KEAN’S RICHARD III.
| The Times.] | [October 7, 1817. |
Drury-Lane Theatre.
Mr. Kean has returned to us again (after no very long absence), in the character of Richard the Third. His performance of the part is so well known to the public, and has been so often criticised, that it would be superfluous to enter into particulars again at present. We observe no great alteration in him. If any thing, his voice is deepened, and his pauses are lengthened, which did not need to be. His habitual style of acting is apt to run into an excess of significance; and any studied addition to that excess necessarily tasks the attention to a painful degree. Mr. Pope resumed his situation as King Henry, and was stabbed in the Tower, according to the rules of art. We were glad to see him in the part, though we should have no objection to see the part itself omitted, to make room for the fine abrupt beginning of Shakspeare’s Richard the Third, with the soliloquy, ‘Now is the winter of our discontent,’ &c. In our opinion, the Richard the Third which was manufactured by Cibber, and which has now obtained prescriptive possession of the stage, is a vile jumble; and we are convinced that a restoration of the original play (as written by the original author) would, with the omission of a few short scenes, be an advantage to the managers, and a gratification to the public. We understand, indeed, that something of this sort has been in agitation; and in order to contribute any little aid in our power to so laudable an attempt, we shall here give a few of the passages which are omitted in the common stage representation, but which appear to us particularly calculated for stage effect, and which would also fit Mr. Kean’s peculiar style of acting, as the glove fits the hand. One of these occurs almost immediately after the first opening soliloquy, in the dialogue between Glo’ster and Brackenbury:—
Glo’ster.—Even so! an’ please your worship, Brackenbury,
You may partake of any thing we say;
We speak no treason, man:—we say, the king
Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well strook in years: fair, and not jealous:
We say that Shore’s wife hath a pretty foot,