The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-18 00:00:00

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

" King Lear " has now reached the eighteenth repeti-
tion, with, if possible, continually increasing effect, and is
announced in the bills for four nights weekly until further
notion. A. volume of commentary and a complete essay in
the actual state of the drama is comprised in this simple
fact.. The history of the play affords no earlier recordof
similar success, which can only in justice be attributed to
Mr. C. Kean's wonderful delineation of the principal cha-
racter. On this question, public opinion is as unanimous
as it is strongly expressed. The plaudits are as warm, and
the delight of successive audiences conveyed wish as much
favour as on the first representation, when they were
startled into enthusiasm by ono of those extraordinary
triumphs which make an era in the annals of dramatic art.
t
Mr. Kean's " Lear " is the subject of general conversation.f
All true admirers of Shakespere feel that is a study of
the
artexinamitisnealft,iown beforerequireshicliito m n b
e a n
understoodappre-
ciated in all its elaborate perfection. The representative
of this aged and irascible monarch, is not an actor who
contents himself with seizing the salient points of any
given part, and seeks to astonis by an occasional burst of
,Y vsits
and
or a m?t
intense passion or feeling. In every character he under-
takes he evidently aims at the production of a portrait,
equally considered in all its features down to the most ma
nuts &tail, drawn with the same distinctness in repose as
in action; true, natural, and identical, whether in the
calm or the whirwind. Original genius indulges in sur-
prising:effect, and often without apparent study or method,
but it requires a rare combination of conceptive power,
judgment, experience, and profound reflection, joined to
the most consummate knowledge of human nature in all
its labyrinth of varieties, to present such embodied reflec-
tions of Shakeepere's mind as these with what our present
unrivalled tragedian has enriched the modern stage
eclipsing the renown of the most celebrated of his prede-
cessors and utterly falsifying the assertions of many fond
and desponding worshippers of the past who have so often
declared that the glories of the stage had become 11101311-
mental, and that. the noble art of acting was verging to
extinction. While we render full justice to buried merit,
let us not do it at the expense of the living. We confess
that we are inclined to demur somewhat to the extravagant
superiority demanded upon traditional recollections of the
Betterton's, Booth's, and Garrick's of the last century.
We do not know how they acted Shakespere, but we know
what horrible mutilations they inflicted upon his immortal
text, and for how many years those spurious substitutes
received the stamp of currency. In those days there was
no general education and little refinement in taste. Our
forefathers were more easily pleased and astonished than
their exacting descendants. What appearedt marvellous
in the days of George 11. would not bo considered above
ordinary mediocrity in the reign of Queen Victoria. With
reference to the subject under immediate consideration,
we are old enough to remember all the great " Leers "
from John Kemble downwards, and we have seen none to
compete with Charles Kean. We speak of his performance
in what Coleridge calls its entirety. His usual in an analy-
sis of any particular piece of acting either for abstract
criticism or individual comparison, to select certain scenes
or speeches as illustrative of the whole. Mr. Kean's style in
general and most exclusively in Lear" baffles this prin-
ciple of investigation. We cannot dissect such a master-
piece as the last named, or offer instances of detached ex-
cellence, where all the components blend together in har-
monised beauty. The peculiar power of this great actor
is not evinced in the splendour of insulated passages, and
the critic who judges him by this rule will follow the
example of the pedant in Hierocles (as quoted by Dr.
Johnson in his preface to Shakespere), who when he
offered his house for sale carried a brick in his pocket as a
specimen. Without following this plan, we may remark
for a moment on Mr. Kean's most natural, and at the
same time artistical development of insanity, in its various
phases of approach, climax, and recovery. Can he have
derive I this mastery from philosophical enquiry alone, or
has he entered the walls of Bedlem and studied from the
life, as painters work from animated models ? " Hamlet"
has hitherto been considered the most perfect of his
Shakespereian portraits. On mature thought, we place
" Lear" above it as more complicated and difficult, and
demanding a superior exercise of mental and physical
power. When an actor of eminence retires from the scene
it has ever been the custom to predict that in certain cha-
racters he would find no successor. At the funeral of Gar-
rick a devoted partisan, with more zeal than wisdom,
suggested that the play of " Hamlet " should be buried in
his grave, Yet shortly after there came Henderson, and
close on his footsteps John Kemble, who inherited the
laurels of the deceased Rocius in that very part, while yet
his memory was green. When Cooke died in 1812 it was
loudly proclaimed that " Shylock " and " Richard " had
expired with him. But within two years up sprung Ed-
mund Kean and excelled him in both. He, too, has de-
parted anti the proud dynasty of the Ketnble's is theatri-
cally extinct; but in their places we have Charles Kean,
the worthy son of an illustrious sire, who has placed him-
self above competition in a long series of the finest parts
within the dramatic range ; and above all in the " Lear "
.of Shakespere, with which he is at present delighting the
town, and has established his reputation on an enduring
pedestal—not likely to be shaken.

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