Edmund Kean

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Edmund Kean

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Edmund Kean 1787?-1833, English actor. Kean's acting expressed the ideal of the romantic temperament. A small man with a wild spirit and a gruff voice, he was lauded for his facial mobility; according to Coleridge he had the power to reveal Shakespeare by "flashes of lightning." With his energy and violent emotions, Kean brought about a radical change in the prevailing classical style of the period.

Kean served an apprenticeship with groups of provincial and strolling players and in 1814 appeared at Drury Lane as Shylock, a triumph that is a landmark in the history of the theater. He further increased his reputation with portrayals of Richard III, Iago, Othello, Macbeth, Barabbas, and Sir Giles Overreach. In the United States in 1820-21 Kean had many triumphs, but a broken engagement in Boston ruined his popularity there.

Kean's personal life was as stormy as his career. In 1822 a suit against him for adultery resulted in his separation from his wife and son and hastened the disintegration of his reputation. In 1825 he again visited the United States and in some measure retrieved his reputation. After his return to England in 1826 his health and dramatic powers declined.

Bibliography: See biographies by H. N. Hillebrand (1933) and M. W. Disher (1950).

His son, Charles John Kean, 1811?-1868, went on the stage against his father's wishes. At his father's last appearance in 1833 he played Iago to his father's Othello at Covent Garden. He often played opposite his wife, Ellen Tree Kean, 1808-80, a noted comedienne, whom he married in 1842.

Bibliography: See the letters of C. and E. Kean, ed. by J. M. D. Hardwick (1954).

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Kean, Edmund

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Kean, Edmund (1787/90–1833), a great tragic actor who first achieved fame in 1814 as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. His son, Charles John Kean (1811–68), was also an actor, and manager of the Princess's Theatre, 1851–9.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Kean, Edmund." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Jul. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Kean, Edmund." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (July 5, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-KeanEdmund.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Kean, Edmund." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved July 05, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-KeanEdmund.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Romantic actors and bardolatry; performing Shakespeare from Garrick to Kean.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 8/1/2008
Free Article The cult of Kean.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 2/1/2007
Free Article Edmund. (poem)
Magazine article from: The Antioch Review; 3/22/1995

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Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

Romantic actors and bardolatry; performing Shakespeare from Garrick to Kean.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 8/1/2008; 139 words ; ...actors and bardolatry; performing Shakespeare from Garrick to Kean. Woo, Celestine. Peter Lang Publishing Inc 2008 209 pages $69...contributions of David Garrick, John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons and Edmund Keane she reveals how Shakespeare was commodified, consecrated... Read more
The cult of Kean.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 2/1/2007; 160 words ; 0754656500 The cult of Kean. Kahan, Jeffrey. Ashgate Publishing...how nineteenth-century actor Edmund Kean affected no less than Byron...U. of La Verne) explores how Kean's acting style was so affecting...audiences and titillation, how Kean's son attempted to make him... Read more
Edmund. (poem)
Magazine article from: The Antioch Review; 3/22/1995; ; 241 words ; ...began to use him as you would a Geiger counter - Edmund, Edmund, Edmund, more rapidly the name came as we followed the halls...how much this scene derives from one in The Shining ( Edmund / redrum ) in which never-dull Jack the failed writer...the decaying mother upstairs. But I'm still puzzled. ... Read more
(book reviews)
Magazine article from: National Catholic Reporter; 11/21/1997; ; 77 words ; J.J. Kean, Naples, Fla. Overcoming Evil With Good: The Edmund Rice Story, by James A Houlihan, TSJ Graphics and Printing...Brothers of Ireland, and the Presentation Brothers. Blessed Edmund Rice was a husband, father and businessman whose congregations... Read more
Dumas gastronomique.(Alexandre Dumas)(Critical essay)(Biography)
Magazine article from: New Criterion; 2/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...moving in the same direction. Their inspiration was William Shakespeare, as presented in Paris by Harriet Smithson, Edmund Kean, and the rest of an all-star company from Great Britain. Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and the others, including... Read more
The Piozzi Letters: Correspondence of Hester Lynch Piozzi,1774-1821 (Formerly Mrs. Thrale), 1817-1821, vol. 6.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 10/1/2004; ; 545 words ; ...Gayeties and extinguished the Hopes of Public and Private so completely as this' (p. 131). The new theatrical sensation, Edmund Kean, performs King Lear to rapturous acclaim, leaving the old theatrical sensation, John Philip Kemble, playing his Lear... Read more
Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy.
Magazine article from: National Review; 6/21/1993; ; 700+ words ; ...wrote An Apology for Shylock, giving persecution and suffering as an excuse for his bad behavior. In 1814 the actor Edmund Kean discarded Shylock's traditional comic red wig and made him dark, dignified, and tragic. Three years later the critic... Read more
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