Sarah Siddons
Encyclopedia
Sarah Siddons was a Welsh
actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble
, Charles Kemble
, Stephen Kemble
, Ann Hatton
and Elizabeth Whitlock
, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble
. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character, Lady Macbeth
, a character she made her own. The Sarah Siddons Society continues to present the Sarah Siddons Award
in Chicago every year to a prominent actress.
, Brecknockshire
, Wales
, the eldest daughter of Roger Kemble
– manager of the touring theatre company the Warwickshire Company of Comedians
, which included most members of his family – and Sarah "Sally" Ward.
Acting was only just becoming a respectable profession for a woman and initially her parents disapproved of her choice of profession.
's Venice Preserved. This brought her to the attention of David Garrick
, who sent his deputy to see her as Calista in Nicholas Rowe's Fair Penitent
, the result being that she was engaged to appear at Drury Lane
. Owing to inexperience as well as other circumstances, her first appearances as Portia
and in other parts were not well received and she received a note from the manager of Drury Lane stating that her services would not be required. She was, in her own words:
In 1777, she went on "the circuit" in the provinces. For the next six years she worked in provincial companies (in particular York and Bath), gradually building up a reputation, and her next Drury Lane appearance, on 10 October 1782, could not have been more different. She was an immediate sensation playing the title role in Garrick's adaptation of a play by Thomas Southerne
, Isabella, or, The Fatal Marriage.
Her most famous role was that of Lady Macbeth
; it was the grandeur of her emotions as she expressed Lady Macbeth's murderous passions that held her audiences spellbound. In Lady Macbeth she found the highest and best scope for her acting abilities. She was tall and had a striking figure, brilliant beauty, powerfully expressive eyes, and solemn dignity of demeanour which enabled her to claim the character as her own.
After Lady Macbeth she played Desdemona
, Rosalind, Ophelia and Volumnia, all with great success; but it was as Queen Catherine in Henry VIII that she discovered a part almost as well adapted to her acting powers as that of Lady Macbeth. She once told Samuel Johnson
that Catherine was her favourite role, as it was the most natural.
It was the beginning of twenty years in which she was the undisputed queen of Drury Lane. Her celebrity status has been called "mythical" and "monumental," and by "the mid-1780s Siddons was established as a cultural icon, along with Hannah Murphy, another theatre great of the time." She mixed with the literary and social elites of London society, and her acquaintances included Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke
, Hester Thrale Piozzi
, and William Windham
.
In 1802 she left Drury Lane and subsequently appeared from time to time on the stage of the rival establishment, Covent Garden
. It was there, on 29 June 1812, that she gave perhaps the most extraordinary farewell performance in theatre history. She was playing her most famous role, Lady Macbeth
, and the audience refused to allow the play to continue after the end of the sleepwalking scene. Eventually, after tumultuous applause from the pit, the curtain reopened and Siddons was discovered sitting in her own clothes and character — whereupon she made an emotional farewell speech to the audience lasting eight minutes.
Mrs. Siddons formally retired from the stage in 1812, but occasionally appeared on special occasions. Her last appearance was on 9 June 1819 as Lady Randolph in John Home
's Douglas
.
relates that when she played Aphasia in Tamburlaine, after seeing her lover strangled before her eyes, so terrible was her agony as she fell lifeless upon the stage, that the audience believed she was really dead, and only the assurance of the manager could pacify them. One night Charles Young
was playing Beverly to her Mrs. Beverly in The Gamester, and in the great scene was so overwhelmed by her pathos that he could not speak. Unto the last she received the homage of the great; even the Duke of Wellington attended her receptions, and carriages were drawn up before her door nearly all day long."
On the night of May 2, 1797, Sarah Siddons's character of Agnes in Lillo's Fatal Curiosity suggested murder with "an expression in her face that made the flesh of the spectator creep." In the audience was Crabb Robinson
, whose respiration grew difficult. Robinson went into a fit of hysterics and was nearly ejected from the theatre.
In 1773, at the age of 18, she married William Siddons, an actor. Her family life was less than fortunate; she gave birth to seven children but outlived five of them, and her marriage to William Siddons became strained and ended in an informal separation. Her daughter Maria died in 1798, and Sarah in 1803. Other children who lived to adulthood were: George, who went to India; Henry
, who was an actor; and Cecilia, who married, in 1833, George Combe
.
in the chapel of St Andrew. The statue, signed by sculptor Thomas Campbell, holds a scroll and the inscription reads: “Sarah Siddons. Born at Brecon July 5, 1755. Died in London June 8, 1831”
There is also a statue at her grave site at Paddington Green and St. Mary's Churchyard, London.
Sir Joshua Reynolds painted his famous portrait, "Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse," in 1784, and signed it on the hem of her dress, "for," he told her, "I have resolved to go down to posterity on the hem of your garment."
In 1950, Joseph Mankiewicz used the portrait extensively in All About Eve
. The portrait itself is hung at the top of the entrance staircase to Margo's apartment where it is seen at various times throughout the party scene, from Addison and Claudia's arrival to the close-up of it with which the scene ends. Additionally, he invented the (then) fictitious Sarah Siddons Society and its award, which is a statuette modeled upon the painting. The film opens with a close-up of the award, and ends with Phoebe holding it.
In 1957, Bette Davis posed as Sarah Siddons in a re-creation of the painting staged as part of the Pageant of the Masters.
, the "Sarah Siddons Award" was a purely fictitious award. However, since 1952 there exists the Sarah Siddons Award
for dramatic achievement in theatre: a genuine and prestigious award, named in honor of Siddons. The award is given annually in Chicago
by the "Sarah Siddons Society."
In the week beginning 12 April 2010 BBC Radio 4 dramatised in five parts a story about the long relationship between Sarah Siddons and the famous artist Thomas Lawrence
. The drama was written by David Pownall
.
The London Underground
had an electric locomotive built by Metropolitan-Vickers
named after her. Used on the Metropolitan Line
, No. 12 lasted along with other locomotives, until 1961. Painted a maroon colour, she is now the only one of the original twenty locomotives to remain preserved in working order.
There is a pub in her home town of Brecon
named after her, The Sarah Siddons Inn.
Sarah Siddons' great-granddaughter, Margaret Siddons, married Charles Mackenzie Corby which is the origin of the name Siddons Corby. Their son John Siddons Corby, who founded the Corby trouser press company, had three children the youngest of whom was Peter John Siddons Corby (the inventor of the Corby 'electric' trouser press) and was the father of Michael John Siddons Corby, born 3 July 1951.
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble was an English actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane...
, Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble was a British actor.-Life:The youngest son of Roger Kemble, and younger brother of John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons, he was born at Brecon, South Wales. Like John Philip, he was educated at Douai...
, Stephen Kemble
Stephen Kemble
George Stephen Kemble was a successful theatre manager, British actor, writer, and a member of the famous Kemble family....
, Ann Hatton
Ann Hatton
Ann Julia Hatton , was a popular novelist in Britain in the early 19th century.-Biography:...
and Elizabeth Whitlock
Elizabeth Whitlock
Elizabeth Whitlock was a British actress.A member of the Kemble family of actors, she made her first appearance on the stage in 1783 at Drury Lane as Portia. In 1785 she married Charles E. Whitlock, went with him to America, and played with much success there...
, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble
Fanny Kemble
Frances Anne Kemble , was a famous British actress and author in the early and mid nineteenth century.-Youth and acting career:...
. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character, Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare)
Lady Macbeth is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Macbeth . She is the wife to the play's protagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, she becomes Queen of Scotland, but later suffers pangs of guilt for her part in the crime...
, a character she made her own. The Sarah Siddons Society continues to present the Sarah Siddons Award
Sarah Siddons Award
The Sarah Siddons Society is an American non-profit organization founded in 1952 by prominent Chicago theatre patrons with the goal of promoting excellence in the theatre. The Society presents the Sarah Siddons Award annually to an actor for an outstanding performance in a Chicago theatre production...
in Chicago every year to a prominent actress.
Youth
Siddons was born Sarah Kemble in BreconBrecon
Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
, Brecknockshire
Brecknockshire
Brecknockshire , also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, and a former administrative county.-Geography:...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, the eldest daughter of Roger Kemble
Roger Kemble
Roger Kemble was an English theatre manager, strolling player and actor. In 1753, he married actress Sarah "Sally" Ward at Cirencester, Gloucester, and they had twelve children, who formed the great Kemble family of 19th-century actors and actresses.Roger Kemble was born in Hereford...
– manager of the touring theatre company the Warwickshire Company of Comedians
Warwickshire Company of Comedians
The Warwickshire Company of Comedians, also known as Mr Ward's Company of Comedians and after 1767 as Mr Kemble's Company of Comedians, was a theatre company established by John Ward in Birmingham, England in the 1740s, touring throughout the West Midlands region and surrounding counties over...
, which included most members of his family – and Sarah "Sally" Ward.
Acting was only just becoming a respectable profession for a woman and initially her parents disapproved of her choice of profession.
Career
In 1774, Siddons won her first success as Belvidera in Thomas OtwayThomas Otway
Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd .-Life:...
's Venice Preserved. This brought her to the attention of David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
, who sent his deputy to see her as Calista in Nicholas Rowe's Fair Penitent
The Fair Penitent
The Fair Penitent is Nicholas Rowe's stage adaptation of the tragedy The Fatal Dowry, the Philip Massinger and Nathan Field collaboration first published in 1632...
, the result being that she was engaged to appear at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
. Owing to inexperience as well as other circumstances, her first appearances as Portia
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
and in other parts were not well received and she received a note from the manager of Drury Lane stating that her services would not be required. She was, in her own words:
In 1777, she went on "the circuit" in the provinces. For the next six years she worked in provincial companies (in particular York and Bath), gradually building up a reputation, and her next Drury Lane appearance, on 10 October 1782, could not have been more different. She was an immediate sensation playing the title role in Garrick's adaptation of a play by Thomas Southerne
Thomas Southerne
Thomas Southerne , Irish dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1676. Two years later he was entered at the Middle Temple, London....
, Isabella, or, The Fatal Marriage.
Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare)
Lady Macbeth is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Macbeth . She is the wife to the play's protagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, she becomes Queen of Scotland, but later suffers pangs of guilt for her part in the crime...
; it was the grandeur of her emotions as she expressed Lady Macbeth's murderous passions that held her audiences spellbound. In Lady Macbeth she found the highest and best scope for her acting abilities. She was tall and had a striking figure, brilliant beauty, powerfully expressive eyes, and solemn dignity of demeanour which enabled her to claim the character as her own.
After Lady Macbeth she played Desdemona
Desdemona (Othello)
Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello . Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a man several years her senior. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the...
, Rosalind, Ophelia and Volumnia, all with great success; but it was as Queen Catherine in Henry VIII that she discovered a part almost as well adapted to her acting powers as that of Lady Macbeth. She once told Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
that Catherine was her favourite role, as it was the most natural.
It was the beginning of twenty years in which she was the undisputed queen of Drury Lane. Her celebrity status has been called "mythical" and "monumental," and by "the mid-1780s Siddons was established as a cultural icon, along with Hannah Murphy, another theatre great of the time." She mixed with the literary and social elites of London society, and her acquaintances included Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
, Hester Thrale Piozzi
Hester Thrale
Hester Lynch Thrale was a British diarist, author, and patron of the arts. Her diaries and correspondence are an important source of information about Samuel Johnson and 18th-century life.-Biography:Thrale was born at Bodvel Hall, Caernarvonshire, Wales...
, and William Windham
William Windham
William Windham PC, PC was a British Whig statesman.-Early life:Windham was a member of an ancient Norfolk family and a great-great-grandson of Sir John Wyndham. He was the son of William Windham, Sr. of Felbrigg Hall and his second wife, Sarah Lukin...
.
In 1802 she left Drury Lane and subsequently appeared from time to time on the stage of the rival establishment, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
. It was there, on 29 June 1812, that she gave perhaps the most extraordinary farewell performance in theatre history. She was playing her most famous role, Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare)
Lady Macbeth is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Macbeth . She is the wife to the play's protagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, she becomes Queen of Scotland, but later suffers pangs of guilt for her part in the crime...
, and the audience refused to allow the play to continue after the end of the sleepwalking scene. Eventually, after tumultuous applause from the pit, the curtain reopened and Siddons was discovered sitting in her own clothes and character — whereupon she made an emotional farewell speech to the audience lasting eight minutes.
John Home
John Home was a Scottish poet and dramatist.-Biography:He was born at Leith, near Edinburgh, where his father, Alexander Home, a distant relation of the earls of Home, was town clerk. John was educated at the Leith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MA, in 1742...
's Douglas
Douglas (play)
Douglas is a blank verse tragedy by John Home. It was first performed in 1756 in EdinburghThe play was a big success in both Scotland and England for decades, attacting many notable actors of the period, such as Edmund Kean who made his debut in it. Peg Woffington played Lady Randolph, a part which...
.
Acting power
"Wonderful stories are told of her powers over the spectators. MacreadyWilliam Charles Macready
-Life:He was born in London, and educated at Rugby.It was his intention to go up to Oxford, but in 1809 the embarrassed affairs of his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first...
relates that when she played Aphasia in Tamburlaine, after seeing her lover strangled before her eyes, so terrible was her agony as she fell lifeless upon the stage, that the audience believed she was really dead, and only the assurance of the manager could pacify them. One night Charles Young
Charles Mayne Young
Charles Mayne Young , English actor, was the son of an eminent London surgeon. Young's first stage appearance was in Liverpool on September 20, 1798, as the character Young Norval in Home's blank verse tragedy Douglas...
was playing Beverly to her Mrs. Beverly in The Gamester, and in the great scene was so overwhelmed by her pathos that he could not speak. Unto the last she received the homage of the great; even the Duke of Wellington attended her receptions, and carriages were drawn up before her door nearly all day long."
On the night of May 2, 1797, Sarah Siddons's character of Agnes in Lillo's Fatal Curiosity suggested murder with "an expression in her face that made the flesh of the spectator creep." In the audience was Crabb Robinson
Henry Crabb Robinson
Henry Crabb Robinson , diarist, was born in Bury St. Edmunds, England.He was articled to an attorney in Colchester. Between 1800 and 1805 he studied at various places in Germany, and became acquainted with nearly all the great men of letters there, including Goethe, Schiller, Johann Gottfried...
, whose respiration grew difficult. Robinson went into a fit of hysterics and was nearly ejected from the theatre.
Personal life
She began as a lady's maid to Lady Greathead at Guy’s Cliffe House, near the Saxon Mill, Coventry Road, Warks.In 1773, at the age of 18, she married William Siddons, an actor. Her family life was less than fortunate; she gave birth to seven children but outlived five of them, and her marriage to William Siddons became strained and ended in an informal separation. Her daughter Maria died in 1798, and Sarah in 1803. Other children who lived to adulthood were: George, who went to India; Henry
Henry Siddons
Henry Siddons was an English actor and theatrical manager, now remembered as a writer on gesture.-Life:Born on 4 October 1774, he was the eldest child of Sarah Siddons, and was educated at Charterhouse School, being intended by his mother for the church...
, who was an actor; and Cecilia, who married, in 1833, George Combe
George Combe
George Combe , was a Scottish lawyer and writer on phrenology and education. In later years, he devoted himself to the promotion of phrenology. His major work was The Constitution of Man .-Early life:...
.
Death
Sarah Siddons died in 1831 in London and was interred there in Saint Mary's Cemetery at Paddington Green.Statues
There is a statue of Sarah Siddons in Westminster AbbeyWestminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
in the chapel of St Andrew. The statue, signed by sculptor Thomas Campbell, holds a scroll and the inscription reads: “Sarah Siddons. Born at Brecon July 5, 1755. Died in London June 8, 1831”
There is also a statue at her grave site at Paddington Green and St. Mary's Churchyard, London.
Reynolds portrait
In 1950, Joseph Mankiewicz used the portrait extensively in All About Eve
All About Eve
All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the 1946 short story "The Wisdom of Eve", by Mary Orr.The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star...
. The portrait itself is hung at the top of the entrance staircase to Margo's apartment where it is seen at various times throughout the party scene, from Addison and Claudia's arrival to the close-up of it with which the scene ends. Additionally, he invented the (then) fictitious Sarah Siddons Society and its award, which is a statuette modeled upon the painting. The film opens with a close-up of the award, and ends with Phoebe holding it.
In 1957, Bette Davis posed as Sarah Siddons in a re-creation of the painting staged as part of the Pageant of the Masters.
Cultural references
At the time of the release of the film All About EveAll About Eve
All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the 1946 short story "The Wisdom of Eve", by Mary Orr.The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star...
, the "Sarah Siddons Award" was a purely fictitious award. However, since 1952 there exists the Sarah Siddons Award
Sarah Siddons Award
The Sarah Siddons Society is an American non-profit organization founded in 1952 by prominent Chicago theatre patrons with the goal of promoting excellence in the theatre. The Society presents the Sarah Siddons Award annually to an actor for an outstanding performance in a Chicago theatre production...
for dramatic achievement in theatre: a genuine and prestigious award, named in honor of Siddons. The award is given annually in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
by the "Sarah Siddons Society."
In the week beginning 12 April 2010 BBC Radio 4 dramatised in five parts a story about the long relationship between Sarah Siddons and the famous artist Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Lawrence may refer to:*Sir Thomas Lawrence, British artist, President of Royal Academy*Thomas Lawrence , mayor of colonial Philadelphia*T. E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia"*Thomas Lawrence , U.S. politician...
. The drama was written by David Pownall
David Pownall
David Pownall FRSL is a British playwright and author of novels and short stories. Some of his plays have been adapted as films, for instance, Music to Murder By , and others were written as radio plays.-Life and career:...
.
The London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
had an electric locomotive built by Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam...
named after her. Used on the Metropolitan Line
Metropolitan Line
The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...
, No. 12 lasted along with other locomotives, until 1961. Painted a maroon colour, she is now the only one of the original twenty locomotives to remain preserved in working order.
There is a pub in her home town of Brecon
Brecon
Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
named after her, The Sarah Siddons Inn.
See also
- Kemble familyKemble familyKemble is the name of a family of English actors, all distinguished actors and actresses who reigned over the British stage for decades. The most famous were Sarah Siddons and her brother John Philip Kemble , the two eldest of the twelve children of Roger Kemble , a strolling player and manager of...
Sarah Siddons' great-granddaughter, Margaret Siddons, married Charles Mackenzie Corby which is the origin of the name Siddons Corby. Their son John Siddons Corby, who founded the Corby trouser press company, had three children the youngest of whom was Peter John Siddons Corby (the inventor of the Corby 'electric' trouser press) and was the father of Michael John Siddons Corby, born 3 July 1951.
Further reading
- Seewald, Jan, Theatrical Sculpture. Skulptierte Bildnisse berühmter englischer Schauspieler (1750–1850), insbesondere David Garrick und Sarah Siddons (München, Herbert Utz Verlag, 2007).
- Judith Pascoe, The Sarah Siddons Audio Files: Romanticism and the Lost Voice (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2011).
External links
- Shaughnessy, Robert. “Siddons , Sarah (1755–1831).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Jan. 2006. 16 Dec. 2006.
- Sarah Siddons Society