Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/176

 the honour of instructing her. At the concert of ancient music in March 1814 she was assigned the principal soprano songs, and she sang later in the year in the festivals in Norwich and Birmingham.

At Covent Garden, where she remained with but few interruptions from her first appearance in 1813 down to 1822, she at first received 12l. a week; this was successively advanced to 20l. and 25l. a week. On 1 Feb. 1814 she was the original Mrs. Cornflower in the ‘Farmer's Wife’ of Charles Dibdin, jun. She played Ophelia to the Hamlet of Young and that of Kemble, and was injudicious enough on the first occasion (21 March) to introduce into the character the song of ‘Mad Bess,’ for which she was hissed. She played Matilda in ‘Richard Cœur de Lion,’ and on 31 May, as Desdemona to Young's Othello, sang the original air of ‘My mother had a maid called Barbara.’ On 1 Feb. 1815 she was the original Donna Isidora in Dimond's ‘Brother and Sister;’ on 7 April Donna Orynthia in the ‘Noble Outlaw,’ founded on the ‘Pilgrim’ of Beaumont and Fletcher; and on 7 June Eucharis in ‘Telemachus.’ Next season she was Sylvia in ‘Cymon,’ Hermia in ‘Midsummer Night's Dream,’ Imogen, Cora in ‘Columbus,’ and on 12 March 1816 the first Lucy Bertram in Terry's adaptation ‘Guy Mannering.’ On 23 Sept. she was the original Sophia Fidget in Tobin's posthumous ‘Yours or Mine,’ on 12 Nov. the first Zelinda in Morton's ‘Slave,’ on 27 Feb. 1817 Laurina in the ‘Heir of Vironi,’ on 15 April Rosalind in Dimond's ‘Conquest of Taranto,’ on 20 May Zerlina in the ‘Libertine’ of Pocock, and she played Eudocia in the ‘Humorous Lieutenant’ and Peggy in the ‘Gentle Shepherd.’ Among many original parts of no importance in the next season stands conspicuous Diana Vernon in Pocock's ‘Rob Roy Macgregor.’ She also played Cowslip in the ‘Agreeable Surprise.’ On the first production of the ‘Marriage of Figaro’ on 6 March 1819 she was Susanna to the Figaro of Liston, and in that of the ‘Heart of Midlothian,’ by Terry, on 17 April, she was Effie Deans. On 14 Dec. she played Adriana in the ‘Comedy of Errors,’ converted by Reynolds into an opera. In Terry's ‘Antiquary’ on 25 Jan. 1820 she was the first Isabella Wardour, and in an adaptation of ‘Ivanhoe,’ which followed on 2 March, she was Rowena. Morton's ‘Henri Quatre, or Paris in the Olden Time,’ on 22 April, furnished her with a part as Florence St. Leon. In ‘Don John, or the Two Violettas,’ 20 Feb. 1821, an opera founded by Reynolds on the ‘Chances,’ altered from Fletcher by the Duke of Buckingham, she was the second Violetta. She also played Dorinda in Dryden's ‘Tempest.’ On 14 Feb. 1822 she was the first Annot Lyle in Pocock's adaptation ‘Montrose or the Children of the Mist,’ and on 11 May Nourjadee on the production of Colman's ‘Law of Java.’

The following season she joined Elliston at Drury Lane, and was purposely, it is said, kept in the background. Curious alleged instances of Elliston's behaviour are preserved, such as his fining her for not coming to the rehearsal of the pantomime, not in order to play, which was outside her contract, but to swell with her voice the chorus. For her benefit on 27 April 1823 she played Annette in the ‘Lord of the Manor.’ In Beazley's ‘Philandering,’ on 13 Jan. 1824, she was the first Emile, and in Reynolds's operatic version of the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor,’ on 20 Feb., Mrs. Ford. On the production of an anonymous version of ‘Faustus’ on 16 May 1825 she was the Adine (Margaret). Malvina in Macfarren's ‘Malvina’ was seen on 28 Jan. 1826; Edith Plantagenet in ‘Knights of the Cross’ followed on 29 May. Gulnare in Dimond's ‘Englishmen in India’ was seen on 27 Jan. 1827. In the following season she was again at Covent Garden, where she played Blanch Mackay in ‘Carron Side, or the Fête Champêtre,’ on 27 May 1828. High as was the reputation Miss Stephens had made in opera, it was still higher as a concert singer. She was playing with Duruset in Dublin in July 1821 and again in 1825, and in Edinburgh in 1814. She also visited Liverpool and other places. Until her retirement in 1835 she occupied the highest position at the best concerts and festivals. On 19 April 1838 Miss Stephens married, at 9 Belgrave Square, George Capell Coningsby, fifth earl of Essex, an octogenarian widower, who died on 23 April 1839. Lady Essex survived him forty-three years, taking until near the end an interest in theatrical matters. She died on 22 Feb. 1882 in the house in which she was married, and was buried at Kensal Green.

Miss Stephens was held to have the sweetest soprano voice of her time—‘full, rich, round, lovely’—a natural manner, a simple style, disfigured by no affectation. In oratorio she lacked passion, but was always pure, sensible, and graceful. As a ballad singer she was unequalled, and her rendering of ‘Auld Robin Gray,’ ‘Savourneen Deelish,’ ‘W'are a' Noddin',’ ‘A Highland Lad,’ and a hundred others, and of songs such as ‘Angels ever bright and fair’ and ‘If guiltless blood,’ has not been surpassed. Hazlitt, who spoke of her and Kean as the only theatrical