in the public eye. The Kemble family, in 1798, occupied a good deal of her thoughts. Mr. Siddons informed her that he had wholly disengaged Mrs. Siddons from Drury-lane theatre, and she immediately communicated the information to Mr. Harris. To her great surprise, when he called upon her two or three days afterwards, she found him very cool upon the subject. She had felt a good deal of interest as to the very lovely daughters of that family, and had entered (as who did not?) into the question as to Mr. Lawrence's attentions there; it was with much grief, therefore, that she learned the death of Maria Siddons on the 7th of October. Her early and most valued friend, Mr. Twiss, this year experienced some check to his commercial prosperity; and found, in consequence, that it would shortly become necessary to retire into the country, to abridge the expenses which a town. life had drawn him into, with his liberal habits and splendid connexions. 'Lovers Vows,' however paid by the manager, put her in a condition to make her usual presents upon every new success. Her relations had their ten and five-pound notes; and the two Mrs. Shakespears, where she lodged, her landlord's sisters, had their presents, instead of lovers' vows, which were no longer expected. Mrs. Inchbald's rent was something raised this year. Her two interesting friends, Miss Alderson and Miss Wallis, received bridal visits from her, on the one marrying Mr. Opie the painter, and the other lady becoming Mrs. Campbell. The year 1799 opened upon her in the way most welcome to her habits-full employment. Kotzebue had himself transmitted to Mr. Harris his play called 'The Writing Desk, or Youth in |