O'Brien failing to obtain a post, or to enjoy the laborious luxury of a sinecure, turned his attention to writing for the stage, and on the night of December 8, 1772, he produced two pieces--at Drury Lane, his comedy of "The Duel;" at Covent Garden, his comedietta "Cross Purposes." The first is an adaptation of the "Philosophe sans le savoir," in which Barry did not more affect his audience than I have seen Baptiste _ainé_ do, on the French stage. "The Duel," however, failed, through the mawkish, sentimental, scenes which the adapter worked in, at the suggestion of some of his noble relatives, who spoiled his play, but made him pecuniary compensation for its ill-fortune. "Cross Purposes," also an adaptation--from "Les trois frères rivaux," was more lucky. It was levelled at the follies of the day, and every one was amused by the light satire. In the first piece, Barry was sublime in his affectation of cheerfulness, on his daughter's wedding-day, while his son is engaged in a duel fought under paternal sanction. In the second, Shuter as Grub, and Quick as Consol, made the house as hilarious, as Barry, in the scenes in which he was engaged, made his audience sympathetic. Mrs. Cibber, addressing Mrs. Woffington, in the "Dialogue in the Shades," speaks of O'Brien and Powell as the only actors of eminence who had appeared since Margaret's time. O'Brien was entirely in Woodward's line, from Mercutio to Harlequin. I collect from Genest, that after his aristocratic connections made a placeman of him, O'Brien grew ashamed of his vocation. "If we may judge from ... what I was told in 1803, when I resided in his neighbourhood, O'Brien had, since he left the stage, wished to sink the player, and to bury in oblivion those years of his life which are the most worth being remembered--ashamed, perhaps, of a profession which is no disgrace to any one who conducts himself respectably in it, and in which to succeed, is, generally speaking, a proof of good natural abilities, and a diligent application of them--_Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius_. It is not everybody that can make even a moderate actor." O'Brien left the stage after playing Squire Richard, and subsequently he became "William O'Brien, of Stinsford, County of Dorset, Esq." His wife died on the 9th of August 1827, on which night the Haymarket Company acted the "Poor Gentleman!" Before Barry reappeared in London, the stage suffered more serious losses than these. At one, Garrick uttered a cry--as of anguish, at the falling away of the brightest jewel of the stage. FOOTNOTES: [87] Should be Lacy Ryan. [88] I think Dr. Doran must have confused Cassio and Cassius, in which latter Ryan was excellent. [89] Lacy Ryan. [90] He was on the stage not quite six years. [Illustration: THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY LANE.] CHAPTER XVI. SUSANNA MARIA CIBBER.