Actresses -- Great Britain -- Biography; Oldfield, Anne, 1683-1730; Theater -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century
[Footnote A: The dead were then buried in woolen, which was rendered
compulsory by the Acts 30 Car. II. c. 3 and 36 ejusdem c. i. The first
act was entitled "an Act for the lessening the importation of linnen
from beyond the seas, and the encouragement of the woolen and paper
manufactures of the kingdome." It prescribed that the curate of every
parish, shall keep a register to be provided at the charge of the
parish, wherein to enter all burials and affidavits of persons being
buried in woolen; the affidavit to be taken by any justice of the
peace, mayor, or such like chief officer in the parish where the
body was interred.... It imposed a fine of five pounds for every
infringement, one half to go to the informer, and the other half to
the poor of the parish. This Act was only repealed by 54 Geo. III.
c. 108, or in the year 1815. The material used was flannel, and
such interments are frequently mentioned in the literature of the
time.--ASHTON.]
Soon there were no more thoughts of dress, no more plaintive shudders
at the iniquity of the woollen act. The eyes whose kindly light had
illumined the dull soul of many a playgoer, closed for ever on the
23rd of October, 1730, and the incomparable Oldfield was no more.
Surely old Sol did not shine on London that day; surely he must
have mourned behind the leaden English sky for one of his fairest
daughters, that child of sunshine who brightened the world by her
presence, and made her exit, as she did her entrance, with a smile.
After the breath had left Anne's still lovely body, Mistress Saunders
dressed her in a "Brussels lace head-dress, a Holland shift, with
tucker and double ruffles of the same lace, and a pair of new
kid gloves." It was, no doubt, the costume which the actress had
commanded, and handsome she must have looked, as many an admirer took
one last glimpse of the remains prior to the interment in Westminster
Abbey. All that was mortal of Oldfield lay in state in the Jerusalem
Chamber,[A] and then there followed an elaborate funeral, at which
were present a host of great men, and the two sons of the deceased,
Mr. Maynwaring and young Churchill. Were these sons less grieved when
they found that their mother had left them the major part of her
fortune?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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