STAGE AND PEERAGE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 51, 2 March 1911, Page 9

STAGE AND PEERAGE.

ANOTHER ENGAGEMENT. [FEOM ODB OWN CORRESPONDENT ] LONDON, ,20th January. The announcement of the engagement of Miss Zena Dare to the second son of Lord Eeher — the Hon. Maurice Brett — forms tho latest link between the peerage 'and the stage. Miss Dare gave tne news to an interviewer on Saturday afternoon while she was "making up" in her dressing-room at the Coliseum, where she is playing the principal part in ''Tho Modal and the Man, a luusical play specially written for her by Mr. Seymour Hicks, in whose cumpanies ehe has played for years. "You aro the first person I ha.ye told, except my father and mother," said Miss Dare, unfastening her long black hair, and then proceeding to dress it in readiness for the stage. "1 only became engaged two days ago. If you -hadn't come to -see me I might not have told anybody for weeks. I am not romantic, you see, and I have so many other things to think about. Besides, there has been an ' understanding ' between Mr. Brett and myself so* long now that the formal engagement seemed only a matter of course." " When is the wedding to be?" " Oh, that I cannot tell you. I don't know, you see. I have my theatrical work to do. and there are so many things to fix up." "I first met Mr. Brett on the third night of 'The Catch of the Season,' six or seven years ago, and 1 have seen him constantly since. We have motored quite a lot together for years now, and I have fitayed at Lord and Lady Esher'a, at Windsor Forest, several times during tho last three years. His. people have_ been very kind to me, and I regard them as among my very best friends." Miss Zona. Dare is a daughter of Mr Arthur Dones, who was Mr. Justice Bigham's clerk until that eminent Judge retired. She was born on 4th February, 1887, and made her first real appearance on the stage as a " solo dancer " in Manchester. Hor next engagement was in Mr. Seymour Hicks's play, " The English Daisy, the heroine of which she played no daintily that when Mr. Hicks settled upon taking a holiday from " The Catch of the Season " with Miss Ellaline Terris, he arranged that she should fill the part of his popular wife. Since then she has appeared 'with Mr. Hicks with 1 seldom-failing regularity, and lovers of musical comedy regard her as one of tho most charming and talented of English Ectrvsses. Among tho, plays in which she has appeared are " Sergeant Brue," " Lady Madcap," " The Little Cherub," " The Girl on the Stage;" " The Beauty of Bath," '-The Oay Gordons," She lives with her parents at Eandoiph-road, Maida Vale. The Hon. Maurice Brett is 27 years of ago. He is a captain in the Coldstream Guards, a member of the Victorian Order, a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and an A.D.C. to Sir John French. His father, Lord Esher, is one of the most distinguished men in the country.