JOHN PHILIP, one of the greatest tragedians that England ever produced, was born on the 1st of February 1757, at Prescot, in Lancashire. Mr Roger Kemble, his father, though only the manager of a provincial company of actors, was of ancient and respectable family; and, sensible of the disadvantages attending his own profession, sent his son to receive his education at a Roman Catholic seminary, for the purpose, it is believed, of qualifying him to take orders in the Catholic church. Kemble. He was also a student for two or three years at the College of Donay; but the strength of natural bias prevailed, and he became an actor in 1776. After performing in York, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dublin, and other places, and gradually acquiring reputation, he made his first appearance before a London audience on the 30th of September 1783, in the character of Hamlet. He was received by the public generally with great applause; although, as always happens in such cases, a party lagged behind, preferring and paying greater homage to a favourite idol of longer standing. He rapidly attained an acknowledged pre-eminence in the tragic scene, and took that decided lead which he ever afterwards maintained. In 1790 he became manager of Drury Lane Theatre, which he conducted, with only a slight interruption, till 1801; and during that period he did much to reform the morals and raise the character of the stage. In 1794, he brought out a musical piece of his own, entitled Zedoiska, which was very successful at the time, and is still occasionally performed. He likewise revived old pieces of merit, and brought forward many new productions, some of which were of considerable merit, altered by himself. In 1802 he visited the Continent; and, on his return to London, purchased for L24,000 a sixth share of Covent Garden Theatre, and became manager of that establishment. His career in this place was brilliantly successful, but partially suspended in consequence of the total destruction of the theatre by fire in 1809. A new edifice, however, was speedily reared, and opened with an increase of entrance-money, which, along with certain arrangements regarding the private boxes, created a series of disturbances, known by the name of O.P. riots. These lasted for sixty-six nights, and only ceased when the public carried their point. Kemble stood the storm with firmness; but during the whole of that period he never showed himself on the stage without being grossly insulted. In 1812 he retired for two years, conceiving he had done his part, and being desirous of repose. His return to the stage was hailed with the utmost enthusiasm. He rose to the summit of popularity, and was acknowledged, without dispute, as the first actor in Britain, probably in the world. His health, however, began to give way; and he formed the resolution of taking farewell of the stage, which he did on the 23d of July 1817, after performing, with unabated power, his great character of Coriolanus. The "Valedictory Stanzas" addressed to him at a public meeting held in that month, do equal honour to the actor, and the poet Mr Campbell; and Sir Walter Scott composed the "Farewell Address" which he delivered on taking leave of the Edinburgh stage in the month of March preceding. He retired to the Continent, and fixed his residence at Lausanne, where he died on the 26th of February 1823.

In judging of the talents of Kemble, we must regard him in the threefold character of actor, manager, and stage-reformer. In reference to the first, tragedy,—and that of the most stately and majestic character,—was the line in which he excelled. His person was on a scale suited to the stage, being tall and stately; his countenance, in nobleness of expression, resembled the finest models of the antique; and his movements and demeanour, at once majestic and graceful, corresponded to the heroic cast of his form and features. The grand characters of republican Rome,—Coriolanus, Cato, Brutus,—were those to which he was led, both by nature and by choice; but he was no less powerfully effective in Macbeth, King John, Wolsey, Lear, Hamlet, Jacques, and Peraduckock. The memory of his triumphs in these and many other parts is still fresh in the hearts of thousands, among whom it is not an uncommon remark, that another Shakspeare may appear, sooner than another Kemble. The personal character and influence of Kemble consummated the work of stage-reform which Garrick had begun. Austerely correct in his own morals, he enforced the same high standard on all connected with the theatres which he managed. A student and a scholar, he was a welcome guest at the tables of the highest persons in the land; and his success in social as well as professional life gave a character to the British stage such as it never enjoyed before or since his day. He turned his learning to account in reproducing the exact costumes and manners of the age to which every piece belonged, and correcting the ridiculous anachronisms which had crept upon the stage. His taste was shown in the correctness and splendour of the scenic decorations, on which he bestowed much care and expense. His life, by his friend Bonden, 2 vols. 8vo, 1825, is a well-meant, though very inadequate monument of his fame.