LOVE AND THE STAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12066, 23 July 1917, Page 3

LOVE AND THE STAGE.

rOLLY PEACHUMS OF THE PEERAGE.

Many a pretty actress lias found in tho stage a stepping-stone to the peerago since Anastasia Robinson wore a coronet for that grand old soldier, tho third Earl of Peterborough ; but none of all this glittering galaxy has quite the same romantic interest as the three "Polly Peaehums" to whom Gay's

"Beggars' Opera" proved the open sesame to the gilded oircle of the Court. Anastasia Robinson had not yet stood at tho altar with her senile but devoted Karl when Dean Swift was writing to a friend, m July, 1728, "Tho Duke of Bolton has run away with Polly I'eachum, having sPttled four hundred a year upon her during pleasure, and upon disagreement two hundred more"; but although tho startling news was truo enough, she bad still a score of years and more to wait for the coronet that was to be hers. Not many years earlier there were few "protty fellows" in London who had not carried their embroidered coats, their red-heeled shoes and clouded canes, and their aroma of musk and civet to Teuton's ooffcc-liouse all Charing Cross, to see the wonder-child with the voice of a nightingale and to lose their hearts to her beauty and winsome ways. The little step-daugh-ter of tho coffee-houso keener was already one of the toasts of the town; and iti was a matter of little surprise when, at eighteen, she created a considerable sensation by her debut at the Haymarket Theatre as Monimia in "The Orphan." Never within living memory had London aeen such loveliness and witchery allied to such gifts of acting; and it was equally small wonder that the new divinity soon had most of the gallants of the town at h p i - f°et. „ ~. , As Cherry in the " Beaux' Stratagem " Lavinia added to her lam-els; but it was when she made her curtsy as the first Pollv Peachum in Gay's new opera at Lincoln's Inn Fields that her triumph reached its climax. All Condon raved of "Pretty Polly ' the windows of every print-shop were crowded with her portraits; the Court ladies cooled themselves with fans bearing her pictured presentment. Poets and artists vied with each other to make her charms immortal; duels were fought lor her; and whenever she took her walks abroad she had admiring crowds for her escort. Then it was that one day the news flashed from end to end of London, "Tho Duke of Bolton has run away with Polly Peachum." She had, it is said, refused many a coronet to give her heart, although no wedding ring sealed the compact, to the handsomest of our Dukes, Charles Paulet, Knight of tho Garter and Governor of tho Tower. For twenty-three years " Pretty Polly " was ioyal to her ducal lover, until his wife's deatli at last enabled him to place a coronet on her head, and her lo take her place among the greatest ladies in Ihe land—to win universal respect by the dignity and simplicity with which she wore her honours.

.Duchess Lavinia had Wn thirty years in her grave at Greenwich when Mary Catherine Bolton (a name of good omen) was obscurely cradled in Long Acre, but a few minutes' walk from the cnit'ee-hou.se where her great predecessor had won her first childish laurels. I'oor as her parents: were, they were, able, by great sacrifices, to givo her budding talents adequate training with such teachers as .Madame Bianchi, Bellamv and Signer Naldi; and at sixteen we find her'making a. brilliant debut as Polly IVachum. challenging comparison with tin> most gifted Tollies of three generations. As Rosina and Ariel she reached still loftier heights of success. "So pretty was she.'' we are told, "so winning in her pouting wilfulness; and so caressing was her voice, which, even when speaking, had the flowing sweetness of music. As Ariel she bounded along with so light a foot that it seemed scarcely to rest- on the stage.'' Nor were -Mary's conquests confined to tho stage. Many a high-placed lover sought her hand: a Royal Duke, it is paid, threatened to destroy himself if she would not smile, on bis suit.

.But to her, as to most pretty maids, however coy, the, Kairy Prince cnnie at last-in tlie guise of tlie handsome and courtly Lord Thurlnw. "'id against, liis assaults all her armoury was powerless. Thus it. was that one November day in 1813 Mary Bolton blossomed into my Lady Thurlow.

Less than two month? before. Mary Bolton married Lord Thurlow her successor was drawing crowds to Covenfa Garden by her maiden appearance as .Ylandano in " Artaxorxcs." Nineteen years earlier this new and brilliant star of the stage had made her first entry into the World as a daughter of a carver and gilder in the West End of London, a man with a family much longer than his purse. As a child, however, her voice gave promi.se of such rare sweetness that her father was persuaded to give her the advantage of a good training. With Lanza and Marsh as masters, Catherine Stephens developed such a remarkable gift of song that she had won. fame from one; end of Engji/md to tho other before she made her first "dazzling appearance, in London; to crown her triumph shortly after bv eclipsing all her predecessors as Pretty Polly. For more than a score of years she resisted tho most seductive offers to lure her from the stage she loved. Thus it was with something like consternation that, one April day in Ifl.'H, London read of tho marriage of Catherine Stephens, ''tho most brilliant of all Polly Pcachums." to G'corgo Capd, fifth Earl of Essex.