Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/110

 of the most regular and welcome attendants at the dinners of ’The Club.' From 1896 to 1911 he acted as joint secretary of the Dilettanti Society, and in 1909 his portrait was painted for that body by Sir Edward Poynter, R.A. He was an accomplished musician, having studied singing under Perugini and possessing considerable technical theoretical knowledge. In 1910 Pember was elected perpetual secretary of the newly formed academic committee of the Royal Society of Literature. During the days of waiting at the bar he was a constant contributor to the weekly press, and he is generally credited with the famous epigram on Lord Westbury's judgment in the 'Essays and Reviews' case — 'Hell dismissed with costs.' Some extracts from a mock Newdigate poem of his, 'On the Feast of Belshazzar' (the subject for 1852, when the prize was awarded to Edwin Arnold), were long current in Oxford. Widely read in general literature and highly critical in taste, he found relaxation and amusement in the making of vers de société, and of translations and adaptations from the Greek and Latin, especially from Horace and the Greek dramatists. During the latter years of his life his leisure was largely occupied in the composition of classical plays in English, cast in the Attic mould, drawn from scriptural and mythological themes. He had a good dramatic sense and a correct and fastidious ear. He refrained from publication, and confined the circulation of his plays and poems to a fit and cultured audience.

Pember married on 28 August 1861 Fanny, only daughter of William Richardson of Sydney, New South Wales, who survived him. His eldest and only surviving son, Francis William, became fellow of All Souls in 1884 and bursar in 1911.

Besides the picture by Sir Edward Poynter, now in the rooms of the Dilettanti Society, there is a portrait of Pember by Frank Holl, R.A., in the possession of his widow.

Pember 'printed for private distribution': 1. 'Debita Flacco, Echoes of Ode and Epode,' 1891. 2. 'The Voyage of the Phocaeans and other Poems, with Prometheus Bound done into English Verse,' 1895. 3. 'Adrastus of Phrygia and other Poems, with the Hippolytus of Euripides done into English Verse,' 1897. 4. 'The Death-Song of Thamyris and other Poems, with the Œdipus of Colonos done into English Verse,' 1899. 5. 'The Finding of Pheidippides and other Poems,' 1901. 6. 'Jephthah's Daughter and other Poems,' 1904. 7. 'Er of Pamphylia and other Poems,' 1908. He contributed also to Sir George Grove's 'Dictionary of Music,' dealing especially with the lives of the early Italian musicians.

 PEMBERTON, THOMAS EDGAR (1849–1905), biographer of the stage, born at Birmingham Heath on 1 July 1849, was eldest son of Thomas Pemberton, J.P., the head of an old-established firm of brass founders in Livery Street, Birmingham. Charles Reece Pemberton [q. v.] belonged to the same old Warwickshire family. Educated at the Edgbaston proprietary schools, Pemberton at nineteen entered his father's counting-house, and in due course gained control of the business of the firm, with which he was connected until 1900. Of literary taste from youth, Pemberton long divided his time between commerce and varied literary endeavours. His industry was unceasing. After the publication of two indifferent novels, 'Charles Lysaght : a Novel devoid of Novelty' (1873) and 'Under Pressure' (1874), he showed some aptitude for fiction in 'A Very Old Question' (3 vols. 1877). There followed 'Born to Blush Unseen' (1879) and an allegorical fairytale, 'Fair-brass,' written for his children.

At his father's house he met in youth E. A. Sothern, Madge Robertson (Mrs. Kendal), and other players on visits to Birmingham, and he soon tried his hand at the drama. His comedietta 'Weeds,' the first of a long list of ephemeral pieces, mainly farcical, was written for the Kendals, and produced at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Birmingham, on 16 Nov. 1874. His many plays were rarely seen outside provincial theatres. He came to know Bret Harte, and his best play, 'Sue,' was adapted with Bret Harte's collaboration from the latter's story 'The Judgment of Bolinas Plain.' Originally brought out in America, it was subsequently produced at the Garrick on 10 June 1898. The partnership was continued. 'Held Up,' a four-act play by Harte and Pemberton, was produced at the Worcester theatre on 24 Aug. 1903. One or two unproduced plays written by the two remain in manuscript. On Bret Harte's death in 1902 Pemberton wrote 'Bret Harte : a Treatise and a Tribute.' In succession to his friend Sam Timmins, Pemberton was the dramatic critic of the 