Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/111

 twelve years old, her friend, Miss Johnson, afterwards married to Theophilus Cibber [q. v.], and herself 'used to tag after Wilks wherever they saw him, and gape at him as a wonder.' Wilks, born in 1670, was by this time over fifty, but years had not deprived him of his fine figure and face, nor of 'the easy frankness of a gentleman,' and the 'singular talent in representing the graces of nature,' for which Steele tells us in the 'Tatler' (No. 182) he was distinguished. Sharing Miss Johnson's admiration for their stage hero, Miss Raftor was pretty sure to follow her example in going upon the stage. She found her way to the notice of Colley Gibber, then manager of Drury Lane. She had youth, spirit, a fine and trained singing voice, and by the time she was seventeen he found a place for her as Ismenes, page to Ziphares, in Nat Lee's tragedy of 'Mithridates, King of Pontus,' where she was well fitted with the song written for the piece by Sir Car Scroop, her execution of which established her as a favourite with the town. Her next great success was in 1729 as Phillida in Colley Cibber's ballad opera 'Love in a Riddle.' A cabal had been formed to damn the piece, and although the Prince of Wales was present, so violent was the uproar, that before Miss Raftor's entrance on the scene, late in the play, was reached, the author had promised to withdraw it. But no sooner did she make her appearance than the clamour abated; she went on with her song, and the tide turned. 'Zounds, Tom,' one of the rioters, according to Chetwood, was heard to exclaim, 'take care, or that charming little devil will spoil all.' And spoil all she did for the night, so far as Cibber's enemies were concerned. But not even Phillida could prolong the life of the piece, and it was at once withdrawn. So great, however, was the impression produced by Miss Raftor that her portrait as Phillida was immediately painted by Schalken and engraved by Faber, and from it we see that youth and animated expression, and not beauty of features, formed the attraction of the young actress. Two years later (1731) she established a reputation as a comic actress of the strongest type as Nell in Coffey's farce, 'The Devil to pay, or the Wives metamorphosed,' one of the many dramatic works which have owed their hold on the stage solely to the genius of the actors, who put into them qualities of character and interest which will be sought for in the text in vain. So long as Mrs. Clive remained on the stage the original Nell was always in high favour with the town, and its transmitted reputation kept the farce upon the stage for many years after she left it. After the retirement of Mrs. Jordan, who was the only other celebrated Nell, it fell into what to a mere reader seems merited oblivion. While Miss Raftor's success in a piece which gave scope at once to her charm as a singer of ballads and to her exuberant humour was yet recent, she married a barrister, Mr. George Clive. The union ended by mutual consent not long afterwards in separation. The impulsive Kitty probably was not very easy to live with, and both found their peace in living apart. She was not, however, a woman to make bad worse by seeking consolation elsewhere. Her character then and to the last was unblemished. She was still living with Mr. Clive when Fielding wrote of her (1734), in the preface to the 'Intriguing Chambermaid': 'Great favourite as you at present are with your audience, you would be much more so were they acquainted with your private character ; could they see you laying out great part of the profits which arise to you from entertaining them so well, in the support of an aged father; did they see you, who can charm them on the stage with personating the foolish and vicious characters of your sex, acting in real life the part of the best wife, the best daughter, the best sister, and the best friend.' The eulogy was proved by Mrs. dive's after-life to be well founded. She remained at Drury Lane till 1741, growing steadily in public favour by her vivid power of impersonation, and by the rich flow of native humour which she threw into her parts. So long as she kept to strongly emphasised comedy and well-marked characters of middle or low life, or to her favourite task of ridiculing the extravagances of Italian opera and its professors, which her accomplishments as a musician enabled her to do with singular success, she was on firm ground. But her usual good sense failed her when in 1741 she ventured to appear as Portia to Macklin's Shylock. It says little for the taste of the town that she was not only endured in the character, but even admired. Macklin had some time before rescued the character of Shylock from the hands of comic actors into which it had fallen before his time, and now Mrs. Clive reduced to the level of vulgar comedy the most refined, accomplished, and intellectual of Shakespeare's women. The trial scene was used by her as the means of introducing buffoonish imitations of the manners of an Old Bailey barrister. This setting on of a quantity of barren spectators to laugh so far succeeded, that the 'Dramatic Censor' says 'the applause she received in Portia was disgraceful both to herself and the audience.' The same defect in taste and judgment induced Mrs. Clive, as