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JAMES KENNEY (178o-1849)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 732 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JAMES See also:KENNEY (178o-1849)  , See also:English dramatist, was the son of See also:James See also:Kenney, one of the founders of Boodles' See also:Club in See also:London . His first See also:play, a See also:farce called Raising the See also:Wind (1803), was a success owing to the popularity of the See also:character of " See also:Jeremy Diddler." Kenney produced more than See also:forty dramas and operas between 1803 and 1845, and many of his pieces, in which Mrs See also:Siddons, Madame See also:Vestris, See also:Foote, See also:Lewis, See also:Liston and other leading players appeared from See also:time to time, enjoyed a considerable See also:vogue . His most popular play was Sweethearts and Wives, produced at the Haymarket See also:theatre in 1823, and several times afterwards revived; and among the most successful of his other See also:works were : False Alarms (1807), a comic See also:opera with See also:music by See also:Braham; Love, See also:Law and Physic (1812); See also:Spring and Autumn (1827); The Illustrious Stranger, or Married and Buried (1827); See also:Masaniello (1829); The Sicilian See also:Vespers, a tragedy (184o) . Kenney, who numbered See also:Charles See also:Lamb and See also:Samuel See also:Rogers among his See also:friends, died in London on the 25th of See also:July 1849 . He married the widow of the dramatist See also:Thomas See also:Holcroft, by whom he had two sons and two daughters . His second son, CHARLES LAMB KENNEY (1823-1881), made a name as a journalist, dramatist and See also:miscellaneous writer . Commencing See also:life as a clerk in the See also:General See also:Post See also:Office in London, he joined the See also:staff of The Times, to which See also:paper he contributed dramatic See also:criticism . In 1856, having been called to the See also:bar, he became secretary to See also:Ferdinand de See also:Lesseps, and in 1857 he published The See also:Gates of the See also:East in support of the projected construction of the See also:Suez See also:Canal . Kenney wrote the words for a numberof See also:light operas, and was the author of several popular songs, the best known of which were " Soft and See also:Low " (1865) and " The Vagabond'' (1871) . He also published a Memoir of M . W . See also:Balfe (1875), and translated the See also:Correspondence of See also:Balzac He included See also:Thackeray and See also:Dickens among his friends in a See also:literary coterie in which he enjoyed the reputation of a wit and an accomplished writer of vers de societe .

He died in London on the 25th of See also:

August 1881 . See See also:John Genest, Some See also:Account of the English See also:Stage, 1660–1830, vols. vii. and viii . (10 vols., London, 1832); P . W . Clayden, See also:Roger.' and his Contemporaries (2 vols., London, 1889) ; See also:Diet .

End of Article: JAMES KENNEY (178o-1849)
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