MRS GRUNDY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2152, 18 January 1881, Page 3

MRS GRUNDY.

Noah M. Ludlow, of St. Louie, is beyond question the oldest American actor and stage manager. He was bom five years before the nineteenth century came in, and he confronted his first audience upon the boards at Albany in 1814. His active stage experience, as actor and manager, covered the period from 1815 to 1853, and was, for the most part, in the West and South-west. Mr Ludlow has just published his reminiscences of the stage, and a very amusing and readable book it is. Here is an incident, which occurred at Nashville, and which may, perhaps, be accepted as an explanation of the origin of name of Mrs Grundy as applied to public opinion. An incident occurred during the performance of the comedy “ Speed the Plough” which produced considerable merriment among the audience. In the progress of the play one of the characters, “Dame Ashfield,” frequently mentions a person who, like Saree Gamp’s “ Mrs Arris” (Harris) in one of Dickens’s novels, is never seen —one " Mrs Grundy,” that in the Dame’s opinion would seem to be a “ rural oracle,” for she often refers to her bv remarking, “ What will Mrs Grundy say ?” Now it so happened that there was a family of that name living at Nashville at the time, Judge Felix Grundy and family, and Mrs Grundy was a lady that mingled with the best society of that city, and was highly respected ; but, being a member of some church that prohibited its members visiting theatres, she was not present on the occasion ; so whenever the name was mentioned there was a general titter and a laugh through the audience. This, to the actors, was incomprehensible, until a friend explained the matter to us. Judge Grundy, after Martin Van Buren’s election to the Presidency, was made Attorney-General of the United States. The expression, “ What will Mrs Grundy say ?” soon after became familiarly used by writers in newspapers and others to mean public opinion.