Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/359

 ‘Guy Mannering,’ 12 March 1816; and Ratcliff in Terry's ‘Heart of Midlothian,’ 17 April 1819. Of many other characters in different lines Emery was the first exponent, and the number of parts he assumed was very great. His last performance was Edie Ochiltree in ‘The Antiquary,’ 29 June 1822. On 25 July 1822 he died of inflammation of the lungs in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury, and was buried 1 Aug. in a vault in St. Andrew's, Holborn. On 5 Aug. 1822, under the patronage of the Duke of York, the ‘Rivals’ and ‘Belles without Beaux,’ with a concert, were given at Covent Garden for the benefit of the aged parents and widow with seven children of the late Mr. Emery. An address by Colman was spoken by Bartley, and a large sum was realised.

Tyke was Emery's great part, in which he left no successor. He was excellent in some Shakespearean parts. Of his Barnardine in ‘Measure for Measure’ Genest, a reserved critic, says, ‘Emery looked and acted inimitably.’ His Caliban and Silence in ‘King Henry IV’ were excellent. His Ralph in the ‘Maid of the Mill,’ Dougal in ‘Rob Roy,’ Hodge in ‘Love in a Village,’ Winter in the ‘Steward,’ Sam Sharpset, John Lump, Andrew in ‘Love, Law, and Physic’ were unsurpassable performances. In the ‘New Monthly Magazine,’ October 1821, a writer, assumably Talfourd, says Emery ‘is one of the most real, hearty, and fervid of actors. He is half a Munden. … He has the pathos but not the humour, the stoutness but not the strangeness, the heart but not the imagination of the greatest of living comedians. … To be half a Munden is the highest praise we can give to any other actor, short of a Kean or a Macready.’ Hazlitt says of his acting: ‘It is impossible to praise it sufficiently because there is never any opportunity of finding fault with it’ (Criticisms and Dramatic Essays, 87–8), and Leigh Hunt says he does not know one of his rustic characters ‘in which he is not altogether excellent and almost perfect’ (Critical Essays, 106). In the ‘London Magazine,’ iii. 517, his Tyke is declared inimitable, and his acting is said to remind the writer of a bottle of old port, and to possess ‘a fine rough and mellow flavour that forms an irresistible attraction.’ Gilliland's ‘Dramatic Synopsis,’ 1804, p. 107, says Mr. Emery's delineation of Orson in the ‘Iron Chest’ is ‘a fine picture of savage nature characterised by a peculiar justice of colouring.’ Emery was about five feet nine inches, robustly built, with a light complexion and light blue eyes. He looked like one of his own farmers, sang well with a low tenor voice, composed the music and words of a few songs, and for his benefit wrote annually comic effusions, one of which, a song entitled ‘York, you're wanted,’ enjoyed a long reputation. He had considerable powers of painting, and exhibited between 1801 and 1817 nineteen pictures, chiefly sea pieces, at the Royal Academy. He was a shrewd observer, an amusing companion, and a keen sportsman, very fond of driving four-in-hand. Unfortunately he drank to excess, and was never so happy as when in the society of jockeys and pugilists. He married in 1802 a Miss Anne Thompson, the daughter of a tradesman in the Borough. No less than seven portraits of him in various characters, of which four are by Dewilde, and one, presenting him with Liston, Mathews, and Blanchard in ‘Love, Law, and Physic,’ by Clint, are in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club.

[Books cited; Genest's Account of the Stage; Oxberry's Dramatic Biog. vol. ii.; Thespian Dict.; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror; The Drama, 1821, vol. i.; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1884; Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin, 1827, vol. ii.] 

EMERY, SAMUEL ANDERSON (1817–1881), actor, the son of John Emery [q. v.], was born in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury, 10 Sept. 1817. He was educated at Bridport Hall, Edmonton, under W. Fitch, who, besides being a schoolmaster, was lessee of the City Theatre, Milton Street. On leaving school he was placed with his uncle, John Thompson, an Irish provision dealer, and became also clerk to a stockbroker, and subsequently to a jeweller and goldsmith. In May 1834 he appeared at the Queen's Theatre, Tottenham Street (then known as the Fitzroy), in his father's character of Dan in ‘John Bull.’ This led to an engagement, and under the name of Anderson he played at the same house as Robin Roughhead, and assumably in other parts. He then engaged at Hull with Downe, the manager of the York circuit, proceeded in 1835 to Edinburgh under Murray, and played in various small Scotch houses. He then became established in Liverpool, and for several years played there, at Manchester, Chester, and neighbouring towns. As Giles in the ‘Miller's Maid,’ and Lovegold in the ‘Miser,’ he made, 18 April 1843, at the Lyceum, his first appearance in London. He was engaged by Henry Wallack for Covent Garden, and appeared there 19 Oct. 1843 as Fixture in ‘A Roland for an Oliver.’ Here, through the intended vengeance of some stage carpenter whose schemes he frustrated, his life is said to have been attempted. In 1844 he was at the Lyceum under the Keeleys. In such parts as Jonas Chuzzlewit, Will Fern in the ‘Chimes,’ Peery-