“Madam, it is not _possible_; remember, therefore, in future, that even fiction should be supported by probability.” Miss Monckton looked all amazement, but insisted upon the truth of what she had said. “I do not believe, Madam,” said he, warmly, “that she knows my name.” “Oh, that is rating her too low,” said a gentleman stranger. “By not knowing my name,” continued he, “I do not mean literally, but that when she sees it abused in a newspaper she may possibly recollect that she has seen it abused in a newspaper before.” “Well, Sir,” said Miss Monckton, “but you must see her for all this.” “Well, Madam, if you desire it, I will go; see her, I shall not, nor hear her; but I’ll go, and that will do. The last time I was at a play I was ordered there by Mrs. Abington, or a Mrs. Somebody, I do not well remember who, but I placed myself in the middle of the first row of the front boxes, to show that when I was called I came.” He kept his promise, and the huge, slovenly figure, clad in a greasy brown coat and coarse black worsted stockings, was several times seen taking handfuls of snuff, and criticising the actress in his outspoken, growling fashion. She then paid him a visit in his den at Bolt Court, to which he alludes in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale:— “Mrs. Siddons, in her visit to me, behaved with great modesty and propriety, and left nothing behind her to be censured or despised. Neither praise nor money, the two powerful corrupters of mankind, seemed to have depraved her. I shall be glad to see her again. Her brother Kemble calls on me, and pleases me very well. Mrs. Siddons and I talked of plays, and she told me her intention of exhibiting this winter the character of Constance, Catherine, and Isabella, in Shakespeare.” Boswell gives us also the account of what took place:— “When Mrs. Siddons came into the room, there happened to be no chair ready for her, which he observing, said with a smile: ‘Madam, you who so often occasion a want of seats to other people will the more easily excuse the want of one yourself.’ “Having placed himself by her, he with great good humour entered upon a consideration of the English drama; and, among other enquiries, particularly asked her which of Shakespeare’s characters she was most pleased with. Upon her answering that she thought the character of Queen Catherine in _Henry VIII._ the most natural: ‘I think so too, Madam,’ said he; ‘and whenever you perform it I will once more hobble out to the theatre myself.’ Mrs. Siddons promised she would do herself the honour of acting his favourite part for him, but was unable to do so before grand old Samuel was laid to his last rest.” CHAPTER X. 1782 TO 1798. Mrs. Siddons’s life between the years 1785 to 1798 was passed in the professional treadmill, and her history during this period is best told by an account of the characters she personated.