KAZINCZY, FERENCZ (1750-1831), Hungarian author, the most indefatigable agent in the regeneration of the Magyar language and literature at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, was born on the 27th of October 1759, at Ér-Semlyén, in the county of Bihar, Hungary. He studied law at Kassa and Eperies, and in Pest, where he also obtained a thorough knowledge of French and German literature, and made the acquaintance of Gideon Ráday, who allowed him the use of his library. In 1784 Kazinczy became subnotary for the county of Abaúj; and in 1786 he was nominated inspector of schools at Kassa. There he began to devote himself to the restoration of the Magyar language and literature by translations from classical foreign works, and by the augmentation of the native vocabulary from ancient Magyar sources. In 1788, with the assistance of Baróti Szabó and John Bacsányi, he started at Kassa the first Magyar literary magazine, Magyar Muzeum; the Orpheus, which succeeded it in 1790, was his own creation. Although, upon the accession of Leopold II, Kazinczy, as a non-Catholic, was obliged to resign his post at Kassa, his literary activity in no way decreased. He not only assisted Gideon Ráday in the establishment and direction of the first Magyar dramatic society, but enriched the repertoire with several translations from foreign authors. His Hamlet, which first appeared at Kassa in 1790, is a rendering from the German version of Schröder. Implicated in the democratic conspiracy of the abbot Martinovics, Kazinczy was arrested on the 14th of December 1794, and condemned to death; but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment. He was released in 1801, and shortly afterwards married Sophia Török, daughter of his former patron, and retired to his small estate at Széphalom or “Fairhill,” near Sátor-Ujhely, in the county of Zemplén. In 1828 he took an active part in the conferences held for the establishment of the Hungarian academy in the historical section of which he became the first corresponding member. He died of Asiatic cholera, at Széphalom, on the 22nd of August 1831.
Kazinczy, although possessing great beauty of style, cannot be regarded as a powerful and original thinker; his fame is chiefly due to the felicity of his translations from the masterpieces of Lessing, Goethe, Wieland, Klopstock, Ossian, La Rochefoucauld, Marmontel, Molière, Metastasio, Shakespeare, Sterne, Cicero, Sallust, Anacreon, and many others. He also edited the works of Baróczy (Pest, 1812, 8 vols.) and of the poet Zrinyi (1817, 2 vols.), and the poems of Dayka (1813, 3 vols.) and of John Kis, (1815, 3 vols.). A collective edition of his works (Szép Literatura), consisting for the most part of translations, was published at Pest, 1814-1816, in 9 vols. His original productions (Eredeti Mukái), largely made up of letters, were edited by Joseph Bajza and Francis Toldy at Pest, 1836-1845, in 5 vols. Editions of his poems appeared in 1858 and in 1863.
KAZVIN, a province and town of Persia. The province is situated N.W. of Teheran and S. of Gilan. On the W. it is bounded by Khamseh. It pays a yearly revenue of about £22,000, and contains many rich villages which produce much grain and fruit, great quantities of the latter being dried and exported.
Kazvin, the capital of the province, is situated at an elevation of 4165 ft., in 36° 15′ N. and 50° E., and 92 m. by road from Teheran. The city is said to have been founded in the 4th century by the Sassanian king Shapur II (309-379). It has been repeatedly damaged by earthquakes. Many of its streets and most of the magnificent buildings seen there by Chardin in 1674 and other travellers during the 17th century are in ruins. The most remarkable remains are the palace of the Safawid shahs and the mosque with its large blue dome. In the 16th century Shah Tahmasp I. (1524-1576) made Kazvin his capital, and it remained so till Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) transferred the seat of government to Isfahán. The town still bears the title Dar es Salteneh, “the seat of government.” Kazvin has many baths and cisterns fed by underground canals. The system of irrigation formerly carried on by these canals rendered the plain of Kazvin one of the most fertile regions in Persia; now most of the canals are choked up. The city has a population of about 50,000 and a thriving transit trade, particularly since 1899 when the carriage road between Resht and Teheran with Kazvin as a half-way stage was opened under the auspices of the Russian “Enzeli-Teheran Road Company.” Great quantities of rice, fish and silk are brought to it from Gilan for distribution in Persia and export to Turkey.
KEAN, EDMUND (1787-1833), was born in London on the 17th of March[1] 1787. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect’s clerk; and his mother was an actress, Ann Carey, grand-daughter of Henry Carey. When in his fourth year Kean made his first appearance on the stage as Cupid in Noverre’s ballet of Cymon. As a child his vivacity and cleverness, and his ready affection for those who treated him with kindness, made him a universal favourite, but the harsh circumstances of his lot, and the want of proper restraint, while they developed strong self-reliance, fostered wayward tendencies. About 1794 a few benevolent persons provided the means of sending him to school, where he mastered his tasks with remarkable ease and rapidity; but finding the restraint intolerable, he shipped as a cabin boy at Portsmouth. Discovering that he had only escaped to a more rigorous bondage, he counterfeited both deafness and lameness with a histrionic mastery which deceived even the physicians at Madeira. On his return to England he sought the protection of his uncle Moses Kean, mimic, ventriloquist and general entertainer, who, besides continuing his pantomimic studies, introduced him to the study of Shakespeare. At the same time Miss Tidswell, an actress who had been specially kind to him from infancy, taught him the principles of acting. On the death of his uncle he was taken charge of by Miss Tidswell, and under her direction he began the systematic study of the principal Shakespearian characters, displaying the peculiar originality of his genius by interpretations entirely different from those of Kemble. His talents and interesting countenance induced a Mrs Clarke to adopt him, but the slight of a visitor so wounded his pride that he suddenly left her house and went back to his old surroundings. In his fourteenth year he obtained an engagement to play leading characters for twenty nights in York Theatre, appearing as Hamlet, Hastings and Cato. Shortly afterwards, while he was in the strolling troupe belonging to Richardson’s show, the rumour of his abilities reached George III., who commanded him to recite at Windsor. He subsequently joined Saunders’s circus, where in the performance of an equestrian feat he fell and broke his legs—the accident leaving traces of swelling in his insteps throughout his life. About this time he picked up music from Charles Incledon, dancing from D’Egville, and fencing from Angelo. In 1807 he played leading parts in the Belfast theatre with Mrs Siddons, who began by calling him “a horrid little man” and on further experience of his ability said that he “played very, very well,” but that “there was too little of him to make a great actor.” An engagement in 1808 to play leading characters in Beverley’s provincial troupe was brought to an abrupt close by his marriage (July 17) with Miss Mary Chambers of Waterford, the leading actress. For several years his prospects were very gloomy, but in 1814 the committee of Drury Lane theatre, the fortunes of which were then so low that bankruptcy seemed inevitable, resolved to give him a chance among the “experiments” they were making to win a return of popularity. When the expectation of his first appearance in London was close upon him he was so feverish that he exclaimed “If I succeed I shall go mad.” His opening at Drury Lane on the 26th of January 1814 as Shylock roused the audience to almost uncontrollable enthusiasm. Successive appearances in Richard III., Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and Lear served to demonstrate his complete mastery of the whole range of tragic emotion. His triumph was so great that he himself said on one occasion, “I could not feel the stage under me.” On the 29th of November 1820 Kean appeared for the first time in New York as Richard III. The success of his visit to America was unequivocal, although he fell into a vexatious dispute with the press. On the 4th of June 1821 he returned to England.
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.
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.