Maria Theresa Kemble

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MTK was an actress and playwright who began her acting career in London at the age of eight and her public career as a writer just before the dawn of the nineteenth century. She wrote and published comedies in which she often played the leading role. She also wrote to a newspaper to defend herself against plagiarism charges.
Painting of Maria Theresa Kemble by Samuel de Wilde, in character as the male lover, Patie, in a stage version of Allan Ramsay's Scottish pastoral "The Gentle Shepherd" (which she first played in 1796). She stands in a meadow among mountains, holding a shepherd's crook, dressed in white shirt and trousers, with a tartan jacket, cummerbund, and Scots bonnet sporting a large black feather. Garrick Club.

Milestones

17 January 1775

Maria Theresa De Camp (later Kemble) was born in Vienna, into a French family of musicians and dancers.
The Highfill, Burnim, and Langhans Biographical Dictionary of Actors gives the date thus. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives the year as 1777, while the old DNB had 1774 and was probably followed by the contributor who submitted this date to the International Genealogical Index.
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press.
321
Feminist Companion Archive.

3 May 1799

MTK 's first play, the five-act comedy First Faults, had its single performance (a benefit), at Drury Lane .
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press.
325

12 December 1815

MTK appeared in her dramatic comedy Smiles and Tears; or, The Widow's Stratagem.
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press.
328

3 September 1838

MTK died at Addlestone near Chertsey, just outside London.
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press.
328

Biography

Birth

17 January 1775

Maria Theresa De Camp (later Kemble) was born in Vienna, into a French family of musicians and dancers.
The Highfill, Burnim, and Langhans Biographical Dictionary of Actors gives the date thus. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives the year as 1777, while the old DNB had 1774 and was probably followed by the contributor who submitted this date to the International Genealogical Index.
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press.
321
Feminist Companion Archive.

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