A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Garrick, Eva Maria
GARRICK, EVA MARIA,
Wife of the celebrated David Garrick, was born at Vienna, February 29th., 1725. Her maiden name was Viegel, under which appellation she attracted the notice of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, as a dancer, and by her command changed it to Violette, a translation of an anagram of her name. In 1744, she arrived in England, bringing with her a letter from the Countess of Stahremberg to the Countess of Burlington, who received her as an inmate of Burlington-house, and treated her with the greatest affection. Tills circumstance gave rise to a very general but erroneous idea, that Eva or Violette was a natural daughter of the earl's, born before his marriage with the countess; but the dates of the respective events prove the inaccuracy of the supposition. While under the protection of this noble family, Mademoiselle Violette formed an attachment with David Garrick, and on the 22nd. of June, 1749, the nuptials were celebrated, with the sanction of the earl and countess; a marriage portion of six thousand pounds being bestowed upon the bride by the former. In 1751 and in 1763, Mrs. Garrick accompanied her husband to the continents and in 1769, the Journals of the day speak highly of the grace and elegance displayed by her at the Stratford jubilee. After the death of her husband, though strongly solicited by several persons of rank and fortune, (among others by the learned Lord Monboddo,) to re-enter the marriage state, she continued a widow, residing in her house on the Adelphi terrace, where she died suddenly in her chair, October 16th, 1822, and was buried in the same vault with her husband, near the cenotaph of Shakspere, in Westminster Abbey, on the 25th. day of October in the same year.