Entroduction.

DRAMATIC representations are certainly the most rational of all entertainments. They give equal satisfaction to the eye and the mind. Hence they have been eagerly encouraged, in proportion as civilization has advanced in every country, and they afford at all times, to a discerning observer, the best picture of the morals and manners of a people.

The interest which Dramatic representations create, is naturally transferred to those through whose agency, improvement, entertainment, and pleasure, are thus conferred, and the merit of the Actor no less the subject of our attention and approbation,

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than of the Poet, who has originally supplied him with the means of furnishing us with this rational and intellectual feast. The History of the Stage then, has, at every period, met a host of admirers. The lives of the individuals who have shone on it, and in some degree have regulated public taste and sentiment, have been brought forward with a laudable desire to trace their progress, and learn the gradual steps which advanced them to perfection; and accordingly, in doing this, their virtues and vices have been alternately a theme for applause or censure.

Such being the case, the account of an Actress, who at present so universally merits public regard, and who captivates equally by her dramatic powers, as by the blameless conduct of her private life, cannot fail to have a claim to strong prepossession with every person to whom female excellence is a subject of deserved admiration.

Memoirs

OF

MISS O'NEILL,

&c. &c.

MISS O'NEILL, the subject of the present Memoir, is the eldest daughter of John O'Neill, Esq. a gentleman descended from the well known family of that name in Ireland. Her mother is the daughter of Mr. Featherstone, of the county of Longford, the representative of a family, antient and respectable.

Mr. O'Neill, her father, early devoted himself with that enthusiasm, which is too often felt to actuate young minds fond of dramatic representations, to the profession of the stage, contrary, perhaps, to the wishes and prudent advice of his friends; a

profession he has continued to pursue, with all that varied fortune which is, for the most part, the attendant of those who enter on this scene of life. Miss O'Neill, therefore, may be said to have been born on the boards, and in the language of the poet, "to have lisped in numbers ere the numbers came." Thus she possesses by inheritance a dramatic taste. Mr. O'Neill, though not highly distinguished as an actor himself, except in some characters, is allowed not to want abilities as a critic on his brethren, and to know well the business and public feeling in regard to scenic effect. Under his tuition his daughter first imbibed her ideas, and received her lessons in the mimic art. Besides Miss O'Neil, Mr. O'Neill is the father of a numerous family. Her eldest brother, Mr. John O'Neill, has been bred in the same school, and though he has not appeared before a London audience, is considered, in the provincial theatres, as making a respectable appearance in a variety of characters. Her second brother is at present studying medicine, under the auspices of Mr. Wilson, of Windmill-street, the celebrated anatomist, and is the close adviser and attendant of his sister in her public concerns, a

proof equally of his judgment and fraternal affection. Her third brother has lately entered upon a military life as an officer in a marching regiment, the generosity of his sister having enabled him to obtain the professional object of his wishes. The rest of the family are yet too young to appear on the stage of life. Thus situated, with the incumbrance of a numerous offspring, it is not to be supposed that Miss O'Neill's education could be conducted by her father, with an attention to all those accomplishments in her first years, which the children of wealth and indulgence are so sure to receive, and which, though received, are too often forgot or disregarded. Miss O'Neill would accordingly owe much to native intuition, and perhaps may be properly said, in some respects, to have been selftaught, and to owe to the powers of her own superior mind that elegance and cultivated understanding, which has fitted her for conceiving and entering into the feelings of those great characters which form her peculiar walk.

Mr. O'Neill, like most actors who are not stationary in the London theatres, was obliged to change, according to circumstances, from place to