Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/797

 KEAN 777 csfinyi he edited the "Magyar Museum," and subsequently alone the " Orpheus," both liter- ary magazines published at Kaschau. Having become implicated in the democratic conspiracy of the abbot Martinovics, lie was suddenly ar- rested at the house of his mother in Lower Regmecz, on Dec. 14, 1794, carried to Buda, tried, and condemned to death ; his sentence was commuted to imprisonment. He was kept in the dungeons of Buda, Brilnn, Kufstein, and Munkiics, and released in 1801. He married the daughter of his former protector, Count Torok, and retired to a country residence in the neighborhood of Satoralja-Ujhely, which he named Szephalom (Fairhill), and where he spent the remainder of his life, continuing to labor for the literary progress of his country. His works, which have twice been collected (Pesth, 1814, 1836), contain original epistles, epigrams, sketches of travel, a tragedy, &c., besides translations from Goethe, Lessing, La Rochefoucauld, Sterne, and others. He also edited the works of Zrinyi the poet, Bar6czi, Dajka, and Kis, and a volume of " Hungarian Antiquities and Rarities " on grammatical sub- jects. In 1859 the centennial birthday of Ka- zinczy was celebrated throughout Hungary. KK. I. Edmnnd, an English actor, born in London, March 17, 1787 (according to the sug- gestion of his biographer Mr. Procter, although other accounts make the year 1789 or 1790), died in Richmond, May 15, 1833. His father was a stage carpenter, and his mother, whose name he retained during his childhood, was Miss Ann Carey, by profession an actress, and a descendant of Henry Carey the poet. At two years of age he was taken in charge by a Miss Tidswell, who put him to school in Lon- don. A few years later his mother, who occa- sionally followed the business of an itinerant vender of perfumery, took him with her in her peregrinations, and brought him under the no- tice of a Mrs. Clarke. He had, almost as soon as he could walk, appeared at Drury Lane theatre as Cupid in the opera of "Cymon," and had subsequently taken children's parts on the stage. He made so favorable an impression upon Mrs. Clarke, that he remained for two years under her protection, and received in- struction in dancing, fencing, and various other accomplishments. When about 12 years of age he enrolled himself in a strolling troop of which his mother was a member, and on one occasion at Windsor recited in the presence of George III. From the beginning of the century to the pe- riod of his first appearance in London in 1814, he was connected with strolling companies or provincial theatres, assuming every variety of character, from the leading parts in tragedy to harlequin in the pantomime, and by very slow degrees forcing his talents into notice. In 1808 he was married, and during several years experienced many vicissitudes of fortune, being frequently reduced with his family, con- sisting of his wife and two children, to the verge of starvation. In 1813 Dr. Drury, the master of Harrow school, saw him act at Teign- mouth, and was so impressed with his dramatic abilities that he procured him an introduction to the manager of Drury Lane theatre, by whom he was engaged for three years at a salary of 8, 9, and 10 per week for each successive year. He made his first appearance Jan. 26, 1814, as Shylock, before a meagre audience, not particularly predisposed in his favor; but so great were his powers and the vigor of his personation, that at the fall of the curtain he was greeted by applause such as had not for many years been heard in Drury Lane, his appearance, according to Hazlitt, be- ing " the first gleam of genius breaking athwart the gloom of the stage." After his third per- formance of Shylock, a new engagement at a far higher salary was offered to him; and not long after he received from the committee of Drury Lane theatre a present of 500, besides numerous valuable gifts from private persons. He subsequently appeared as Richard III., Hamlet, Othello, lago, Macbeth, Sir Giles Overreach, Sir Edward Mortimer, Lear, and in various other characters, with undiminished success, and for several years was the most eminent and popular actor on the British stage. In 1820 he made a professional tour in the United States, which at first was attended with great success ; but in May, 1821, his refusal to complete an engagement in Boston, in conse- quence of the thinness of the houses, created an excitement which led to his abrupt depart- ure from the city. Upon returning to Eng- land, he played his usual round of characters ; but after the developments respecting his crim- inal connection with the wife of Alderman Cox, in the action of Cox. Kean, January, 1825, in which a verdict of 800 damages was pro- nounced against him, he was hissed from the stage in Edinburgh and London. In 1825 he returned to the United States, and was at first received with riot and confusion wherever he attempted to act. Having tendered an apology, he appeared in New York and Philadelphia, but was not permitted to perform in Boston or Baltimore. During this visit he was elected a chief of the Tuscarora Indians by the name of Alantenouidet. Subsequent to his return to England in 1826 his health and spirits, under- mined by habits of drinking, gave way rapidly, and it was only by the use of stimulants that he could still act his old parts. He was unable to master a new one, forgetting the words almost as soon as he acquired them. In Feb- ruary, 1833, he was announced to appear in " Othello " with his son Charles. On the night of the performance he succeeded with diffi- culty in getting through two acts of the play, but in the third act, while uttering the words, " Villain, be sure," &c., he fell exhausted into the arms of his son, who acted lago, and was borne from the stage. This was his last ap- pearance before the public. Kean was short of stature, but well formed and graceful, and his eyes were singularly black and brilliant.