Sarah Siddons and Her Place in Rhetorical History

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.

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

Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1690-1820s ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419659.003.0030 ◽

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.

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Public Military Music and the Promotion of Patriotism in the British Provinces, c. 1780-c. 1850

Nineteenth-Century Music Review ◽

10.1017/s1479409819000594 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 427-444

Author(s):

Trevor Herbert

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Public Spaces ◽

The State ◽

British Isles ◽

Historical Process ◽

Late Eighteenth Century ◽

The People ◽

Home Based ◽

Late Eighteenth ◽

Military Units

The role and importance of military musicians changed and intensified in the late eighteenth century through two important processes. The first was the culture of display that took root in both the home-based army and units in the colonies. The second was the result of successive militia acts which effectively ensured that military units with bands would be systematically placed in every corner of the British Isles.It became evident that music as a component of military display served an important diplomatic purpose. Music performed in public spaces was heard by a population deeply sceptical of the army and with an essentially local sense of identity. The experience of the sight and sound of military music raised entirely new perceptions of nation and of the state as a benign power.Two important and related themes emerge here. The first is the historical process that led, almost accidentally, to a realization that music as part of military display had potential to influence populations across the country and in the colonies. The second, more challenging, theme concerns the nature of the evidence for this idea and how it is to be treated. It is an idea that is totally convincing if the experience of hearing and seeing military spectacle by the mass of the people can be shown to have had impact. What is the evidence of listening to music by those people at whom it was targeted, how robust is it and what can be made of it?

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