ABSTRACT
Edmund Kean played the tragic lead in Thomas Southerne's stage version of Aphra Behn's novella, Oroonoko. The use of the cognomen "Keene" was an obvious attempt to trade on Edmund Kean's reputation. As for working as Kean's valet, if Aldridge knew the Junius Brutus Booths, it is possible that the name of Kean had been in his head since leaving Bel Air. Kean, who had always claimed that he had been to Eton, must have been proud, but the result was that Charles Kean grew up to be an expensive lay-about and a virtual stranger. In John William Cole's biography of Charles Kean, Edmund Kean is more concerned with protecting his fame than with providing for his family. John Wilkes Booth was taught the Keanian acting style by his father, Junius Brutus Booth, and, when donning make-up and costume for Othello, studiously avoided depicting the Moor as an African.
