MONTHLY MIRROR.

FOR

AUGUST, 1800.

Embellished with

A PORTRAIT OF MRS. GIBBS, IN THE CHARACTER OF COWSLIP, ENGRAVED BY RIDLEY, FROM AN ORIGINAL PAINTING BY! CLARKE.

PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETORS,

By J. Wright, No. 20, Denmark-Court, Strand,

And published by VERNOR and HOOD in the Poultry;

Sold, also, by all the Booksellers in

Great Britain and

Ireland.

CORRESPONDENCE.

A fine Portrait of her Serene Highness the Margravine of Anspach, is in great forwardness.

A Portrait of Mr. H. Johnston, in the character of Hamlet, from a painting by Robert Kerr Porter, will appear in our next.

ACADEMICUS does us honour by his correspondence ;---he will find some of his communications in the present number.

Q. Z. has always a claim upon our gratitude. We have to acknowledge the receipt of va rious favours, which shall be attended to as strictly as possible."

I. F. is right---" talents should not be suppressed;" but if the managers were to give a trial to every candidate who solicits the honour of a debut, the days in the year would be too few for the multiplicity of claimants who would appear. They must necessarily study their Own convenience and interest in this respect. We see nothing in I. F's letter that seems to call for an insertion, and our correspondent had surely no right to expect that bis communi *cations should have been noticed last month, when the favours of all our well-wishers were unavoidably neglected, to make room for the preface.

The Lines to Mrs. Siddons," and "To a Lady with an Atlas," are at present mislaid,

The Sonnet to Mary, by W. F. for which we promised to find a place, has been since interwoven into a poem of some length, and published in another work. This duplicity is inexcusable, and we have consequently destroyed the author's manuscript.

The Widow, an imitation of Southey, by W. G. B. an Ode to the Lark, by Schubertus; and Lines on Miss Cabanel,, are under consideration.

Rusticus, H. Gubbins, W. M. Octavius, (not our elegant and highly valued correspondent at Stamford) and Vitoldus, are inadmissible.

The letter from a lounger at Edinburgh came too late to be inserted this month,

+++ Our willingness to oblige our dramatic friends has induced us, this month, to present them with four additional pages, in order to give room for the insertion of various provincial articles.

MONTHLY MIRROR,

FOR

AUGUST, 1800.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF

MRS. GIBBS.

[WITH A PORTRAIT.]

MRS. GIBBS, when very young, made her first appearance at the Haymarket theatre, in the year 1783, as Sally, in the farce of Man and Wife. (This piece was written by the elder Colman, and first. produced at Covent-Garden, for the purpose of introducing a procession of Shakspere's characters, before Garrick's Jubilee could be prepared for representation at Drury-Lane.) Her beautiful face, and very interesting figure, even at that age, made a strong impression upon the audience, but she was too young to be of essential service to the theatre, and therefore quitted it at the conclusion of the season. Four years afterwards Mrs. Gibbs was engaged by the late Mr. John Palmer, her godfather, to perform at the Royalty theatre : her first appearance was in Miss in her Teens, she played the part of Biddy. Her reception was so favourable, as to induce Mr. Palmer to give her the best line of business in every piece produced at the Fɔyalty, and she continued there during the whole of that gentieman's management. Since that period Mrs. Gibbs has occasionally performed at the theatres royal Drury-Lane and CoventGarden; but her regular engagement has been at the theatre in the Haymarket, where, in consequence of the secession of Mrs. Stephen Kemble, she has deservedly occupied all characters of tender simplicity and unaffected elegance.

To this department of our work we do not assign a critical dis quisition on the various excellence and defects of dramatic personification. We may, however, be permitted to add, that Mrs. Gibbs is in high favour with the public, and that, in private life, she is esteemed by a very large circle of friends.

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