James Parton, Horace Greeley, T. W. Higginson, J. S. C. Abbott, E. M. Hoppin, William Winter, Theodore Tilton, Fanny Fern, Grace Greenwood, Mrs. E. C. Stanton, Women of the age; being natives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present gentlemen

[107] daughter, Frances, was then eighteen years of age. Except that she had frequently heard her aunt, Mrs. Siddons, read the plays of Shakespeare, and had lived from her infancy in a family of actors, she had made no special preparation for the stage. She inherited, however, that fine presence, that admirable self-possession, that magnificent and flexible voice, for which the Kembles were distinguished. It suddenly occurred to the family that this brilliant and saucy girl, perhaps a little spoiled by parental fondness, might prove a great actress and save the failing fortunes of the family. The experiment was tried. In October, 1829, she made her first appearance. The play selected for the occasion was Romeo and Juliet, in which her father played the part of Romeo, her mother that of the nurse, and herself, Juliet. Her success was so remarkable, it was so evident that she possessed in an eminent degree the talent of the family, that, when the curtain descended at the close of the evening, she was felt to be, both before and behind the curtain, an established favorite. Her first success was followed by other triumphs. As Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, as Bianca, in the tragedy of Fazio, as Lady Teazle, in the School for Scandal, and in other parts of similar calibre, she shone without a rival; since, whatever may have been wanting in the artist was amply atoned for, in the public mind, by the youthful grace and beauty of the woman. The house was nightly filled to overflowing. Her father was saved from bankruptcy, and the old popularity of the theatre was fully restored. A play which she had written in her seventeenth year, entitled Francis the First, was produced, and attained a certain success. Sheridan Knowles, then at the height of his renown as a dramatist, and in the full vigor of his powers, wrote for her his master-piece, the Hunchback, in which her popularity was almost beyond precedent.

It was after two years of such a life as this, when she was