Tragedy Personified: The Sarah Siddons Story

Season: 3 Episode: 30 Sarah Siddons was one of the greatest English tragic actresses.Among her greatest roles were Isabella, Belvidera in Venice Preserv’d, Jane Shore in The Tragedy of Jane Shore, Katharine in Henry VIII, but it was as Lady Macbeth that she shone. Her success was due to her complete concentration upon the character whom she played: she identified herself with a role and seemed possessed by it, oblivious of all else around her. Portraits of her were painted by Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and Sir Joshua Reynolds; Reynolds entitled his painting Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse. William Hazlitt wrote of her that “passion emanated from her breast as from a shrine. She was tragedy personified.”THIS PODCASTThis podcast has been specially edited from a Bradley Stoke Radio show in Bristol, England. If you liked it please leave a rating and maybe a comment and if you’d like to support the show with a donation, however small, you can go to Ko-Fi.comSome more great news for you, if you were interested in buying merchandise featuring the show’s logo, then pop over to Teepublic.com, you’ll find lots of things to choose from.So, thankyou for listening and until next time guys, take care and look after each other.CONTACT MEEmail: [email protected]: @BackTrackerUKInstagram: @backtrackerukTwitter: @BackTrackerUK-SOURCESBristish MuseumJane Austin CentreIrish Times - Friday 12 November 1909Dundee Evening Telegraph - Saturday 21 April 1877Tower Hamlets Independent and East End Local Advertiser - Saturday 08 June 1901The Stage - Thursday 12 July 1934The Satirist; or Censor of the Times, vol. I, no. 10, 12 June 1831, p. 78. Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals-Sound Effects by zapsplat.comIntro music by The Model Folk © THE BACKTRACKER HISTORY SHOW 2022