The herald., 1898-06-05
CALENDAR FOR THE WEEK
repertory.

Thomas w. Keene, actor, died on the 1st
inst. at New Brighton. S. l.. after undergo
ing an operation for appendicitis. Mrs.
Keene and the actors brother and sister,
William EaSl"son and Margaret Eaglescn,
were at his bedside. Mr.. Keene, whose
right name was Thomas r. Eagleson, re-
sided at Four Corners, Staten Island
where he owned a pretty homestead. He
was born in New York city October 26,
1912. His father was journalist and a
member of the staff of the old Courier and
Enquirer when that paper was edited by
James Watson Webb. Mr.. Keene made his
first appearance on the stage in 1865, at the
Old Bowery theater, then under the man
agement of John Brougham, in a play
called ''The Gunmaker of Moscow" He
leaves a widow, son and daughter, the lat
ter being the wife of Edward Arden, an
actor, at present in Paris.
Mr.. Keene first came into prominence
on this coast in the early '70s, when he
took place in the fine stock company
that gave reputation to the old Califor-
mia theater in San Francisco. That was
the time when such men and women as
John Mccullough, Lawrence Barrett, Tom
Keene. Henry Edwards, Barton Hill, j. c.
Williamson William Raymond. Rober,
Pateman, Lewis Morrison, Ella Wilton
Maggie Moore, Mrs. Judah and Elizabeth
Saunders were the prominent people in a
company that was considered second to
none in America.
Among other excellent performances
remember particularly one of Julius Cae-
sar.' in which Mccullough Lawrence Bar
rett and Keene took the three leading roles
The impression that Keene then made on
me was that of an actor inclined to pa
rade his own personality in the form of
leather-lunged outbursts, which were
hugely applauded by the people in the
gallery and many others of those pres
ent. The contrast in his acting, as COM
pared with his chief associates, made this
tendency to rant particularly conspicu-
ous-McCullough was polished and self
controlled and Barrett was almost icy in
his deliberate and lofty way
Keene might have developed into a ca
pable actor had he but been under proper
restraining influences, but he early fell IA
victim to his craving for applause, and thu
steadily deteriorated instead of improv-
ing. Nothing is easier than the task of
obtaining a certain kind of applause which
upon exhibitions of loudness. physical
combnts. rant and bombast The actor
who yields to the desire for such applause
is sure to become degraded in his art
Perhaps the strongest satire upon
Keenes work was that made by himself
when in the character of Hamlet, which
was one of his favorite impersonations, he
would give the advice to the players: "Sut
the action to the word, the word to the
action; with this special observance, that
YOU o'erstep not the modesty of nature.
O, there be players that I have
seen play-and heard others praise, and
that highly-not to speak it profanely,
that. neither having the accent of Chris
tians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan nor
man, have so strutted and beloved, that
have thought some of natures Journey
men had made men, and not made them
well. they initiated humanity so aDomin-
ably" Keene would get these speeches
off very gravely and with apparent uncon-
sciousness of the fact that in his own bel
lowings and struttngs he filled the de-
scription of the player condemned by the
bard. He grew so impressed with the con-
viction of his own powers that he did not
hesitate to have himself announced as "the
eminent tragedan, who is by common con-
sent recognized as the last of the great
actors of the school of Garrick, Edmund
kean, the elder Booth and Edwin For
rest" and this publication was made IN
Edwin Booths lifetime! Where the com
mon consent came from that recognized
him so completely has never been discov-
cred
Keene's start as Il star was heralded by
vast amount of circus-lke printing ir
colors, which was unusual at that time.
Cole, the circus man, was his backer, and
used his own methods in advancing his
protege. with great success. "Richard III"
was Keene's masterpiece of fustian art
and in it he reveled. His other favorite
Shakespearean characters We're Shylock,
Hamlet and Marc Antony. He also de-
lighted in Louis XI and in Rchelieu. His
playing along the lines of all these char
acters was distinguished by lack of
subtlety as well as by false elocu-
ton and abundance of unnatural noise
AS one of his critics once said of his Rich
elieu: "If Bulwer had written Richie
lieu as startling melodrama with a real
tank, a practical buzz-saw and star race
horse, Thomas w. Keene would have been
just the man to play the leading charac-
ter" The utmost praise that he received
for this part was that he was consistently
STACEY in it from beginning to end.
In one sense 1t may be hoped that Keene
is about the last of dying school of
Legitimate actors" whose exaggeration,
rant and bombast have done so much to
bring the legitimate school into disfavo-.
The reaction that brought to the front .he
actors who cut up the magnificent blank
verse of Shakespeare into little prose
lengths Is not to be wondered at. But tn
realist of today is as far from the truth
as the ranter of yesterday Poetic ideals
are not to be swept away by torrents of
ignorant vociferation. nor turned into pro-
sale channels by the weak dam of the
eftete iconoclast.
Mr.. Keene's life work is finished and he
Is to be credited with manllness in his
career and with leaving the reputation of
being "a whOle-souled fellow" Mistak-
en- as he was as an artist he had yet
shrewdness enough to pursue the course
which resulted in the accumulate of
considerable fortune, thus demonstrating
that business and artistic methods do not
always trot in double harness.
The ideal conception of the usefulness of |
the stage in one of its aspects as an edu- |