Clive's career by writing and
editing parts of his plays for her and publicly praising her as a woman
and as an actress, wrote the following encomium on her professional
integrity in his "Epistle to Mrs. Clive," prefatory to _The Intriguing
Chambermaid_:
The part you have maintained in the present dispute between the
players and the patentees, is so full of honour, that had it been
in higher life, it would have given you the reputation of the
greatest heroine of the age. You looked on the cases of Mr.
Highmore and Mrs. Wilks with compassion, nor could any promises or
views of interest sway you to desert them; nor have you scrupled
any fatigue ... to support the cause of those whom you imagine
injured and distressed; and for this you have been so far from
endeavouring to exact an exorbitant reward from persons little able
to afford it, that I have known you to offer to act for nothing,
rather than the patentees should be injured by the dismission of
the audience.[8]
Fielding is, of course, referring to the 1733 dispute in which Mrs.
Clive (and Macklin) among the principal players stayed with the
ineffective proprietor of Drury Lane, John Highmore. Jealous that
Highmore and not he gained control of Drury Lane after former
shareholders either died or sold out, Theophilus Cibber demanded, among
other things, that Highmore share profits with his players rather than
pay fixed salaries.
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