miss terry.

As promised in my last post that was on the"new woman"of the Victorian era , I will be going over some things I found out this week about Ellen Terry, one of the famed Shakespearean actresses of the Victorian stage.

Ellen Terry, circa 1880.

Ellen Terry's first experience acting out Shakespeare on stage was when she was nine years old, playing that part of Mamillius from The Winter's Tale (victorianweb). Perhaps it was at that time, or even earlier, that Terry fell in love with the Bard, and she consistently, throughout her acting career, played many of Shakespeare's leading ladies. She began a life-long engagement with all things Shakespeare, and wrote about his works in letters and even presented many lectures on Shakespeare. In one of her letters to Henry Irving, an actor-manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, Terry states that

Shakespeare was the only man she had ever really loved. 'When I was about siteen or seventeen, and very unhappy, I foreswore the society of men...Yet I was lonley all the same. I wanted a sweetheart! I read everything I could get hold of about my beloved one. I lived with him in his plays.' (Marshall, 155)

But this "romance" with Shakespeare was not particular to Terry. Many women of the Victorian era used "images of domestic or sentimental attraction[...]in relation to Shakespeare (Marshall, 155)." This, in some ways, makes me think of the trouble that Jane Austin (and Stephenie Meyer, I suppose...) caused in setting too high of standards for men, so much that women wouldn't even look at a man if he was not a "Mr. Darcy," and, well, the Victorian men must've felt some sort of anguish that they couldn't be like the Bard in wooing women. But because of Terry's infatuation with Shakespeare, she was able to become a most sincere and engaging Shakespearean actress: it was as if it was her duty and obligation to show audiences how powerful Shakespeare wrote his female characters, and Terry did a bang-up job at that. Many reviewers responded quite favorably to Terry's role as Imogen in the 1896 production of Cymbeline:

Miss Terry plays the part with a radiance and a charm all her own, with a pathos and a grace of which she, among modern actresses, seems to possess the unique secret...It is long since we have seen such girlish abandon, such womanly tenderness [...]. Time seemed suddenly to be effaced, the years to roll back, and before us stood Miss Terry as young, as fragrant, and as bewitching as ever she was in the seventies. (Marshall, 156)

And yet another reviewer, from the Times said:

 Imogen is a very beautiful character, and Miss Terry (for whom it might have been designed) plays it with rare grace and charm...with her airy grace and tender womanliness [she] is Imogen to the life...it is in the true womanliness of Imogen that the actress excels, and here voice, manner, looks and temperament combine to help her. (Marshall, 156)

Now, I think that these reviews are quite interesting, especially compared to Sarah Bernhardt's reviews in her roles as men, because neither actress was seen more favorable in the eyes of the public, yet these two famed actresses engaged very different roles: Ellen Terry as the ideal, perfect woman, soft and sweet and "tender; Sarah Bernhardt as the sensual woman who later turned to leading men's roles. I think it is safe to say that while the ideals of womanhood were in flux and changing, society was beginning to open up to either which way a woman wanted to go, be it to further embrace the dying angel of the home, or the upcoming, bicycle-riding, woman who wore pants and left the home to seek other opportunities.

Well, whatever the case may be, I still feel strongly that Shakespeare helped educated women of the late 19th century to see the possibilities of what womanhood could mean, be it the soft and feminine Terry or the tough and strong Bernhardt, women who were familiar with Shakespeare's works at this time were embracing him because of the women he created. Elizabeth Wordsworth firmly stated that "a well-educated girl ought to be, at 12 or 15 years old, in love with Miranda, Cordelia, Desdemona, Portia, and Perdita...she ought to catch some of their beautiful feeling, their dignity (Marshall, 177)." I think that helps my point a bit.