Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/808

794 maiden name was Chamberlaine, and she was granddaughter of Sir Oliver Chamberlaine. Her first literary performance was a little pamphlet, at the time of a violent party-dispute relative to the theatre, in which Mr. Sheridan had newly embarked his fortune. So well timed a work exciting the attention of Mr. Sheridan, he by an accident discovered his fair patroness, to whom he was soon afterwards married. She was a woman of the most amiable character in every relation of life, and the most engaging manners. After lingering some years in a weak state of health, she died at Blois, 1767.

Her Sidney Biddulph may be ranked with the first productions of that class in our or any other language. She also wrote a little romance in one volume, called Nourjahad, and two comedies, The Discovery, and The Dupe.

was the wife of a goldsmith, in Lombard-street; but, though naturally inclined to virtue, was seduced by the poor ambition of being distinguished by Edward IV. who was smitten with her charms, and the most fortunate and handsome young man of his time, but unprincipled and arbitrary in his conduct. But while seduced from her fidelity by this gay and profligate monarch, she still made herself respectable by her other virtues. She never sold her influence. Her good offices, the genuine dictates of her heart, waited not the