Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/304

  :: difficult Prophecy, “Naphtali is a hind let loose, he giveth goodly words” (Gen. xlix. 21), made out and explained,’ 8vo, London, 1758.
 * 1) ‘Critical Dissertations on the Iliad of Homer,’ 8vo, London, 1759.



KEEBLE. [See also .]

KEEBLE, JOHN (1711–1786), organist, musical composer, and writer, was born in 1711 at Chichester, and was chorister of the cathedral under [q. v.] In 1734–5 Keeble, with Boyce, Travers, and others, frequented Dr. Pepusch's lectures, and fell under the spell of his admiration for the music of the Greeks. On the retirement of Rosingrave, 1737, Keeble became organist of St. George's, Hanover Square. It has been said that Handel recommended him for this post in preference to Matthison (, Musicians, p. 31). Keeble was also organist at Ranelagh Gardens from the opening in 1742. As a teacher of the harpsichord he had many pupils. He died on 24 Dec. 1786 at his house in Conduit Street, but was buried, according to his wish, at Ramsholt in Suffolk, by the side of his wife. His daughter Sally married Captain Thomas Hamilton.

Keeble published:
 * 1) Select pieces for the organ or harpsichord; four sets of six pieces were collected in a volume about 1780.
 * 2) ‘The Theory of Harmonics, or an Illustration of the Grecian Harmonica,’ London, 1784. Part i. dealt with the systems of Euclid, Aristoxenus, and Bacchius; part ii. with the doctrine of the Ratio, and the explanation of the two diagrams of the Gaudentius and the Pythagorean numbers in Nicomachus. This work was full of ingenious ideas, and the diagrams of strings and ratios proved of some interest (see severely critical articles in the Monthly Review, November 1785, pp. 343, 441; and a more favourable notice in the European Magazine, 1785, pp. 186, 355, 431).
 * 3) In conjunction with  [q. v.], ‘Forty Interludes to be played between the verses of the Psalms,’ London, 1795.



KEEGAN, JOHN (1809–1849), Irish ballad-writer, was born in 1809 at a small farmhouse on the banks of the Nore, Queen's County, and was educated by wandering hedge-schoolmasters. When very young he began to write verses, but lived a peasant's life, suffered much from the famine of 1845–6, and died in poor circumstances in 1849. Many of his ballads appeared in ‘Dolman's Magazine;’ some are contained in Hayes's ‘Ballads of Ireland’ and in the compilation known as ‘The Harp of Erin.’ At the time of his death Keegan was preparing a collected edition of his poems, which never, however, appeared.

[The Irishman, 28 Oct. 1876; Hayes's Ballads of Ireland; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog.; Men of the Reign.] 

KEELEY, ROBERT (1793–1869), actor, one of a family of sixteen children, was born in 1793 at 3 Grange Court, Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. After the death of his father, said to have been a watchmaker, he was apprenticed to Hansard the printer. Not discouraged by one or two failures as an amateur, he joined in the humblest capacity the Richmond Theatre. Proceeding to Norwich, he remained on that circuit under Brunton for four years, when he joined [q. v.] at the West London, subsequently the Prince of Wales's, Theatre in Tottenham Street. Elliston saw him in Birmingham, and engaged him for the Olympic, at which house he made what was practically his début in London in 1818, as the original Leporello in ‘Don Giovanni in London.’ When, in 1819, Elliston took Drury Lane, Keeley went with him. No opportunity being afforded him, he appeared at the Adelphi in a character called Dash, and was the original Jemmy Green in ‘Tom and Jerry.’ This piece ran for two seasons. At the end of the first Keeley went to Sadler's Wells under [q. v.], and played Jerry, 8 April 1822, in Pierce Egan's own version of his ‘Life in London.’ Charles Kemble now engaged him for Covent Garden, at which house he appeared, 26 Oct. 1822, in Edwin's part of Darby in the ‘Poor Soldier.’ On 6 Nov. he was the original Basil in Howard Payne's melodrama, ‘Two Galley Slaves,’ and on 3 Dec. Friar Peter in Planché's ‘Maid Marian.’ Natty Maggs in the ‘London Hermit’ and Hodge in ‘Love in a Village’ were failures, but as Rumfit, a tailor, in Peake's ‘Duel, or my two Nephews,’ 18 Feb. 1823, he made a decided hit. In a complimentary notice the ‘London Magazine’ says that as the tailor he ‘was the sublimity of impoverished manhood, the true ninth part of a man.’ On 8 May he was the original Gerorio, a drunken actor, in Howard Payne's ‘Clari, or the Maid of Milan.’ He also played Leporello to the Giovanni of Madame Vestris. In the summer, at the English Opera House, he was the original Fritz in Peake's ‘Frankenstein’ and the Gardener in Planché's ‘Frozen Lake,’ both parts being written for him. He was at Covent Garden the original Killian,