Lady Teazle begs leave to return the diploma they gianted her, as she leaves off practice, and kills characters no longer!"
Moved even to tears, Miss Farren was then led off the stage for the last time. Her marriage with the Earl of Derby took place on the 8th May (just a month after her farewell appearance on the stage), by special licence, at his house in Grosvenor Square, and the happy pair set off for The Oaks. Many were the jokes made by the wits about Darby and Joan, but there is no doubt that in the case of Elizabeth Farren, virtue did meet its due reward, and she and her earl lived happily together. A son and two daughters were born of the marriage, so there was nothing to mar their bliss. Only one daughter, however, lived to grow up.
It says much for Miss Farren that during the two months of Lord Derby's widowhood, his eldest son. Lord Stanley, regularly escorted her to and from the theatre, to show that his feelings towards his future step-mother were of the friendliest kind. On the evening of the wedding, Mrs. Siddons came forward at Drury Lane to deliver some complimentary lines alluding to the loss sustained by the stage from the retirement of "Our Comic Muse." A curious caricature was made of the happy pair as Cupid and Psyche, she, tall and slim, head and shoulders over the earl, who was short, stout, and gouty.
