Charles Reece Pemberton

Charles Reece Pemberton

Charles Reece Pemberton(23 January 1790 – 3 March 1840) was a British actor, dramatist and lecturer.

Early life

Pemberton was born inPontypool,Monmouthshire, in 1790, the second of three children. His mother was Welsh, and his father was from Warwickshire; his uncle was a brassfounder inBirmingham.(The later theatrical writerThomas Edgar Pembertonwas of the same family). When Charles was about four years old, his parents moved to Birmingham, and Pemberton was placed at a unitariancharity school.

He was subsequently apprenticed to his uncle; he ran away in 1807 to Liverpool, where he was seized by apress gangand sent to sea. He served for seven years, seeing some active service off Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Madeira. After theNapoleonic Warshe became an actor, and led a wandering life; he is said to have managed several theatres in the West Indies with some success. He made an unhappy marriage with a lady named Fanny Pritchard, and they soon separated.

Acting and lecturing

By 1827 Pemberton was in England again, acting, lecturing, and reciting. In February 1828 he playedMacbethat Bath.John Genestwrote "he acted tolerably, but nothing farther; he had an indifferent figure, and a bad face, with no expression in it; he had studied the part with great attention, and understood it thoroughly." During the same year he was acting atHerefordduring theassizes;Thomas Talfourdwas greatly impressed with his performances, and praised him highly inThe New Monthly Magazinefor September 1828, especially his rendering ofShylockand Virginius. He also played Hotspur, Sir Peter Teazle, and other characters, but was not successful in comic parts.

On Talfourd's recommendation, he was engaged atCovent GardenbyCharles Kemble.In March 1829 he made his first appearance there as Virginius, and later that month played Shylock. There was much divergence among critics as to his merits, but Talfourd still eulogised him as a tragedian.

Pemberton did not, however, reappear at Covent Garden; and, after an engagement at theTheatre Royal, Birmingham,he devoted himself to lecturing and reciting, principally atmechanics' institutes.His favourite subjects were the tragic characters of Shakespeare. "Since Pemberton's day," wroteGeorge Holyoake,"I have heard hundreds of lecturers and preachers in England and America, but never one who had the animation, the inspiration, and the spontaneous variety he had".In 1833 he began writing in theMonthly Repository,then edited byWilliam Johnson Fox,The Autobiography of Pel. Verjuice,in which he gave an account of his own experiences.

Failing health and death

In 1836 he played Macbeth and Shylock at Birmingham, and at the end of the year visited the Mediterranean on account of his health. He recommenced lecturing in the summer of 1838 at the Sheffield Mechanics' Institute; but his powers were failing, and a subscription was set on foot to enable him to spend the winter in Egypt. This visit brought about no improvement, and he died, not long after his return, on 3 March 1840, at the house of his younger brother, William Dobson Pemberton, on Ludgate Hill, Birmingham.

Pemberton was buried atKey Hill Cemetery,and the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute, of which George Holyoake was secretary, placed a memorial, with an epitaph by William Johnson Fox, over his grave.Ebenezer Elliott,known as the "corn law rhymer", wrote some verses on him entitled "Poor Charles".

Works

He directed that all his manuscripts, except three plays, should be destroyed.

The Life and Literary Remains of Charles Reece Pemberton(1843), edited by John Fowler, with a memoir by William Johnson Fox, contains:

• The Autobiography of Pel. Verjuice
• The Podesta,a tragedy in five acts
• The Banner,a tragedy in five acts
• Two Catherines,a comedy in five acts
• Other pieces in prose and verse

References

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Pollard, Albert Frederick(1895). "Pemberton, Charles Reece".InLee, Sidney(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 44. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 278–279.