Season: 3 Episode: 30

Sarah Siddons was one of the greatest English tragic actresses.

Among her greatest roles were Isabella, Belvidera in Venice Preserv’d, Jane Shore in The Tragedy of Jane Shore, Katharine in Henry VIII, but it was as Lady Macbeth that she shone. Her success was due to her complete concentration upon the character whom she played: she identified herself with a role and seemed possessed by it, oblivious of all else around her. Portraits of her were painted by Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and Sir Joshua Reynolds; Reynolds entitled his painting Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse. William Hazlitt wrote of her that “passion emanated from her breast as from a shrine. She was tragedy personified.”

THIS PODCAST

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SOURCES

Bristish Museum

Jane Austin Centre

Irish Times - Friday 12 November 1909

Dundee Evening Telegraph - Saturday 21 April 1877

Tower Hamlets Independent and East End Local Advertiser - Saturday 08 June 1901

The Stage - Thursday 12 July 1934

The Satirist; or Censor of the Times, vol. I, no. 10, 12 June 1831, p. 78. Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals

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Intro music by The Model Folk 

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