Sarah Siddons

Standard Name: Siddons, Sarah

Connections

Connections Author name Sort descending Excerpt
Literary responses Joanna Baillie
Sarah Siddons , who starred in the play, much admired it.
Dowd, Maureen A. “’By the Delicate Hand of a Female’: Melodramatic Mania and Joanna Baillie’s Spectacular Tragedies”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
9
, No. 4, pp. 469-00.
480
But JB felt that reviewers cooled towards it once they knew the author was an unknown woman. John any-body would have stood higher...
Textual Features Joanna Baillie
The volume included praise of Elizabeth Fry , and JB 's own epistle To Mrs Siddons, in which, while warmly praising the great tragedienne's former performances, she argues that even in retirement Siddons still...
Friends, Associates Isabella Banks
The actress Mrs M'Gibbon , known as the Manchester Mrs Siddons , was a close friend of IB 's family.
Burney, Edward Lester. Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks. E. J. Morten.
23
IB 's relationship with Florence Fenwick Miller developed from a professional into a personal...
Textual Features Mary Elizabeth Braddon
There are occasional moments of wit, as when destitution reveals that the family servants think terms of practical life rather than sentimental fiction: the old-fashioned type of servant, who appears so frequently in Morton 's...
Occupation Anna Eliza Bray
She had to cancel this appearance because of influenza contracted while travelling to Bath. The sore throat which attended the illness weakened her voice considerably. She found no further chance to act. She had...
Textual Production Charlotte Brooke
Some years before her death CB wrote her tragedy Belisarius on a story popularised by Marmontel in his Bélisaire, 1767 (which had first reached English in the same year as its French publication). Charles Kemble
Performance of text Frances Burney
FB 's tragedy Edwy and Elgiva, the only one of her plays to reach the stage in her lifetime, had its single performance at Drury Lane , starring Sarah Siddons .
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press.
Textual Production Frances Burney
FB was probably working on two comedies, The Woman-Hater and A Busy Day, and planning her casts to include Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble .
Burney, Frances. The Complete Plays of Frances Burney. Editor Sabor, Peter, William Pickering.
1: 192-3, 289-90
Textual Production Hannah Cowley
She was said to have begun it on impulse when her husband laughed at her claim that she could produce something better than another play which they had just seen and disliked. She finished it...
Performance of text Hannah Cowley
One early performance drew bigger crowds than Drury Lane, although the rival theatre that night featured Sarah Siddons on stage and the king and queen in the audience. More Ways Than One was published on...
Literary Setting Hannah Cowley
The high-minded and courageous Cleonice (the Sarah Siddons role) is torn between duty to her husband and her tyrannical father, who are at war. She tries in vain to make peace between them, definitively siding...
Occupation Anne Damer
AD was not only a diarist, novelist, and amateur actress: she became, from the 1780s, a successful and even famous sculptor. Andrew Elfenbein notes the application to her of such terms as female genius and...
Friends, Associates Anne Damer
Occupation Eliza Fletcher
This friendship was built on a shared interest in literature, in patronising the poor or socially oppressed who aspired to writing, in encouraging inoculation and in promoting Sunday schools. Eliza was interested particularly in the...
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...

Timeline

By August 1775: Sarah Siddons first performed the role of...

Women writers item

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, Vol.
18
, No. 5, pp. 573-95.
574 and n10

2 February 1785: Sarah Siddons first played Lady Macbeth (a...

Building item

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...

Building item

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,...

Women writers item

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...

Writing climate item

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...

Building item

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...

Writing climate item

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...

Building item

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...

Building item

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...

Building item

8 June 1831

Sarah Siddons , great tragic actress, died in London.

15 June 1831: 5,000 mourners attended the funeral of Sarah...

Building item

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...

National or international item

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...

Women writers item

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...

Building item

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...

Women writers item

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.
between 22 and 23
building on feminist fringe activity but within the mainstream.

Texts

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