120 A POPULAR ACTOR. 



accomplishments of Sir Pertinax, and the 

 comic irony of Falstaff. In all these 

 characters he was not to be equalled ; 

 in one part only, in that of Sir Giles 

 Overreach, in Massinger's play of a "New 

 Way to Pay Old Debts," did I ever after- 

 wards think that a versatile professor of the 

 histrionic art, upon whom his mantle 

 was made to fall,* come up to the deline- 

 ations of this consummate actor. What a 

 pity it is that such lofty gifts should have 

 been marred by the most vulgar of vices ! 

 It may be considered foreign to the 

 subject, but I cannot quit this part of 

 my life without recording my equal ad- 

 miration of his more classic rival, more 

 particularly in his Roman characters; and 

 my youthful, and afterwards my more 

 matured adoration of his illustrious sister. 



* It was generally reported, that at the time of the 

 introduction of the elder Kean to a London audience, an 

 assemblage of the principal proprietors and editors of the 

 London papers took place at Holland House to favour his 

 reception ; but I cannot state it as a fact. 



