They accused
her of bigotry for advising a young female friend against the stage as a
business. But let us hear herself. This is what she said to the girl:
"At the bottom of my heart, I always loved and honored virtue. Yet the
tendencies of the stage so completely overcame my good sentiments that I
was for years a worthless woman. It is a situation of uncommon and
incessant temptation. Ask yourself, my child, whether there is nothing
else you can do, but this. It is, I think, our duty and our wisdom to fly
temptation whenever we can, as it is to resist it when we cannot escape
it."
Was this the tone of bigotry?
Easy in fortune, penitent, but cheerful, Mrs. Woffington had now but one
care--to efface the memory of her former self, and to give as many years
to purity and piety as had gone to folly and frailty. This was not to be!
The Almighty did not permit, or perhaps I should say, did not require
this.
Some unpleasant symptoms had long attracted her notice, but in the bustle
of her profession had received little attention. She was now persuaded by
her own medical attendant to consult Dr. Bowdler, who had a great
reputation, and had been years ago an acquaintance and an admirer. He
visited her, he examined her by means little used in that day, and he saw
at once that her days were numbered.
Dr. Bowdler's profession and experience had not steeled his heart as
they generally do and must do.
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