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Biography
MISS SOPHIA LEE
Miss Sophia Lee, whose death took place at Clifton, on the 13th instant, was well known to the public as the joint author with her sister, Miss Harriet Lee, of the 'Canterbury Tales,' on one of which Lord Byron has founded a drama. The Misses Lee were the daughters of Mr John Lee, who was some time manager of the Edinburgh Theatre and occasionally an actor in London, of whom a whimsical anecdote is related by the author of the 'Children of Thespis.' While manager of the Edinburgh Theatre, Mr Lee was determined to improve upon stage thunder, and having procured a parcel of nine-pound shot, they were put into a wheelbarrow, to which he affixed a nine-pound wheel; this done, ridges were placed at the back of the stage, and one of the carpenters was ordered to trundle this wheelbarrow, so filled, backwards and forwards over those ridges; the play was Lear, and in the two first efforts the thunder had a good effect: at length, as the King was braving the pelting of the pitiless storm, the thunderer's foot slipped, and down he came, wheelbarrow and all: the stage being on a declivity, the balls made their way towards the orchestra, and meeting with but a feeble resistance from the scene, laid it flat. This storm was more difficult for Lear to encounter than the tempest of which he had so loudly complained; the balls taking every direction, he was obliged to skip about like the man who dances the egg hornpipe: the fiddlers, alarmed for their catgut, hurried out of the orchestra, and, to crown this scene of glorious confusion, the sprawling thunderer lay prostrate in sight of the audience, like another Salmoneus.
Mr Lee altered some of the plays of Shakspeare [sic], which have been severely censured by the dramatic critics. His two daughters opened a school at Bath, called Belvidere House, soon after the death of their father, which obtained considerable celebrity, on account of the talents of the ladies, and the ability with which it was conducted. Miss Sophia Lee, in addition to her share in the Canterbury Tales, and some other works of her sister, was the sole author of The Chapter of Accidents, a popular comedy, which for upwards of forty years has kept possession of the stage; Almeyda, a tragedy, which, though possessing both poetry and pathos, only lived four nights: the Recess, the Life of a Lover, and Ormond, all novels; and The Hermit's Tale, a poem. [complete]
Provided by Julie A. Shaffer, January 2000
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