Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/355

  [Foss's Lives of the Judges; Times, 20 Sept. and 8 Oct. 1880; Law Times, 25 Sept. 1880; Law Journal, xv. 470; Solicitors' Journal, xxiv. 681.] 

KELLY, FRANCES MARIA (1790–1882), actress and singer, was born at Brighton on 15 Oct. 1790. Her father, Mark Kelly (born at Dublin in 1767), was the younger son of Thomas Kelly, a wine merchant, and official master of the ceremonies at Dublin Castle, by his wife, formerly a Miss McCabe of Westmeath. Michael Kelly [q. v.] was her father's brother. Fanny Kelly's mother, Mary Singleton (b. 12 Aug. 1763), was the daughter of a physician, and widow of a Mr. Jackson, by whom she was the mother of Anne, wife of Charles Mathews the elder. The marriage with Mark Kelly was not happy, and in 1795 the husband, having incurred heavy debts by extravagance, deserted his wife, who thenceforward was left to her own resources. Fanny Kelly was taught gratuitously until her own earnings enabled her to secure higher instruction. At the age of seven she made her first appearance, under John Kemble's management, on the boards of Drury Lane Theatre, in her uncle Michael Kelly's opera of ‘Bluebeard,’ on 16 Jan. 1798. In 1799 she was formally enrolled in the Drury Lane company as a chorister, and appeared in the same year as the Duke of York in ‘Richard III.’ Fox, upon seeing her performance of Prince Arthur in ‘King John’ in 1800 (see KELLY, Reminiscences, ii. 178), prophesied to Sheridan that she would reach the head of her profession. Sheridan ‘perfectly agreed.’ Mrs. Siddons, who acted Constance in the same piece, was equally impressed (ib. ii. 179). Charles Lamb introduced an incident of the same period in his ‘Barbara S——.’ Her identity with Barbara is proved in Kent's ‘Popular Centenary Edition of the Works of Charles Lamb,’ 1875. At p. 496 is the facsimile of a note from Lamb acknowledging that Miss Kelly was the true heroine of the narrative, and at pp. 15–17 of the prefatory memoir is a letter from Miss Kelly (then aged 85) to the editor describing the circumstances. As a girl she took most of the characters previously undertaken by Madame Storace, while in her early womanhood she took many of those formerly assumed by Mrs. Jordan. From 1800 to 1806 she played at Drury Lane and the Italian Opera. At the opera she picked up Italian; she afterwards learnt French under M. Bareze, and Latin from Mary Lamb and George Darley. She learnt the guitar under Ferdinand Sor, and the harp under Philip Meyer. In the summer of 1807 she acted with brilliant effect at Glasgow, and afterwards visited nearly all the chief provincial theatres. At Drury Lane she was a popular favourite until the fire of 24 Feb. 1809. From June to September of that year she acted at the Haymarket, but on 25 Sept. migrated, with the rest of the Drury Lane company, to the Lyceum. In the newly reconstructed Drury Lane Theatre of Wyatt, opened on 10 Oct. 1812, she co-operated with Edmund Kean in restoring the fortunes of the theatre. Although she occasionally appeared elsewhere, she acted chiefly at Drury Lane for thirty-six years without abatement of her popularity. During the opening scene of the farce of ‘Modern Antiques, or the Merry Mourners’ at Covent Garden (17 Feb. 1816), one George Barnett fired a pistol at her from the pit. Some of the shot fell into the lap of Mary Lamb, who was there with her brother. On 8 April Barnett, who was a total stranger to Miss Kelly, was tried at the Old Bailey, and acquitted on the ground of insanity. Another desperado fired at her not long after in a theatre at Dublin, injuring a bystander. When the Lyceum Theatre was reopened, on 15 June 1816, Miss Kelly was chosen to deliver the inaugural address. She made her farewell appearance at Drury Lane on 8 June 1835. Besides impersonating many of the heroines of Shakespeare, she had played all the leading comedy characters in the British drama, and had made pre-eminently her own a long series of melodramatic creations. Genest (ix. 423) says that ‘in a melodrama [she] was certainly superior to all actresses.’ She was noted for her original conception, and often brought out previously unsuspected pathos, especially in her Madge in ‘Love in a Village’ and Lucy Lockit in the ‘Beggar's Opera.’ She often raised minor characters into unexpected importance; her Patch in Mrs. Centlivre's ‘Busybody’ was the delight of Lord Byron. One of her most brilliant triumphs was as Lisette in the ‘Serjeant's Wife,’ during a scene in which she was supposed to witness a murder in an adjoining apartment. The stage-manager had predicted failure, but her horror-stricken gesticulations, with her back throughout the scene turned to her audience, produced an exceptional outburst of enthusiasm. Two of Lamb's most graceful sonnets celebrate her acting. She was associated with all the great actors of her time, including John and Charles Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Jordan, Munden and Suett, Liston and Mathews, Bannister and Catalani. She was specially associated with Edmund Kean, her playmate in childhood, and was often the Ophelia to his Hamlet.

Her mother died on 1 Aug. 1827, and her