actors of the day, entitled "Thespis," were of sufficient merit to attract Garrick, who took him under his patronage and produced his first comedy, "False Delicacy," in 1763. The success of this piece was decisive: it was repeated twenty times. Two years after he produced "A Word to the Wise" on the same stage; but in the meantime he had become very unpopular from a prevalent belief that he had written to support some obnoxious measures of government. Wilkes mustered his friends in force, and after a scene of indescribable confusion, the piece, as Boswell tells us, "fell a sacrifice to popular fury, and in playhouse phrase was damned." It was, however, well received in the provinces, and was reproduced in London, with a prologue by Johnson, after the author's death. After an unsuccessful tragedy, "Clementina," he was again highly successful in "The School for Wives," which he put on the stage under the name of Mr. Addington. The "Romance of an Hour" and "The Man of Reason" were his last works. In 1774 Kelly was called to the bar, and was making rapid proficiency when he died, after a few days' illness, on the 3rd February, 1777.—J. F. W.
KELLY, John, LL.D. a clergyman distinguished by his labours in and for the Manx language, was born in 1750 at Douglas in the Isle of Man, and educated in the grammar-school. The special direction of his studies pointed him out to Bishop Hildesley as a useful assistant in the work of translating the Bible and Prayer-book into the native dialect. Kelly was appointed in 1768 to revise, correct, and reduce to uniformity the various portions of the translation which were sent to the bishop by the clergy of his diocese. In April, 1770, he sent the first portion of the book to Whitehaven, where it was printed. While conveying the second portion to the printer, he was shipwrecked, and had nearly perished. His precious manuscript, it is said, was held for five hours above water, and thus saved. The whole impression was completed under Kelly's guidance in September, 1772. During the progress of his task he is said to have translated all the books of the Old Testament three several times. In 1776 he became pastor to the episcopal congregation at Ayr in Scotland, but quitted his pastorate three years later to become tutor to the marquis of Huntly, whom he accompanied to Eton and Cambridge, and on the grand tour. In 1791 he was presented with the living of Ardleigh, near Colchester, which he retained till 1807, when he received the living of Copford, where he died, 12th November, 1809. His Manx Grammar was published in 1803. Of his Manx Dictionary sixty-three sheets had been printed when, in 1808, the whole stock was consumed by a fire at the printers'—Nichols & Son.—R. H.
KELLY, Michael, the singer and composer, was born in Dublin, 1762, and died in London, 1826. His father was an eminent wine merchant in Dublin, and for several years master of the ceremonies at the Castle. At a very early period young Kelly displayed a passion for music; and as his father was enabled to procure the best masters for him, before he had reached his eleventh year he could perform on the pianoforte some of the most difficult sonatas then in fashion. Rauzzini, when engaged to sing at the Rotunda in Dublin, gave him some lessons in singing, and persuaded his father to send him to Naples, as the only place where his musical propensity would receive proper cultivation. At the age of sixteen he was accordingly sent there, with strong recommendations from several persons of consequence in Ireland to Sir William Hamilton, the then British minister at the court of Naples. Sir William took him under his fostering care, and he was placed in the conservatorio La Madona della Loretto, where for some time he received instructions from the celebrated Feneroli. He also did Kelly the honour of introducing him to the king and queen of Naples, who particularly noticed the young Irishman. Kelly had the good fortune to meet Aprilli, the first singing-master of his day, and that great artist being then under an engagement to visit Palermo, offered to take him with him, and to give him gratuitous instruction while there. This proposal was of course gratefully accepted, and he received Aprilli's valuable tuition until the end of his engagement at the theatre. The Neapolitan's kindness, however, did not terminate there, for he sent Kelly to Leghorn with the strong recommendation of being his favourite pupil. From Leghorn young Kelly was engaged at the Teatro Nuovo at Florence as first tenor singer. He then visited Venice and several of the principal theatres in Italy, in which he performed with distinguished success. He was next engaged at the court of Vienna, where he was much noticed by the Emperor Joseph II. He had likewise the good fortune to become acquainted with Mozart, and was one of the original performers in his Nozze di Figaro. Having obtained a year's leave of absence from the emperor for the purpose of visiting his father (at the end of which time he was to go back to Vienna, where he was in such favour that he might have ended his days happily), he returned to England by the same opportunity as Signora Storace. In April, 1787, Kelly made his first appearance at Drury Lane theatre in the character of Lionel in the opera of Lionel and Clarissa Here he remained as first singer until he retired from the stage. He was besides for several years principal tenor singer at the Italian opera, where he was stage manager. The death of his friend Stephen Storace, in the year 1797, first induced Kelly to become a composer, since which time he composed or selected music for upwards of sixty pieces for the different theatres. Among these we may enumerate as among the most popular, the following—Castle Spectre, 1797; Blue Beard, 1798; Pizarro, 1799; Of Age To-morrow, 1800; Love Laughs at Locksmiths, 1804; Deaf and Dumb, 1804; Youth, Love, and Folly, 1805; Forty Thieves, 1806; Adrian and Orilla, 1806; Wood Demon, 1807; Foundling of the Forest, 1809; Nourjahad, 1813, &c. It has been truly observed that a joke of Sheridan's, which has been quoted ever since, has unduly depreciated Kelly's services to the music of the stage. When he embarked in trade as a wine merchant, Sheridan proposed that the inscription above his door should be, "Michael Kelly, composer of wine and importer of music." Kelly, though a shallow musician, had a highly cultivated taste. His own airs, though slight, are always elegant; and his knowledge of the Italian and German schools, not very general among the English musicians of his day, enabled him to enrich his pieces with many gems of foreign art. The popularity, therefore, of Kelly's numerous pieces had a very favourable influence on the taste of the public. As a singer his powers were by no means great; but his intelligence, experience, and knowledge of the stage rendered him very useful.—E. F. R.
KELLY, Patrick, LL.D., was born about 1756, and died at Brighton on the 5th April, 1842. He was the author of an arithmetical and commercial work of high authority, called the "Universal Cambist."—W. J. M. R.
KEMBLE, John Mitchell, an eminent Anglo-Saxon scholar, archæologist, and historian, was a son of Charles Kemble, and born in 1807. He received a part of his education from Dr. Richardson, the author of the well-known dictionary, a circumstance which perhaps aided in determining his subsequent pursuits. Placed afterwards at the grammar-school of Bury St. Edmunds, in 1826 he was the holder of an exhibition from it to Trinity college, Cambridge, and was already noted for the variety of his information, having, for instance, made considerable progress in the study of chemistry. At Cambridge the same discursiveness distinguished him, although his favourite study was history and its philosophy. It is said that for an indiscreet remark made by him while an under-graduate at an examination, he was rusticated. His academic studies thus suspended, he joined a band of Spanish patriots in a descent upon the coast of Spain. The expedition was a failure. Mr. Kemble was captured and condemned to death, only escaping through the intercession of the English minister at Madrid. From Spain he proceeded to Germany, where he married the daughter of a German professor, and was welcomed as an associate by such eminent philologists and scholars as the two Grimms, Ast, and Thiersch. Returning to England and to Cambridge, he took his B.A. degree in 1830, pursuing his studies, especially that of Anglo-Saxon literature and history, and making researches among the university MSS. In 1833 he made his début in the arena in which he became afterwards so distinguished, by publishing the "Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf, the Traveller's Song, and the Battle of Finnisburgh, edited together, with a glossary and a historical preface." In 1834 he delivered at Cambridge lectures on English philology, which do not seem to have been successful; their substance was published the same year in a pamphlet, now very rare, entitled "History of the English language: first or Anglo-Saxon period." An edition of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, undertaken by him to be printed at the university press, was never completed. Appointed in the meantime editor of the British and Foreign Review, his connection with it continued until its death in 1834. In the years 1839-41 Mr. Kemble published his important "Codex diploma-
