Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/72

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Kemble
58
Kennedy

1893; she was buried on the 20th at Kensal Green.

Fanny Kemble had a sparkling, saucy, and rather boisterous individuality, and seems to have had a string of elderly admirers of distinction. Rogers, Macaulay, Sidney Smith, and other literary men of the epoch gave her incessant homage, and memoirs of the early part of the century are full of her. Eighty-five letters addressed to her by Edward Fitzgerald between 1871 and 1883 were printed in 'Temple Bar,' and with the addition of nineteen letters were issued separately in 1895. Wilson, in the 'Noctes,' credited her with genius, and assigned her, as did others, a place near her aunt, Mrs. Siddons. Scott and Moore placed her on a lower plane. Longfellow was completely under her spell. Judge Haliburton spoke of her 'cleverness and audacity, refinement and coarseness, modesty and bounce, pretty humility and prettier arrogance.' Leigh Hunt could not be won to faith in her. Macready said, with some justice, that she was ignorant of the very rudiments of her art, but made amends, declaring that 'she is one of the most remarkable women of the present day.' Lewes called her readings 'an intellectual delight.'

Her chief literary productions were: 'Francis the First,' 1832; 'The Star of Seville,' a drama, 1837; 'Poems,' Philadelphia, 1844; 'A Year of Consolation' (travels in Italy), 1847; 'Plays,' 1863, including 'An English Tragedy,' 'Mary Stuart,' translated from Schiller, and 'Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle,' translated from Dumas; 'Christmas Tree and other Tales,' from the German, 1856; 'Notes on some of Shakespeare's Plays,' 1882; 'Far Away and Long Ago,' 1889.

Her autobiographical works consist of: 1. 'Journal of F. A. Butler,' 1835, reprinted apparently as 'Journal of a Residence in America.' 2. 'Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation,' 1863. 3. 'Record of a Girlhood,' 1878. 4. 'Records of Later Life,' 1882. 5. 'Further Records,' 1891. These works are bright and animated, but caused some offence in certain circles by the views they expressed as to the theatrical profession, which she joined with reluctance. One or two works bearing on slavery were extracted from her early journal, and published separately.

A charming portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, showing her, as she said, 'like what those who love me have sometimes seen me,' has been often reproduced. Another beautiful portrait by Sully, now in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, has been engraved by J. G. Stodart.

[Books cited; Genest's Account of the English Stage; Clark Russell's Representative Actors; White's Actors of the Century; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xi. 159; Pascoe's Dramatic List; Pollock's Macready; Mme. Craven's Jeunesse de F. Kemble; Letters of Edward Fitzgerald to Fanny Kemble, 1895; Theatrical Times, vol. ii.; Dramatic and Musical Review, vol. vi.; Theatre, vol. xxi. March 1893; Leigh Hunt's Dramatic Essays; Lewes's Dramatic Essays.]

J. K.

KENNEDY, VANS (1784–1846), major-general, Sanskrit and Persian scholar, was born at Pinmore in the parish of Ayr, Scotland. He belonged to an old Ayrshire family, and was connected with the houses of Cassilis and Eglintoun. His father was Robert Kennedy of Pinmore, and his mother Robina, daughter of John Vans of Barnbarroch, Wigtownshire, who on marrying his cousin assumed the name of Agnew. Robert Kennedy was ruined by the failure of the Ayr bank, and had to sell Pinmore and retire to Edinburgh, where he died in 1790. The care of his numerous children then devolved on the widow, who was a woman of great worth and ability. Major-general Kennedy was her youngest son, and one of his sisters was Grace Kennedy [q. v.]

Kennedy was educated at Edinburgh, at Berkhamsted, and finally at Monmouth, and was noted in youth for his studious habits. On the completion of his fourteenth year he returned to Edinburgh, and, having obtained a cadetship, he sailed for Bombay in 1800. Shortly after his arrival he was employed with his corps, the 1st battalion of the 2nd grenadiers, against the people of the Malabar district, and received a wound in his neck, from the effects of which he suffered all his life. In 1807 he became Persian interpreter to the Peshwa's subsidiary force at Sirur, then commanded by the Colonel W. Wallace (d. 1809) who, according to the 'Imperial Gazetteer of India,' is still worshipped as a saint by the Hindus. While at Sirur Kennedy had frequent opportunities of meeting Sir Barry Close and Sir James Mackintosh, both of whom greatly admired him. In 1817 he was appointed judge-advocate-general to the Bombay army, and on 30 Sept. of the same year he contributed a paper on Persian literature to the Literary Society of Bombay. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who described Kennedy as the most learned man of his acquaintance, gave him the appointment of Maratha and Gujrati translator of the regulations of government, but the post was abolished a few months after Elphinstone's retirement. He held the office of judge-