GARRICK'S COURTSHIP.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2960, 10 August 1878, Page 4

GARRICK'S COURTSHIP.

Garrick married the beautiful Mile. Violetta, the dancer, protege of Lord and Lady Burlington. There was plenty of romance and mystery about this young lady. She had come over from Vienna a few years previously disguised as a bey, and made her debut at the opera house in the Haymarket. She was immediately taken under the protection of Lady Burlington, whose daughters used to stand'at the wings with wraps to throw around her when she came off from her dance. Her debut had been patronised by the king himself, and the noblest houses were thrown open to her. Some said she was a natural daughter of Lord Burlington's, whom he had discovered while travelling abroad, from her likeness to her mother, a lady to whom lie had been devotedly attached, rthcrs that she was the illegitimate offspring of some noble Austrian. Be this as it may, she was received in the best society. Seeing Garrick play one night, she fell desperately in leve with him ; they met in society, afterward in secret. But Lady Burlington was violently opposed to the match; the story of Robertson's play of " David Garrick " is said to be founded upon an incident of this love affair; but the real catastrophe was very different to the fictitious one; for the Countess, touched by the actor's generous selfsacrifice, gave her consent to the marriage. ir Ten thousand pounds were Fettled upon the bride —siz thousand by the Burlington s and four thousand by Garrick himself. They took up their abede in Southhampton street, Strand,a not unfashionable neighbourhood then. Ihe house is still standing— Jso. 27 —and the little back room in which they used to breakfast is said to be little changed. lie loved children, although Le had none of his own. During the run of the " Jubilee " he ordered a nightly distribution of tarts to the little ones who played the fairies, and used to delight in watching their enjoyment of them.

Cumberland relat- s how he would imitate lurkeycocks, peacocks, and waterwagtails for the amusement of his children. Here is a reminiscence of childhood by the younger Colman : "I always ran about his gardens, where he tnughfc me the game of trap-ball. He practiced, too, a thousand monkey tricks upon me ; he was Punch, harlequin, a cat in the gutter, tlien King Lear, with a mad touch that at times almost terrified me; and he htsd a peculiar mode of flashing the lightning <( his eye, by darling it into the astonished Wind of a child, as a fcrpcnt is paid to fascinate a bird; which wus an attribute belonging only t<; tins theatrical Jupiter."