Kemble, JOHN MITCHELL

Kemble, JOHN MITCHELL, Anglo-Saxon scholar, was the son of Charles Kemble, the actor, and was born in London in 1807. He had his education partly under Dr Richardson, author of the English Dictionary, and partly at Bury St Edmunds grammar-school, whence in 1826 he passed to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1830. While an undergraduate he spent some time at Göttingen, under the brothers Grimm, who seem to have finally determined his natural bent towards Teutonic studies. The first fruit of these was an edition of the poem of Beowulf (1833-37), to a second edition of which he added a translation, with a glossary and notes. Not to mention several minor publications, he edited for the English Historical Society a valuable collection of charters of the Anglo-Saxon period, entitled Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici (6 vols. 1839-48). But his most important work, which contains the chief results of all his researches, is his unfinished History of the Saxons in England (2 vols. 1849; new ed. by W. de G. Birch, 1876). Further work was interrupted by sudden death at Dublin, March 26, 1857. Kemble was for a good many years editor of the British and Foreign Review; and also held the office of Licensor of Plays.