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LIFE

OF

MRS. SIDDONS.

CHAPTER. I.

Mrs. Siddons's Parents-Names of two distinguished Individuals among her ancestral Relations-List of her Brothers and Sisters-Notices of some of them-Mrs. Whitelock, her eldest Sister, à successful Actress in America-Anecdotes of the Indians during her Performance at Philadelphia-Brecon, in North Wales, the Birth-place of Mrs. Siddons-Sir Hugh Evans, a Personage in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," was Curate of the Priory of Brecon-Resemblance between the Frolics of Fairy Puck, in "Midsummer Night's Dream," to the Gambols of his Namesake, in Breconshire-Anecdote of Mrs. Siddons in her Childhood-Her early Fondness for Milton's Poetry-Early Appearance on the Stage-Mr. Siddons joins her Father's CompanyEngages her Affections, and marries her, in her nineteenth year.

MRS. SIDDONS's maiden name was Kemble. She was the daughter of Roger Kemble, the manager of a theatrical company that performed chiefly in the midland and the western towns of England; and of Sarah Ward, whose father was also a strolling manager. Mr. Ward had been an actor in the days of Betterton, and had been the original Hazareth, in Fenton's "Mariamne."

I remember having seen the parents of the great actress in their old age. They were both of them tall and comely personages. The mother had a somewhat austere stateliness of manner; but it seems to have been from her that the family inherited their genius and force of character. Her voice had much of the emphasis of her daughter's; and her portrait, which long graced Mrs. Siddons's drawing-room, has an intellectual expression of the strongest power: she gave you

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