II. SISTER STARS: LAURA KEENE AND MATILDA HERON. I.-LAURA KEENE, 1820-1873. THERE is a kind of woman who inspires at once sympathy and a cautious reserve. In appearance she is almost seraphic; in temperament, severe. All that I saw and heard of Laura Keene, when she was managing her theatre in New York, about fifty-five years ago, caused me to consider her a woman of that kind. By the members of her theatrical company, over whom she ruled with imperious, sometimes even arrogant, authority, she was called "The Duchess." There is a way of government which maintains dominance and obtains implicit obedience without wounding the pride or hurting the feelings of anybody who may happen to be in a subservient posi A GOOD DEED 47 tion. That was not the way of Laura Keene, who looked like an angel, but was, in fact, a martinet. You could not help liking her, and at the same time you could not quite escape the intuition that she was a person of impetuous and fiery temper. But she was a remarkable figure on the Stage of her day, and although, in this book of reminiscence, I can only make a cameo of her, I am unwilling to leave her out. At a time when she was active in securing relief for that strange being Matilda Heron she was named as one of Matilda's "sister stars": though they were never closely associated, their careers were substantially concurrent; and her activity in that benevolent cause has linked the two women in my remembrance under that designation. Poor Matilda's need was distressful, and Laura Keene busied herself in organizing a movement for the benefit of that unfortunate actress, which was carried to a successful result largely because of her expeditious zeal. At that time, when I had gladly done what I could to assist the enterprise, I received from her a letter which is interesting as characteristic of her promptitude of practical action and also of her temperamental causticity: "34, Bond Street, New York, "My dear Mr. Winter: "Your kind and very just notice received by the ladies of Miss Heron's Committee with gratitude. We were certain sickness prevented an earlier response. "Convey our thanks to your lady, our regrets at the cause of her absence on such an occasion. "You can, indeed, help us. May I suggest how? "Tell the Public Matilda is penniless-starving! Public will shrug its shoulders-very sorry! "Tell them it's going to be an ultra-fashionable Matinée: all the private boxes sold at $25 and $50 (true!): all the stalls going at high prices. Then the generous Public will want 'Standing Room Only,' immediately. In great haste. "Very truly, "LAURA KEENE." No authentic, detailed account exists of the origin and early life of Laura Keene. All A BRIEF MEMOIR 49 accounts agree that she was born in London. One recorder gives the date of her birth as 1880 and says he has "heard" that her family name was Lee. Her principal biographer, John Creahan, who appears to have had ampler opportunity than he improved of ascertaining the facts of her history, states that her birth occurred in 1826; Ireland, always careful and almost invariably correct, places it in 1820. Creahan alleges that "while yet a girl she heard something of Rachel, then in the very zenith of her fame," and adds the statement that "Laura Keene often reverted to this with enthusiasm, as helping to determine a passion for dramatic pursuits." Rachel (1820-1858) acted in London in 1841 and again in 1842. Miss Keene, whether as a girl of fifteen or a woman of twenty-one, could have seen her, and Miss Keene's acting, in after years, afforded indication that she had done so, and at an age when it was possible for her to have profited by the spectacle. Creahan also alleges that "Miss Keene's first experience of stage life was with Mme. Vestris, then, or subsequently, Mrs. Charles Mathews," adding that "after a time Laura Keene appeared as Pauline, in 'The Lady of Lyons,' at the Olympic Theatre." Eliza Vestris controlled the London Olympic from January 3, 1831, to May 31, 1839, when she retired from it, to become manager of Covent Garden, an office which she held from September 30, 1839, to April 30, 1842. The comedy of "The Lady of Lyons" was owned by Macready, and the first performance of it ever given occurred February 27, 1838, at Covent Garden, with Helena Faucit as Pauline and Macready as Claude Melnotte. There is no record showing that it was ever produced by Mme. Vestris, or that Miss Keene was associated with her, at either the Olympic or Covent Garden. Mme. Vestris, it may be well incidentally to note, having married Charles Mathews, July 18, 1838, came with him to New York, in that year, leaving the Olympic in charge of Planché: her stay in America was brief. As to the first appearance and as to the professional novitiate of Miss Keene no writer has furnished clear and exact information. She was not employed |