Page:Mrs. Siddons (IA mrssiddons00kennrich).pdf/161



life between the years 1785 to 1798 was passed in the professional treadmill, and her history during this period is best told by an account of the characters she personated.

After her appearance as Lady Macbeth on February 2nd, she chose to act Desdemona to her brother's Othello, and, to everyone's surprise, acted it with a tenderness, playfulness, and simplicity hardly to be expected of the majestic actress, who had terrified her audience by her representation of the Thane of Cawdor's wife. Campbell tells us that even years after, when he saw her play this part at Edinburgh, not recognising at first who was acting, he was spellbound by her "exquisite gracefulness," and thought it impossible "this soft, sweet creature could be the Siddons," until by the emotion and applause of the audience he knew it could be no other.

Unfortunately, in her first representation of this part, she was carelessly given a damp bed to lie on in the death scene, and caught so severe a cold as almost to threaten rheumatic fever. From this time her deli