1755–1831, English actress
Sarah Kemble Siddons from the painting by Sandor Klein done after Sir Joshua Reynolds' 1784 painting Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse (The Huntington Library)
Sarah Kemble was born July 5, 1755, at the Shoulder of Mutton public house, Brecon, Wales, where her parents, the actors Roger Kemble and Sarah Ward Kemble, were touring with a strolling theatrical company. By the age of eleven she was appearing on stage, playing Ariel in The Tempest with her father's company at Coventry. Perhaps the most famous actress that England has ever produced lived at Guy's Cliffe from 1771-1773. She was employed at £10 a year, by Lady Mary Greatheed, the widow of Samuel Greatheed MP for Coventry (ob. 1765). She was engaged at the time to the actor William Siddons, whom she married on November the 26th, 1773 in Coventry; she was 18 years of age. Bertie Greatheed, who was to accompany Napoleon in Europe, was 11 at the time and lived in the house. Sarah was employed as a maid, though family records suggest that she was also a prized 'reader' to the family. This meant that she would have helped with the education of Bertie Greatheed, and read to the lady of the house. It is noted that she would read Milton and Shakespeare, and even at that young age she already was a 'queenly looking dependent'. The house at the time is described as being a natural haven of tranquility and beauty, the Rev. Richard Jargo, wrote: |
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| The two years that Sarah
spent as a young maid in the house would not have been unpleasant. She
accompanied the lady on recorded trips to other stately homes, and, no doubt,
the extensive library, and the preponderance of grand painting for which Guys
was famous, made a lasting impression on the aspiring and talented actress at
the beginning of her burgeoning and brilliant career.
Brought to the attention of David Garrick,
she was engaged by him for a Drury Lane performance in 1775–76, which failed.
In 1782, after appearances in the provinces had greatly increased her powers,
she played Isabella in Southern's Fatal Marriage at Drury Lane. Her
success was instant and indisputable, and her fame grew in such roles as Queen
Katharine, Desdemona, and as Volumnia to the Coriolanus of John Philip Kemble,
her brother, with whom she often starred. In the role of Lady Macbeth, which she
first played in 1785 and which was her farewell performance in 1812, she was
unequaled. Siddons' warm, rich voice and majestic presence held audiences in
awe, and though she shunned publicity, she won the praise of the poets and
critics of her day. Her portrait was painted by Gainsborough and by Reynolds,
the latter representing her as The Tragic Muse. Her statue, by Chantrey,
is in Westminster Abbey. |
