[33] Anthony Aston, from whom this description is quoted, says that it was not modesty that prevented his understanding why he was admired, but sheer stupidity.
[34] He practically retired from the active work of his profession about 1707.
[35] I can find no authority for this. The King's Company appear to have played regularly at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Dorset Garden was the new theatre of the Duke's Company.
[36] Pepys is no doubt accurate. The higher prices were charged apparently from the opening of the old theatre in 1663.
[37] Genest conjectures, I think justly, that this must have happened at a rehearsal. Downes says nothing about the house being ecstatic.
[38] Very doubtful. The cause of his retirement was no doubt the quarrel afterwards mentioned. If he was off the stage for eleven years, as Dr. Doran says, he must have retired in 1684, long before William was king.
[Illustration: RIVER VIEW OF DUKE'S THEATRE.]
The "great Mrs. Barry," the _Handbook of London_ tells us, lies buried in Westminster Cloisters. I did not there look for her tomb. To come at the grave of the great actress, I passed through Acton Vale and into the ugliest of village churches, and, after service, asked to be shown the tablet which recorded the death and burial of Elizabeth Barry. The pew-opener directed me to a mural monument which, I found, bore the name of one of the family of Smith!
I remonstrated. The good woman could not account for it. She had always taken that for Elizabeth Barry's monument. It was in the church somewhere. "There is no stone to any such person in this church," said the clerk, "and I know 'em all!" We walked down the aisle discussing the matter, and paused at the staircase at the west end; and as I looked at the wall, while still conversing, I saw in the shade the tablet which Curll says is outside, in God's Acre, and thereon I read aloud these words:--"Near this place lies the body of Elizabeth Barry, of the parish of St. Mary-le-Savoy, who departed this life the 7th of November, 1713, aged 55 years." "That is she!" said I.
The two officials looked puzzled and inquiring. At length the pew-opener ventured to ask: "And who was she, sir?"
"The original Monimia, Belvidera, Isabella, Calista"----