MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 81 



notoriety ; and when it burst upon him, it literally overwhelmed what 

 little moral animus had been his beforehand. His career, as an actor, 

 was brilliant, and deservedly so ; and he will, no doubt, hold a dis- 

 tinguished place in our stage annals, as the creator of style, peculiarly 

 his own one which came upon the stage, and went from it, with him. 

 We give an extract, as it relates to a period when his removal to London 

 opened to him what, as he himself always declared he only wanted, an 

 opportunity to be known. 



" The death of his eldest born appears to have wounded Kean very 

 painfully. The child died at eight o'clock in the morning. The father 

 was affected to a degree bordering on suffocation. His passions were at 

 all times uncontrollable, and upon the present occasion, after some few 

 attempts to think that all was for the best, he flew out of doors in an 

 agony of grief, and drank to a prodigious extent, in order to forget his 

 loss. The brandy, however, instead of soothing or stupifying him, made 

 him mad. He returned to his house in an outrageous state, (his grief 

 still uppermost,) wept and lamented his child, and swore that he would 

 wake it from the dead. A.t last, exhausted by his anguish, and affected 

 of course by the liquor which he had drank, he fell into a hot and uneasjr 

 sleep. In the morning he was more composed. 



" In the midst of all this sorrow, he was obliged to proceed with his 

 theatrical engagement at Dorchester. Indeed, it was necessary to do so, 

 in order to entitle himself to a benefit, by which means alone he could 

 hope to pay for his child's funeral, and the medical expenses which had 

 been incurred before its death. He took his benefit therefore, and de- 

 rived from it sufficient for those purposes. But he was still without 

 money for his London journey. The manager of Drury Lane Theatre 

 had not tendered him any, not being aware, of course, of his exigencies. 

 In this dilemma, the Dorchester manager, Mr. Lee, very good-naturedly 

 advanced him five pounds, and with part of this sum in his pocket, he 

 set forward, with a beating heart, to try his fortune on the metropolitan 

 stage." 



This work is a far more pleasant and readable one than we had 

 thought it possible for a Life of Kean to be made. His errors and his 

 excellencies are alike acknowleged ; and there is nothing that the most 

 fastidious taste can object to in it. The estimate of Kean's powers is 

 pretty fairly drawn ; and we are thus in possession of his public life : 

 his private life, unhappily for. himself, and all connected with him, was, 

 equally criminal and miserable. 



The Enthusiast. 1 vol. Being Vol. XIV. of the Library of Ro- 

 mance. Edited by LEITCH RITCHIE. Smith, Elder and Co. 

 London. 



It is a matter of surprise to us, that Mr. Ritchie should have shewn 

 his taste, critical judgment, and knowledge of the wants of English 

 romance-readers, as they are exhibited in the present volume. Spind- 

 ler's original work, of which this is said to be an adaptation, is a 

 strange compound of extravagant fancies, morbid enthusiasm, and vi- 

 sionary religion. The texture and tendency of many of these Ger- 

 man romances are essentially un-English, and it is absolutely im- 

 possible to make them attractive. Spindler's work was a bad example 

 even of these ; and we must say that this volume is not a very 

 welcome addition to the series". "The following scene occurs in a 

 Chapel, soon after we have been introduced to the Enthusiast : ' 

 M.M. No. 7. L 



