Siddons has been seen, as a contemporary writer describes,
"walking up and down both sides of a street in a provincial town,
dressed in a red woollen cloak, such as was formerly worn by menial
servants, and knocking at each door to deliver the playbill of her
benefit." And to come to a later instance, the reader may bear in mind
that before that ornament of Mr. Crummles's company, Miss Snevellici,
took her benefit or "bespeak" at the Portsmouth Theatre, she, in
company with Nicholas Nickleby, and, for propriety's sake, the Infant
Phenomenon, canvassed her patrons in the town, and sold tickets to Mr.
and Mrs. Curdle, Mrs. Borum, and others.
In pursuance of this principle, we find a notice in the bill for Mr.
Bickerstaff's benefit, at Drury Lane, in May, 1723: "Bickerstaff being
confined to his bed by his lameness, and his wife lying now dead, has
nobody to wait on the quality and his friends for him, but hopes
they'll favour him with their appearance." And when, just before Mr.
Ryan's benefit at Covent Garden in 1735, he had been attacked by a
footpad and seriously injured--several of his teeth having been shot
out, and his face and jawbone much shattered--he addressed a letter in
_The Daily Post_ to his friends, in which he stated the uncertainty of
his being ever able to appear on the stage again, and expressed his
hopes "that they would excuse his not making a personal application to
them.
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