A recent biography, Ellen Terry: player in her time, by Nina Auerbach (1987) preserves an "undated diary scrap" on which was written: "Always love a dog or a cat more than a doll."
How poignant to think of a Shakespearean actress perceiving the pure relations with an animal as more worthy than the cause of her own fame. I am interpreting the scrap, but it may contain this meaning.
When Terry joined Irving, she was 31 and he 40. It was the beginning of a close association with a man whose life and resources were to be dedicated to the theatre and who was to make the Lyceum a centre for new, striking interpretations—.... As part of his mise-en-scène, he needed a beautiful woman to lend her own glamour to his productions. Terry responded to his needs with selfless dedication, playing many great Shakespearean parts—Portia (1879), Juliet and Beatrice (1882), Lady Macbeth (1888), Queen Katharine (1892), Imogen (1896), Volumnia (1901), Ophelia (1878), Desdemona (1881), and Cordelia (1892). She also willingly undertook such humble roles as Rosamund in Tennyson’s Becket (1893).
..... They severed their partnership in 1902, three years before his death. Their relationship was as close in private as in public life, but when his affection began to wane in the 1890s Terry entered into her famous correspondence with Bernard Shaw. In 1907 she married the American actor James Carew, some 30 years her junior; although they soon parted, he remained her friend.
It was in comedy and in plays of tender sentiment, as well as in Shakespeare, that Terry’s talent shone. When she left Irving it was to appear with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1902), and Shaw eventually persuaded her to appear as Lady Cecily Waynflete in Captain Brassbound’s Conversion (1906), one of several parts he wrote with her in mind. When she celebrated her golden jubilee in 1906 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, all the theatrical personalities of the day shared the stage with her.
Shaw saw Terry as a shining example of a modern, intelligent actress, capable of both naturalistic and intellectual performance. During the 1890s he constantly urged her to leave Irving, whom he regarded as reactionary, and to dedicate herself to promoting modern drama, represented in the works of Ibsen and himself. But .... [h]er particular, instinctual genius flowered only through her long service with Irving.
Although Irving had paid her £200 a working week for most of 20 years, she still had to earn a living in her later years. She worked in the theatre, last appearing on stage in 1925; in films; and as a Shakespearean lecturer-recitalist, reinterpreting her successes on tours in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. Her warm, generous personality made her a favourite wherever she went, but eyesight and memory began to fail. Belatedly, in 1925, she was made a Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire. She died three years later at her cottage, Small Hythe, in Kent, which became the Ellen Terry Memorial Museum and in 1939 was given to the National Trust by her daughter, Edith Craig.
Who does not like to read about the lives of beautiful women. Here are some excerpts
When Terry joined Irving, she was 31 and he 40. It was the beginning of a close association with a man whose life and resources were to be dedicated to the theatre and who was to make the Lyceum a centre for new, striking interpretations—.... As part of his mise-en-scène, he needed a beautiful woman to lend her own glamour to his productions. Terry responded to his needs with selfless dedication, playing many great Shakespearean parts—Portia (1879), Juliet and Beatrice (1882), Lady Macbeth (1888), Queen Katharine (1892), Imogen (1896), Volumnia (1901), Ophelia (1878), Desdemona (1881), and Cordelia (1892). She also willingly undertook such humble roles as Rosamund in Tennyson’s Becket (1893).
..... They severed their partnership in 1902, three years before his death. Their relationship was as close in private as in public life, but when his affection began to wane in the 1890s Terry entered into her famous correspondence with Bernard Shaw. In 1907 she married the American actor James Carew, some 30 years her junior; although they soon parted, he remained her friend.
It was in comedy and in plays of tender sentiment, as well as in Shakespeare, that Terry’s talent shone. When she left Irving it was to appear with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1902), and Shaw eventually persuaded her to appear as Lady Cecily Waynflete in Captain Brassbound’s Conversion (1906), one of several parts he wrote with her in mind. When she celebrated her golden jubilee in 1906 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, all the theatrical personalities of the day shared the stage with her.
Shaw saw Terry as a shining example of a modern, intelligent actress, capable of both naturalistic and intellectual performance. During the 1890s he constantly urged her to leave Irving, whom he regarded as reactionary, and to dedicate herself to promoting modern drama, represented in the works of Ibsen and himself. But .... [h]er particular, instinctual genius flowered only through her long service with Irving.
Although Irving had paid her £200 a working week for most of 20 years, she still had to earn a living in her later years. She worked in the theatre, last appearing on stage in 1925; in films; and as a Shakespearean lecturer-recitalist, reinterpreting her successes on tours in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. Her warm, generous personality made her a favourite wherever she went, but eyesight and memory began to fail. Belatedly, in 1925, she was made a Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire. She died three years later at her cottage, Small Hythe, in Kent, which became the Ellen Terry Memorial Museum and in 1939 was given to the National Trust by her daughter, Edith Craig.
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