"A glass was put in the hand of the statue, which was supposed to
bow to her Grace and to nod in approbation of what she spoke to
it."--THOS. DAVIES, _Dramatic Miscellanies_.

66 The sum Congreve left her was 200_l._, as is said in the _Dramatic
Miscellanies_ of Tom Davies; where are some particulars about this
charming actress and beautiful woman.

She had a "lively aspect", says Tom, on the authority of Cibber, and
"such a glow of health and cheerfulness in her countenance, as
inspired everybody with desire". "Scarce an audience saw her that
were not half of them her lovers."

Congreve and Rowe courted her in the persons of their lovers. "In
_Tamerlane_, Rowe courted her Selima, in the person of Axalla....;
Congreve insinuated his addresses in his Valentine to her Angelica,
in his _Love for Love_; in his Osmyn to her Almena, in the _Mourning
Bride_; and, lastly, in his Mirabel to her Millamant, in the _Way of
the World_. Mirabel, the fine gentleman of the play, is, I believe,
not very distant from the real character of Congreve."--_Dramatic
Miscellanies_, vol. iii, 1784.

She retired from the stage when Mrs. Oldfield began to be the public
favourite. She died in 1748, in the eighty-fifth year of her age.

67 Johnson calls his legacy the "accumulation of attentive parsimony,
which," he continues, "though to her (the Duchess) superfluous and
useless, might have given great assistance to the ancient family
from which he descended, at that time, by the imprudence of his
relation, reduced to difficulties and distress."--_Lives of the
Poets._

68 He replied to Collier, in the pamphlet called "Amendments of Mr.
Collier's False and Imperfect Citations," &c. A specimen or two are
subjoined:--

"The greater part of these examples which he has produced, are only
demonstrations of his own impurity: they only savour of his
utterance, and were sweet enough till tainted by his breath.

"Where the expression is unblameable in its own pure and genuine
signification, he enters into it, himself, like the evil spirit; he
possesses the innocent phrase, and makes it bellow forth his own
blasphemies.

"If I do not return him civilities in calling him names, it is
because I am not very well versed in his nomenclatures....