Appraisals
In his earlier days, Talma said of him, "He is a magnificent uncut gem; polish and round him off and he will be a perfect tragedian." Macready, who was much impressed by Kean’s Richard III and met the actor at supper, speaks of his "unassuming manner ... partaking in some degree of shyness" and of the "touching grace" of his singing. Kean’s delivery of the three words "I answer—No!" in the part of Sir Edward Mortimer in The Iron Chest, cast Macready into an abyss of despair at rivalling him in this role. So full of dramatic interest is the life of Edmund Kean that it formed the subject for the play "Kean" by Jean-Paul Sartre as well as a play by Alexandre Dumas, père, entitled Kean, ou Désordre et génie, in which the actor Frédérick Lemaître achieved one of his greatest triumphs.
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