Offstage Dramas: Jane Porter, Edmund Kean, and the Tragedy of Switzerland

Author:

McLean, Thomas  

Journal:

KEATS-SHELLEY REVIEW

Issue Date:

2011

Abstract(summary):

Biographies of Edmund Kean occasionally mention his disastrous one-night performance in Jane Porter's play Switzerland in February 1819. While several commentators have blamed the work's failure on its inferior quality, Porter's unpublished letters tell a more complicated story. Using Porter's correspondence with Mary Kean, the Drury Lane committee, and various friends, this essay sheds light on her experiences in the London theatrical world and suggests interesting parallels between the careers of Porter and John Keats. Porter read Endymion with interest and hoped to meet the author, but she probably did not know that they shared a dangerous fascination with Edmund Kean.

Page:

147---159