"
"Where shall I hit you, Mr. Kean?" inquired a provincial Laertes of
the great tragedian. "Where you _can_, sir," was the grim reply. For
Kean had acquired fencing under Angelo, and was proud of his
proficiency in the art. He delighted in prolonging his combats to the
utmost, and invested them with extraordinary force and intensity. On
some occasions he so identified himself with the character he
represented as to decline to yield upon almost any terms. Hazlitt
censures certain excesses of this kind which disfigured his
performance of Richard. "He now actually fights with his doubled
fists, after his sword is taken from him, like some helpless infant."
"The fight," writes another critic, "was maintained under various
vicissitudes, by one of which he was thrown to the earth; on his knee
he defended himself, recovered his footing, and pressed his antagonist
with renewed fury; his sword was struck from his grasp--he was
mortally wounded; disdaining to fall"--and so on. No wonder that many
Richmonds and Macduffs, after combating with Mr. Kean, were left so
exhausted and scant of breath as to be scarcely able to deliver
audibly the closing speeches of their parts.
Pages:
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457