Life
?1759-1829; [Countess of Derby]; b. Cork, child actress and dg. of drunken
actor-manager, who died young; appeared first as Miss Hardcastle in Goldsmith’s
She Stoops to Conquer (1774); toured in England; appeared first
at Haymarket, 1777; Drury Lane, 1778; m. Edward Stanley, 12th Earl; commended
by Hazlitt for ‘fine lady airs and graces’; there is a crayon
portrait by Ozias Humphrey, a miniaturist; admired by Charles Fox until
she wore breeches on stage; last appeared as Lady Teazle; there is an
account of her in R. P. Peake, Memoirs of the Colman Family (Vol.
2). DNB FDA
Notes
Lady Morgan offers a comparison: ‘[...] like that charming picture
of Miss Farren, in a similar costume, once the ornament of every dressing
room’ (The O’Briens and the O’Flahertys, 1829; extract
in Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 1991, Vol. 2, p.867).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)