The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-21 00:00:00

Shakspere there is the exact costume, the exact
scenery, and the exact furniture of rooms which, we
have every reason to believe. from other sources,
existed at the time. (Cheers.) But he has done more;
he has introduced groups on the stage in a manner
approaching to the marvellous. The way they are
organised, drilled, brought upon the stage and
moved about without confusion, is worthy any
general in the service. (Laughter and cheers.) He
has, in acting Shakspere, answered the question of
the great Shakspere himself—
" Can this cock-pit hold the vasty fields of France ?"
Mr. Kean has proved that it can, and until he made
the attempt no one dreamt of such a thing. Well,
with what spirit has he entered upon his career ?
He has done so in no commercial spirit. (Cheers.)
Without neglecting the interests of his family—an
we should respect 'aim the less if he had neglected
them—he has been actuated by a pure love of his
art, by a love of his profession, and by a noble spirit.
(Cheers.) He no doubt feels the truth of the lines—
The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give,
For those who live to please must please to live."

By that sentiment he has been properly influenced;
but he has never allowed the love of gain to induce
him to swerve for one moment from that clear line
of duty which he has chalked out for himself. He
has followed his career regardless of every selfish
consideration, and I am Certain he has now his re-
ward in the approval and admiration of the public.
(Cheers.) At the same time his hand has ever been
open to assist the poor and needy, more especially
with regard to his own profession. (Cheers.)
I remember the meeting in the Princess's Theatre
about twelve months ago, when he eloquently
advocated the cause of the Draniatic College, and
proved not only that his eloquence and his ser-
vices were at the command of the charity, but that
his purse was equally so. (Cheers.) As our guest
has to follow me, I do not think I should be justi-
fied in adding one word more in advocating the
toast. You know his public merits ; many of you
know his private virtues—(cheers)—and therefore
I will only ask you to drink to the health of one
whose virtues and whose private character have
brought around him a wide circle of affectionate and
admiring friends—(cheers)—to one whose zeal in
his profession, amounting almost to enthusiasm,
has led him to prove that a theatre may be made,
not merely a vehicle for frivolous amusement,
or, what is worse, dissipation, but that it may be
erected into a gigantic instrument of education
for the instruction of the young, and for the edifi-
cation as well as the amusement of those of ma-
ture age. (Cheers.) I ask you to drink to his
health as one who has exalted the character of the
British drama. I ask you to drink his health as
one whose benevolence and charity many a down-
trodden brother and sister of his art has felt
and blessed. I, ask you to drink to the health of
one whose genius has illustrated and whose cha-
racter has elevated the profession to which he be-
longs. (Cheers.) Finally, I ask you to drink his
health as one whom I may term, if figuratively,
yet without exaggeration, the hierarch of that
glorious temple in which Shakspere is enshrined.
(Loud cheers.)
The toast was drunk with oft-repeated rounds of
applause, in which the ladies in the gallery cor-
dially joined.
The enthusiasm of the company having some-
what abated,
Mr. KEAN, on rising to return thanks, was rap-
turously applauded. He said—My Lords and
Gentlemen, when I entered this room and took my
seat in presence of this distinguished company, as
the invited guest of the evening, I felt and appre-
ciated at its full value, and, I trust, with becoming
pride, the flattering position to which your favour
has exalted me ; but it was impossible for me to
anticipate the kind and gracious eu'og,iums of
the noble chairman, so warmly and eloquently
expressed, and your enthusiastic response. lam
totally unable to thank you as I ought or as
I wish. I throw myself on your indulgence,
entreating you to believe in the sincerity of my
feebly uttered sentiments, and to pardon my poverty
of language in consideration of the overflow of my
heart. (Cheers.) Amongst the leading influences of
human character the ties of kindred occupy a fore-
most rank ; next to these, perhaps, may be placed
the associations of boyhood, the remembrance of
those happy days, at school or college, when life
" first put forth the tender leaves of hope "—when
all was spring and sunshine—when our young
minds were engrossed with the present, and the
gathering clouds of the future were unseen or dis-
regarded. All these thronging visions of the past
come back upon me at this moment, after the lapse
of more than 30 years, with the freshness of yes-
terday, and with that pure enjoyment which
only such revived feelings can impart, as I
look upon many of the faces by which I am sur-
rounded, and consider the originating impulse
that gave rise to the present brilliant assem-
blage. (Cheers.) To be thus recognised and pre-
Ben' ed, as it were, anew to the public as the fellow-
student and early companion of men who have
inherited or achieved the highest honours and the
purest fame—men as universally esteemed for their
talents, their integrity, and their benevolence, as
for their exalted rank and social importance—such
a crowning episode in the pilgrimage of life is
surely more than enough to compensate for years
of toil, and to obliterate for ever the memory of
past struggles, anxieties and disappointments.
(Cheers.) How, also, am Ito find words in which
to convey my sense of obligation to my unswerving
patrons and supporters—the public ; that public
who have so frankly and generously responded to
the present call, and whose co-operation was ever
ready to promote what I conscientiously believed
to be the blending of their most intellectual recrea-
tion with a true development of the best purposes
of our national drama. Let me offer to their repre-
sentatives here my heartfelt gratitude—

" Only I have left to say
More is thy due than more than all can pay."

You have done me a great honour—the greatest
possible honour that could be conferred on a mem-
ber of the theatrical profession, and thus on the
dramatic art itself—that art the progress and pro-
sperity of which cannot be otherwise than a sub-
ject of interest to every reflecting and educated
mind ; for the legitimate object of the drama is to
contribute to the intellectual culture of mankind—
to expose to view the secret springs of action, the
most minute vibrations of the human heart—to
exhibit the character of man under all its various
and conflicting passions—to inspire sentiments
which may serve the purposes of truth and morality,
whose end, as Shakspere has told us, both at the
first and now, was and is, "To hold as 'twere the
mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own fea-
ture, scorn her own image, and the very age and
body of the time its form and presstre." (Cheers.)
When these objects are not attained, the drama has
not fulfilled its mission. It is not because the
stage may be degraded from its higher purposes
that its beneficial influence should be over-
looked or rejected. (Cheers, and cries of
" Bravo !") All human institutions must neces-
sarily be defective In their organisation, compris-
ing within themselves mingled elements of good
and evil. Imperfect in their source, they cannot be
otherwise than imperfect in their exercise. The
effect depends upon the care with which these ele-
ments are regulated, and the utmost that can be
hoped for is a preponderance of good. Thus, in the
natural world, we find plants possessing the con:
traded ingredients of health and destruction.
Shakspere has described this in one of his most
familiar passages—

" Within the infant rind of this small flower
Poison bath residence and med'cine power;
Two such opposed foes encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will ;
And where the worscr is predominant •
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant."
These lines contain a brief but comprehensive moral,
which may be applied not only to the stage, but to
everything in life, of whatever class or quality. It
may be difficult to preserve a garden free from weeds,
but who for that reason would root up the flowers,
or abandon them to be choked ? That which con-
tains certain advantages to society at large surely
should not be disregarded as an instrument of good
because it is capable of misapplication. Its use and
not its abuse, should be rendered most prominent,
and its influence encouraged as a humanising agent
in embellishing life, refining taste, and imparting
knowledge. (Cheers.) Let it be remembered, iu
the words of our own immortal poet,

"It N iu ourselves that we are thus and thus ;',
and that

" There is good in everything."
(Cheers.) The love of the drama is inherent in our
nature, and must have been implanted there for
some beneficial purpose. For ages it has employed
the loftiest intellect and asserted universal sway
over the heart and mind of man. In no country
throughout the world, past' or present, has the
poetical drama reached such perfection as in
England, for the annals of genius and civilisation
include but one Shakspere. (Cheers.) A stream
of
_light has been poured upon the world's
surface by that bright luminary which no change
can darken no time can obliterate. (Cheers.)
He casts his' rays over the highest and the lowest ; hisinfluence is felt by every class and grade; his
judge, the statesman
authority has been appealed to by the advocate, the
fur-
nished texts for science,
and the divine; he has fur-
anndmeeo:•realigion itself. (Cheers.)
_philosophy, patriotism,
• affection, charity,
Truly has the grcat
,‘ Shakspere is a mine whileih,
Dr. Johnson, said,
Plenetontains gold and
His plays arc
diamonds in inexhaustible
entire system
filled with practical axioms and plenty.
c wisdom.
From his works may be collected a
of civil and economical prudence." And surely Dr.
Johnson 'was right, for where shall %s e find such
,:
boundless versatility of thought, and realm/17:g",