KELLEY, FRANCES MARIA,
Was born at Brighton, December 15th., 1790. Her father was an officer in the navy, and brother to Michael Kelley, under whom Frances studied music and singing. She made her first appearance at Drury Lane, in 1800, and in 1808 was engaged at the Haymarket, and afterwards at the English Opera House, where she was very successful. From that time to the present, Miss Kelley has been almost constantly before the public, and has retained her position as one of the most popular of actresses; her talents are extremely versatile, and her character irreproachable.
KEMBLE, FRANCES ANNE,
Is the daughter of Mr. Charles Kemble, an actor of high reputation, and for many years a favourite with the public. Dramatic talent appears a natural inheritance in the Kemble family; Mrs. Siddons, her brother John Kemble, and her niece, the subject of this sketch, have occupied by acclamation the very highest places in their profession. Many of the other members have risen above mediocrity as artists, among whom an honourable rank must be assigned to Mrs. Sartoris, who, before her marriage, was very favourably received as a singer, under the name of Adelaide Kemble.
Fanny Kemble was born in London, about the year 1813, and made her first appearance on the London boards in 1829, in the character of Juliet. The highest enthusiasm was excited in her favour. Her extreme youth, which admirably suited the impersonation, rendered her conception of the passion and poetry remarkable. The public at once stamped her by their approval, as an actress of genius, and she became distinguished as a new star in the histrionic art.
In 1832 Miss Kemble went with her father to the United States, where her theatrical career was marked by unbounded success, and her talents were warmly admired. In 1834, she was married to Pierce Butler, Esq., of Philadelphia, a gentleman of large fortune. The unhappy termination of this marriage is well known. After many domestic difficulties, a mutual divorce was granted the husband and wife in 1849, and Mrs. Butler immediately resumed her name of Kemble. We must, in justice, observe here, that Mrs. Kemble's bitterest enemies have never charged her with the slightest deviation from the laws of conjugal fidelity; that her fame is spotless, and her position in society what it ever was. Mrs. Kemble is a woman of varied powers; she has been successful in literature, particularly in poetry; displaying an ardent impassioned fancy, which male critics consider the true fire of genius. Some of her shorter poems are wonderfully impressive; but she often mars what would otherwise be very charming, by epithets a little too Shakesperian, a little too much savouring of the art for which she was educated, and which are, to her, familiar expressions. Such words give a flavour, a taste of the antique, when read in their original places; we consider them inadmissible in the writings of a poet, a lady poet of our day; they appear like affectation or want of resource, and sometimes like want of delicacy.
The drama first claimed the genius of Fanny Kemble. At a very early age she wrote a tragedy, "Francis the First," which
