- Frederick Baltimore Calvert
Infobox Person
name = Frederick Baltimore Calvert
image_size =
caption =
birth_date = 1793Dictionary of National Biography now in the public domain]
birth_place =Glossop Hall inDerbyshire
death_date = 1877
death_place =Edinburgh
education = Manchester Grammar school
occupation = Actor and lecturer
spouse = Miss Percy
parents = Charles Calvert the elder
children = numerousFrederick Baltimore Calvert (1793 –
21 April 1877 ) was an actor and lecturer onelocution , the son of Charles Calvert, steward of theDuke of Norfolk .He was born at
Glossop Hall ,Derbyshire and baptised on11 April 1793 . He enteredManchester Grammar School on12 January 1804 . Then he went to a Roman Catholic college atOld Hall Green inHertfordshire , with a view to receivingHoly Orders .However, he took to the stage, and in the course of his career alternated leading parts with the elder
Edmund Kean ,William Charles Macready , and the elderGeorge Vandenhoff . In 1824 he published 'A Defence of the Drama,' which had an extensive circulation, and was read by John Fawcett to the members of the Theatrical Fund at their annual dinner that year. In 1829 he became elocutionary lecturer of King's College,University of Aberdeen and gave lectures on oratory, poetry, and other literary subjects in the large towns of England. He later travelled to theUnited States , where he lectured on the English poets, and on returning to England gave evening discourses at the leadingathenaeum s on what he had seen during his American visit.About 1846 he was appointed master of English language and literature in the
Edinburgh Academy . In the winter of 1847–8 he gave readings of the English poets in connection with theEdinburgh Philosophical Institution . Some years after, he became lecturer on elocution to the Free Church colleges ofEdinburgh andGlasgow .He married, in 1818, Miss Percy of
Whitby , with whom he had a large family. His youngest son, Michael Talbot Calvert, made a reputation as a tragic actor, under the stage name of Henry Talbot.Next Week East Lynne: Domestic Drama in Performance, 1820-1874 by Gilbert Beverley Cross p.120]He died at his home, 2 West Newington, Edinburgh on
21 April 1877 . He was a man of great literary refinement, and had an extensive knowledge of Greek and Roman literature, as well as of that of England and France.Major works
# ' A Defence of the Acted Drama,' in a letter to T. Best, Hull, l 822.
# 'Principles of Elocution,' by T. Ewing, thoroughly revised and greatly improved by F. B. Calvert, 1852 ; another edition, 1870.
# A Letter to the Very Rev. Dean Ramsay, Edinburgh, on ' The Art of Reading and Preaching distinctly,' 1869.
# 'The De Oratore of Cicero,' translated by F.B. Calvert, M.A., 1870.
# ' An Ode to Shakespeare.'The Calvert family
Frederick's father, Charles Calvert the elder, was born in 1754 and died on
13 June 1797 ; he is buried in St. Mary's churchyard, Manchester. Charles the elder would live in Oldham Street, Manchester during the winter and at Glossop Hall in the summer. [The Admission Register of the Manchester School] by Jeremiah Finch Smith, Manchester (England). Grammar School - 1866 - accessed via Google books September 2007] Frederick's father's brother, Raisley Calvert, who died in 1794, was a sculptor, and is well known as the friend and admirer ofWilliam Wordsworth , to whom he bequeathed 900 pounds. Raisley had been toCambridge University with Wordsworth and he looked after Raisley on his deathbed as he died of consumption. Other sons of Charles Calvert the elder and Frederick's uncles were Charles Calvert, Henry Calvert and Michael Pease Calvert, who were all painters. Michael was the youngest of eight children and he was born five months after his father's death in January 1798 in Derbyshire.:"Calvert! It must not be unheard by them:Who may respect my name, that I to thee:Owed many years of early liberty.:This care was thine when sickness did condemn:Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem."- William Wordsworth - referring to Raisley Calvert [ [http://www.wordsworthcountry.com/william-wordsworth.htm Raisley noted at Wordsworthcounty.com] accessed September 2007]
References
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