Event Comment: [This was
Miss Farren's last appearance on the stage.] "On the conclusion of the play
Wroughton came forward,
and, instead of uttering the usual lines [i.e. giving out the play for the next night], delivered the following Address before the curtain dropped, all the Performers remaining on the Stage,
and Miss Farren herself in a state apparently of much agitation. [Here follows the address (which is not listed on the playbill).] After Wroughton had delivered these lines, Miss Farren advanced
and curtsied repeatedly" (
True Briton, 10 Apr.). The address "was written by
Sheridan during the performance of the comedy" (
Morning Herald, 12 Apr.). "[Miss Farren's] figure is considerably above the middle height,
and is of that slight texture which allows
and requires the use of full
and flowing drapery, an advantage of which she well knows how to avail herself...She possesses ease, vivacity, spirit
and humour,
and her performances are so little injured by effort, that we have often experienced a delusion of the senses,
and imagined, what in a theatre it is so difficult imagine, the scene of action to be identified,
and Miss Farren really the character she was only attempting to sustain" (
Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1797, pp. 236-37). Account-Book: Renters,
Free, Orders
and Private Boxes at
School for Scandal #199 9s. [The tally is also entered of 3,656 spectators in the theatre.] Receipts: #728 14s. 6d. (654.18.0; 70.7.0; 3.9.6; being the largest amount taken at this theatre, on a night not devoted to a benefit, between 1794 (when it was opened)
and 1800)