"Thank you for letting me join in your tribute to her.
"Devotedly yours, till my chair is empty,
"ARTHUR PINERO."
Truth to nature
The third tribute is from Johnston Forbes-Robertson:
"MY DEAR B,
"It is a great privilege to comply with your wish. It was in 1878 that I first met Lady Bancroft. She was then about to retire for a holiday from the part of Zicka in Diplomacy. A year later I had the good fortune to meet her on the stage when you engaged me to act in Ours. In the following year I moved with the celebrated company from the Prince of Wales's to the Haymarket Theatre, which had been transformed by you into the most beautiful theatre in London. Here I was cast for a part in School: hence it is my proud boast that I acted with Marie Bancroft in her prime, and was in personal touch with Mary Netley and Naomi Tighe!
"Alas! it is not in me to convey to the present generation the powers of this incomparable actress. The winsomeness, the cajolery, the sprightly vivacity, the joyousness, and the tenderness of it all! Every note could she play upon, and never was any note forced. The means by which she attained these varied and subtle emotions were not to be traced. All appeared so simple, so illusive, that it came home to one as being absolutely true to nature. She was complete mistress of all the resources of her art, and yet those resources were never laid bare, never discoverable by the onlooker. Every movement was simple, direct and natural; every intonation and inflection true; every word that fell from her lips clean cut and distinct. No matter how rapidly a passage was delivered, she was heard even to the farthest seat of the largest theatre.
"Polly Eccles! Why, the very thought of the name makes my face pucker with smiles, and it must be bordering on fifty years ago when first she bewitched me in the part! Yes, 'bewitching Marie Wilton' was a phrase common amongst us in those days, and in truth the witchery was there in full measure, and to overflowing.