Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part II:

Edmund Kean, Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble, and Harriet Smithson by their Contemporaries

During the eighteenth century, theatrical writing developed as a genre. The publishing market responded to a seemingly insatiable appetite for accounts of the personalities, social lives and performances of celebrated entertainers. This new series builds on the success of previous Pickering Lives series. It features actors who were significant in their development of new and innovative ways of performing Shakespeare. Extracts from diaries, memoirs, private letters, obituaries and other rare ephemera are drawn together to build a contemporary account of their acting achievements and personal lives.

Edmund Kean has been considered one of the greatest actors ever to have taken to the stage. His debut at Drury Lane brought the theatre renewed popularity and rescued it from near bankruptcy. He specialized in tragic roles which brought him success on both the English and American stage. Sarah Siddons and Philip Kemble were brother and sister. Siddons was famed for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth while Kemble was most noted for his Roman characters due to his imposing physical presence. Between them they helped to make the stage a more respectable profession, Kemble becoming manager of Covent Garden. Harriet Smithson became the first wife of the composer Hector Berlioz after her success on the Paris stage.

Contents

Volume 1: Edmund Kean

William Robson, The Old Playgoer; Crabb Robinson, Reminiscences (1814); Crabb Robinson, Diary (1814-1827); G H Lewes, On Actors and the Art of Acting; Evidence to Select Committee; Dr Francis of New York ‘Old New York'; R C Leslie Autobiography; F Reynolds; T C Grattan My Acquaintance with the late Edmund Kean (1833); Life of C M Young; Quarterly Review (1835); Miss Berry’s Journal (1813); New Monthly Magazine 1833; Blackwoods Magazine (1840); Life of EllistonI; Michael Kelly, Reminiscences; W C Maxcready Reminiscences; Barry Conrwall; European Magazine (1814); Thos Moore, Life of Byron; Washington Irving, Life & Letter; Gabriel Harrison, Payne; George Vandenhoff, ‘Leaves…’; James H Hackett, New York Mirror (1834); Helena Faucit ‘On some of….’; Joe Cowell, ‘Thirty Years…'; 'Review of Edmund Kean as Richard III', The Champion (1814); 'Review of Edmund Kean as Macbeth', The Champion (1814); 'Review of Edmund Kean as Romeo', The Champion (1815); 'Review of Edmund Kean as Iago', The Examiner (1814); 'Review of Edmund Kean as Richard II', The Examiner (1815); 'Review of Edmund Kean as Coriolanus', London Magazine (1820); 'Review of Edmund Kean as King Lear', London Magazine (1820); Leigh Hunt, 'Review of Edmund Kean as Richard III', Tatler (1831); Leigh Hunt, 'Review of Edmund Kean as Othello', Tatler (1831)

Volume 2: Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble

James Boaden, Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons (1827); James Boaden, Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble (1825); James Boaden, Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald (1833);Thomas Campbell, Life of Mrs. Siddons (1834); John Doran, “Their Majesties Servants” Annals of the English Stage from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean (1888); Percy Fitzgerald, The Kembles: An Account of the Lives of the Kemble Family, Including the Lives of Sarah Siddons, and Her Brother John Philip Kemble (1871); John Genest, Some Account of the English Stage (1832); Florence Parsons, The Incomparable Siddons (1909); Thomas Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies: Consisting of Critical Observations on Several Plays of Shakespeare (1785); Thomas Dutton, The Dramatic and Literary Censor (1800-1801); William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear’s Plays (1817); Extracts form Macbeth; Extracts from The Winters Tale; 'Mrs. Siddons', A View of the English Stage or a Series of Dramatic Criticisms (1818); Extracts from The London Magazine (1820); Extracts from The Examiner (1828); Extracts from The Plain Speaker (1826); Extracts from Memoirs of the Late Thomas Holcroft (1816); 'Mrs. Hill’s Lady Macbeth', The Champion (1817); 'Miss O’Neill', The Times (1814); 'Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth', Conversations of James Northcote (1830); Leigh Hunt, 'Mrs Siddons', Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatre (1807); Charles Lamb, The Prose Works of Charles Lamb (1835);'To Mrs. Siddons' The Morning Chronicle (1794); Observations on Mrs. Siddons, In the Following Characters: Margaret of Anjou, Belvidera, Jane Shore, Lady Randolph, Isabella, Zara, Euphrasia, and Zara in the Mourning Bride. By a Lady. (1784); Peter Pindar [John Wolcot], Ode Upon Ode; Or A Peep at St. James’s; or New-Year’s Day; or What You Will (1787); William Russell, The Tragic Muse: A Poem (1783); Funereal Stanzas, inscribed to the revered memory of Mrs. Anne Crawford. With a comparative dissertation between her theatrical merits and those of Mrs. Siddons. (1803); The New Rosciad (1785); The Siddoniad: A Poetical Essay (1785); The Theatrical Portrait, A Poem, On the Celebrated Mrs. Siddons, In the Characters of Calista, Jane Shore, Belvidera, and Isabella (1783); Letters of Sarah and William Siddons to Hester Lynch Piozzi; Sarah Kemble Siddons, The Reminiscences of Sarah Kemble Siddons; Frances Burney, The Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay; Catherine Galindo, Mrs. Galindo’s Letter to Mrs. Siddons: Being A Circumstantial Detail of Mrs. Siddons’s Life for the Last Seven Years; With Several of Her Letters (1809); David Garrick, Selected Letters; The Intimate Letters of Hester Piozzi and Penelope Pennington (1788-1822); E Mangin, Piozziana; Or, Recollections of the Late Mrs. Piozzi, With Remarks (1833); Thraliana The Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (Later Mrs. Piozzi) (1776-1809); Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1869); Anna Seward, The Letters of Anna Seward: Written Between The Years 1784 and 1807 (1811); Selected reviews from: The Middlesex Journal, The Morning Chronicle, Public Advertiser, Morning Post, Freeman’s Journal, Dublin Evening Post, Town and Country Magazine, The Examiner, London Magazine, Westminster Gazette, Bell’s Oracle, The Times

Volume 3: Harriet Smithson

Memoir of Miss H C Smithson (1825); Alexandre Dumas, Mes Memoires; E Delecluze Journal; Gazette Musicale (1834); Letters of Countess Granville to the Duke of Devonshire; M Moreau, Souvenirs du Theâtre Anglais à Paris; Mrs Baron Wilson, Our Actresses; E P Dutton Cook, Gentleman's Magazine (1879); Jules Janin, Journal des Débats; Reviews of Harriet Smithson in: Bell's Weekly Messenger, Corsaire, Courrier, The Examiner, The Globe, Journal des Débats, Literary Chronicle, London Magazine, New Monthly Magazine, Quotidien, Theatrical Observer, The Times, Weekly Review

Related titles

• The Diaries of Elizabeth Inchbald
• Women's Theatrical Memoirs

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