Sarah 1755-1831 Siddons

SIDDONS, SARAH (1755-1831), English actress, the eldest of 12 children of Roger Kemble, was born in the "Shoulder of Mutton" public-house, Brecon, Wales, on July 5, 1755.

She became attached to William Siddons, whom she married at Trinity Church, Coventry, on Nov. 26, In 1774 she played Belvidera in Otway's Venice Preserved at Cheltenham, and moved to tears a party of "people of quality" who had come to scoff. Garrick then sent his deputy to see her as Calista in Rowe's Fair Penitent, the result being that she was engaged to appear at Drury Lane at a salary of £5 a week.

After a very successful engagement at Bath, beginning in 1778 and lasting five years, she again appeared at Drury Lane, when her acting as Isabella in Garrick's version of Southerne's Fatal Marriage (Oct. 1o), was a triumph, only equalled in the history of the English stage by that of Garrick's first night at Drury Lane in 1741 and that of Edmund Kean's in 1814.

As Lady Macbeth, Mrs. Siddons found the highest and best scope for her gifts. It fitted her as no other character did, and as perhaps, it will never fit another actress. Her tall figure, brilliant beauty, expressive eyes and her dignity of demeanour heightened the tragedy of the part. After Lady Macbeth she played Des demona, Rosalind and Ophelia, all with great success; in Queen Catherine—which she first played on the occasion of her brother John Kemble's spectacular revival of Henry VIII. in 1788—she discovered a part almost as well adapted to her peculiar powers as that of Lady Macbeth. As Volumnia in Kemble's version of Coriolanus she also secured a triumph. It was of course inevitable that comparisons should be made between her and her only peer Rachel, who undoubtedly excelled her in intensity and the por trayal of fierce passion, but Rachel was a less finished artist, and lacked Mrs. Siddons' dignity and pathos. Her last appearance was on June 9, 1819, as Lady Randolph in Home's Douglas, for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kemble.

In private life Mrs. Siddons enjoyed the friendship and respect of many of her most eminent contemporaries. Horace Walpole at first refused to join the fashionable chorus of her praise, but he was ultimately won over. Dr. Johnson wrote his name on the hem of her garment in the famous picture of the actress as the Tragic Muse by Reynolds (now in the Dulwich Gallery). Mrs. Siddons died in London on June 8, 1831, and was buried in Paddington churchyard.

In 1897 Sir Henry Irving unveiled at Paddington Green a marble statue of her by Chavalliaud, after the portrait by Reynolds. There is also a statue by Chantrey in Westminster Abbey. Por traits by Lawrence and Gainsborough are in the National Gallery, and a portrait ascribed to Gainsborough is in the Garrick Club, London, which also possesses two pictures of the actress as Lady Macbeth by G. H. Harlow.

See Thomas Campbell, Life of Mrs. Siddons (2 vols., 1834) ; P. H. Fitzgerald, The Kembles (3 vols., 1871) ; Frances Ann Kemble, Records of a Girlhood (3 vols., 1878) ; A. Maurois, Portrait dune actrice (1927).

SIDE

(mod. Eski Adalia), an ancient city on the Pamphylian coast about 12 m. E. of the mouth of the Eurymedon. Possessing a good harbour in the days of small craft, it was the most im portant place in Pamphylia. Alexander visited and occupied it, and there the Rhodian fleet defeated that of Antiochus the Great, and in the succeeding century the Cilician pirates established here their chief seat. An inscription shows it had many Jews in early Byzantine times. The great ruins cover a large promontory, fenced from the mainland by a ditch and wall which has been repaired in mediaeval times and is singularly perfect. Within this is a maze of structures out of which rises the colossal ruin of the theatre, built up on arches like a Roman amphitheatre.

See C. Lanckoronski, Les Villes de la Pamphylie et de la Pisidie, i. (189o).