Chapter XIX: Epilogue: To ‘the Sister.’

_The Sister_, produced at Covent Garden February 18, 1769, was
a comedy by Mrs. Charlotte Lenox or Lennox, ‘an ingenious lady,’ says
_The Gentleman’s Magazine_ for April in the same year, ‘well
known in the literary world by her excellent writings, particularly the
Female Quixote, and Shakespeare illustrated. . . . The audience expressed
their disapprobation of it with so much clamour and appearance of
prejudice, that she would not suffer an attempt to exhibit it a second
time (p. 199).’ According to the

same authority it was based upon one of the writer’s own novels, _Henrietta_,
published in 1758. Though tainted with the prevailing sentimentalism,
_The Sister_ is described by Forster as ‘both amusing and
interesting’; and it is probable that it was not fairly treated when it
was acted. Mrs. Lenox (1720–1804), daughter of Colonel Ramsay,
Lieut.-Governor of New York, was a favourite with the literary magnates of
her day. Johnson was half suspected of having helped her in her book on
Shakespeare; Richardson admitted her to his readings at Parson’s Green;
Fielding, who knew her, calls her, in the _Journal of a Voyage to
Lisbon_, 1755, p. 35 (first version), ‘the inimitable author of the
Female Quixote’; and Goldsmith, though he had no kindness for genteel
comedy (see _ post_, p. 228), wrote her this lively epilogue, which
was spoken by Mrs. Bulkley, who personated the ‘Miss Autumn’ of the piece.
Mrs. Lenox died in extremely reduced circumstances, and was buried by the
Right Hon. George Ross, who had befriended her later years. There are
several references to her in Boswell’s _Life of Johnson_. (See
also Hawkins’ _Life_, 2nd ed. 1787, pp. 285–7.)