Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/268

 author, followed. The committee had accepted Bucke's tragedy, the ‘Italians,’ in which the part of Albanio was intended for Kean. Delay ensued, and other pieces, some of them at the suggestion of Kean, took precedence of the ‘Italians.’ Among them was the ‘Jew of Malta,’ in the prologue to which was the line Nor wish an Alleyn while we boast a Kean. For delivering this Kean was censured, and he admitted his offence. When the ‘Italians’ was put into rehearsal it proved rather a dramatic poem than a drama, and Kean declared he would rather pay the 1,000l. forfeit than play the part assigned him. Bucke thereupon published the piece with a preface, accusing Kean of sacrificing everything to his own vanity, and exhibiting a contemptuous disregard for the usages of society. There followed a newspaper correspondence and a scene in the theatre, when the irate author hissed the actor and demanded an apology, which was refused. The ‘Italians’ was at length produced, 3 April 1819, with Rae in the part designed for Kean. Its representation was attended with much disturbance, and after a second performance the piece was withdrawn. Kean's share in its failure provoked some censure. Sir Walter Scott wrote to Southey on 4 April 1819: ‘How would you, or how do you think I could, relish being the object of such a letter as Kean wrote t'other day to a poor author, who, though a pedantic blockhead, has at least the right to be treated as a gentleman by a copper-laced two penny learmouth rendered mad by conceit and success?’ In the same season Kean appeared as Leon in ‘Rule a Wife and have a Wife,’ by Beaumont and Fletcher; Hotspur in ‘King Henry IV;’ Malvesi, an original character, in Soane's ‘Dwarf of Naples,’ 13 March 1819; Omreah in the ‘Carib Chief’ of Twiss, the nephew of Mrs. Siddons, 13 May; and for the first time, 31 May, Rolla in ‘Pizarro.’ Very far from successful was Kean in some of these pieces. Concerning Abel Drugger in the ‘Tobacconist’ Mrs. Garrick wrote to him the day following his appearance in it: ‘Dear Sir, you can't play Abel Drugger;’ to which he replied: ‘Dear Madam, I know it.’ Complaints of his overbearing conduct became frequent. He returned to the committee of Drury Lane as an insult the part of Joseph Surface, and often expressed his determination to play no secondary character whatever.

One of Kean's most brilliant triumphs attended him on 24 April 1820 in ‘King Lear.’ On 24 Jan. previously he had been seen in ‘Coriolanus.’ In both parts he was opposed at Covent Garden—in ‘Coriolanus’ by Macready, and in ‘Lear’ by Booth. Kean's figure was unsuited to Coriolanus, and unfavourable criticism was provoked by his performance. His Lear was received with rapture (cf. Theatrical Inquisitor, xvi. 120). To Jaffier in ‘Venice Preserved,’ 12 June 1820, he assigned a strong individuality. His performance of Virginius in Soane's play of that name challenged comparison with that of Macready at Covent Garden in the version by Sheridan Knowles and proved inferior. At the close of this season Elliston reopened Drury Lane for a series of farewell performances by Kean previous to his departure for America.

Kean's first appearance in New York took place 29 Nov. 1820. A repetition of his London success ensued. A clamorous mob besieged the doors of the theatre, and no form of social or artistic homage was wanting. Philadelphia and Boston followed suit. In the last-named city, however, Kean contrived to embroil himself with a portion of the public. The offence found an echo in New York. A letter from Kean to the press failed to re-establish peace, and a projected extension of his visit over another year had to be abandoned. While in America Kean erected a monument over the grave of George Frederick Cooke [q. v.], whose remains he caused to be removed to a more prominent position in the burial-ground of St. Paul's Church, New York.

On 23 July 1821 Kean reappeared as Richard III at Drury Lane. An altered version of Joanna Baillie's ‘De Montfort’ showed him as De Montfort in a new character, 27 Nov. 1821. Hastings in ‘Jane Shore,’ Owen in the ‘Prince of Powys,’ an original play, Sir Pertinax Macsycophant, and Osmond in the ‘Castle Spectre’ were ill-judged experiments. For the farewell benefit of Miss Tidswell, his former benefactress, he played Don Felix in the ‘Wonder,’ in which he showed distinct comic gifts. For the benefit of the distressed Irish he played, 3 June, Paris in the ‘Roman Actor, or the Drama's Vindication,’ Octavian in the ‘Mountaineers,’ and Tom Tug in the ‘Waterman,’ imitating Incledon in the songs. While acting at Dundee he conceived the notion of retiring from the stage, and erected in Bute a pretty cottage on land he had bought from the Marquis of Bute. To this spot in his hours of penitence or depression he often retired. The engagement of Young at Drury Lane he resented, and he came back to town to play Othello to Young's Iago, and Cymbeline to his Iachimo, and so establish a not to be contested supremacy. The original