FEMININE CHARM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3961, 11 February 1930, Page 63

FEMININE CHARM.

Physical beauty is not only the most evanescent of charms: it is also the least satisfying; and I imagine that there must have been many nights in the Trojan War when the soldiers wondered whether Helen’s lovely face was worth all the fuss that was being made about it. Pretty girls and handsome women come and go on the stage, and in a year or two are forgotten. People say of them, when, with difficulty, they can recall them to memory, “ Oh. yes, she was a lovely woman, but I can’t remember much about her!” There is a portrait of Nell Gwyn, by Sir Peter Lely, in the Garrick Club: it does not reveal a strikingly handsome woman, indeed, one might call the orange girl of Drury lane who became the mistress of Charles II a plain woman with a slightly lugubrious look. Yet the legend of her irresistible charm is as potent to-day, nearly three centuries after her death, as it was when she was enchanting a king. Many of the great enchantresses were unrenowned for good looks. We may even wonder whether those who were renowned for them were as beautiful as they were reported to be. In any event, it is indisputable that many of the most fascinating women that the world has known were not what we call beautiful; and comediennes, more than other women, seem to be unblessed with physical beauty. They possess in place of it a personal magnetism, a vivacity of spirit, a richness of nature, an indescribable variety of splendid gifts that make each of them shine with extraordinary lustre even when they are surrounded by lovely women. Ellen Terry could not be called a beautiful woman, yet she was an unfailingly fascinating woman. Rejane might be said to have been an ugly woman, yet who looked at any other actress when she was on the stage? Dame Madge Kendal has teen acclaimed for many qualities, but never for her looks, yet to-day, in her eighty-first year, she is able to exercise a remarkable power over any audience that has the good fortune to hear her speak. (She no longer acts, but she often makes speeches that are always clearly and vigorously pronounced and wittily phrased.) Miss Marie Tempest is unquestionably the greatest living English comedienne, and I cannot easily think of an actress who equals her in ability to charm and fascinate an audience.—St. John Ervine, in Good Housekeeping.