The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-04-30
EDMUND KEAN.
A Short Sketch of a. Noted Actor.
Press.

Albany Press.
The next great event was the engage
ment of Edmund Kean, who openea
Monday, December 5, as "Richard ILL.,"
This marvellous actor was now about forty
years old, and already past his best estate,
but still possessed ofpowers that were sim
ply wonderful. Who was his father, when
he was born, and where that event took
pace are still questions uponwhich there
is dispute. He was never certain ever who
his mother was; but she was one of two
actresses. Abandoned in infancy, he was
at three years Of age a Cupid in the ballet
at the London ~opera-l.ouse, and at five
an imp in the witch's scene in Macbeth.
He was weak and sickly, and his legs
were only saved from deformity by the
use of irons. &c led a most wretched
life. He grew up on the stage; was a
harlequin, a contortionist, a tight-rope
dancer and played anything and every
thing. He was always Of diminutive
stature. Once when he was playing
Alexander the Great he was tainted
by officers in a stage box, who
called him ALEXANDER the Little"
Eyes" was his noted reply, given with a
look that fairly appalled, them, "but with
ag~eat soul" At last, after a most pitiful
life as a strolling player, on the Goth of
January, 1914, he appeared at Drury
Lane as Shvlock, and with one bound
leaped to the highest pinnacle of success.
At the second performance the theatre
over6owed for the first time in months.
He became the lion of the day. Poets,
statesmen and mobiles crowded his DRESS
ing-room and invited him to be their guest.
Lord Byron sent him presents and in
vited him to dinners. For several years
he reigned the undisputed monarch of
the English stage, the fire of genius and
the seemingly unstudied impulses
of nature lending a charm to his
acting that swept the formal attitudes
and stilted declarations of the Kimble
school into oblivion. Yet it is a mistake
to suppose that these efforts were not the
result of preparation. 1t is related of
him that when studying Maturin's "Ber-
tram" he shut himself up for two days to
| study the n line.
"Betram has kissed thy child"
But Kean could not bear prosperity.
Habits of dissipation, early contracted,
wrought out their inevitable ruin. He
seemed to prefer low society and would
quit the company of Lord Byron to con-
sort with pugilists!
He first visited America in 1920, play
ing in New York and Boston with i'm
mense success. In the latter city, in
particular, the Kean fever ragged violent
ly. When he returned, however, in the
summer of 1891 to play a second en-
gagement, the excitement had died away,
| and the weather being warm, his first
house was small and the third appearing
likely to be much smaller, he refused to
appear and left the theater. This was
construed as a fragrant insult, and exas-
perated the Bostoniants, to a high pitch
of indignation. Shortly after the return
to England, taking with him the toe
bone Of George Frederick Cooke, whose
remains he disinterred, and marked the
place of their later deposit with a mem
orial stone still to be seen in St. Paul's
churchyard in New York. This oe-bone
he made all his visitors kiss, as a relic of
Of the greatest actor that ever lived, till
Mrs. Kean, disgusted, threw it away,
%whereupon her husband wept and be-
moaned as if he had lost a fortune.
Soon after occurred his most shameful
and disgracetul liaism with the wife OF
Alderman Cox, followed by the suit of the
injured husband, who recovered a verdict
of $500 damages. The publicity of the
trial and its mass of public correspond
nee ruined Kean as a man and an actor.
He dared, however, to brave public cen
sure BY attempting to play, but was igno-
miniously driven from the stage. In q
measure he reinstated himself, but soon
after made his second visit to America,
and three weeks previous to his appear
ance in Albany played Richard (Novem-
Der 14) at the Park theatre in New York.
The insult to the Boston audience four
years previous was taken. up BY a party