The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 1, 1869.

EDMUND KEAN'S DEBU7.

At Drury Lane nothing had for a long time suc-
ceeded till, on the 20th of January, 1814, a little
shabby man with fine eyes—a new recruit from
Exeter—appeared as Shylock. He was a poor
slighted actor, one Edmund Kean, who, only a few
weeks before, had entered Dorchester foot-sore and
hungry, carrying on his back his eldest child, who
was dying of whooping-cough. He bad been play-
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cheater had been lucky enough to catch the eye of
Mr. Arnold, the Drury Lane manager, who had
engaged "the great little man with the fine Italian
face," for a term of three years, at a salary rising
to ten pounds a week. "My God," he said, burn-
ing with ambition and brandy, for he already drank
hard, " if I should succeed now, I think it will drive
me mad."
A few nights after his child died : he drenched
himself with brandy, then, throwing himself on the
corpse, covered it with kisses, and swore he would
wake it from the dead. This child (Howard) had
acted with him at Teignmouth in "Pizarro " and
" Charon and Achilles."
At the time of his Drury Lane engagement Kean
was all but starving in his lodgings at No. 21, Cecil-
street, Strand. He had come up to town with bor-
rowed money, and he had not paid his rent for two
whole months; but the good old maid, his land-
lady, was merciful to the eccentric debtor, and, con-
trary to Mrs. Siddons, who had said, " There is too
little of him to do anything," prophesied his success
to his believing wife : "There is something about
Mr. Kean, ma'am," she said, " which tells me he
will be a great man."
" Richard the Third" was to have been the open-
ing play, but Kean was afraid of his stunted stature
being unfavourably contrasted with the heroic figure
of John Kemble, and he had therefore said, " Shy-
lock, or nothing !" The actors, at the rehearsal,
disliked his innovations, and Raymond, the stage-
manager, predicted his failure. As a class, actors
and stage-managers are liberal in such predictions,
and do not believe much in unrecognised genius.
Fuseli used to eat pork that he might dream of
devils ; Dryden took purges before writing au ode ;
Mossop had peculiar dishes for every character—
roast pig for tyrants, steaks before " Measure for
Measure," boiled mutton for "Romeo," and pudding
for " Tancred." Kean, so well inured to fasta, forti-
fied himself for once with good beefsteak and stout ;
then tied up his wig, collar, black silk stockings,
and red hat in a pocket-handkerchief, thrust them
into the pocket of a drab coat with great capes, and
saying he only wished he was going to be shot,
trudged through the snow on a cold, dismal, fore-
boding evening, to the bright, noisy theade.
There was a scanty but an appreciative audience.
Kean's generous friend and patron, Dr. Drury, of
Harrow (Byron's master), was there, and saw, the
moment Kean took his position and leaned upon his
cane, by his quick, flashing eye, and resolute
staccato manner—sinister, vigilant, hard, and re-
vengeful—that he meant to do or die : it was Caesar,
or nothing. The first scene went flat. In the
Lird act, with Tubal, however, he triumphed ; and
he trial scene brought down the house in glorious

hunder.
" That day," says Mr. Proctor, " he overcame

the Nervii."
Pope and Powell followed Kean to the humble
dressing-room which he shared with two or three
others, and uttered these delicious words , " You
have made a hit to-night, sir." " You have done
wonders, sir; you have saved the theatre."
Arnold, the manager, however, sent for Kean,
and said, " You have exceeded our expectations, sir.
'This play will be repeated next Wednesday."
In the meantime two kind fellow-lodgers at No.
21, Cecil-street, had hurried back to tell Kean's
anxious, half-despairing wife of his triumph. Pre-
sently upstairs raced Kean, wild with joy. "Mary,"
he cried, "my fortune's made. Now you shall ride
in your carriage." Then he caught Charles out of
his cradle, kissed him, and exclaimed, " Now, my
boy, you shall go to Eton ;" then he gave a deep
sigh, and said, " 0 that Howard was alive now !
but he is better where h 3 is." The happy couple sat
up all night castle-building.
On the second night of Shylock £325 was taken
at the doors. The public already felt a great dra-
matic genius had arisen to fill the vacant throne of
Garrick. After the third performance Whitbread
tore up the first contract and offered Kean £2O a
week. After six Shylock nights he essayed "Richard
the Third," terribly afraid of a failure. It was,
however, a great success. His Richard was not
princely, but it was satanic and terrible. The point
in the death-scene, where with savage impotence he
strikes at h's adversary after his own sword has
broken, Kean copied from the death of an officer in
Spain. Being pure nature, it was of course thought
by the more superfine critics to be vulgar and want-
ing in dignity. The fourth night Kean played
Richard the doorkeepers took £OOO ; the first night
he played Hamlet £660.
"I hear he is an admirable Harlequin," said an
envious actor. " That I'm certain of," replied
radiant, generous Jack Bannister, " for already he
has leaped over all our heads."
Gold now showered upon Kean as if he was a
second Danae. Ile is described by an eye-witness
as having bank-notes lying in heaps on his mantel-
piece, table, and sofa ; while Charles Kean, then a
little boy with rich curling hair, was playing with a
handful of guineas on the floor. Kean's first benefit
had produced about £1,150. Ladies were there,
who approached Mrs. Kean as if she had been a
divinity, and eyed. Charles, who had just mounted
a large wooden horse, as if he were a young Prince
of Denmark. An anonymous nobleman sent the
great actor £lOO ; Mr. Whitbread put a draft for
£5O iu Charley's hand ; Mrs. Coutta sent £5O ; the
Drury Lane committee presented the new actor not
long after with £5O ; and four of the shareholders
of the great th(atre gave him each a share. The
golden ball was at his feet; he bestrode the theatri-
cal world.

In January, 1816, Kean ascended another round
of Fame's ladder by acting " Sir Giles Overreach."
lle at once surpassed Kemble in his favourite part.
It was one of his most perfect performances, and
there was unity in it that was wanting in his Ham-
let and his Macbeth. My friend Dr. Doran, an ex-
cellent judge, who saw Kean in this part, especially
remembers the bad man's scornful answer to Lovel's,
" Are you not moved with the sad imprecations ?"
"'Yes, as rocks are
When foamy billows split themselves against
Their flinty ribs; or as the moon is moved,
When wolves, with hunger pio'd, howl at her brightness."
His voice was flute-like at the word " moon," creat-
ing a scene by a mere monosyllable ; the last line he
gave sharp and fiercely ; then, glancing upwards,
he threw supernatural music, that led every hearer
into fairyland, around the one final word " bright-
ness." During his last dying speech, Mrs. Glover,
who played with him, fainted from emotion; ladies
were seized with hysterics in the side-boxes ; and
Byron, who might have had too much claret at his
club, suffered what he was pleased to call " a con-
vulsion fit." The first night Kean played Sir Giles
the loving wife whom he afterwards so cruelly
wronged, eager for his return, met him at the door,
and saw victory in his eyes.
" Well, Edmund," said she, "what did Lord
Essex think of it ?" (Lord Essex was a hanger-on
of greenrooms.)
"D— Lord Essex, Mary," said the conqueror,
still flushed with his triumph, " the pit rose at me I"
—Walter Thornbury in Beitpatiht.

The Anzericd'n Artisan of March 10 hag an e 7.-
celleut illustration of Messrs. Vibley and Fade's in-
genious apparatus fur receiving and delivering mail bags
while a train is in rapid motion, which has been satisfac-
torily te,ted on the Boston and Albany Railroad.
,The
new method was tried on a train golng from Worcestar
depot.. "1113 s were taken up at Newtown Corner, New-
tonville, West Newton, and Natick, and at Auburndale a
basket containing a live dove, two bottles of wine,
crackers, wine glasses, cigars, &c., was suspended, and was
easily scooped up while the train was proceeding at its
average speed-33 miles an hour. The dove was un-
injured, and the bottles of wine were found intact. Wher-
ever the bags were suspended at the proper distance the
experiment was thoroughly successful."
G. Augustus Fuller, formerly of the Merchant
Union Express Company, has been appointed genotal
superintendent of the express buaiztess on the_ Erie Rail-
road, which will hereafter be tra4eaaetl by the CPPiapaDy.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

enlan nead-centres put togetne.r. It will be the
fault of the chief of the 13eresfords if Irishmen,
hungering for land, ask themselves why they should
be kept out of it while the owner of it is spending
the revenue derived from it in a foreign countJy, and
upon an adulteress.