Jean Plaidy - Goddess of the Green Room

She wrote to Frederick telling him not to worry, that she understood his difficulties; she was sure he had hoped to repay her before the deficiencies were discovered; and when Mr Barton had so settled her affairs and she could return to England they would all set up house together.

Versailles did not suit her and she went to St Cloud and took rooms in the Maison du Sieur Mongis, a gloomy place with a dark overgrown garden and shabbily furnished rooms. It was ill-heated and as it was winter she felt chilled and thought longingly of the comforts of Bushy House.

She would lie on the shabby old sofa and say to Miss Sketchley: ‘Sometimes I feel that this old sofa will be my death bed. One day I shall lie down on it and never get up. Do you know, I don’t think I should greatly care.’

‘Nonsense,’ said Miss Sketchley. ‘What of the girls? They are expecting you to go back and make a home for them.’

Yes, the girls. She must always think of the girls.

A new year had started. 1816. One weary day followed another, bringing no letter of release.

‘Have they forgotten me?’ she asked Miss Sketchley.

Her health did not improve with the coming of the spring. She developed jaundice and her skin turned yellow. Miss Sketchley, alarmed, wrote to Dodee.

She waited for the reply.

Meanwhile Dorothy was growing worse. The coughing fits were frequent and alarming.

‘Are there any letters from England?’ she asked constantly.

Miss Sketchley could only shake her head miserably.

‘My dear, ask them to go to the Post Office… let them go now… There may be some waiting for me.’

Miss Sketchley knew it was useless, but nevertheless, to satisfy Dorothy, she sent the messenger.

She sat by Dorothy’s side at that old sofa. She thought: ‘Will her daughter come? Is none of her family – for whom she lived, and for whom she is dying – to be with her at the end?’

Someone was knocking at the door. But it was only the messenger.

‘Are there any letters?’ asked Dorothy.

‘No, Madame, nothing at all.’

In weary resignation she sank back on the sofa and turned her head to the wall.

Miss Sketchley sat still, afraid to look at Dorothy because in her heart she knew.

The July sun filtered through the window showing the dust on the furniture and Miss Sketchley sat listening as Dorothy had listened for the family to come to take her home, for the letters which would never come.

The favourite exponent of the Comic Muse had died from an inflammation of the lungs at St Cloud in France, so said the English papers.

She was buried with only Miss Sketchley and strangers to mourn her; but one of these strangers put up a granite slab to her on which he had the words inscribed:

‘Sacred to the memory of Dorothy Jordan, who for a series of years in London as well as other cities of Britain pre-eminently adorned the stage. For Comic Wit, sweetness of voice, and imitating the manners and customs of laughing maidens as well as the opposite sex, she ranked second to none in the display of that art. Neither was anyone more prompt on relieving the necessitous. She departed this life, the 5th July 1816. Remember and weep for her.’

Mrs Jordan and Her Family: being the Unpublished Correspondence of Mrs Jordan and the Duke of Clarence, later William IV edited by A. Aspinall

National and Domestic History of England William Hickman Smith Aubrey

The Life of Mrs Jordan including Original Private Correspondence James Boaden

In the Days of the Georges William B. Boulton

George III; His Court and Family Henry Colburn

Life and Times of George IV The Rev. George Croly

The Good Queen Charlotte Percy Fitzgerald

Life of George IV Percy Fitzgerald

Mrs Jordan, Portrait of an Actress Brian Fothergill

George IV Roger Fulford

Unsuccessful Ladies Jane-Eliza Hasted

The Life and Reign of William IV Robert Huish

The Story of Dorothy Jordan Clare Jerrold

George IV Shane Leslie

George III J. C. Long

The Sailor King William IV, His Court and His Subjects Fitzgerald Molloy

A History of the Late 18th Century Drama Allardyce Nicoll

The Four Georges Sir Charles Petrie

The House of Hanover Alvin Redman

George IV Joanna Richardson

Mrs Jordan Philip W. Sergeant

The Dictionary of National Biography edited by Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee

Portrait of the Prince Regent Dorothy Margaret Stuart

The Four Georges W. M. Thackeray

The Patriot King, William IV Grace E. Thompson

British History John Wade

Memoirs and Portraits Horace Walpole

Memoirs of the Reign of George III Horace Walpole

George III Beckles Wilson