Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part IV:

Helen Faucit, Fanny Kemble and Lucia Elizabeth Vestris by their Contemporaries

The three actors considered in Part IV of our successful Lives of Shakespearian Actors series were all women who made considerable and long-lasting contributions to the dramatic arts.

Helen Faucit, who came from an acting family, joined the Covent Garden Theatre company in 1836, where she acted alongside both William Charles Macready and Charles Kemble. Macready, although ambivalent about Faucit’s ambitions, considered her the best actress of the period. As her career progressed, she became known for her ability to embody Ideal Womanhood, an identification that was strengthened by Faucit’s marriage to Sir Theodore Martin and confirmed by Martin’s valedictory biography of his wife. Despite her identification with the concept of Ideal Womanhood, which to a great extent was based on her portrayals of Shakespeare’s heroines, Faucit continued her work in the theatre after marriage, living her life as both Helen Faucit and Lady Martin. Helen Faucit’s theatrical representations of women both crystallized and influenced Victorian views of femininity.

Frances Anne (Fanny) Kemble came from an acting dynasty. Eldest daughter of Charles Kemble and niece of Sarah Siddons, she became an accomplished actor in her own right. Aside from acting, Fanny published a number of plays and memoirs and a collection of poetry.

Lucia Elizabeth Vestris began her performing career as a contralto opera singer. However, it was in male roles in burlesques that she achieved a new level of fame, if not notoriety. She went on to manage several theatres: at Covent Garden she re-introduced Love’s Labour’s Lost and restored much of the text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Inaugurating a tradition of women playing the role, she cast herself as Oberon in the production.

This facsimile edition is backed up by full scholarly apparatus and will appeal to those undertaking research in Shakespearian Studies, Nineteenth-Century Studies and the History of the Theatre and Performance.

Contents

Volume 1: Helen Faucit
First Performances: Helen Faucit, ‘Juliet’, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (William Blackwood and Sons, 1899); ‘Miss Helen Faucit’, Hiscoke and Son’s Richmond Notes: A Monthly Record of Local Information for Richmond and Its Neighborhood (1865); Sir Theodore Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (William Blackwood and Sons, 1900)*. Developing Her Craft: The Diaries of William Charles Macready, 1833–1851, William Toynbee (ed) (George Putnam’s Sons, 1912)*; Letter to Macready [transcribed ms]; Macready, Diaries, 26 October, 1837; Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900)*; Faucit, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (1899)*. Professional Life after Marriage: “Final” performances and charitable activities, Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900)*; Letter to Clement Scott. Selected Shakespearean Roles and Characters: Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing – Faucit, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (1899)*; Morning Chronicle, 24 December, 1836; Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 23 April, 1879; Morning Chronicle, 3 May, 1879. Hermione in The Winter’s Tale – Faucit, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (1899)*; Caledonian Mercury, 8 March, 1847. Imogen in Cymbeline – Faucit, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (1899)*; Charles Rice, Dramatic Register, in Arthur Colby Sprague and Bertram Shuttleworth (eds), The London Theatre in the Eighteen-Thirties (Society for Theatre Research, 1950); Macready, Diaries*; George Fletcher, ‘Characters in Cymbeline’, Athenaeum, 15 April; Henry Morley, The Journal of a London Playgoer from 1851–1866 (George Routledge and Sons, 1891)*; Morning Post, 19 October, 1864; Morning Herald, 19 October, 1864. Portia in The Merchant of Venice – Faucit, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (1899)*. Rosalind in As You Like It – Faucit, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (1899)*; Examiner, 21 April, 1839; Queen Victoria’s Journal RA, 12 June, 1843; George Fletcher, ‘Criticism and Acting of the Character of Rosalind’ in Studies of Shakespeare; Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900)*; Morley, The Journal of a London Playgoer from 1851–1866 (1891)*; Sunday Times, 12 March, 1865; [G H Lewes], Pall Mall Gazette, 10 March, 1865; Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900)*; Examiner, 3 October, 1879; Times, 3 October, 1879; Letter to Lewis Wingfield, 23 August, 1879. The Faucit Legend: “Woman”, with comment from Helen Faucit, Harriet Faucit’s autograph book; Letters from an unknown writer and from Harriet Faucit to a friend (1836) in Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900); Charles Rice, ‘Kemble Retiring, Faucit Advancing’, Dramatic Register, in The London Theatre in the Eighteen-Thirties (1950); Sunday Times, 28 January, 1838*; Mephistopheles, Letter, Caledonian Mercury, 21 December, 1843; Mephistophles, Essay on Cymbeline, Caledonian Mercury, 9 March, 1844; Archibald Alison, ‘The British Stage’, in Essays, Political, Historical, and Miscellaneous (1850); ‘Faucit and Ideal Womanhood’, The Observer, 2 November, 1845; Letter to Mr Alexander in Ireland [transcribed ms]; Letter to George Hadden [transcribed ms]; Mrs Cornwall Barrett Wilson, ‘Miss Faucit’, Our Actresses (Smith, Elder, and Company, 1844); [Margaret Stokes], ‘Helen Faucit’, Blackwood’s Magazine, December 1885; J W Flynn, The Random Recollections of an Old Play-Goer: A Sketch of Some Old Cork Theatres (Guy & Co, Ltd, 1890)*; Serjeant Talfourd, ‘To Miss Helen Faucit’, in Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900); Sir Theodore Martin, ‘To Rosalind’, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900); ‘Bon Gaultier and His Friends’, Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine (1844)*; Robert Browning, ‘Lines to Helen Faucit’, in On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (1899); Sonnets from the Folger Promptbook of Cymbeline (1844?); Verses by Reverend John Moultrie, in Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900); Charles Swain, 28 April, 1852, in Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900); Poem by Sir Theodore to H F dedicating his translation of the Vita Nuova to her [transcribed ms]. On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters and its Reception: Helen Faucit, Letter to C E Flower, 13 January, 1891 [Transcribed ms]; Dina Maria Craik, ‘Merely Players’, The Nineteenth Century (1886); Review, The Spectator, in The Critic (1886). Final Years and Retrospective: Margaret Oliphant, Autobiography*; Martin, Helena Faucit, Lady Martin (1900)*; Adolphus William Ward, ‘Helen Faucit’, The Manchester Guardian, 1 November, 1898, in Collected Papers: Historical, Literary, Travel, and Miscellaneous (Cambridge University Press, 1921)

Volume 2: Fanny Kemble
Juliet: Extracts from Records of a Girlhood; ‘Covent-Garden Theatre’, Morning Chronicle, 6 October, 1829; ‘Covent Garden Theatre’, The Standard, 6 October, 1829; ‘Covent Garden,’ The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, 10 October, 1829; ‘Covent-Garden Theatre’, The Times, Oct 6, 1829; ‘Covent-Garden Theatre’, Morning Post, 8 October, 1829; ‘Covent-Garden Theatre’, Morning Chronicle, 10 October, 1829; ‘Covent Garden Theatre’, The Derby Mercury, 14 October, 1829; ‘Covent-Garden Theatre’, The Times, Oct 17, 1829; ‘Theatricals’, The Age, 11 October, 1829; ‘Covent Garden Theatre’, The Standard, 17 October, 1829; ‘Covent Garden’, The Dramatic Magazine, 1 November, 1829; ‘Covent Garden Theatre’, The Theatrical Observer, 3 November, 1829; ‘The Drama: Covent-Garden Theatre’, The New Monthly Magazine, November, 1829; Leigh Hunt, ‘Miss Fanny Kemble as Juliet,’ 5th and 12th October, 1830, in Dramatic Essays; Anna Jameson, ‘Fanny Kemble in Romeo and Juliet’, Sketches at Home and Abroad; Sir Thomas Lawrence, Extracts from two letters to FAK on her performance as Juliet [Transcribed ms]. Constance: ‘Theatricals’, The Age, 27 March, 1831; ‘Theatrical Examiner’, The Examiner, 27 March, 1831; Leigh Hunt, ‘Miss Fanny Kemble as Constance,’ 25 March, 1831, in Dramatic Essays; Anna Jameson, ‘Critique on Constance,’ Letter to FAK on her performance as Katherine [Transcribed ms]. Katherine: ‘The Drama’, Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 30 October, 1831; Anna Jameson, ‘Critique on Queen Katherine’, Letter to FAK on her performance as Katherine [Transcribed ms]. Beatrice: ‘Covent-Garden Theatre’, The Morning Post, 18 February, 1831; ‘Covent Garden’, Belle Assemblée; or Court and Fashionable Magazine, 1 March 1831; ‘Theatricals’, La Belle Assemblée; or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, 1 April, 1831; ‘Theatricals’, The Age, 20 February, 1831; ‘The Drama’, The World of Fashion and Continental Feuilletons, 1 March, 1831. Portia: ‘Covent-Garden Theatre’, Morning Chronicle, 26 March, 1830; ‘Theatrical Examiner’, The Examiner, 28 March, 1830; ‘Covent Garden Theatre’, Theatrical Observer, 29 March 1830; ‘Covent-Garden’, Belle Assemblée; or Court and Fashionable Magazine, 1 May 1830; ‘Theatricals’, The Age, 28 March, 1830; ‘The Drama’, Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 28 March 1830. FAK’s return to the stage: ‘Theatricals’, Lloyd’s Weekly London Newspaper, 2 May, 1847; ‘Provincial Theatricals’, The Era, 3 October, 1847. Poems: Eliza Emmerson, ‘Sonnet Addressed to Miss Fanny Kemble on her First Appearance at Covent Garden in the Character of “Juliet”’, Morning Post, 7 October, 1829; ‘To Miss Kemble’, Morning Post, 14 October, 1829; ‘To Miss Kemble’, Morning Post, 19 October, 1829; ‘To Miss Kemble’, Morning Post, 24 December, 1829; ‘To Miss Fanny Kemble’, Morning Post, 20 January, 1830; Poem by James Thomas Fields, ‘Written after having heard Mrs Kemble read “The Tempest”’ attrib. to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Shakespeare Readings: ‘Mrs Butler’s Readings’, The Times, 31 March, 1848; ‘Theatres and Music’, John Bull, 3 August, 1850; ‘St James’s Theatre’, The Morning Post, 10 August, 1850; ‘St James’s Theatre’, The Times, 13 August, 1850; ‘Mrs Fanny Kemble’s “Readings” in London’, International Magazine of Literature, Art and Science, Oct 1, 1850; ‘Mrs Fanny Kemble’s Readings’, Caledonian Mercury, 13 January, 1851; ‘Public Amusements at Liverpool’, The Era, 2 February, 1851; ‘Theatres &c. St James’s. Mrs Fanny Kemble’s Readings of Shakspere’, The Era, 30 March, 1851; ‘Mrs Fanny Kemble’s Readings’, Morning Post, 21 June, 1851; ‘Mrs Fanny Kemble’s Reading from Shakspere’, Essex Standard, 26 November, 1852; ‘Theatres and Music’, John Bull, 10 February, 1855; ‘Dramatic Readings’, Englishwoman’s Review and Drawing Room Journal, 27 Jun, 1857; Henry S Mower, Reminiscences of a Hotel Man (unpublished, nd)*. General Accounts: Mrs Cornwell Baron-Wilson, ‘Fanny Kemble,’ in Our Actresses, Vol 1; ‘Miss Fanny Kemble and Her Critics’, Fraser’s Magazine, September, 1835; Henry James, ‘Frances Anne Kemble,’ Essays in London and Elsewhere (Books for Libraries Press, 1972); William Charles Macready, The Diaries of William Charles Macready, 1833–1851, (ed) William Toynbee (Chapman & Hall, 1912)*; Brander Matthews and Laurence Hutton, Actors and actresses of Great Britain and the United States: from the days of David Garrick to the present time*; Charles Eyre Pascoe, ‘Fanny Kemble’, Dramatic List: a record of the performances of living actors and actresses of the British stage (Bogue, 1880); Anne Thackeray Ritchie, ‘Mrs Kemble,’ Chapters from Some Memoirs (Macmillan, 1894); W Clark Russell, ‘Miss Fanny Kemble (Mrs Butler)’, Representative Actors: A Collection of Criticisms, Anecdotes, Personal Descriptions ... (Frederick Warne, nd)*; S D L, ‘A Memoir of the Dramatic Life of Miss Fanny Kemble’, preface to Francis the First (Peabody & Co, 1833). Obituaries: Letter of Eleanor Brianzoni to Frances Power Cobbe describing FAK’s death, 19 January, 1893 [Transcribed ms]; ‘Drama: Fanny Kemble’, Athenaeum, 21 January 1893; John Coleman, ‘Fanny Kemble,’ Theatre, March 1893; ‘Fanny Kemble’, The Ladies’ Treasury: A Household Magazine, 1 April, 1893; Henry Lee, ‘Frances Anne Kemble,’ Atlantic Monthly, May 1893

Volume 3: Lucia Elizabeth Vestris
Early Notices: ‘King’s Theatre’, The Times, 21 July 1815; ‘The Mirror of Fashion’, The Morning Chronicle, 22 July 1815; Review of Vestris’s performance in Paris, The British Stage and Literary Cabinet (1817); ‘Theatrical Examiner’, Examiner, 27 February 1820; Review of Artaxerxes at Drury Lane, 5 April, Review of Giovanni in London at Drury Lane, 30 May and Review of Beggar’s Opera at Haymarket in Theatrical Inquisitor (1820); La Belle Assemblée, July, 1820. Scandal and Defence: Oxberry’s Dramatic Biography (George Virtue, 1826)*; Spirit of the Age Newspaper, For 1828 (A Durham, 1829)*; Memoirs, Public & Private Life, Adventures, and Secret Amours of Mrs C M late Mad V Of the Royal Olympic Theatre (J Thompson, nd)*; Memoirs of The Life of Madame Vestris of the Theatres Royal Drury Lane and Covent Garden (privately printed, 1830)*; Memoirs of the Life, Public and Private Adventures of Madame Vestris; formerly of the Theatre Royal San Carlos; and now on the Theatres Royal Drury Lane & Covent Garden ... (John Duncombe, [1836?])*; ‘Drury-Lane Theatre’, The Times, 21 April, 1830; Sir Lumley Skeffington, ‘Stanzas on Madame Vestris Having Established a Theatre of Her Own’, The Times, 14 February, 1831; James Orchard Halliwell, ‘The Management of Covent Garden Theatre Vindicated from the Attack of an Anonymous Critic, in a Letter to The Editor of the “Cambridge Advertiser” (unpublished, 1841). Managers, Actors and Stage Crew on Vestris: Alfred Bunn, The Stage: Both Before and Behind the Curtain (Richard Bentley, 1840)*; Joe Cowell, Thirty Years Passed among the Players in England and America (Harper & Brothers, 1845)*; George Vandenhoff, Dramatic Reminiscences; or, Actors and Actresses in England and America, Henry Seymour Carleton (ed) (Thomas W Cooper & John Camden Hotten, 1860)*; [Matthew Mackintosh], Stage Reminiscences: Being Recollections, Chiefly Personal, of Celebrated Theatrical & Musical Performers During the Last Forty Years. By An Old Stager (James Hedderwick, 1866)*; Fred Belton, Random Recollections of an Old Actor (Tinsley Bros, 1880)*; Lester Wallack, Memories of Fifty Years (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1889)*; James R Anderson, An Actor’s Life (Walter Scott Publishing, 1902)*; John Coleman, Fifty Year’s of an Actor’s Life (Hutchison, 1904)*. Dramatists on Vestris: Leigh Hunt, A Legend of Florence: A Play in Five Acts (Edward Moxon, 1840)*; Dion Bourcicault [sic], London Assurance: A Comedy in Five Acts (privately printed, 1841)*; Dion Boucicault, ‘The Debut of a Dramatist’, The North American Review, April 1889; T F Dillon Croker and Stephen Tucker (eds), The Extravaganzas of J R Planché, Esq, (Somerset Herald) 1825–1871 (Samuel French, 1879)*; James Robinson Planché, Recollections and Reflections (Sampson Low, Marston, 1901)*. Recollections of Charles Mathews: The Life of Charles James Mathews, Charles Dickens (ed) (Macmillan, 1879)*. Miscellaneous Recollections: Theodore S Fay (ed) Crayon Sketches By An Amateur [William Cox] (Conner and Cooke, 1833)*; Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the Years 1828 & 1829; with Remarks on the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, and Anecdotes of Distinguished Public Characters. In a Series of Letters, by A German Prince [Prince Pückler-Muskau] (Effingham Wilson, 1832)*; Mrs C Baron Wilson, Our Actresses: or, Glances at Stage Favourites (Smith, Elder & Co, 1844)*; The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, edited by his son Thomas H Duncombe (Hurst and Blackett, 1868)*; Dutton Cook, Hours with the Players (Chatto & Windus, 1881)*; The Life and Adventures of George Augustus Sala, Written by Himself (Cassell, 1895)*. Reviews of Non-Shakespearian Productions: ‘Covent Garden’ [review of The Marriage of Figaro], Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, 22 December, 1827; Dramatic Magazine, 1 September, 1829*; ‘Theatre Royal’, Caledonian Mercury, 8 October, 1829; Figaro in London*; ‘Her Majesty’s Visit to Covent-Garden’, Theatrical Companion, 6 March, 1849; ‘The Perfection of Acting’, [review by G H Lewes of The Day of Reckoning at Lyceum] The Leader, 7 December 1850. Reviews of Shakespearian Productions: ‘Drury-Lane Theatre [Hamlet]’, The Times, 18 October, 1822; ‘The Theatres. Covent Garden [Love’s Labours Lost]’, Caledonian Mercury, 3 October, 1839; ‘The Stage. Covent Garden [Love’s Labours Lost]’, The Odd Fellow, 5 October, 1839; ‘Music and the Drama [Love’s Labours Lost]’, Athenaeum, October, 1839; ‘Theatrical Examiner [Love’s Labours Lost]’, Examiner, 6 October, 1839; ‘Theatres [Love’s Labours Lost]’, John Bull, 7 October, 1839; [A Midsummer Night’s Dream], John Bull, 21 November, 1840; ‘Music and the Drama [A Midsummer Night’s Dream]’, Athenaeum, 21 November, 1840; ‘Theatrical Examiner [A Midsummer Night’s Dream]’, Examiner, 22 November, 1840; ‘Covent Garden [A Midsummer Night’s Dream]’, Era, 22 November, 1840; ‘Covent-Garden Theatre [A Midsummer Night’s Dream]’, The Times, 17 November, 1840. Obituaries and Retrospectives: T P Grinstead, ‘Madame Vestris’, Bentley’s Miscellany 40 (1856)*; Westland Marston, Our Recent Actors (Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1888)*; ‘Madame Vestris’, Dwight’s Journal of Music, 13 September, 1856; Obituary, Era, 17 August, 1856

*extract/s from original text

Related titles

• Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part I : David Garrick, Charles Macklin and Margaret Woffington by their Contemporaries
• Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part II : Edmund Kean, Sarah Siddons and Harriet Smithson by their Contemporaries
• Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part III : Charles Kean, Samuel Phelps and William Charles Macready by their Contemporaries

Leaflets

• Lives of Shakespearian Actors IV: colour leaflet
• Lives of Shakespearian Actors IV: b&w leaflet

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