John Mitchell Kemble (2 April 1807 – 26 March 1857), English scholar and historian, was the eldest son of

Charles Kemble Charles Kemble (25 November 1775 – 12 November 1854) was a Welsh-born English actor of a prominent theatre family. Life Charles Kemble was one of 13 siblings and the youngest son of English Roman Catholic theatre manager/actor Roger Kemble ...

the actor and

Maria Theresa Kemble Maria Theresa Kemble (1774–1838), née Marie Thérèse Du Camp, was an Austrian-born English actress, singer, dancer and comic playwright on the stage. She was the wife of actor Charles Kemble. Early life She was the daughter of Jeanne Dufour ...

. He is known for his major contribution to the history of the

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

and

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

of the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

language, including one of the first translations of ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

''.

Education

Kemble received his education from Charles Richardson and at

Bury St Edmunds grammar school King Edward VI School is a co-educational Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The school in its present form was created in 1972 by the merging of King Edward VI Grammar School, with the Silv ...

, where he obtained in 1826 an exhibition to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he became a member of the

Cambridge Apostles The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...

. As a law student, his historical essays were well received but he "would not follow the course of study prescribed by the university and was, moreover, fond of society and of athletic amusements", which caused the deferral of his graduation in 1829. His Bachelor of Arts degree was granted in March 1830, and his M.A. degree three years later in March 1833.

Anglo-Saxon studies

Kemble concentrated on

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom o ...

, through the influence of

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of th ...

, under whom he studied at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

(1831). He published ''Anglo-Saxon Poems of

'' (1833–1837), ''Über die Stammtafeln der Westsachsen'' (Munich 1836), ''Codex diplomaticus aevi Saxonici'' (London 1839–1848), and made many contributions to reviews; his ''History of the Saxons in England'' (1849; new ed. 1876) was based on original sources for the early period of English history. Kemble's "literal" ''Beowulf'' translation was entirely in prose. * The prose does not attempt to follow the original's order in words or phrases. He was editor of the ''British and Foreign Review'' from 1835 to 1844; and from 1840 to his death was

Examiner of Plays The Licensing Act of 1737 is a defunct Act of Parliament in the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a pivotal moment in theatrical history. Its purpose was to control and censor what was being said about the British government through theatre. The act ...

. In 1857 he published ''State Papers and Correspondence Illustrative of the Social and Political State of Europe from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover''. His ''Horae Ferales, or Studies in the Archaeology of Northern Nations'' was completed by

Robert Gordon Latham Robert Gordon Latham FRS (24 March 1812 – 9 March 1888) was an English ethnologist and philologist. Early life The eldest son of Thomas Latham, vicar of Billingborough, Lincolnshire, he was born there on 24 March 1812. He entered Eton College ...

, and published in 1864.

Marriage and death

Kemble married Nathalie Auguste, daughter of

Amadeus Wendt Johann Amadeus Wendt (29 September 1783, in Leipzig – 15 December 1836, in Göttingen) was a German philosopher and music theory, music theorist. Life Wendt came from a modest background. He attended the Thomasschule, Thomas School in Leipzi ...

of the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, in about 1836. They had two daughters and a son, but the marriage was not a happy one and they were living apart by about 1850.Hunt, Rev. William
Kemble, John Mitchell (1807–1857)
Entry in '' Dictionary of National Biography'' ed. Sidney Lee, v. 30 (1892) The elder daughter, Gertrude (b. 1837) married Sir Charles Santley, the singer, and died in 1882. Kemble died at

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

on 26 March 1857 and is buried there in

Mount Jerome Cemetery Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

References

External links

* * Kemble J. M
The Saxons in England, Vol. 1
1848 edn., at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* Kemble J. M
The Saxons in England, Vol. 2
1848 edn., at the

* Kemble J. M., Birch W. de G. (ed.
The Saxons in England, Vol. 1
1876 edn., at the

* Kemble J. M., Birch W. de G. (ed.
The Saxons in England, Vol. 2
1876 edn., at the

Works by John Mitchell Kemble
in the

Berlin State Library The Berlin State Library (german: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is one of the ...

John Mitchell Kemble Collection at Goucher College

Kemble at Anglo-Saxon Charters website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kemble, John Mitchell Translators from Old English 1807 births 1857 deaths Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 19th-century English people 19th-century translators Kemble family

Education

Anglo-Saxon studies

Marriage and death

See also

References

External links