Ireland's ‘Vortigern,’ Mrs. Powell undertook it (2 April). On 2 May 1795, on the occasion of Mrs. Powell's benefit, Mrs. Siddons played Lady Randolph to her Young Norval, and at the performance for her benefit on 4 June 1802 Mrs. Powell essayed the rôle of Hamlet, with Mrs. Jordan as Ophelia. Mrs. Powell's long connection with Drury Lane lasted till 1811, and during the period she played very many important parts, including Alicia in ‘Jane Shore,’ Andromache in the ‘Distrest Mother,’ Almeria in the ‘Mourning Bride,’ Mrs. Haller in the ‘Stranger,’ and Lady Macbeth. Her forte lay in the intenser rôles of tragedy. Tenderness and pathos were not at her command.
In the autumn of 1811 Mrs. Powell migrated to Covent Garden, where she opened as Lady Capulet on 9 Sept., and again supported Mrs. Siddons, who was playing her ‘last season.’ Her second husband, Powell, was apparently then dead, and in 1814 she married one Renaud. On 21 May 1814 she was announced as ‘Mrs. Renaud, late Mrs Powell,’ and at the close of the season 1815–1816 she terminated her London career. For two years she acted in the provinces, and in 1818 settled down in Edinburgh, where she had already acted in the summer of 1802. She opened under Murray and his sister, Mrs. H. Siddons, on 12 Feb. 1818. The parts for which she was chiefly cast were ‘heavy,’ those in which power and experience are the most necessary qualifications. Helen Macgregor in ‘Rob Roy’ and Meg Merrilies in ‘Guy Mannering’ are said to have been great impersonations in her hands. She also frequently assumed such rôles as Lady Macbeth, the Queen in ‘Hamlet,’ Volumnia, Lady Randolph, and Belvidera in ‘Venice Preserved.’ The parts she created in Edinburgh included Helen Macgregor, the Queen in the ‘Heart of Midlothian,’ Elspat in the ‘Antiquary,’ Lady Douglas in ‘Mary Stuart,’ and Janet in the ‘Twa Drovers.’ Her most valuable work, however, lay in the splendid support she was able to give Kean, Young, and other great London tragedians, who made starring visits to the Scottish capital. Mrs. Renaud displayed in her old age a rare dignity of bearing, correct elocution, and telling voice. About 1828 her health began to fail, and she appeared for the last time on 30 Sept. 1829, when she acted the Queen to Kean's Hamlet. On 4 June 1830 Murray gave her a benefit, at which she did not appear. Murray is said to have continued her salary to the day of her death, the date of which is not known.
[Genest's Historical Account of the Stage; playbills; private information.]
POWELL, BADEN (1796–1860), Savilian professor of geometry, born at Stamford Hill on 22 Aug. 1796, was eldest son of Baden Powell of Langton, Kent, and Stamford Hill. The father was at one time high sheriff of Kent. The son matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, in the spring of 1814, and graduated B.A. in 1817, with first-class honours in mathematics. He proceeded M.A. in 1820, was ordained to the curacy of Midhurst, and in 1821 obtained the vicarage of Plumstead in Kent. While holding this living he was occupied in researches on optics and radiation, and was a fellow-worker with Herschel, Babbage, and Airy. His ability was recognised by his election as F.R.S. in 1824, and by his appointment in 1827 to the Savilian chair of geometry at Oxford, which he held till his death.
On becoming professor he resigned his living and devoted much time to literary work. He had already, in 1825 and 1826, contributed to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ two papers on radiant heat; he now wrote two elementary books on curves and differential calculus, 1828–9. In 1832 he made a report to the British Association on radiant heat, and drew up other reports on the same subject in 1841 and 1854. In 1835–7 he prepared a series of four papers on dispersion of light for the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’ He was a frequent contributor to scientific periodicals, chiefly on optical questions, but also on questions connected with the general history and study of science. He wrote a ‘History of Natural Philosophy’ for the ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia,’ 1834. But theological controversy also interested Powell. He was strongly opposed to the tractarians, and treated doctrinal questions from a latitudinarian point of view in ‘Tradition Unveiled’ (1839), followed by a supplement in 1840. An essay (1838) on ‘The Connexion of Natural and Divine Truth’ was succeeded, after many years, by an important series of essays on kindred topics—‘The Unity of Worlds’ (1855, 2nd edit. 1856), ‘The Study of Natural Theology’ (1856), and ‘The Order of Nature’ (1859). Among his other theological essays may be mentioned ‘Christianity without Judaism’ (1857, 2nd edit. 1866), and an essay on the study of the evidences of Christianity, which he contributed to ‘Essays and Reviews,’ 1860. The last-named essay provoked many replies.
Powell was active in university reform, was a member of the commission of 1851, and held advanced views on state education, about which he published a pamphlet in 1840. He died on 11 June 1860, at Stanhope Street, Hyde Park Gardens, and is buried at
