#sarah kemble

[abybweisse]

Ch209 (p4), The queen of tragedy

⚠️ Long post ⚠️

You might be wondering where that heading comes from. I'll get to that in a bit....

So, we are back to recent events, where Finny and Doll fight over Snake, each one claiming the other is the enemy. Both parties are involved in deception; he wonders why they helped him but lied the entire time. Out of the circus troupe, he seems to have been closest to Doll, and she never told him the truth about the circus. He also becomes particularly close to Finny, who immediately likes his snakes, but Finny doesn't inform him about the true fates of his circus friends. Then there're our earl and Sebastian, who lead him to believe the circus members are still alive and just on the lamb.

Why would the people closest to him all lie to him?

Then we get a couple scenes before his and Finny's assignment begins.

But this flashback switches from what Snake is recalling... to what a reaper is reviewing. Born March 15 -- the Ides of March -- to an actress named Sarah Kemble. More on her at the end. Death on December 9, 1889, from blood loss.

The expression on this (new to us!) reaper's face makes me wonder what he's thinking. He says "no additional remarks", but I believe he's thinking some additional thoughts.

He must realize there's something odd about Doll, who is holding Snake's body and grieving over him. Doesn't he realize she's a bizarre doll? Has he not taken note of the blood transfusion equipment in the room down the hall? What about all the veins popping up all over her body? Hasn't he been informed about the search for Undertaker and his moving corpses?

Does he not yet have info from Othello regarding Layla/Al? We have to keep in mind that this is all probably happening around the same time that Ronald and William are taking Layla/Al into custody, so this reaper might not be fully informed and so might not know what all signs to look for.

Besides, Ronald is sent to Norfolk ahead of the impending deaths, because there was word a bizarre doll is stationed there. He just has to figure out which person it is. Ronald can't tell who the bizarre doll is just by looking, so he has to wait and see who starts acting like one.

This reaper apparently isn't sent to investigate FOL Orphanage, suggesting HQ didn't have similar intelligence regarding a bizarre doll there. If he's not looking for one, he might not bother to take much notice of Doll's appearance or the medical equipment.

Everything is happening at about the same time:

Mey-Rin and Ran-Mao are heading to their next meeting spot while Polaris makes his report to real Ciel and Undertaker. Heathfield is arrested, and the legal investigation there is still underway.

Ronald and William are dealing with Layla/Al, with the intention of taking her back to HQ for examination. Baldo, Lau, and the others are still planning their getaway; they have not yet escaped the sanatorium.

Othello is probably at HQ, working out the finer details of the transfusion machine he has just recently confiscated from the underground facility at Bath. Beyond that, the dove he sent back to HQ might be the only call for help he's requested to deal with Undertaker.

And this reaper is (as far as I can tell) just responding to the assigned task of collecting souls from Snake, Susan, and the head matron. He really might not be in the loop about Undertaker and his moving corpses... just yet.

This gives an easy setup for him to go about business as usual and leave Doll to her grieving. If he doesn't confront her and just leaves, she can ask Undertaker to turn Snake into a bizarre doll -- even if it's just to be her companion. Undertaker would see old goals of revenge in Snake's cinematic records and could potentially turn him against the Phantomhives, through creation of his "episodes" by cherry-picking the memories and goals that would compel him to seek that revenge again. If that happens, we could get Snake confronting our earl and Sebastian... where Sebastian fulfills the implied threat he makes (to Baldo, about any servant who turns against their master) in ch51.

So, there's that.

Then we have a couple other things to discuss: the current date and Snake's mother.

It's December 9, 1889. This works great with my Mother3 theory, which states the contract should end before our earl is officially 14 years old. December 13, 1889 is the eve of that birthday, and it's also a Friday the 13th. This is highly symbolic because of when his father is born and when his paternal grandmother dies. I'm sure there are absolutely zero coincidences in this.

We will go back a few days (again) for the start of our earl's and Sebastian's assignment in Brighton, then we will catch up to December 9th with them. During this time and soon after, they will receive word about the other three assignments, as word trickles in. Or perhaps they are bombarded with all the reports in quick succession. Then we've got another four days for them to finish not just their own assignment but also their contract. Perhaps their assignment finishes around the same time as the others. If so, they have three or four more days to address whatever they have learned.

Now onto Snake's mother. She's based on a real person, or a combination of a few people in a notable family. My own initial research pulled up a Fanny Kemble, who was a British actress who lived in this time period but was too old to be Snake's mother. She bore a daughter named Sarah (Kemble) Butler, but Sarah wasn't an actress. Fanny was well known as a former actress and an abolitionist -- who separated from her husband (Butler), partly over disagreement about slavery -- and returned to the stage, where she renewed her focus on the works of William Shakespeare... performing public readings of his plays.

Discussing the chapter in Discord, I got word -- from @mjmj2994 -- about a Sarah (Kemble) Siddons who was an actress, though she was from the mid-18th to early 19th century. Her mother was also a Sarah Kemble. Turns out that Sarah Siddons (née and a.k.a. Sarah Kemble) was an aunt to the Fanny Kemble I'd found! Small world, eh? Anyway, Sarah Kemble/Siddons (wiki article here) became known as the "queen of tragedy" for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth and other Shakespearean tragic characters -- including numerous cross-dress performances as Hamlet himself. Even though Yana-san would have to change the timeline to fit our Sarah Kemble, this is most likely the historical reference for her. Here's more information about the Kemble family line and their extensive involvement with the acting industry.

Our Snake comes from an esteemed family of actors, and I suppose we are to assume he's an issue who was so quickly covered up and forgotten that he was perhaps never even named. Who was his true father? And how did he come to have such strong snake-like traits? We might never know.

Now we wait to see if this reaper does anything about Doll. And then onto our earl and Sebastian in Brighton!

[grelleswife]

Kuro fans: We can’t wait to learn the mystery behind Snake’s abilities in these flashbacks!

Yana: Bitch, you thought. 😂 But hey, look, he’s a Pisces!

On a less jocular note, however, we did get a few scraps of information about his parentage…specifically, that his mother was an actress named Sarah Kemble. Interestingly, no mention is made of his father, which leads me to believe that Snake might have been born out of wedlock, the unintended consequence of a brief fling. If dear old dad had been married to Sarah or otherwise a stable presence in her life, wouldn’t it have made sense to include his name, too? 🤔 Also, is it possible that Snake inherited his reptilian traits from him, or were they foisted on our boi later through underground experimentation, like Finny’s super-strength? Even more outlandishly, does Snake not have a father at all, with his conception being due to some dodgy procedure performed on his mom?

In a textbook evasive maneuver from Yana, Snake’s real name is flat-out “not recorded.” But, coupled with the implication in Chapter 192 that the footman spent time in an orphanage, I wonder if Sarah abandoned him without bothering to give him one—either out of repugnance towards his scaly nature (if he was born thus) or to avoid compromising her career (if Snake was an ordinary human baby and acquired his current biology later on in his development). From what I recall, polite Victorian society regarded both actors and single mothers with contempt, which, if Snake’s father wasn’t in the picture, would have made raising a child on her own a grim prospect.

What a tragic life Snake was consigned to.

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Out of curiosity, I googled if I could find a certain Sarah Kemble. So I found two entries all right. Of course, this is only my conjecture. God knows the only one who knows Yana Toboso’s true inspiration is Yana.

A certain Sarah Kemble Knight was an American scrivener and a teacher. There was also a Fanny Kemble, who was a British actress during the Victorian era. Strange though that both of these women were later plantation owners, who were racist toward the slaves they owned, based on the journals they left. Sarah, specifically, had the lowest regard to Native Americans.

Fanny Kemble.

Now Snake being born in 1871, March 15th, was the year the German Empire was proclaimed. Southern German states like Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria, etc. joined the Northern Confederation to found the empire after the Franco-German war with Germany annexing Alsace-Lorraine to boot. No wonder the existence of half-timber houses is very promising in these areas.

Anyway, historical aside, Yana chose a momentous year for Snake.

Yet there are still many questions from whence he came from concerning his physical appearance and the way he was abandoned.

[uwusayssnake]

Chapter 209

Apparently Snake’s mother is an actress named Sarah Kemble and he was born on march 15th 1871. (making him 18)

[redthefortuneteller]

Chapter 209

Chapter 209 was… well I think it provided a lot more questions than one would expect.

So, first off, my theory of Snake being originally a snake was proven wrong by the mention of a human mother. However the experimental facility held by someone akin to a dr Moreau having made Snake the was he is, still stands. As I'd already mentioned on this post, it's been officially confirmed that he did stay and eavesdrop on their conversation. And it's also been confirmed he'd been suspicious when they said they'd leave on that morning when he said "going out again?" and finally he was indeed flip flopping between believing our Ciel and being against him, which was one of the points I made in the dr. Moreau's theory post. He says he always felt suspicious. I believe either from intuition or because Sebastian right from the get go tried sneaking into the first tier side by pretending to be lost, before he even became a member of the circus.

As a small side-note to this @abybweisse's post, Snake didn't know Smile was the earl Phantomhive. He followed the scent of their circus clothes and it led him to the town house. Once there, he was confronted by Agni and Soma, he asked if a small lad and a man dressed all in black lived there. But until then we're led to believe that he didn't know of their identity. It's been so long, I too don't remember all the details about every single thing! Also, I believe he delayed reporting to Joker because he knew Doll knew Smile was in the first tier side and did nothing. So he didn't know if he should take it into his own hands to report to Joker if Doll, who is one of his superiors in a sense, already knew of this and was keeping quiet. I spoke of this more in depth here if anyone's interested. It's the same link as the one I linked in the begining.

Right, then we have a whole rewash of things that had already been known for years, with perhaps the exception of him being taught mathematics. We'd already known that he had been taught how to read. All of this in quite a fleeting, vague way. Nothing even close to the flashbacks Baldroy got. And Baldroy didn't die so, with all humbleness, I don't think he needed so much put in about him because he shall still have time to "talk" about it. In comparison, that is. Of course it's interesting know Baldroy's backstory and know more about his time with the Phantomhives. I simply feel Snake should be rightfully owed much more in comparison, since his time is now over... I will post more of my feelings on this later. Finally, we get information about a human mother, which of course confirms my theory about his origins is not to be! At least not in it's main point which is him being a snake originally. He could still have been in a experimental facility of the sort, of course.

Now, the information we were left with is simply these three points which weren't touched on or explained in any way before he died:

he was at some point in an orphanage (but was illiterate)

he was in a cage since he can remember

he and the snakes came from somewhere far away

his mother was an actress by the name of Sarah Kemble

he not only has snake attributes like snake skin, slit pupils and a split tongue, he also understands what they say and talks to them

I've been thinking hard and am having a little bit of a hard time trying to tie these three things together in a flowing, graceful manner that would fit the story and not sound like a very twisted pretzel of a backstory. Haha! Of course given more time I hope to conjure something of sense up! I'm looking forward to reading everyone's ideas on this! Everything that I was going to say about Sarah Siddons (born, Sarah Kemble) was already said by @abybweisse on this post which is quite aptly named, given that the woman that brought Snake into the world, brought out of her womb a personified epitome of tragedy, which is him.

I'd only like to add that she was born in Wales. Although Wales doesn't really count as a place far away, I just feel like mentioning this as it could become relevant later on, or someone might think of something that might add to the story. It's hard to know exactly how much Yana intends to keep in the manga of the real Sarah Kemble and how much is made up for the story. So, how much we can stretch what we know for theories is limited. We could for example say Sarah went to one of the British colonies, gave birth to her bastard child (Snake) there and left him.

Now the orphanage and the cage are a little hard to put together for me, but alas… also him not knowing how to read is odd as he was in an orphanage. Of course, we should consider too, the possibility that he could've been living there at a time when he was very little and still unfit to learn such skills. Then some organization got him and experimented on him?

Or Was he given away in England to an orphanage and later picked up by an organization that was using "free" orphaned children to experiment on them and thus taken to somewhere far away? And that's when he was introduced to the all snakes? And then they all came together back to England again? You see how it quickly becomes a little messy? But he did say that since when he can remember he was always in a cage… was he in a cage in the orphanage? That's very peculiar. Unless, the orphanage was the experimenting facility, as in my theory (minus him being originally a snake, of course).

Could he have been born as he is of some sort of socialite demonic ritual and the mother was a sacrifice? I mean, I suppose I had already thought of this hypothesis but it just sounded so inorganic that I didn't further consider it… That's simply my opinion of course, maybe with a few little details added, it could become more palatable!

That's it for now! Thank you for reading!

[shakespearenews]

Hamlets have been very short (David Garrick and Edmund Kean), fat (Thomas Betterton), exceedingly fat (Stephen Kemble), tall and rangy (David Warner), immensely muscular (Edwin Forrest), plain-looking (William Macready) and superlatively handsome (John Barrymore and Laurence Olivier). They have also at times, most often in the 19th century, been women (Sarah Siddons, Charlotte Cushman, Sarah Bernhardt and, a few years ago in New York, Diane Venora).

[truedarkhunter]

LET'S Talk about SNAKE!!

**Here's your spoiler warning. So don't read on if you aren't caught up on the manga to the point of Snake's history in Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler. **

We finally get a glimpse into Snake's history and there is a little clue hidden in it that this is probably the real end of the line for the Phantomhive Footman. So the first has fallen and is a precursor of all that is to come as promised by the throne Ciel sat upon that rested on a hill of bodies so long ago.

So if you happen to go digging into Snake's background, the manga mentions that his mother was Sarah Kemble. This wasn't a throw-away name. Looking it up, Sarah Kemble was the maiden name of the actress Sarah Siddons. (When you see née before a surname/last name, it means it was the name before marriage.)

So if you happen to go digging into Snake's background, the manga mentions that his mother was Sarah Kemble. This wasn't a throw-away name. Looking it up, Sarah Kemble was the maiden name of the actress Sarah Siddons. (When you see née that indicates the name before marriage.) She was a real person who lived from July 5, 1755 to June 8, 1831.

The clue was in her acting specialty: tragedies. She was specifically called a tragedienne, and known as "tragedy personified". Obviously, Kuroshitsuji has been playing fast and loose with timelines already. Charles Phipps (December 10, 1753 - October 20, 1786) and Charles Grey (March 13, 1764 - July 17, 1845) had a good 11 year gap between them, so make unlikely peers. So it shouldn't be assumed that Snake is actually from the 1700's.

However, as his mother was chosen for being the embodiment of tragedy, Snake's story is to show how sometimes people die without getting to answer the big questions in their life. Moreover, his life being the height of tragedy also means we aren't likely to see him turned into a Bizarre Doll. Earlier he and Finny were rejected as having something off in their blood. Finny's is from the experimentation done on him. Snake's is from whatever illness or genetic deviation that gave him his scales. Even if Undertaker or an underling with the knowledge of how to convert a person into a Bizarre Doll were on hand to try to "save" him, those differences would probably cause the effort to fail. Again, hinted at by the rejection of his blood type as well as the descriptor given of his mother. So we shall be left wanting Snake to know the great "Why's" but not getting to see him learn the answers. Although I would be deeply interested in seeing a chapter dedicated to his judgement and Afterlife options. We haven't really seen the angelic side of the series make an appearance yet. Ash/Angela from the anime have been replaced by the two Charles. It would be interesting in seeing what the Heavenly Host are like here or even a bidding war for Snake's soul based on his goodness of character and his misdeeds done on behalf of his "family".

My apologies on how late this analysis has taken. It's been hard to have the energy and time in the same place to work on this, but I've been excited about it since the chapter dropped. Thoughts? @abybweisse @tirnelsutcliff

[larobeblanche]

Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1881) • Sarah Siddons (née Kemble) • 1787 • National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

[cordeliaflyte]

hiiiiii who knows if Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble ever played lovers/spouses on stage and if so when

[shinhati]

little list of my favourite poems

Faith by Frances Anne Kemble Spring by John Hall Wheelock Rain at Night by Helen Hoyt I am Weary of Being Bitter by Arthur Davison Ficke At the Sea-Side by Robert Louis Stevenson On Seeing Weather Beaten Trees by Adelaide Crapsey Profits by Fannie Stearns Davis The Last Rose of Summer by Thomas Moore Nobility by Alice Carey It Was a Night of Early Spring by Sara Teasdale Tell Me Tell Me Sarah Jane by Charles Causley

[alrederedmixedmedia]

Alredered Remembers New England diarist Sarah Kemble Knight, on his birthday.

"The Cittie of New York is a pleasant, well compacted place, situated on a Commodius river which is a fine harbour for shipping.... I left New-York with no Little regrett..."

-Sarah Kemble Knight

[grelleswife]

I tried looking up Sarah Kemble and got Sarah Siddons. Indeed an actress who had 7 kids apparently and was known for playing Lady Macbeth. 😳

Hi, anon! Although the historical Sarah Siddons (née Kemble) lived decades prior to the main events of Kuro, from 1755-1831, her profession and the spelling of her maiden name are identical to those provided in Chapter 209. According to her Wikipedia article, Siddons excelled in tragic roles such as Hamlet and Queen Catherine (Henry VIII)—but, as you mentioned, she was most renowned for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Contemporary writer William Hazlitt went so far as to declare her “tragedy personified.” Yana apparently wanted to emphasize Snake’s fate as a child of sorrow doomed to an unhappy end!

When you consider Siddons’s large family and the fact that she maintained a persona of dignified, maternal femininity onstage and off (which ensured her career remained largely scandal-free—thus disproving some of my musings in this post), there’s a bitter irony to Yana’s choice of name for Snake’s mother. Snake, who never knew his mother, and who had not one but two happy, bustling families stripped away from him.

[detournementsmineurs]

"Mrs Sarah Siddons with the Emblems of Tragedy (née Kemble)" by Sir William Beechey, 1793.

[someillplanetreigns]

"In 1784, Mrs. Siddons's salary was raised to twenty-three guineas and seven shillings per week, and Mr. Kemble's to ten guineas."

- Thomas Campbell, Life of Mrs. Siddons

[frimleyblogger]

You’re Having A Laugh – Part Forty Two

You’re Having A Laugh – Part Forty Two - the lost play of William Shakespeare, Vortigern and Rowena, or was it?

The lost play of Shakespeare, 1796

During the 18th century the Bard of Stratford had a resurgence of popularity, some theatres dedicating themselves purely to staging his plays. Collectors were on the hunt for relics or memorabilia connected with Shakespeare. He was a bit of an enigma, though. Apart from his will, he had left no personal documentation, letters, diaries, not even a line from…