664 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (KEELEY.) 



line: "On Saturday (Nov. 1), The Beggars 

 Opera, Polly, Miss Goward (her first appearance 

 in that character, and fourth on any stage)." 

 Miss Goward took an important place in the 

 company and played that season Diana Vernon 

 in Rob Roy, Lucy Bertram in Guy Mannering, 

 Barbara in The Iron Chest, Rosalie in The Peas- 

 ant Boy, Ninetta in Clari, the Maid of Milan, 

 Countess Rosalvina in The Devil's Bridge, Vic- 

 toria in The Castle of Andalusia, Narcissa in 

 Inkle and Yarico. Jessica in The Merchant of 

 Venice (to the Shylock of Clara Fisher, April 10, 

 1824), Effie in the Vampire, Princess of Na- 

 varre in John of Paris, Rose in Fontainebleau, 

 Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro, Rosetta in 

 Love in a Village, and Norah in the Poor 

 Soldier. She went from Dublin to the Theater 

 Roval. Leeds, where she made her first appear- 

 ance, June 29, 1824, as Rosina in The Barber of 

 Seville. In 1825 "little Miss Goward," as she 

 was affectionately called, was engaged for a 

 musical company in London. Of this, her first 

 London appearance, Mrs. Keeley used to say: 

 " I was so dreadfully frightened that when I got 

 on the stage I turned around and was going to 

 bolt back into the wings, but Mr. Broadhurst, the 

 tenor, caught hold of me." Thenceforward, for 

 three fourths of a century, the new actress was a 

 favorite of London. On July 15 Miss Goward 

 played Leonora in The Padlock; on the 21st, Mrs. 

 Courtly in Free and Easy; and on the 23d Ros- 

 anthe in Brother and Sister. During the perform- 

 ance of this last play she met for the first time 

 on the stage the comedian Mr. Keeley, afterward 

 her husband, who sang the part of Bartolo. The 

 season of this musical company closed Oct. 5, 

 1825, to be reopened on July 1, 1826, the singers 

 going during the intervening months to the regu- 

 lar theaters of London, to whose stock com- 

 panies they severally belonged. Mr. Keeley and 

 several others belonged to Covent Garden, and 

 Miss Goward was engaged for that theater, where 

 at first she played very small parts, and for 

 several years her place was very humble, though 

 her success with the opera company in the .sum- 

 mer was great. J. R. Planche, speaking in his 

 Recollections (vol. i, p. 81), of the first pro- 

 duction of Weber's Oberon says: "A young 

 lady who subsequently became one of the most 

 popular actresses in my recollection was certainly 

 included in the cast. That young lady was Miss 

 Goward, now Mrs. Keeley, and to her was as- 

 signed the exquisite mermaid song in the finale 

 to the second act." On June 27, 1829, at the 

 opening of the Opera House, her name appeared 

 for the first time as " Mrs. Keeley (late Miss 

 Goward)." The notices of the first performance, 

 The Middle Temple, Mrs. Keeley as Penelope and 

 Mr. Keeley as Brutus Hairbrain, conveyed the 

 intimation that the marriage had been privately 

 known for some time. Exactly when "clever 

 little Miss Goward " was married to " funny little 

 Bob Keeley " the wits of the time have not told 

 us, but the story is that they were married like 

 Beatrice and Benedick. The English opera was 

 transferred to the Theater Royal Adelphi in July, 

 330, on account of the burning of the Lyceum. 

 Mrs. Keeley continued to be a member of Covent 

 Garden with Edmund Kean, the Kembles, and the 

 illiant people of their company, from 1825 to 

 33. She made her first appearance in a comedy 

 role of high order as Nerissa in The Merchant 

 f Venice, Oct. 27, 1830, Charles Kemble playing 

 Shylock and Fanny Kemble Portia. On the same 

 evening Mrs. Keeley played Bessie Bowline in the 

 new opera The Blue Anchor. During the season 

 2 she played in The Tartar Witch, The 



Peddler Boy, and The Clutterbucks, or The Rail- 

 road of Love, all new comedies. In June, 1833 r 

 she and her husband became the leading members 

 of a company at the Coburg Theater, renamed 

 the Victoria. Here, in August of that year, she 

 made her first great hit in comedy as Nell Gwyn, 

 in a revival of Douglas Jerrold's play of that 

 name. The success of the play and of the com- 

 pany was due to the enthusiasm created by her 

 acting. In May, 1835, she played with great suc- 

 cess a serious and pathetic part for the first time 

 in Serle's The Shadows on the Wall. In April, 

 1836, she was one of the English Opera Company 

 to whom the Lord Chamberlain granted the li- 

 cense of the Theater Royal Lyceum, and the 

 season of that house was opened April 4 of that 

 year with Lucille, a new musical comedy, with 

 Mrs. Keeley in the title role. The Keeleys made 

 their first bow to an American audience at the 

 Park Theater, New York, Sept. 19, 1836. Mrs. 

 Keeley played Gertrude in The Loan of a Lover 

 and Tibby^Postlethwaite in My Master's Rival. 

 During this engagement she played all her fa- 

 vorite roles, and both husband and w r ife were 

 very successful. Ireland, in his History of the 

 New York Stage, says of Mrs. Keeley (vol. ii, 

 p. 177): "Her expression of feature was won- 

 derful, and she could charm you with a smile 

 or sadden you with a tear with equal ease and 

 the equal certainty of winning your entire sym- 

 pathy." They appeared in Philadelphia, Oct. 15, 

 1836, and after a short tour returned to New 

 York, where they began a second engagement at 

 the Park, Nov. 21, in Lucille. Another engage- 

 ment in the following June and a farewell on 

 July 28, 1837, with visits to a few other cities, 

 ended the American experiment. Returning to 

 London, Mrs. Keeley joined the company of 

 Charles Mathews and Mme. Vestris at the 

 Royal Olympic Theater. Mr. Keeley and William 

 Farren were also members of the company. Her 

 first part w r as Xarifa in the burletta The New 

 Servant, Sept. 29, 1837. In November she went to 

 the Adelphi, where she originated the part of 

 Smike in a dramatization of Nicholas Nickleby. 

 She also created a sensation at this theater in the 

 following season as Jack Sheppard in a play of 

 that name. The season of 1841 she was at the 

 Strand, and in 1842 was engaged by Mr. Mac- 

 ready for Drury Lane. April 8, 1844, Mrs. Keeley 

 began a long and famous career as manager and 

 leading actress of the Lyceum as a burlesque and 

 comedy theater. Mr. Keeley was the leading 

 male actor and assistant manager. Under their 

 direction for three years bright new comedies by 

 Charles Dance, Planche, and Albert Smith were 

 produced. On July 22, 1844, Martin Chuzzlewit, 

 dramatized by Stirling, was first produced, Mrs. 

 Keeley playing Sairey Gamp. This play ran un- 

 til October. The Cricket on the Hearth, drama- 

 tized by Albert Smith, was first played Dec. 20, 

 1845. Mrs. Keeley played Mrs. Peerybingle, 

 (Dot), Mr. Keeley Caleb Plummer, and their 

 daughter, Mary Keeley, made her first .appearance 

 as Bertha, Caleb's blind child. This play ran un- 

 til March, 1847, when Mrs. Keeley 's illness obliged 

 them to take it off. She next played a long line 

 of comedy parts with Mr. and Mrs. Charles ^Kean 

 at the Haymarket. She played for the first time 

 before Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, Dec. 

 28, 1848. The play was the Merchant of Venice, 

 and her part was Nerissa. From 1850 to 1855 she 

 was at the Adelphi, where on March 8, 1855, she 

 created her celebrated part of Betty Martin in 

 a farce of that name adapted from the French of 

 Mme. Girardin. In 1859 she played Hector in 

 a burlesque at the Lyceum called The Siege of 



