Source: Alexandrina Victoria, journal entry for 23 December 1836
Production: William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Covent Garden, London, 23 December 1836
Text: At ½ p.6 we went with my beloved Lehzen, Lady and the Miss Conroys, &c., to Covent Garden to the play. It was Shakespeare’s 5 act Comedy of “Much ado about nothing”, for Charles Kemble’s farewell benefit. The House was crammed. We came in just after Kemble had appeared. He never played better. He sustained the character of Benedick, and acted with so much playfulness, grace and lightness,that it made one still more sorry to think that he was never more to tread those boards and delight his audience. The principal other characters were Beatrice – Miss H. Faucit, who is neither a good nor a bad actress. Don Pedro – Mr. Bennett, as affected as ever. Claudio – Mr. Pritchard, a dreadful man. Leonato – Mr.Thompson. Hero – Miss Vincent. Dogberry – Mr. W. Farren, who was delightful; he is a most excellent comic actor. When the play was over, the curtain rose and discovered the whole acting company on the stage. Kemble came on and made a short and pretty speech which was much interrupted by the tremendous and well deserved applause he received from the audience, handkerchiefs and hats waving, and by his own feelings. Poor Kemble, he was quite overcome, his eyes filled with tears and his voice trembling and faltering. I subjoin an account from the newspapers (today’s Morning Chronicle) which will serve to describe the whole better than I can. Poor Kemble, the last of the Kembles, it is a sad thing to think we shall behold him no more who was one of the stage’s brightest ornaments. The name of Kemble will ever be remembered with feelings of delight and admiration. A Farewell of this kind is very touching. I saw Young take his leave about 4 years and a half ago. What an actor he was! oh, beautiful! Mrs. Butler, better known as Fanny Kemble, and who is lately arrived from America, was in a box with her sister Miss Adelaide Kemble; she seemed much affected when she beheld him say his last “Farewell”. What a loss she is to the stage; she was a charming actress. We came home at ½ p.10.
Comments: Alexandrina Victoria (1819-1901), later just Victoria, was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to her death, and additionally titled Empress of India from 1876. She kept up a journal from 1832 until almost the end of her life. The journal records many visits to the theatre, particularly in her younger days. This entry on seeing William Shakespeare‘s Much Ado about Nothing at the Covent Garden Theatre was made six months before she was crowned. Charles Kemble retired from the stage with this performance, but later gave Shakespeare readings, including readings at Buckingham Palace for the Queen. The other actors named here were George Bennett, William Farren, Helen Faucit, John Pritchard, Thompson, Vincent. Young was Charles Mayne Young, who retired from the stage in 1832.
Links: Queen Victoria’s Journals
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