5 ADMIRERS: 1786–1787
1. Public Advertiser, 3 May 1786, cited in W. McKay and W. Roberts, Hoppner (1914).
2. It was for many years at Hampton Court, but is now in the collection of H.M. the Queen, at Buckingham Palace. See O. Millar, The Later Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (1969), pp. 52–3. The painting measures 93 x 57½, and the engraving was made 1 August 1787.
3. Sir Henry Russell’s MS notes, cited Connoisseur (April 1953), p. 147. The portrait is often said to have been commissioned by the Duke of Clarence, but the date makes it impossible; the Duke commissioned copies from Romney later, so he made a good profit on his venture. There are currently four versions of this picture, one in private ownership in Detroit (probably the original), one at Waddesdon Manor, and two more in private ownership. There are at least two other striking Romney portraits of her that I have seen only in reproduction.
4. The anonymous Life of 1886 (see Bibliography), pp. 42–4, quoting Morning Herald for 1 March 1786.
5. Tate Wilkinson, The Wandering Patentee; or a History of the Yorkshire Theatre from 1700, vol. 2 (1795), pp. 262–3.
6. In Edinburgh she recited her own verses, the first piece of her writing to be preserved. It shows she had a decent command of language, an ear for verse and a sense of humour. She refers to Edinburgh priding itself on its clever and learned citizens, to herself as ‘a twinkling star’, and to Mrs Siddons, who was in Edinburgh before her, as a ‘planet’:
Presumption ’tis, in learning’s seat,
For me the Muses to entreat;
Yet, bold as the attempt may be,
I’ll mount the steed of poesy;
And as my Pegasus is small,
If stumbling, I’ve not far to fall…
’Tis true such planets sparkled here,
As made ME tremble to appear;–
A twinkling star, just come in sight,
Which, tow’rds the Pole, might give no light!
Melpomene has made such work,
Reigning despotic like the Turk,
I fear’d Thalia had no chance
Her laughing standard to advance;
But yet, her youngest Ensign, I
Took courage, was resolv’d to try,
And stand the hazard of the die.
7. There are letters between Dora and Miss Ford in the possession of Sir Brinsley Ford.
8. This is Charles Reade’s account, in his novel about Peg Woffington, of what it was like to be in love with a leading actress; he wrote it in 1853, when he was in love with Fanny Stirling.
9. According to Frederic Reynolds, ‘the love scene between him and Miss Prue, when, this latter part was acted by Mrs Jordan, was probably never surpassed in rich natural comedy’, The Life and Times of Frederic Reynolds, written by himself, vol. 2 (1826), p. 319.
10. This Beechey portrait appears on the jacket. It is in private possession and has never been shown. Beechey, born in 1753, painted Queen Charlotte in 1793, the year he became an Academician, and was knighted in 1798. He painted Dora again about twenty years later, this time not in theatrical costume. There is another fine Rosalind painting now at Penshurst Place by William Hamilton, Academician and theatrical portraitist, showing her in a feathered and pearled hat, yellow with white feathers and green brim, upturned at front, dark hair peeping out, pearls on arm; she has a long nose, quizzical expression, dark eyes. There is also a Charles Knight engraving, published 20 December 1788, after a painting by the amateur artist Henry Bunbury, showing the Drury Lane performance of As You Like It, Dora in her boy’s costume, feathered hat, trousers, boots, spotted jacket, sword, etc.
6 A VISIT TO CHELTENHAM: 1788
1. Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, edited by her niece, vol. 4 (1842), p. 200.
2. She first met the Sheridans in January 1779, and formed a very favourable impression of both. Sheridan asked her for a play on this occasion, and although she said she immediately began to imagine the horrors of a first night at Drury Lane, she also began to think of writing for it, and her play Edwy and Elgiva was put on at Drury Lane in March 1795, with Kemble and Mrs Siddons. It failed.
3. Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, vol. 4, p. 207.
4. Morning Post, cited by Brian Fothergill, Mrs Jordan: Portrait of an Actress (1965), p. 101.
5. James Boaden’s account is given in The Life of Mrs Jordan, vol. 1 (1831), pp. 126–9. Another account is in J. Adolphus, who describes her playing with John Bannister as Beau Clinch, and writes that ‘no scene palled in her performance, and not a sentence missed its due effect’ (Memoirs of John Bannister, 1839).
6. Anonymous, taken from E. Humphris and E. C. Willoughby, At Cheltenham Spa (1928), p. 81, no source given.
7. Fanny Burney’s diary for 13 January 1788, Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, vol. 4, p. 34.
8. Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, vol. 4, p. 210. The next quotations follow on from this one.
9. 25 March 1789. Sir Joshua Reynolds says in his ‘Sitter Book’ that a Mrs Jordan called on him at 3 o’clock: information from David Mannings, who says this is the only entry relating to DJ, and that the reference to 23 March in Groves’s and Cronin’s History of Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds (p. 530) is incorrect.
10. Boaden reports this as a conversation he had with Reynolds, and confirms that he never painted her (The Life of Mrs Jordan), vol. 1, pp. 220–21.
11. John Kemble in December 1789, H. Baker, John Philip Kemble (1942), p. 132.
12. Cecil Price (ed.), The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, vol. 2 (1966), p. 61n., taken from the Farington diary for 25 February 1804.
7 CARNIVAL: 1789–1791
1. Note by Lady Elizabeth Foster on 15 December 1788, cited by Olwen Hedley, Queen Charlotte (1975), p. 163.
2. Betsy Sheridan to Mrs Lefanu, 21 November 1788, cited by W. Fraser Rae, Sheridan: A Biography, vol. 2 (1896), pp. 94–5.
3. It was Parson James Woodforde.
4. BM Print Room, no. 7514, by Rowlandson, 6 March 1789.
5. The Duchess of Buccleuch to Lady Louisa Stuart, July 1789, in Mrs Godfrey Clark, Gleanings from an Old Portfolio, vol. 2 (1896), pp. 149–50.
6. James Boaden prints the whole poem in a section called ‘Illustrations’ at the end of vol. 1 of his Life of Mrs Jordan (1831), pp. 367–8.
7. The letter is partly paraphrased in the anonymous 1886 Life (see Bibliography); it then gives a direct quotation, as reproduced here, pp. 46–7.
8. Bannister’s own account, from J. Adolphus, Memoirs of John Bannister, vol. 1 (1839), p. 81.
9. Betsy Sheridan’s journal, quoted in Sheridan: A Biography, vol. 2, p. 36. Mrs Inchbald had already satirized the Dr Marmadukes in her farce of 1788, Animal Magnetism, and Dora had played in it: but the satire failed to affect fashionable behaviour.
10. Michael T. H. Sadler, The Political Career of R. B. Sheridan (1912), p. 83.
11. ibid., p. 81.
12. Elizabeth Sheridan to Mrs Stratford Canning, 27 January 1791, cited in The Political Career of R. B. Sheridan, p. 85.
13. See, for example, Chapter 10 in Frederic Reynolds’s The Life and Times of Frederic Reynolds, written by himself, vol. 1 (1826). For the Prince of Wales’s mimicry of Kemble, see R. Fulford, George IV (1935), p. 101.
14. See Sheridan: A Biography, vol. 1, p. 195n.
15. Thomas Moore, Memoirs of the Life of R. B. Sheridan, vol. 2 (1858 edition), p. 87.
8 A ROYAL EDUCATION: PRINCE WILLIAM
1. See, among many sources, R. Fulford’s George IV (1935), pp. 19–20.
2. Philip Ziegler, King William IV (1973), P. 34.
3. ibid.
4. Prince William to the Prince of Wales, 23 July 1784, quoted in King William IV, p. 51.
5. Prince William to the Prince of Wales, 12 August 1784, Arthur Aspinall (ed.), The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770–1812, vol. 1 (1963), p. 155.
6. ibid., p. 222.
7. Prince William to the Prin
ce of Wales, 10 February 1786, The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770–1812, vol. 1, p. 219.
8. King William IV, p. 63.
9. Prince William to the Prince of Wales, 24 January 1789, The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770–1812, vol. 1, PP. 454–5.
10. In King William IV Ziegler quotes on p. 69 from RA 44850 an expression of remorse made by William on 26 October 1788: ‘I have been living a terrible debauched life of which I am heartily ashamed and tired. I must in the West Indies turn over a new leaf, or else I shall be irrevocably ruined. I have made a determined resolution to abstain from excess of all kinds.’
11. Fanny Burney, 2 May 1789, Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, edited by her niece, vol. 5 (1842), pp. 24–6.
12. 4 June 1791, Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, vol. 5, p. 205.
13. King William IV, p. 73.
14. Elizabeth Sheridan to Mrs Canning, quoted by Madeleine Bingham, Sheridan: The Track of a Comet (1972), p. 276. She assigns it to the autumn of 1789, but gives no source.
15. This appears to cast some doubt on the authenticity of the wine coolers that bear the inscription ‘His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence to Dora Jordan, New Year’s Day, 1790.’
16. On 2 May 1792, Parson James Woodforde was at Norwich Theatre, where a Miss Edmeads was acting in her own benefit: ‘there saw Tragedy of Hamlet and the new Entertainment called the spoiled Child, a droll thing enough. She acted the part of Hamlet and young Pickle and performed both her parts very well.’ John Beresford (ed.), The Diary of a Country Parson, vol. 3 (1927), p. 348.
17. Charlotte Papendiek (V.D. Broughton, ed.), Court and Private Life in the Time of Queen Charlotte, vol. 1 (1887), p. 250.
18. Elizabeth Sheridan to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, n.d. but attributed 1790, when the production was done on 16 April. W. Fraser Rae, Sheridan: A Biography, vol. 2 (1896), pp. 129–30.
19. James Hare to the Duchess of Devonshire, 9 February 1790, Earl of Bessborough (ed.), Georgiana: Extracts from the Correspondence of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1955), p. 167. Hare is quoting Mrs Hobart.
20. Duke of Clarence to the Prince of Wales, 15 May 1790, The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770–1812, vol. 2 (1964), pp. 71–2.
21. Frederic Reynolds, The Life and Times of Frederic Reynolds, written by himself, vol. 2 (1826), pp. 79–80. DJ was supported by Bannister, Dodd, Palmer and Kemble; the audience was doubtful but during the last scene ‘the acting of Mrs Jordan produced so powerful an impression, that on the termination of the comedy, the voices of the few non-contents were drowned in the applause of the vast majority’.
22. Duke of Clarence to the Prince of Wales, 17 August 1790, The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770–1812, vol. 2, pp. 88–9.
23. Footnote, The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770–1812, vol. 2, p. 176. The conversation is as reported by Lady Elizabeth Foster.
24. Point of law reported in Annual Register for 19 April 1791.
25. The Duke of Clarence to the Prince of Wales, 13 October 1791, Petersham; quoted in Arthur Aspinall (ed.), Mrs Jordan and Her Family, being the Unpublished Letters of Mrs Jordan and the Duke of Clarence, later William IV (1951), p. 10, from ‘Windsor Archives 44892’.
26. The originals of these letters have disappeared. They are partly quoted direct and partly paraphrased by Michael T. H. Sadler, The Political Career of R. B. Sheridan (1912), pp. 83–4. In fact William was still twenty-five in January 1791.
27. Years later, in May 1810, when Harriet Duncannon was Lady Bessborough, she wrote thus to her lover. Lady Granville (ed.), Private Correspondence 1781–1821, Lord Granville Leverson-Gower, vol.2 (1916), p. 355.
28. Ziegler quotes Walpole thus on p. 45.
29. The silhouette is plate xxxiv in E. N. Jackson’s History of Silhouettes (1911), and is attributed by both Mrs Jackson in her Silhouettes: A History and Dictionary of Artists (1938) and Mrs S. McKechnie’s British Silhouette Artists and Their Work 1760–1860 (1978) to Mrs Millicent Brown, an amateur cutter living in Portman Square from the 1770s until 1809. Among her other subjects were Edward Gibbon and the Duchess of Devonshire. It is thought to be in Mr J. Cullen’s album in New Jersey, USA, amongst other silhouettes of DJ.
30. British Museum Print Room, M.D. George Catalogue, no. 7835, published 15 March 1791.
31. The play is Fletcher’s The Greek Slave.
32. This was the theatre known as the King’s, no longer in existence, although the present Her Majesty’s is built on part of its site.
33. Diaries and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, vol. 5, pp. 205–11, for a full account of William’s behaviour.
34. James Boaden, The Life of Mrs Jordan, vol. 2 (1831), p. 269.
35. There is a long account of this visit to Yorkshire in Tate Wilkinson’s The Wandering Patentee; or a History of the Yorkshire Theatre from 1700, vol. 3 (1795), pp. 237–68.
36. Both Wilkinson and Boaden (vol. 2, p. 193) give this information.
37. Horace Walpole to Mary Berry, 16 September 1791, Mrs Paget Toynbee (ed.), The Letters of Horace Walpole, vol. 11 (1904), p. 352.
38. The Life of Mrs Jordan, vol. 2, p. 269.
39. The Duke of Clarence to the Prince of Wales, 13 October 1791, in Mrs Jordan and Her Family, p. 10, from ‘Windsor Archives 44892’.
9 SCANDAL: 1791
1. 3 November, quoted in the anonymous Life of 1886 (see Bibliography), p. 51.
2. Quoted in ibid., p. 54.
3. See letters written between November 1791 and February 1792, the Duke of Clarence to William Adam, 27 November 1791, the rest undated, the Duke of Clarence to William Adam, William Adam to John Palmer, the Duke of Clarence to William Adam, the Duke of Clarence to William Adam, the Duke of Clarence to William Adam, all in Arthur Aspinall (ed.), Mrs Jordan and Her Family, being the Unpublished Letters of Mrs Jordan and the Duke of Clarence, later William IV (1951), pp. 11–13, 18–19.
4. Quoted in Brian Fothergill, Mrs Jordan: Portrait of an Actress (1965), p. 148.
5. Both letters are cited in Mrs Jordan and Her Family, p. 12.
6. Dr James Ford to Richard Ford, Rouen, 18 January 1792, summary from Brinsley Ford MS in Cecil Price (ed.), The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1966), vol. 3, p. 288.
7. DJ’s letter, which was printed in several newspapers, is quoted in James Boaden, The Life of Mrs Jordan, vol. 1 (1831), pp. 209–11; he says ‘I have not preserved any of the ill-natured sneers at this clear and candid explanation’, and that it was a vain attempt to satisfy everybody. The comment in The Times of 2 December is in Mrs Jordan and Her Family, p. 3.
8. C. B. Hogan, The London Stage (1968), p. 1,410.
10 ‘THE ONLY RIVAL YOU CAN EVER HAVE’
1. R. Fulford, The Royal Dukes (1933), p. 206.
2. From ‘Anthony Pasquin’ (John Williams), The Children of Thespis, published in June 1792.
3. James Boaden, The Life of Mrs Jordan, vol. 2 (1831), p. 235n.
4. Hester Bland to DJ, n.d. but late 1791, Arthur Aspinall (ed.), Mrs Jordan and Her Family, being the Unpublished Letters of Mrs Jordan and the Duke of Clarence, later William IV (1951), p. 14; the anonymous Life of 1886 (see Bibliography), p. 28.
5. Hester Bland to DJ, n.d. but late 1791, Mrs Jordan and Her Family, p. 15.
6. Hester Bland to DJ; her three letters written during the crisis are given in Mrs Jordan and Her Family, pp. 14–18.
7. DJ to William Adam, January 1795, RA Add. 21/128/23 and DJ to William Adam, February 1795, Sir Brinsley Ford Archive.
8. The two wills are in the possession of Sir Brinsley Ford.
9. The survival of Dora’s side of the correspondence is explained in Chapter 21. William’s papers were largely destroyed by his executors. Quotations and paraphrases in this section are taken from three sources: MSS in the Royal Archives; the Huntington Library MSS; and Mrs Jordan and Her Family, pp. 4–11.
10. DJ to the Duke of Clarence, 1791, Mrs Jordan and Her Family, p. 7.
12. The Life of Mrs Jordan, vol. 1, p. 309.
13. Cited in The Life of Mrs Jordan, vol. 1, p. 216.
14. Michael T. H. Sadler, The Political Career of R. B. Sheridan (1912), p. 84.
15. Richard Brinsley Sheridan to Harriet Duncannon, March 1792, Cecil Price (ed.), The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, vol. 1 (1966), p. 239; Richard Brinsley Sheridan to the Duchess of Devonshire (in Geneva with Harriet Duncannon), May 1792, vol. 1, p. 245; Richard Brinsley Sheridan to Harriet Duncannon, 14 May 1792, vol. 1, p. 247.
16. He became Lord Grey, the Prime Minister of the Reform Bill.
17. Further information about Eliza Courtney in Appendix IV, Earl of Bessborough (ed.), Georgiana: Extracts from the Correspondence of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1955), pp. 294–5.
11 NELL OF CLARENCE: 1792–1796
1. Tate Wilkinson, The Wandering Patentee; or a History of the Yorkshire Theatre from 1700, vol. 1 (1795), p. 22.
2. Lord Edward took her to Ireland, where he became an active revolutionary and died in the violence of 1798. For the Duke and Pamela, see the Duke of Clarence to Thomas Coutts, 21 March 1798, Arthur Aspinall (ed.), Mrs Jordan and Her Family, being the Unpublished Letters of Mrs Jordan and the Duke of Clarence, later William IV (1951), p. 42.
3. The Duke of Clarence to Thomas Coutts, 6 November 1793, Mrs Jordan and Her Family, p. 21.
4. The Duke of Clarence to Thomas Coutts, 5 January 1794, Mrs Jordan and Her Family, pp. 23–4.
5. This and the baptism of Lucy Hester (Ford) are both in Ewell Parish Register in the Surrey Record Office. The Duke himself made a clear and careful note of the time and place of birth of each of the children borne to him by Dora; several copies are still preserved in private possession.
6. Cecil Price (ed.), The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, vol. 2 (1966), p. 51n., information from Hodgson’s Catalogue, 26 April 1911, lot 588.
Mrs Jordan's Profession Page 38
