Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/41

 K E M K E M 31 to the Accession of the House of Hanover. He died at Dublin 26th March 1857. His Horse, Ferales, or Studies in the Archaeology of Northern Nations, was completed by Dr Latham, and published in 1864. KEMBLE, JOHN PHILIP (1757-1823), tragedian, was the second child of Roger Kemble, a strolling player, and his wife Sarah Ward, the eldest child being Sarah, known as Mrs Siddons. He was born at Prescot, Lancashire, February 1, 1757. In his eleventh year he became an inmate of Sedgely Park Catholic seminary, near Wolver- hamptun, and after remaining there four years entered the college of Douai with the view of becoming a priest. At the conclusion of the course, however, he discovered that he had no vocation for the priesthood, and, arriving in England in the end of 1775, he joined the theatrical company of Crump and Chamberlain, his first appear ance being in the character of Theodosius at Wolver- hampton, 8th January 1776. Various stories more or less apocryphal are told of his early hardships, until in 1778 he joined the York company of &quot;Wilkinson, where he appeared in Hamlet and other leading parts, besides contributing a drama of his own on the subject of Belisarius. In 1781 he made a decided step in advance, obtaining a &quot;star&quot; engagement in Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, and achieved astonishing success in the Count of Narbonne by Captain Jephson. Gradually he won for himself a high reputation as a careful and finished actor, and this, combined with the greater fame of his sister Mrs Siddons, led to an engagement in Drury Lane Theatre, where he made his debut 30th September 1783, in the part of Hamlet. His appearance was successful, but rather by awakening interest and discussion than enthusiastic approval. His reading of the part, though highly intel lectual and elaborated with the most minute care, was stiff and laboured, especially until he acquired the familiarity with the personation obtainable by repetition. In Edward the Black Prince, Richard III., King John, Sir Giles Over reach, and other characters he did not materially advance his reputation. His first decided success was in the char acter of Macbeth for his own benefit, when he shared in the enthusiasm aroused by Mrs Siddons, and established for himself a reputation among living actors second to hers only. In December 1787 he married Mrs Brereton, the widow of a young actor. His appointment as manager of the theatre in October of the following year gave him full opportunity to experiment with whatever parts might strike his fancy, and of this he took advantage with greater courage than discretion. His smile, as was wittily said, &quot; resembled the plating on a coffin,&quot; and it was only in cases where his gravity gave a certain piquancy to the character that his comedy parts were redeemed from failure, notwithstanding his clever mastery of smart repartee. In Coriolanus, however, which was revived during his first season, the character of the &quot;noble Roman&quot; was so exactly suited to his powers that he not only played it with a perfection that has never been approached, but, it is said, unconsciously allowed its influence to colour his private manner and modes of speech. His tall and imposing person, noble countenance, and solemn and grave de meanour were uniquely adapted for the Roman characters in Shakespeare s plays ; and, when in addition he had to depict the gradual growth and development of one absorb ing passion, his representation gathered a momentum and majestic force that were irresistible. His defect was in flexibility, variety, rapidity ; the characteristic of his style was method, regularity, precision, elaboration even of the minutest details, founded on a thorough psychological study of the special personality he had to represent. His elocutionary art, his fine sense of rhythm and em phasis, enabled him to excel in declamation, but physically he was incapable of giving expression to impetuous vehemence and searching pathos. In Coriolanus and Cato he was beyond praise, and possibly he may have been superior to both Garrick and Kean in Macbeth, although it must be remembered that in it part of his inspiration must have been caught from Mrs Siddons. In all the other great Shakespearean characters he was, according to the best critics, inferior to them, least so in Lear and Hamlet, and most so in Shy lock and Richard III. On account of the eccentricities of Sheridan, the pro prietor of Drury Lane Theatre, Kemble withdrew from the management, and, although he resumed his duties at the beginning of the season 1800-1, he at the close of 1802 finally resigned connexion with it. In 1803 he became manager of Covent Garden, of which he was also part proprietor. The theatre was burned down in 1808, and the raising of the prices after the opening of the new theatre in 1809 led to a persevering succession of riots, which practically suspended the performances for three months. Kemble took his final leave of the stage in the part of Coriolanus, June 23, 1817, his retire ment being probably hastened by the increasing popu larity of Kean. The remaining years of his life were spent chiefly abroad, first at Toulouse, and after a short stay in London at Lausanne, where he died February 20, 1823. See Boaden s Life of John Philip Kemble, 1825 ; Fitzgerald, The Kembles, 1871. KEMPIS, THOMAS A (c. 1380-1471), is the name by which Thomas Hammerken (Hammerchen, Malleolus) is commonly known. He was born in 1379 or 1380 in the town of Kempen, lying about 15 miles north-west of Diisseldorf, in one of the many patches of territory between the Meuse and the Rhine belonging to the archiepiscopal principality of Cologne. &quot; Ego Thomas Kempis,&quot; he says in his chronicle of the monastery of Mount St Agnes, &quot; scholaris Daventriensis, ex diocesi Coloniensi natus.&quot; His father was a poor hard- worked peasant ; his mother &quot; ad custodiam rei domestics attenta, i pauca, in factis pudica,&quot; as her son fondly says, kept a dame s school for the younger children of the town. John and Gertrude Hammerken had two sons, John and Thomas, both of whom found their way to Deventer, and thence to Zwolle and to the convent of Mount St Agnes. Thomas reached Deventer when he was barely twelve years old, was taught by a dame the beginnings of his learning, and in a few months to his great joy entered the classes of Florentius Radewyn. After the fashion of the time he was called Thomas from Kempen, and the school title, as was often the case then, pushed aside the family name. Thomas Hammerken was forgotten ; Thomas a Kempis has become known to the whole Chris tian world. This school at Deventer had become famous long before Thomas a Kempis was admitted to its classes. It had been founded by Gerhard Groot, a wealthy burgher (see GROOT), who had been won to pious living mainly through the influence of Ruysbroeck, the Flemish mystic. It was at Deventer, in the midst of this mystical theology and hearty practical benevolence, that Thomas a Kempis was trained. Gerhard Groot was his saintly ideal. Florentius Radewyn and Gerhard s other early disciples were his heroes ; their presence was his atmosphere, the measure of their lives his horizon. But he was not like them ; he was not an educa tional reformer like Radewyn, nor a man of affairs like Gerhard. He liked books and quiet corners all his days, he says ; and so, when conviction of sin and visions of God s grace came to him in tho mediaeval fashion of a dream of the anger and forgiveness of the Virgin, Floreutius
 * in opere alacris, in victu sobria, in potu abstemia, in verbo