[744] On Sept. 22 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—­’If excision should be delayed, there is danger of a gangrene.  You would not have me for fear of pain perish in putrescence.  I shall, I hope, with trust in eternal mercy, lay hold of the possibility of life which yet remains.’ Piozzi Letters, ii.312.

[745] Rather more than seven years ago. Ante, ii.82, note 2.

[746] Mrs. Anna Williams.  BOSWELL.

[747] See ante, p. 163, and Boswell’s Hebrides, Nov 2.

[748] Dated Oct. 27. Piozzi Letters, ii.321.

[749] According to Mrs. Piozzi (Letters, ii.387), he said to Mrs. Siddons:—­’You see, Madam, wherever you go there are no seats to be got.’  Sir Joshua also paid her a fine compliment.  ’He never marked his own name [on a picture],’ says Northcote, ’except in the instance of Mrs. Siddons’s portrait as the Tragic Muse, when he wrote his name upon the hem of her garment.  “I could not lose,” he said, “the honour this opportunity offered to me for my name going down to posterity on the hem of your garment."’ Northcote’s Reynolds, i. 246.  In Johnson’s Works, ed. 1787, xi. 207, we read that ’he said of Mrs. Siddons that she appeared to him to be one of the few persons that the two great corrupters of mankind, money and reputation, had not spoiled.’

[750] ‘Indeed, Dr. Johnson,’ said Miss Monckton, ’you must see Mrs. Siddons.’  ’Well, Madam, if you desire it, I will go.  See her I shall not, nor hear her; but I’ll go, and that will do.’  Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, ii. 198.

[751] ’Mrs. Porter, the tragedian, was so much the favourite of her time, that she was welcomed on the stage when she trod it by the help of a stick.’ Piozzi Letters, ii. 319.

[752] He said:—­’Mrs. Clive was the best player I ever saw.’  Boswell’s Hebrides, post, v. 126.  See ante, p. 7.  She was for many years the neighbour and friend of Horace Walpole.

[753] She acted the heroine in Irene.  Ante, i. 197.  ’It is wonderful how little mind she had,’ he once said. Ante, ii. 348.  See Boswell’s Hebrides, post, v. 126.

[754] See ante, iii. 183.

[755] See ante, iii. 184.

[756] ‘Garrick’s great distinction is his universality,’ Johnson said.  ’He can represent all modes of life, but that of an easy, fine-bred gentleman.’  Boswell’s Hebrides, post, v. 126.  See ante, iii. 35.  Horace Walpole wrote of Garrick in 1765 (Letters, iv. 335):—­’Several actors have pleased me more, though I allow not in so many parts.  Quin in Falstaff was as excellent as Garrick in Lear.  Old Johnson far more natural in everything he attempted; Mrs. Porter surpassed him in passionate tragedy.  Cibber and O’Brien were what Garrick could never reach, coxcombs and men of fashion.  Mrs. Clive is at least as perfect in low comedy.’

[757] See ante, ii. 465.