Theatrical and Circus Life: or, Secrets of the Stage, Green-Room and Sawdust ArenaJennings, John J. (John Joseph)
History
Theatrical and Circus Life: or, Secrets of the Stage, Green-Room and Sawdust Arena
Jennings, John J. (John Joseph)
Circus; Theater -- United States
A London correspondent tells us how a favorite actress of that place
faced three husbands, and as it is in order to continue turning the
crank of the scandal machine while foreign talent is the material
to be ground, I will give the paragraph. He says: "The true glory
of the Lyceum Theatre is that English Bernhardt, Miss Ellen Terry.
This blue-eyed, blonde-locked, Saxon siren is not a radiant beauty as
was the ill-fated Adelaide Neilson, but she is something better--she
is a charmeuse, as the French call any one possessing that peculiar
feminine--which she exercises so powerfully--magnetism. She is the most
gifted, and withal the most naturally graceful, woman that I have ever
seen. The little movements and artistic attitudes of Sarah Bernhardt
would seem forced and artificial beside that unborn charm and harmony
of gesture, unstudied and perfect as the ripple of tall grasses or the
swaying of the branches of a weeping willow beneath a summer breeze.
She is pure womanly, every inch of her. She cannot be awkward even
when she tries; and I saw her try the other night in 'The Belle's
Stratagem;' but instead of transforming _Letitia Handy_ into a country
hoyden in accordance with the text, she only succeeded in assuming a
pretty _espieglerie_ that, had I been _Doricourt_, would have driven
me to catch her straightway in my arms and kiss her, declaring that
she was charming anyhow. Off the stage I am told that she is quite as
fascinating as when before the foot-lights. She has proved the extent
of her power of enchantment by successfully winning and wedding three
husbands, all of whom are still living, divorce and not death having
released her from two of them. In fact, it is reported that while
walking in the Grosvenor Gallery recently, with her present spouse, Mr.
Kelly, she came face to face with her two former husbands, who were
promenading there together, and that the only embarrassed personage of
the quartette was Mr. Kelly; and they do say that the law will soon
be called into requisition to break the bonds that unite her to her
present spouse, and that she will then become the wife of a prominent
English actor. Truly this wonderful and interesting lady ought to
inscribe on her wedding-ring the motto said to have been adopted by the
old Countess of Desmond on the occasion of her fourth marriage:--
If I survive
I'll have five.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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