Note 20 — Chapter VI · 1878. THE NEW MANAGER OF THE LYCEUM—MISS TERRY—HIS SYSTEM AND ASSISTANTS.

The actress is of a genuinely theatrical family. Readers of Scott’s Life will recall the clever, industrious Terry, who was long connected with the Edinburgh stage, and had himself adapted so many of the Scott novels. Miss Terry’s father was also long connected with the Edinburgh stage; her three sisters, her brother, her two children, have all found their way to the “boards.” Even the precocious child performer, Minnie Terry, is different from other prodigy children, and imparts a distinction to what is usually a disagreeable sort of exhibition. I take from the pages of The Theatre the following minute account of Miss Terry’s career:—“Miss Ellen Terry was born at Coventry on February 27, 1848. Her first appearance on the stage was made at the Princess’s Theatre, under the management of Mr. Charles Kean, on April 28, 1856. On October 15 of the same year she appeared as Puck in the revival of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ In Mr. Kean’s production of ‘King John,’ on October 18, 1858, she acted the part of Arthur. She next appeared at the Royalty and Haymarket Theatres, and at the latter house she played in ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ In March, 1863, she acted Gertrude in ‘The Little Treasure,’ at the Haymarket. She then acted at the Queen’s Theatre in Long Acre, where, on October 24, 1867, she sustained the character of Rose de Beaurepaire in ‘The Double Marriage,’ also in ‘Still Waters Run Deep’; and, on December 26 of the same year she acted for the first time with Mr. Henry Irving, playing Katherine to his Petruchio in ‘The Taming of the Shrew.’ Miss Terry then retired from the stage for some years, reappearing on February 28, 1874, at the Queen’s Theatre, as Philippa Chester in ‘The Wandering Heir.’ On April 18 of the same year she acted Susan Merton in ‘It’s Never Too Late to Mend,’ at Astley’s Theatre, a performance which the Daily News thought worthy of ‘especial mention.’ Miss Terry’s first ‘hit,’ however, was made in April, 1875, when she acted Portia in ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre. At the same theatre, in May following, she acted Clara Douglas in ‘Money’; and on August 7, 1875, she appeared at the Princess’s Theatre, for one night only, as Pauline in ‘The Lady of Lyons.’ In November following she acted Mabel Vane in ‘Masks and Faces’; and in May, 1876, she played Blanche Haye in ‘Ours,’ at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre. Going to the Court Theatre, in the autumn of the same year, she appeared in ‘The House of Darnley,’ and represented Lilian Vavaseur in ‘New Men and Old Acres.’”—Her first appearance was not in 1856, as so many have set down, but in 1854. This was in the part of one of the young princes “murdered in the Tower,” though it has been often stated that the part was the child one of Mamilius in ‘The Winter’s Tale.’ This was ascertained by my late friend Dutton Cook, one of the most painstaking and accurate of men.

Two rival houses in Coventry at this moment claim to be her birthplace. A greengrocer, at No. 5, Market Street, displays a plate or placard, announcing that she was born in his house: while a haberdasher, at No. 26, over the way, protests that “This house is the original birthplace of Miss Ellen Terry, and no other. Observe the name, Terry House.” Two other householders make the same claim. But an “old nurse” declares for No. 5.