He was indeed to be envied! Henry Irving wrote to him: "Yesterday was a veritable triumph for you and Miss Terry. Her performance was a lovely, never-to-be-forgotten thing—beautiful in conception and perfect in execution." So delighted was he with her success in this original character that he purchased the play and made her a present of it. When it is remembered that he took no part in the victory it will be understood that he is not a selfish actor.
This was doubly proved when in the following year (1888) the piece was staged for a run in the evening bill, with Hermann Vezin and George Alexander in the cast. It was again well received, and ran through a season. Sir Edward Burne-Jones wrote of it:—
"I went to the Lyceum Theatre yesterday for the third time to see your beautiful poetic fairy play. It is a most inspiring work to a painter—and Miss Terry's performance a revelation of loveliness. It is not acting—it is a glimpse into Nature itself. Is there any one like her? I think not. I had not been in a theatre for twenty years before I went to see 'The Amber Heart.'"
Lord Leighton wrote—"Beautiful!—beautiful! Acting and play beautiful! A sweet and abiding memory."
In America the play was received with the same enthusiasm. Miss Terry wrote as follows after its production in New York: "'The Amber Heart' went splendidly. It made a distinct sensation, and I wish you had been there. The people simply love it—just as they did at home."
Ellen Terry's next task was in some ways the most difficult she has been called upon to undertake. When it was known that she was to appear as Lady Macbeth, those (and they were in an overwhelming majority) who associated the character with the majestic, awe-inspiring methods of Mrs. Siddons, and who, going back to the Garrick period, recalled a formidable-looking picture of Mrs. Yates as the Thane's wife with forbidding hooped skirts and a dagger remorselessly clutched in each determined hand, shook their heads, and anticipated failure. How could the graceful, gracious, tender-eyed, sweet-voiced, gentle Ellen Terry grasp such a part as this? Stage tradition had claimed Lady Macbeth for its own, and very few playgoers reflected that, as a matter of fact, it would be more likely that Macbeth would be persuaded by a beautiful and fascinating wife than he would be commanded by a cold and imperious one. To fight against these firmly fixed ideas was a most formidable undertaking, but, anxious though she must have been, Ellen Terry went to work with a brave heart.
On November 6, 1888, she wrote (from Margate) to her friend, Alfred C. Calmour:—
"My holiday is nearly over, and somehow I wish it was just going to begin! However, I feel pretty content. Since I last saw you I have been N., S., E., and W. I have seen very few people, and I have been absorbed by Lady Mac, who is quite unlike her portrait by Mrs. Siddons! She is most feminine, and altogether, now that I have come to know the lady well, I think the portrait is much the grander of the two! But I mean to try at a true likeness, as it is more within my means. Like a good friend, send on the notes you spoke of—the notes on Macbeth. I'm staying here to get away from people and to be quiet, but I shall come up for your play, 'Widow Winsome,' if you do it on the 15th. I'm so glad you'll have a good cast. Katie Rorke is quite the best of our young ones."
Kate Rorke, it will be remembered, commenced her stage career at the Court Theatre when Ellen Terry was in the first flush of her success as Olivia.