Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/262

 ance in Edinburgh 20 Oct. 1828, playing as Edward Mortimer in the ‘Iron Chest.’

Returning to London, he reappeared at Drury Lane on 15 Dec. 1828 as Romeo to the Juliet of Miss C. Phillips. His failure in this was the more humiliating as his partner, whose first appearance as Juliet it was, obtained a triumph. At the end of the season he retired into the country. After playing with his father in Dublin and in Cork, he made his first appearance at the Haymarket on 6 Oct. 1829 as Reuben Glenroy, in ‘Town and Country.’ Besides playing Romeo to the Juliet of Miss F. H. Kelly, and other parts, he essayed for the first time in London, 12 Oct., Mortimer in the ‘Iron Chest,’ making the nearest approach as yet obtained to a success. An engagement at 20l. a week to act at Amsterdam and the Hague with a man named Aubrey was disastrous, the speculator levanting with the money. A benefit performance, to which the king of Holland subscribed, was got up for the actors. Returning by way of France, Kean then went to America, appearing at the Park Theatre, New York, in September 1830, as Richard III. His reception was favourable, and he came back to England in 1833 with means and an augmented reputation. Engaged by Laporte for Covent Garden at 30l. per week, he stipulated that his appearance should be in Mortimer—as the event proved, an unfortunate choice. His father accepted an engagement at the same house, and the two Keans acted together, on 25 March 1833, for the first and last time in London; Edmund Kean was Othello, and Charles Iago. Towards the close of the performance the elder Kean was suddenly seized with an illness which proved fatal. After his father's death Kean refused Bunn's offer of a benefit for his mother. He was in 1833 the original Leonardo Gonzaga in the ‘Wife,’ by Sheridan Knowles. With Ellen Tree, who had been his Mariana, and a company he went in the same year to Hamburg. In 1837 he was in Edinburgh, where he played Mortimer on 28 April, and obtained a financial success. In the ‘Dramatic Spectator,’ W. Logan, writing under a pseudonym, said ‘his chief admirers are people who seldom enter a playhouse,’ denied that he ever moved tears, and added: ‘His Hamlet is a boisterous piece of mere acting; his Richard III is generally acknowledged to be a failure; and his Othello is a fine piece of low comedy.’ Declining an invitation from Macready to play with him at Covent Garden, he began, on 8 Jan. 1838, under Bunn at Drury Lane, a twenty nights' engagement at 50l. per night. In the course of this he played Hamlet, Richard III, and Sir Giles Overreach, obtaining grudging recognition from the press and a social and popular success. In 1839 he was at the Haymarket under Webster; he then revisited America, and in 1840, at the Haymarket, played Macbeth and Romeo to the Juliet of Miss Ellen Tree, whom he married at St. Thomas's Church, Dublin, 29 Jan. 1842. Bride and bridegroom appeared the same evening as Aranza and Juliana in the ‘Honeymoon.’ In 1843 he was at Drury Lane, and in 1845, with Mrs. Kean, revisited America, where he produced in 1846 Lovell's play, ‘The Wife's Secret,’ in which he was Sir Walter Amyott. Returning from America in 1847 the pair appeared, 17 Jan. 1848, at the Haymarket in the same piece. Theatrical performances by Kean were directed in Windsor Castle in 1849 and in several subsequent years. On 20 June 1849 he played Halbert Strathmore in Westland Marston's drama of ‘Strathmore.’

In partnership with Robert Keeley, Kean entered, in August 1850, on a lease of the Princess's Theatre, which opened on 28 Sept. with the ‘Twelfth Night,’ a farce by Bayle Bernard [q. v.], and a ballet. As Hamlet Kean made, on 30 Sept., his first appearance under his own management. He was seen also in ‘As you like it,’ the ‘Merchant of Venice,’ ‘First Part of King Henry IV,’ the ‘Gamester,’ the ‘Stranger,’ the ‘Honeymoon,’ and other plays. The first novelty was the ‘Templar’ of A. R. Slous, 9 Nov. ‘Pauline,’ by John Oxenford, followed, 17 March 1851, and subsequently the ‘Duke's Wager,’ an adaptation by A. R. Slous of ‘Mdlle. de Belle Isle.’ ‘Love in a Maze,’ by Dion Boucicault, a pantomime, and various lighter pieces, were also given. At the close of a season extending over close upon thirteen months Keeley retired from management, and Kean began the series of spectacular revivals by which he is best remembered. The Princess's reopened on 22 Nov. 1851 with the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor,’ Kean playing Ford, but he did not rely for the success of this venture on scenic display. ‘King John,’ 9 Feb. 1852, was the first of his spectacular revivals. His rendering of the title-rôle, which had been seen in America, was favourably received. A great success was obtained on 24 Feb. 1852 with Boucicault's adaptation of the ‘Corsican Brothers,’ in which Kean played Louis and Fabian dei Franchi. Lovell's ‘Trial of Love’ was given in June, and Boucicault's ‘Vampire’ before the close of the season, on 14 July. Westland Marston's ‘Ann Blake,’ on 28 Oct. 1852, with Kean as Thorold, was the first important event of the third season, the special feature in which was the revival,