The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-10 00:00:00

DEATH OF MRS. CHAS. KENIBLE.

On Monday last Mrs. Charles Kemble, forr,n,rly Miss D.
Camp, expired, after a somewhat protrnied and painful ill-
ness. We believe that none of her Immediate relatives, ex-
cepting perhaps her sister, wcre about her, her husband and
youngest daughter having gone to the Coronation of the Em-
peror, at Milan, and her eldest daughter, Mrs. Butler, as se 1
as her brother, being in the United States. We are net sue
whether her eldest son, Jim, is in England or Germany, bu-
tler second son holds a commission in a regiment now in th
West Indies. The house, tear Chertsey, in which sho die I,
came to her husband thfokiah 4 sister of the late Mrs. SAdons.
Mrs; Chailes hitlohlo has been long in a bid state of healt 1,
and for some months it has been understcoi her final recover,
was irr:p obsble.

She was in her sixty-fifth year, which would have been com-
pleted on the 17th 01 January next, as she was born at Vienna,
according to the most probable accounts, on that d3y in the
year 1774. She came on the stage when only six years old,
and she quilt d it at forty-five, returning to it for one night,
as many of our readers mly remember, fur the purpose of in
troduoing her dAughtor, Miss Fanny Keroble, on the sth of
October, 1829, as Juliet.

Mrs. C. Kerub!e's father was a musician of t!.e name of
Fleury, who, for some reason, tnok that of De Camp, and her
a Int was a dancer of some eminence, both In this country and
abroad. By her the ine.ist Marie Therese De Camp was in-_
troduced to th Italian Opera House, where she played Cupid
in a popular ballet by Noverre, and other small puts fur which
her age and well-proportioned figure ada,t.d her. She was
subs, quently under the famous Frenuh reader Tessier, and
from his pare remuved to the Circus, where she was en-
gaged merely as a dancer, and where -she was the Columbine
of the company. At this time she could speak little or no
English, and to the. last she retained in her speaking saute-
thing of the piquancy of a foreign acpent. Her father dying
early, left her, the eltiegt of six children, to the care of iliAr
soother, but without the mear.s d subsistence. excepting the
small earnings of little Maria Therese, then not more than
twelve or thirteen sears old. At this age she had to learn
even realing and writing, which were kindly taught to her by
some persons of eqngequpnee, whose patronage she had secure d.
In 1 M-t and 1785 we find her dancing at the Haymarket in a
little Scotch ballet called Jamie's Return.

Her first appearance at one of the winter theatres took place
on ttte 24th October, 1786 as Jul'o, in a new afterpiece called
Richard run:. 1 „Lien. However, Fhe did not make much
wey until after she lisci performed Captain Macheath, on the
15th of August, 1792, for Johnstone's benefit, at the Hay.
market. B twcen 1795 and 1798 she took various charac-
ters at the Haymarket.
We helieve that the private conduct of Miss de Camp,
though she bad many ardent admirers and splendid offers of
provisions, was always irreproachable. Many now living will
recollect the theatrical commotion occasioned by the impru-
dence of J.)lin Philip Kemble, who, after having made some
repelled advances to Miss Da Camp broke into her dressing-
rnern, aed weuld have proceeded to violence had she not been
rescued by, we believe, Charles Kemble. J. P. Kemble was
afterwards obliged to publish an advertisement in the news-
papers, apologising for this gross breach of decorum—a course
rendered necessary by the publicity the affair had acqui.el.
She was matriod to Mr. Charles Kemble on the 2d of July,
1800, and in the season of 1806 7 she played fo.• the first Cru-
et Covent-Garden, her married name being inserted in the
bills. Her earliest part there was Maria in The Citizen, and
she was supported by Munden and Melvin as Old and Young
Philpot. Ikv last oileinal part was that of Madge Wildfire
In the Heart of Mid-Lothian, on the 17th April, 1819. In
low comedy she obtained much celebrity as Nell in the Devil
to Pay, in the season of i3ll-12.
Mrs. C. Kemble also wrote, or rather adapted, a piece called
First Faults, which was produced at Drury-lane in 1799, and
to which a person of the name of Earle laid public claim,
which Miss Dc Camp utterly denied in a letter which she
printed in the newspapces. A comedy, entitled Match-making
at Covent-garden, on the 24th of May, 1808, we are inclined
to think, was not hers, though attributed to her in the publica-
tions of the day.

It has been said that Mrs. C. Kemble would not have left
the stage so early but on account of some d s agreement with
the management of Covent-garden as to the parts to whida she
ought to confine herself. Although corpulent, she was still
anxious to take v. ry youthful female characters; and as she
could no longer with prop.tiety play Maria or Varlella, she
would not consent to personate Airs. Candour or Mrs. Oak'ey.
She .was always a moat useful member of a company, as she
could act, sing, and dance, and her versatility was extraordi-
nary. Having been b:ought up to the boards from her ear-
liest infancy, she was always looked upon as a perfect mistress
of the business of the scene, and a most useful coadjutor in
this resrect to a manager. It has been often asserted that she
was fond of management, and that she carried her talents for
it into all her domestic arrangemeats. [law this may be we
know not, but in private society she was most excellent com-
pany, and the spice of satit e, and sometim's of ill-nature, she
carried about her, rendered her conversation always pointed,
though not always agreeable.

In the rehearsing the evening performance at our
theatre, one of the company had to present a gun to the face
of Mr. 11 we, an actor of great promise, and in so doirg it
accidentally went otr, and the muzzle at the time being close
to Mr. Howe's eye, the t fleets of the blow from the wadding,
&e., was such as fur a day ca. tWQ to render it doubtful whe
th?,r or r,qt tha unftwunate gentleman would loss it 3 use. We
are pleased, however, now to find that there is no probability
of his lo3ing his sight, although the accident will, we fear, dis-
figure his face ; at all events, it will prevent hid appearance
again on the stage this season, —IY Rxpress.
It With 'llluer-e regret we state that the ho'de.s.
entertained of Lord Deerhurst's recovery are not well
founded. His Lordship is new lying in the greatest fl-Auncr•
Worcester journal