Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years. [In mainpiece the playbill does not list the Child; for the assignment see Morning Post, 10 Oct., and edition of 1787 (Rachael Randall).] "[Mrs Siddons's] merit in the character was infinite, and the applause she received unbounded. In various of her scenes the plaudits were repeated . . . During the fourth and fifth acts there was almost an incessant clapping, and when Isabella expired her death was rendered glorious by the theatre's resounding with thundering applause for more than a minute" (Morning Chronicle, 11 Oct.). "L'actrice la plus noble dans ses manieres, madame Siddons, ne perd rien de sa dignite quand elle se prosterne contre terre . . . Enfin, il arriva ce moment terrible ou Isabelle, s'etant echappee des mains des femmes qui veulent l'empechcr de se tuer, rit, en se donnant un coup de poignard, de l'inutilite de leurs efforts. Ce rire du desespoir est l'effet le plus difficile et le plus remarquable que le jeu dramatique puisse produire; il emeut bien plus que les larmes: cette amere ironie du malheur est son expression la plus dechirante. Qu'elle est terrible la souffrance du coeur, quand elle inspire une si barbare joie, quand elle donne, a l'aspect de son propre sang, le contentement feroce d'un sauvage ennemi qui se serait venge!" (Mme de Stael: Corinne, livre XVII, chapitre iv). Receipts: #181 11s. (147/0; 34/6; 0/5)

Event Comment: This play is in Herbert, Dramatic Records p. 118: Cornelia a New Play, sir W. Bartleys. The date in Herbert is 1 June, a Sunday in 1662, with another play in the same group falling on Sunday. Nevertheless, the verse comment (see below) written, apparently, before the summer of 1662 points toward 2 June 1662 rather than 1 June 1663. Edward Browne also lists it as one of the plays he attended. The play was not printed. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 246: @For Cornelia they all doe say@There was abundance of witt in the play@Indeed t'had soe much t' was the worse for 't@For t' was to witty for the vulgar sort@And they who'd have poetts their Benefactors@Say witt without mony's naught for the Actors.