KEMBLE, JOHN PHILIP, was born on the 1st of February 1757, at Prescot, in Lancashire. His father was Roger Kemble, an actor, and manager of a provincial company. John KeMble was not intended by his father for the stage, although during his childhood be was occa sionally called upon to represent parts suitable to his age, the first upon record being, when he was just ten years old, that of the little Duke of York in Havard'a tragedy of ' Charles I.,' his sister Sarah (afterwards 3Irs. Siddons) acting the Princess Elizabeth. He received the rudiments of education in a preparatory school at Worcester, from whence he was sent to the Roman Catholic seminary of Sedgeley Park, in Staffordshire, and afterwards to the English college at Douay, in France, where be made great progress. At the age of nineteen he returned to England, and following immediately the natural bent of his inclination towards the stage, made his appearance in the cha racter of Theodosina in the tragedy of that name, at Wolverhampton, January 8th, 1776. Two years afterwards he was a regular member of the York company. On Tuesday, 30th of September 1783, 3Ir. Kemble made his first appearance in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane, in the character of Hamlet. In 1790 he became manager, of that theatre. In 1803 he purchased for 24,0001. a sixth share in Covent-Garden Theatre from Mr. Lewis, and became manager of that establishment, having previously made a tour through France and Spain. In 1803 Covent-Garden was destroyed by fire, and on the 31st of December, at the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new theatre, Mr. John Kemble'e bond for 10,000/. was munificently cancelled by his Grace the late Duke of Northumberland. On the opening of the new theatre in 1809, under Mr. Kemble's management, an advance in the prices of admission to the pit and boxes gave rise to the well-known 0.P. riots, during which the great tragedian was personally and grossly insulted whenever he appeared upon the stage. A compromise was at last made between the manager
and the public, and 31r. Kemble continued to direct the entertain ments at Covent-Garden in a spirit of enterprise and liberty, reviving the plays of Shaluspere with great splendour and as much propriety as was at that time perhaps within his power. On the 23rd of June 1817, he took his leave of the London audience, having previously bid farewell to that of Edinburgh (March 29th), and on the 27th of June a public dinner was given to him at the Freemason's Tavern, when Lord Holland was in the chair. Mr. Kemble, who had long suffered severely from asthma, soon afterwards retired to the south of France for the benefit of his health, and after a short visit to England on the death of his partner, the elder Mr. Harris, he finally took up his resi dence at Lausanne, in Switzerland, where he expired February 26th 1823, aged eixty.six. Mr. Kemble's talents, both as an actor and a manager, were of a very high order : his fine taste and classical acquire ments were perceptible in every effort, and in his personation of the loftier heroes of the drama he has never been equalled. His Brutus, Coriolanus, Cato, King John, Woleey, and Macbeth, are still fresh in the remembrance of many, and, while the recollection of them still remains, his successors to the tragio throne must, in those particular characters, suffer by comparison. His King Lear also, as a whole, may be men tioned amongst his almost unapproachable impersonations. His very feebleness in his latter years added to the terrible truth of the picture In society Mr. Kemble was ever the accomplished gentleman as well as the convivial companion, and to the last enjoyed the respect and regard of the noblest and most estimable in the land. Mr. Kemble's life has been written by his friend Mr. Boaden, in two vols. 8vo.