scholarly journals A Short Article on a Lively Subject: Geltruda Rossi, Sarah Siddons, and Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth à la Fuseli

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69
Author(s):  
Michael Burden
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Sarah Siddons ◽  
Lady Macbeth

In the 1784–85 London season, there was a conjunction between Shakespeare's Macbeth and three of the most thrilling artists of the eighteenth century: the dancer Geltruda Rossi, the actress Sarah Siddons, and the artist Henry Fuseli. They were thrown into figurative proximity when a commentator on Rossi's performance wrote in the Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser: “Madame Rossi, in Lady Macbeth, impresses one more with the recollection of Fusili’s [sic] painting, than of Mrs Siddons’s representation—indeed comparison would be doing an injustice to our critical and admired English performer.” While we know much about the art of Siddons and Fuseli, we know little about Rossi's performances, which makes the Morning Herald’s parallel worth exploring as an example of eighteenth-century London ballet d'action.

Magazine Miniatures: Portraits of Actresses, Princesses, and Queens in Late Eighteenth-Century Periodicals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Engel
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Elizabeth Inchbald ◽  
Mary Robinson ◽  
Sarah Siddons ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Individual Character ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Royal Women

This essay explores images of actresses, queens and princesses in late-century periodicals. Comparing portraits of Sarah Siddons, Mary Robinson, and Elizabeth Inchbald to images of Queen Charlotte and Princess Charlotte Augusta, Laura Engel argues that periodical portraits function as celebrity pin-ups (versions of the same image) as well as markers of individual character (celebrating specificity and originality), thus participating in the creation of ideas about women’s claim to fame, legitimacy, and visibility. Readers could ‘own’ an image of their favourite player by purchasing a periodical, and could also feel connected to royal women, who resembled their most cherished theatrical stars. At the same time, the legitimacy bestowed on queens and princesses transferred visually to famous actresses who appeared in very similar costumes and poses. Looking closely at the ways in which artists employed similar iconography in these portraits, suggests ways of seeing that, Engel contends, connect to contemporary modes of visual display, particularly to the repetition and serial nature of pictures on Facebook, which promote a sense of intimacy and familiarity with the portrait’s subject that is ultimately a construction. Periodical portraits thus foreground the inherent tension between formality and intimacy highlighted in images of celebrated women.

Sarah Siddons and Her Place in Rhetorical History

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindal Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Rhetorical History ◽  
Sarah Siddons ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Maternal Performance ◽  
Delivery Style

Abstract Actors, who deliver the words of playwrights rather than their own, have largely been disregarded by rhetorical scholars despite the fact that the theatrical stage was one of the first arenas in which women struggled to gain public acceptance. A noteworthy public woman in this regard was Sarah Siddons, the late-eighteenth-century actor whose talent and influence led to her recognition as an exemplar of delivery in such rhetorical manuals as Gilbert Austin's Chironomia (1806) and Henry Siddons's Practical Illustrations of Rhetorical Gesture and Action (1807). This article recovers Siddon's rhetorical legacy by examining her distinctive delivery style, emotional powers, and maternal performance in public spaces.

Dr. John Armstrong, Littérateur, and Associate of Smollett, Thomson, Wilkes, and Other Celebrities

PMLA ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 59 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 1019-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis M. Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Literary Reputation ◽  
Diet And Exercise ◽  
The Future ◽  
National Biography

Two hundred years ago, in April, 1744, there was printed in London a long didactic poem in blank verse, The Art of Preserving Health, which brought its author, Dr. John Armstrong, considerable literary reputation during the following century in England, Italy, and America. In this work there are occasional passages of very pleasing poetry, but the goddess Hygeia, whom Armstrong invoked with all due fervor, failed to inspire him to create an enduring masterpiece on such themes as air, diet, and exercise. Consequently, during the last century there has been little interest in his poems and essays, or in his life, personality, and friendships. There is, of course, A. H. Bullen's short article in the Dictionary of National Biography, which added little, however, to Robert Anderson's memoir, or to Robert Chambers' account, and more recently Mr. Iolo A. Williams paid tribute to The Art of Preserving Health and published a bibliography of Armstrong's works. But there is no likelihood that Armstrong's writings will be much read or discussed in the future except by literary antiquarians and special students of the eighteenth century.

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