“ In 1836 they visited America. In 1838 she made her first great success as Nydia, the blind girl, in a dramatized version of Bulwer Lytton’s The Last Days of Pompeii, and followed this with an equally striking impersonation of Smike in Nicholas Nickleby. In 1839 came her decisive triumph with her picturesque and spirited acting as the hero of a play founded upon Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard. ”

“ KEELEY, MARY ANNE (1806–1899) , English actress, was born at Ipswich on the 22nd of November 1805 or 1806. Her maiden name was Goward, her father being a brazier and tinman. After some experience in the provinces, she first appeared on the stage in London on the 2nd of July 1825, in the opera Rosina. It was not long before she gave up “singing parts” in favour of the drama proper, where her powers of character-acting could have scope. ”