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youngest child of Roger except one, an actor of great note on the English stage for many years.
It was by no means the intention of Roger Kemble that all his children should pursue his own laborious vocation.
On the contrary he was much opposed to their going upon the stage, and in some instances took particular pains to prevent it. This was the case with Charles, who received an excellent education, and for whom a place was procured in the London post-office.
But it seemed as natural for a Kemble to act, as it is for an eagle to soar.
They all appear to have possessed just that combination of form, feature, voice, presence, and temperament, which are fitted to charm and impress an audience.
Charles Kemble was soon led to try the stage, upon which he rose gradually to a high, but never to the highest, position.
He was the best light comedian of his time, and has perhaps never been surpassed in such characters as Benedick, Petruchio, Charles Surface, Cassio, Faulconbridge, Edgar, and Marc Antony.
He was also an excellent, though not a great, Hamlet.
In due time he married a popular actress, Miss De Camp, who began her dramatic career as a member of the ballet troupe of the Italian Opera House in London.
Two daughters were the fruit of this union,--Frances Anne Kemble, the subject of this memoir, and Adelaide Kemble,--both of whom, after a short but striking career upon the stage, married gentlemen of fortune and retired to private life.
Six weeks before the evening on which Miss Kemble made her first appearance in London, neither she nor her parents had ever thought of her attempting the stage.
Charles Kemble was then manager of Covent Garden Theatre, one of the two great theatres of London.
The plays which he presented did not prove attractive; the season threatened to end in disaster; and he looked anxiously about him for the means of restoring to the theatre its former prestige.
His eldest
S. M. Betts and Company. Hartford, Conn. 1871.
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