THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. N° LI.-VOL. IX.] For FEBRUARY, 1808. [NEW SERIES. "We shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if we can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth."-DR. JOHNSON. OF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. JOHN PHILIP KEMBLE, Esq. he was afterwards removed to an the fame bestowed by the English college at Douay. It is said, stage upon its votaries, it may that while here, he became noticed more truly be said, than of any other, for a remarkable power of memory, that it is a fancied life in other's and an elegance and propriety of elobreath;" it exists only in individual cution. But the confinement of a recollection; its honours and its glo- college life becoming irksome, more res are recorded by nothing that lives especially to one who had already imafter them. The poet and the sculp- bibed a strong predilection for the tor twine, themselves, the garland stage, young Kemble left Douay bethat blossoms when they are no more, fore he was twenty. that gathers accumulated lustre in the Mr. Kemble's first appearance on lapse of ages: but the actor cannot: the stage was at Wolverhampton, in with the generation that beholds him the character of Theodosius in the he is celebrated: but to the succeed- Force of Love. He next acted at ing ones his name alone is transmitted, Worcester, and afterwards joined Mr. while the foundations on which that Younger at the theatre-royal in Manname is reared have perished for ever. chester, and from that time rapidly It is not in language to convey an improved in his profession. It was adequate conception of those powers about this period that he produced which, when beheld, exalt the mind Belisarius, a tragedy; and a poem to gaiety, or sink it into anguish, call called the Palace of Mersey: not the forth tears from the sternest hearts, Palace of Mercy, as it is uniformly and mould our feelings into whatever called. It was a supposed assemshape they will. It is impossible to blage of the river gods, &c. of the picture to our minds the efforts of Mersey. Garrick from all the laboured at- Like every man who makes the tempts that have been made by wri- world his home, and erects the faters, who themselves have seen him. bric of his own fortunes, Mr. KemTheir epithets of admiration, their ble has been made the hero of some methodical disquisitions, their lavish extraordinary adventures, which we praises, are words without ideas: we forbear to repeat, because so few of can, indeed, conceive a great degree the anecdotes respecting public cha of excellence; but all the gradations racters have any foundation in truth. of that excellence, all its various Isaac Reed observes, with great justforms, must be felt, may be remem- ness-"I know not from what cause bered, but can never be described. it has arisen, but I think I have obSo, to a future age, language must served a more than common degree fail, when it would seek to pourtray of inaccuracy in facts and dates relathe Octavian, Coriolanus, Zanga, and tive to the stage, as often as they beHamlet of Kemble. come objects for the memory to exThis distinguished tragedian was ercise itself upon." A celebrated born at Prescot, in Lancashire, in the person, in fact, becomes a mark for year 1757. He was sent early to every man to shoot at: wit and maa catholic school in Staffordshire, lice, envy and mirth, vanity and false(though never designed by his father hood, all concur in one common warfor a priest, as has been said) whence fare: their victim must often smart UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. IX. N beneath their attacks: but, as the corder we are every month called Scythian ambassadors said to Alex- upon to declare them. ander, "we are all face," so ought Mr. Kemble remained at Drurythe objects of public scandal to say to lane theatre from this period, till their antagonists. In custom resides within a few years. In that long a balm for many evils that afflict us course of time he continued to supsorely when we first encounter them. port all the leading characters in traHis next progression was to join gedy, aided by his sister's efforts, and Mr. Wilkinson at York, who being mutually illustrating each other. appointed manager at Edinburgh, They who have seen him and Mrs. took Kemble with him. In this Siddons in Macbeth, Venice Precapital he was received with as much served, Isabella, &c. have seen such liberality as is usually found in perfection as a future age can only Scotchmen: he delivered a lecture guess at, unless another Siddons and on oratory, which redounded to his another Kemble should arise togefame as a literary character. In ther. 1781, he went to Dublin, and joined In 1787, Mr. Kemble married his the company in Smock-alley, then present wife; and respecting which under the management of Mr. Daly, marriage a most unaccountable ficHere he made his first appearance in tion has been propagated, at once inHamlet, and greatly distinguished jurious to the feelings and to the cha himself. He also performed the racter of Mr. Kemble. The story we Count of Narbonne, in Jephson's in- allude to is well known: it relates to sipid dialogue so called, which had a supposed gratuity offered to Mr. an extraordinary run; and the author Kemble by Lord North, if he would expressed in the strongest manner marry any woman within a limited his sense of Mr. Kemble's excellent time to prevent a union with his own performance. daughter, who had conceived an afThe wanderings of a provincial ac- fection for him. That this calumny tor are only circumvolutions round a is utterly false might be inferred from centre to which they finally tend. its discordance, being related in every London is looked forward to as the work which we have seen in a differcrown of their labours, the estimator of ent manner. But, independently of their merits, and the rewarder of their surmise, we can take upon ourselves talents. But the hopes that cheer us to affirm, that the whole is so comin our path are often but an ignis pletely devoid of truth that Mr. fatuus, which leads us on with delu- Kemble never spoke to Lord North sive splendor, till we sink into the in his life, nor with his daughter till grave and then confess their vanity. after she was married. When wa Spes est expectatio boni futuri, says find such gross fabrications given to Cicero; and this expectation, when the world with all the solemnity of the companion of real desert, rarely truth, it teaches us a caution in bedeceives us. Mr. Kemble appeared lieving the thousand anecdotes (as before a London audience in 1784, they are innocently termed) of puband from that time succeeding years lic characters. have reaped for him succeeding ho nours. Mr. Kemble has occasionally, it is said, performed in operas; but not The character he chose was Ham with much celebrity we believe. let, one certainly that requires a rare When rehearsing his part once in combination of qualities to represent Richard Coeur de Lion, and attemptit truly. From Mr. Kemble's deli- ing his song, Mr. Shaw, the leader neation of it, the strongest hopes of the band, exclaimed, " Oh, Sir! were formed of his future excel- how shockingly you murder the time!" lence; and his Hamlet of the pre- "If I do," replied Mr. Kemble, I sent day must rank as the most per- am not so merciless as you, who are fect picture which the stage can boast always beating it.' of. We shall not here stop to enu- On ne secession of Mr. King in merate Mr. Kemble's protes jonar ex- 1788, "hé was appointed stage-ma llent in our Theatrical B., macer at Drury-lane, which situation 66 he resigned in 1796, and resumed it Besides his excellence in the standagain shortly after till the year 1801. ard characters of the drama, he has During his management he revived been the entire support of many new many excellent old pieces, and made ones; and his genius thus called judicious alterations in most of them. forth, has stamped a sort of individuIn 1786, he produced a farce, called ality upon them, from which no futhe Project; in 1788, another, called ture actor can safely depart. Such are the Pannel, taken from the comedy Rolla, the Stranger, Penruddock, and of Its well its no worse; and in 1789, last, not least, Octavian. the Farmhouse, taken from the Cus- Nature has been highly liberal in her tom of the Manor. He altered Mrs. endowments towards Mr. Kemble. Behn's comedy of the Rover in 1790, To a noble, dignified, and expressive and called it Love in many masks; and countenance, is added an elegant and translated from the French, a musi- interesting person; and by a constant cal romance, called Lodoiska, in 1794, perseverance he has himself united to which was very popular. these a gracefulness of deportment, a But Shakspeare is the author whom purity of action and attitude, which Mr.Kemble has studied with a lo- excel every thing the modern stage ver's fondness and a scholar's accu- can boast of. In private life he is racy. His professional knowledge, his polite, affable, and communicative: Herary attainments, and his critical his conversation is that of a gentleskill, enabled him, more than any man and scholar. A Vindication of the first Lord LYT- the man, to do justice to our immortal The portrait which accompanies bard. He has adapted several of this brief memoir is a most perfect Shakspeare's plays for representation, likeness of Mr. Kemble off the stage: with a most nice judgment and much of Mr. Kemble in fact in a room. labour. He has preserved every We are indebted for it to the obliging thing of Shakspeare; but has given liberality of Sir Francis Bourgeois. to the efforts of his genius that form which may best accommodate him to modern taste, and rescue some of his finest effusions from the solitary enjoyment of the scholar. But clamour has pursued him even here: OTWITHSTANDING witlings have yelped, and critic curs very favourable opinion which have snarled: Mr. Kemble, how- you have given of Sim's Life of Mr. ever, has that manly confidence in his Mickle, prefixed to the new edition own powers, which renders him in- of his poems, in some of your former capable of swerving from the petty numbers, I cannot help agreeing with attacks of such minute enemies. If the reviewer of that article in the any one wish to be at once con- British Critic for June last, when vinced of his great judgment in he says, "We are sorry to say, that his emendatory labours, let them it places the character of one great compare The Tempest, as now acted, man, at least, in a very contemptible with the Tempest as altered by Gar- light." One of these great men, at rick. In the latter, Prospero is trans- least, deserved treatment very differformed into a man of demi-semiqua- ent from a minister of that religion, vers, and the whole piece is full of whose chief characteristics are chathe fantastic fopperies and incongru- rity and forgiveness. I am truly ous absurdities of a modern opera! sorry, Mr. Editor, to see transactions, In 1802, Mr. Kemble quitted which had been buried for nearly Drury-lane, and made a short tour half a century, now invidiously upon the continent. After his re- brought to light, with a view to exturn he purchased a share of Covent- hibit as an unprincipled, unfeeling, garden theatre, for which he paid shuffling, courtly sycophant, a pertwenty-five thousand pounds; and sonage who stood foremost in the deon the commencement of the year fence of revelation, and, if we may be1803, he accordingly assumed that lieve the testimony of two eminent power which he has held since.. contemporary authors, in the cause of |