After the performance, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry had the honour of being presented to Queen Victoria, who expressed herself with enthusiasm as to their respective impersonations. Subsequently, through the Prince of Wales, her Majesty presented the great actor with a pair of handsome diamond and gold sleeve-links, and the reigning Portia with a brooch, as beautiful as it was costly.
In her next Lyceum part, that of Catherine Duval, in the revival of Watts Phillips's stirring French Revolution drama, "The Dead Heart" (Sept. 28, 1889), Ellen Terry did all she had to do with her usual taste, and evinced much pathos; but the character afforded her no really great chance. The occasion was, however, a very interesting one, for Gordon Craig (Edward Wardell, who had made his first appearance on the stage in America as the boy Joey, in "The Fate of Eugene Aram") played with great skill the part of Arthur, the handsome son of Catherine, after she had become the wife of the Count de St. Valery. It was pleasant to see the mother and son thus playing together, though looking at her it seemed almost impossible that the relationship could exist. Indeed, one writer was induced to predict that the situation would in due course be reversed, and that Ellen Terry, "blessed with perennial youth and undecaying beauty, will successfully portray a character, in some happily-chosen drama, in which she will pose as the daughter of her own son."
On the 20th September 1890, Henry Irving produced Hermann Merivale's stage-version of Scott's great story, "The Bride of Lammermoor," entitled "Ravenswood," in which he played the ill-fated Edgar, and she was the Lucy Ashton. Here again, it seemed to me, that her opportunities were few and far between, though, of course, she seized and made the most of them whenever they came in her way, and thus wove wonders out of rather scant material. In her picturesque costumes she looked most charming, and she has told me that she "dearly loved" the part.
In the next production, the famous revival of "Henry VIII.," in which as far as scenery, costumes, and general splendour were concerned, the Lyceum manager excelled himself, the actress made a veritable tour de force. Her Queen Katherine was, as Percy Fitzgerald truly said, an astonishing performance, and took even her greatest admirers by surprise. She made the same gigantic effort as she did with Lady Macbeth to interpret a vast character, and one that might well have seemed beyond her strength. It did not aim at being the great Queen Katherine of Sarah Siddons. As in the former instance, Ellen Terry founded her conception on different lines, and acted up to her own ideas with marvellous truth and effect. We believed in, and sympathised with, this earnest and tender-hearted woman, and hated those who persecuted her and hunted her down. She could, and did show irritation, indignation, and hot anger, but beneath it all she let us see the woman's heart, and we knew that it was wrongly and cruelly lacerated. Her victory over those who had pinned their faith on the Siddons reading of the character was complete, and, considering the great difficulties that lay in her path, it was a great one. The pathetic resignation of her death-scene was a piece of beautiful acting ever to be remembered.
Among the dainty gentlewomen attendant upon this heart-touching Queen Katherine was a charming young lady, who figured in the play-bills as Ailsa Craig. This was Ellen Terry's daughter and inseparable companion, Edith Wardell.
Photography by W. & D. Downey.
SIR HENRY IRVING AS "CARDINAL WOLSEY."
In "Henry VIII." in the Lyceum revival of 1892.
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