tion suspended, not obliterated, by the distractions of the scene around him! The manner in which Mr. Kean acted in the scene of the Play before the King and Queen was the most daring of any, and the force and animation which he gave to it cannot be too highly applauded. Its extreme boldness "bordered on the verge of all we hate,' "1 and the effect it produced was a test of the extraordinary powers of this extraordinary actor.

We cannot speak too highly of Mr. Raymond's representation of the Ghost. It glided across the stage with the preternatural grandeur of a spirit. His manner of speaking the part was not equally excellent. A spirit should not whine or shed tears. [Miss Smith's Ophelia excited a high degree of interest, and was applauded as it deserved.]

3

Mr. Dowton's Polonius was unworthy of so excellent an actor. The part was mistaken altogether. Polonius is not exceedingly wise, but he is not quite a fool; or if he is, he is at the same time a courtier, and a courtier of the old school. Mr. Dowton made nothing, or worse than nothing, of the part.

MR. KEAN'S OTHELLO.

[Drury Lane] May 6.

4

OTHELLO was acted at Drury-Lane last night, the part of Othello by Mr. Kean. His success was fully equal to the arduousness of the undertaking. In general, we might observe that he displayed the same excellences and the same

1 An allusion to Pope's Moral Essays, ii, 52.

2 James Grant Raymond (1768-1817), whose real name was Grant, made his début at Drury Lane in 1799, and was stage-manager at the same theatre from 1810 till 1815.

3 Sarah Smith, afterwards Mrs. Bartley.

His voice and person

✓defects as in his former characters.

1

were not altogether in consonance with the character, nor was there throughout, that noble tide of deep and sustained ✓ passion, impetuous, but majestic, that "flows on to the Propontic, and knows no ebb," which raises our admiration and pity of the lofty-minded Moor. There were, however, repeated bursts of feeling and energy which we have never seen surpassed. The whole of the latter part of the third act was a master-piece of profound pathos and exquisite conception, and its effect on the house was electrical. The tone of voice in which he delivered the beautiful apostrophe, "Oh farewell! 2 struck on the heart and the imagination like the swelling notes of some divine music. The look, the action, the expression of voice, with which he accompanied the exclamation, "Not a jot, not a jot;"3 the reflection, "I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips;" and his vow of revenge against Cassio, and abandonment of his love for Desdemona, laid open the very tumult and agony of the soul. In other parts, where we expected an equal interest to be excited, we were disappointed; and in the common scenes, we think Mr. Kean's manner, as we have remarked on other occasions, had more point and emphasis than the sense or character required."

The rest of the play was by no means judiciously cast; indeed, almost every individual appeared to be out of his proper place.

1 An allusion to Othello, III, iii, 455-6.

2 Othello, III, iii, 347-57.

3 Ibid., III, iii, 215.

4 Ibid., III, iii, 341.

5 For a fuller account of Mr. Kean's Othello, see one of the last articles in this volume. [W. H.] See pp. 149-51, post.

MR. KEAN'S IAGO.

[Drury Lane] May 9.

1

THE part of Iago was played at Drury-Lane on Saturday by Mr. Kean, and played with admirable facility and effect. It was the most faultless of his performances, the most consistent and entire. Perhaps the accomplished hypocrite was never so finely, so adroitly portrayed—a gay, light-hearted monster, a careless, cordial, comfortable villain. The preservation of character was so complete, the air and manner were so much of a piece throughout, that the part seemed more like a detached scene or single trait, and of shorter duration than it usually does. The ease, familiarity, and tone of nature with which the text was delivered, were quite equal to any thing we have seen in the best comic acting. It was the least overdone of all his parts, though full of point, spirit, and brilliancy. The odiousness of the character was in fact, in some measure, glossed over by the extreme grace, alacrity and rapidity of the execution. Whether this effect were "a consummation of the art devoutly to be wished," is another question, on which we entertain some doubts. We have already stated it as our opinion, that Mr. Kean is not a literal transcriber of his author's text; he translates his characters with great freedom and ingenuity into a language of his own; but at the same time we cannot✅ help preferring his liberal and spirited dramatic versions, to the dull, literal, commonplace monotony of his competitors. Besides, after all, in the conception of the part, he may be right, and we may be wrong. We have before complained that Mr. Kean's Richard was not gay enough," and we

1 May 7.

3 See ante, P. 9.

2 An allusion to Hamlet, III, i, 63-4.

should now be disposed to complain that his Iago is not grave enough.1

Mr. Sowerby's Othello,2 we are sorry to add, was a complete failure, and the rest of the play was very ill got up.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

3

[Covent Garden] November 16, 1813.

SHAKESPEARE's tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra was brought out last night at Covent-Garden with alterations, and with considerable additions from Dryden's All for Love.* The piece seems to have been in some measure got up for the occasion, as there are several claptraps in the speeches, which admit of an obvious allusion to passing characters and events, and which were eagerly seized by the audience. Of the execution of the task which the compiler has imposed upon himself, we cannot speak in terms of much praise. Almost all the transpositions of passages which he has attempted, are, we think, injudicious and injurious to the effect. Thus the rich and poetical description of the person of Cleopatra, in the beginning of the second act"The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, burned on

Mr. Whitbread stated at a meeting of proprietors, September 2, 1814, that the first 140 nights of the season had resulted in a very considerable loss. Kean's brilliant success was the saving of the theatre. The takings on his first night amounted to only £164, and on the second night to £325. The average receipts on the sixty-eight nights when he performed during his first season was £484 9s., and the average on the nights when he did not play was only £211 13s. 3d.

2 His fifth performance of the part.

3 Monday, November 15.

4 All for Love; or, The World Well Lost, 1678.

5 Genest says, "This alteration is attributed to Kemble” (English Stage, viii, 419).

the water," etc. which prepares the way for, and almost seems to justify, the subsequent infatuation of Antony, is here postponed till near the catastrophe, where it answers no end, and excites little interest. It would also have been much better, if the author had contented himself merely with omitting certain passages, which he might deem objectionable to a modern audience, without encumbering either the plot or dialogue with any foreign interpolation. He might have separated the gold of Shakespeare from the alloy which at times accompanies it, but he ought not to have mixed it up with the heavy tinsel of Dryden. We cannot approve of the attempt to effect “an amalgamation of the wonderful powers "2 of these writers, who are, in the preface to the printed play, classed together as "two of England's greatest poets." There is not the slightest comparison between them, either in kind or degree. There is all the difference between them, that can subsist between artificial and natural passion. Dryden never goes out of himself; he is a man of strong sense and powerful feeling, reasoning upon what he should feel in certain situations, and expressing himself in studied declamation, in general topics, expanding and varying the stock of his own ideas, so as to produce a tolerable resemblance to those of mankind in different situations, and building up, by the aid of logic and rhetoric—that is, by means of certain truths and images, generally known and easily applied—a stately and impressive poem. Whereas Shakespeare does not suppose himself to be others, but at once becomes them. His imagination passes out of himself into them, and as it were, transmits to him their feelings and circumstances. Nothing is made out by inference and analogy, by climax and antithesis, but all comes immediately from nature—the thoughts,

1 Ant. and Cle., 11, ii, 196-7.

2 This passage is quoted in The European Magazine as an amalgamation of wonderful poetical powers." The editor has not met with a copy of this edition.