Robert was to be her personal protector and to be allowed free access to the green room. The time for Eliza O'Neill's first appearance at Covent Garden was most propitious. The long and harassing Continental war was at last over, the treaty of Paris had been signed, Napoleon was considered safe at the island retreat of Elba, and an era of peace and plenty seemed to be at hand. It was on the 6th of October, 1814, at the age of twenty-two that the young Irish actress made her curtsey to a London audience as Juliet to the Romeo of Mr. Conway.
A success, wonderful, dazzling, and unexpected, followed. Macready, speaking of her début, said, "Her beauty, simplicity, and grace, are the theme of every tongue. The noble pathos of Siddons' transcendant genius no longer serves as the grand commentary and exponent of Shakespeare's text, but in the native elegance, the feminine sweetness, the unaffected earnestness and gushing passion of Miss O'Neill, the stage has received a worthy successor."
It has always been difficult to find an actress who can find a fitting representation of Juliet. Juliet must have youth, extreme youth, and along with this, she must be capable not only of girlish vivacity and joy, but of rising to heights of passion and despair. A daughter of the Sunny South, she flies from one extreme to another, and is carried
