Harriet Elizabeth Savill

Harriet Elizabeth Savill née Diddear, later married name Farren, known as Mrs Faucit) (1789–1857) was an English actress.

She first appeared on stage at the age of six at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, and performed in Dover, Richmond and Margate in her childhood.

[1] In 1813 she appeared as Desdemona at Covent Garden Theatre on 7 October, her London debut, and she played Cleopatra there on 15 November.

[1] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography summarises her acting career thus: Mrs Faucit was very successful in certain comic parts (such as Celia in The Humourous Lieutenant [sic]) and as the heroine of melodramas and musical plays.

Her serious acting, which seemed meretricious in characters such as Lady Macbeth, was genuinely affecting in Meg Merrilies and similar roles; her handsome face and Junoesque figure were assets in regal parts such as Elizabeth in Richard III, Gertrude in Hamlet, and the empress in The Exile.