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Ellen Terry
By Joy Melville
Haus Books £18
256 pages
Dateline: 10th October, 2006
Anyone reading Joy Melville's thrilling biography will wonder why Ellen
Terry has not been the subject of more books, plays or films in recent
years.
The actress may have been born 160 years ago, but her attitude to life
and her sensibilities are entirely modern. Indeed, if anybody could
be said to have been born before her time, Miss Terry fits the bill.
It was inevitable that she would be an actress in that her parents
were strolling players and most members of their large brood acted at
some point in their lives. The tradition continued with both of Miss
Terry's children working in the theatre.
Further generations produced some of the greatest practitioners that
the theatre has known in Edward Gordon Craig, primarily a designer,
and Sir John Gielgud, about whom surely nothing more need be said.
Like elder sister Kate, Ellen Terry took to the stage as a child and
was a success by her mid-teens. At that point, she made a first life-changing
decision by marrying the artist GF Watts when she was aged 17 and he
almost 30 years older. To make matters worse, these were mid-Victorian
days when, by his mid-forties the typical man was approaching old age.
Quite what went on between the couple is a mystery but the relationship
didn't last long. Watts clearly did not appreciate his wife's profession
and in making a generous settlement on their separation, made most of
it conditional upon her not returning to the stage.
That seemed to suit the young woman who was possibly "acted out",
although she made a few perfunctory trips across the boards.
At 21, the subject disappeared from the world to the extent that her
father identified a body as that of young Ellen, after which she was
forced to do her own bit of habeas corpus to stay her parents'
fears and prove that she was still alive.
In an age when even piano legs were covered, the young woman had started
an affair with an architect named Edward Godwin 15 years her senior.
This kind of behaviour was beyond unacceptable and bearing two children
out of wedlock, Edy and Teddy ensured that no decent person, including
the whole Terry family, would even speak to her. In a way, poor Ellen
was unlucky in that it was impossible to obtain a divorce from Watts
other than after a very long wait; and her passionate nature clearly
got the better of her.
Godwin may have been Ellen's true love but eventually, she decided
to return to the right, respectable side of society with marriage to
actor Charles Wardell (or on stage, Kelly). That one didn't last long
either, but it did herald the actress' return to the stage and the beginning
of great things.
In particular, her Portia drew positive notices and eventually, the
attention of the greatest actor of his day, Henry Irving.
It was with Irving that Miss Terry achieved fame at the Lyceum Theatre.
Strangely, their repertoire consisted of a mixture of Shakespeare and
low melodrama and comedy.
It is never easy to make money out of the acting profession and when
you were as spendthrift as this lady, things could become difficult.
However, her partnership with Irving was immensely successful both on
the stage and off it, never more so than on their first couple of trips
to America where even with full sets and casts, the profits rolled in.
Although it is not certain, it seems that the relationship between
this glamorous couple developed into a long-term affair and what must
have been a happy and exciting period in both of their lives.
Irving was dominant and his star actress only too happy to play second
fiddle and follow his orders. This wasn't all good news as it meant
that she never got to play Rosalind, a part after which she hankered,
although there were opportunities to star in other roles including the
legendary Lady Macbeth, captured forever in the painting by Leigh Hunt.
A rift with Irving began to develop as finances faltered and his leading
lady became friendly, primarily on a penpal basis, with George Bernard
Shaw.
Ellen Terry then became a thoroughly modern woman, first by marrying
American actor James Carew, a man 25 years her junior when she was almost
60.
She then toyed with the idea of working in modern theatre on plays
by Ibsen and Shaw, although without any great success. However, one
money-making venture that was much more lucrative was her one woman
lecture tour on Shakespeare, which proved highly successful, especially
following in Dickens's footsteps in North America.
Joy Melville paints an entirely believable psychological portrait of
Ellen Terry and also extends this to Irving and to her children. They
were a real contrast with her son renaming himself Gordon Craig, pottering
around in the theatre and fathering ten children, six out of wedlock
His sister Edith also built her life around theatre although as a dabbler
who was most successful when directing. She set up a strange ménage
with a woman with a man's name and it seems likely that their relationship
was what would in those days have been known as "unnatural".
Neither child ever really escaped from their mother's influence. Finally,
during Ellen's old age when she belatedly became a Dame of the Realm
in her seventies Edy in particular was a major support.
Ellen Terry eventually made it past 80 and lived until 1928 and a completely
different era.
Haus Books have done Joy Melville proud with production qualities that
are also from a bygone age, with the exception of some rather sloppy
copy editing.
Although the book is less than 300 pages long, it feels weighty due
to the quality of the paper and this enhances the many photographs that
help one get a feel for the life and age of Ellen Terry, as well as
the attraction that she must have had for the men who swarmed about
her like bees around a honey pot.
This new biography is very strongly recommended and it is to be hoped
that it will end up on some prize lists by the end of the year.
Philip Fisher
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