It was in the impersonation of the great creations of Shakespeare's genius that the varied beauty and grandeur of the acting of Kean were displayed in their highest form, although probably his most powerful character was Sir Giles Overreach in Massinger's _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, the effect of his first impersonation of which was such that the pit rose _en masse_, and even the actors and actresses themselves were overcome by the terrific dramatic illusion. His only personal disadvantage as an actor was his small stature. His countenance was strikingly interesting and unusually mobile; he had a matchless command of facial expression; his fine eyes scintillated with the slightest shades of emotion and thought; his voice, though weak and harsh in the upper register, possessed in its lower range tones of penetrating and resistless power, and a thrilling sweetness like the witchery of the finest music; above all, in the grander moments of his passion, his intellect and soul seemed to rise beyond material barriers and to glorify physical defects with their own greatness. Kean specially excelled as the exponent of passion. In Othello, Iago, Shylock and Richard III., characters utterly different from each other, but in which the predominant element is some form of passion, his identification with the personality, as he had conceived it, was as nearly as possible perfect, and each isolated phase and aspect of the plot was elaborated with the minutest attention to details, and yet with an absolute subordination of these to the distinct individuality he was endeavouring to portray. Coleridge said, "Seeing him act was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." If the range of character in which Kean attained supreme excellence was narrow, no one except Garrick has been so successful in so many great impersonations. Unlike Garrick, he had no true talent for comedy, but in the expression of biting and saturnine wit, of grim and ghostly gaiety, he was unsurpassed. His eccentricities at the height of his fame were numerous. Sometimes he would ride recklessly on his horse Shylock throughout the night. He was presented with a tame lion with which he might be found playing in his drawing-room. The prizefighters Mendoza and Richmond the Black were among his visitors. Grattan was his devoted friend. In his earlier days Talma said of him, "He is a magnificent uncut gem; polish and round him off and he will be a perfect tragedian." Macready, who was much impressed by Kean's Richard III. and met the actor at supper, speaks of his "unassuming manner ... partaking in some degree of shyness" and of the "touching grace" of his singing. Kean's delivery of the three words "I answer--NO!" in the part of Sir Edward Mortimer in _The Iron Chest_, cast Macready into an abyss of despair at rivalling him in this rôle. So full of dramatic interest is the life of Edmund Kean that it formed the subject for a play by the elder Dumas, entitled _Kean on désordre et génie_, in which Frederick-Lemaître achieved one of his greatest triumphs. Entry: KEAN
COOKE, GEORGE FREDERICK (1756-1811), English actor, was born in London, and made his first appearance on the stage in Brentford at the age of twenty as Dumont in _Jane Shore_. His first London appearance was at the Haymarket in 1778, but it was not until 1794 in Dublin, as Othello, that he attained high rank in his profession. In 1801 he appeared in London as Richard III., Iago, Shylock and Sir Giles Overreach, and became the rival of Kemble, with whom, however, and with Mrs Siddons, he acted from 1803. His intemperate habits unfortunately grew more and more notorious, and on at least one occasion the curtain had to be rung down owing to the audience hissing his drunken condition. He visited the United States in 1810, and died in New York on the 26th of September 1811. A monument to his memory was erected in St Paul's churchyard there by Edmund Kean. Entry: COOKE
BARRETT, LAWRENCE (1838-1891), American actor, was born of Irish parents in Paterson, New Jersey, on the 4th of April 1838. His family name was Brannigan. He made his first stage appearance at Detroit as Murad in _The French Spy_ in 1853. In December 1856 he made his first New York appearance at the Chambers Street theatre as Sir Thomas Clifford in _The Hunchback_. In 1858 he was in the stock company at the Boston Museum. He served with distinction in the Civil War as captain in the 28th Massachusetts infantry regiment. From 1867 to 1870, with John McCullough, he managed the California theatre, San Francisco. Among his many and varied parts may be mentioned Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Shylock, Richard III., Wolsey, Benedick, Richelieu, David Garrick, Hernani, Alfred Evelyn, Lanciotto in George Henry Boker's (1823-1890) _Francesca da Rimini_, and James Harebell in _The Man o' Airlie_. He played Othello to Booth's Iago and Cassius to his Brutus. He acted in London in 1867, 1881, 1883 and 1884, his Richelieu in Bulwer Lytton's drama being considered his best part. He wrote a life of Edwin Forrest in the _American Actors Series_ (Boston, 1881), and an admirable sketch of Edwin Booth in _Edwin Booth and his Contemporaries_ (Boston, 1886). He died on the 20th of March 1891. Entry: BARRETT
While the modern drama appeared to have relapsed into a comatose condition, poetic and romantic drama was giving some signs of life. At the Lyceum in 1871 Henry Irving had leapt into fame by means of his performance of Mathias in _The Bells_, an adaptation from the French of Erckmann-Chatrian. He followed this up by an admirably picturesque performance of the title-part in _Charles I._ by W. G. Wills. In the autumn of 1874 the great success of Irving's Hamlet was hailed as the prelude to a revival of tragic acting. As a matter of fact, it was the prelude to a long series of remarkable achievements in romantic drama and melodrama. Irving's lack of physical and vocal resources prevented him from scaling the heights of tragedy, and his Othello, Macbeth, and Lear could not be ranked among his successes; but he was admirable in such parts as Richard III., Shylock, Iago and Wolsey, while in melodramatic parts, such as Louis XI. and the hero and villain of _The Lyons Mail_, he was unsurpassed. Mephistopheles in a version of _Faust_ (1885), perhaps the greatest popular success of his career, added nothing to his reputation for artistic intelligence; but on the other hand his Becket in Tennyson's play of that name (1893) was one of his most masterly efforts. His management of the Lyceum (1878-1899) did so much to raise the status of the actor and to restore the prestige of poetic drama, that the knighthood conferred upon him in 1895 was felt to be no more than an appropriate recognition of his services. But his managerial career had scarcely any significance for the living English drama. He seldom experimented with a new play, and, of the few which he did produce, only _The Cup_ and _Becket_ by Lord Tennyson have the remotest chance of being remembered. Entry: P
BOOTH, EDWIN [THOMAS] (1833-1893), American actor, was the second son of the actor Junius Brutus Booth, and was born in Belair, Maryland, on the 13th of November 1833. His father (1796-1852) was born in London on the 1st of May 1796, and, after trying printing, law, painting and the sea, made his first appearance on the stage in 1813, and appeared in London at Covent Garden in 1815. He became almost at once a great favourite, and a rival of Kean, whom he was thought to resemble. To Kean's Othello nevertheless he played Iago on several occasions. Richard III., Hamlet, King Lear, Shylock and Sir Giles Overreach were his best parts, and in America, whither he removed in 1821, they brought him great popularity. His eccentricities sometimes bordered on insanity, and his excited and furious fencing as Richard III. and as Hamlet frequently compelled the Richmond and Laertes to fight for their lives in deadly earnest. Entry: BOOTH
Probably his irregular habits were prejudicial to the refinement of his taste, and latterly they tended to exaggerate his special defects and mannerisms. The adverse decision in the divorce case of Cox v. Kean on the 17th of January 1825 caused his wife to leave him, and aroused against him such bitter feeling, shown by the almost riotous conduct of the audiences before which he appeared about this time, as nearly to compel him to retire permanently into private life. A second visit to America in 1825 was largely a repetition of the persecution which, in the name of morality, he had suffered in England. Some cities showed him a spirit of charity; many audiences submitted him to the grossest insults and endangered his life by the violence of their disapproval. In Quebec he was much impressed with the kindness of some Huron Indians who attended his performances, and he was made chief of the tribe, receiving the name Alanienouidet. Kean's last appearance in New York was on the 5th of December 1826 in Richard III., the rôle in which he was first seen in America. He returned to England and was ultimately received with all the old favour, but the contest had made him so dependent on the use of stimulants that the gradual deterioration of his gifts was inevitable. Still, even in their decay his great powers triumphed during the moments of his inspiration over the absolute wreck of his physical faculties, and compelled admiration after his gait had degenerated into a weak hobble, and the lightning brilliancy of his eyes had become dull and bloodshot, and the tones of his matchless voice marred by rough and grating hoarseness. His appearance in Paris was a failure owing to a fit of drunkenness. His last appearance on the stage was at Covent Garden, on the 25th of March 1833 when he played Othello to the Iago of his son Charles. At the words "Villain, be sure," in scene 3 of act iii., he suddenly broke down, and crying in a faltering voice "O God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles," fell insensible into his son's arms. He died at Richmond on the 15th of May 1833. Entry: KEAN
In 1878 Irving opened the Lyceum under his own management. With Ellen Terry as Ophelia and Portia, he revived _Hamlet_ and produced _The Merchant of Venice_ (1879). His Shylock was as much discussed as his Hamlet had been, the dignity with which he invested the Jew marking a departure from the traditional interpretation of the rôle, and pleasing some as much as it offended others. After the production of Tennyson's _The Cup_, a revival of _Othello_ (in which Irving played Iago to the Othello of Edwin Booth) and of _Romeo and Juliet_, there began a period at the Lyceum which had a potent effect on the English stage. The Lyceum stage management, and the brilliancy of its productions in scenery, dressing and accessories, were revelations in the art of _mise-en-scène_. _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1882) was followed by _Twelfth Night_ (1884), _Olivia_--an adaptation of Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_ by W. G. Wills (1885); _Faust_ (1886); _Macbeth_ (1888): _The Dead Heart_, by Watts Phillips (1889); and _Ravenswood_--Herman Merivale's dramatic version of Scott's _Bride of Lammermoor_ (1890). Fine assumptions in 1892 of the characters of Wolsey in _Henry VIII._ and of King Lear were followed in 1893 by a striking and dignified performance of Becket in Tennyson's play of that name. During these years too, Irving, with the whole Lyceum company, paid several visits to America, which met with conspicuous success, and were repeated in succeeding years. The chief remaining novelties at the Lyceum during Irving's sole managership (the theatre passed, at the beginning of 1899, into the hands of a limited liability company) were Comyns Carr's _King Arthur_ in 1895; _Cymbeline_, in which Irving played Iachimo, in 1896; Sardou's _Madame Sans-Gêne_ in 1897; _Peter the Great_, a play by Laurence Irving, the actor's second son, in 1898; and Conan Doyle's _Waterloo_ (1894). The new _régime_ at the Lyceum was signalized by the production of Sardou's _Robespierre_ in 1899, in which Irving reappeared after a serious illness, and in 1901 by an elaborate revival of _Coriolanus_. Irving's only subsequent production in London was Sardou's _Dante_ (1903), a vast spectacular drama, staged at Drury Lane. He died "on tour" at Bradford on the 13th of October 1905, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Entry: IRVING
Distinctiveness, as the primary requisite in dramatic characterization, is to be demanded in the case of all personages introduced into a dramatic action, but not in all cases in an equal degree. Schiller, in adding to the _dramatis personae_ of his _Fiesco_ superscriptions of their chief characteristics, labels Sacco as "an ordinary person," and this, no doubt, suffices for Sacco. But with the great masters of characterization a few touches, of which the true actor's art knows how to avail itself, distinguish even their lesser characters from one another; and every man is in his humour down to the "third citizen." Elaboration is necessarily reserved for characters who are the more important contributors to the action, and the fulness of elaboration for its heroes. Many expedients may lend their aid to the higher degrees of distinctiveness. Much is gained by a significant introduction of hero or heroine--thus Antigone is dragged in by the watchman, Gloucester enters alone upon the scene, Volpone is discovered in adoration of his golden saint. Nothing marks character more clearly than the use of contrast--as of Othello with Iago, of Ottavio with Max Piccolomini, of Joseph with Charles Surface. Nor is direct antithesis the only effective kind of contrast; Cassius is a foil to Brutus, and Leonora to her namesake the Princess. But, besides impressing the imagination as a conception distinct in itself, each character must maintain a consistency between its conduct in the action and the features it has established as its own. This consistency does not imply uniformity; for, as Aristotle observes, there are characters which, to be represented with uniformity, must be presented as uniformly un-uniform. Of such consistently complex characters the great critic cites no instances, nor indeed are they of frequent occurrence in Greek tragedy; in the modern drama Hamlet is their unrivalled exemplar; and Weislingen in Goethe's _Götz_, and Alceste in the _Misanthrope_, may be mentioned as other illustrations in dramas differing widely from one another. The list might be enlarged almost indefinitely from the gallery of female characters, in view of the greater pliability and more habitual dependence of the nature of women. It should be added that those dramatic literatures which freely admit of a mixture of the serious with the comic element thereby enormously increase the opportunities of varied characterization. The difficulty of the task at the same time enhances the effect resulting from its satisfactory accomplishment; and, if the conception of a character is found to meet a variety of tests resembling that which life has at hand for every man, its naturalness, as we term it, becomes more obvious to the imagination. "Naturalness" is only another word for what Aristotle terms "propriety"; the artificial rules by which usage has at times sought to define particular species of character are in their origin only a convenience of the theatre, though they have largely helped to conventionalize dramatic characterization. Lastly, a character should be directly effective with regard to the dramatic action in which it takes part--that is to say, the influence it exerts upon the progress of the action should correspond to its distinctive features; the conduct of the play should seem to spring from the nature of its characters. In other words, no characterization can be effective which is not what may be called economical, i.e. which does not strictly limit itself to suiting the purposes of the action. Even the minor characters should not idly intervene; while the chief characters should predominate over, or determine, the course of the action, its entire conception should harmonize with their distinctive features. It is only a Prometheus whom the gods bind fast to a rock, only a Juliet who will venture into a living death for her Romeo. Thus, in a sense, chance is excluded from dramatic action, or rather, like every other element in it, bends to the dramatic idea. Entry: 1
In 1868-1869 Edwin Booth built a theatre of his own--Booth's theatre, at the corner of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue, New York--and organized an excellent stock company, which produced _Romeo and Juliet_, _The Winter's Tale_, _Julius Caesar_, _Macbeth_, _Much Ado about Nothing_, _The Merchant of Venice_ and other plays. In all cases Booth used the true text of Shakespeare, thus antedating by many years a similar reform in England. Almost invariably his ventures were successful, but he was of a generous and confiding nature, and his management was not economical. In 1874 the grand dramatic structure he had raised was taken from him, and with it went his entire fortune. By arduous toil, however, he again accumulated wealth, in the use of which his generous nature was shown. He converted his spacious residence in Gramercy Park, New York, into a club--The Players'--for the elect of his profession, and for such members of other professions as they might choose. The house, with all his books and works of art, and many invaluable mementos of the stage, became the property of the club. A single apartment he kept for himself. In this he died on the 7th of June 1893. Among his parts were Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Iago, Shylock, Wolsey, Richard II., Richard III., Benedick, Petruccio, Richelieu, Sir Giles Overreach, Brutus (Payne's), Bertuccio (in Tom Taylor's _The Fool's Revenge_), Ruy Blas, Don Cesar de Bazan, and many more. His most famous part was Hamlet, for which his extraordinary grace and beauty and his eloquent sensibility peculiarly fitted him. He probably played the part oftener than any other actor before or since. He visited London in 1851, and again in 1880 and in 1882, playing at the Haymarket theatre with brilliant success. In the last year he also visited Germany, where his acting was received with the highest enthusiasm. His last appearance was in Brooklyn as Hamlet in 1891. Booth was twice married: in 1860 to Mary Devlin (d. 1863), and in 1869 to Mary F. McVicker (d. 1881). He left by his first wife one daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, who published _Edwin Booth: Recollections_ (New York, 1894). Entry: BOOTH