Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/267

 associates, for whose benefit in his days of poverty and depression he had concocted them. Mrs. Garrick asked the young actor to her house, made him sit in Garrick's chair, cheered him with compliments, and gave him some of her husband's stage-jewels, but found fault with portions of his Hamlet, which she made him rehearse in ‘David's’ manner. He was naturally impatient of this lessoning, but, it is said, took it to heart and profited by the counsel given him. He was asked in the vacation to aristocratic houses, and with some reluctance accepted a few invitations to Holland House and elsewhere. Afraid of betraying ignorance, and uninterested in the subjects discussed, he was always anxious, unlike his wife, to escape from fashionable company, and soon avoided it altogether. Byron, whom alone among noblemen Kean prized, wrote concerning his Richard to Moore, ‘By Jove, he is a soul! Life—nature—truth, without exaggeration or diminution. Kemble's Hamlet is perfect, but Hamlet is not nature; Richard is a man, and Kean is Richard.’

At the close of his first season Kean played in Dublin, Birmingham, and elsewhere, returning to Drury Lane 3 Oct. 1814 as Richard. In the course of the season (1814–15) he added to his London repertory Macbeth, Romeo, Reuben Glenroy in ‘Town and Country,’ Richard II, Penruddock in the ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ Zanga, Abel Drugger, and was, 22 April 1815, the original Egbert in Mrs. Wilmot's tragedy of ‘Ina.’ Bajazet in ‘Tamerlane;’ Duke Aranza in the ‘Honeymoon;’ Goswin or Florez in the ‘Merchant of Bruges,’ altered by Kinnaird from the ‘Beggar's Bush’ of Beaumont and Fletcher; Sir Giles Overreach; the Duke in Massinger's ‘Maid of Milan;’ and Kitely in ‘Every Man in his Humour’ were given for the first time in 1815–16. On 9 May 1816 Kean was the original Bertram in Maturin's ‘Bertram.’ Timon of Athens, Mortimer in the ‘Iron Chest,’ Oroonoko, Eustace St. Pierre in the ‘Surrender of Calais,’ and Achmet in ‘Barbarossa’ were played in the following season, in which also Kean was the original Manuel, count Valdi, in Maturin's ‘Manuel.’ In Paul in ‘Paul and Virginia,’ 26 May 1817, a part he only acted once, Kean proved himself a good and a natural singer. On 22 Dec. 1817 he played Richard in ‘Richard, Duke of York,’ a compilation by J. H. Merivale from the three parts of ‘King Henry VI,’ and on 5 Feb. 1818 was the original Selim in the ‘Bride of Abydos,’ adapted by Dimond. Other of his characters during that season were Barabas, in an alteration by Penley of Marlowe's ‘Jew of Malta,’ 24 April; Young Norval in ‘Douglas,’ 6 May; King John, 1 June; and Alexander the Great and Sylvester Daggerwood, 8 June.

Less interest was felt in his later performances than in the earlier, but the Kean nights still attracted large audiences. As he reached the height of his fame he grew more difficult of control, giving himself airs and affectations, and putting in pleas of illness or accident to excuse absence, which was usually the result of debauch. So popular was Kean that when on three nights he acted for the purpose of deceiving the public with his arm in a sling he was received with tumultuous applause. The Wolf Club, which subsequently gave rise to much ill-feeling, had been started in May 1815 by Kean at the Coal Hole Tavern, Fountain Court, Strand (site of the present Terry's Theatre), and it constituted a favourite haunt of actors. There, from 1814 to 1817, Kean spent his nights with much regularity, and his eccentricities were pardoned and applauded. In 1815 he took the house No. 12 Clarges Street, Piccadilly, which he occupied until 1824. Booth, in the season 1816–17, came out at Drury Lane and retired, and the Wolf Club, which was taxed with a conspiracy to sacrifice all would-be tragedians in the interest of Kean, was dissolved. Numberless rivals, from Conway to Cobham, were opposed to Kean without disturbing his position, and John Philip Kemble's retirement on 23 June 1817 left him undisputed master of the stage. Talma visited London and pronounced him ‘a magnificent uncut gem. Polish and round him off, and he will be a perfect tragedian.’

At the close of the season 1817–18 Kean, who had regularly visited professionally Edinburgh and other places, went to Paris, saw Talma in ‘Orestes,’ and pronounced him in declamation greater than himself and Kemble put together. The delivery of the curse inspired him with emulation, and he wrote to the Drury Lane committee, requesting a preparation of the ‘Distressed Mother’ for his return. During a visit at this time to Switzerland Kean is said to have ascended Mont Blanc, a gratuitous and inaccurate statement.

On 20 Oct. 1818 Kean appeared as Orestes, with Mrs. West as Hermione, and owned he could make nothing of the character. Conspicuous success attended on 3 Dec. 1818 his Lucius Junius Brutus in Howard Payne's ‘Brutus.’ On the other hand, Miss Porter's ‘Switzerland,’ in which Kean played Eugene, was only acted once, and Kean was charged with want of loyalty and gallantry in playing the hero in perfunctory style. A serious quarrel with Charles Bucke [q. v.], a dramatic