"Hail to thee KEAN! for thou alone can'st raise THE revolutions in the Dramatic world, are as various as those in the political; he who towers to an eminence in either justly becomes the theme of the Biographer. In depicting the merits and peculiarities of those who fill our stage, who are as SHAKSPEARE emphatically observes, "the abstract and brief chronicles of the times," we commence with that performer, who is not by length of years the father of the stage, but who has suddenly swept all before him like an impetuous torrent. Mr. KEAN'S career has been marked by a dazzling brilliance that eclipses all his cotemporaries, and causes even those who are most vociferous in support of GARRICK's fame-immortal be that fame to admit that the subject of our inquiries, if he does not equal, at least approaches close to the qualities of that great actor, whose era forms as it were an epoch in the drama-and if we take a retrospective view bounds our horizon:-Beyond that horizon we look into a different dramatic age-Within that horizon we view CoOKE and KEMBLE soaring in dramatic majesty-on the extreme verge is GARRICK-but here, as the link that connects us with the whole, is KEAN. Had it not been for Mr. KEAN'S fortunate engagement at Drury Lane seven years since, ruin must speedily have desolated the concern-Boxes nearly empty,-a pit not half full-and the usually cheerless aspect of the house greeted him on his first appearance as Shylock, on the 26th of January 1814. It was not the first time the writer of this sketch had seen Mr. KEAN, and it was with no small gratification he found the expressions of approbation from the audience encreasing with every scene. It was directly admitted that Mr. KEAN'S acting was in an original style and peculiarly his own, there was a vigorous animation and fire thrown throughout the whole performance that commanded admiration, and at the same time it afforded to those who witnessed his first efforts in London, a striking contrast no doubt, to the elucidations of that heavy Actor Mr. Stephen Kemble, who had but recently been filling the character. However it was allowed universally, that Mr. Kean pourtrayed and his fame was soon rumoured abroad. Richard Duke of Gloucester was represented by him, for the first time, on the 12th of February following. This is a character he has so completely identified to reality, that in the mind of the dramatic admirer KEAN and Richard will ever be so associated that the mention of the one will simultaneously be connected with the other, for when we see him in the character we alone contemplate Mr. Kean has represented this character to nearly two hundred distinct London audiences, and his representation of it even to the last, seemed to afford fresh delight to Theatrical amateurs; the wily duplicity displayed in the scene with Lady Anne; his manner of sketching on the ground the plan for action with the point of his sword in thoughtful haste; are only two of the beauties that must be uppermost in the minds of those who have witnessed this performance. -But let us pass on to his Hamlet, which he represented on the 13th of March following.-Perhaps before we touch upon this we ought to admit that the objections which have so repeatedly been urged against Mr. KEAN's voice have hardly ever been felt; by us, at least, as of consequence except in this character. Hamlet is an individual wrapt up in contemplation, who thinks as it were aloud-therefore generally speaking, the thoughts should flow from the actor in a tranquil and clear tone, without that turgidity which sometimes hangs around Mr. KEAN'S enunciation; which always heightened his turbulent delineations of passion, but which occasionally obscured his calmer soliloquies. When we recollect, however, the brilliant expression of internal feeling that he appeared unable to repress in the scene where the Court witness the play, his whole delivery of the soliloquy-" To be, or, not to be," and subsequent coloquy with Ophelia, we need rake up no defects to mar his performance of this character. We now come to his Othello. We were amongst that crowd of persons who deemed themselves fortunate in witnessing his performance on the night when Iago was sustained by that child of controversy and managerial cupidity -now faded into "cold and silent neglect"-BOOтн; and certainly Mr. Kean never enacted the character with more effect. The look of unutterable feeling, and the tone of agony with which he uttered the words " Ha! false to me! to me!" and "I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips," were equal, if not superior, to any of the efforts of this great tragedian. Upon the whole his Othello may be classed among the best specimens of his histrionic powers-It is only inferior to his Richard. In Macbeth the dagger scene claims pre-eminence-but splendidly as this play was " got up," (to use a technical phraze) at Drury Lane, Mr. Kean sunk below his general scale of performance in depicting the " Thane of Cawdor." In the scene with the Witches he kept up the effect throughout with particular success-and at the banquet where the ghost of Banquo fills the vacant chair, we can point out no look, word, or action, that did not fully accord with the impressive terror of the scene. In the bustle of preparation he exhibited the full scope of his agility and power of action; and at his fall he painted the regret the fear-the horror of a guilty soul, in accents truly original.-Not as in Richard cursing with his last breath, and daring Heaven itself by his impiety, but full of remorse and terror-wishing to supplicate but not knowing how. Hoping, yet doubting if the mercy of Heaven be free enough to forgive him. He breathes his last in despairing hopelessness. Mr. KEAN'S acting throughout the whole of this scene was terrifically grand, and we think cannot possibly be surpassed. The characters in which he may be said to have failed were principally Romeo, Hotspur, Coriolanus, Zanga, and Penruddock-indeed for the former character he was wholly unfit, and who could witness the performance of the latter ones, without feeling the want of that majesty and grandeur with which Mr. KEMBLE has so recently personated them.-His Timon, Ludovico Sforza, Richard the II.,' King John, and the Jew of Malta, (1) although each contained the most sublime touches, proved unattractive,but this may principally be attributed to the heaviness of the respective pieces. His Bertram and Omreah, had each their beauties-but amongst modern plays his Brutus exceeds all other efforts: his sudden transition from his idiotcy to his full powers of mind-the scarcely concealed (1) A Cotemporary publication of that period observes, "that to point out every scene in which he excelled would be to insert half the piece, but his opening soliloquy with the Governor in which he is plundered of his money-in the subsequent tremendous curse-and in the night-scene with his daughter; he delighted the audience by a display of such acting as has rarely been exhibited even by him self." feelings the suppression of which seemed almost to convulse him during Tarquins declaration of his crime, the fine burst of passion that follows the recital, and the manner in the closing scene in which his voice clung to his throat whilst he stifled his feelings as it were by agonizing calmness, claims our highest admiration. Comedy was a line Mr. Kean only stepped into to serve occasional purposes, otherwise his Sylvester Daggerwood and Abel Drugger were good in themselves-but they were beneath the dignity of a tragedian of his eminence, but not so his Luke, and Reuben Glenroy:-The latter in many instances was a peculiar happy performance.-In Sir Giles Overreach Mr. KEAN resembled some ancient portrait kindled into life-he brought the very man before us-so va ried and alive was every part of his performance that it was more like a continued succession of striking pictures than aught else." A new way to pay old debts," is heavy in itself-to the acting alone must be attributed the pleasure afforded to crowded audiences. The Character as well as the diction allotted to it by Massinger, admitted of all those epigrammatic touches which characterize Mr. KEAN: A characteristic may be certainly pushed sometimes to a most woeful extent-in his starts and pauses-not unfrequently in attempting to create what has been termed a "New Reading" dividing a sentence into a manner just the reverse of the author's meaning, and after a dead pause, or after depressing his voice almost to a whisper, rushing onward with sudden vehemence till his declamation was but-rant. must admit that this has rather increased upon him latterly-but where are we to find the actor without imperfections? the very life and soul of acting consists in variation of tone-delivery-and gesture; monotony would be worse than the other extreme. However we may justly say of Mr. KEAN in the words of Churchill, "Where he falls short-'tis Nature's fault alone; Where he succeeds-the merit's all his own.' We It only remains for us to notice King Lear, a character the public had long been impatient to see Mr. KEAN sustain-and one which was indeed a truly fine performance; though in some parts we believe it fell rather short of the |