Woffington, MARGARET, actress, was born daughter of a Dublin bricklayer, October 18, 1720. She grew up a girl of remarkable grace and beauty, and, still a child, became a pupil of Madame Violante, mistress of a rope-dancing booth. From seventeen to twenty she played on the Dublin stage all manner of parts, from Ophelia to Sir Harry Wildair, and on 6th November 1740 made her first appearance at Covent Garden as Sylvia in the Recruiting Officer. Her beauty and grace, her pretty singing and vivacious coquetry, and the exquisite art especially of her male characters carried all hearts by storm. Her one drawback was the harshness of her voice, yet this in no degree hindered the completeness of her triumph. Her character was far from irreproachable, and it is most probable that Garrick never thought seriously of marrying her. But she atoned for all her faults by an irresistible goodness of disposition, and by a charity that knew no bounds. Her sister Mary failed as an actress, but married Captain Cholmondeley, nephew to Horace Walpole, and survived till 1811. Peg Woffington was always singularly independent and something whimsical in her moods, but she kept the affection of the public till the tragic close of her career. On 3d May 1757 she broke down in playing Rosalind, and left the stage for ever. She died at Teddington, 28th March 1760, her last days given to charity, good works, and penitence. She left a noble monument to her memory in her almshouses at Teddington.
See the Lives by Augustin Daly (New York, 1888) and J. Fitzgerald Molloy (1884); also R. W. Lowe's edition of Dr Doran's Annals of the English Stage (3 vols. 1888). Charles Reade's Peg Woffington is a clever novel enough, but is hardly successful as a living realisation of a singularly bright and interesting personality.