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deira: he there fell sick, and returned pennyless to his native shore. After the death of his uncle, the young wight joined Saunders' vaulting troop. He continued an unruly wayward boy till the age of 14, when he joined a small company.

Kean played at Birmingham with moderate success, but at Edinburgh triumphantly, for twelve successive nights, as Hamlet. This fame was but ephemeral; for, until 1812, he played all the varieties enumerated by Polonius. His talents were almost universal; but he never succeeded in light comedy.

He selected Shylock for his first appearance at Drury lane, in 1813, by the advice of Mr. Nation, for the merits of his Richard were then unknown; indeed, he had had but few opportunities of appearing in Shakspeare. The pit was not more than two-thirds full; but the overflow from Covent Garden, where a new and popular opera was performing, soon filled the house respectably. The first scene went off flatly; but he made a great impression in the scene with Tubal, in the third act; and his triumph was complete in the trial scene. The committee presented him with fifty guineas after his performance of Shylock, and one hundred after that of Richard.

From this period, till within a few weeks of his death, a period of nineteen years, Kean continued to perform in London and the chief towns of the United Kingdom, with extraordinary, if not always with equal success. Fame and money have been showered on him unsparingly; and there may be some persons inclined to consider him as a spoiled child of fortune. In the United States, where he stayed from October, 1820, to June, 1821, his success was equal to that in his native country. In France, in 1818, he was differently received; though Talma, a complete master of his science, entertained the highest opinion of Kean's abilities.

In person, Mr. Kean was scarcely the middle height, and was accordingly deficient in the dignity of deportment requisite for certain characters, as that of Coriolanus. His features, though not sufficiently regular to be termed handsome, were capable of almost illimitable expression; his eyes, as it were, played with the passions, in the very spirit of mastery; his voice, in the under tones, boomed with melancholy music, and in sudden transitions abounded

with fine, meteor-like effect; and, although he was not of dignified stature, he walked the stage with the ease and self-possession attainable only by true genius. He was generous even to profuseness, and his largesses were often injudicious. He gave the receipts of benefits to public charities, played gratuitously for needy managers, subscribed liberally to benevolent institutions, and was open-handed to the applications of private suffering. In a spirit of enthusiasm for his profession, he raised, in 1821, a monument at New-York, to the memory of Cooke, and after the example of Doggett, he, since the year 1818, gave annually a wherry to be rowed for on the Thames.

About the year 1808, he married Miss Chambers; she and her sister were natives of Ireland, and dancers at the Cheltenham Theatre. They had two sons, Howard, who died in 1813, and Mr. C. Kean, who inherits much of the genius of his father. Mr. Kean's last public appearance was on the stage of Covent Garden Theatre, as Othello, with his son as Jago, the only time he publicly acted with his son: during the performance, he was taken ill, and borne from the scene, the last line he uttered, being the conclusion of the touching valediction,-.

Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone.'

Poor Kean's worldly affairs were so deranged at the time of his death, that it was for some time a matter of doubt whether it was worth while to administer to his effects. Yet his usual engagement in London was 60. per night, for three times a week, and he often performed in the country the other three nights. The total sum received by Mr. Kean in England, America, and France, since 1814, is stated at 176,000Z., or averaging upwards of 9,000l. per annum, for nineteen years.

JOHN RANDOLPH.

In Philadelphia, May 24, 1833, John Randolph of Roanoke, many years a member of congress, and afterwards Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. Petersburgh, aged 61 years.

His father was John Randolph, a descendant, in the sixth degree, from Pocahontas,* and his mother a Miss Bland, sister of Theodore Bland. The early

1. Pocahontas. 2. Thomas Rolfe. 3. Jane Bolling. 4. John Bolling the elder. 5. John Bolling the younger. 6. Jane Randolph. 7. John Randolph of Roanoke, the elder. 8. John Randolph of Roanoke, the younger.

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bedside. We hastened home, and saw her for the last time. In January, 1788, she died. The sun rose and set; the rivers flowed; the order of nature went on. This seemed to me at first unnatural and shocking. My mother had been a faithful executrix of my father's will, a faithful steward of the effects committed to her charge, in trust for her childShe left clear accounts, and money (not a small sum) in hand. In May, 1788, Theodoric and I were sent to college in New-York.

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Your father joined us in New-York. He was in his nineteenth year, and the most manly youth, and most elegant gentleman that I ever saw. Mrs. Bingham, of Philadelphia, used to send him invitations to her parties, and he often went from New-York to that city to them! Yet he was neither debauched, nor dissipated. He was regular, studious, above low company of any sort," the great vulgar or the small;" his "apparel," according to Lord Burleigh's advice, was "costly, not fine;" and you might see in his old attendant, Syphax, whom he carried with him to New-York, that his master was a gentleman. Columbia College was not yet recovered from the shock of the revolution; it was just emerging out of chaos. The professor of humanity, (Cochrane, now in the college of Nova-Scotia,) was an Irishman, educated at Trinity college, Dublin, and a most accomplished scholar. With him I entered as a private pupil, paying eight dollars a month, (out of my own allowance for clothes, &c.) for the privilege. I had devoted the fall vacation at Princeton, (1787,) to an attempt at regaining my Greek; and now, (July, 1788,) burning with the thirst of knowledge, (which I was not permitted to slake at the fountain of Nassau,) and emulous of literary distinction, I sat seriously to work, and was greatly encouraged by my tutor, who was, or affected to, amazed at the rapidity of my progress. To my irreparable loss, he left college about two or three months after I had entered myself as his private pupil. Your father's return to Virginia left me without a friend. "Where," you will ask. was my uncle Theodoric ?" Alas! my poor brother differed in every respect from your noble father. Of all things in the world, he detested most a book. Devoted to pleasure and " fun," as he termed it, he not only set me a bad example, but, with his dissolute companions, absolutely prevented me from reading. Often have they forced the door of my study, and tossed the books over the floor, sometimes out of the window. In two years, he Hнh

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undermined his constitution, and destroyed his health for ever; and after lingering a long time a mere skeleton of himself, he died at Bizarre, just before the birth of your brother St. George. My guardianfor under the impulse of the ascendancy he had acquired over me, I had chosen Mr. Tucker as such-was so scanty in his supplies, that I became necessitous; of course, unhappy; and (why should Í conceal it?) gradually fell into the habits and way of life of my unfortunate brotherwith this difference, that I continued to read, but books of amusement only, enervating and almost destroying my intellectual powers, and vitiating my taste. Your father was married on the last day of the year 1789; and, in the summer following, Theodorick and I left New, York for Virginia. In consequence of my mother's death, her husband left Matoax, to reside in Williamsburgh, where Edmund Randolph, just appointed Attorney-General of the United States, at that time lived. He proposed to Mr. Tucker, that I should study law under him; accordingly I went to Philadelphia in the month of September, 1790, the year of the removal of congress from New-York. I had seen the old congress expire and the new one rise like a Phoenix from its ashes. I saw the coronation (such in fact it was) of General Washington in 1789, and heard Ames and Madison, when they first took their seats on the floor of the house of Representatives. Congress met at Philadelphia, and Mr. Randolph was too much engrossed by politics and his own necessities, to think of me. For what cause I know not, Mr. Randolph put into my hands, by way of preparation for a course of law, Hume's metaphysical works. I had a great propensity for that sort of reading. The conduct and conversation of Mr. Tucker and his friends, such as Colonel Jones and Beverly Randolph, (every other word an oath,) had early in life led me to regard religion as the imposition of priestcraft. I soon became a deist, and, by consequence, an atheist. (I shudder whilst I write it; although my intentions were pure, and I was honestly seeking after truth.) I say "by consequence," because I am convinced that deism necessarily leads, by the fairest induction, to that conclusion. My late friend, Joseph Bryan, was placed by Major Pierce Butler, then in the senate from South Carolina, also under the direction of Mr. Randolph, to read law. The Attorney general had no office, and we were to read at our rooms such books as he pointed out. After getting almost

through the first book of Blackstone, Bryan and myself ahandoned a profession, for which neither of us had been qualified by a regular education, and commenced men of pleasure,-plunging into the "gaiety that fills the mouth with blasphemy, the heart with wo." In July, 1792, I returned to Virginia, from want of means for remaining in Philadelphia. In 1792, I spent some weeks at William and Mary's College, and made a slight beginning in mathematics and natural philosophy. In this town, on my way to Williamsburgh, I was taken ill with the scarlet fever, and brought to the brink of the grave. So few charms had life for me, so strong was the disgust that I had taken to the world, that I was indifferent as to the issue of the disease. Reaching Williamsburgh, I saw for the first time. Mr. Tucker's new wife.

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I shall never forget the chilling coldness of my reception. In a few days I set out for Bizarre, and was once more restored to the society of the fondest of brothers. The events that soon followed, are those which I have already related to you, and which you say, most truly, can never be forgotten. In July, 1793, I again returned to Philadelphia, at my guardian's instance, to while away the time of my minority; and after encountering the horrors of the yellow fever, (which broke out a few days after my arrival, and drove my friend Bryan to Georgia,) I passed the winter less unpleasantly than the two former which I had spent there, and left the right-angled city in April or May, 1794. In June I came of age. The crop of that year was destroyed, and also that of 1795, by the flood. My guardian showed me no accounts, paid me nothing for the profits of my estate during a minority of nineteen years, and I myself overwhelmed with overseers', blacksmiths', and sheriffs' claims, of several years standing. This reconciled me to the sale of Matoax, urged by your father. I made his house (at his request) my home, and lived the life of a mere lounger.

The society of your father, the conversation and company of T. Thompson, (for I was half my time in Petersburgh,) did not rouse my literary ambition. I rode about from one race field to another; and whilst at New-Market races, my earliest friend, (your father excepted,) Henry Middleton Rutledge, son of Edward Rutledge, and nephew of the celebrated John Rutledge, of South Carolina, called at Bizarre, on his way to Charleston, and not finding me at home, left a letter, informing me of his intended voyage

to Europe. I knew Rutledge in NewYork; we were in college together, and I burned with desire to see him once more. My guardian had always frowned upon my wish to travel; and now I had not the means of indulging the inclination to any extent. I borrowed, however, money, and in 1796, visited Charleston and Savannah. In 1799, chance threw me into public life. With this superficial and defective education, I commenced politician. I can truly say, that except from my mother, who taught me to read, I never learned any thing from one of my preceptors. The little that I know, has been self taught, picked up from the most desultory reading, and chiefly from an intercourse with the world."

At this time, Mr. Randolph was 26 years of age, having been elected in opposition to Powhattan Bolling, a descendant in the same degree from Pocahontas. Mr. Randolph was so youthful in his appearance, that the speaker, Theodore Sedgwick, hesitated to administer the oath of office, and asked him if he were of the constitutional age. "Ask my constituents," was his brief and characteristic reply.

His first speech was on the raising the army in 1800, and of course in opposition to that measure. Indeed his hostility to the army, led him to use expressions in the house, that exposed him to an insult from an officer, in the public theatre. This conduct he complained of, in a letter to President Adams, in which he stated that he had been "insulted by one of his myrmidons."

This letter, Mr. Adams transmitted to the house, in a message, stating that the conduct complained of, was a breach of privilege, and that it belonged to that body to notice it. A committee was at once raised, to inquire into the matter, but Mr. Randolph declined appearing before it, and the subject was prosecuted no farther.

Mr. Randolph's ardour, talents and epigrammatic style, attracted much attention, even at this early day, and he soon became a distinguished member of the opposition. His pithy remarks obtained universal currency, and secured him the public ear. Thus, in speaking of the inefficiency of written constitutions, he said,

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he was placed at the head of the committee of ways and means, and was regarded as the leader of the administration party in congress.

He acquired unbounded influence, which he exercised so waywardly, as alternately to excite irritation by his capricious and overbearing demeanour, and admiration of his genius, wit, eloquence and unrivalled powers of sarcasm. So great was this influence, that finally the administration began to entertain a dread of so much power, combined with so much caprice, and it was generally believed, that both Jefferson and Madison were not unwilling to see him defeated in the impeachment of Judge Chase, to the prosecution of which, Randolph had bent all his energies, and to the success of which, he looked as a signal proof of his control over both branches of congress. Mr. Randolph attributed this motive to them, aud shortly' after he became a secret, and finally an avowed opponent to the administration.

It has, however, been said, that his hostility proceeded from another cause. Mr. Christopher Clerk, a devoted admirer of his from an adjoining district in Virginia, presuming that Mr. Randolph was desirous of a mission to England, (a country for which he always professed great admiration,) proposed to Mr. Jefferson to send him there. Neither Mr. Jefferson nor Mr. Madison, (to whom it was mentioned,) approved of such an appointment, and Mr. Randolph's pride was wounded at the refusal. It was said that this act of Mr. Clerk was unauthorized, and even unknown to Mr. Randolph, and as both Mr. Randolph and Mr. Clerk concurred in this, it probably should be so considered.

Admitting this, yet by one of such sensitive pride, and strong resentments, the refusal of a favour, although not even desired, might easily be regarded as a mortal

affront.

Mr. Randolph continued in the opposition, during Mr. Madison's administration, and of course during the war.

After he became an opponent of Mr. Jefferson's administration, he was opposed in his district unsuccessfully by Jeremiah Baker. J. W. Eppes, who had married Miss Jefferson, then moved into his district, as was supposed, for the purpose of opposing him. His first canvass was unsuccessful, but his perseverance, aided by the influence and popularity of the President, carried him through the second election in 1813, and Mr. Randolph was left at home. He was again elected

to congress at the end of two years, and voted in favour of the compensation law, allowing $1500 each session, to a member of congress, instead of daily pay. This gave such general dissatisfaction that he declined offering at the next election, in the spring of 1817.

After another vacation of two years, he was again elected in 1819, and continued in the house until 1825, when he was chosen to the senate, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the appointment of James Barbour to the war department.

In this body he made himself conspicuous, by a series of electioneering speeches, having scarcely a reference to any subject under consideration, but filled with rambling anecdotes, epigrammatic remarks, flashes of wit and occasional eloquence, but more with personal sarcasm, and even coarse abuse of Mr. Adams and his cabinet.

One of the remarks made in that body, led to a hostile meeting between him and Mr. Clay, in which Mr. R. narrowly escaped, his morning gown, in which he was enveloped, being pierced by his antagonist's ball.

The course taken by Mr. Randolph in the senate, soon met with a fitting rebuke. Virginia, although in the opposition, was not prepared to sanction conduct which had entirely changed the character of the senate, and upon the termination of the term for which he was elected, in 1827, the legislature by a vote of 115 to 110 chose John Tyler, as his successor. On failing to be elected to the senate, he was returned to the house-Dr. Crump, who represented his old district resigning, to give him a place. He continued in the house during that congress, until the accession of Gen. Jackson to the presidency. Shortly af ter that event, in June, 1830, he was appointed minister to Russia.

His acceptance of this appointment, was the cause of much dissatisfaction among his friends.

The strong manner in which he habitually spoke of those who lived out of "the public crib," had created an impression that he was above the temptation of office, and proportionably great was the disappointment when he accepted an appointment to a post for which he was neither qualified by temper, character, nor education. Still greater was the mortification of his friends, when, after staying eight days at St. Petersburgh, during which time he attracted universal attention, by his strange eccentricities, he departed for

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