CAMPRE.LL'S LIFE OF MRS.. SIDDGNS:
THE biography of great actors is generally felt tole disappoint- ing : and almost of necessity. Their glory, which tilled the atmosphere of public opinion in the zenith of their career, is visi-
ble only in its reflected lustre when they have disappeared below the horizon. The most vivid description of their powersathe ablest
analysis of their genius, the most elaborate record of their triumphs, cannot convey to the reader an impression equal to a single personal recollection of their acting. Their fame may out- live their generation, but the next must be content to take it on trust. They have their reward in their lifetime, in thunders of crowded theatres and the loud bruit of the public voice. We are not, therefore, much disappointed to find the life of Mrs. Sionosrs, by the poet CAMPBELL, cast but a faint shadow of her greatness as an actress. Her biographer confesses, indeed, that " in speaking of her as an actress, his prominent sensation whilst writing her life, has been a consciousness of his incompetence to do her jus- tice." The task was in a measure laid on him by Mrs. Si DDONS, and undertaken as a duty of friendship. She, doubtless, was in- fluenced by the fame of CAMPBELL, in wishing him to be her his- torian. It is no disparagement of the poet to say that she might have made a better choice. The private life and papers of Mrs. S1DDONS do not seem to have afforded much matter for the biogra- pher. Her career was marked by few vicissitudes, and those only at its outset : and her high respectability of character and strict propriety of conduct, while they gave solidity to her brilliant reputation, supply no points of adventitious interest. Her corre- spondence does not appear to have been either so extensive or so attractive as might be supposed ; and we are told that her own letters do not afford much quotable matter,—which we can well believe. But little use also has been made of her own memoranda: those that are printed are confined to a simple record of facts, and arc not remarkably characteristic. Mr. CAMPBELL has arranged his scanty materials chronologi- cally ; interspersing them with sonic criticism of his own on plays and contemporary players, and strengthening his praise of Mrs. Sinooars by the testimony of others. This plan has weakened the force and destroyed the unity of the memoir. A brief, coa- tinuous, and animated narrative—fused, as it were, ioto a compact mass with the glowing eloquence of one whose mind was filled with the matter—would have been a more permanent and popular re- cord of the Ilime of this great actress—" the great woman," as Mr. CAMPBELL rather oddly calls her. A desire to swell the pageantry of his theme by the usual paraphernalia of formal biography, rather than any lack of pains, has led to the compilation of these two widely-spaced volumes, made up of detached facts, letters, ex- tracts, and even scraps of contemprary criticism; for the author incidentally gives a hint of his labours, when he says that he thought it necessary to undergo the drudgery of reading over all the trashy dramas in which Mrs. SIDDONS appeared. These, as he remarks, were not a few ; which accounts for the eironeous supposition that she appeared in comparatively but a limited num- ber of characters: the reverse is the case, but many of the plays were so wretched that not even the genius of a SIDDONS could long keep in the life she gave to them.
The KEMBLES were cast in-a majestic mould of form : both father and mother possessed remarkably fine persons, and a natural dignity of manner, sustained by worth, though only strolling play- ers. The first Mrs. KEMBLE, indeed, was a woman of superior energy and intelligence; and her gifted daughter resembled her in character as in person. Like most actors, they were averse to their children following the stage ; and, as in many such cases, their wishes were counteracted by the tendency they could not repress in them. Brought up in the midst of stage.business, it is not surprising that they habitually contracted an inclination for the family profession. Mrs. SinooNS made her first appearance at an age so early, that the audience took it as an affront : but her spirited mother stepped forward, and made the child rebuke them by reciting the fable of the Boys and the Frogs; which changed the uproar to applause. At thirteen, she was the heroine of opera; and at twenty she made her first appearance in London, at Drury Lane, then under GARRICK'S management. The performance of Belvidera at Cheltenham had excited the admiration of the Aylesbury family, who spread her ftme in London; and this led. to her engagement. The character of Portia was injudiciously chosen by GARRICK for her debut ; and, she was, to use her own. phrase, "merely tolerated." The few characters she played. during her first London season were not suited to her powers ; and. her efforts were further enfeebled by nervous timidity, aggravated by ill health. As GARRICK retired from the management at the end of the season, her engagement was not renewed; and. her failure was thus scaled. Mrs. SIDDONS to the last thought she had been sacrificer: by GARRICK to older faeourites, who had be- come jealous of his attentions to her ; but we agree with yr. CAMPBELL in thinking that for this suspicion there scents no just
.
ground. A year afterwards, she attained high provincial dis- tinction; and. Liar/maw:I, celebrated as a performer, .proved his judgment as a critic of acting, by pronouncing at this time, that she w as an actress who never had an equal, nor would e er have a suproaor." Mrs. ABINGTON, too, when she beard of A rs. Sinooals's, dismissal from Drury Lane, told the new manag rsi " they w ere all acting like fools." Seven years afterwards, he reappear ed at Drury Lane, in Isabella, and established her fa as time 'greatest tragic actiess of the time. Her own accoun Of this r.nportant event, which was to make or mar hor fortunes II
Previous page