Nineteenth Century Theatre Personalities ~ Sarah Siddons
(1755 – 1831) in Scotland
Fanny Kemble recalls Mrs Siddons' experience at the hands of the Edinburgh playgoers.
Of the proverbial frigidity of the Edinburgh public I had been forewarned, and of its probably disheartening effect upon myself.
Mrs. Harry Siddons had often told me of the intolerable sense of depression with which it affected Mrs. Siddons, who, she said, after some of her grandest outbursts of passion, to which not a single expression of applause or sympathy had responded, exhausted and breathless with the effort she had made, would pant out in despair, under her breath, 'Stupid people, stupid people!'
Stupid, however, they undoubtedly were not, though, as undoubtedly, their want of excitability and demonstrativeness diminished their own pleasure by communicating itself to the great actress and partially paralyzing her powers.
That this habitual reserve sometimes gave way to very violent exhibitions of enthusiasm, the more fervent from its general repression, there is no doubt; and I think it was in Edinburgh that my friend, Mr. Harness, told me the whole of the sleep-walking scene in 'Macbeth' had once been so vehemently encored that my aunt was literally obliged to go over it a second time, before the piece was allowed to proceed.
From Records of a Girlhood by
Frances Anne Kemble
_2nd Edition
Henry Holt and Company, New York 1880.
The Theatre Royal ~ Mrs Sarah Siddons in Edinburgh
The Parliamentary Act for the New Town of Edinburgh contained a clause, which empowered the Crown to grant Royal Letters Patent for a Theatre. On the 16th March, 1768, the foundation stone of the Theatre Royal was laid, and for ninety years it formed the scene of some of the most notable triumphs in Scots drama.
Engraved on a silver plate of the stone was the inscription:- 'The first stone of this new theatre was laid on the 16th day of March in the year of our Lord 1768 by David Ross, patentee and first proprietor of a licensed stage in Scotland. May this theatre tend to promote every moral and every virtuous principle, and may the representation be such.'
The assumption of the managerial reins by Mr. John Jackson in 1781 brought the advent of Mrs. Siddons in Edinburgh. Her first appearance was made on 22nd May, 1784, in Venice Preserved, where she played Belvidera to the Jaffier of Wood, an Edinburgh man. That the engagement was a successful one is confirmed by an excerpt from the Edinburgh Weekly Magazine of that date:-
'The manager took the precaution after the first night to have an officer and Guard of Soldiers at the principal door. But several scuffles having ensued through the eagerness of the people to get places, and the soldiers having been rash enough to use their bayonets, it was thought advisable to withdraw the guards on the third night, lest any accident had happened from the pressure of the crowd, who began to assemble round the doors at 11 in the forenoon.'
Her first performance was not without its trials. The undemonstrative character of her audience was not an inspiring spectacle. Thomas Campbell, in speaking of her reception, and its apparent coldness, tells how Mrs. Siddons, having summoned all her powers in an effort to electrify the audience, she paused and looked at the sea of stony faces. The deep silence was at length broken by a voice exclaiming, 'That's no' bad!' The ludicrous parsimony of praise at once convulsed the audience with laughter. But the laugh was followed by such thunders of applause 'that, amidst her stunned and nervous agitation, she was not without fear of the galleries coming down.'
For her first visit her repertoire included The Gamester, Mourning Bride, Douglas, Isabella, Jane Shore, and The Grecian Daughter. Her earnings for the ten nights were £50 nightly, with an additional sum of £350 which she received on the night of her benefit, as well as a magnificent presentation of plate.
On the second visit in 1785 there was a decided increase: in the figures, £120 per night being the average earning, with £200 for a performance of The Gamester. As an example of the furore her appearance created, 'a certain set of gents, by subscribing £200 as a guarantee beforehand, considered themselves very fortunate in securing private and early entrance to the pit.' On one day alone, 2,557 applications were made for 630 places.
Amongst the many alleged incidents which happened during her Edinburgh visit, there is one which may appeal largely to the superstitious. A young Aberdeenshire heiress, Miss Gordon of Gicht, was borne out of her box in hysterics, screaming the last words she had caught from the great actress, "Oh! my Biron, my Biron! " In the course of a short time, she was married to the Hon. John Byron, and came down to posterity as the mother of Lord Byron.
Text based on The Story of the Scots Stage By Robb Lawson (1919). Chapter Five
On 12th April 1815 Henry Siddons died, and the theatre was
closed for a short time.
Later in the year, Mrs Siddons, his mother visited Edinburgh to perform for ten nights for the benefit of the family of her deceased son (Mrs. Siddons had retired from
the stage.)
On the 18th November the theatre opened with Macbeth. The actors were by Macbeth
= Terry : Macduff = Eyre : Lady Macbeth = Mrs.
Siddons.
20th November Douglas. Stranger = Terry : Lady Randolph
= Mrs. Siddons.
23rd November. Henry 8th. King = Eyre : Wolsey = Terry :
Queen Katharine Mrs. = Siddons.
25th November. King John. King = Terry : Constance =
Mrs. Siddons.
27th November . Mrs. Siddons acted Lady Randolph.
28th November. Earl of Warwick. Warwick Terry : King
Edward = Putnam : Margaret of Anjou = Mrs.
Siddons.
Mrs. Siddons acted two other nights. She was received with the greatest applause, and the house was
crowded every night. She looked older, but acted as
well as ever.