Sarah Siddons

Standard Name: Siddons, Sarah

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Cultural formation Ann Hatton
The most noteworthy attribute of AH 's family was their theatrical involvement, which in her generation became theatrical fame. They held an insecure positon in the middle ranks; at the time of Ann's birth they...
Dedications L. E. L.
There is again evidence that financial pressures played a part in her family's eagerness to see her in print.
L. E. L.,. “Introduction”. The Fate of Adelaide, edited by Francis Jacques Sypher, Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1990.
17-18
The volume was published under the name Letitia Elizabeth Landon and bore a dedication by...
Dedications Ann Hatton
The future AH published with her name (Ann Curtis, sister of Mrs. Siddons) Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, with a strong subscription list, dedicated to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire .
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.
57 (1784): 314
Family and Intimate relationships Ann Hatton
The member of the family who achieved the greatest fame was the tragic actress Sarah Siddons (eldest of the family, and Ann's senior by nine years).
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth Inchbald
EI was introduced to John Philip Kemble (who was to become famous as an actor-manager), in Manchester, by his sister Sarah Siddons .
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America, 1987.
16
Inchbald, Elizabeth. “Introduction”. A Simple Story, edited by Jane Spencer and Joyce Marjorie Sanxter Tompkins, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. vii - xxxiii.
xxxi
Family and Intimate relationships Maggie Gee
MG first met her future husband (a great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Sarah Siddons ) in spring 1981, just after he had finished his first play. They were friends for eighteen months before dating, and decided to...
Family and Intimate relationships Mary Harcourt
Elizabeth Harcourt's verse comprised of one bound volume of poetry, the majority of which was transcribed by herself. She was also heavily involved in the collection of three volumes of poems by other authors (many...
Family and Intimate relationships Ann Hatton
AH 's eldest sister, Sarah Kemble (later Siddons) , first appeared on stage (in a Worcester public house) in an entertainment to which admission was granted to those purchasing packets of tooth-powder.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908.
Family and Intimate relationships Adelaide Kemble
Of her paternal aunts, Sarah Siddons was immeasurably the most famous actress of her generation in Britain and Elizabeth Whitelock achieved some theatrical success in the USA, while Ann Hatton , the youngest and the...
Family and Intimate relationships Ann Hatton
Actress Sarah Siddons had her first triumph at Drury Lane , four months after the birth of her fifth and last child.
Highfill, Philip H., Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langhans. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1993.
14: 8
Family and Intimate relationships Fanny Kemble
One of FK 's paternal aunts, Sarah Siddons , became a celebrity as the leading tragic actress of her generation.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908.
Marshall, Dorothy. Fanny Kemble. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1977.
8, 52
Family and Intimate relationships Ann Hatton
The celebrity actress Sarah Siddons learned that her long-standing illness was in fact a sexually transmitted disease which she had caught from her husband .
Highfill, Philip H., Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langhans. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1993.
14: 21
Friends, Associates Helen Maria Williams
There she began to frequent Elizabeth Montagu 's bluestocking circle. She was introduced in cultural circles by Andrew Kippis , minister of the church her family attended, and soon knew William Hayley , Sarah Siddons
Friends, Associates Hannah More
Here she began to gather the circle of friends which by the end of her long life had touched every cranny of English society. She had already met Edmund Burke in Bristol the previous September...
Friends, Associates Anne Damer
AD 's wide circle of friends included Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , Lady Melbourne , Joanna Baillie , Sarah Siddons , the Berrysisters , the dramatist Lady Elizabeth Craven (formerly Berkeley, later Margravine of Anspach)

Timeline

By August 1775
Sarah Siddons first performed the role of Hamlet at Worcester: she went on to repeat the part at Manchester, Bristol, and probably Liverpool even before she finally cracked the London stage in 1782.
Woo, Catherine. “Sarah Siddons’s Performances as Hamlet: Breaching the Breeches Part”. European Romantic Review, No. 5, pp. 573 - 95.
574 and n10
2 February 1785
Sarah Siddons first played Lady Macbeth (a part with which she was to become popularly identified) at Drury Lane .
January 1793
Hester Piozzi reported the indignant melancholy of the actress Sarah Siddons , who had been infected with syphilis by her husband.
2 September 1793
Henrietta O'Neill , Irish writer and patron, died. She had opened a private theatre at her seat, Shane's Castle in County Antrim, and also supported the theatre in Belfast.
29 December 1794
The Morning Chronicle (a paper with Opposition views) printed a sonnet, Mrs Siddons, which was attributed to Coleridge , but was actually written by Charles Lamb .
26 January 1797
Elizabeth (Younge) Pope , who had been acting since 1768 and was felt to be second only to Sarah Siddons , gave her final performance at Drury Lane ; she died nearly six weeks later.
24 May 1799
Pizarro by Richard Brinsley Sheridan opened at Drury Lane . An adaptation of Kotzebue 's melodrama about Peru, Pizarro voiced the anti-French feelings (fore-runners of anti-Napoleonic feelings) disturbing the English people at this time.
29 June 1812
Sarah Siddons , the famous actress, now aged fifty-six, played her last night (as Lady Macbeth) at the Covent Garden Theatre .
6 December 1830
Lucia Vestris became the first long-term female theatre manager of the century, when she reopened the Olympic Theatre .
8 June 1831
Sarah Siddons , great tragic actress, died in London.
15 June 1831
5,000 mourners attended the funeral of Sarah Siddons , England's most famous and admired of tragic actresses.
1866
The Royal Society of Arts established a scheme (believed to be the first in the world) for setting up commemorative plaques on buildings associated with famous people.
Quinn, Ben. “Plaque blues. Cuts hit heritage scheme”. Guardian Weekly, p. 16.
1887
Nina Kennard published another biography of a famous actress, this time Mrs. Siddons, for W. H. Allen 's Eminent Women Series.
October 1972
A gala performance was held at the Haymarket Theatre , featuring all the leading lights of the British stage, to celebrate Dame Sybil Thorndike 's ninetieth birthday.
1980
The Women's Playhouse Trust was founded to improve opportunities in the theatre for women writers, directors, designers, administrators, technicians and actresses,
Page, Louise. Beauty and the Beast. Methuen in association with the Women’s Playhouse Trust, 1986.
between 22 and 23
building on feminist fringe activity but within the mainstream.