68 COOKE 



lurking at each corner of his mouth ; while his large, 

 dilating eye sparkled with hilarity, even in his most 

 sober moments ; but which expression he could quickly 

 change into one of angry dispute or grave discussion, 

 should offensive personality provoke the one or serious 

 reasoning invite the other ; indeed, sometimes his coun- 

 tenance would assume a malevolence of expression I have 

 rarely, if ever, seen surpassed. 



In conversation, while sober, and I never saw him 

 otherwise in the company of ladies, he was fluent if not 

 eloquent — his manners bland if not polished — rich in 

 anecdote, acute of understanding, bright and quick in 

 repartee^ slow but severe in his satire, generally just 

 though approaching to sarcasm in his observations and 

 conveying to the youthful mind a fund of pleasing in- 

 telligence. 



Indeed, I fancied I could discern in his strongly- 

 marked features the wicked dissimulation, the unscrupu- 

 lous ambition, and the princely dignity of Richard, the 

 implacable hatred of Shi/locl-, the malicious cunning of 

 lago, the worldly accomplishments of Sir Fertinax, and 

 the comic irony of Falstaf. 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 AVay to 

 Pay Old Debts," did I ever afterwards think that a 

 versatile professor of the histrionic art, upon whom his 

 mantle was made to fall,^ came up to the delineations of 



I 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. 



