Actors and actresses of Great Britain and the United States
Matthews, Brander, 1852-1929 | Hutton, Laurence, 1843-1904
M m ^^^c^>fc^^p H y''~^?^\\^/i^ iOti44iUiA*K^^icZCAV ..o<>^ <r ^-^ ^o" ^ # r t ACTORS AND ACTRESSES ***** THE PRESENT TIME Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive in 2007 witli funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/actorsactressesoOOmattiala ACTORS AND ACTRESSES Great Britain and the United States FROM THE DAYS OF DAVID GARRICK TO THE PRESENT TIME EDITED BV BRANDER MATTHEWS and LAURENCE HUTTON ''^Meanwhile we make ourselves happy atnong the Wits and the Players.'''' " Masks and Faces," act /, scene 2. * * * THE PRESENT TIME. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited 739 & 741 Broadway, New York Copyright, 1886, By O. M. DUNHAM. A II rights reserved. Press of W. L. Mershon & Co., Rahway, N. J, CONTENTS. Miss Mary Anderson. Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft Mr. Lawrence Barrett Mr. Edwin Booth. Mr. and Mrs. Dion Boucicault Mr. J. S. Clarke. Mr. and Mrs. Florence Mr. Henry Irving Mr. Joseph Jefferson. Mr. and Mrs. Kendal. Mme. Modjeska .- Miss Clara Morris Mr. John T. Raymond. Miss Ellen Terry  . 55 Benjamin Ellis Martin 11 Edw. Hamilton Bell . 95 Laurence Hntton . . 113 J. Ranken Toivse . 131 II. C. Bun tier . 153 William Archer . . 175 Jeannette Leonard Gilder 193 Clinton Stuart . 211 George H. Jessop . . 229 Geo. Edgar Montgomery 247 Walter Herties Pollock 265 William Winter . . 283 301 MISS MARY ANDERSON. Beautiful lady from a far-off land, In whose fair form rejoicingly we trace The loveliest features of a kindred race That bids thee welcome with an outstretched hand, Which lingers lovingly in clasped embrace, Until our deep emotions, in flushed face, Thou mayest read, and reading understand Our passionate love of purity and grace ; Springing spontaneous from thy generous heart ! We pray Heaven guard thee in thy noble art. Where art is lost ; — made so to intertwine With purest nature, as to form a part Of thine own being — as entirely thine That but one word expresseth it — it is Divine ! Francis Bennoch. MISS MARY ANDERSON. Since the death of Charlotte Cushman, the American stage has waited for an actress whose aspiration and endeavor might foreshadow an imperial rule. Women have appeared during the last ten years who have distinguished themselves in certain parts and won renown in the portrayal and expression of certain emotions ; but therein were equally revealed their powers and their limitations. The manifold attributes of mind and character, developed by serious purpose into a noble harmony, have not been clearly exhibited on our stage by any actress of recent years. To say this does not lessen the fame of any artist now before the public ; the assertion plucks no laurel from any deserving brow. I have said that actresses have become famous through certain impersonations, and I am well aware that not without thought and study were the portraits conceived and executed. But I do not regard the emotional expert as entitled to come under the head of Richelieu's phrase of " entirely great." Because a certain actress, for instance, has been exceptionally effective as Camille, it does not fol- low, I think, that equal identification would attend a new assumption. Would not a change of part rather be something of the nature of a fresh experiment ? — not the assured donning of a becoming mantle. As a rule, it is the opportunity for effective realism that appeals 3 4 M/SS MAR Y ANDERSON. to the dramatic specialist, and just so far as the realistic possibilities of any given part accord with the ambition, temperament, and unique personality of the player, so far will be the measure of the success. It is noticeable that the performances of the specialist afford few, if any, felicitous contrasts. The acting is likely to be on the same plane of thought, feeling, and expression, and it compels interest and admiration by a sustained physical and emotional strain. I may be asked if the oculist and surgeon are not important adjuncts to the medical profession ? I answer, they are, of course ; but then we never expect to be blind nor to have a limb taken off, however frequently we know we may need the doctor. The achievements of the actress whose name heads this paper demand a consideration far beyond my present limits ; but I think no consideration is needed to say that she has kindled a greater hope and gives a brighter promise than any American actress since the death of Charlotte Cushman. Perhaps she it is for whom the stage has been waiting. Something in her early aspiration ; in the manner of her first ap- pearance ; in the steps by which she has advanced ; in her patient yet energetic acquirement of the details of her art ; in her devotion to high ideals ; in her refined taste and nobleness of spirit ; in her pains- taking zeal ; in her endowment of intelligence and beauty ; in her self-respecting nature ; — something in all these seems to point to a bright fulfilment of the present hope and promise. Miss Mary Anderson was born on July 28, 1859. Her birthplace was Sacramento, California, but she was still an infant when her parents moved to Ken- MISS MARY ANDERSON. ^ tucky. The record of her early years is full of interest for those who study the careers of women of genius ; and it may be noted that she was wayward and restless under school and domestic restraint. Her nature was truthful, her disposition such as to make her a favorite wherever known, and she seems to have been the idol of her playmates. It is con- fessed that her school-learning was of small account, and her conduct under tuition often refractory. It was on leaving school, at the age of thirteen, that she began to study ; but her book was Shakspere, and the poet opened the gates of dream-land to her, as he has to so many others, before and since. We are told that the poet was an education to her, and that her intellectual development was rapid. The male characters of Shakspere interested her most at this time ; she studied with ardor the parts of Hamlet, Romeo, and Richard III. ; and while thus engaged she also employed herself in cultivating her voice. Her passion for the stage seems to have been inborn, and her first visit to the theatre was an event which held the seal of destiny. In her fourteenth year she saw Edwin Booth in Richard III., and the per- formance, as may well be imagined, was a revelation to her. Later she visited Miss Cushman, and received from that great actress an encouraging opinion of her powers, accompanied with the advice to place herself in study and training for another year before making an appearance in public. This advice was followed. For dramatic instructor the late Mr. Vandenhoff was selected, and he gave her ten lessons, which is said to have been her only professional training. Her first appearance was made at Macauley's Theatre, Louis- 6 MISS MARY ANDERSON. ville, on Nov. 27, 1875, in the character of Juliet, the play-bill reading " by a Louisville Young Lady." It is on record that competent judges regarded this first performance as indicating great natural talent. From that time to the present Miss Anderson has steadily pursued her professional path, not without a share of the vicissitudes and disappointments that beset a theatrical career, and her progress has been watched with more than ordinary interest by the American theatre-going public. Her first regular engagement was at the Louisville Theatre, in the January following her debut, and in the course of it she played Evadne, Bianca, Julia, and Juliet. This engagement was succeeded by her appearance in St. Louis, New Orleans, Washington, and San Francisco, A New York audience welcomed her for the first time on Nov. 12, 1877, when she appeared at the Fifth Avenue Theatre as Pauline, in the * Lady of Lyons.' She successively played Juliet, Evadne, Meg Merrilies and Parthenia. She made a first, visit to Europe in 1878 (not a profes- sional one), returning the same year, and playing again at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in a round of her chosen parts. It is not needful to chronicle here the professional engagements of Miss Anderson from year to year. Let it suffice that she has played in al! the principal cities of the Union, and in 1883 made a second visit to Europe, this time professionally, where she re- mained until the autumn of 1885, adding largely to her dramatic laurels by her performances in the United Kingdom, and winning great popular esteem by her personal worth. In August of 1885 she played MISS MARY ANDERSON. 7 Rosalind {hex first appearance in that character) at Stratford-on-Avon, for the benefit of the Shakspere Memorial Theatre, and the proceeds of this perform- ance may be seen in the beautiful sculptured emblems of Comedy and Tragedy which now adorn the front of the Memorial Hall where ' As You Like It ' was acted. On Miss Anderson's return to her native land she began the season of 1885-6 with Rosalind, at the Star Theatre in New York. This season, which embraced an extended tour of the United States, ended in May, 1886, and in June following the actress sailed again for England. Eleven years have passed since Miss Anderson's first appearance. Her progress has shown a steady increase of dramatic comprehension and power, and her professional life has been marked by thoughtful study and conscientious work. She has added to her repertory from time to time, and her list of characters presents an array which tested many of her great predecessors. Free and beautiful, she stands before us as the foremost American actress, and her career from first to last, viewed in whatever light, is one of which we have every reason to be proud. It is worthy of all regard that from pure and sincere professional devotion Miss Anderson has never swerved. But the time has not yet come when the lists may be closed and the crown awarded. Something is due to tradition — to famous actresses of the past who found the path to fame no royal road. An acute critic, writing in 1880 on the recognition of the increasing merit of Miss Anderson's performances, after a summary of what he judged were her merits 8 MISS MARY ANDERSON. and defects, used these words : " Here, in brief, is more tragic impulse than human tenderness ; more of physical strength and force of will than of spiritual intensity ; more of the ravishing opulence of youth- ful womanhood than of the thrilling frenzy of genius or the dominant grandeur of intellectual character. Yet, what a wealth of natural power is here ! what glorious promise ! what splendid possibilities ! " Doubtless many of the lines of limitation here sug- gested have been obliterated by growth and develop- ment ; but Miss Anderson does not claim to be a prodigy and will be willing to wait for those teachings of experience that have their part in rounding and perfecting all human effort. Not to have suffered is a lesson of life missed. The "glorious promise," the "splendid possibilities," remain, and there our hope shall rest. It may be of interest to place on record Miss Anderson's present repertory : Juliet, in ' Romeo and Juliet ' ; Evadne, in * Evadne ' ; Bianca, in * Fazio ' ; Julia, in the ' Hunchback ' ; Parthenia, in * Ingomar ' ; Pauline, in the ' Lady of Lyons ' ; Meg Merrilies, in ' Guy Mannering ' ; Lady Macbeth, in ' Macbeth ' (sleep scene) ; the Countess, in * Love ' ; Duchess de Torrenucra, in ' Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady ' ; Ion, in ' Ion ' ; Galatea, in ' Pygmalion and Galatea ' ; Berthe, in ' Roland's Daughter ' ; Desdemona, in ' Othello ' ; Clarice, in * Comedy and Tragedy ' ; Rosalind, in ' As You Like It.' William L. Keese. MISS MARY ANDERSON. 9 We can scarcely bring ourselves to speak of the young actress who came before the footlights last night, with the coolness of a critic and a spectator. Our interest in native genius and young endeavor, in courage and brave effort that arrives from so near us — our own city — precludes the possibility of stand- ing outside of sympathy, and peering in with analyz- ing and judicial glance. But we do not think that any man of judgment who witnessed Miss Anderson's acting of Juliet, can doubt that she is a great actress. In the latter scenes she interpreted the very spirit and soul of tragedy, and thrilled the whole house into silence by the depth of her passion and her power. She is essentially a tragic genius, and began really to act only after the scene in which her nurse tells Juliet of what she supposes is her lover's death. The quick gasp, the terrified, stricken face, the tottering step, the passionate and heart-rending accents were nature's own marks of affecting overwhelming grief. Miss Anderson has great power over the lower tones of her rich voice. Her whisper electrifies and pene- trates ; her hurried words in the passion of the scene where she drinks the sleeping potion, and afterwards in the catastrophe at the end, although very far below conversational pitch, came to the ear with distinctness and with wonderful effect. In the final scene she reached the climax of her acting, which, from the time of Tybalt's death to the end, was full of tragic power that we have never seen equalled. It will be observed that we have placed the merit of this actress (in our opinion) for the most part in her deeper and more sombre powers, and despite the high praise that we more gladly offer as her due, we can- lO MISS MARY ANDERSON. not be blind to her faults in the presentation of last evening. She is, undoubtedly, a great actress, and last night evidenced a magnificent genius, more espe- cially remarkable on account of her extreme youth ; but whether she is a great Juliet is, indeed, more doubtful. We can imagine her as personating Lady Macbeth superbly, and hope soon to witness her in the part. As Juliet, her conception is almost perfect, as evinced by her rare and exceptional taste and intui- tive understanding of the text. But her enactment of the earlier scenes lacks the exuberance and earnest joyfulness of the pure and glowing Flower of Italy, with all her fanciful conceits and delightful and lov- ing ardor. The Louisville Courier, Nov. 28, 1875. Not long afterwards Mary Anderson's dramatic powers were submitted to the critical judgment of Miss Cushraan. The great actress, then in the zenith of her fame, was residing not far distant, at Cincinnati. Accompanied by her mother, Mary presented herself at Miss Cushman's hotel. They happened to meet in the vestibule. The veteran actress took the young aspirant's hand with her accustomed vigorous grasp, to which Mary, not to be outdone, nerved herself to respond in kind ; and patting her at the same time affectionately on the cheek, invited her to read before her on an early morning. When Miss Cushman had entered her waiting carriage, Mary Anderson, with her wonted veneration for what pertained to the stage, begged that she might be allowed to be the first to sit in the chair that had been occupied for a few moments by the great actress. Miss Cushman's verdict was MISS MARY ANDERSON. II highly favorable. " You have," she said, " three essential requisites for the stage : voice, personality, and gesture. With a year's longer study and some training, you may venture to make an appearance before the public." Miss Cushman recommended that she should take lessons from the younger Van- denhoff, who was at the time a successful character teacher in New York. A year from that date occurred the actress's lamented death, almost on the very day of Mary Anderson's dSut. J. M. Farrar : ' Mary Anderson : the Story of her Life,' chap. 2, pp. 13-14. Her works are growing in symmetry — but neither in unity nor in splendor. She still [March, 1880] wins as a beauty, impresses as a prodigy, and startles as a genius. The word has not yet been spoken which is to give her soul its entire freedom, arm it with all its powers, and make the forms of art the slaves of her will. The triumph of Miss Anderson now is the triumph of an exceptional personality shrined in a beautiful person, but not yet the triumph of a consummate actress. With a superb voice, here is a defective elocution ; with a magnificent figure, hefe is a self-conscious manner in the attitudes ; with a noble freedom and suppleness of physical machinery, here is a capricious gesticulation ; with a full and fine sense of opportu- nity for strong and shining points, here is but an incipient perception of the relative value of surround- ing characters and the coordination of adjuncts ; with a brilliant faculty for stormy and vehement declamation, here, as yet, is an imperfect idea of the 12 MISS MARY ANDERSON. loveliness of quiet touches, verbal shading, and sug- gestive strokes ; with a vigorous, and often grand, manner of address, here is a frequent lack of concen- tration in listening ; with wonderful intuitions as to the wilder moods of human passion, here is a restricted sympathy with the more elemental feelings — from which naturally ensues a certain vagueness in the effect of their manifestation. Here, in brief, is more tragic impulse than human tenderness ; more of physical strength and force of will than of spiritual intensity ; more of the ravishing opulence of youthful womanhood than of the thrilling frenzy of genius or the dominant grandeur of intellectual character. Yet, what a wealth of natural power is here ! What glorious promise ! What splendid possibilities ! William Winter : The * Stage Life of Mary Anderson,' chap, i, pp. 30-2. Now, as to the acting. You will at once ask me how is it possible for any one to adequately represent the part of an intensely virtuous, highly respectable and honorable couple, of whom one, the wife, plays the part of the decoy, and the other, the husband, the rdle of a bully ? A virtuous and respectable Becky Sharp is a contradiction in terms ; but Miss Mary Anderson having chosen the part for herself, plays it, and assumes the responsibility of the interpreta- tion. She looks it to perfection, and from a certain point of view, which must be her own, or she would not have selected the piece, plays it admirably. I can imagine what Sarah Bernhardt would have done with it, but she could never have enlisted the sym- ATISS MARV ANDERSON. 13 pathies of the audience as an honest wife ; but the actress who can enlist the sympathies of the audience by acting as a Lucretia could but imperfectly portray the seductive caresses of a Phryne. Miss Anderson sacrifices the Phryne to the Lucretia, and her con- sistently impossible character is entirely in keeping with the utterly artificial and purely theatrical situa- tion. The recitation with which Clarice attempts to entertain her sprawling guests (it must have been the dullest party conceivable) has been ingeniously devised and cleverly written. It is at once the tour de force of both author and actress. Punch, London, Feb. 9, 1884. In * Ingomar,' Miss Anderson was instinct with force and with simplicity. She had just the delicate yet firm touch which the character in its main lines de- mands ; and it is a character made up for the most part of broad outlines. Yet here and there comes a passage where fine shading is wanted ; and such a passage is the rejection of the tricky Polydor's suit. Then Miss Anderson was absolutely, hopelessly as it seemed, at fault. She had to reject the disgusting old man with a laugh, and the impression produced was that the actress had learned a laugh, — not the laugh necessary for the circumstances and situation, but simply a laugh, — and that she reproduced this echo of an abstract laugh with an accuracy which made its sound all the more incongruous and insincere. Also, — but this is a fault of a different kind, — the diction was frequently very indistinct. Yet, with all faults admitted, the acting was full both of promise and of performance, and of broad conviction that Miss Ander- 14 MISS MARY ANDERSON. son had won the admiration of American audiences by something more than beauty and grace alone. So, again, in the * Lady of Lyons,' an eminently artificial piece, with an eminently artificial heroine's part. Miss Anderson was graceful, statuesque, intelli- gent, or more than intelligent and charming. But there was, so far, nothing to show whether she had a claim to be considered as an actress in the true gense of the word. If her power of impersonation seemed faulty, or even altogether wanting, why, that might be the fault of the plays rather than of the player. Then Miss Anderson appeared as the vivified statue in Mr. Gilbert's * Pygmalion and Galatea,' — one of the very vulgarest and commonest plays ever written by an author of cleverness ; and in this she set her- self a hard task. The result of the experiment is the spectacle of a lady, gifted with singular grace and ear- nestness, delivering lines which are anything rather than graceful with a manner so opposed to the whole notion of the piece that the effect is indescribably odd. It is as if a pretty and harmless tenor were suddenly to attempt some swaggering baritone, without a per- ception of the swaggering element. This is, however, a merely general impression. Going into particulars, I find that wherever Mr. Gilbert has been unable or uncareful to coarsen the beautiful legend, and wher- ever trusting to a fine and simple perception of the legend's poetry is enough for the acting's needs, there Miss Anderson is charming, and singularly charming. Such a moment is the first awakening of the statue, which could hardly be bettered in voice, manner, or look. But when the complex emotions come into play, then, even when one makes fullest allowance for the MISS MARY ANDERSON; 1$ common and stupid inconsistencies attributed by Mr. Gilbert to the statue, and for an actress's difficulty in glossing over their stupidity, I think Miss Anderson fails for want of perception, and for want of " instruc- tion " in the French, rather than the English, sense of the word. Here she underplays and there she over- plays her difficult part. . . . The very first scene and the very last are, to my thinking, out of eight, the best, so far as Mi.ss Anderson is concerned. But the fact remains that when all its faults are counted up, the performance has charm and, I think, talent which might become very remarkable if its possessor were not in great danger of being spoilt by unthinking applause. Walter Herries Pollock, in the Century Maga- zine, June, 1884. Miss Anderson's Rosalind deserves much praise. She looked and did her best. In appearance she nearly realized Lodge's glowing description of his Rosalynde : " All in general applauded the admirable riches that Nature bestowed on her face." When she was disguised in buff jerkin and hose as Ga?iymede, it was impossible to do other than commend Phmbe's fickleness. Miss Anderson's faults are well-known, and many of them were still present. Her pathos in the early scenes sounded artificial. The proud scorn with which she replied to Duke Frederick's accusation of treason was the only speech in the first act which she delivered with any approach to real feeling. In the forest scenes she appeared to far better advan- tage. In her interviews with Orlando she proved her- self in sympathy with the, spirit of the comedy : full 1 6 MISS MARY ANDERSON. of youthful vivacity, she kept well within the limits of womanly reserve. She bantered Phoebe with the crud- est ease, but her manner as the mocking censor of the rustic coquette was quite free from the touches of anxiety which she sought — often successfully — to im- part to her raillery of her lover. Miss Anderson delivered the epilogue with great naturalness and spirit, and dismissed her audience in the best of humors. Sidney L. Lee, in the Academy, London, Sept. 5, 1885. It is not three years since Miss Mary Anderson first came among us, a young American girl, heralded only by undeniable evidence (the sun being witness) of her striking beauty, and conflicting rumors as to her talent. She is now returning to her native land an artistic and social notability of the first magnitude. Her success is all the more remarkable — certainly all the more creditable — in that it has been gained entirely by her own unaided efforts in the art she professes. She had no social notoriety to launch her on her career, nor did she take any pains to acquire it. She shunned rather than courted personal publicity. She did not ride on fire-engines or sleep in coffins. Scan- dal, even in this malevolent world, held aloof from her, and if silly gossip now and then gave her " the puif oblique," it was without her connivance and to her no small discomfort. It may even be said that she was deliberately and injudiciously contemptuous of all personal means of propitiation. To some peo- ple, unable to dissociate the two ideas of " dramatic artist" and "eccentric bohemian," her attitude ap- MISS MARY ANDERSON. 1? peared unwarrantably repellent, and she suffered in more ways than one from a certain unapproachable- ness which was construed as the feminine form of that foible which in the stronger sex we call priggishness. Even criticism was not unaffected by this feeling, and she was treated, I do not say with injustice, but cer- tainly with scant cordiality. She has won the public with little help from the press, and that, in these days, is of itself a remarkable achievement Let us pass, then, to Miss Anderson's latest and most interesting effort — her Rosalind. The critics who criticise before the event were full of doubts as to her capacity for comedy. Juliefs scene with the Nurse should have banished any such doubt. It proved Miss Anderson's possession of a fund of delicate playfulness which could not but stand her in good stead in the part of the sprightly Ganymede. This quality was, indeed, apparent throughout ; but, as Lady Martin remarks, it is a ** strange perversion " to suppose that Rosalind can be adequately performed by actresses " whose strength lies only in comedy." There is in her a " deep womanly tenderness," and an " intellect disciplined by fine culture," which must be made apparent through all her sportive vivacity. In the " deep womanly tenderness " Miss Anderson was, perhaps, a little lacking. Her Rosalind was girlish rather than womanly, but it was so brightly, frankly, healthily girlish that to have quarrelled with it would have been sheer captiousness. In the opening scenes (it must be remembered that I speak of her first per- formance of the part, a most trying occasion) she had not altogether warmed to her work, though even here she was intelligent and charming. Her speech to the 1 8 MISS MARY ANDERSOM. Duke, culminating in the line, " What's that to me ? My father was no traitor ! " showed traces of her early and unpolished manner. It lacked nobility and lofti- ness. Its indignation was too loud. It was invective rather than self-restrained and scathing sarcasm. Not till she appeared in the first forest scene was Miss Anderson's success assured, but then a very few speeches placed it beyond question. Her appearance was ideal. No actress whom I have seen in Rosalind, or indeed in any " doublet and hose " part, wears these trying garments with anything like the ease, grace and perfect good taste displayed by Miss Anderson. In most Rosalinds the woman obtrudes herself upon the physical as well as the mental eye. We cannot get rid of the feeling that Orlando must inevitably see through this masquerade from the very first. In Miss Anderson's case we meet with no such stumbling- block. A cleverly-designed costume, modest without prudery, combined with her lithe, well-knit and in no way redundant figure to make her a perfect embodi- ment of the " saucy lackey." Her beauty, which is essentially feminine, was the only circumstance which need have made Orlando suspect the woman in her, if (to oblige Shakspere) we suppose it possible that he should fail to recognize her as the identical Rosalind of the wrestling-match. Her claret-colored mantle, exquisitely handled, gave her the means for much significant by-play through which she prevented the audience from forgetting her sex, without in any way suggesting it to Orlando. Its tastefulness was per- haps the great charm of her Rosalind. William Archer, in the Theatre, October, 1885. MR. AND MRS. BANCROFT. (Miss Marie Wilton.) 19 Dramatic flowers they gathered by the way, And chose the brightest wheresoe'er it grows ; Never disdaining to contrast in play, French tiger-lily with the English rose. With kindly Robertson they formed a ' School,* Rejoiced in * Play ' after long anxious hours ; ' Caste ' was for them, and theirs, a golden rule. And thus by principle we made them ' Ours.' Clement Scott. 20 MR. AND MRS. BANCROFT. Marie Effie Wilton, known since her marriage as Mrs. Bancroft, was born at Doncaster about 1840. Her father and mother were both on the stage, and when little more than an infant she used to recite in public. After playing children's parts on the Nor- wich circuit, she was engaged with her parents, at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, then managed by H. J. Wallack, where she appeared, Oct. 5, 1846, as Fleance in * Macbeth.' She remained for some years in Manchester, playing, among other parts, GonerWs page in ' King Lear,' Matnilius in the ' Winter's Tale,' the Emperor of Lilliput in a pantomime of ' Gulliver,' Hymen in ' As You Like It,' and Arthur in ' King John,' — a part in which Charles Kemble saw and admired her. P'rom Manchester, she passed, while yet a child, to the Bristol and Bath circuit, and did not make her first appearance in London until Sept. 15, 1856, when she played the boy Henri to Mr. Charles Dillon's Belphegor, at the Lyceum, and on the same evening created the title-part in W. Brough's bur- lesque ' Perdita ; or the Royal Milkmaid.'* Her success was immediate, and she was soon in great request. * Mr. J. L. Toole played Hilarion Fanfaronade in the drama and Autolycus in the burlesque. 21 12 MR. AND MRS. BANCROFT. At the Lyceum she played the Little Fairy at the Bottom of the Sea in W. Brough's ' Conrad and Medora' (Dec. 26, 1856) ; at the Haymarket Cupid in Talfourd's ' Atalanta ' (April 13,1857) ; and at the Adelphi Cupid in the pantomime of * Cupid and Psyche ' (Dec. 26, 1857). She remained a member of the Adelphi Company under Webster's management until the demolition of the theatre (last performance, June 2, 1858), and afterwards played with Webster and Madame Celeste at the Surrey and Sadler's Wells. On July 26, 1858, she made her first appearance at the Strand Theatre as Carlo Broschi in ' Asmodeus ; or The Little Devil.' The Strand was now her head- quarters for six years (until December, 1864). She formed one of the chief attractions of the series of burlesques, then so unflaggingly popular. Her Pippo in H. J. Byron's 'Maid and the Magpie' (Oct. 11, 1858), finally established her reputation. On Dec, 17, 1858, Charles Dickens wrote to Forster : — " I . .. went to the Strand Theatre, having taken a stall be- forehand, for it is always crammed, I really wish you would go between this and next Thursday, to see the * Maid and the Magpie ' burlesque there. There is the strangest thing in it that ever I have seen on the stage, — the boy, Pippo, by Miss Wilton. While it is astonishingly impudent (must be, or it couldn't be done at all), it is so stupendously like a boy, and unlike a woman, that it is perfectly free from offence, I never have seen such a thing. Priscilla Horton, as a boy, not to be thought of beside it. ... I call her the cleverest girl I have ever seen on the stage in my time, and the most singularly original." After Pippo, her principal parts at the Strand were Sir Walter Ra- MR. AXD MRS. BANCROFT. 23 leigh in Halliday's ' Kenilworth' (1858), Juliet* in Halliday's ' Romeo and Juliet' (1859), Albert in Tal- fourd's * Tell ' (1859), Karl in Byron and Talfourd's ' Miller and his Men ' (i860), Aladdin in Byron's 'Aladdin' (1861), Pierre Gringoire in Byron's 'Es- meralda' (1861), Miles-na-Coppaleen in Byron's ' Miss Eily O'Connor' (1862), Orpheus in Byron's ' Orpheus and Eurydice' (1863), and Mazourka in Byron's Mazourka' (1864). During a short break in her con- nection with the Strand Theatre she appeared at the St. James's (Easter Monday, 1863) as Geordie Robert- son in the * Great Sensation Trial ; or Circumstantial Effie Deans,' by W, Brough ; and at the St. James's and the Adelphi, as well as at the Strand, she oc- casionally played in comediettas, such as the ' Little Treasure,' ' A Grey Mare,' the ' Little Sentinel,' and ' Good for Nothing.' In the winter of 1864-5 Miss Wilton conceived the idea of entering into partnership with Mr. H. J. Byron in the management of a theatre ; and while this project was maturing it so happened that she paid a starring visit to the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liver- pool, where her future husband was then appearing. Mr. Squire Bancroft Bancroft was born in London May 14, 1841, and joined the dramatic profession at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, in January, 1861. He served his apprenticeship in Birmingham, Dublin and Liverpool, supporting such stars as G. V. Brooke, Phelps, Charles Kean, Charles James Mathews and * On April 18, 1864, Miss Wilton play eA Juliet in Shakspere's Balcony Scene, to the Romeo of Miss Ada Swanborough, for the benefit of the Shakspere Tercentenary Fund ; a performance which was so well received that it was repeated for eight nights. 24 MR. AND MRS. BANCROFT. Sothern, and playing in such diverse parts as Menutto, the Ghost in ' Hamlet,' Laertes, Gratiano, Bob Brierly, John Mtldmay, Captain Hawkesley and Mo?isieur Tourbillon. His ability so impressed Mr. Byron and Miss Wilton that they offered him an engagement, and he made his first appearance in London on the first night of their management. The theatre in Tottenham Street, Tottenham Court Road, which was ultimately to become famous as the birthplace of cup-and-saucer comedy, had existed as a playhouse since 1810, under the successive names of the Theatre of Variety, the Regency Theatre, the West London Theatre, the Fitzroy Theatre and the Queen's Theatre. After ruining several lessees, it was taken in 1839 by Mr. C. J. James, a scenic artist, who succeeded in keeping it going for more than twenty- five years with entertainments of the most unam- bitious order. It was from him that the new lessees rented it, and he still figured for a time on the bills as "actual and responsible manager." On Saturday, April 15, 1865, the reconstructed Queen's Theatre, renamed the Prince of Wales's, was opened under the management of Miss Marie Wilton. The bill consisted of J. P. Wooler's comedy ' A Winning Hazard ' (Mr. Bancroft playing Jack Crow- ley') ; Byron's burlesque of ' La Sonnambula ; or the Supper, the Sleeper and the Merry Swiss Boy,' with Miss Wilton in the part of Alessio ; and Troughton's farce of 'Vandyke Brown.' The original intention of the management was to rely upon light comedy and burlesque. During the first season Palgrave Simpson's two-act drama, ' A Fair Pretender ' and H. J. Byron's * War to the Knife ' were produced, Mr. MR. AND MRS. BANCROFT. 25 Bancroft making his first noteworthy success as Captain Thistleton in Byron's comedy. The second season opened (Sept. 25, 1865) with * Naval Engage- ments' and Byron's 'Lucia di Lammermoor.' Six weeks later, however, a play was produced which, with its successors, was destined to expel burlesque from the Prince of Wales's stage and to establish a new method in authorship, decoration and acting. During the five years and a half which intervened between the first performance of * Society ' and the death of Mr. T. W. Robertson, that genial play- wright was practically the sole caterer of the Prince of Wales's, his comedies steadily increasing in popu- larity. From this point onwards the history of the Bancroft management may be most shortly and con- veniently set forth in the form of annals. That form I consequently adopt, premising that allowance must be made in each year for a summer vacation varying in length from a few days to several weeks and even months. 1865: Nov. II, Robertson's 'Society' — Mr. Ban- croft, Sydney Daryl* Miss Wilton, Maud Hcthering- ton — ran over 150 nights ; Christmas, Byron's ' Little Don Giovanni,' in which Miss Wilton created her last burlesque part. 1866: May 5, Byron's 'A Hundred Thousand Pounds'; Sept. 15, Robertson's 'Ours' — Mr. Ban- croft, Angus McAlister, Miss Wilton, Mary Netley — followed by ' Pas de Fascination,* in which Miss Lydia Thompson appeared ; Oct 10, Byron's ' Der Freyschiitz ; or the Bell, the Bill and the Ball ' ; * In the revivals of ' .Society' and ' Ours ' Mr. Bancroft always played Tom Styhil and Htigk Chalcot, 26 MR. AND MRS. BANCROFT. Christmas, Byron's ' Pandora's Box," the last bur- lesque produced, Mr. Byron shortly afterwards resign- ing his share in the management. 1867 : April 6, Robertson's * Caste ' — Mr. Bancroft, Captain Hawtree, Miss Wilton, Polly Eccles j Dec. 21, Dion Boucicault's * How She Loves Him ' and * Box and Cox,' played by Mr. John Hare and Mr. George Honey. On Saturday, Dec. 28, Mr. Bancroft and Miss Marie Wilton were married at the church of St. Stephen the Martyr, Avenue Road, St. John's Wood. 1868 : Feb. 15, Robertson's * Play ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, the Chevalier Browne and Rosie Fanquehere — ran 107 nights ; in June and July, a revival of * Caste ' ; * in the autumn season, a revival of ' Society' ; and Dec. 12, Edward Yates's 'Tame Cats' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Mortimer Wedgewood and Mrs. Langley. 1869 : Jan. 16, Robertson's ' School ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Jack Poyntz and Naomi Tighe. Ran for 381 nights with only one interruption of 11 nights, during which the theatre was entirely re-decorated, the orchestra being placed beneath the stage. 1870 : April 23, Robertson's * M. P. ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Talbot Piers and Cecilia Dunscombe j it ran for about six months. This was the last in order of the Robertsonian comedies. It was followed by revivals of * Ours ' and * Caste,' which proved even more attractive than on their first production ; and * In the case of revivals of pieces previously produced or re- vived under the Bancroft management, the absence of any state- ment to the contrary implies that Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft resumed the parts last played by thenj. MR. AIVD MRS. BANCROFT. 27 while his work was thus at the height of its popularity Mr. T. W. Robertson died, Feb. 4, 187 1. During the next five years Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft were engaged in a strenuous endeavor to keep their stage supplied with English plays, new and old. It was not until 1876 that they yielded to circumstances and produced the first of the adaptations from the French which have so often subjected them to a charge of lack of patriotism. I now resume my tabular statement : — 1872: May 6, a revival of 'Money' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Sir F. Blount and Georgina Vesey. 1873 : Feb. 22, Wilkie Collins's ' Man and Wife '— Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Dr. Speediuell and Blanche Lundie j Sept. 20, a revival of * School.' 1874 : April 4, a revival of the * School for Scan- dal ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Joseph Surface and Lady Teazle ; Nov. 7, W. S. Gilbert's ' Sweethearts ' — Mrs. Bancroft, Jenny JVorthcott, Mr. Coghlan, Harry Spreadbrow ; and revival of * Society,' Mrs. Bancroft relinquishing the part of Maud to Miss Fanny Josephs. 1875 : April 17, a revival of the * Merchant of Venice ' — Mr. Coghlan, Shylock, Miss Ellen Terry, Portia, Mr. Bancroft, the Prince of Morocco — this production was a disastrous failure ; May 29, a re- vival of ' Money ' — Mrs. Bancroft, Lady Franklin, Miss Ellen Terry, Clara Douglass; Nov. 6, a re- vival of ' Masks and Faces ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Triplet and Peg Woffington, Miss Ellen Terry, Mabel Vane. 1876 : April 13, Byron's * Wrinkles ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Bob Blewitt and Winifred Piper ; May 6, a revival of * Ours ' ; Oct. 4, * Peril,' adapted by 28 MR. AND MRS. BANCROFT. Bolton and Savile Rowe (Clement Scott and B. C. Stephenson) from Sardou's ' Nos Intimes ' — Mr. Bancroft, Sir George Ormond, Mrs. Kendal, Lady Ormond, Mr. Kendal, Dr. Thornton. 1877 : March 31, the * Vicarage,' adapted by Clement Scott from Feuillet's ' Village ' — Mrs. Ban- croft, Mrs. Haygarth, Mr. Kendal, George Clarke — and * London Assurance ' — Mr. Bancroft, Dazzle, Mrs. Bancroft, Pert, Mr. Kendal, Charles Courtly, Mrs. Kendal, Lady Gay Spanker ; Sept. 29, revival of * An Unequal Match ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Blenkinsop and Hester Grazebrooke — and ' To Parents and Guardians,' — Mr. Arthur Cecil, Tourbillon. 1878 : Jan. 12, ' Diplomacy,' adapted by Bolton and Savile Rowe, from Sardou's * Dora ' — Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Orloff and Ztcka, Mr. Kendal, Captain Beauclerc, Mrs. Kendal, Dora — a great success. 1879: Jan. II, a revival of ' Caste ' ; May 31, a revival of * Sweetheart;; ' — Mr. Bancroft, Harry Spread- brow — with ' Good for Nothing ' — Mrs. Bancroft, Nan — and the farce ' Heads and Tails ' ; Sept. 27, ' Duty,' adapted by James Albery from Sardou's ' Bourgeois de Pont Arcy.' Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Ban- croft appeared, and the play was only a qualified suc- cess. 