(a cant word for
forty in the hundred interest). One night, notice was given that the
General would be present with the Government at the play, and all
the performers on the stage were preparing to dress out in the suits
presented. The spouse of Johnny (as he was commonly called) try'd all
her arts to persuade Mr. Holdfast, the pawnbroker (as it fell out, his
real name) to let go the cloaths for that evening, to be returned when
the play was over. But all arguments were fruitless; nothing but
the Ready, or a pledge of full equal value. Such people would have
despised a Demosthenes, or a Cicero, with all their rhetorical
flourishes, if their oratorian gowns had been in pledge. Well! what
must be done? The whole family in confusion and all at their wits-end;
disgrace, with her glaring eyes and extended mouth, ready to devour.
Fatal appearance!

* * * * *

"At last Winny, the wife (that is, Winnifrede), put on a compos'd
countenance (but, alas! with a troubled heart); stepp'd to a
neighbouring tavern, and bespoke a very hot negus, to comfort Johnny
in the great part he was to perform that night, begging to have the
silver tankard with the lid, because, as she said, 'a covering, and
the vehicle silver, would retain heat longer than any other metal,'
The request was comply'd with, the negus carry'd to the playhouse
piping hot, popp'd into a vile earthen mug--the tankard _l'argent_
travelled _incog_. under her apron (like the Persian ladies veil'd),
popp'd into the pawnbroker's hands, in exchange for the suit--put on
and play'd its part, with the rest of the wardrobe; when its duty
was over, carried back to remain in its old depository; the tankard
return'd the right road; and, when the tide flowed with its lunar
influence, the stranded suit was wafted into safe harbour again, after
paying a little for 'dry docking,' which was all the damage received."

* * * * *

And Mr. Chetwood adds:

"Thus woman's wit (tho' some account it evil)
With artful wiles can overreach the Devil."

Among such as these, good, bad and indifferent, moral and otherwise,
did Mistress Oldfield pass what hours she consecrated to the theatre.
In the early years, when merely a poor, struggling postulant before
the altar of fame, the girl must have been more or less intimate with
her dramatic associates, but as time went on and Nance blazed into a
star of the first magnitude, the old