Page
THE ROMANCE OF ELLEN “TERRY.
GIRL-WIFE OF G. F. WATTS AND HOSTESS OF
́DISRAELI - AND GLADSTONE.
HER LAST VISIT TO IRVING.
STAGE INFALLIBILITY.
Those who never saw Ellen Terry, Writes" Mr. James Agate in the Sunday Times, can but guess at what she was, and those who did see her can do no more than re peat old ecstasies, their own and
those of their compoers.
Would not these suggest that Ellen Terry was a great and ex ceptional woman who happened to
be an actress, and was no more to be praised, for her acting than a bird is to be praised for flying, a hedge-rose for straying, an April day for its inconstancy! A great critic, writing of Kate Terry, said the essential thing about Ellen: "She seemi utterly innocent of the art of acting and yet there it is, all happening infallibly and delight fully,' Ellen Terry was in her proper person one of the moet de lightfai women that ever put on the guise of an actress, and her infalibility on the stage proceeded from the essentially perceptive and generous mind which she brought to her art and to the world out eide that art. Her fineness of per- ception is shown in her autobio-.) graphy, the writing of which con- veys, as did her acting, the impres. sion of perfect artlessnese. When
THE HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29th, 1928.
* Incomprehensiblə "". Browning. Of Robert Browning abe saya: "With his carefully brushed hat, smart coat, and fina society man- ners she could never believe he was a poet. He seemed to her then "more incomprehensible than his poetry."
Too many raneout.
stage as Ellen
CECILIA HANSEN-
VIOLINIST.
AT THE THEATRE ROYAL TO-NIGHT.
WAYFOONG WIN APPEAL.
PROVISIONAL COURT CASE.
FRAUDULENT MISAPPROPRIA- TION BY A. BERBLINGER”
AND C. LEYER.'
SHANGHAI, August 23rd.
A decision that came as a bomb-
Miss Cecilia Hansen, the world's At this time, by mutual agree greatest, woman violinist accom« Moreover, during those thirteen was dissolved, and Nellie Watts Boris Zakharoff, arrived in the ment, the marriage, with Watts panied by her accompanist, Mr. years there had been singularly returned to the little English drama to do any Terry. There do exist such Colony yesterday morning by the thing for, though the confections things as honest understandings," Athos ff. This tair-haired Russian of Wills and Albery received their wrote Charles Reade, who, all his violinist, whose lively tone and shelf to many was given in the due. Nor must we forget that the life, was Ellen Terry's staunch technical skill has made her famous two great players achieved actae friend and counsellor. thing in the West End of London has spoken of this break berself Theatre Royal to-night at 9.15 p.m. peal, yesterday afternoon, by Judges But she will give her first recital at the Shanghai Provisional Court of Ap which none can achieve to-day with fine feeling. The marriage they kept Shakespeare alive. It is was not a happy one, they will pra a successful season in London, and Wa (presiding), Chiu and Chai
Miss Hansen has just concluded possible, that without Irving Ellen bably say after my death. I fore on the Continent. She has been (Mr. Hasegawa, Senior Consul's ferry would have been not a better stall them by saying that in many spoken of as "the Kreisler of Deputy), when the appeal of the but another actress: Undoubtedly ways it was very happy indeed." she was forced to play Portia too
women violinists, and "her first ap often, Beatrice too seldom, and after the separation there was no portant event in the musical life Corporation against the dismissal Watts himself proved later that bearance in Hong Kong is an im Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Rosalind not at all. evenings of those long provincial success with enger interest? he
I have watched your of the Colony. tours saw her condemned to clown wrote; let us shake hands
Miss Hansen will give the follow. of the charges of fraudulent mis- it as Nance Oldfield so that the spirit And though they never
ing programme to-night — T appropriation by A. Berblinger and rest of the evening might be given met again, the fact that they wrote 1. Cinconna
Vitali.C. Leyer was upheld and both ar over to the fangling of those too to one another regularly proves
2. Concerto D Major...Tchaikowsky.cused were sentenced to 11 months' reiterative Bella' When the
Allegro moderato. severance came Ellen Terry showed that his gesture was not rejected.
imprisonment each. Canzonetta. that she did not share Irving's lack of interest in the drama con- sidered as drama and not as mere vehicle for actors' parts.. She played in pieces by Shan and Barrie, and showed even a hanker- ing after. sen. She was interest- ed in the theatre to the end, and the last time I talked with her was at the dress-rehearsal of Susan Glaspel!'s "The Verge."
in
Ellen Terry may be said to have retired from the stage in 1912 Then came the long autum which the great actress saw herself I first knew Surah Bernhardt" she ¦ grow to a tradition. Her work was like a cloud, only not so thick. was finished, and she knew that When Henry played Hamet his her abiding-place was the heart of bair was blue-black like the plum-the English people. -age of a crow; his eyes burned like
fres veiled by inelancholy". Oddly enough, Henry, was always, attract-
ed by fustian"
But if Ellen Terry's writing was spontaneous her acting knew only the appearance of spontaneity. An old actor, once
Lyceum, told me of
a super at the
a morning
MARRIED AT 16 TO G. F. ▾ WATTS.
A HOSTESS TO DISRAELI.
Born of theatrical parents, Ellen Terry was in every sense a child
READE'S REALISM...
ELLEN TERRY IN VIVID
STAGE FARMYARD.
in
Having tasted the delights of domesticity, Ellen Terry was in 20 burry to return to the stage. But financial difculties facing her, and being concerned about the future, she grasped fortune when presented itself. Driving in her goat-art one day
In
1
Allegro vivacissimė, baga 3. La Follia Corelli-Kreisler. 4(n) Recitativo and Scherzo,
Violin only Kreisler, ...(b) Hungarian Dance... Brahms, (c) Poupee valsante ... Poldini. (d) Rondo des luting... Bazzini At the Piano: Boris Zakharoff...
↓
el "
AIR TRANSPORT OF
..DIAMONDS.
Hertfordshire, PLANNED IN SOUTH AFRICA of the wheels rolled off. dismay, she stood wryty contem plating her wrecked chariot. A. Aerial transport of diamonds in great shout, and there appeared South Africa will become a reality from the fields a band of hunts reported plans for the establish men; one of them bailed her affeement of a regular air service be tionately. He was Charles Beade.tween Alexander Bay and Cape- Where have you been, Nellie " town are carried' ont. In addition he cried. When are you coming to the policing of the Namaqualand back to the stage t
area from the air the feasibility of When someone will pay me aerial transportation is being con forty pounds a week," she retort-sidered, it is understood, by private ed, aware that the salary asked fims. was then a big one. "Done," mid
It has not yet been ascertained aerodrome at Alexander Bay will
commenced but this new develop ment may influence earlier, opera tions, according to the report.
It will be recalled that A. Ber- blinger and C. Leyer were the partner and departmental manager of the defunct Han Yung Co., and that they were first brought before the Provisional Court on February 97th, charged that having by various documents called trust receipts ob- tained possession of goods belong- Ling and/or pledged to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Cor- Foration, and having undertaken to hold the goods and/or the pro- ceeds of the sale thereof, they fraudulently misappropriated the proceeds of the sale, to the total value of approximately Tla. 16,000,
contrary to Article 391 of the Pro- visional Criminal Code; and alter- natively, that by means of trust receipts having obtained possession of the said goods and having under-
spent at a rehearsal for under of the theatre. Her father, Benjamin Charles Reade. A week or two when the actual construction of the taken to administer the sale as
studies of Otheito. clumsy at catching Desdemona na
Terry, and her mother, Sarah she threw herself on his breast. antcolm, in their day were both Twenty times, with the sameness fore, nothing of unusual note in popular players. There was, there- of perfect mechanism, Ellès Terry the fact that when he saw flaxen- sobbed out: "Am I that name, haired, eight-year-old Nellie Terry, Iago ?" and each time the onlookers Glasgow producer, having the were stirred as by a sorrow new speculative eye, engaged Nellie to born. This, of course, is only
appear in Eis play. another instance.
The Spirit of the eternal of the Mustard Fot." Shut in the paradox of the comedian."
mustard pot, little Nellie scream- ed to be released, and her father, Bubbling Galety.
with wise parental thoughtfulness, agreed to her wish.
later she was playing in one of his plays. Here she was initiated in to the solemn meticulous accuracy
of realism.
beautiful,
everything that is
To Reade, Nellie Terry though on occasion he would scold her with great show of fary: When drinking his coffee. He looked "I found him sitting up in bed she hinted that his play was not like some beautiful grey tree that meeting with the success the salary I have seen in Savannah.
We
agents for the complainants, they fraudulently, in breach of their duty, sold the goods and misappro priated the proceeds without act counting for the same to the com- of the Provisional Criminal Code. plainants, contrary to Article 385
The case came up for heating
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You are a rat to desert a sink-said- little. she drew demanded, he cried were both very much paved, and before Judge Liang Lone, with Mr. ing ship." And when Nellie's "I'm glad you've come. Two H. E. Stevens sitting as Senior maid-servant protested vigorous use of figurative lan morning. Queen Alexandra tele-tracted hearing, Judge Liang re-
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I love graphed to say how sorry, she, waA you or any paling woman!"
In the nineties it was the fashion to call Ellen Terry "a great dear." Her first definite appearance on But she was more. She was the stage was at the old Princess's, guage, Reade retorted; great and clever dear whose buoy theatre in Oxford Street, when she aney and sones of fun were only was engaged by Charles Keen. In ornaments to tenderness. Old play company with her sister Kate she
What a wonderful life you've goers talk yet of the bubbling trained at a dramatic academy in Nelly Terry was taking the air one thinking of it all in a flash. Oh, While playing in Reude's play had, haven't you? I exclaimed, gaiety of her Juliet and of the Bristol, and during this period afternoon in Bond Street when she res, he said, quietly, a wonder deep wells at the words: "There,ande her first tour of the pro- met Lord Alfred Tennyson!" How ful life of work.'' And the end, shock attending the discovery of
vinces..
11
"Portla" With The Bancrofts,
In
turned a verdict of hot guilty, to
the following protest- which decision Mr. Stevens made
"I protest against the decision on the grounds that it is contrary
contract."
Application For Commutation.
that both accused were found guilty The decision given yesterday was of criminal misappropriation under the Provisional Court Criminal Code, Article 391, and were to be punished with 11 months' imprison- ment. The remainder of the appeal was dismissed.
fore pardon me, And not impute
sweet you look in the daytime," how would you like that to come to the expressed provisions of Chi- this yielding to light love." Old Night, 1887, when Henry Irving at all like an actress.
A memorable night was Boxing said Tennyson, adding, and not "How would I like that tonese law and on the further grounds playgoers talk yet of her Ophelia, and Ellen Terry played together
come He repeated my question that its tendency is to undermine her Imogen, ker Cordelia, her for the first time at the Queen's
lightly, yet meditatively too. Then the sanctity of contracts and to Viola. One can only listen with Theatre, Long Aere. This began a
he was silent for In the Bancroft revival of "The seconds, before he snapped his
some thirty deny criminal responsibility which respect, and believe that these partnership made memorable in Merchant of Venice," Ellen Terry fingers--the action again before they grow out of a fiduciary re parte were played as the poet must the history of the English theatre. appeared have dreamed them. If only half But before this happened Ellen formance in this play catablished the definition of inspiration A
as Portia. Her per-words. Like that. I thought of lationship, created through a legal of what we are told is true, then Terry played her first big role in her reputation as on indeed Shakespeare should have the play of real life. At the age more than ordinary ability.
actress of calculation rapidly made' been living in that hour. Then of 18 she married G. F. Watts, the the Lyceum she began what was to of the manner of his death before. At "Perhaps he had never thought there were her, Pauline in The famous artist, friend, and com- be a long and successful reign as Now he had an inspiration as to Lady of Lyons," Letitia Hardy in panion of Gladstone, Disraeli, Ophelia, in "Hamlet."
The Belle's Stratagem," Hen Tennyson, Browning, and Charles she ended her partnership with
In 1902 how it would come." rietta Maria in Charles I," and Reade.
Irving and went into management many other parts of mingled rain My first marriage," said Dame on her own, producing Shaw's
UNPUNCTUALITY. and shine, performances of which Ellen Terry, many years after, Captain Brassbound's Conver one can now say no more than that was a dream-not a clear dream, sion at the Court Theatre. they were:--
but a fitful dream, one which in the morning one tries in vain to on tell. And even if I could tell it, I would not." The test this mar riage must have been for a girl, who, as she has confessed, bever had one day's "real schooling," was a big one. She had to play wife to a man famous in his day and generation, and act as bostess My own recollections of Ellen to men whose names were house Terry go back to 1885 and to set hold words in the worlds of art, them down would be but to repeat politics, and science. what the dramatic critics of those writing in this kind has now only Terry wore a dress designed forblindly groped her way towards tain was due to go up, and Ellen Prosecutor, said, that he bad just the emptiness of words. But this her by Holman Hunt. It was a the door--she was then over seventy hadn't arrived,
too fent for a dream to keep Too feet, too sweet for a dream to recover and thought to remember awake: Light subtler and swifter than lightning, that whispers and laughs in the live storm's
wake
days said better, though the best-
LYCEUM.
Dr. Wilhelm, who appeared for accused in the absence of Dr. Fischer, made an application to the Court, under Article 83, for a Bus pension of the sentence for the
1917. she made her first appearance ANXIOUS MOMENTS AT THE
the variety stage at the Coliseum, where she appeared in toured America ten times. various Shakespearean parts. She Punctuality Was not amongst Ellen Terry's many virtues, and In 1929 she was made an honor. in the days when she was Henry ary Doctor of Laws by St. An-Irving's leading lady more often time being, but the Court denied drews University. King honoured Ellen Terry by invent some "business" in response
In 1995 the than not those on the stage had to it. making her a. Dame of the British to a whisper that Empire. Eren on this occasion the only just started dressing, and Miss Terry's simple charm of Dame Ellen re- can't be less than five minutes vealed itself in a quaint incident. late."
mur-
Counsel then asked that the sen- tence be commuted into finas, say
ing that both accused had never be- fore been charged or convicted,
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At this stage, Mr. Bryan, Police On her marriage day Ellen Dame Ellen turned and rather only a few minutes before the cur-
looked at the charge-sheet and let me say that Ellen's beauty bitter cold day, and the girlish bering etiquette, raised her hand ting his head in at the door," he therefore, object most strongly to "Miss Terry found that the Police were a party was a haunting tangle making bride wept copiously as she was to her head and halted, crying re- ain't even come, governor,"
years of age but suddenly remem-dressed?" inquired Irving, put
to the prosecution, and he would, mock of perfection, her wit and led up the aisle. For three years grace a manifest part of sorcery, she played wife. Her first ineet- gretfully: "Oh, I forgot to walk ured; the trembling and her pathes almost unbearable. ing with Gladstone and Disraeli King came forward and led Dame and this from
maid. any commutation of the sentence. backwards"
Pity," was Henry's only reply about the merits of the decision or Reassuring her, the
He was not in a position to talk Who that saw her Olivia can for found her naively innocent of the Ellen Terry from the room.
д man whose get that good-bye to the little importance of the meetings. Yet
restraint was never his long suit. otherwise, but he did know that the brother and sister? Certainly wone she was impressed enough to reflect trates the thoughtfulness for others genially, rushing in at the very obvious punishment according to Another incident typically illus "Hullo, Henry Ellen laughed Court's decision being correct the who saw her Marguerite has ever that Gladstone reminded her of a forgotten the tenderness with which suppressed volcano, though on that always characterised Dame last moment. "I've been down to foreign law was that both accused she sighed out:--
Ellen Terry's actions. It was dur-the Minories to see a fellow who should go to prison, a later meeting she viewed him as To-morrow I must die, a volcano buried in "the calming the early part of a play call sent me a begging letter. Wanted
Counsel's Objection. ed And I must tell thee how to grey crust of Etua."
"I still think the airship is the "The Typhoon." Two Indies to make sure it was genuine, and range the graves. --
Disraeli," she has said, look and a gentleman seated in the every jack man in the crowd knew
Dr. Wilhelm said that he objected best, vehicle, to use for Arctic ex- My mother the best place--nexted the great. Jew," and reminded stalls rose to make their way out me. I let down the window of the most strongly to the action of the ploration and study," declared
her my brother,
her of Irving as Shylock. Natural of the theatre. A lady seated be four-wheeler and shook hands with Police Prosecutor in pressing for a Me well apart, but, dearest, notly, she was shy at those early meet hind them leaned forward and im them all. It's because there were prison sentence. "First of all he General Nobile, the commander of
too far
pulsively laid a. restraining hand so many that I'm so late."
says that he knows nothing about the polar airship. Italia, to the cor on one of the ladies' arms.
Minories, And by my side my little onc Dame Terry's memories
growled Henry.
the facts of the case, and then he respondent of the Danish news- You silly girl," the exclaimed, Not two minutes to your en denies himself by saying that the paper Ekstrabladet.“ Of course, shall lie.
Tennyson were, of course, kindly after having seen this wonderful trance." Miss Terry shouted decision of the Court was correct." Visiting at his home, Nellie
has the
"If any body extraordinary the call boy. Watts," as she then was, walked play,
Mr. J. E. Badeley, counsel for difficulties may arise which are so hand in hand across the fields with courtesy and heroic feeling of the bothers me I shan't come at all,
the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank-big that no human power can over- It has been said that the part-difference between certain birds than to want to rush off for your . James Cares, all America so objected to the sentence being com-
him, the while he pointed out the Japanese, taught you nothing more said Ellen, quietly and sweetly.
After Ellen Terry's marriage to ing Corporation, said that while he come them," added the general, nership with Irving, which began and taught her to recognise trees supper Recognising in the im
Asked what his plans for the in 1878 and lasted for twenty-four by their barks, and to call wild Pulsive lady. England's greatest tor, in 1907, her appearances on muted into fines, if an application years, did nothing for the English flowers by the own name "He actress, Dame Ellen Terry, the the London stage became less fre was made he would see that an future were, General Nobile re- drama. By that phrase is always was so wonderfully simple" was party meekly accepted the rebuke quent, being broken by lecture answer would be filed; and that it plied: "My first duty is to pre meant the dramatic revival which her memory of Tennyson. But and eat out the whole play. tours abroad and in the provinces. there would be any remission it started in 1891 with the founding when Browning and Tennyson were The Last Of Henry Irving.
In the course of her career she should be, he thought, in favour of pare the report of the Italia's ex- of the Independent Theatre." But together, Mrs. Nellie Watts used to
toured the United States no less the accond accused.
pedition. I have no other plan at Ellen Terry told a" pathetic story than ten times. is it not fair to remember that at slip away into the garden and of her visit to Sir Henry Irving To the end she was the devoted application for the sentence being The interview took place in the
The Court's decision was that any present than to do that." this date the partnership had run play "Indians and. Knights of the at Wolverhampton in the spring mother, the natural hostess, and commuted into fines would have to Lapland Bapress in thick the -more-than-half its course and bathrund Tattle with the canyon of the gear then he
its settled trainTM of ""cuterprise? boys.
The woman who never lost, her (Continued on next Columa).
in-be-filed with the Court to be dealt talin's commander-is-travelling- terest in the play and the players. I with at a later hearing.
scuth-British United Press.
"But, dearest, not too far"
the very core of pathos.
Kept Shakespeare Alive,
inga.
of
TO-NIGHT &
FRIDAY
81st
AUGUST
At 9.15 p.m.
THEATRE ROYAL
CECILIA HANSEN
THE WORLD'S GREATEST
"WOMAN VIOLINIST
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