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 recollect one poor lad who was an assistant in a large drapery
establishment in Wine Street, Bristol. He was infatuated with the
beautiful Kate Terry, though he had never spoken to her, and probably he
never even saw her off the stage. But he left bouquets and other gifts
addressed to her at the stage-door, and as there was nothing to indicate
who the donor was, or where he lived, she could not send them back.
Sometime after this young fellow was arrested for embezzlement. He had
taken his employer's money, partly in order to gratify a passion for the
theatre, and partly to enable him to buy presents for the divinity whom
he worshipped from afar. It was a painful little drama of real life; and
I know that no one was more distressed than Miss Terry herself when she
read the account of the magisterial proceedings in the paper.
"I could tell you a lot about the 'Old Duke' tavern, the famous
theatrical rendezvous of those days; but the 'Terrys,' of course, did
not come on in that convivial scene. I am reminded, however, that one
of its regular _habitués_ was Charley Adams, the theatre prompter, about
whom many diverting stories might be told. Whenever there was a stage
wait or anything went wrong, Charley lost his head entirely, and rushed
about with 'language' on his lips and tears streaming down his cheeks.
On one occasion the stage was kept waiting for George Rignold, the
audience began to be impatient, and Charley was distracted. Ellen Terry
happened to be standing in the prompt wing, and, rendered desperate by
the growing delay, Charley, with forcible if florid eloquence, expressed
in the true Bristol vernacular, pushed her on to the stage. 'Go on! go
on!' he screamed, making the objective of his imperative mood fairly
totter with adjectives. Miss Terry was, however, by no means
embarrassed. She quietly took in the situation: her always welcome
presence elicited a hearty cheer, and by the time she had crossed the
stage and disappeared on the O.P. side, the missing actor had turned up
and proceeded to 'smooth out the creases.'
"Poor old Charley was often a butt for Ellen Terry's pleasant banter. He
was a rather illiterate man, and made mistakes of speech which were an
irresistible theme of ridicule with this mirthful maiden. How she
laughed when he spoke of the 'Jorgon's' head, and called the statues
'statties,' and performed other amazing feats of verbal metamorphosis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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