Life
1761-1816 [née Bland; also Dorothea]; b. 22 Nov., nr. Waterford; dg. Bland, prob. a stagehand, and actress
Grace Phillips [Mrs. Frances]; trained to act by Robert Owenson, who
prevented her marrying an Irishman; first appeared in Dublin as Phoebe in As You Like It (1777) [var. 1779], as Miss
Francis; appeared as Mrs. Jordan in Fair Penitent (Leeds 1782), in the role of Calista; debuted at Drury Lane in a play by Garrick, 1785; painted
as the Muse of comedy by John Hoeppner, and exhibited at the RA, 1786;
Lady Teazle in School of Scandal, her finest role; much praised
by Hazlitt, Lamb, Leigh Hunt; met the Duke of Clarence ("Prinny")
in 1790; had ten children, including three out of wedlock (one by Richard
Daly); died in France, where she retired in the year of her final appearance
at Margate, in 1815;
d. 3 July, Saint-Cloud, France. OCEL DIB
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Criticism
Claire Tomalin, Mrs Jordan’s Profession, The Story of a Great
Actress and a Future King (Viking 1994), 413pp.
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Notes
Times Literary Supplement (21, Oct. 1994), contains a review of Claire Tomalin,
Mrs Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future
King (Viking 1994), with comments as above; further, John Hoppner
depicted her at the Academy as the Muse of Comedy in 1786, just two years
after Reynolds had shown Siddon there in the role of tragedy; Coleridge
named her as the best verse-speaker he had ever heard; Charles Lamb and
Leigh Hunt led the romantic chorus; ‘her face, her tears, her manners
were irresistable. Her smile had the effect of sunshine, and her laugh
did one good to hear it’ (Hazlitt); her speciality lay in breeches
parts such as Sir Harry Wildair [inaugurated as such by Woffington]; accaimed
Rosamund and Viola; great popularity in the breeches repertoire; decamped
to France; brought up ten children of the Duke. See also near simultaneous
review in Spectator]
The Epilogue to R. B. Sheridan’s Pizarro was written by William
Lamb and spoken by Mrs. Jordan (see Cecil Price, ed., Plays of Sheridan,
1975 edn.).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)