ABSTRACT
First published in The Examiner, V, 5 July 1812, pp. 428–9. It was reprinted in Hunt, Dramatic, pp. 69–74. Hunt comments briefly on a Haymarket production of Sheridan’s comedy The Rivals (1775) several weeks earlier (4 June 1812; for his additional commentary on The Rivals, see Vol. 3, pp. 142–3). He then proceeds to the main theatrical event of the moment, Sarah Siddons’s retirement from the stage. At the end of an illustrious career as the leading female actor of her time, Siddons gave her final performance in a role she made famous, Lady Macbeth, on 29 June 1812. The play was terminated following her last exit, which provoked a disturbance in the audience. For Hunt’s most substantial previous comments on Siddons, see Critical Essays, pp. 16–21.
