derest sort; but some attempts were certainly made to whip the elements of knowledge into him. He was sent by Miss Tidswell to a little day-school in London; but he would not learn any thing. He hated most unfeignedly the confinement and labour of school, (probably he had tasted its discipline); and in this dislike originated that habit of running away from his friends when any thing went wrong, which never forsook him up to the day of his marriage. Instead of going to the little school, he would play truant for a couple of days at a time, and in the end quitted the "Academy," as little oppressed by learning, of any sort, as can well be imagined. He was afterwards at another school, in Chapel-street, Soho, kept by a Mr. King, where he remained between two and three years; but the amount of his progress there is not reported.

During the early years of his life, his

mother, after abandoning him to Miss Tidswell, pursued her usual itinerant habits; being sometimes with strolling companies at provincial theatres and fairs, and at others going from house to house with flowers, powder, pomatum, &c., for sale. When the boy grew old enough to accompany her, she took him with her; not for any assistance that he could render, but because of his appearance, which was in a high degree interesting, and promoted the sale of her wares. Previously

to this time, however, and, in fact, when he

was scarcely two years some opera as "Cupid."

of age, he appeared in

There is no doubt

but that his beauty, which in childhood was always remarkable, recommended him to this celestial post. Indeed, during the performance, some old lady, in the fulness of her dotage, inquired if he were "really a living child."

The following anecdote, given by Michael

Kelly in his "Reminiscences," differs little in effect from Kean's own recollections on the subject. He is speaking of the opera of "CYMON." Michael's style is incomparably more curious than the anecdote itself. If the latter part of the paragraph be true, our hero's gratitude must have commenced at the tender age of two years! "Before the piece was brought out, I had a number of children brought to me, that I might choose a Cupid. One struck me, with a fine pair of black eyes, who seemed, by his looks and little gestures, most anxious to be chosen as the little god of love. I chose him, and little did I then imagine that my little Cupid would eventually become a great actor: the then little urchin was neither more nor less thanEdmund Kean. He has often told me that he ever after this period (!) felt a regard for me, from the circumstance of my having preferred him to the other children. I con

sider MY having been the means of IN

TRODUCING THIS GREAT GENIUS TO THE

STAGE (!!!), one of my most pleasurable recollections." The reader has our full authority to laugh at this burlesque.

We afterwards (about 1794 or 1795) find Master Carey at Drury Lane, where he acted Blue Beard; not indeed the full-grown bloody bashaw, who cuts the matrimonial knot with such dexterity, but the innocent diminutive boy-Blue Beard, who, before the commencement of the tragedy, appears in perspective, riding over the hills. He also formed one of the band of little devils with which John Kemble enlivened one of the scenes in" Macbeth." Kean himself admitted this, and also that he tripped up his brother goblins,-"They fell like a pack of cards." Mr. Kemble was angry at the young actor's going out of his part, thumped him, and would not allow him again to mis

behave, as a spirit. Nevertheless, he afterwards filled a few child's parts at the same theatre. He played the Page in "Love makes a Man," the Page to Sir John Falstaff, and other things; relieving however the tedium of his existence by imitating Jack Bannister and other famous players. He also about this time began to recite Rolla's address to the Peruvians, Satan's address to the sun, and portions of Richard the Third, &c., at various places. Mrs. Charles Kemble recollects hearing a clanking noise at the theatre one night, and on inquiring as to the cause, was answered, "It is only little Kean reciting Richard the Third in the green-room; he's acting after the manner of Garrick. Will you go and see him? He is really very clever." And there he was," really very clever," acting to a semicircle of gazers, and exhibiting the fierceness, and possibly some of the niceties