to his Sealand, and Selima to his Bajazet in ‘Tamerlane.’ On 24 Nov. 1783, as Mrs. S. Kemble, late Miss Satchell, she was Miss Dormer in the ‘Mysterious Husband.’ The favour she won in public estimation was not shared by her husband, whom, to the regret of the management and the town, she accompanied in his enforced migrations. Her career consisted indeed in playing to and eclipsing her husband, with whom she appeared at the Haymarket, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, and other towns, and finally at Drury Lane. She was at the Haymarket, on 4 Aug. 1787, the first Yarico in the younger Colman's ‘Inkle and Yarico,’ and Harriet in ‘Ways and Means’ on 10 July 1788; and during her engagement at this house played very many original parts in plays of Colman, O'Keeffe, and other dramatists. Her repertory in London and the country was very large. She played characters so diverse as Lady Teazle and Cowslip in the ‘Agreeable Surprize,’ Mrs. Haller, and Cicely Homespun. By her prudence and exertions she contributed to her husband's fortune. Nineteen years after her husband, she died on 20 Jan. 1841, in retirement, at the Grove, near Durham, and was buried on the 25th by the side of her husband in Durham Cathedral.
Tate Wilkinson declares that with the exception of Mrs. Cibber she was the only good Ophelia he ever saw. Oxberry, a censorious judge, calls her ‘a little woman, but a great actress.’ Boaden supplies a very pleasing picture of her: ‘The stage never in my time exhibited so pure, so interesting a candidate as Miss Satchell. … No one ever like her presented the charm of unsuspecting fondness or that rustic simplicity which, removed immeasurably from vulgarity, betrays nothing of the world's refinement’ (Life of Mrs. Siddons, i. 214). Equally favourable testimony is borne by a writer in ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ 1832, who says there were few more delightful actresses, and declares that, though not so lovely as Miss O'Neill, nor so romantic, her ‘eyes had far more of that unconsciously alluring expression of innocence and voluptuousness.’ The writer claims for her genius rather than talent, speaks of her clear, silvery voice, praises her Katherine in ‘Katherine and Petruchio’ and her Ophelia, and says that she was ‘a delicious Juliet, and an altogether incomparable Yarico.’ She sang with much feeling, but was less gentle than she appeared. Displays of temper on the stage were not unknown, and she once almost bit a piece out of the shoulder of Henry Erskine Johnston [q. v.], who was acting with her.
Another Elizabeth Kemble, a sister of her husband, appeared at Drury Lane 1783–4, played several parts, was extolled by George Steevens at the expense of Mrs. Siddons, married Mr. Whitelocke, a theatrical manager, and retired.
[For authorities see art. Kemble, Stephen or George Stephen.]
KEMBLE, HENRY STEPHEN (1789–1836), actor, son of Stephen Kemble [q. v.], was born 15 Sept. 1789 in Villiers Street, Strand, London, whither his mother, after acting Queen Margaret in the ‘Battle of Hexham,’ on this the closing night of the Haymarket Theatre, was hurriedly carried. He was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge, which he quitted after two years' residence to try his fortune on the stage. His first appearance was made at Whitehaven, under his father's management, as Frank Heartall in Cherry's comedy the ‘Soldier's Daughter.’ Under his father he acted in various northern towns, and married, in opposition to parental wishes, a Miss Freize, a member of the company. After his father relinquished country management, he joined the Southampton and Portsmouth circuit under Maxfield, Kelly, and Collins. As Octavian in the ‘Mountaineers’ to the Agnes of his wife he made, on 12 July 1814, his first appearance at the Haymarket, where the family name secured him a favourable reception. This was not announced as his first appearance in London, where it is possible he made, under one or other of his relatives, an unpretending début. He possessed at this time a good figure, above the middle size, and a fine eye, the other features being void of expression. The ‘Theatrical Inquisitor’ says he ‘did not tear a passion to rags, but diluted it to the consistence of water-gruel.’ Mrs. Kemble was pretty, lively, and vivacious, but overpowered by timidity. Engaged by Palmer of the Bath Theatre, he played under the same management, in Bristol, and made his first appearance in Bath, on 16 Nov. 1816, as Bertram in Maturin's tragedy of the same name. He was also seen as Bajazet in ‘Tamerlane,’ Gambia in the ‘Slave,’ Daran in the ‘Exile,’ Three-Fingered Jack in ‘Obi,’ and Octavian in the ‘Mountaineers’ to the Agnes of his wife. He was noticed at the time as boisterous, and a Bath paper said of his De Zelos in ‘Manuel’ that it was received ‘with peals of derision, although entitled to shouts of disgust.’
During his one year's management of Drury Lane, 1818–19, his father caused much murmuring by sending for him and entrusting him with many parts of importance for which he was wholly unqualified. Making his first appearance on 12 Sept. 1818,
