Ellen Terry and Her SistersPemberton, T. Edgar (Thomas Edgar)
History
Ellen Terry and Her Sisters
Pemberton, T. Edgar (Thomas Edgar)
Actresses -- Great Britain -- Biography; Terry, Ellen, Dame, 1847-1928
In 1874 she became a prominent member of Henry Neville's company at the
Olympic, appearing (_inter alia_) in an English version of "Le Mariage
de Figaro," by James Mortimer, entitled "A School for Intrigue." Henry
Neville was the Almaviva, Edward Righton the Figaro, and Emily Fowler
the Suzanne. Later, in a revival of "Much Ado about Nothing," she made a
very winsome Hero to the Beatrice of Emily Fowler, the Benedick of Henry
Neville (this was a delightful reproduction of Shakespeare's spirited
picture), the Don Pedro of W. H. Vernon, the Dogberry of Edward
Righton, and the Verges of G. W. Anson. Then she migrated to the Strand
Theatre, to play in some of H. J. Byron's pleasant comedies, such as
"Old Sailors" and "Weak Woman." Of the last-named play, Edward Leman
Blanchard (never inclined to be enthusiastic) said that it was "a
brightly written and most ingeniously constructed piece; excellently
acted, and having a well-deserved success." As its heroine, Marion Terry
became very popular, and successes were also made by Ada Swanborough, W.
H. Vernon, J. G. Grahame, Harry Cox, and Edward Terry. In the hands of
the last-named admirable comedian--and thanks to the excellence of his
acting in the eccentric character of Captain Ginger--"Weak Woman" still
holds the stage. On September 11th, 1876, came the young actress's first
great chance, and right worthily she availed herself of it. On that
evening W. S. Gilbert's three-act drama, "Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith," was
produced at the Haymarket Theatre, and to her was allotted the one
feminine, but all-important, part of Dorothy. The dramatist had avowedly
taken the episode of the first act--the finding by the saturnine
blacksmith of a wee but winning girl-baby in his lonely hermitage--a
mere hut by the sea-shore--from George Eliot's beautiful story, "Silas
Marner," but that was all the better, for it formed the prelude to a
most interesting play. In it Marion Terry made an instantaneous success
by the absolute simplicity of her acting. With a grip rare in so young
an artiste, she had realised her author's meaning; her love-scenes (with
Forbes Robertson) were finely presented, and, throughout the two acts in
which she appeared, her quietly won victory was from the first apparent,
and ultimately complete. With such actors as Hermann Vezin, Henry Howe,
Odell, and Forbes Robertson, she easily held her own, and shared in the
honours of a notable artistic success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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