The rehearsals for "Macbeth" were very exhausting, but they were splendid to watch. In this play Henry brought his manipulation of crowds to perfection. My acting edition of the play is riddled with rough sketches by him of different groups. Artists to whom I have shown them have been astonished by the spirited impressionism of these sketches. For his "purpose" Henry seems to have been able to do anything, even to drawing and composing music. Sir Arthur Sullivan's music at first did not quite please him. He walked up and down the stage humming and showing the composer what he was going to do at certain situations. Sullivan with wonderful quickness and open-mindedness caught his meaning at once. "Much better than mine, Irving,--much better--I'll rough it out at once!" [Illustration: SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES FROM THE PAINTING BY GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS _By courtesy of G. P. Putnam's Sons_] When the orchestra played the new version based on that humming of Henry's, it was exactly what he wanted! Knowing what a task I had before me, I began to get anxious and worried about "Lady Mac." Henry wrote me such a nice letter about this: "To-night, if possible, the last act. I want to get these great multitudinous scenes over and then we can attack _our_ scenes.... Your sensitiveness is so acute that you must suffer sometimes. You are not like anybody else--you see things with such lightning quickness and unerring instinct that dull fools like myself grow irritable and impatient sometimes. I feel confused when I'm thinking of one thing, and disturbed by another. That's all. But I do feel very sorry afterwards when I don't seem to heed what I so much value.... "I think things are going well, considering the time we've been at it, but I see so much that is wanting that it seems almost impossible to get through properly. 'To-night commence Matthias. If you sleep, you are lost!'"[*] [*] A quotation from "The Bells." [Illustration: ELLEN TERRY AS LADY MACBETH FROM THE PAINTING BY SARGENT, IN THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON] At this time we were able to be of the right use to each other. Henry could never have worked with a very strong woman. I should have deteriorated in partnership with a weaker man whose ends were less fine, whose motives were less pure. I had the taste and artistic knowledge that his upbringing had not developed in him. For years he did things to please me. Later on I gave up asking him. In "King Lear" Mrs. Nettleship made him a most beautiful cloak, but he insisted on wearing a brilliant purple velvet cloak with "glits" all over it which spoiled his beautiful make-up and his beautiful acting. Poor Mrs. Nettle was almost in tears. "I'll never make you anything again," she said. "Never!" [Illustration: PEGGY, MADAME SANS-GENE, MADAME SANS-GENE, CORDELIA _Copyrighted by Window and Grove_ _From the collection of Miss_] _Sargent Paints Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth_