The Sun. — 1835-06-18 (London, England)

THEATRE-ROYAL, LIVERPOOL.  Mr. Kean's engagement closed on Friday night, with Richard 111., and on the preceding Monday he played King John for his benefit, when he was honoured with a highly respectable audience. This play has not been very recently performed on the Liverpool stage. It is by no means so well adapted for representation as most of the other productions of our great bard. The dramatic unities of time, place, and action, arc sadly violated, one scene being laid in France, and the following one in England. Still there are passages in King John not excelled for power and grandeur by anything in the writings of Shakspeare. We confess that we trembled for the success of Mr. Kean in this part, having previously seen it in the hands of Macready and Vandenhoff, and there being in it little of that spirit-stirring action and energy, adapted to Mr. Kean's genius and style of actin-. He came through the trying ordeal, however, most triumphantly, and so powerful was the effect of his performance on the house, that when the curtain fell the cries for Mr. Kean became deafening; he was obliged at length to come forward and receive the congratulations of the audience. All the characters on that evening were most creditably sustained, while the hero shone with especial lustre. Some of the scenes were fully equal to any portions of his Hamlet, which we consider the ne plus ultra of the art. To particularize the gems which sparkled throughout the tragedy, is almost superfluous, yet we cannot avoid mentioning two or three, which struck us as being pre-eminently brilliant. The address to the citizens of Angiers, urging them to open their gates and admit the English force, was a beautiful specimen of elocution, and warmly applauded. In the scene between Cardinal Pandulph and the French King, his manner of taunting the Pope's Legate, and his refusal to acknowledge the authority of the Pope, were equally fine. When the Cardinal at length succeeds in drawing the French Monarch from the league, Mr. Kean's denunciation— " France, thou shalt rue this hour within the hour !"  told admirably. In the great scene with Hubert, where he urges the latter to undertake the murder of the young Prince, Mr. Kean put forth all his powers. The dark hints with which he prefaced the disclosure of his murderous project—the manner in which he strove to win Hubert to his purpose, by professions of attachment and reward—the basilisk style in which he eyed the young Prince, and his exclamation— " He is a very serpent in my way, And whereso'er this foot of mine doth tread, He lies before me !" were redolent of genius, and the effect was indescribable. His manner of uttering the word " Serpent" told that the fate of his victim was sealed. When at length Hubert, after considerable coyness, professes to understand him, Mr. Kean said— " Enough 1 I could be merry now—Hubert, I love thee," in a way which developed the load of anguish and suspense which that declaration removed from his mind. But the great triumph of Mr. Kean was in the last scene. Any thing more perfectly harrowing we never witnessed. The manner in which he uttered, under the operation of the poison,—.  " There is so hot a summer in my bosom, That all my bowels crumble up to dust : I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen Upon a parchment ; and against this fire Do I shrink up," will leave an impression upon all who heard it not to be effaced. So acute was the sense of suffering under which he appeared to labour, that the audience felt a real relief when death terminated his agonies—no slight compliment to the powers of Mr. Kean over the feelings of the human heart. We take leave of Mr. Kean with sincere regret, and for the satisfaction which he has afforded us in some of the most transcendent of Shakspeare's characters, we are duly grateful. He is unquestionably the Shakspearian actor of the day. How strange that while the London critics are loudly complaining of the decline of the drama, and the paucity of talent to support its drooping head, one of its brightest ornaments is permitted to roam over the provinces, instead of holding his rank on the metropolitan boards. A short time must however, see him maintain that post in our national theatres, to which his acomplishments, his genius, his devoted attachment and unremitting industry in his profession, so fully qualify him to hold. —Liverpool Times.