"understood that the new Portia had been the heroine of one of those petty parties of travelling comedians which wander over the country," owned that she had a fine stage-figure; her features were expressive; she was uncommonly graceful; but her voice was deficient in variety of tone and clearness. This, however, might be the effect of a cold or nervousness. Her words were delivered with good sense and taste, only there was no fire or spirit in the performance. "Nothing," the critic ends, "is so barren of either profit or fame as a cold correctness."
Knowing the Kemble failing of over-study and self-restraint, this seems a fair enough criticism. She represented Portia again a few nights later, but her name did not appear on the bills. She showed more confidence, and succeeded a little better, but does not seem to have got a hold of her audience.
Garrick was at this time employed in mounting an abridgment by Colman of Ben Jonson's Epicœne, and trusting, we conclude, to the statement of his friend Mr. Bate, that the débutante had "a very good breeches-figure," he selected her for the heroine's part. The result was a failure. Critics complained of "the confusion, when Mrs. Siddons, disguised in the piece as a woman, revealed herself at the end as a boy." The Morning Post, edited by Parson Bate, was the only paper that spoke in favour of the attempt.
The next part she was put into was by this same Bate, The Blackamoor White-washed. We can see how Garrick was forced by the exigencies of his obligations to Bate to put this play on the stage; the only mistake he made was in subjecting the young actress to the risks and chances of the first representation, which, in consequence of the slashing pen and vigorous
