Sarah Siddons Biography

Dromo's Den

SIDDONS, Mrs. Sarah ( 1755–1831). A celebrated English actress. She was the daughter of Roger Kemble (q.v.) and was born at Brecon in Wales. As a child she had the family aptness for acting and in youth played as a member of her father's company in small provincial towns. She married William Siddons, an actor, in 1773. She soon attracted such attention that Garrick heard her praises in London and offered her an engagement at the Drury Lane Theatre, where, Dec. 29, 1775, she made her first appearance, acting Portia. Her beauty and fine person pleased, but as an actress she made no great impression and did not obtain a reëngagement. But Mrs. Siddons returned to London in 1782 to enjoy a career of triumph as indisputably the greatest actress of her time, having spent the intervening years in provincial cities. As Isabella in The Fatal Marriage, she reappeared at Drury Lane Oct. 10, 1782. In 1784 her popularity was temporarily obscured by a charge of pecuniary meanness towards certain fellow performers; but with this trivial exception her efforts were a series of successes till on June 29, 1812, in her great character of Lady Macbeth, she took leave of the public. Belvidera, Queen Katharine, Volumnia in Coriolanus, which she played with her brother, John Philip Kemble (q.v.), were a few of the many parts in which she captivated audiences. Mrs. Siddons is said to have been strictly a stage genius, but not of high intelligence. In the practice of her art it was power of manner and personality which made her irresistible. As a tragic actress she has probably never been equaled in Great Britain. Her picture as the "Tragic Muse" by Sir Joshua Reynolds is famous.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 71.