STORY OF ELLEN TERRY

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 121, 27 June 1914, Page 6

STORY OF ELLEN TERRY

In her sixty-sixth year Ellen Terry comes amongst us not as an actress, but to talk of Shakespeare —and this, for us, is her last recall. She has played before hushed attentive throngs with Irving, Kean, Bancroft, and other noted actors; she had thrilled audiences with horror as Lady Macbeth; delighted them with the wit and vivacity

of Beatrice, brought them to tears with the sorrowful dignity of Katherine of Aragon; the tender grief of Imogen, and held them in the spell of- her mastery of the eloquence and charm of Portia. But to us she comes to show us none of these interpretations, only to discourse of them, yet it is enough for us that she is the famous EJJen Terry, sufficient reason that we should declare our homage to her art and her fame in the admirnot unadniixed with curiosity, that draws us to hear her discourses. Born to the Stage. Well, art is rare and great artists are even more rare, on the stage as in other fields. The artists happen, and no rules can make them. There was nothing in Ellen Terry's ancestry to suggest that she should become great, though there was everything to give her a tendency towards the stage, for both her father and mother were players. Her father, Benjamin Terry, was an actor of some note in his day, being one of that group of clever actors which Macready gathered round him, and one who had the approval of Charles Ivean, with whom he played in London. It was while the Terrys were fulfilling an engagement in Coventry iif 1848 that Ellen Terry was born. She was the second child, her elder sister, Kate Terry, was born four years before, and she, too, made a great reputation as one of the first actresses- of the Victorian period. Her two younger sisters,. Marian and Florence Terry, and her brother, the late Fred Terry, were also distinguished on the stage, but it was Ellen Terry that gained the chief honour for the family name. She was predestined for the stage, according to the traditions of the day, which ruled tliat the children of actors should be seriously trained in the art. So Ellen Terry made her first appearance at the age of eight, and because long runs were not usual then and plays were changed frequently, the actor have a wide repertoire, and consequently received a diversity of training and experience. It was such a severe school that developed the child's genius. " Her First Appearance.

This first appearance was made in 1856, in a production of "The Winter's Tale," wherein Charleg Kean played Leont.es, Mrs Ivean Hermione, Beujamin Terry the officer of the Court of Judicature, Kate Terry the part of the Servant to the old Shepherd, while Ellen Terry took the part of the little boy Mamillhis. "The Winter's Tale" ran for one huidred and two nights, and during the time the child actress appeared in it she had the advantage of Mrs Charles Kcan's instruction.

In 1856 Kean revived "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and .Ellen .Terry was given the part of "Tuck," in which she earned the unhesitating praise of the critics. Her next appearance was as fairy

A GREAT ARTIST SOME OF HER FAMOUS IMPERSONATIONS RECALLED The homage that people now give to the name, of Ellen Terry is to the artist whose work is done, an artist on whom age has called down the curtain, but it is a homage mingled with reverence due to one of the greatest actresses of her day, the foremost interpreter of Shakespeare s women, " the greatest Portia that ever lived.'

queen in a pantomime, and as this was frequently preceded by "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the small girl who was not yet ten years of age, had to do a heavy night's work more often than not. Shortly afterwards she played the part of a juvenile groom in a comedy by Edmund Yates, who in his reminiscences refers to the spirit and vivacity with which she played. It seems odd training for the future exponent of Shakespearian heroines, but it was probably the best she could have had, for it trained her to a subtlety of perception of variations of mood and character that she could gain in 110 other way than by studying- and playing such divergent parts. But she received her first impetus towards fame when Kean revived "King

John" in 1858, and she was cast for the part of Prince Arthur, and played it so well that the leading critics of London praised her without stint for the gracefulness and realism of her acting. The "Athenaeum," which was never given to overstatement, spoke of her performance as "uncommonly excellent," and the concensus of critical opinion was a foreshadowing of the success she' was to earn later. Getting Experience. Kean's management of the Princess's Theatre ended in 1860, and so the engagement of the Terrys terminated, and next we see Kate and Lllen Tern r under their parent's management in a "drawing-room entertainment" in which only the two girls appeared in two slight plays. The venture proved successful in London and a tour of the principal towns in the south of England was made. The tour lasted for three years, and

on its conclusion Ellen Terry went out with the stock companies, playing in the terrific melodrama of the period. But she got another opportunity of showing her genius to better advantage when in 1862 she joined the once famous stock company of J. H. Chute at the Royal Theatre, Bristol, and had for companions such celebrities as Mrs Kendal (then Madge->Robertson), George Coghlan, George and William Kignold and her sister Kate. Later she appeared under E. A. Southern's management in London. Married at Sixteen. Her first marriage took place when she was sixteen, on February 20, 3864, and her husband was George Frederick Watts, the famous painter. Watts was considerably the elder, and the marriage was not a success, and was dissolved after a few months, though Watts ever remained a friend of Ellen Terry's. Three years later, after touring the provinces with her sister Kate, she appeared at the Adelphi, in London, and there met the actor, Charles Wardell, whose stage name was Charles Kelly, and married him. The result of the marriage was that she withdrew from the stage for seven years. She had two children of this marriage. Mifes Edith Craig and Mr Gordon Craig, both of whom earned some distinction 011 the stage, but Gordon Craig is better known these years as a draughtsman, an essayist, and an innovator in stage management. Charles Wardell died in 1880, but Ellen Terry had returned to the stage in 1874, Eetrigin, she played her first part in conjunction with Henry Irving in Garrick's version of "The Taming of the Shrew." In her "Stray Memories" she says neither of them played well, but it is certain that her Katherine received high commendation from the critic of the London "Times," while Irving was blamed for his inefficient support. When the play was withdrawn in 1868 Ellen Terry also withdrew from the boards. With the Bancrofts.

She got her first great opportunity when the Bancrofts took over the management of the Prince of Wales Theatre, and made it famous. They opened with "The Merchant of Venice," and Ellen Terry's Portia was the talk of Loudon. At last she was placed with the actors of the first rank. She appeared in many of the comedies of the period produced by the Bancrofts, comedies by Lytton and Tom Taylor, and scored success after success, as is attested by the body of the critical opinion of the time. Owing to illness she left Bancroft management in 1876, and in November of that year joined the Court Theatre, then under the management of John Hare. Of this engagement little can be said, except that it kept her in the public eye as London's first comedy actress. But the engagement had one result of the utmost import-

ance in her career, for it was while playing Olivia in a dramatised version of "The Vicar of Wakefield," that Irving saw her ami engaged her to be his leading lady in his new Lyceum Theatre venture.

The Great Combination. Irving showed genius in his choice, for there can be

' do doubt that the great actor owed a great deal of his success to the genius of the principal actress. The plays that Irving desired to produce were also the plays that Ellen Terry desired to figure in, the plays that best suited her talents, and so the fortunate combination opened the Lyceum with a performance of "Hamlet, 1 ' and a. series of triumphs both for Irving and for Ellen Terry was begun. The new Ophelia was everywhere acclaimed as brilliant, the director of the Theatre Francaise was delighted with the rendering, the newspaper critics applauded with one accord, and even the ultra-critical "Saturday Review" proclaimed that Ellen Terry was to the English stage what Bernhardt was to the French stage. Even when the meniberse of the Comedie Fraucaise played in London in 1879, with such great artists as Bernhardt and Coquelin, the audiences at the Lyceum were as large and as enthusiastic. as ever they had been. First Triumphs. At the end of a record season, about 1579, Miss Terry and Henry Irving parted company for a while, and Miss Terry made a tour of the provinces, but towards the end of the year she rejoined the Lyceum and "Ophelia" w r as revived. She appeared also in several of those plays of intensity and forced situations which so delighted a past generation, yet though they had their share in building up her reputation and living's also, it is not with them that this generation of playgoers is concerned, but with her interpretations of Shanespearean characters. Irving revived "The Merchant of Venice," and Miss Terry's success as Portia was even greater than the triumph she made in the,same part under the : Bancroft's management. The revival succeeded beyond the most optimistic expectations, for it had the record run, for a Shakespearian play, of two hundred and'fifty nights. Some Great Characters. At the conclusion of the season Ellen Terry made another provincial tour with a company of her own, and 011 her return to London several modern plays were produced, with financial success certah.lv, but without adding any particular credit to the leading players. It was not until Irving produced "Othello" in conjunction with the great American actor Edwin Booth (who played Iago) that Miss Terry received another opportunity for displaying' her genius as an exponent of Shakespearean characters. '' Othello'' was produced in May, 1880, and the result was such as to show that Irving's unusual magnanimity towards a rival "star" was also a very good business move. Miss Terry played Desdemona, of course, and was acclaimed as great in this paTt as she was in Ophelia. In 1883 Henry Irving and Ellen Terry made their, first visit to America, and. in 1884 the second was made. The successes were so great that several subsequent American tours 'were made and the company alternated between the Lyceum, and America. In the succeeding. years the company produced such favourite old intensities as "The-Bells' y and "The Iron C'hest," but Shakespearean plays were also staged, and some of the most notable successes made by Ellen Terry in these years were in the parts of Katherine of Aragon, Lady Macbeth, and Cordelia.. Her Third Marriage. Irving died in 1905, and the Lyceum Theatre Com* pany was disbanded. For a while Ellen Terry tried her hand as her own manager, but did not Inake a success, and in 1906 she accepted an engagement' toplay in "Captain Brassbou.nd's Conversion" at the Court Theatre. One of the company was Mr James. Carew, a young American actor, and when Charles Frohman engaged Miss Terry for an American tour she stipulated that Mr Carew was to be engaged also. It was romance as much as business, for they w T ere matried with much secrecy at Pittsburg in 1907, Mr Carew being 34 j'ears of age and Miss Terry 59. Th» marriage was not announced until the tour was over,, and the company prepared to embark for England. Her daughter, Edith Craig, was a witness to the marriage. Recalls. A few years after her return she practically retired from the stage, though her husband continued to appear in principal parts in many successful plays. in 1907 she appeared in a revival of "Captain Brassbound," with which she subsequently toured. In .1908 she] peared for the first time in London as Elizabeth of Yqrk. in "Henry of Lancaster," as Mistress Page ill the '' Merry Wives of Windsor,'' and as Aunt Imogen in "Pinkie find the Fairies." In 1910 she toured the United States, giving her series of lectures on Shakespeare's , heroines, and on hor return in 1931, apart from one or two brief performances of her old parts, she resumed her lectures for a brief season at the Savoy Theatre. ITer last appearance in London in. a part was for two nights at Covent Garden in- 1912, when she appeared in a play entitled "The Good Hope." With the Great Names. ■ The last few years of her life have been given, to repeating the parts which brought her fame and to dreaming of her triumphs in the beautiful old gardens of her manor house in Kent, a grey-Haired old lady, but one whose name is recorded amongst the ininiortals —one with Siddons, Oldfield, Rachel—with all those famous women, interpreters of passion and fantasy, joy and sorrow —the great actresses of all time. J>.H.