ame smiling into existence laden
with a message from the sunshine; her father was richer in ancestry
than guineas, and the arrival of another daughter may have seemed an
honour hardly worth the bestowal.[A] But Thalia laughed, as well she
might, and even the stern features of Melpomene relaxed a little in
witnessing the birth of one who would prove almost as wondrous in
tragedy, when she so minded, as she was fascinating in the gentler
phases of her art.

[Footnote A: According to Edmund Bellchambers, Anne Oldfield "would
have possessed a tolerable fortune, had not her father, a captain in
the army, expended it at a very early period."]

Yet the laughter of Thalia and the unbending of her sister Muse were
hardly likely to make much impression in the Oldfield household, where
money had more admirers than mythology, and so we are not surprised to
learn that, with the death of the gallant captain, this "incomparable
sweet girl," who would ere long reconcile even a supercilious
Frenchman to the English stage, had to seek her living as a
seamstress. How she sewed a bodice or hemmed a petticoat we know not,
nor do we care; it is far more interesting to be told that, though
only in her early teens, the toiler with the needle found her greatest
recreation in reading Beaumont and Fletcher's plays. The modern young
woman, be her station high or low, would take no pleasure in such a
literary occupation, but in the days of Nance Oldfield to con the
pages of Beaumont and Fletcher was considered a privilege rather than
a duty. Then, again, the little seamstress had a soul above threads
and thimbles; her heart was with the players, and we can imagine her
running off some idle afternoon to peep slyly into Drury Lane Theatre,
or perhaps walk over into Lincoln's Inn Fields, where the noble
Betterton and his companions had formed a rival company. The
performance over, she hurries to the Mitre Tavern, in St. James's
Market, and here she is sure of a warm welcome, as is but natural,
since the Mrs. Voss who rules the destinies of the hostelry is Anne's
elder sister[A]. Here the girl loves to spend those rare moments of
leisure, reading aloud the comedies of long ago and dreaming of the
future; and here, too, it is that dashing Captain Farquhar listens in
amazement as she recites the "Scornful Lady."

[Footnote A: According to one authority Mrs. Voss was Anne's aunt. We
adhere, however, to Dr. Doran's account of the relationship.]

Georg