Sarah Siddons (née Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831) was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified".
She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton, and Elizabeth Whitlock, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character Lady Macbeth, a character she made her own.
John Liston (c. 1776 – 22 March 1846), English comedian, was born in London.
He made his public debut on the stage at Weymouth as Lord Duberley in The Heir at Law. After several dismal failures in tragic parts, some of them in support of Mrs Siddons, he discovered accidentally that his forte was comedy, especially in the personation of old men and country boys, in which he displayed a fund of drollery and broad humour. An introduction to Charles Kemble led to his appearance at the Haymarket on 10 June 1805 as Sheepface in The Village Lawyer, and his association with this theatre continued with few interruptions until 1830.
Shakespearean tragedy is the designation given to most tragedies written by William Shakespeare. Many of his history plays share the qualifiers of a Shakespearean tragedy, but because they are based on real figures throughout the history of England, they were classified as "histories" in the First Folio. The Roman tragedies—Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus—are also based on historical figures, but because their sources were foreign and ancient, they are almost always classified as tragedies rather than histories. Shakespeare's romances (tragicomic plays) were written late in his career and published originally as either tragedy or comedy. They share some elements of tragedy, insofar as they feature a high-status central character, but they end happily like Shakespearean comedies. Almost three centuries after Shakespeare's death, English scholar Frederick S. Boas also coined a fifth category, the "problem play," for plays that do not fit neatly into a single classification because of their subject matter, setting, or ending. Scholars continue to disagree on how to categorize some Shakespearean plays.
John Philip Kemble (1 February 1757 – 26 February 1823) was a British actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. His other siblings, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton, and Elizabeth Whitlock, also enjoyed success on the stage.
Elizabeth Whitlock (née Kemble; 2 April 1761, Warrington, Lancashire – 27 February 1836, Addlestone) was an English actress, a member of the Kemble family of actors. She made her first appearance on the stage in 1783. In 1785 she married Charles E. Whitlock, went with him to America, and played with much success there. She seems to have retired about 1807. Her sister was actress Sarah Siddons.
John Philip Kemble as Coriolanus is a 1798 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence depicting the British actor John Philip Kemble appearing in the role of Coriolanus in the William Shakespeare tragedy of the same title. Kemble was the leading male actor of the era, frequently appearing alongside his sister Sarah Siddons in London's West End. Having first appeared in the part in 1789, it became one of Kemble's greatest roles. It portrays Coriolanus banished from Rome and plotting his revenge. Francis Bourgeois had previously produced the same scene and exhibited it in 1797.
Today it is in the collection of the City of London's Guildhall Art Gallery, having been presented by the Earl of Yarborough in 1906. Lawrence painted Kemble several times, including as Hamlet in 1801. His 1812 work John Philip Kemble as Cato is now in the National Portrait Gallery.