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
I for one" (and here Clement Scott speaks for many of us) "shall never
forget the end of the play, with the libations poured in honour of
Artemis, and amidst music and flowers and processions, faultless in
colour, and of classic pomp, making the dull mind live in another age,
we hear intoned with strophe and antistrophe of chanting chorus, the
double appeal by Camma and Synorix, containing as it does the most
impassioned poetry of the play.
"I said at the time, 'If there ever was a play that from its intrinsic
merits demanded a second, if not a third visit, it is "The Cup." At
present the landscape of Mr. W. Telbin, and the decorative splendour of
Mr. Hawes Craven's Temple of Artemis, absorb all attention. We seem to
see before us the concentrated essence of such fascinating art as that
of Sir Frederick Leighton and Mr. Alma Tadema in a breathing and
tangible form. Not only do the grapes grow before us, and the myrtles
blossom, the snow-mountains change from silver-white at daytime to
roseate hues at dawn, not only are the Pagan ceremonies acted before us
with a reality and fidelity that almost baffles description, but in the
midst of all this scenic allurement glide the classical draperies of
Miss Ellen Terry, who is the exact representative of the period she
enacts, while following her we find the eager glances of the
fate-haunted Mr. Irving. The pictures that dwell on the memory are
countless, and not to be effaced in spell or witchery by any of the most
vaunted productions of the stage, even in an era devoted to archæology.
We see, as we travel back through the enchanting vista, the first
meeting of Synorix and Camma--he with his long red hair and haunting
eyes, his weird pale face and swathes of leopard skins; she with her
grace of movement, unmatched in our time, clad in a drapery sea-weed
tinted, with complexion as clear as in one of Sir Frederick Leighton's
classical pictures, and with every pose studied but still natural.
"We remember Camma as she reclined on the low couch with her harp,
moaning about her husband's late-coming, and can recall the hungry eyes
of Synorix, as he drank in the magic of her presence. All was good here,
the tenderness of the woman, the wicked eagerness of her lover, the
quick impulsive energy of the husband. Difficult as it was to study the
acting, when so much had to be seen, still it was felt that Mr. Irving,
Mr. Terriss, and Miss Ellen Terry had well opened the tragedy long
before the first curtain fell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account