402 Tucker Brooke, 



The final catastrophe is thus conventionahzed : — 'A clmrgc is 

 sounded — caiiiioii heard at a distance — tlic curtains of the side 

 galleries arc suddenly draion and discover soldiers zvith their 

 calivers levelled at Barahas — zvho, startled at the unexpected 

 danger, endeavours to escape — -tJiey fire, and Barahas in descending 

 the stairs is shot.' 



Al:)Out twenty-five hnes of the conckision (2346-2410) are 

 omitted, particularly lines derogatory to the Jews. 'The extremity 

 of heat' in line 2371 hecomes 'the wrenching gripe of death.' 



The Nezv Monthly Magazine (vol. 9, 1818, pp. 444, 445) printed 

 a flattering review of Kean's production: 



April 24th, the long announced tragedy of The Jczv of Malta, altered 

 from the original of Christopher Alarlowe, was produced. . . . The char- 

 acter of the Jew, which is still unnatural though it has undergone con- 

 siderable alteration, is nevertheless drawn with great energy and is pre- 

 cisely of that cast which Kean's talents are calculated to render with the 

 strongest effect. He completely seized the spirit of his author, and placed 

 before us the boldest picture of cunning and revenge we ever beheld. In 

 the first act, which is the best in the piece, his performance was particularly 

 fine ; but throughout the whole, wherever passion could be moved, he 

 succeeded in eliciting it. In the fourth act he sung a pretty air with con- 

 siderable science as well as with taste and feeling, and was warml}- encored. 

 Mrs. Bartley sustained the part of Abigail very effectively. Ferneze, D.on 

 Mathias, and Don Lodowick were well represented by Pope, Stanley, and 

 Wallack, and Ithamore by Harley. The prologue was delivered by Bar- 

 nard, the epilogue by Mrs. Bartley; and the tragedy was announced for 

 representation amidst universal applause. 



The fact seems to he that the piece was by no means an uncjuali- 

 fied success, though it was acted (according to Genest) twelve 

 times. It led to considerable controversy, partly connected with 

 a quarrel between Kean and Charles Bucke, whose tragedy of 

 The Italians had l)een withheld from performance to make room 

 for the Jew of Malta. Bucke's i)reface to his tragedy, printed in 

 181 9, illustrates the situation. He had been asked, he says, to 

 write a prologue for the Jew. 'This,' he says, 



I thought proper to decline : — first, because I felt a reluctance to be, in 

 any way, assisting in the revival of a Tragedy, so barbarous, and so 

 entirely unfitted for the present age, as the JEW OF MALTA : but, 

 principally, because I felt ashamed, in being accessory to the cruelty of 

 offering such an undeserved, as well as unprovoked, insult to the great 

 body of the Jews: — all of whom took so much offence at the representa- 

 tion — particularly as it occurred during the week of the Passover, — that, 



