Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/267

 Daughter’ and the ‘French Spy,’ making her first appearance in June 1859, and she then accompanied James E. Murdoch through the southern states, playing leading business, and essaying even Lady Macbeth. Murdoch suggested to her the expediency of turning to account her fine physique, and on 7 June 1861 she made, at the Green Street Theatre, Albany, her first appearance as Mazeppa. In various American cities, including New York, these performances had much success. In October 1861 she went through a form of marriage with R. H. Newell, known as Orpheus C. Kerr, and, a year later, was divorced from Heenan. In April 1864 she sailed for London, appearing on 3 Oct. as Mazeppa at Astley's Theatre, when she had what might in part be considered a ‘succès de scandale.’ A failure was experienced when, at the same house, she appeared on 9 Oct. 1865 as Leon in Brougham's ‘Child of the Sun.’ While in England she contracted intimacies with many men of letters, including Charles Dickens (to whom, by permission, she dedicated in 1868 her volume of poems called ‘Infelicia’), Charles Reade, Mr. A. C. Swinburne, and many others. On her visit to Paris, where she appeared on 30 Dec. 1866 at the Gaîté in ‘Les Pirates de la Savane’ of Bourgeois and Dugué, she became closely associated with the elder Dumas and with Théophile Gautier. She had meanwhile been divorced from Newell, and married on 21 Aug. 1866 James Barclay. In June 1868, while in Paris rehearsing, she was taken ill, and on 10 Aug. died in the Jewish faith. Her remains were buried in the cemetery of Père la Chaise, her tomb bearing the motto ‘Thou knowest.’ She also published about 1856, under the pseudonym ‘Indigena,’ a volume of poems entitled ‘Memories,’ which is not in the British Museum. In December 1858 she gave by desire in the synagogue, Louisville, a sermon on Judaism, a subject on which also she wrote. A new illustrated edition of ‘Infelicia’ appeared in 1888.

Those favoured with the intimacy of Menken thought highly of her. Her poems have little lyrical quality, but convey pleasant and moving aspirations, to which the conditions of her life imparted added significance. As an actress she had few charms, and her performance of Mazeppa, though it involved some difficulty and risk, is to be regarded rather as a study of physique than as a performance. Many photographs of her are extant. One presenting her in company with Dumas had considerable vogue. A second, showing her with Mr. Swinburne, is less common. An engraved portrait is prefixed to ‘Infelicia.’ She possessed a good figure, and a face which was strongly marked, and striking rather than handsome.

 MENMUIR, (1552–1598), secretary of state for Scotland. [See .]

MENNES, JOHN (1599–1671), admiral, of a family long settled at Sandwich, was grandson of Matthew Mennes, mayor of Sandwich in 1549–50, 1563–4, 1571–2, and 1587–8 (, Hist. of Sandwich, pp. 686, 689, 691, 698), and third son of Andrew Mennes, by his wife Jane, daughter of John Blechenden. The family is described by Hasted (Hist. of Kent, iv. 266) as gentle, and Matthew, John's eldest brother, who was made a K.B. at the coronation of Charles I, was described on his matriculation at Oxford in 1608, aged 15, as ‘generosi filius.’ It appears too that they were connected with the Boyses and Bretts, old Kent families, and nothing sanctions the suggestion that the family was in its origin Scottish, and that the name was Menzies (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 144). John Mennes was born at Sandwich on 1 March 1598–9, and according to Wood was entered at the age of seventeen as a commoner at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, ‘where continuing for some years he did advance himself much in several sorts of learning, especially in humanity and poetry, and something in history’ (Athenæ Oxon. 1817, iii. 925). His name, however, does not appear in the Oxford matriculation lists, and Wood's statement may be due to some confusion with another John Mynne, Minne (or Mennes), ‘eq. aur. fil.,’ who matriculated from Corpus on 27 Oct. 1615, aged 17, and may have been son of Sir William Mynne or Mennes, who was knighted on 23 July 1603 (, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714). Sir Alexander Brett, who afterwards commanded a regiment under the Duke of Buckingham at Ré, writing to Nicholas on 15 April 1626, said of Mennes: ‘This gentleman was recommended by me unto my Lord Duke for the command of a ship who hath been divers times at sea, first in the Narrow Seas with Sir William Monson [q. v.], in the late king's ser-