Ellen Kean (12 December 1805 – 20 August 1880) was an English actress. She was known as Ellen Tree until her marriage in 1842, after which she was known both privately and professionally as Mrs Charles Kean and always appeared in productions together with her husband.

Biography

Early years

Ellen Kean was born Eleanora Tree, the third of four daughters of Cornelius Tree, an official of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

in London. Her three sisters became actresses, but, unlike Ellen, retired from the stage when they married. Her professional stage debut was in a musical version of ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...

'' in London in 1822 as Olivia alongside her sister Maria as Viola.Wilson, M. Glen
"Kean, Eleanora (1805–1880)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, January 2008, accessed 25 May 2009. She gained experience touring in the provinces, and from 1826 was a regular member of the companies at the Drury Lane and Haymarket Theatres, making a success in ''The Wonder'' and ''The Youthful Queen''.''The Times'' obituary notice, 24 January 1868, p. 7 At Covent Garden she took on the roles of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's Romeo to the Juliet of

Fanny Kemble Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble (27 November 180915 January 1893) was a British actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-19th century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist, whose published works included plays, poetry ...

, Françoise de Foix in ''Francis I'', and Lady Townley in ''

The Provoked Husband ''The Provoked Husband'' is a 1728 comedy play by the British writer and actor Colley Cibber, based on a fragment of play written by John Vanbrugh. It is also known by the longer title ''The Provok'd Husband: or, a Journey to London''. Vanbrugh ...

''.

Leading lady

In 1832, by now established as a leading actress, Tree accepted an engagement in

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, Germany, where a junior member of the company was

Charles Kean Charles John Kean (18 January 181122 January 1868), was an English actor and theatre manager, best known for his revivals of Shakespearean plays. Life Kean was born at Waterford, Ireland, a son of actor Edmund Kean and actress Mary Kean ('' ...

. He had made an undistinguished debut at Drury Lane in 1827, and he and Tree had acted together in 1828 in a play called ''Lovers' Vows'' and later in '' Othello''. In the German season they fell in love, but were persuaded by family and friends not to marry in haste. Tree returned to London and resumed her successful West End career, including a considerable success in ''Ion'' in another

breeches role A breeches role (also pants role or trouser role, or Hosenrolle) is one in which an actress appears in male clothing. Breeches, tight-fitting knee-length pants, were the standard male garment at the time these roles were introduced. The theatric ...

. At the end of 1836, Tree went to America, where she toured in Shakespeare for more than three years, playing heroines such as Rosalind, Viola and Beatrice, among other roles. By the time of her return to England in 1839, she had made a profit of £12,000 on the tour, equivalent to at least £1 million in modern terms. By 1841 Charles Kean had established himself as a successful actor, and he and Tree appeared together in '' Romeo and Juliet'' at the Haymarket Theatre. They were married the next year, and she at once switched her professional name from Ellen Tree to Mrs Charles Kean. For the next nine years they appeared together at the Haymarket, completing a tour of William Shaftoe Robertson's Lincoln Circuit in 1845, where she gave 'an exquisite impersonation' of Miss Halley in ''The Stranger'', and in '' The Honey Moon'' she was described as 'perfectly inimitable'; they attracted profitable houses before making a joint visit to the U.S. in 1846. In 1850, Kean took over the management of the

Princess's Theatre The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1 ...

in London. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' called this "the most important period of Mrs Kean's career.... Hitherto she had been the Rosalind and the Viola of the stage; henceforward her name was to be associated with characters of a more matronly type" in roles including Lady Macbeth and Gertrude in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

''. The same writer also credited her for "the good taste and artistic completeness" of Kean's productions.

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...

, who made her first stage appearance as the boy Mamillius in ''

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some crit ...

'', remembered Kean "as Hermione wearing a Greek wreath round her head and a crinoline with many layers of petticoats."Gielgud, p. 25

Last years

Charles Kean died in 1868, and his widow retired from the stage, living quietly in Bayswater, in the City of Westminster, where she died, aged 73. ''The Times'' in its obituary said, "Mrs Kean is not to be numbered with the greatest votaries of the English stage, but her acting was distinguished by considerable power, tenderness and refinement." She was buried in a vault alongside her husband at

Catherington Catherington is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 1 mile (1.8 km) northwest of Horndean. The village is also close to Cowplain and Clanfield. It is situated about 10 miles north of Portsmouth and eight mi ...

, Hampshire.

Selected roles

* Myrrha in ''

Sardanapalus Sardanapalus (; sometimes spelled Sardanapallus) was, according to the Greek writer Ctesias, the last king of Assyria, although in fact Ashur-uballit II (612–605 BC) holds that distinction. Ctesias' book ''Persica'' is lost, but we know of its ...

'' by

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

(1834) * Countess in ''

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

'' by

James Sheridan Knowles James Sheridan Knowles (12 May 1784 – 30 November 1862) was an Irish dramatist and actor. Biography Knowles was born in Cork. His father was the lexicographer James Knowles (1759–1840), cousin of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The family mo ...

(1839) * Olivia in '' The Rose of Arragon'' by

(1842)

Notes

References

*Gielgud, John. ''An Actor and His Time'', London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1979.
Victoria's Victoria: The Theatre Royal
*''Emigrant in Motley: The Journey of Charles and Ellen Kean in Quest of a Theatrical Fortune in Australia and America, as told in their hitherto unpublished letters'', edited by J. M. D. Hardwick (1954).

External Links

Theater Arts Manuscripts:
An Inventory of the Collection at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kean, Ellen English stage actresses 19th-century English actresses 1805 births 1880 deaths People from the City of Westminster