Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/200

 ber of the company in the part of Widow Cheerly on 2 July 1811. Here she played her last original part, 20 April 1814, that of Barbara Green in Kenney's ‘Debtor and Creditor,’ and here, as Lady Teazle, she made, 1 June 1814, her last appearance on the London stage. She is said to have played at the English theatre in Brussels in September 1814, and her final performances were given at Margate ten nights in July and August 1815. She grew stout in later life, but declined to play matronly parts.

In the summer she had visited regularly the principal country towns, reaping everywhere a golden harvest. Upon her revisiting, in 1786, Leeds, where she had previously been no special favourite, it was necessary to turn seven rows of the pit into boxes. In Edinburgh, where, as Hypolita in ‘She would and she would not,’ she appeared 22 July 1786, and in Glasgow, medals were struck in her honour. In these towns she delivered occasional addresses, in the composition of which she had some facility.

As an actress in comedy Mrs. Jordan can have had few equals. Genest says that she had never a superior in her line, and adds that her Hypolita will never be excelled. Rosalind, Viola, and Lady Contest were among her best characters (viii. 431–2). Hazlitt, in unwonted rapture, speaks of Mrs. Jordan, ‘the child of nature whose voice was a cordial to the heart … to hear whose laugh was to drink nectar … who “talked far above singing,” and whose singing was like the twang of Cupid's bow. Her person was large, soft, and generous, like her soul. … Mrs. Jordan was all exuberance and grace’ (Dramatic Essays, pp. 49–50, ed. 1851). Leigh Hunt, after praising her artless vivacity, says: ‘Mrs Jordan seems to speak with all her soul; her voice, piquant with melody, delights the ear with a peculiar and exquisite fulness and with an emphasis that appears the result of perfect conviction’ (Critical Essays, p. 163). Though admitting that she is not sufficiently ladylike, he holds her ‘not only the first actress of the day,’ but, judging from what he reads, the first that has adorned our stage (ib. p. 168). Lamb's praise is not less high. Haydon spoke of her acting as touching beyond description. Byron declared her superb, and Mathews the elder called her ‘an extraordinary and exquisite being, as distinct from any other being in the world as she was superior to all her contemporaries in her particular line of acting.’ Campbell speaks of her beating Mrs. Siddons out of the character of Rosalind, and regards the instance as unique. Sir Joshua Reynolds delighted in a being ‘who ran upon the stage as a playground, and laughed from sincere wildness of delight.’ He preferred her to all actresses of his time. Boaden, her biographer, goes into ecstasies over her.

Mrs. Jordan's domestic life was brilliant rather than happy, and caused much scandal. By Daly, her first manager, she had a daughter who was known as Miss Jordan, married a Mr. Alsop, came out at Covent Garden 18 Oct. 1816 as Rosalind, was a good actress, and was praised by Hazlitt, but does not appear to have remained very long on the stage; she left her husband, and died a premature and deplorable death in America. By Richard (afterwards Sir Richard) Ford, whose name she bore for some years, she had four children. One daughter married a Mr. March in the ordnance office, and a second Colonel (afterwards General) Hawker. This connection was broken off before 1790, when she became the mistress of the Duke of Clarence, subsequently William IV. During her long connection with him she bore him ten children, all of whom took the name of Fitzclarence. Two sons, Adolphus Fitzclarence and George Augustus Frederick Fitzclarence, are separately noticed. Lord Frederick Fitzclarence (1799–1854) was lieutenant-general, and colonel of 36th foot; Lord Augustus (1805–1854) was rector of Mapledurham; Henry died a captain in India. Of the daughters, Sophia married Lord De l'Isle and Dudley; Mary married General Fox; Elizabeth married the Earl of Erroll; Augusta married, first, the Hon. John Kennedy Erskine, and, secondly, Lord John Frederick Gordon, who took the name of Halyburton; and Amelia married Viscount Falkland. Her liaison and the frequent absences from the stage attributable to the calls of maternity were noticed in the press, and sometimes led to noisy demonstrations in the theatres. In 1790, a period of great political ferment, her intrigue was specially unpopular. In the December of that year she came forward, and, addressing the public, said that the slightest mark of public disapprobation affected her very sensibly, and that she had never absented herself one minute from the duties of her profession except from real indisposition. ‘Thus having invariably acted, I do,’ she concluded, ‘consider myself under the public protection.’ This speech, printed in various quarters, arrested the complaint. Mrs. Jordan was earning at the time as much as 30l. a week. The duke allowed her 1,000l. a year, but at George III's suggestion is said to have subsequently proposed by letter a reduction to 500l. Mrs. Jordan sent by way of reply