THE STAGE LIFE 
 of MRS. STIRLING: 
 
 WITH SOME SKETCHES 
 OF THE NINETEENTH 
 CENTURY THEATRE 
 
MRS. STIRLING AND MISS MARY ANDERSON IN "ROMEO AND JULIET. 
 
 [Photo: bo.vney & Co. 
 Frontispiece. 
 
THE STAGE LIFE OF 
 MRS. STIRLING: WITH 
 
 SOME SKETCHES OF THE NINE- 
 TEENTH CENTURY THEATRE. By 
 PERCY ALLEN. With an Introduction 
 
 by SIR FRANK R. BENSON 
 
 E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 
 
 68 1 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
(All rights reserved) 
 
 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 
 
TO 
 
 SIR FRANK R. BENSON 
 
 IN RESPECTFUL APPRECIATION OF WORK WELL 
 
 DONE, FOR MRS. STIRLING'S FRIEND, 
 
 AND HIS-SHAKESPEARE 
 
 846160 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 WHEN I first saw Mrs. Stirling act, the theatre and the 
 footlights disappeared. One seemed to be looking at in- 
 cidents in the life of one's fellow men and women, to be 
 overhearing their conversation, watching their struggles, 
 their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, witnessing 
 the evolution of their inmost soul and being, whether in the 
 person of a great lady or a faithful retainer. The rest 
 of the audience shared this feeling ; all round one heard : 
 " That's just what I should have said, or thought, or done." 
 One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. 
 
 I did not know then that I should shortly have the 
 pleasure of acting with her at the Lyceum in Sir Henry 
 Irving's production of "Romeo and Juliet." When that 
 day came, my first professional engagement as Paris, I met 
 the Capulets' nurse on the stage, and again I felt the same 
 sensation of enlarged life which I had experienced when 
 one of a delighted audience. I was not in the company of 
 Mrs. Stirling, but of a mediaeval Italian nurse, so mediseval, 
 so Italian, that she belonged to all time and to all nations, 
 in the midst of the people, the environment, the period of 
 the character she was representing in the spacious days of 
 long ago at Verona, in a place where the ever young heart 
 of the gray old world beat rhythmically, where life was 
 full of sunshine and showers, of laughter and tears. This 
 quickening influence produced in this instance by an artist 
 of three score years and ten is surely a mark of the highest 
 excellence and dramatic and artistic work. On whatever 
 stage, in whatever age the scene was set, the same might 
 be said of her. 
 
8 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 To a greater or less extent this vitality seemed to me more 
 frequent in the school of acting to which Mrs. Stirling- 
 belonged including under this heading the Terrys, 
 Kendals, Bancrofts, Sir John Hare, Sir Charles Wyndham, 
 Dame Genevive Ward, J. D. Beveridge and the like than 
 among the younger artists. Not so noticeable, perhaps, 
 in plays dealing with modern subjects, here we seem to 
 have more than maintained the standard of British acting, 
 as in romantic, poetic, and classical drama. Their methods 
 were founded, not on a desire merely to exploit their own 
 narrowing interest, eccentric personality, or self-conscious 
 temperament round which the popular author of the day 
 might be tempted to write an individual character sketch, 
 but rather to enlarge their technique, sympathy, and under- 
 standing, so as to gain a capacity to represent as many 
 human souls and bodies as a Garrick, a Talma, or a Robson. 
 Charles Glennie in " Three Wise Fools " is a recent illustration 
 of this sympathetic versatility, equally at home in romantic, 
 melodrama, or domestic comedy. It was this which gave such 
 poetry to that wonderful old nurse in the garden scene with 
 Ellen Terry as " Juliet." I remember my own old nurse, 
 after seeing the play, trotting round to all her acquaintances, 
 asking everyone, " Did you see me on the stage at the Lyceum ? 
 Oh, I did laugh when I saw myself there with Miss Ellen 
 Terry and Mr. Irving all so fine." In leisure moments 
 44 Nursie " was kind enough to favour me with many an 
 interesting reminiscence and useful hint on stagecraft. 
 From that day to this I carry recollections of wise saws 
 and sayings uttered by her, by Phelps, Miss Terry, 
 Irving, J. B. Howe, Fernandez, Haviland, Tom Meade, and 
 many another. Thus Phelps' t4 Self-advertisement tends 
 to kill an actor's chief asset, artistic sensibility." Mrs. 
 Stirling in a duet with Irving : 44 In twenty-five years there 
 will be no poetic or romantic drama, there will be no actors 
 sufficiently trained to present it. Go and work as we did, 
 six new parts a week sometimes ; learn to get through your 
 performance thoroughly and perfectly, taking infinite pains 
 whether the audience be large or small, whether they or 
 your fellow actors are drunk or sober; what though there is 
 a hole in the roof through which the rain pours down on 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 you, and the rats have eaten your favourite grease paint, 
 and the manager bolted with the takings. When you 
 learn to do this you may, with luck, begin to consider your- 
 self an actor." For these artists and their fellows the Stock 
 Company was the school, the older actors the teachers for 
 all who wished to learn, and an audience of habitual theatre- 
 goers and keen students of dramatic literature were the 
 examiners. At the time I did not understand the meaning 
 of all they said, but the longer I act, the truer do I feel was 
 their practical theory of art work. They did not call it 
 Art with a big high-browed A, they often called it " Bread 
 and Butter." Many pretended to prefer keeping a beerhouse 
 or a greengrocer's shop, but they suffered and endured, they 
 worked through sleepless nights and hungry days in order 
 to become artists. They denied themselves little luxuries 
 to buy a sword, a buckle, or a little brooch humble offerings 
 on the shrine of drama. In doing these things they acquired 
 vision and understanding, a generous human sympathy, 
 and that large-hearted charity which ever comes from 
 selfless service. All this will become clear to those who 
 follow the story of " Nursies " life-work in the pages of this 
 biography. Readers will get a glimpse of all the triumph 
 and all the disappointment that went to the making of 
 her, who was the fairy godmother not only of her profession, 
 but of all who came into the sphere of her influence. They 
 will appreciate how that, though the well-graced actors 
 have their hour upon the stage, and then are seen no more, 
 their work lives on after them ; and what is good in their 
 achievement lasts for ever, in other hands and generally under 
 other names. That does not matter. The artist's joy is 
 giving. Happy are they whose gifts are as great as Mrs. 
 Stirling's. Readers will learn how to her and a few others 
 it is granted to have certain parts, certain gestures, certain 
 stage business, certain large ideas always associated with 
 their names. What nobler epitaph could stage- worker 
 have ? 
 
 Towards the end of her days " Nursie " was kind enough 
 to send my wife some daintily worked artificial flowers 
 and stage embroidery used by her in some of her early im- 
 personations, with kindly encouraging messages of inspiration 
 
10 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 and approval ; and now I am grateful that it falls to me 
 to add my humble laurel leaf to the crown that has been 
 interwoven by the author in the following pages, for one who 
 was all her days Good friend of the world's children. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 WHEN, some years ago, I first decided to write an article 
 upon the stage- work of Mrs. Stirling, I had neither the desire 
 nor the intention to make a book. An essay of some four 
 thousand words was all I had in mind ; but directly I began 
 to dig a little into the actress's record, I found her personality 
 and her art looming so large in the history of the nineteenth 
 century theatre, that the things I wished to record and that 
 seemed to me worth recording multiplied speedily into 
 a formidable pile of manuscripts, containing information that 
 had never before appeared in connected form, but lay scattered, 
 at random, throughout the newspapers, magazines, stage- 
 biographies, and living memories of the last three-quarters 
 of a century. Excepting Joseph Knight's article, in The 
 Dictionary of National Biography clever and just, though 
 too brief, and by no means accurate there exists, so far 
 as I am aware, no considerable account of this life, that 
 links up the stage of Siddons, the Kembles, and the Keans 
 with that of the Irvings, Miss Ellen Terry, and the 
 Bancrofts. 
 
 My project was approved by friends to whom I spoke 
 of it. A well-known actor answered : " One thing only 
 surprises me that no one has done it before." I determined, 
 therefore, to do that which no man, in these days, should 
 do lightly namely, to add one book more to the countless 
 tides of volumes that break yearly upon the big world's 
 shore. 
 
 Whether my grandmother would have approved of this 
 volume, I do not know. Mrs. Stirling was an actress who 
 lived much for her art, and neither desired, nor sought, 
 publicity for its own sake. That fact I have wished to 
 remember in writing this volume. It has been my wish to 
 write sympathetically barren indeed is the biography 
 
12 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 void of feeling or enthusiasm but also to set down all 
 faithfully, without sentiment or bias, whether in gauging 
 the individual woman, or in estimating her quality as an 
 actress. 
 
 The chief drawback to the subject's interest must lie 
 in the comparatively barren dramatic period during which 
 Mrs. Stirling was fated to live the most active years of her 
 stage-life. Those years produced many great actors and 
 actresses artists of consummate skill but of great plays 
 they produced almost none ; and if I have been compelled 
 to raise again from dusty death so many dramas that, on 
 their merits might well have lain forgotten where they were, 
 I did so only that there might shine through them Mrs. 
 Stirling's personality and art, and with her, here and there, 
 a glimpse of some of those equally great contemporary 
 figures, who were her stage companions, and her friends. I 
 have sought to show these actors and actresses carrying 
 on and handing down the torch of a fecund and living 
 tradition, through somewhat arid and barren decades ; and 
 to show also how, little by little, at last, from the Wigans, 
 through the Bancrofts, our drama began again to be truthful, 
 natural, and free. Should this book besides adding some- 
 thing to somebody's knowledge of the nineteenth-century 
 stage also encourage in some younger members of the 
 theatrical profession perseverance, and determination to 
 succeed, in spite of discouragements, I shall be the more 
 rewarded for my pains. 
 
 One other thought was present with me while writing. 
 This tale tells, indirectly, of an alienation which affected 
 the course of many lives that of the writer among them. 
 Incomprehensible, as yet, to our limited understandings, 
 are the seeming chances of life ; and within the word destiny 
 after all no more than a word, as M. Maeterlinck knows 
 we include facts inscrutable, and "thoughts beyond the 
 reaches of our souls." With this book, then, there is linked 
 in my mind the idea of reconciliation. But, apart from all 
 such considerations, the preparation of this story has been 
 of absorbing interest, and of great delight to an individual, 
 part of whose duty it is to write and speak upon subjects 
 connected with the stage. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 18 
 
 I have to thank many actors and actresses very warmly, 
 for assistance rendered, and for information most willingly 
 and kindly supplied. The names of Miss Ellen Terry who 
 supplied me from her memory, as well as from her book 
 Mrs. Kendal, and Dame Genevieve Ward, come at once 
 to mind ; and also Mrs. Gabrielle Enthoven for giving me 
 access to her valuable collection of play-bills, illustrations, 
 and theatrical lore. Among others, I have also to thank 
 Sir Squire Bancroft for facts, for permission to quote from 
 the Memoirs, Mr. Ben Webster and Dame May Whitty, 
 especially Sir Frank Benson, for information, for valuable 
 advice, and also for writing the delightful little sketch that 
 forms the introduction to this volume. Nor must I forget 
 Sir Arthur Pinero, nor Mr. Fred Grove for kindly indicating 
 many fruitful sources of knowledge nor Mrs. Stirling's old 
 friend, Mr. Ben Greet, who was always ready to answer 
 questions. 
 
 Among those who supplied me with letters, as well as 
 information, I am particularly grateful to Mme. de Navarro 
 (Miss Mary Anderson), who also was my grandmother's 
 close friend as readers of the following pages will discover 
 and also to Mr. Newton Baylis, and Miss Lilian Baylis, of 
 the " Old Vic," who lent me valuable and hitherto un- 
 published correspondence between Mrs. Baylis, Mrs. Stirling, 
 and Charles Reade, who were a trio of close friends. My 
 mother's recollections are not now very distinct, but she 
 has most kindly told me what she could. 
 
 To the following publishing houses I make grateful 
 acknowledgement : 
 
 To Monsieur Henry Davray, and Mr. J. Lewis May, 
 for permission to make use of material in an article in the 
 Anglo-French Review (July 1920) on Mrs. Stirling, Rachel, 
 and Charles Reade ; to Messrs. Hutchinson, for permission 
 to quote from Miss Ellen Terry's Autobiography ; to Messrs. 
 John Murray, for the same courtesy in respect to the Bancroft 
 Memoirs ; and to the House that owns the copyright of 
 Coleman's Life of Charles Reade. Many other names might 
 be added ; but their owners will pardon my brevity, and 
 accept a general acknowledgment. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY SIR FRANK R. BENSON . . 7 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 11 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. 1813-32 EARLY YEARS . . 10 
 
 II. 1832-37 PROVINCES, AND THE ADELPHI . 34 
 
 III. 1837-38 NEW STRAND AND ST. JAMES'S . . 43 
 
 IV. 1839-40 LYCEUM, DRURY LANE, AND OLYMPIC . 54 
 V. 1840-41 WITH MACREADY AT THE HAYMARKET 63 
 
 VI. 1842-43 DRURY LANE AND THE STRAND . 72 
 
 VII. 1844-47 AT THE PRINCESS'S . . . .83 
 
 VIII. 1847-49 LYCEUM AND OLYMPIC . . .97 
 
 IX. 1849 "ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR " . . 106 
 
 X. 1849-51 STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET . 116 
 
 XI. 1851 CHARLES READE, AND "THE LADIES' 
 
 BATTLE" 128 
 
 XII. 1852-53 "PEG WOFFINGTON " . . .139 
 
 XIII. 1853-61 WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC . 156 
 
 XIV. 1861-68 THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES . 172 
 
 XV. 1868-78 CONDITION OF ENGLISH THEATRE 
 
 IN 1868 . . . . .187 
 
 XVI. 1879-82 "THE NURSE" IN "ROMEO" . . 193 
 
 XVII. 1883-95 LAST APPEARANCES, RETIREMENT AND 
 
 DEATH . . . . .210 
 
 XVIII. CONCLUSION . . . . .224 
 
 APPENDIX 233 
 
 INDEX . 241 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 MRS. STIRLING AND MISS MARY ANDERSON IN "ROMEO 
 
 AND JULIET" .... Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 MRS. STIRLING, ABOUT 1840 68 
 
 From an Engraving by R. LANB, E.A. 
 
 MRS. STIRLING, ABOUT 1850 . . . . .120 
 
 MRS. STIRLING AS "PEG WOFFINGTON," AND BEN 
 
 WEBSTER AS "TRIPLET," IN "MASKS AND FACES" 144 
 
 MRS. STIRLING AS " PEG WOFFINGTON " . . . 146 
 
 From the Painting by H. WYNDHAM PHILLIPS, in the Garrick Club. 
 
 MRS STIRLING'S FATHER, CAPTAIN HEHL. . . 160 
 
 MRS. STIRLING, ABOUT 1856 ' . . . .160 
 
 MRS. STIRLING 180 
 
 From the Painting by WALTER GOODMAN, In the Garrick Club, 
 
 BEN WEBSTER, IN A COSTUME PLAY . . .206 
 
 MRS. STIRLING AS THE NURSE IN "ROMEO AND 
 
 JULIET" . 206 
 
MBS. STIRLING. 
 A reverend Lady." 
 Comedy of Errors, Act, v., Sc. 1 
 
The Stage Life of Mrs. Stirling 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY YEARS 
 
 1813-32 
 
 Birth and family Stage personalities of her time Early education An 
 impoverished family Goes on the stage, as " Fanny Clifton " 
 The City Pantheon First engagement probably at the East London 
 London of the thirties Condition of the theatre Monopoly of the 
 patent houses Efforts of the minor theatres to end it Bulwer and 
 Macready assist Davidge at the Coburg (Old Vic) " Oliver Twist " 
 as played there Rough audiences Fanny Clifton goes to the 
 Pavilion Experiences there, in melodrama and spectacle " Cherry 
 and Fair Star " and " The Wreck Ashore " Meets Edward 
 Stirling Her crudity, and his Marries him Leaves the Pavilion. 
 
 MARY ANNE HEHL, to whose stage career these pages are 
 mainly given, was the daughter of Captain Hehl l a German, 
 in all probability whose forerunners in England had come 
 over, my father thinks, with one of the Georges. 2 Be that 
 as it may, the family, I suppose, was by that time completely 
 anglicized, since we hear nothing of German connections. 3 
 Captain Hehl himself was, in middle life, a portly gentleman 
 of aristocratic, and somewhat haughty, demeanour, capable 
 of wearing with aggressive dignity the beaver hat, and long 
 closely buttoned coat of the period, if one may judge by 
 the portrait, in silhouette, that hangs to-day in my father's 
 dining-room, and is endorsed on the back : " Simon Hehl, 
 3rd Captain Regiment of Foot Guards, London. Assistant 
 
 1 Not Kehl, as in the Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 2 We may dismiss the statement in Actors by Daylight, March 24, 1838, 
 that Captain Hehl descended from the celebrated judge, of the seventeenth 
 century, Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
 3 Mr. Newton Baylis father of Miss Lilian Baylis, now controlling the 
 " Old Vic " whose 'mother was one of Mrs. Stirling's intimates, believet 
 that the actress had Irish blood in her. 
 
 19 
 
20 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Quarter-Master-General Horse Guards, London. 1 Was made 
 a Freeman of Dumfries, 1815." 
 
 For what service, if any, that compliment was paid 
 to him, in the year of Waterloo, I do not know. His name 
 is not included in the Index of the Burgesses of Dumfries for 
 that year ; though we need not therefore suppose that 
 the statement upon the portrait was incorrect, it not being 
 the custom to record upon the list of Freemen the names 
 of honorary burgesses among whom it is probable that 
 Captain HehPs name was. The grant was made as a passing 
 compliment, and no more was expected to be heard of its 
 recipients. 2 
 
 Captain Hehl had three children Charles, who became 
 a bank clerk at Liverpool Agnes, who played a considerable 
 part though off this rough world's stage as Lady Superior 
 in a convent at Bruges ; and Mary Anne, who was to be one 
 of the leading actresses of her century. 
 
 The girl was born on July 29, 1813, 8 in Queen Street, 
 Mayfair, London, and was educated at the Catholic Seminary, 
 Brook Green House, Hammersmith, and later, it seems, at a 
 convent in France, or at Bruges, whence she returned, to 
 find a most unhappy home. 4 Her father had ruined his 
 family, and sold his commission. All the discomforts of 
 poverty awaited her arrival, and Mary Anne was compelled 
 to earn her own living, as best she might. Out of that 
 seeming evil came good, for, following a true instinct, the 
 girl chose the stage, and it was to her father's improvidence, 
 therefore, that the daughter owed a long early training 
 which, aided by her natural energy, good looks, and talents, 
 were to bring her a great measure of success. 
 
 But before we follow her further, let us glance, for a 
 moment, at the nineteenth- century stage. At the time of 
 Mary Anne's arrival in this world, some of the drama's 
 
 1 See the portrait facing p. 160. 
 
 8 Information supplied by Mr. R. A. Grierson, Town Clerk of Dumfries, 
 who has kindly searched the records. 
 
 * Most of the records give 1815 or 1818. The correct date is from the 
 tombstone in Brompton Cemetery. 
 
 * Tallies Dramatic Magazine, 1851. Joseph Knight in Dictionary of 
 National Biography states that Captain Hehl was at one time Military 
 Secretary to the War Office. It may be true, but his statements concerning 
 these years are quite unreliable. 
 
EARLY YEARS 21 
 
 great names were still in men's mouths. That austere 
 figure, and great actor, John Philip Kemble " Black 
 Jack," or " Solemn John," as he was known to his con- 
 temporaries was still treading the stage, from which he 
 was about to withdraw, 1 and " of which he had been for thirty- 
 six years the ornament." His sister, the incomparable 
 Siddons, was already in retirement, having made her farewell 
 bow to the public, at Drury Lane, on June 29, 1812. 
 
 Edmund Kean, however that genius whose natural 
 acting, two years before, 2 had put a term to the declamatory 
 style of the Kemble s was now upon the upward course 
 of his meteoric career, 8 having given to London audiences 
 two of the greatest tragic efforts the world has ever witnessed 
 " Shakespeare by flashes of lightning," * in his " Othello," 
 and, in " Sir Giles Overreach," the most terrific outburst 
 of human passion ever witnessed upon the English stage. 
 
 In that same year, 1816, the tragedian who was to succeed 
 Kean, as the representative of our theatre, in its national 
 and poetic aspects, William C. Macready, had come to London, 
 at the age of twenty-three, and was to achieve his first 
 great success, as "Richard III," at Covent Garden, on 
 October 25, 1819. 
 
 Of the two leading comediennes, whom the future Mrs. 
 Stirling was to succeed, the elder, Dora Jordan, discarded 
 by the Duke of Clarence, 6 had just come to a tragic end, 
 dying in France, poor and neglected; while Mrs. Glover, 
 " the soul of humour," then in her thirty-sixth year, was 
 at the height of her fame and popularity. 
 
 Of the British stage, in general, at that time, we may 
 say, with truth, that its sky was both sunlit and overcast. 
 Kean's career, though brilliant as the lightning, was to be 
 almost as brief; and with his passing, in 1888, English drama 
 went rapidly from bad to worse, until 1887, when Macready, 
 driven by the spectacular and other mismanagements of 
 Bunn, and his kind unwillingly to take up the reins for 
 
 1 The farewell dinner to him was June 27, 1817. 
 
 8 His debut, at Drury Lane, in " Shylock," was January 26, 1814. 
 
 3 The cup presented to him by the Drury Lane company, Lord Byron 
 and others, in memory of his first representation of " Sir Giles Overreach " 
 (January 12, 1816), was dated June 25, 1816. 
 
 * Coleridge's phrase, or Hazlitt's. 
 
 5 Afterwards King William IV. 
 
22 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 himself, effected some temporary, but only temporary, 
 improvement. 
 
 If, during this first quarter of the nineteenth century, 
 there were yet some great actors upon our stage of great 
 dramatists there were none. Neither Garrick, Kemble, nor 
 Kean were the means of adding, during their management, 
 any plays of permanent value to our stage. For half a 
 century past, indeed excepting principally the comedies 
 of Sheridan and Goldsmith nothing, almost, had come 
 to stay. Outside the classics, our national drama, divorced 
 from literature, and from the great literary movements 
 of the century, was mainly futile, bombastic, artificial ; and 
 was destined so to remain for yet another half-century. 
 Among the misfortunes of the lady to whose stage career 
 these pages are given, not the least was this that she was 
 born, and must live, in so barren a time, and be compelled 
 so frequently to give from her own abundance, " heightening 
 touches to characters but coldly written." l Happily for 
 her, upon no actress of her century, I suppose, could that 
 mischance have fallen more lightly, since upon her had been 
 bestowed talents so varied, and a personality so marked, as 
 to enable her, many a time and oft, to overcome an author's 
 deficiencies, and to fashion for herself, out of such airy 
 nothings, " a local habitation and a name." 
 
 Accounts of Mrs. Stirling's theatrical beginnings are 
 strangely confused and contradictory ; nor am I able 
 altogether to reconcile them. West, according to Russell's 
 Representative Actors, 2 states, upon what authority I know 
 not, that Mary Anne's first appearance was in the Ballet 
 at the Surrey, 3 as early as 1827, when she was a child of 
 fourteen. This, though I cannot refute it, I disbelieve. 
 
 Joseph Knight obtaining the information probably 
 from the Era Almanac asserts that she began at the Coburg ; 
 and he may be right, though no old play-bills of that house 
 that I have come across mention Fanny Clifton's name, 
 as naturally they would not, if her parts were insignificant. 
 Neither Miss Lilian Baylis nor her father is aware of any 
 tradition concerning Fanny Clifton at their house. According 
 
 1 Colley Gibber's Apology. 2 P. 407 note. 
 
 * I cannot trace her in Surrey play- bills of the period. 
 
EARLY YEARS 23 
 
 to Knight, her work at the Coburg consisted principally of 
 carrying messages, and the like, her first part of importance 
 being " Amelia Wilderheim " in " Lovers' Vows," adapted 
 from Kotzebue. 
 
 Mr. Barton Baker, in his History of the London Stage, and 
 its players, 1576-1903, differs from Mr. Knight. He states l 
 though without naming his authority that she began 
 at the Grub Street 2 Theatre, a disused chapel, that had 
 been converted, about 1828, 3 to the cult of the Muses, and 
 was later named the " City Theatre " and afterwards 
 "The City Pantheon." 
 
 It was here, according to this chronicler, that " she 
 made her first appearance upon the stage in the humblest 
 walk of the drama, delivering messages, and speaking a few 
 lines." 
 
 Did she ? Again I do not know ; but going through 
 the play-bills of the Grub Street Theatre, 4 I find the 
 following : 
 
 THE CITY PANTHEON or School of practical Instruction 
 
 for 
 
 Elocution, Music, and the Drama 
 late the City Chapel, Chapel Street, Fore Street, Cripplegate 
 
 ' Delectando pariterque Monendo ' 
 4 Learning's Triumph o'er her barbarous foes 
 First rear'd the stage.' Doctor Johnson. 
 
 The second periodical Exemplification will take place 
 on Monday, the 3rd of August, 1829, 
 when the tragedy of DOUGLAS 
 
 with new Dioramic Illustration, by Mr. Bedford, and other appropriate 
 
 accompaniments, will be recited by the Professors, Subscribers and 
 
 Students, etc. etc. 
 
 The City Pantheon is intended to comprise a systematic course 
 of Tuition in Elocution, Action, Dramatic Reading, Vocal Music, 
 
 1 P. 404. 
 
 8 Now Milton St. Fore Street, immortalized in chronicles of the eighteenth 
 century as the abode of the literary hack. Edmund Kean played Shake- 
 spearean parts there in May and June 1831, including " Othello." Elton, 
 Buckatone, Vining, Ellen Tree (Mrs. Charles Kean), and other stars played 
 there under Chapman's management. It was destroyed 1836. 
 
 8 Mr. Baker puts the conversion 1830. This is wrong. 
 
 4 Mrs. Charles Enthoven's collection. 
 
24 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Dancing, Fencing, etc. ; and to afford students and Amateurs 
 frequent opportunities of respectable practice ; and to foster 
 and develop talents which, without such advantages, might be 
 entirely lost to their possessors and the public. 
 
 Now this school of acting, eminently respectable " none 
 admitted to the best tier unless suitably dressed," and so 
 forth was just the sort of place to which a young lady, 
 with stage-ward aspirations, might go, to learn the rudiments 
 of her chosen profession, especially at a time when her choice 
 of such Institutions was strictly limited. It is, therefore, 
 not impossible that Miss Fanny Clifton should have here 
 begun, though it is also possible that a confusion of names 
 may have arisen between her and Miss Fanny Ay ton, a singer 
 " of Italian style," who was there in October 1881, only 
 three months before the other Fanny went, as we shall see, 
 to the Pavilion in the Whitechapel Road. 
 
 Here then I should have been content to leave Mr. 
 Baker's choice of Grub Street, as the most probable, did 
 other statements support him. I can find none that do. 
 Such records as I have come upon, all point to the East 
 London Theatre 1 as the place of her first appearance. For 
 example, this, from the Theatrical Times of September 19, 
 1846: 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's early efforts were devoted to the study of music 
 under a person who had several pupils intended for the stage, and 
 who for practice were in the habit of singing in choruses in some of 
 the operas. While joining these she evinced a desire to venture on 
 a dramatic life, but finding no encouragement from the parties by 
 whom she was surrounded, she resolved to pay a visit to the east end 
 of the town, and accordingly enrolled herself under a Mr. Amherst, 
 the manager of a very small theatre in that locality, playing, as Miss 
 Fanny Clifton, everything by turns, and nothing long, at a very 
 trifling salary. 
 
 An article in The Players, of February 25, 1860, adds 
 a graphic detail : 
 
 She informed him (Amherst) that she wished to act, that she had 
 never done so, but felt she could if he would let her try. The kind 
 old man agreed that she should try, and in less than a month she 
 appeared. 
 
 1 According to Mr. Baker the East London existed from 1787-1828. 
 It must in fact have endured longer. 
 
EARLY YEARS 25 
 
 Rather less naively put, and more convincing, is the 
 corroborative evidence afforded by an article in Tallis's 
 Dramatic Magazine for 1851, whose author also asserts 
 that Miss Fanny Clifton first appeared at the East London. 
 This article to which I may again refer is very interesting 
 because, unlike others that touch upon Mrs. Stirling's early 
 career, it is evidently the work of someone well acquainted 
 with the actress. There is an intimacy about it, a sympathy, 
 a sentiment even, that suggests personal knowledge. Read- 
 ing it we feel that we are behind the scenes : it is possible, 
 therefore, that the details may have been supplied by Mrs. 
 Stirling herself. 
 
 The writer in Tallis's has just told of the girl's return 
 to an unhappy and impoverished household, and of her 
 decision to try the stage. 
 
 Mr. Amherst, the proprietor of the East London Theatre, listened 
 to her application, and readily received her for a few weeks on trial. 
 She returned home with three parts in her pocket, the study of which 
 she commenced without delay. She was in the way of earning a few 
 shillings a week, and the prospects of the poor girl became bright 
 and more cheerful. It was as Fanny Clifton that the stage neophyte 
 claimed the sympathies of an East London audience for the sorrows 
 of " Crazy Jane." l 
 
 This was probably in the year 1829. 
 Her sympathizer continues on the more personal 
 note : 
 
 There is something touching in such an entrance into a laborious 
 and dangerous profession. With none to guide, direct or support her, 
 Miss Fanny Clifton was left entirely to chance impulses, and the 
 unchecked influence of circumstances. The young candidate had, 
 however, although she knew it not, considerable qualifications in 
 a handsome person, a musical voice, and a store of animal spirits. 
 
 Those belated discoveries concerning her physical attrac- 
 tions she doubtless made, soon enough, but the individual 
 who could write thus of them, and of the girl behind them, 
 certainly had met her in person, and we may surely accept 
 
 1 I cannot be sure of the date. Henry Irving, speaking after her last 
 performance, in "Faust," July 31, 1886, at the Lyceum, said that she had 
 been before the London public for fifty-seven years. That brings her first 
 appearance to 1829. 
 
26 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 his statement that Fanny returned home with some parts 
 in her pocket. 
 
 What were those parts ? According to Joseph Knight, 
 they were from John Stafford's " Pretender, or the Rose of 
 Alvery," and Dimond's " Hunter of the Alps," " her principal 
 business being comedy and Singing Chambermaids." These 
 titles may be correct, but his date is wrong, for he gives it 
 as early in 1832, whereas, by that time, she was already 
 at the Pavilion, where, he says, she opened on Easter Monday, 
 for leading business at a salary of 8 per week, as " Susan 
 Oldfield" in "Speed the Plough," and as "Patrick" in 
 O'Keef 's one act farce, " The Poor Soldier." 
 
 This is not the fact. Farrell did engage her for the 
 Pavilion perhaps at 8 a week but not on Easter Monday, 
 nor in either of the parts named, though she may well have 
 played them about this time. The young actress made 
 her first appearance at the Pavilion on January 9, 1882, 
 as " Zephyrina," the Widow, in " The Devil and the Widow," 
 when Madame Celeste, the celebrated French actress and 
 dancer, was also making her d^but at the same theatre. 
 
 But before we follow Fanny Clifton's fortunes in White- 
 chapel it may be well, for a moment, to remind ourselves 
 of the condition of the drama in the metropolis at that time. 
 
 The outer London of those days was a dangerous and 
 difficult world for a young girl to be cast into. Its streets 
 were partially and dimly lighted with gas of small illuminating 
 power. You carried a candle-lantern with you, and some- 
 times a blunderbuss as well. Link-boys, on dark nights, 
 earned a living by lighting you home ; and timid wayfarers 
 would wait as they do to-day in times of winter fog, or of 
 railway breakdown until others, bound for the same 
 destination, could afford them company, and courage against 
 footpads or other lurking dangers. 1 
 
 For theatrical folk, in particular whether player or 
 play-goers suburban London was neither safe nor convenient. 
 Daily newspapers, in 1827, were priced at sixpence each, 
 and, circulating almost exclusively in the clubs, libraries, 
 
 1 John Hollingshead : My Lifetime. 
 
EARLY YEARS 27 
 
 taverns, and coffee-houses, were not easily accessible to the 
 poorer sections of the community. A prospective visitor 
 to the Surrey, or to the Coburg, must to the tobacconist, or 
 the pastry-cook, there to determine, from an inspection of 
 the long, badly printed " Bills of the Play," what dramatic 
 fare was open to his choice. 
 
 Such fare in theory at least necessarily excluded 
 Shakespearean plays, as Shakespeare wrote them, because 
 the production of "legitimate drama" was still the privilege 
 of the two patent theatres, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, 
 whose managers jealously guarded their rights, and would 
 set the machinery of the law in motion against any proprietors 
 of the " minor houses," as they were called, who dared too 
 openly or grossly to infringe that monopoly. This wrong 
 was rendered all the more exasperating to those who must 
 needs endure it, by the fact that the managements of both 
 Drury Lane and Covent Garden instead of exploiting the 
 plays for the production of which their theatres nominally 
 existed were offering crude spectacle and melodrama, 
 with " Real Lions," " Terrific Combats," " Awful Situations," 
 and all the other absurd clap-trap of the showman, set 
 forth in puffing and mendacious bills. 
 
 So glaring an anachronism could not long endure. 
 Beyond the immediate interests of the two theatres concerned, 
 the privilege had no friends ; and the patrons of the fifteen 
 houses open in London in 1832 were numerous and powerful. 
 An advertisement headed " Cause of the Drama," in the 
 Sunday Times of January 8, 1832, informed its readers that 
 there were lying for signature at the Sadlers Wells, Surrey, 
 Royal Coburg, Queens, Pavilion, and other theatres, copies 
 of a Petition to Parliament for the repeal of such Acts of 
 Parliament as tend to create a monopoly in the right of 
 performing plays, etc. On Friday, February 24, following, 
 there was held, at the City of London Tavern, under the 
 presidency of Edward Bulwer, a meeting, "to take into 
 consideration the best means of effectually repelling the 
 attempt of the patent theatres to establish an absolute 
 monopoly of the legitimate drama in this city." 
 
 " Reform the stage as we are about to do," said the 
 chairman in the course of his address, " and the literature 
 
28 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 of the stage will reform itself." This first necessary clearing 
 of the ground, mainly through the influence of Bulwer, and 
 of Macready, 1 was accomplished, eleven years later, by 
 the Theatres Act of 1848, 2 though the second reform, as 
 devoutly to be wished, could not come until the theatre 
 has passed through nearly another half-century of decline. 
 
 Among the individuals most active in evading and 
 combating the hated monopoly, was Davidge, manager of 
 the Coburg, under whom, during her first northern tour, 
 Miss Clifton was soon to serve, if she had not done so already, 
 as Knight asserts. 
 
 Davidge was a capable melodramatic actor, excelling 
 especially, " in testy and imbecile old men " who, after 
 playing leads at that house for some time, had become, in 
 1826, sole lessee. His seven years of management were 
 marked by a spirit of daring, that was favourably commented 
 upon by the press of the time, 8 and found scope for ingenuity 
 in devising means to produce Shakespearean dramas, that, 
 while still bearing some resemblance to the originals, were 
 yet sufficiently tampered with to keep him upon the windy 
 side of the law. Thus " Othello " becomes " The Moor of 
 Venice," and "The Merchant" dissolves into "The Three 
 Caskets " disguises as thin as those practised upon us 
 to-day by the Don Giovannis of high opera. Nevertheless, it 
 behoved Davidge to be careful ; for although such small fry 
 as the " penny gaffs," and the booth managers of Bartlemy 
 Fair, might do the forbidden thing with comparative impunity 
 save for an occasional raid the minor theatres proper 
 were much more jealously watched. The Coburg, indeed, 
 had been successfully attacked by Drury Lane, after Booth's 
 first engagement there in 1819-1820; and the attackers 
 had power to ask for fines and imprisonment against the 
 offenders, in each case of infringement, even though both 
 royal theatres, at that very time, were putting educated 
 elephants at one house into competition with tight-rope 
 dancers at the other, and were filling up the bills with songs 
 
 1 A contemporary wrote : " There should be a statue to each of them 
 (Bulwer and Macready) in every theatre in the land." 
 * 6 and 7 Vic. cap. 68. 
 E.g. The Constitution, November 6, 1831. 
 
EARLY YEARS 29 
 
 kept short, " to enable the singers to do a double turn at 
 Vauxall Gardens." 
 
 Illegitimate legitimate drama, however, was not the staple 
 fare, either at the Coburg, during Davidge's management, 
 or at the other transpontine houses. They relied principally 
 upon melodrama, hot and strong, and upon spectacular 
 pieces, not very dissimilar from those that the patent theatres 
 were putting on. In 1832 was performed, at the Coburg, 
 an Indian melodrama, " Hyder Ali," in which the performing 
 lions of Martin, a Frenchman, played prominent think- 
 ing, and roaring, parts, 1 while even up to 1840 one finds 
 such unconsciously humorous announcements as this, of 
 May 25, 1839, " The proprietor is happy to inform the public 
 that the Monkeys, Dogs, and Goats having arrived, they 
 will appear together with the Winter and Lehman family." 
 
 Play and audiences were alike rough, even though the 
 Coburg people did not perhaps wholly deserve the epithets 
 Kean flung at them, across the footlights, in June 1831 : 
 
 I have acted in every theatre of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, I have acted in all the principal theatres throughout 
 the United States of America ; but in my life I never acted to such 
 a set of ignorant unmitigated brutes as I now see before me. 
 
 John Hollingshead 2 has given us, in his racy vernacular 
 style, a vivid description of a performance at the Victoria, 
 as the Coburg had come to be called, of " Oliver Twist," 
 when the part of " Bill Sikes " was played by Mr. E. F. Savile, 
 brother of Miss Helen Faucit, the accomplished and beautiful 
 actress with whom Mrs. Stirling was often to appear. 
 
 The gallery of the Victoria was a huge amphitheatre, probably 
 containing about fifteen hundred perspiring creatures ; most of the 
 men in shirt-sleeves, and most of the women bare-headed, with 
 coloured handkerchiefs round their shoulders, called " bandanna 
 wipes " in the slang of the district, and probably stolen from the 
 pockets of old gentlemen who were given to snuff-taking. This chicka- 
 leary audience was always thirsty and not ashamed. It tied hand- 
 kerchiefs together of which it always seemed to have plenty until 
 they formed a rope, which was used to haul up large bottles of beer 
 from the pit, and occasionally hats that had been dropped below. 
 
 1 The Old Vic, by John Booth, p. 26. 
 My Lifetime, i. 188, 189. 
 
30 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 This body of unregenerate playgoers was maliciously tortured 
 night after night, by Mr. E. F. Savile and half a dozen other repre- 
 sentatives of Dickens's criminal animal. The murder of Nancy was 
 the great scene. Nancy was always dragged round the stage by 
 her hair, and after this effort Sikes always looked up defiantly at 
 the gallery, as he was doubtless told to do in the marked prompt 
 copy. He was always answered by one loud and fearful curse, yelled 
 by the whole mass like a Handel Festival chorus. The curse was 
 answered by Sikes dragging Nancy twice round the stage, and then, 
 like Ajax, defying the lightning. The simultaneous yell then became 
 louder and more blasphemous. Finally, when Sikes, working up to 
 a well rehearsed climax, smeared Nancy with red ochre, and taking 
 her by the hair (a most powerful wig) seemed to dash her brains out 
 on the stage, no explosion of dynamite invented by the modern anar- 
 chist, no language ever dreamt of in Bedlam could equal the outburst. 
 A thousand enraged voices, which sounded like ten thousand, with 
 the roar of a dozen escaped menageries, filled the theatre and deafened 
 the audience, and when the smiling ruffian came forward and bowed, 
 their voices in thorough plain English expressed a fierce determination 
 to tear his sanguinary entrails from his sanguinary body. 
 
 There, certainly in plain enough English, is one of the 
 many reasons why middle-class Victorian fathers did not 
 often positively encourage their daughters to venture upon 
 the minor stage ; yet it was upon just such a stage with 
 the Whitechapel Road for the Waterloo Road that the 
 daughter of Captain Hehl late of the Foot Guards found 
 herself definitely launched into theatrical life. 
 
 Sensational melodrama, of course, was the stock attraction 
 at such a house as the Pavilion. " As at the Coburg," wrote 
 the Morning Advertiser, " the lieges of Whitechapel have 
 ever been remarkable for their attachment to fiery horrors, 
 marvellous incidents, and terrific situations." Here also 
 Sikes' equivalent drags innocent maidens by their hair, and 
 " the gamester dies in agony." To witness these attractions 
 swarmed a populace largely composed of seafaring men, and 
 so numerous, unruly, and uncouth, that one reads occasionally 
 of a boy being trampled to death in the gallery, and of large 
 bottles being flung upon the stage, to the terror of the actors. 
 Sometimes, nevertheless, quality honoured the Pavilion with 
 their august presence, as on September 29, 1830, when 
 " we observed there several magistrates, and two or three 
 families of distinction." Now and again a prostitute, such 
 
EARLY YEARS 81 
 
 as " Lady Melville," would make an uproar upon being 
 refused admission. 
 
 The press in general, commenting upon FarrelPs success 
 at the Pavilion, marvelled how the thing was done. " We 
 would as soon expect to make a Benefit on Salisbury Plain " 
 Salisbury plain has seen more players since then, than 
 were dreamed of in 1830 " as to establish a theatre at such 
 an unlikely neighbourhood ; yet you (Farrell) have succeeded, 
 and therefore we stamp thee a good manager." 
 
 He was at least a bold and quick-witted one ; for when, 
 upon an August evening of 1831, the second piece was about 
 to commence, that perspiring crowd much more jealous 
 of their "rights" than is an audience of to-day declined to 
 let the play proceed. Farrell came forward, and desired 
 to know the cause of the uproar. A voice shouted : " Why 
 doesn't Payne do his duty, why don't he come forward 
 and dance ? his name is in the bill ? " Swiftly came the 
 retort courteous : " Why, ladies and gentlemen ? Because 
 it is our constant study to give you pleasure not pain." l 
 The performance was successfully concluded. 
 
 As an actor, Farrell, who, with Freer, frequently played 
 the romantic leads, was one of the blatant, robustious type 
 popular at such theatres in those days. A contemporary 
 critic wrote of him, at this time : " His action was, as usual, 
 too redundent, and his tone too boisterous by half. These 
 are the rocks upon which this actor dashes, night after 
 night." 
 
 When one remembers what the spectators, as well as the 
 actors, had to put up with, one is not surprised that the 
 house was sometimes fractious. In February 1832, for 
 example six weeks after Fanny Clifton's first perform- 
 ance at the Pavilion there is a fiasco with the drama of 
 " Brutus," otherwise " Julius Caesar," upon the noblest 
 Roman being played that night by "a tradesman from 
 Gosport," one Woolgar, 
 
 who could neither look well, act well, nor speak well. When Brutus 
 exclaimed " Hear that dreadful peal of thunder ? " we heard only 
 the rain box, with the pleasing accompaniment of the prompter's 
 
 1 Payne's name \vas in the bill for the interlude, not for the third piece. 
 
32 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 voice, squeaking like a torn-tit on the dome of Saint Paul's, " that 
 he was not engaged to play thunder that he was not the thunderer, 
 and damn his eyes if he would thunder." 
 
 When, on January 9, 1832, Miss Fanny Clifton made her 
 first appearance as " Zephyrina," she was hindered, no 
 doubt, by two of Mr. Woolgar's disabilities she could 
 neither act well nor speak well. Good looks and high spirits 
 alone had won her a line to herself upon the bills. Of her 
 performance in " The Man in the Iron Mask " x a critic writes : 
 " Mdlle. Aubry was given to Miss Fanny Clifton, ' a pretty 
 piece of uninteresting matter } with just enough ability to 
 speak her lines, and no more." One member of the cast, 
 nevertheless, was already beginning to find her a matter 
 of interest, as we shall soon see. 
 
 That same evening she played " Faith Gough " in " The 
 Wept of Wish-ton- Wish," which effort in alliteration as 
 the play-bill hastens to explain " is the title of an American 
 drama founded partly on Cooper's celebrated novel of The 
 Borderers. Wish-ton-Wish is an Indian valley, and the 
 Wept alludes to the lamentable fate of the heroine, " Hope 
 Gough," aged fifteen, and played by Mdlle. Celeste. 
 
 During, or after, Easter, the theatre was remodelled and 
 decorated, and the ceiling painted from a design by Leitch. 
 On April 23 the debutante played " Fair Star," in the then 
 popular romance, " Cherry and Fair Star," of which the 
 principal attraction consisted "in the beauty of the scenery, 
 and the extent and novel working of the machinery." 
 
 To the girl herself the principal attraction may have 
 been Edward Stirling, 2 who played " Charles," upon that 
 occasion, and whom she now meets, it seems, for the first 
 time during this spring of 1832. He has been in the Pavilion 
 bills not long before, on Easter Monday, April 4, 1881, whence 
 
 1 January 30, 1832. 
 
 Edward Lambert (Stirling) was born at Thame, Oxfordshire, iu 1809, 
 and made his first appearance at the Pavilion, under Cooke and Campbell, 
 in 1828. He then went to Richmond under Klanert, who was at that 
 time in want of "a young gentleman to look well and play the light comedy 
 and some of the amiable assassins." When Klanert closed down, Stirling 
 went to Windsor under Penley, then to Croydon and Gravesend, under 
 Billy Hall. Later he was at Dundee under Bass, playing seconds to Edmund 
 Kean, Vandenhoff, and other stars, before returning to the Pavilion. He 
 became an adroit adapter of plays, a sound actor of character, and ulti- 
 mately manager of Dniry Lane Theatre, and author of Old Drury Lane. 
 
EARLY YEARS 33 
 
 he had come from Hastings theatre, to play in Douglas 
 Jen-old's drama, " Martha Willis," and " The Man of the 
 Black Forest," by Howard Payne. He disappeared from 
 the Pavilion bills soon after, to reappear in " Cherry and 
 Fair Star," and to remain with Fanny Clifton in the company, 
 until they leave it, as man and wife. Launched already 
 upon a successful career, she was about to compromise 
 her chances of happiness by an unsuccessful, a disastrous 
 marriage. 
 
 Into the details of her last performances at the Pavilion, 
 I have not time to go ; and must refer the reader to the 
 chronological list of Mrs. Stirling's parts in the Appendix. 
 I will mention only her attempt as " Bella " in " The Wreck 
 Ashore," because a contemporary criticism upon it is 
 interesting, as showing how limited, as yet, was the young 
 actress's technique : 
 
 " Bella," writes the press-man, " was assigned to Miss F. Clifton, 
 a very clever girl in her own line, but without the least pretensions 
 to sustain such a character l it was the most abortive attempt at 
 the Fanny Kelly style ever exhibited. We sympathize equally with 
 the lady, the dramatis personce and the audience on the occasion ; 
 and must observe that the managers are wanting in their duty to 
 the public, when they fill up characters with individuals of whose 
 incompetency they must be aware, and such conduct is less pardon- 
 able when they have an efficient representative at their command. 
 Miss Macarthy ought to have played the part." 
 
 Miss Macarthy was then the leading lady at the Pavilion 2 ; 
 and there is probably some personal bias in the quoted 
 critique. Nevertheless, when all excuses are made, who can 
 doubt that Fanny Clifton, in those early days, was an artisan 
 working for her living, rather than an artist working for 
 her art. Neither her ambitions nor her ideals are as yet 
 awakened. The next stage of her career was to beget both. 
 
 1 Stirling at this time was equally crude. " The Walter Barnard of 
 Stirling was an imperfect performance it was anything but an effective 
 representation of a young Essex Farmer.' 1 
 
 2 Miss Macarthy went on later to the Coburg i.e. the Old Vic. The 
 Pavilion continued to present English plays until after 1900, when, as the 
 Jewish community of Whitechapel increased in numbers and wealth, 
 occasional Jewish Saturday matinees were organized. These were uni- 
 formly successful, and by 1909 the Pavilion had become a Yiddish theatre. 
 It was from the Pavilion that Mr. J. B. Fagan brought Mr. Maurice 
 Moscovitch to the Court. The theatre in which Fanny Clifton played was 
 burned down in 1856, when the existing building was erected. 
 
 8 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PROVINCES AND THE ADELPHI 
 
 1832-37 
 
 To Manchester with Stirling Hard times First success at Birmingham 
 Awakening of artistic consciousness, and of ambition Engaged by 
 Bond at the Adelphi " The Ghost Story " and " Luke Somerton " 
 " Rienzi," a typical Adelphi spectacle of the time Decadence 
 of the drama Bunn's methods at Drury Lane Macready and Bunn 
 Mrs. Stirling tours, and returns to Adelphi Drunkenness on the 
 stage The value of experience to a player " A Flight to America," 
 with "Jim Crow" She makes a hit as "Sally Snow." 
 
 BEFOBE I quitted the Pavilion I found a better half in Fanny 
 Clifton. We married at once ; started for Liverpool with Davidge, 1 
 at the Amphitheatre ; London Company, Watkin Burroughs stage 
 manager ; Batty furnished horses and his equestrian troupe. Bur- 
 roughs resigned, and I accepted the management. 2 
 
 But there was a hard struggle before them. Stirling thus 
 continues the story, in his staccato style : 
 
 Queen's Theatre, Manchester. Henry Beverly's direction. Myself 
 and wife were engaged to lead the business ; this proved very bad 
 salaries stopped, no resources. What was to be done ? It occurred 
 to me to try my hand at writing a piece for a benefit. 3 
 
 So Edward Stirling, in addition to his capacities as 
 actor, manager, and husband, became dramatic author too, 
 and that of the most prolific kind ; for, as he phrased it. 
 " quantity rather than quality was the order of the day." 
 I fancy that it remained the order of too many of Stirling's 
 days. 
 
 As for the acting of the young couple, here again we 
 may suppose that quantity supplanted quality, but, to 
 
 1 Davidge's speculation in management at Liverpool was a very bad 
 one, and ended in financial disaster. His connection with the Coburg came 
 to an end in 1834. 
 
 a Stirling's Old Drury Lane, i. 75. 3 Ibid. 
 
 34 
 
PROVINCES AND THE ADELPHI 35 
 
 the woman, already the higher outlook is coming. From 
 Manchester, it seems, she went to Birmingham, 1 and there, 
 for the first time, began really to win, and to enjoy, success. 
 Once more the sympathetic writer in Tallis's Magazine 
 throws light upon the darkness, in lines that, though 
 involved and weighted by the pompous mannerism of the 
 time, have a pretty touch of intimacy, beauty, and truth: 
 
 Here (at Birmingham) the new performer felt that she began to 
 be valued. Her benefits were well patronized. A consciousness of 
 power, to which she was previously a comparative stranger, awakened 
 within her, and gradually became familiar to her opening intelligence. 
 Delivered from the merely domestic and melodramatic, she had now 
 to give utterance to the thought of beauty in words of music, and 
 perception of the poetic dawned more and more on her awakened 
 spirit. For the first time she learned that acting was an art, and 
 that there was more in it than the mere mimicry of manner and 
 emotion. There was character to be conceived, and passion to be 
 illustrated pleasure to be excited to temper pain, and the illusions 
 of taste to be magically exhibited. 
 
 Thus it was that a genius originally ignorant of its destiny, 
 received from the attempt and practise of an art, a still increasing 
 development, whose very existence otherwise might never have been 
 suspected. Still, however, there was more progress than feeling. 
 She took more and more delight in acting, because of acquired facility ; 
 and continued to improve, because she still continued unreluctantly 
 to work ; but the ambition to excel had not yet been conceived, or 
 the expectation formed, that the high places in her profession were 
 within her reach. She had yet to rise to this perception ; other 
 influences were needed to stimulate exertion and desire. She had 
 yet to struggle on darkly before she attained to these. 
 
 Already good reports concerning her had reached London. 
 At the close of 1835, Bond, then manager of the Adelphi, 
 sent for Fanny Clifton. She returned to London, with 
 her husband, and was promptly engaged to make her first 
 appearance at the West End. At that theatre, on January 
 1836, at the age of twenty-three, Fanny Stirling, following 
 Mrs. Nisbett, played " Biddy Nutts," in the then well-known 
 melodrama " A Dream at Sea," by that prolific playwright, 
 the low comedian, Buckstone. She seems to have suc- 
 
 1 I suppose that her husband accompanied her, because according 
 to Actors by Daylight, December 8, 1836 it was at Birmingham, under 
 Armitsead, that Stirling wrote and produced one of his earliest successful 
 plays, " Sadak and Kalisrade." 
 
36 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 ceeded from the start, winning at once the good-will of a 
 West London audience, though, to judge by the following 
 comment, she did not impress a consciousness of her serious 
 value at once upon all the critics : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling possesses in an eminent degree every requisite for 
 a low comedy performer ; she uses all with admirable tact and dis- 
 cretion, and she is withal a very pretty woman. 
 
 Though, no doubt, often exasperating, by its futility, to 
 an actress of her keen intelligence, the type of play favoured 
 by the Adelphi management must have given her some 
 valuable experience. Here is a sample. On January 3, 
 in the company of Buckstone, O. Smith, Younge, and 
 Hemming, she plays, as " Catherine Graham," in an absurd 
 and totally inexplicable production, " The Ghost Story," 
 wherein a smuggler with a sheet, a turnip, and a candle, 
 concocts a grimly spectre, for the terrorizing of intruders 
 to his haunt. Evidently she tried her hardest ; for although 
 Fanny Stirling had been but three days before the London 
 critics, The Times * man, already discerning ability, is moved 
 to write thus: 
 
 Of Mrs. Stirling, who is a recent acquisition, it is not too much 
 to speak in terms of high encomium ; she is a natural actress, and 
 imparts even to a character which never existed in nature an appear- 
 ance of actual existence and life. It is to be regretted that her talents 
 are not better employed than in supporting a character like that in 
 which she appeared last night. It is quite clear she is capable of 
 much better things, and it would be the interest, as well as the duty, 
 of the management to give her a fair chance of success in her pro- 
 fession. 
 
 The endeavour to give " an appearance of actual exist- 
 ence and life " to characters owing no such qualities to 
 their author, was often, thenceforth, a part of Mrs. Stirling's 
 duty. 
 
 Her next task gives us an illuminating example of Adelphi 
 methods under the management of Yates. The play was 
 " Luke Somerton," a production heralded by a puff pre- 
 liminary, typical of the time, announcing upon the play-bill, 
 " a Grand New Melodrama with scenic effects and machinery 
 
 1 January 7, 1836. 
 
PROVINCES AND THE ADELPHI 37 
 
 never yet attempted in this building, etc." It proved to 
 be a piece of the kind that had been done frequently at the 
 Coburg, under Davidge's management, full of " pageants 
 and dramatic effects," including blue flames and a " corpse 
 light " at Peel castle, heralding death. " Luke Somerton," 
 played by O. Smith, was a later " Paul Jones," who, on 
 the way to execution, shoots himself, at the very moment 
 when his daughter " Louisa," played by Mrs. Stirling, 
 rushes on to announce his pardon. 
 
 Some of these melodramas succeeded, and others failed ; 
 but what most annoyed the better class of playgoer, at 
 this time, was the fact that, whether applauded on the 
 first night, or incontinently damned, the drama was an- 
 nounced in next morning's advertisments, as having been 
 44 received with unbounded applause by a most brilliant and 
 crowded audience." 
 
 To Macready, then touring in the West of England, 
 belongs much of the credit for having been the first of the 
 managers to put an end, once for all, to the puff mendacious. 
 This is another of the many debts our stage owes to him. 
 
 On February 13 the curtain rose at the Adelphi 
 upon a production, concerning which though Mrs. Stirling 
 played only a minor part in it I shall say something, in 
 further illustration of theatrical methods of those days. The 
 drama in question was 44 Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes," 
 adapted by Buckstone from Bulwer's novel so entitled. 
 Slap-dash was the playwright's method. From the formal 
 and stately commonplaces of the novel he borrowed portions 
 of dialogue, cut them up into lengths, sandwiched them 
 with interpolations of his own, neither formal nor stately, 
 and duly served them to their respective speakers. Mrs. 
 Stirling's share did not amount to much, but what she had 
 probably amused her, though she was not, I suppose, heroine 
 enough to approach, without flinching, the " live " horses, 
 that nearly kicked off their lady riders, nor archaeologist 
 enough to be amused by the medley of costumes including 
 armour of the Greek, Roman, and mediaeval periods and 
 dresses of Italy, Sicily, Savoy, and other countries all variously 
 and incoherently mingled. 1 
 
 1 The Times, February 4, 1836. 
 
38 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 The critic of the Sunday Times, after a satirical allusion 
 to the chivalric character of the Adelphi entertainments, 
 continued : 
 
 To Elton is assigned the part of " Rienzi," and, amidst the strange 
 confusion, he possesses a sufficient portion of dignity to make us 
 regard " The Last of the Tribunes " with respect. Buckstone, how- 
 ever, as a small tailor, and O. Smith, as a huge blacksmith, are the 
 first creatures in our imagination. They do not precisely give us 
 any idea of Roman manners . . . but they present us with a sketch 
 of " plebeians and their politics," as the bills say, which is infinitely 
 ludicrous. . . . Mrs. Honey appears as a page in a very superb tunic 
 of blue velvet and gold, and yellow silk stockings, and her countenance 
 is most appropriately beautified by a pair of moustachios, a species 
 of ornament not used by the other Romans. 
 
 In regard to the costumes generally, we imagine that, if one of 
 the gentlemen of Rome were to rise from the dead, he would be 
 exceedingly puzzled to recognize his own countrymen. 
 
 Thus, amid falling ruins, and the glare of red fire, the 
 curtain dropped, for ever, upon " Rienzi," the general 
 comment of the town being, that London " was saturated 
 with spectacle." 
 
 " Victorine, or I'll sleep on It," which followed the 
 Roman play, gave Mrs. Stirling an opportunity to take up 
 one of Mrs. Yates's favourite parts. Incidentally, the scenes 
 at its production reveal again the disorderliness of theatrical 
 audiences of the early nineteenth century. The authorities 
 received many complaints of gross acts of misconduct and 
 brutality at the pit doors, and one is inclined to think that 
 London managers might well have imitated their brethren 
 in Paris, by posting sentinels among the spectators, to 
 maintain order. 
 
 On March 26 the Adelphi closed, when Gallot re- 
 presenting Yates and Gladstanes, the lessees made the 
 customary farewell speech. Mrs. Stirling occupied herself, 
 during part of the summer, with a provincial tour, in the 
 course of which she revisited Birmingham where she 
 increased her previous good reputation and several towns 
 of Lancashire and Yorkshire. 
 
 During the theatrical holiday, that section of the press 
 interested in stage matters took occasion to bewail the 
 existing state of affairs. 
 
PROVINCES AND THE ADELPHI 39 
 
 The regular drama [wrote the Sunday Times] 1 has nearly passed 
 from our stage tragedy, and genuine comedy, have given way to 
 glaring spectacle, to operatic or melodramatic pieces imported from 
 the continent, and stuffed with the morbid sensibility of Scribe, or 
 the grotesque romance of Victor Hugo. 
 
 At the bottom of much of the prevailing discontent in 
 the theatrical world were the methods of Bunn, at Drury 
 Lane. This famous, or infamous, manager, after " cornering " 
 many leading actors of the day such as Macready, Harley, 
 Farren, Vandenhoff, Warde, and Ellen Tree and having 
 promised the best national drama, both tragedy and comedy 
 proceeded to redeem those promises by putting on such 
 pieces as " The Seige of La Rochelle," and " The Jewess." 
 More and more bitter grew the actors' discontent, more 
 and more severe the press comments. The New Monthly 
 printed the following, aimed at Bunn : 
 
 The lessees' sayings and doings all tend consistently to one point 
 all tend to lower public taste, to taint public morals, to lessen public 
 amusement, to subvert the stage, to degrade the actor, to destroy 
 the very profession ; to dishonour the drama, to repress the imagina- 
 tion, to dry up the springs of human sympathy ; to make the existing 
 generation scoff, where their fathers admired and reverenced ; and 
 to render a noble and humanizing art a mere convenience for ignorant 
 pretension, licensed intrigue, and sordid speculation. 
 
 Macready's now historic assault upon Bunn had brought 
 the controversy to a climax. On April 29, that noble- 
 hearted, though irascible tragedian, exasperated beyond 
 endurance, had entered the manager's office, and " dug his 
 fist " 2 well into the offender. Bunn had brought an action, 
 in which Macready, deeply repentant and the object of 
 much popular sympathy had allowed judgment to go by 
 default. 3 That incident, long remembered, somewhat cleared 
 the air. 
 
 It was to such subjects of London theatrical gossip that 
 Mrs. Stirling returned from the provinces, for the reopening 
 of the Adelphi, on September 29. With C. Pope, from 
 
 1 September 4, 1836. 
 
 2 June 8, 1836. The last straw was Bunn's intimation to Macready 
 that he had announced " Richard III " without the last act. Bunn knew 
 that it was Macready's best act, and Macready knew that he knew. 
 
 3 Macready'' s Diary, ii. 22. 
 
40 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Leamington, she was engaged to supply the places of Mrs. 
 Honey and Mrs. Keeley other members of the company 
 being Mrs. Yates, John Reeve, Buckstone and Hemming. 
 She did little, at first, but I have noted an appearance in 
 " The Doom of Marana," an adaptation of Dumas's " La 
 Chute d'une Ange " then in great repute among Parisians 
 wherein O. Smith enacted " The Spirit of Evil," a line of 
 business in which he had no rival. When the young actress's 
 opportunity did come, it was accompanied by one of those 
 stage misadventures so frequent during Yates 's management 
 of the Adelphi. 
 
 The play was " Rosine, or am I a Princess ? " All 
 went smoothly, until it became apparent that the representa- 
 tive of the Marquis of Gottenburg, incapable of repeating 
 what the author had set down for him, was substituting 
 his own improvisations, described by The Times critic as 
 " balderdash and slang." These impromptus, of course, 
 paralysed the other performers, and were so much resented 
 by the audience that manager Yates had to come forward, 
 with a promise that the part should be " word-perfect on the 
 morrow." 
 
 Drunkenness, in those days, was much too common among 
 actors. John Coleman, in his memoir of Phelps, 1 has told 
 us how often the tragedian would deplore the evil. 
 
 Many a man of ability went headlong to the devil, thinking it a sign 
 of genius to follow the pernicious example of Cooke and Kean, who 
 not only ruined their own lives but the lives of many others. 
 
 Such incidents, however, disconcerting though they be 
 at the moment, can be turned to account by those who 
 are wise enough to make use of them. They inculcate 
 self-possession and restraint, and foster an unconquerable 
 determination to succeed, in spite of difficulties and draw- 
 backs. In Paris, not long since, Etienne Bourdelle, the 
 sculptor, said to the writer : " Pour Part de demain il nous 
 faudra de longues initiations." This is true, not of his 
 great art alone, but of all art. The battle against drunken- 
 ness was a part of those initiations. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's own initiatory experiences multiplied 
 
 1 Phelps* Memoirs, p. 79. 
 
PROVINCES AND THE ADELPHI 41 
 
 fast. Her next was " A Flight to America," a title which, 
 in these days, has a modern ring, though there was nothing 
 particularly novel about the entertainment, described on 
 the play-bills as " a new musical, characteristic olla-podrical 
 extravaganza." It had been written by Leman Rede, for 
 the purpose of introducing, or rather of " booming," Rice, 
 the original " Jim Crow " hie niger est 
 
 They may talk about philosophy 
 
 But I'm prepared to show 
 'Tis all comprised in wheel about 
 
 And jump Jim Crow. 
 
 Turn about and wheel about, and dance jus.t so ; 
 Turn about and wheel about, and jump Jim Crow. 
 
 This catchy jingle, by Buckstone, took the fancy of the 
 town, and was heard everywhere ; for Crow's performance 
 was very clever, of its kind. " The shuffling gait, the 
 strange whistle, the more strange laugh could never have 
 been invented by Mr. Rice." 1 
 
 As for Mrs. Stirling, putting aside what dawning aspiration 
 she may have had towards higher class work, she blacked 
 her pretty face, made love to, and was courted by, " Jim 
 Crow," danced, sang negro and patter songs, in the then 
 equivalent for rag-time, and did all these things with a 
 spirit and vivacity that won much admiration, and kept 
 the house in a roar of laughter from beginning to end. 
 "Sally Snow," in fact, was one of Mrs. Stirling's early hits. 
 
 Her personation is inimitable, and we doubt if there be any actress 
 now in London who can furnish so original a portrait of the negro 
 character. 
 
 Stirling Coyne, afterwards Secretary to the Dramatic 
 Authors Society, was then writing a farce, " Humours of an 
 Election," which was produced at the Adelphi on January 9, 
 1837, when John Reeve imitated O'Connor very badly, 
 and Mrs. Stirling, in the part of " Lucy Contest," gave early 
 indication of her chief dramatic fault that grew as years 
 went by namely, a tendency to exaggeration. 
 
 1 Examiner, November 20, 1836. 
 
42 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 This actress [wrote a contemporary critic] is a lady of considerable 
 talent, who takes great pains with her parts, but she is at times 
 rather given to over-act, and we think if she played the country girl 
 in a style rather more subdued, it would be to the advantage of the 
 character. 
 
 A month later she played once more with Rice, in " The 
 Peacock and the Crow," by Parry, a piece that was thoroughly 
 hissed, and was noteworthy only for the fact, that one of 
 her stage companions was the eccentric Tate Wilkinson, 
 author of those rambling, discursive memoirs, that, loosely 
 written though they be, throw much light upon stage con- 
 ditions of the day. 
 
 February brought to the young actress some " comic 
 business " in a spectacle " Hussan Pacha " ; and, with 
 " Lady Randolph " in " Douglas " a poor burlesque by 
 Leman Rede, in which she " wept and watered her geraniums 
 with all the lackadaisical dignity of an approved heroine of 
 romance " Mrs. Stirling's engagement at the Adelphi 
 came to an end. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 NEW STRAND AND ST. JAMES'S 
 
 1837-38 
 
 First appearances at the New Strand Her versatility discovered Parts 
 written to exploit it Engaged by Braham at St. James's Over- 
 coming authors' deficiencies " Angeline " and " "Tis She" A stage 
 dilemma Bad plays and dull audiences Goes to Garrick Theatre, 
 Whitechapel Crisis in her career Sympathetic press criticism 
 Mrs. Stirling withdraws from the stage Condition of the theatre 
 in London Mrs. Stirling " Gladstone's first love " Knowles and 
 Bulwer Macready at Covent Garden The " Bunn House " 
 Plight of Drury Lane Mme. Vestris takes Covent Garden 
 Beginnings of drawing-room comedy Incompetent authors and 
 players The Penny Theatre and the Saloon. 
 
 MRS. STIRLING'S work at the Adelphi had been restricted, in 
 general, to parts that rose little above low comedy or the 
 crudest melodrama. During the remainder of 1837 she 
 was to reveal to the public, to the critics, and perhaps to 
 herself, a greater versatility, and a capacity to advance in her 
 profession. 
 
 The character x in which she made her first appearance 
 at the New Strand gave her small opportunity, except to 
 show animation in a quarrel scene ; but the role that followed 
 " Mrs. Mountjoy " in " The Golden Calf," another play by 
 the prolific Jerrold marks a stage, as being one of the 
 first performances in which she blended skilfully humour 
 with pathos. 2 Mrs. Stirling came out of the ordeal with 
 much credit ; the breadth of her talent gained recognition, 
 and her manager begins at once to produce plays written 
 with the sole object of exploiting her cleverness. 
 
 " Batchelor's Buttons," for instance the farce which 
 terminated, for that year, her engagement at the New Strand 
 was specially written, by her husband, to enable her to 
 
 1 " Fanny Flittermouse " in " The Gallantie Showman," by Douglas 
 Jerrold, March 27, 1837. 
 
 8 Sunday Times, April 30, 1837. 
 
44 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 show her versatility. In it she disported herself as a romping 
 school-girl, a jockey, a sportsman, and a chattering maid- 
 of-all-work. As the " sport " " all blood and no bone " 
 she threw into the part, according to the Idler, a sprightliness 
 and a " je ne-sais-quoi," original as it was delightful. Con- 
 cerning her two previous performances the same critic had 
 let himself go. 
 
 The acting of Mrs. Stirling throughout this piece is perfection. Her 
 by-play too is admirable; she never lets a single point escape her 
 observation. In the popular burletta of " Venus in Arms" she shines 
 with, if possible, greater lustre. What a handsome officer she makes ! 
 how genteel her bearing! how amiable her little failings! how en- 
 chanting the symmetry of her person. 
 
 Here evidently was an ingenuous critic hard hit ! 
 
 Her willingness, at twenty-four years old, already, on 
 occasion, outran her physical strength. The summer found 
 her severely ill, though by August she was well enough 
 for Braham l to engage her for the comedy lead at the St. 
 James's, where she made her first appearance, on Septem- 
 ber 29, as " Amelia," in " The Young Widow." This was 
 followed, in October I am omitting minor performances 
 by " H16ise de Mirancourt," in " Natural Magic," an immoral 
 and incongruous production, written solely for the purpose 
 of allowing Mrs. Stirling to appear first as an old countess, 
 and then as an artless girl of eighteen. Only her spirited 
 acting saved the piece from utter damnation on the first 
 night. The curtain fell amid mingled hisses and applause, 
 and The Times critic, on the following day, complained that 
 Mrs. Stirling, in her effort to get contrast, had overdone her 
 part, and, as the old woman, had " faltered and croaked 
 to a most unpleasant degree." 
 
 " The Miller's Maid " pointed again to her gradual transi- 
 tion from the romps, hoydens, and pert waiting-maids 
 
 1 Braham had made his first London appearance at the Royalty in 
 1787, with a song, "The Tired Soldier." He played in almost every town 
 in England, and many abroad, and was generally held to be the best 
 tenor singer, and the worst actor, in Europe. Time, as it impaired his 
 voice, improved his acting. In a cathedral he was always magnificent ; 
 on the stage could occasionally be so. His voice full tenor, with light 
 baritone quality in lower tones was of extraordinary compass, power, 
 flexibility, and sweetness. 
 
NEW STRAND AND ST. JAMES'S 45 
 
 of burletta, to genuine domestic drama ; and " Angeline " x 
 though in itself nothing at all, instanced her growing power 
 to overcome an author's deficiencies, and to win a minor 
 triumph of personality. One writer, at least, saw in her 
 performance " hope that with a little practice she will become 
 as successful in delineating pathos and deep feeling, as she 
 now is eminent in the gayer walks of farce and comedy." 2 
 The Times 8 wrote as follows : 
 
 A very meagre little burletta last night met with great success, 
 on account of the excellent acting of Mrs. Stirling. Plot there was 
 none ; incident there was none ; in the dialogue there was nothing ; 
 and yet by the mere telling of a pathetic tale, and on the whole by 
 very judicious performance, Mrs. Stirling contrived to render the 
 piece interesting. We have never seen this lady to such advantage ; 
 in comic parts she is often unpleasantly vivacious, and bordering on 
 caricature ; her forte is evidently the domestic serious. 
 
 These successes, backed by his leading lady's willingness, 
 apparently led Braham to suppose that she could do any- 
 thing ; for he now proceeds to cast her as an Italian brigand, 
 in the name part of " Pascal Bruno," a melodrama from 
 Hook's version of Dumas. Why the role of a weather- 
 hardened hero, who makes the rock his bed, and the sky 
 his counterpane the sort of thing that Wallack could then 
 have done to perfection was entrusted to a pretty and 
 fragile young woman of twenty-four, only Braham himself 
 knew. The result, of course, was complete failure. " Mrs. 
 Stirling looked like a toy brigand, and the fighting scene 
 was laughably absurd." 4 
 
 This was bad enough ; but worse was to come. On 
 February 6, 1838, the unhappy lady was induced to play 
 the lead in another miserable farrago of rubbish, " 'Tis 
 She, or Maid, Wife, and Widow," in which Wright, the 
 low comedian, gave an offensive imitation of Meadows, 
 and rendered himself merely ridiculous. According to one 
 critic, the only commendable incident in the play was the 
 
 1 November 27, 1837. The part turned upon the sorrows of a French 
 girl, whose lover, supposed dead in battle, returns just in time to save her. 
 8 Sunday Times, December 3, 1837. 
 
 3 November 28, 1837. 
 
 4 Sunday Times, December 31, 1837. 
 
46 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 swiftness with which Mrs. Stirling changed her dresses ; 
 but this need for haste nearly brought about a fiasco on 
 the first night, when " She," after appearing as the maid, 
 went straight into widow's weeds, and got her cue for " Wife " 
 before the mistake was discovered. Here was a dilemma 
 indeed ! but Webster proved equal to the occasion. He 
 walked straight on, and while the hustled heroine was 
 transferring herself back to the married state, tackled the 
 only other occupant of the stage one Gardener, who was 
 playing a waiter and held him in an improvised humorous 
 conversation, so cleverly done that, when Mrs. Stirling, 
 at last, came on, in wifely costume, two -thirds of the audience 
 were unaware that there had been any departure from the 
 book. It was a fine example of what experience and self- 
 possession can do upon the stage. 
 
 St. James's Theatre, in this year of grace, 1838, had 
 acquired a reputation, well deserved, for producing dramas 
 destitute of plot, character, or dialogue, of which " 'Tis 
 She " was the most flagrant example. We may be certain, 
 therefore, that, despite the encouragement afforded to her 
 by the Examiner l " Mrs. Stirling actually wakes up the 
 dullest of all dull audiences that nightly assemble here 2 
 a feat that we had considered a moral impossibility " 
 the young actress must often have returned at night to 
 her house in the Adelphi, 3 thoroughly dissatisfied, and in 
 grievous doubt as to what her future course should be. 
 Neither stage career, nor home life, was fulfilling her 
 heart's desire. 
 
 This uncertainty in her own mind, as to her true 
 bent, was reflected in the press. The Sunday Times, 
 for example, reviewing the St. James's company, wrote of 
 its leading lady: 
 
 Her forte appears to be in serious drama, for which her person is 
 admirably adapted ; her versatility is great, and she is too good an 
 actress to fail in anything. Her fault is to do too much, a fault she 
 should amend speedily, for it is one likely to grow upon her. 
 
 1 November 27, 1837. 
 
 2 On February 16, 1838, the Duke of Cambridge saw her in "The 
 Black Domino," and expressed himself as highly delighted. 
 
 9 She was then living at No. 13 John Street, Adelphi. 
 
NEW STRAND AND ST. JAMES'S 47 
 
 During that same month, March 1838, she left the St. 
 James's and played for a few weeks mostly in revivals 
 at the Garrick Theatre, Leman Street, Whitechapel, acting 
 " 'Tis She," for her own benefit, on March 20, when O. Smith, 
 Hammond, and other popular favourites appeared for 
 her. This short season was no great success, for the Garrick 
 had fallen upon evil days, being unable to withstand the 
 competition of two other rival houses, the Pavilion, and the 
 " City," or " Norton Folgate." Her fortunes were going 
 from bad to worse. 
 
 That Mrs. Stirling, at this period of her life, first doubted 
 her wisdom in seeking a stage career, seems very probable. 
 Not that she considered herself a complete failure. Her 
 difficulties, rather, were begotten of disillusionment, un- 
 certainty of direction, and the uncontrolled impulses of her 
 own character. Well intentioned, but without knowledge 
 of the world, with more intolerance than patience in her 
 disposition, and possessing no wise counsellor to whom 
 she might turn for guidance, every circumstance, in those 
 days, seemed to be conspiring to thwart her. Her very 
 enthusiasm, her intense desire to please, even the extra- 
 ordinary versatility, that swung her always between tragedy 
 and comedy all these virtues the untowardness of the 
 time made vices. In common with the futility of her stage- 
 work, in those days, they clouded her judgment, and obscured 
 the goal at which she must aim. 
 
 Several contemporary writers are sympathetically con- 
 scious of the situation. In Actors by Daylight, 1 for example, 
 we read : 
 
 As an actress, we fear, she now stands in a dangerous position. 
 It is her infirmity to possess an overflow of animal spirits, and a great 
 tendency to over-act every part entrusted to her care, caused by her 
 own desire to please. She should strive to dispossess herself of this, 
 for, if persisted in, it may prove fatal to her reputation. Her serious 
 and comic capabilities are so nicely balanced that we cannot ascribe 
 a vast superiority to either. Were she to turn her attention to the 
 legitimate comedy, she would, in our opinion, acquire a chaster and 
 more natural style, which would render her the most entertaining 
 actress on the stage. At present she is content to enjoy a transitory 
 fame that will leave no trace to tell that such an actress ever lived. 
 
 1 March 24, 1838. 
 
48 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 On the other hand, in " Rosalind," " Violente," and other parts she 
 would have no equal, and at the same time increase her income, and 
 pass her name to posterity with those of Clive, Gibbs, Jordan, etc. 
 
 Those words contain the truth of the matter : their 
 advice was sound ; and they voice again the same danger 
 that the Editor of the Dramatic Magazine had warned her 
 against, in June of the year before. 
 
 As an actress Mrs. Stirling is at all times pleasing and vivacious, 
 and would, by a rigid schooling, and the temperate exercise of the 
 intellect she possesses, achieve a steady course, half-way between 
 a Jordan and an Orger, without the danger of falling either into Scylla 
 or Charybdis. Her greatest faults are impatience, and an over- 
 anxiety to please her audience, by which she falls sometimes short 
 of grace, and sometimes of ideality. These errors have occasionally 
 placed her in a wrong position with an injudicious auditory, who 
 have attributed them to coarseness, or a want of refinement. Such, 
 however, is not the case, as in her disposition and ordinary pursuits 
 she is directly the reverse of both. Hitherto her best performances 
 have been " Victorine " and " Grace Huntley " in the serious ; " The 
 Georgian" in "The Arab's Leap"; "The Petticoat Colonel," and 
 " Sally Snow " in " The Flight to America." 
 
 Whether these criticisms met her eye, and influenced her 
 decision, I do not know. Probably they did ; and the 
 sequel is that in the Sunday Times, of June 24, appeared 
 an announcement to the effect that "Mr. Edward Stirling, 
 the actress's husband, having, it is said, procured a govern- 
 ment situation, has withdrawn her altogether from the public 
 stage." l So she vanishes for a time from the public gaze, 
 but not from the hearts of many who had seen her. It 
 was to this period that W. E. Gladstone 2 referred when 
 in 1884 while lunching with Miss Mary Anderson during 
 the run of " Romeo and Juliet " at the Lyceum, he said 
 to her : " You will be seeing Fanny Stirling to-night. 
 Please tell her from me that she was my first love. No 
 harm to tell her so now." 
 
 There, in temporary retirement, we will leave her, while 
 
 1 The couple separated, I think, about this time. They remained for 
 years on terms more or less friendly ; but they lived together no more. 
 
 * W. E. Gladstone, born December 29, 1809, was then nearly thirty. 
 He married in 1839. 
 
NEW STRAND AND ST. JAMES'S 49 
 
 we glance again, for a moment, at the general condition 
 of affairs theatrical in London. 
 
 These were not particularly exhilarating. Of the men 
 then writing for the stage, two Sheridan Knowles and 
 Edward Bulwer stood high above all others, with Knowles 
 easily first. His more flexible, franker, and heartier style, 
 his warmth and generosity of manner, both in light and 
 serious work, gave him an immense advantage over his 
 rival, who was altogether of the classic school in his stiff, 
 pompous, and cold artificiality. Both men were now at 
 the height of their performance. Knowles, some eighteen 
 months before, had produced, at the Haymarket, with 
 great success, his clever comedy, " The Love Chase," in 
 which Mrs. Glover and Mrs. Nisbett, the two foremost 
 comediennes of the day, had played " The Widow " and 
 " Constance." On February 24, 1838, the name of Edward 
 Lytton Bulwer was first announced, in the Covent Garden 
 play-bills, as the author of " The Lady of Lyons " Macready, 
 then managing Covent Garden, being the first representative 
 of "Claude Melnotte," "The Adventurer," 1 classed by 
 Hollingshead with the same author's "Evelyn" in 
 " Money " as the two champion cads of dramatic literature, 
 which, on the whole, they were not. 
 
 Macready, nevertheless, was doing good work at Covent 
 Garden, by encouraging the best playwrights we had, and by 
 reviving and re-establishing our national drama . The abolition 
 of claques, the issue of truthful play-bills, and insistence 
 upon other much-needed reforms, were all acts of good ex- 
 ample to managers in general, and to his old opponent, Bunn, 
 in particular, under whose direction the other patent theatre, 
 Drury Lane, was drifting fast on to the rocks. Learning 
 nothing from Macready's successes, nor from his own failures, 
 he continued to anger the more honest section of the public 
 by putting on rubbish, and by printing lying puffs concerning 
 unworthy shows. 
 
 More and more savage became the comments of the 
 press. The Examiner had written : 2 
 
 1 Bulwer suggested this title, but Macready would not have it. 
 Macready's Diary, ii. 101, 102. 
 8 November 27, 1837. 
 
50 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 " The wonder of wonders turned out to be a gross cheat 
 Si fraud too miserable and disgusting to escape exposure, 
 even in the ' Bunn House.' " The Sunday Times took to 
 writing of the national theatre as the " National Nuisance." 
 Drury Lane, in fact, was fast becoming a mere shilling show, 
 and haunt of the riff-raff a joke, when it was not a scandal. 
 The value of the shares had dropped almost to nothing, 
 when, on April 25, 1839, that master of magniloquent and 
 florid rhetoric, the famous auctioneer, George Robins, offered 
 for sale three lots, each consisting of five 100 shares in 
 the theatre, and a life-admission, which latter, as Robins 
 remarked, with unintentional irony, " could be appro- 
 priated to a child." 
 
 The first lot was knocked down " to a family-looking 
 gentleman," for thirty-five guineas ; the other two went 
 for thirty guineas each. At a meeting of the Drury Lane 
 shareholders, held on July 24, it was announced that 
 the debts were 17,706, and the amounts on the credit 
 side, to meet them, 17,704, of which 5,000 were due from 
 a Captain Polhill, and 12,999 from Mr. Bunn. That sum, 
 we suppose, was not forthcoming, and Bunn, unlamented, 
 soon after left Drury Lane, to undertake the mismanage- 
 ment of St. James's ! 
 
 On July 16, 1839, Macready terminated his season at 
 Covent Garden, amid volleys of applause, that, with the 
 exception of John Kemble's farewell, and Kean's return 
 from America, had not been equalled, for spontaneity and 
 enthusiasm, within the memory of living man. 1 The 
 theatre was at once transferred to Mme. Vestris (Mrs. 
 Charles Mathews), who, with her husband, had been for 
 some years at the Olympic. This change to Covent Garden 
 soon brought financial disaster upon them both. 
 
 These few notes, concerning the fortunes of the two 
 principal houses at this time, will give some idea of the 
 chaotic state of affairs at the top. In the middle among 
 
 1 " When I had changed my dress I went before the curtain, and amidst 
 shoutings and wavings of hats and handkerchiefs by the whole audience 
 standing up, the stage was literally covered with wreaths, bouquets, and 
 bunches of laurel." Macready's Diary, ii. 147. 
 
 " A hundred garlands were whirled at his feet." Sunday Times, July 21, 
 1839. 
 
NEW STRAND AND ST. JAMES'S 51 
 
 what had been called, hitherto, " the minor theatres " 
 things were not very much better. Managers were every- 
 where feeling their way, and only at the Olympic, perhaps, 
 had a distinct advance been made. There Charles Mathews, 
 a newcomer, hampered by no respect at all, either for 
 dramatic conventions or for theatrical tradition, had begun 
 to create a new form of comedy as Planche describes it 
 which, in some sort, held the mirror up to a nature that 
 came between "the utter inanity of the walking gentleman, 
 and the artificial exuberance of the first light comedian." 
 There, too, under Mme. Vestris, had been introduced 
 another reform, that soon was to spread to many theatres. 
 Stage drawing-rooms were realistically fitted up, to resemble 
 what they purported to be. 
 
 Realistic settings have never, we suppose, wrought 
 much good to the drama ; but this small beginning of a truer 
 realism is worth noting, because it helped to make possible, 
 and so, in measure, led up to, the beginning of drawing-room 
 comedy, as we understand it to-day. By the help of such 
 primitive aids, we reached the cup-and-saucer drama, of 
 the Robertson kind, and, through that, the fully developed 
 comedy of the eighties and after. 
 
 In the main, however, the stage of the later thirties 
 remained radically crude and superficial. Charlatans, both 
 literary and histrionic, obtained a hearing not easily 
 accounted for, except on the admission that the average 
 manager of the day did not know his business. The con- 
 temporary press gives some amusing examples of strange 
 happenings. At the Haymarket, in December 1837, was 
 produced a domestic drama, by one Frederic Lawrence, con- 
 cerning which the Examiner 1 comments : 
 
 It caused roars of laughter and great amusement, though not 
 the sort of amusement the author had in mind if he had such a thing 
 as a mind about him, which we rather doubt. Of all the insults ever 
 offered to the understanding of an audience, this is the greatest. The 
 production of such wretched, despicable trash is disgraceful to Mr. 
 Webster, and most unworthy treatment of the clever actors and 
 actresses who are compelled to utter the mawkish absurdities set 
 
 1 Examiner, December 17, 1837. John Forster had been appointed 
 chief critic of the Examiner in 1833. He was its editor from 1847 until 
 the end of 1855, or early 1856. 
 
52 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 down for them. " What's in a name ? " observes Mr. Frederic Law- 
 rence indignantly. " Everything. Nothing can be done without 
 one." We know one, at all events, by which nothing will ever be 
 done, and that is the name of Mr. Frederic Lawrence. 
 
 There were also aspiring actors about, who could match 
 even the authors in incompetence. At Drury Lane, on 
 December 2, 1838, was given a performance of " Romeo and 
 Juliet," which, of its kind, has never been repeated upon 
 the London stage. The Examiner, this time, is too mirthful 
 to storm. 
 
 We can no more find it in our heart to be angry with Maddocks 
 (the " Romeo ") than could his audience of Tuesday. Perhaps there 
 never was such an assemblage of merry faces as that which greeted 
 his performance. It was Hogarth's laughing party realized. The 
 house was in a roar. A party of fat gentlemen in the pit cried out 
 repeatedly that it was too much, and one the fattest among them 
 implored that Maddocks might be taken away, as he would be the 
 death of him. But the play went on, and boxes, pit, and galleries 
 enjoyed it as one man. . . . None but Maddocks can be Maddocks' 
 parallel. 
 
 Violent as were the contrasts then in the upper realms 
 of the drama, the conditions of its under- world were equally 
 strange and unstable. Everywhere to-day we hear com- 
 plaints of the cinemas, and of their evil influence upon the 
 morals of children. The cinema of 1838 was the "Penny 
 Theatre " an unlicensed house, largely supported by 
 children of the poorer classes, who commonly obtained 
 the necessary coppers by filching, and selling, objects from 
 the neighbouring shops. Loud rose the clamour of Poplar 
 tradesmen against the proprietors of that " dilapidated 
 barn" the local play-house who, to the gross encourage- 
 ment of petty larceny, were presenting " The Bravo's Bow," 
 or " The Midnight Meeting." 
 
 A certain Kingsland Road gaff offered its patrons 
 " Macbeth," acted through in twenty minutes provided that 
 a raid by the police, at the instigation of the patent theatres, 
 did not bring about an even swifter conclusion. Rat cliff e 
 Highway possessed, by way of play-house, " a deplorable 
 underground hole " ; and Clare Market had another such ; 
 though the largest of them all was in Newton Street, 
 
NEW STRAND AND ST. JAMES'S 53 
 
 Holborn, where business was carried on almost as at a licensed 
 theatre. Tickets could be purchased at the neighbouring 
 shops, and three or four performances nightly gave you a 
 choice between " Rosina," "The Nabob," or "Mabel's 
 Curse," to which, being adult, you might bring your pipe, 
 and a hot potato, to warm you at the Muses' feet. Quite 
 recently, delving into the archives of Messrs. Strahan, of 
 New Cut, I discovered play-bills of " Exhibition Rooms " 
 as this Newton Street house was named dated September 
 1839 (probably), and offering, as piece de resistance, 
 "Selections from a Work entitled, 'The Wild Women of 
 Alsace,' to be followed by 4 The Murderer's Haunt.' " 
 
 Yet even these gaffs had their uses. Beneath their 
 ugliness lies hid the beauty of a great art. The toad is 
 jewel-mouthed. Within such dens, be it remembered, famous 
 players, like Toole and Robson, first acquired their love 
 for the stage. 
 
 One degree only above the gaffs were the " saloons," 
 otherwise the " long rooms " of ancient Elizabethan taverns, 
 now glorified in name, and provided with a stage and scenery. 
 They flourished exceedingly during the thirties, and endured 
 until the Theatres Act, before mentioned, compelled a 
 radical change. 
 
 Such, in brief, was theatrical London, now about to 
 welcome Mrs. Stirling back once more to its boards. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 LYCEUM, DRURY LANE, AND OLYMPIC 
 
 1839-40 
 
 Mrs. Stirling returns to the stage " Lady Mary Montagu " at the Lyceum 
 Recites a prologue Penley's failure She goes to Hammond at 
 Drury Lane Contemporary pen-pictures of Mrs. Stirling Appear- 
 ance and Character First appearance at Drury Lane, as " Beatrice " 
 Her failure in the part Hammond's deficiencies as manager 
 "Woman's Trials" " Cupid's Diplomacy " Takes up Mrs. Glover's 
 part in " The Ladies' Club " Mrs. Glover Mrs. Stirling her 
 legitimate successor. 
 
 RETIREMENT at twenty-six from an alluring profession, for 
 which one has unusual aptitudes, to a discordant home life, 
 is a change not likely to be permanent. In Mrs. Stirling's 
 case it lasted until the following spring, when she thought 
 better of her too precipitate decision, and, on April 1, 1839, 
 returned to the West End, there to take a prominent part 
 in the reopening of the Lyceum hitherto known as The 
 English Opera House under Penley's management. 
 
 The play itself " Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, or 
 Courtship and Matrimony in 1712 " is of little account ; 
 but the occasion is interesting, as being one of the earliest 
 instances in which Mrs. Stirling exercised another of her 
 many talents that of reciter. 
 
 There exists, I believe, a stage tradition to the effect 
 that a good reader and reciter is usually a poor actor. Be 
 that as it may, 'tis certain that many modern players, of 
 both sexes, are ineffective speakers, especially of verse. 
 Mrs. Stirling, however, possessed both gifts, as managers 
 were already discovering. On this occasion we find her 
 speaking, before the curtain, " with much taste and spirit," 
 a rhymed prologue, from which for the light it throws 
 upon her retirement, and upon stage methods of her day, 
 rather than for intrinsic merit I give some extracts here. 
 
 54 
 
LYCEUM, DRURY LANE, AND OLYMPIC 55 
 
 The first of April, well ; how very queer, 
 Of all the days throughout the running year 
 Our new lessee upon that one should fix, 
 Which law and custom set aside for tricks. 
 
 There follow more lines respecting the lessee, and recent 
 provincial experiences of members of the company, most 
 of whom were now venturing for the first time upon the 
 metropolis. The rhymer continues : 
 
 Besides, he's got, to meet theatric strife, 
 
 A London pilot, aided by his wife ; 
 
 It might be better too for all your houses, 
 
 If wives could still be managed by their spouses. 
 
 Perhaps, good folks, you'll deem it strange that one 
 
 Who late proclaimed her drama days were done, 
 
 In mimic scene again should court the praise 
 
 Which formed her best delight of other days ; 
 
 Let women's folly, madness, or caprice, 
 
 Rise to your minds and bid your wonder cease ; 
 
 And never for one moment deem it strange 
 
 That woman claims her privilege to change. 
 
 For my return, if you should ask the cause, 
 
 O ! 'twas my yearning for your kind applause ; 
 
 For still I own, with gratitude and pleasure, 
 
 Your " handy-work " produced my greatest treasure. 
 
 So much for self ; and now for our lessee. 
 
 On you he trusts ; " to be or not to be," 
 
 To-night no foreign singers strain their throats, 
 
 And change for English gold their foreign notes ; 
 
 To blushing belles and to applauding beaux 
 
 No foreign dancers here their legs expose, 
 
 And they with pas and pirouette can make 
 
 At least a guinea every step they take. 
 
 No ponderous giant lengthens out our play 
 
 No dwarfish fly on ceiling wends his way ; 
 
 No prodigies our nightly bills declare ; 
 
 No classic Crow, nor e'en a Bayadere. 
 
 No monkies chatter, and do all they can 
 
 To show how very like they are to man ; 
 
 Yet without brutes in our dramatic corps, 
 
 We hope t' indulge the audience with a roar ; 
 
 Not that of lions which a dread imparts, 
 
 But roars of laughter coming from your hearts ; 
 
 We trust you'll find our English flag unfurling, 
 
 Our pieces current, and our actors sterling. 1 
 
 1 The Bill of Astley's Royal Amphitheatre, for that night, comprised 
 "The Victories of Edward the Black Prince, or The Battle Field," to 
 
56 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 The adventures of " Lady Mary " as a foot-pad, holding 
 up her sexagenarian follower upon Hounslow Heath, though 
 carried off with much spirit, are not worth dwelling upon 
 to-day. The interest is in the sequel, affording further 
 evidence of the unscrupulousness of managers of the day, 
 and the levity, or heartlessness, with which some of them 
 would treat players in their employ. 
 
 This case of the Lyceum, under Penley, was an example. 
 London was then, as it is to-day, the goal of every pro- 
 vincial actor. He looked to opportunity in the capital, as 
 his chief hope of high attainment in the profession. Penley, 
 a provincial manager of experience and good repute, had 
 induced a number of actors and actresses among whom 
 were Addison and Creswick to throw up lucrative engage- 
 ments at Glasgow, Newcastle, Bath, and other provincial 
 towns, and to accompany him to the Lyceum. They would 
 naturally suppose that he had brought with him the where- 
 withal to tide his company over any initial failure. In 
 fact, he was merely gambling upon the chance of success. 
 After eleven nights' performance five nights' salary only 
 were paid, and the manager was reduced to the expedient 
 of throwing the stage open to the audience at the end of 
 the second piece, and giving a concert a la Musard. Much 
 distress resulted to the players, who, with the one exception 
 of the leading lady, were unknown in London, and whose 
 provincial posts were already filled. 
 
 For Mrs. Stirling it was a disappointing return to public 
 work ; and one is not surprised that she seems to have done 
 little during the following summer. In the autumn, however, 
 came a better engagement. She was induced by W. J. 
 Hammond, late manager of the Strand, to follow him to 
 Drury Lane, now vacated by Bunn. 1 Before accompanying 
 her there, let us see how the young actress, now in 
 
 be followed by Mr. Van Amburgh in his extraordinary performance with 
 the new trained lions and other animals. In the circle M. Baptiste 
 Loisset's celebrated Equestrian Company of French and German riders. 
 
 At St. James's the bill included " Schreyer's celebrated troupe of 
 monkeys, dogs, etc.," concerning which the Examiner wrote : " Our only 
 desire throughout is to see the exhibitor and the monkeys change places. 
 We think we could then enjoy the thing." 
 
 1 The writer in Tallis's Magazine states that she signed for three years, 
 iu order to get the benefits of the Pensions Fund. 
 
LYCEUM, DRURY LANE, AND OLYMPIC 57 
 
 the full bloom of matured youth, appeared to con- 
 temporary eyes. 
 
 The following passages, more familiar than dignified, 
 reveal something of her personality, and give us a glimpse 
 of the woman's character, and of her inclinations in private 
 life. They are from the Dramatic Magazine, June 1837, 
 and Actors by Daylight, March 1838, already borrowed from 
 in previous chapters. 
 
 In person Mrs. Sterling is about the middle stature, with a figure 
 approaching, from the waist upward, to harmony and fair proportion. 
 Her foot and ankle were fabricated for a larger structure, and do 
 not exactly assimilate with other adjacent beauties. Her teeth are 
 white and regular, and are set within two ruby lips, that even an 
 anchorite might sigh to hear confessions from. Her eyes are small 
 and dark, but vivid in their expression, and sweetly penetrating in 
 their glances. She seldom looks you in the face, but when she does 
 
 You have't, and soundly too 
 Peppered I warrant me. 
 
 And not alone upon the stage, but at home, and in the boudoir, she 
 can direct the full power of their orbits with an accuracy of aim which 
 seldom fails to hit the right centre. Her disposition is sociable, and 
 her manners unaffected and amiable ; extremely recherche in her 
 pursuits, touches the guitar, and fingers the piano ; is fond of pets, 
 sofa-tables, scrap-books and flowers : indeed her passion for the 
 latter is so inordinate, that if she ever, for a moment, could entertain 
 a liaison, it would be either with a member of the Botanical Garden 
 at Chelsea, or the Compiler of the Flora Britannica. Chimney orna- 
 ments, vases, crockery-bars, and utensils are made subservient to 
 woodbines, jessamine, myrtle, rose-buds, gilly flowers, " heart's-ease," 
 auriculas, " love-lies-bleeding," and " London pride.'* And should there 
 be a scarcity of ordinary vessels to meet her supply, sauce-boats, 
 gravy-tureen, and vegetable dish must, in their turn, succumb to 
 her darling recreation. In reference to her earliest admirers, alluded 
 to in our former number, we might descant upon many an anonymous 
 billet-doux and love sonnet, which she still has the courtesy to treasure 
 in the sealed leaves of her album. 
 
 Georgics and rural lays from swains unknown, 
 Lyrics from lords and cavaliers unblest ; 
 But all unheeded as the roll of time, 
 Or chaff upon the waters. 
 
 The writer in Actors by Daylight echoes the same facts, in 
 the same journalistic style. 
 
58 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 In her domestic circle she is no less celebrated, for she has many 
 pets besides her husband indeed, it has now become fashionable 
 for ladies to patronize either a dog, cat, parrot, or such-like ; she 
 is an admirable musician, and plays delightfully upon the piano, 
 etc. ; is very fond of flowers, seldom scolds, and is altogether a partner 
 of sterling worth. 
 
 For an actress so immature as Mrs. Stirling still was to 
 make her first appearance at Drury Lane, 1 in such apart 
 as " Beatrice," was no light task. " Beatrice " touches life 
 at many points. Born though she be under a merry star 
 a wit, a tease, a hoyden and a romp she is yet withal a 
 matured woman, living throughout the climax of the play 
 in a " Much Ado," which, though " About Nothing," was 
 real to her in the soul's agony of " Hero," and in the stirrings 
 of her own new-born love. Though she never touches 
 tragedy, she comes within hail of it in the words, " Kill, 
 Claudio ! " and " O ! that I were a man, I would eat his 
 heart in the market-place ! " 
 
 The actress who shall play " Beatrice " as she should 
 be played must be more than a merry, witty, and bewitching 
 maid. She must be the full woman, knowing life, knowing 
 her world, and having at command, in addition to dignity, 
 something of that breadth of vision and innate nobility of 
 soul that every Shakespearean heroine possesses, and that, 
 lost in the interpretation, deprive the poet's words of half 
 their beauty and meaning. 
 
 Did she v then succeed ? No ! not unless " a perfect 
 uproar of applause " at the fall of the curtain proves success. 
 It does not, nor ever will. Technically, in the fuller meaning 
 of that word, she failed completely. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's "Beatrice" was a mistake, says The Times. 2 She 
 was not the creature of full animal spirits that was born under a 
 merry star, but a pert lady whose vivacity had to begin afresh at 
 each line, and who uttered every witticism with a sort of shrewish 
 snap a very pizzicato person. 
 
 It is only fair to point out, however, that her " Benedick," 
 1 October 30, 1839. * October 31, 1839. 
 
LYCEUM, DRURY LANE, AND OLYMPIC 59 
 
 Marston, appears to have been uninspiring, since, according 
 to the same critic, he 
 
 uttered his repartees with a solemnity that would have caused him 
 rather to be called the Prince's chaplain than his jester . . . his 
 performance was perfectly soulless, and with every variety of action 
 there was no life. 
 
 Yet all excuses made " Beatrice's " failure, evidently, 
 was, at bottom, her own. She had not been able altogether 
 to throw off the saucy soubrette and the singing chamber- 
 maid of Adelphi and pre-Adelphi days, nor had she yet 
 acquired the experience of life, the knowledge of her art, 
 the ease and the breadth of style necessary for the successful 
 portrayal of such a character as " Beatrice." Her tech- 
 nique, in short, was immature : and Shakespeare tests the 
 technique through and through, challenges it at every point. 
 Her time of great achievement was not yet. 1 
 
 " ' Beatrice,' had commented the Sunday Times, " is, 
 or ought to be, the study of a year at least." There the 
 writer hinted at another reason for her failure. She was 
 overworked from the start of the season. Hammond, the 
 manager, conscious that he possessed, in his leading lady, 
 a most willing actress, of quite unusual charm, energy, 
 and versatility, put part after part upon her. On Novem- 
 ber 8 she plays " Charlotte " in " The Hypocrite " ; on 
 the 10th " Sally Scraggs " in " An Englishman in India " ; 
 on the llth " Cora " in " Pizarro " ; and, while still playing 
 " Beatrice " occasionally, adds to these, at the end of the 
 month, " Ellen Marchmont " in " A Woman's Trials." 
 
 Not that Hammond was no better than a less guilty 
 Bunn. On the contrary, he was an honest and well-meaning 
 individual ; but he was too short of cash, 2 and he lacked 
 the experience, if not the ability, required for the successful 
 running of a great theatre. He had begun his career as a 
 comic singer in the " Long Room " at Bagnigge Wells ; 
 
 1 Most of the sterner critics were uncomplimentary. The Sunday 
 Times (November 10, 1839) wrote : " Mrs. Stirling exhibited great liveli- 
 ness and spirit, but she must not let the former run away with her. She 
 played ' Beatrice ' archly and with great promise, but ' Beatrice ' is, or ought 
 to be, the study of a year at least." 
 
 2 Salaries were not regularly paid, even from the beginning of the 
 season. 
 
60 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 then, after some country work, had played small parts at 
 the Haymarket, before returning to the provinces, where 
 ultimately he became a favourite. Bristol knew him, and 
 York and Liverpool, in which latter town at the Liver 
 and later at the Strand, he redeemed his fortune. 
 
 Many disappointments awaited his opening of Drury 
 Lane. Wallack, engaged to appear in a new play by Jerrold, 
 had been detained in New York by the burning of the 
 National Theatre ; promises of financial assistance were not 
 kept ; he opened at a loss of about 100 a night ; and though 
 his company, sympathizing with his misfortunes, stood by 
 him, and consented to play three or four nights only instead 
 of six, he was in a bad way. Moreover, he ran the theatre 
 without sound judgment, casting himself for parts in which 
 not having played them for years he was unpardonably 
 imperfect, putting on a new piece hastily, and without care ; 
 announcing performers who were not yet engaged, and failing 
 to announce those who were. But this was not the worst. 
 
 Mr. T. Parry brought to the theatre a drama entitled 
 "Woman's Trials," already mentioned. It was read, ap- 
 proved, announced, despite the openly expressed opinion of 
 many performers that the play, if produced, would be 
 unsuccessful. Hammond, unexperienced in the equipment 
 of serious drama, persisted, and, in the absence of the author, 
 through domestic trouble, the piece was carelessly rehearsed 
 and stage-managed both call-boy and property-man being 
 permitted to neglect their duties. 
 
 " Woman's Trials " indeed ! From the first everything 
 went wrong. The pistol with which the fair " Ellen " 
 (Mrs. Stirling) should have defended against the villain 
 her life and " chi-ild " would not go off. That child, who 
 had been shown to the audience during the first act, should 
 have been discovered at the commencement of the second. 
 Up went the curtain ; on came the distracted mother ; but 
 no child was there. The actress rushed to the wings, 
 snatched up the first youngster she could see not the 
 original one and re-rushed back again, to an accompaniment 
 of audible mirth. The third act was soundly hissed, and the 
 piece, at last, damned so thoroughly that it could not be put 
 on even for a second night. 
 
LYCEUM, DRURY LANE, AND OLYMPIC 61 
 
 Critics consoled the disconsolate heroine as best they 
 might. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is a clever, sparkling actress, possessing great ver- 
 satility, but it is too much to expect her to sustain five or six lines 
 of character effectively. She looked very beautiful, spoke very 
 sensibly, and, in the first two acts, did all that the part permitted, 
 but the sibilatory symptoms completely subdued her, and her last 
 act was exceedingly tame. 
 
 Marston, moreover, " who gave a sort of semi-imitation 
 of Charles Kemble in his latter days," made an ineffective 
 lover. " On the whole," comments the writer, " ' Beatrice,' 
 4 Sally Scraggs,' ' Mrs. Simpson ' " and, he might have 
 added, " Ellen Marchmont " " are too much at a time for 
 one lady." x 
 
 Even the " sibilatory symptoms " could not now drive 
 Mrs. Stirling again to retirement. On the contrary, early 
 in December she boldly, and successfully, took up another 
 new part, " Gabrielle de Brionne " in "A Night in the Bas- 
 tille," a which, with " Albert " in " Cupid's Diplomacy," 
 terminated her season at Drury Lane. The last-named play 
 was a dictionary translation from the French, concerning 
 Stanislaus Leckzinski, ex-King of Poland, played by Archer. 
 Mrs. Stirling attempted the youthful King of France, 
 Louis XV, who conies, disguised as a Lieutenant, to witness 
 the charms of his beloved Marie, whom he duly marries. 
 She that is he, Louis XV strutted about in a dress 
 sublimely becoming, and seems to have been sufficiently 
 male and kingly, though Mrs. Selby played up to her badly 
 by putting " too much Chartist feeling " into her princess, 
 thereby lowering the royal dignity of her lord and master. 
 
 From Drury Lane Mrs. Stirling went to the Olympic, 
 to take up Mrs. Glover's part in a witty little sketch by 
 Mark Lemon, " The Ladies' Club," first produced on Feb- 
 ruary 26, when the leading comedienne of the day played 
 44 Mrs. Fitzsmith," the chairwoman. This was a light, 
 slight entertainment, depicting the endeavour of a coterie 
 of wives neglected by their club-haunting husbands to 
 
 1 Sunday Time*, December 1, 1839. 
 
 8 " To Mrs. Stirling the author is under great obligation." The Times, 
 December 6, 1839. 
 
62 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 establish a club of their own. Its interest, to us, is that it 
 first links Mrs. Stirling, in stage history, with Mrs. Glover 
 that " soul of humour," as Macready calls her who had 
 already been playing the chairwoman with a gusto and rich 
 unction unequalled by any comedy actress of her day. Her 
 opening speech in this trifle was, it seems, a model of what 
 such a thing should be a lesson in public speaking, not 
 lost, we may be sure, upon her understudy and ultimate 
 successor, when, on March 20, Mrs. Stirling took her part 
 in that easy trifle, " The Ladies' Club." That the change 
 was for the worse we may be reasonably certain. The 
 younger woman, compared with that grand old lady of the 
 comedy stage, was, doubtless, still crude and immature. 
 She was but at the outset of a career destined to be as long, 
 though less unbroken, than that of Mrs. Glover herself. 
 The reader will note how large a space of our drama's history 
 from 1780 to 1886 ; from Sheridan to Piriero is covered 
 by these two stage lives. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, it is pleasant to record, became a great 
 personal favourite of Mrs. Glover, as she did also of that 
 other stage veteran, William Farren ; and though it was often 
 said, right up to the sixties, that the older actress had been 
 followed by no competent successor, Mrs. Stirling was always 
 pointed to, by the acuter critics, as the comedienne who 
 would step into her shoes. Thus The Players of Feb- 
 ruary 25, 1860 : 
 
 If Mrs. Stirling ever sees fit to essay the lady's (Mrs. Glover's) line, 
 the world will see that we have one (i.e. a successor) in her, and one 
 that would have satisfied the dear old lady herself. 
 
 That hope was, in a large measure, fulfilled. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 WITH MACREADY AT THE HAYMARKET 
 
 1840-41 
 
 Macready's early career His style as an actor ; personal character, and 
 methods as manager Contemporary criticisms of him Mrs. Stirling 
 joins him at the Haymarket Takes up Mrs. Nisbett's part, " Con- 
 stance " in " The Love Chase " " Sophia " in " The Road to 
 Ruin " Comment upon Holcroft's play She replaces Helen Faucit 
 as " Clara " in " Money " Miss Faucit as an actress Mrs. Stirling 
 plays " Lady Franklin " in " Money " Contemporary criticism of 
 " Money " Plays " Rachel Heywood " in " The Rent Day " 
 Douglas Jerrold Mrs. Stirling's deficiencies as a portrayer of pathos 
 Birth of a daughter. 
 
 MACREADY, under whose management, at the Haymarket, 
 Mrs. Stirling next acted, was the predominant theatrical 
 figure of the day. Coming to London, as we have seen, in 
 the autumn of 1816, he had witnessed, during the following 
 year, the proud withdrawal of John Philip Kemble a 
 retirement hastened unquestionably by Edmund Kean's 
 ever-increasing reputation and success. That great tragedian 
 at first overshadowed the younger man ; but " grim Mac's " 
 triumph as " Richard III," at Covent Garden, on October 25, 
 1819, established him as Kean's rival, while the latter's long 
 absences in America, and the infrequency of Young's appear- 
 ances, gave Macready further opportunities that he was not 
 slow to take advantage of. 
 
 Little by little the newcomer, who had first modelled 
 his style upon that of Elliston, began to imitate Kean's 
 method of making points, though he applied it to new 
 characters. 1 After Kean's premature death, the adoption, 
 or adaptation, by Macready, of his late rival's technique, in 
 certain scenes of " Macbeth," " Othello," and other roles 
 had become evident, according to Hazlitt. 2 But imitator 
 though he may have been upon occasion Macready, by 
 
 1 Sunday Times, February 11, 1840. 2 London Magazine. 
 
 03 
 
64 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 1840, had won for himself a position of unchallenged 
 supremacy upon the London stage. Never really in love 
 with his art, swayed too often by mood, and consequently 
 uneven in his performances, his standard of individual 
 achievement was, nevertheless, very high, especially in the 
 portrayal of such heroes of the then popular artificial 
 melodrama, as " Werner," or " Virginius." His Shake- 
 spearean impersonations 1 were not generally considered to 
 be upon the same level of excellence ; but, in all parts that 
 afforded him opportunity, he could and did give exhibitions 
 of passion, and of power, that would thrill and electrify t.n 
 audience. 2 
 
 Nor were his technical accomplishments as an actor the 
 sole claim to the supremacy he then enjoyed. In a day 
 when, as we have seen, some managers were incompetent, 
 and many were unscrupulous, Macready was business-like, 
 energetic, careful, and of unblemished honour. We have 
 already noted his w r ar against the monopoly of the patent 
 theatres, against claques and lying puffs ; he was further 
 to do splendid work in remedying social abuses among the 
 audiences, and in raising generally the tone of our national 
 drama to a pitch of decency and of dignity never attained 
 before, nor often since, in the long history of our stage. 
 
 One might well have supposed, then, that such a man 
 
 1 Fanny Kemble, in the third volume of her Records of Later Life, 
 expresses openly, after her candid fashion, her opinion on Macready as a 
 fellow actor. He " is not pleasant to act with ... he growls and prowls 
 and roams and foams about the stage." Then again : "I really believe 
 Macready cannot help being as odious as he is on the stage. ..." 
 
 Her points against him are, lack of consideration for his fellow players, 
 and lack of self-control upon the stage. He was often violent, and would 
 sometimes maul his actresses until they were black and blue. One of them, 
 before playing with him, expressed her intention of putting so many pins 
 into her hair and so arranging them, that he would be unable to hold her 
 head " in chancery," as he was apparently given to doing. Miss Kemble 
 comments also upon his total lack of comic power, and his weakness in 
 Shakespeare. His lack of rhythmic sense made him cut up his lines into 
 prose ; but, on the other hand, if his ear was insensitive, his eye was not. 
 He had all a painter's feeling for colour, grouping, and scenic effect. 
 
 z Concerning the tragedian's deficiencies, the Theatrical Times has 
 some pertinent comments. " Macready, in his fear of being thought melo- 
 dramatic, was generally dull, and yet there is intensity beneath the surface 
 in all that he does " (November 28, 1846). 
 
 Significant, too, is the same journal's comment upon hie work as a 
 manager. " Isolation of effect is the besetting sin of Macready, who, as 
 far as that goes, is the veriest amateur living. He does not get up a play, 
 he gets up a part that part being his own " (June 13, 1846). 
 
WITH MACREADY AT THE HAYMARKET 65 
 
 so highly talented, and so uniformly successful might 
 have moved happily, hopefully, among his fellow men. Yet 
 he did not so. On the contrary, those same acute sensi- 
 bilities, and insatiable cravings, that transformed Macready 
 the man into Macready the tragedian, rendered him difficult, 
 irascible, and petulant. An idealist, as much as an artist, 
 at heart, conventional at the same time, and therefore 
 dissatisfied with the conditions of his calling ; hungering 
 always after a respectability and a gentility generally non- 
 existent in the stage-life of his day, he was ever at odds with 
 the world. Consequent reserve and mauvaise-honte mis- 
 taken always for pride had made him, too often, chilling 
 and distant towards other members of his profession. 1 
 Frequently he was supercilious, arrogant, and overbearing, 
 haughty and imperious to all but his most intimate friends. 
 Through our mental pictures of the players of his day, 
 self-revealed in the pages of his diary, he moves, an 
 ambitious, unhappy, lonely soul, warring ever against his 
 worse self, despising an art to which he is chained only by 
 material necessity ; 2 yet, withal, a man to be honoured 
 moral, just, generous, faithful, tender, and true. Few more 
 complex personalities have ever trod the stage of life. 
 
 Such a man was Mrs. Stirling's new manager at the 
 Haymarket. He cannot have been a very easy one to work 
 with, because his methods if we may judge by contem- 
 porary press articles were often as drastic and as peculiar 
 as were his manners. The tragedian, we may premise, 
 having brought, to assist him at Drury Lane, Phelps, Howe, 
 Wilmot and Mrs. Warren, was reckless in his manner of 
 replacing them, and dictatorial in his methods at rehearsal. 3 
 
 A leading actor being enabled to nominate the performers that 
 shall play with him establishes a tyranny and monopoly of a most 
 dangerous character. ... A rehearsal under the present regime is 
 a mighty pretty thing it resembles drill-day. Sergeant Macready 
 takes his recruits, rehearses for and with them, making them all speak 
 
 1 Memoirs of Madame Vestris (Mrs. Charles Mathews), 1839. 
 
 2 Whether Macready was a great artist I venture to doubt. Has there 
 ever existed a great artist who neither loved nor respected his art ? In 
 his diary, April 22, 1848, he calls acting " the worst exercise of a man's 
 intellect." 
 
 3 Sunday Times, January 20, 1840. This refers to a previous engage- 
 ment at Drury Lane. 
 
 5 
 
66 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 in his own peculiar manner, conceive, read, and execute the parts 
 his way ; in fact forcing, or striving to force them, to surrender soul, 
 mind, and body to his guidance and direction. By this system a 
 prominent actor at Covent Garden has sunk to the place of a servile 
 imitator. 1 These gratuitous lectures upon acting delivered morning 
 after morning by Macready, are not always conducted with the calm- 
 ness of demeanour a lecturer should employ. . . . The complaints 
 of Covent Garden were long and loud ; there Macready was aided 
 by the drills of a literary corporal one putting the text to rights, 
 the other the actors. Those whose characters were to be emasculated 
 were told to " keep your eye on the corporal " ; those who were likely 
 to create too much effect executively were kept in awe of the casti- 
 gation of the sergeant ; if they persisted they could be removed from 
 the company or left out of active service. 
 
 This not too grammatical, and probably exaggerated, 
 version of Macready's methods refers mainly to the men ; 
 but the ladies of the company, it seems, were by no means 
 exempt from the Macreadyizing system. Miss Helen Faucit, 
 we read, learned also to chop up her sentences, quite in 
 the tragedian's fashion, to make sudden transitions, to 
 affect the "Macready pause" as the actors' phrase still 
 has it and even to adopt his peculiar gait and positions. 
 " These defects we forgive in him, for that his powers as an 
 actor redeem all, but they are odious in a woman." 
 
 Whether, or to what extent, " the sergeant " drilled 
 Mrs. Stirling, we do not know; but we may suppose that 
 she was no more immune from such attention than were 
 her companions, nor can she much have disapproved of 
 her manager, for Miss Mary Anderson (Mme. de Navarro), 
 who was an intimate friend of Mrs. Stirling, tells me that 
 the old actress often expressed, to her, appreciation of 
 Macready and of his methods. Enough, however, has been 
 said to show to the reader the more selfish and hectoring 
 side of Macready's character; another and better side is 
 revealed by Phelps' description of the grim tragedian's act 
 of generosity to a brother actor in distress, 2 which is only 
 one of Macready's many open-handed and open-hearted 
 deeds. 
 
 1 Phelps, who succeeded Macready as our leading tragedian, was generally 
 held to have imitated Macready. He would never admit the charge. See 
 Toole's Reminiscences, by Hatton, p. 279. 
 
 9 Phelps himself. See Coleman's Phelpa, p. 172. 
 
WITH MACREADY AT THE HAYMARKET 67 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's first interesting part under her new 
 manager 1 was " Lady Rodolpha Lumbercourt," in " The 
 Man of the World," Macklin's last play, and probably his 
 best, written to bring Maywood before the public in the 
 character of " Sir Pertinax Macsycophant." There followed 
 "Countess Wintersen " in "The Stranger," and "Rosalie 
 Somers " in " Town and Country " ; but a performance 
 that probably gave her more pleasure was " Constance," 
 in that lively, versified farce by Sheridan Knowles, "The 
 Love Chase," which, for warmth and generosity of humour, 
 stands alone in the poetical comedy of the day and comes 
 near to Elizabethan merit. It had been first produced, 
 with great success, at the Hay market, in October 1837, 
 Mrs. Glover playing the widow, and Mrs. Nisbett "Con- 
 stance " parts thoroughly suited to them both. Indeed, 
 it was of the last-named lady, in " The Love Chase," that 
 the author of Memoirs of Madame Vestris (1839) had 
 written : 
 
 It would almost appear that she had sat for the character arch and 
 vivacious, a regular romp, acting on the impulse of the moment, and 
 speaking the words that first present themselves, she is the very life 
 and soul of every society that is fortunate enough to obtain her 
 presence. 
 
 November brought a revival of " The Road to Ruin," 
 Holcroft's bustling comedy, first performed at Covent 
 Garden in 1792. This play had led the way to a fashion 
 of dialogue in which the extremes of moral sentiment and 
 slang catchword met, and had given us, in "Goldfinch," the 
 forerunner of the dashing-impertinent school of character, 
 and one of the best examples of it that the English stage can 
 show. The repetition of gags, we all agree, is a poor enough 
 stage device conducive, as one critic has said, to the 
 spread, rather than to the increase, of wit ; yet, nevertheless, 
 that part of " Goldfinch " alone, really well acted, is good 
 enough, almost, to make a popular success of any comedy. 
 The hilarious effect upon the house of " Damn all dancing- 
 masters and their umbrellas," and the quick-fire affirmatives 
 " That's your sort " as spoken by Lewis, are still traditions 
 
 1 September 29, 1840. 
 
68 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 upon the stage. For all its crudity, this is an outstanding 
 comedy of its day, and one that might bear occasional re- 
 vival by one of the non-commercial play-producing societies, 
 who, not without reason, neglect early nineteenth-century 
 drama in general. 
 
 As the Examiner put it, " The Road to Ruin," though 
 not one of the wisest of comedies, is the work of a true- 
 hearted and original man. It has no false sentiment, and 
 none of those whining, equivocal expressions of morality, 
 " in which there is nothing real but the vices they disguise." 
 Mrs. Stirling's part, " Sophia," is rather too insipid and 
 school -girlish to have been very much to her liking, but 
 she succeeded ultimately in making it extraordinary effec- 
 tive. The Examiner, writing of the same play, some two 
 years later, 1 says : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is a " Sophia " that no lover of genuine comedy should 
 fail to see. The part allows of that touch of excess that is now and 
 then the defect of her acting, and the result is perfect. Things that 
 have been said of the best comic actresses on record might here be 
 again said justly. Holcroft would have thanked her would have 
 hugged her for it. 
 
 Upon the reopening of the Haymarket for the winter 
 season, in February 1841, Macready, always averse from 
 long runs, continued to perform his promise, by giving his 
 patrons variety in their drama. Mrs. Stirling's first appear- 
 ance was on January 7, 1842, when she replaced Helen 
 Faucit, as " Clara," the sentimental heroine of Bulwer's 
 comedy, " Money." Miss Faucit, afterwards Lady Martin, 
 was that beautiful and talented actress upon whose name 
 De Quincey closes his catalogue of " things soft to sight." 
 
 He who has seen the Coliseum by moonlight, the Bay of Naples by 
 sunset, the battlefield of Waterloo by daybreak, and Miss Helen 
 Faucit in " Antigone," has only to thank God and die, since nothing 
 else remains worth living for. 
 
 To De Quincey's conclusion I demur wholly, but it does 
 seem certain that Miss Faucit possessed a tender, classical 
 beauty, of a style rarely equalled upon the stage, and that 
 some similar qualifications were needed by one who would 
 
 1 October 1842. 
 
IP 
 
 '.' 1* H ;:* 
 
 MRS. STIRLING, ABOUT 1840. 
 
 From an Engraving by R. LAKE, B.A. 
 
 To face p. 68. 
 
WITH MACREADY AT THE HAYMARKET 69 
 
 follow closely in her footsteps. Here was further proof 
 that the actress, who of late had so successfully replaced 
 La Nisbett in " Constance," could now challenge comparison 
 also with Helen Faucit as " Clara." l 
 
 Macready was more than satisfied, for he wrote in his 
 diary 2 : " Was much pleased with Mrs. Stirling in ' Clara. 9 
 She speaks with a freshness and truth of tone that no other 
 actress in the stage can now do." With the month of May, 
 however, she is transferred to a much more congenial, 
 because more lively, part, in the same play " Lady Franklin," 
 originally played by Mrs. Glover. That she was still far less 
 than Mrs. Glover's equal is certain. The Sunday Times wrote 8 : 
 
 We missed the easy flow of voice and action, the rich though 
 subdued comedy which marked the performance of the latter lady 
 (Mrs. Glover) ; for though Mrs. Stirling possesses a sufficiency of 
 hilarious vivacity of spirit, that makes her a general favourite, she 
 still needs much improvement to render her a perfect actress. 
 
 She was yet far from maturity ; and this, surely, is ever 
 the actress's tragedy that not until the charm of early 
 youth and the first flush of beauty are about to fail, or have 
 already waned, can she hope to reach full self-expression 
 in her art. 
 
 Of the play itself, what can we say ? Full of its author's 
 worst faults stiffness, staginess, artificiality " remote from 
 nature, crammed with the commonplaces of colloquialism 
 and affectations of sentiment, it is to quote a contemporary 
 critic a heterogeneous and clumsy mixture of farce, comedy, 
 and Bartholomew Fair." 
 
 This is impolite and overstated, yet, crudely as the 
 play reveals itself to modern judgment, there is about it, 
 nevertheless as also in " The Lady of Lyons " a certain 
 dynamic quality, of which a capable cast can make use. Well 
 put upon the stage, and admirably acted, such merits as it 
 had, and the acknowledged status of the author, drew the 
 world of fashion to the Haymarket . 4 ' Money ' ' and Macready 
 triumphed. 4 
 
 1 Madame de Navarro tells me that Helen Faucit used to speak to her 
 very highly of Mrs. Stirling's work. 
 
 2 January 7, 1841. 8 May 9, 1841. 
 
 4 Macready in his diary, December 16, 1840, describes " Evelyn," 
 nevertheless, as " an ineffective, inferior part." 
 
70 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 When reading the annals of the Victorian stage, one 
 wonders often how a modern player, man or woman, would 
 come through such trials of memory, physique, and technique, 
 as those which were laid upon the Haymarket company 
 at this time. Part after part, character after character, 
 each as arduous as its predecessor, is the leading lady called 
 upon to assume. On April 12 Mrs. Stirling takes up the 
 r61e of " Rachel Heywood," the much-tried wife, in that 
 characteristic, though now forgotten, drama of its time, " The 
 Rent Day," l one of the happiest efforts of that prolific 
 dramatist, Douglas Jerrold. 
 
 Jerrold, despite his tongue's " venomed sting," to which 
 Phelps so bitterly alludes, 2 was a warm-hearted, quixotic 
 individual, much given to tilting at windmills. In this 
 instance, inflamed by an inspection of Wilkie's famous 
 pictures, 3 he protests against the wrongs inflicted, consciously 
 or unconsciously, upon resident tenants by absentee land- 
 lords. Mrs. Stirling's part, " Rachel Heywood," was one 
 in which she never succeeded in satisfying thoroughly all 
 her critics, though few of them damned her so completely 
 as did a writer in the Dramatic and Musical Review, when, 
 some two and a half years later, 4 he wrote concerning the 
 same play : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is unequal to the expression of deep pathos the 
 agonizing grief and terrible suspense in which the heart-broken wife 
 views the pangs of her ruined and despairing husband ; her emotion 
 was transparent, her manner weak and artificial. 
 
 The dramatical reviewer, perhaps, had caught her on an 
 off-night ; but his censure may have been in part deserved, 
 for Mrs. Stirling was destined, for years to come, to be 
 castigated by those who could not, or would not, take her 
 seriously in serious work. That she was inherently capable 
 of rendering pathos, such later performances as " Cordelia," 
 and " Adrienne Lecouvreur," were abundantly to prove ; 
 but I am inclined to think that the very acuteness of her 
 intelligence, and her overflowing sense of humour, would 
 
 1 First played January 25, 1832. 
 
 2 Coleman's Phelps, p. 183. 
 
 8 See Walter Jen-old's Life of Douglas Jerrold. 
 4 November 27, 1844. 
 
WITH MACREADY AT THE HAYMARKET 71 
 
 allow her to feel and sustain the pathetic, only when character 
 and situation were, to her mind, sufficiently true, natural, 
 and vivid, to evoke her full powers of sympathy and imagina- 
 tion. Even when all other conditions were favourable, she 
 was never able to sustain tragic intensity over a long period. 
 
 We have no time to linger over other performances during 
 the spring and summer at the Haymarket, that redecorated 
 during the Easter recess was now probably the smartest 
 house in London. Mrs. Stirling played " Helen " in Knowles' 
 dull play, " The Hunchback " ; " Countess Wintersen," in 
 " The Stranger," with the Charles Keans ; and " Amelia," 
 in " The Philosopher of Berlin," a Voltaire play, that, though 
 undramatic in quality, had some literary merit, and moved 
 the Examiner to say that " he had not seen a pleasant er 
 thing for a considerable time." Wallack, as " Voltaire," 
 made the philosopher boisterous, rather than petulant and 
 irascible, as he really was ; but the entertainment, as a whole, 
 did not fail. 
 
 Among Mrs. Stirling's closing parts were the comedy 
 lead in Lunn's " Belford Castle," and "Lady Traffic" in 
 " Riches," an adaptation by J. B. Burges, of Massinger's 
 hard, unpleasant, and "violently wrought " play, " The City 
 Madam." Macready himself was heavy and laboured in 
 Kean's old part of " Luke " ; and if he was displeased with 
 himself as he very often was he was equally so, on this 
 occasion, with Mrs. Stirling, whom he wrote down as 
 " decidedly bad " a verdict that the critics endorsed. 
 
 During that autumn the actress, for domestic reasons, 
 retired temporarily from active work, 1 and did little of 
 importance, until the autumn of 1842 brought her again, 
 under Macready 's management, to Drury Lane. 
 
 1 The writer's mother, Fanny Stirling, was born February 7, 1842. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 DRURY LANE AND THE STRAND 
 
 1842-43 
 
 Historic performance of "As You Like It " at Drury Lane Phelps' 
 eulogy of the cast Mrs. Stirling's success as " Celia " Mrs. Nisbett 
 Dryden's "King Arthur " " The Eton Boy " Great success with 
 Mrs. Nisbett in Congreve's " Love for Love " Failure in Brown- 
 ing's " Blot on the 'Scutcheon " Reasons for dramatic failure of 
 nineteenth-century great writers Theatrical art lags behind the 
 thought of the time Romantic movements in France and England 
 Alfred Wigan and transition to natural-romantic The Keeley's 
 benefit Their styles Mrs. Stirling plays " Mrs. Blandish " in 
 Lunn's " Rights of Woman " Bunn again Dissensions Failure in 
 " Lady Anne " in " Richard III " Reasons therefor. 
 
 Now and again in the annals of the stage, a certain per- 
 formance, though given upon no special occasion, nor with 
 any unusual glamour of publicity, will stand out beacon- 
 bright above its fellows, by reason of the quality of its cast, 
 and the technical excellence of the acting. Such was the 
 now historic performance of " As You Like It," in which, 
 on October 1, 1842, Mrs. Stirling reappeared at Drury 
 Lane, on the occasion of the opening of Macready's second 
 season. 
 
 Phelps, who played "Adam," enthuses thus to 
 Coleman l : 
 
 Apart from Clarkson Stanfield's magnificent scenery, the music and 
 the mounting look at the cast ! There was Nisbett as " Rosalind " ! 
 Not having seen her, ye don't know what beauty is. Her voice was 
 liquid music her laugh there never was such a laugh ! her eyes 
 living crystals lamps lit with the light divine ! her gorgeous neck 
 and shoulders her superbly symmetrical limbs her grace, her taste, 
 her nameless but irresistible charm. There was Mrs. Stirling as 
 " Celia " let me tell you a deuced fine woman in those days then 
 and always a most accomplished actress. That imp of mischief, 
 Mrs. Keeley, the best " Audrey," and about the best all-round actress 
 
 1 Coleman's Phelps, p. 188 et seq. 
 T2 
 
DRURY LANE AND THE STRAND 78 
 
 I have ever seen ; the beautiful Miss Phillips as " Phoebe," the velvet- 
 throated Romer as " Cupid " in the " Masques ". . . . l 
 
 Never, concluded Phelps, had there been such a cast of 
 44 As You Like It " before, nor ever would there be again. 
 Phelps was probably right. Such a company has never 
 played Rosalind's love story before, nor since. The more 
 credit, therefore, to the central figure of this book, that in 
 such distinguished company she more than held her own. 
 Forster, in the Examiner, wrote : 
 
 The "Celia' 1 of Mrs. Stirling seemed to us the prettiest, quietest, 
 most sensible, most graceful, and, if we may say so, most open- 
 hearted piece of acting we have seen of that kind for many a day. 
 
 Notable are those words 44 open-hearted " ; they express a 
 priceless quality of Mrs. Stirling's, as of all great art. 
 
 Concerning her success upon that night The Times was 
 equally emphatic : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's " Celia " was all that could be desired full of 
 feeling and playfulness most naturally expressed. This, and the 
 part of " Orlando," by Anderson, were the most satisfactorily acted, 
 in a play upon which the curtain fell to the most tumultuous waving 
 of hats and handkerchiefs that ever agitated a crowded pit. 
 
 Macready wrote, that evening, in his diary : C4 She (Mrs. 
 Stirling) and Anderson's 4 Orlando ' much praised." 
 
 And what of Mrs. Nisbett, the admired of Phelps, into 
 whose place also the new 44 Celia " was to step ? To the 
 charm and ability of that actress, others, though not so 
 graphically as Phelps, have borne witness. Macready has 
 told us of the 44 fascinating power in the sweetly ringing 
 notes of her laugh," and Edward Stirling 2 has recorded 
 that she was 
 
 always drawing and filling treasuries when acting in her best parts 
 of " Rosalind," " Lady Teazle," " Lady Gay Spanker, 51 3 and *' Con- 
 stance.' 1 Who that ever heard her merry laugh at neighbour 
 Wildrake's stupidity can ever forget it ? 
 
 By that laugh principally she conquered. 
 
 1 Other members of the cast were : " Duke," Ryder ; " First Lord,'* 
 Elton ; " Jaques," Macready ; " Oliver," Graham ; " Orlando," Anderson ; 
 " Touchstone," Keeley ; Sims Reeves sang. 
 
 2 Old Drury Lane, ii. 166. 8 In " London Assurance." 
 
74 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Mrs. Nisbett, it was, whom the younger actress followed, 1 
 as " Emmeline," in Dryden's " King Arthur," a play that, 
 thanks largely to PurcelPs music, held the stage after much 
 of its author's other dramatic work was forgotten, or ignored. 
 Walter Scott tells us that " King Arthur " was still acted 
 in his day ; but this must have been one of its last popular 
 revivals. Dryden has never since returned to fashion as 
 a dramatist, nor will he, we suppose, though, if The Phoenix 
 Society maintain their most welcome activities, we may 
 yet have occasional opportunities to realize again Dryden's 
 greatness as a writer for the stage, and to see some companion 
 pictures to that brilliant comedy "Mariage a la Mode." 2 
 
 After the seventeenth-century play came a return to 
 farce, when Macready, still pursuing his policy of variety, 
 put on " The Eton Boy," by Mathews I believe, though 
 some have fathered it upon Lemon. Whoever wrote it, 
 the trifle gave Mrs. Stirling an opportunity that, no doubt, 
 she thoroughly enjoyed, of appearing as an Etonian, dressed 
 in a smart pepper-and-salt suit, with her hair in a state 
 of boyish negligence, a disguise that she completed by 
 carrying a neat fowling-piece, adopting a pretty swagger, 
 and firing off dog-and-gun descriptions with the greatest 
 animation. 
 
 November brought to her, in company with Mrs. Nisbett, 
 one of the most completely successful and happiest occasions 
 of her whole career " Mrs. Foresight " in " Love for Love." 
 
 We do not all care greatly for Congreve. His cynicism 
 often irritates, and his indecencies sometimes disgust even 
 the hardened play-goer ; but concerning his power of dramatic 
 construction, his ability to depict shades of character, his 
 infectious love of mischief, his flashing wit and abounding 
 sense of humour, his picturesqueness, and his complete 
 sometimes too complete mastery of dialogue and repartee, 
 there can be no question whatever. All these qualities abound 
 in that great comedy " Love for Love," and to them all a 
 woman of Mrs. Stirling's temperament was instantly and 
 completely responsive. The subdued pose, the demure 
 
 1 November 16, 1842. 
 
 2 Produced at The Lyric, Hammersmith, on February 8-9, 1920, when 
 Miss Cathleen Nisbett and Miss Athene Seyler gave remarkable per- 
 formances as " Doralice " and " Melanthea." 
 
DRURY LANE AND THE STRAND 75 
 
 mischief, the arch expression, the watchful eye, were all 
 there ; nor was her partner, Mrs. Nisbett, a whit less ready. 
 Upon their merits contemporary criticism is at one. 
 
 44 The scene between the quarrelling sisters was the gem 
 of the evening so far as genuine acting was concerned." x 
 The Examiner, too, enjoyed himself hugely : 
 
 As for " Mrs. Frail 2! and " Mrs. Foresight, 5 ' they are themselves 
 a comedy. The buoyancy, the spirit, the pleasure ; the comment of 
 the arch look, the quiet laugh, the gay and graceful movement ; the 
 sharp relish of every word in the dialogue, the delicate and joyous 
 apprehension of the finest shades of the wit nothing is wanting to 
 the glory of Congreve. The Bracegirdles and the Oldfields could not 
 have set it forth more bravely. 2 
 
 Already Mrs. Stirling was moving swiftly towards her 
 destined position as the leading actress of her day in high 
 comedy. 
 
 But the whirligig of time brings set-backs and revenges. 
 With the next year came a failure. On February 11, 1843, 
 Macready produced a drama by his friend-to-be, the poet, 
 Robert Browning, who was then fast rising into eminence 
 among many promising men of letters. 
 
 44 The Blot on the 'Scutcheon," however, did not succeed. 
 There were mistakes and misunderstandings between author 
 and actor-manager. Macready did not attend rehearsals 
 until shortly before the first night, and he made many 
 alterations at the last moment. Phelps wanted more time. 
 44 Well, sir, if I understudy your part, and do it on Saturday, 
 do you think you will be ready by Monday ? " 
 
 Phelps thought that, after all, he might be ready by 
 Saturday I 
 
 It seems, too, that the drama was not well cast, for 
 Macready writes of it in his diary as 44 badly acted in Phelps's 
 and Mrs. Stirling's parts " she played 44 Gwendolen " 
 14 pretty well in Anderson's, very well in Helen Faucit's." 
 One critic suggested that Mrs. Stirling's part should be 
 cut out 3 ; another that the play, as a whole, was under- 
 
 1 Dramatic and Musical Review, November 26, 1842. 
 
 2 Examiner, November 26, 1842. 
 
 8 Sunday Times, February 12, 1843 : " Mrs. Stirling played a half 
 sentimental part with the flippancy of a soubrette in the clothes of her 
 mistress." 
 
76 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 acted ; but the reasons for its early withdrawal it ran 
 some three nights only are to be found in the inherent 
 dramatic weakness of the piece. Though Robert Browning 
 could, and did at times, conceive dramatically, the drama, 
 nevertheless, was not his natural mode of expression. His 
 mind could not easily be bent to meet the stage's inexorable 
 demands upon form, and its insistent call for directness and 
 for clarity. His thought may have been always lucid to 
 himself at the moment of its conception, but in expression 
 he often condensed the idea into complete obscurity. 
 
 There existed, moreover, more than individual reasons 
 why the literary giants of those days were not yet competent 
 to make the stage their medium. During those years the 
 romantic movement, that had been inaugurated in English 
 poetry by Byron, Shelley, Keats, and others and by Victor 
 Hugo and his school across the Channel was fast developing ; 
 but though " Hernani," 1 on February 25, 1830, had estab- 
 lished the new vogue upon the stage of the French capital, 
 romance had not yet made good in the English theatre, 
 nor could it possibly do so until the development of all 
 theatrical art essentially conservative, and lagging always 
 tardily behind the latest thought had made some rap- 
 prochement possible. New wine may not be put into old 
 bottles, nor the romantic expressed in terms of the classic. 
 The theatre must needs adjust itself to the nascent idea, by 
 begetting a corresponding style of actor, a newer fashion 
 in setting, and an audience mentally equipped for such 
 changes. 
 
 The latter was not yet ready, or not ready in sufficient 
 numbers. Our theatre-loving majority continued awhile to 
 like their drama hot and strong, declamatory and forceful ; 
 and the demand, still, was for actors to match. That is 
 why Charles Mathews, for example a progenitor of the 
 new school is fated to languish in the durance of Lancaster 
 Castle, before establishing his position as a public favourite. 
 Nevertheless, he did secure it. At the very time of which 
 
 1 " Par le seul fait d'Hernani la question romantique etait porte"e de 
 cent lieux en avant," wrote a French author. But our theatrical develop- 
 ment, like our revolutionary growth, progresses by easier stages here than 
 in France. Though no one guessed it at the time, our " Hernani " was 
 the triumph of Edmund Kean over John Kemble. See ante, p. 21. 
 
DRURY LANE AND THE STRAND 77 
 
 we write, the transition was in process, from the stilted 
 classicism of the declaimers, to the romantic lightness of the 
 Bancroft school. A certain versatile young character-actor, 
 Alfred Wigan, 1 was fast making a name for himself. The 
 author of " Caste " 2 was already fourteen years old ; and 
 in Scandinavia had been born (1828) a greater than he, one 
 destined to exert an enormous influence upon the European 
 theatre. It is customary to speak of the mid- Victorian 
 era as a time of dramatic decadence, and, in a sense, the 
 charge is true ; but for those who have an eye of faith upon 
 the whole century, the transitional period is generally full 
 of interest, and always and brightly full of hope. But we 
 must return to Drury Lane. 
 
 On May 6 and 10 Mrs. Stirling played for benefits, first 
 as "Mrs. Candour" in "The School for Scandal," with 
 Mrs. Nisbett, the beneficiare, as " Lady Teazle." " Mrs* 
 Candour," together with other parts in old English comedy, 
 such as " Mrs. Malaprop," were impersonations in which 
 Mrs. Stirling, when she had fully developed them, was never 
 excelled for significance and point by any actress that has 
 trodden our stage. 
 
 The second benefit was that for Mr. and Mrs. Keeley, 
 when my grandmother played " Lady Freelove " in " The 
 Jealous Wife." These two famous comedians of low life, 
 the Keeleys, were then at the zenith of their popularity. 
 The woman for all her great cleverness never rose higher 
 than the portrayal of kitchen and back-stair characters 
 her " Audrey " was magnificent but Keeley was more 
 versatile. He generally ranked, and was often contrasted, 
 with Buckstone, the other favourite low comedian of the 
 time, with whom Mrs. Stirling had often played at the 
 Adelphi and elsewhere. Buckstone was the more striking 
 personality of the two. He was the pet of every audience, 
 and the chosen laugh-maker of many an inveterate pittite, 
 including John Hollingshead. 
 
 1 Then twenty-seven years old : born March 24, 1816 : died 
 November 29, 1878. Modelled on Bouffe", a French actor of the nineteenth 
 century. Wigan, according to Knight, lacked robustness and breadth, 
 but was excellent in such French and semi -French parts as "Monsieur 
 Jacques." My mother, Fanny Stirling the younger, looked upon him as 
 one of the progenitors of the new school of acting. 
 
 2 Born January 9, 1829. 
 
78 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Buckstone was always a salient figure upon the stage, 
 blowing the trumpet all the time, as who should say : 
 " Attention to me : something droll is about to happen." 
 And usually it did. Keeley, on the contrary, was phleg- 
 matic, impassive, and pathetically acquiescent in the quaint 
 inflictions that his stage fate had always in store for him. 
 By a modern audience both men, I think, would have been 
 adjudged coarse and vulgar. 
 
 " Gilbertha "for Miss Faucit's benefit in " Athel- 
 wold," a new play by W. Smith, seems to have been Mrs. 
 Stirling's last performance during that season at Drury 
 Lane, for on June 5, consequently upon a sudden and severe 
 illness of Mrs. Orger, we find her engaged at the Strand, 
 by May wood, the Scotch comedian, to play " Mrs. Blandish " 
 in Lunn's " Rights of Woman," a comedy which the leading 
 lady herself ushered in by delivering beautifully 1 Burns's 
 lines, written during the French Revolution for Miss Fonte- 
 nelle, 2 and beginning : 
 
 While Europe's eye is fixed on mighty things, 
 The fate of Empires and the fall of kings ; 
 While quacks of State must each produce his plan, 
 And even children lisp the Rights of Man ; 
 Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention, 
 The Rights of Women merit some attention. 
 
 The women, however, were to wait some three-quarters 
 of a century longer before getting the first representative of 
 their sex into the House of Commons. 
 
 " The Rights of Women," as a play, was perhaps rather 
 too Scotch to win the success that it deserved ; but it gave 
 Mrs. Stirling a character better suited to her talents than 
 any in which she had been seen for a long time. 3 Her con- 
 genial task therein was that of breaking down the bachelor 
 harshness and anti-feminine resolutions of a gruff and crusty 
 old Scotch woman-hater played, of course, by Maywood 
 and of making him fall in love with her. This she accom- 
 plished by a series of delicately artful attentions, culminating 
 
 1 Dramatic and Musical Review, June 10, 1843. 
 
 a Spoken by her on her benefit night, November 26, 1792. 
 
 8 A French writer upon men and manners in England speaks of her at 
 this time, when under Maywood, as " the best comic actress on the London 
 stage." 
 
DRURY LANE AND THE STRAND 79 
 
 in a dish of haggis specially dressed for his dinner a silent 
 homage to his national taste that induced immediate 
 surrender. 
 
 Macready meanwhile, despite his clever company and 
 his various policy, had not fared well financially, 1 as witness 
 the entry in his diary under May 29 : 
 
 Spoke to Mr. Keeley upon the reduction of one- third of salary next 
 season ; he agreed to it most heartily ; to Headson the same ; to 
 Mrs. Stirling the same. 
 
 That lady was continuing, for a time, at the Strand, 
 playing "Ellen" in a burlesque of "The Lady of the 
 Lake," until, not being able to "divest herself of her good 
 looks and sweet smiles," she very properly, and no doubt 
 willingly, resigned the part to Mr. Romer, whose gait, 
 gesture, and ugliness much better adapted him to its 
 crudities, while Maywood and this is significant handed 
 over "James V" to that same Wigan, mentioned a few 
 pages back, " a young actor of great versatility and talent, 
 who performs eccentric light comedy, French, Irish, and 
 Scotch characters with extraordinary ability." 2 
 
 Only one other performance of 1843 needs recall, namely, 
 the mono -dramatic trifle, " A Night of Suspense," in which 
 Mrs. Stirling, alone upon the stage, had to interest an 
 audience, for twenty minutes, in her jealous agonies con- 
 cerning an absent husband, whose knock, at last, announces 
 his return. The actress succeeded completely, and was 
 enthusiastically called. 
 
 That autumn saw her again engaged for Drury Lane, 
 and on September 18 she attended, upon the stage of that 
 theatre, a first meeting of performers, among whom were 
 Harley, Meadows, Cooper, Mrs. A. Shaw, and Miss Romer. 
 From the " legitimate " point of view, however, nothing 
 satisfactory was done; Bunn, the manager with no eyes 
 but for the main chance being bent upon opera or ballet, 
 
 1 Matthew Arnold, writing of " The Silver King " in 1882, compares 
 the then popularity of the Princess's (see Chapter VII) with the old Princess's 
 of Macready's day. " The house was shabby and dingy and by no means 
 full ; there was something melancholy about the whole thing ... in 
 England the theatre was at that time not in fashion." There you have 
 part of the secret. 
 
 Sunday Times, July 16, 1843. 
 
80 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 rather than drama, while the actors generally were too 
 selfish, apathetic, and disunited to combine effectively in their 
 own interests, supposing even that they knew what those 
 interests were. Upon that point the remaining men of 
 the old school such as Young, C. Kemble, Liston, Jones, 
 Braham, Stanfield, Grieve and Farley differed greatly from 
 those of the new. 
 
 Macready goes off to America, where he plays to cold, 
 empty, cheerless, inhospitable houses, while the leading 
 musicians and vocalists were making their thousand or two 
 thousand dollars a night. 1 
 
 These happenings bring us to the beginning of 1844. 
 Bunn, by this time, is preparing for " Richard III," with 
 suits of polished plate-armour, specially made in France for 
 the occasion, from which we may suppose that he had no 
 intention whatever to burlesque the tragedy, though the 
 spirit of burlesque was much abroad in those days, 2 the 
 play in question being so treated at the Adelphi during 
 the following February. Bunn, therefore, ought to have 
 known better than to cast Mrs. Stirling, who had recently 
 been playing burlesque at the Strand, for such a part as 
 " Queen Anne." This she essayed, to the " Gloucester " 
 of Charles Kean, and failed completely. 
 
 Such a result might have been foreseen. Diderot's 
 well-known and much debated paradox that an actor 
 does not feel the emotions he portrays is not generally 
 accepted to-day. Actors do feel those emotions, though 
 in varying degrees of intensity ; and most actresses I was 
 about to write all feel them more acutely still. They 
 weep themselves moist throughout pathetic parts, and if 
 they are unable to feel the character, they cannot play it 
 convincingly. 
 
 Now Mrs. Stirling had shown herself, long before this 
 
 1 New York Morning Herald. Macready was sponsored in America by 
 Hackett, father of James K. Hackett, the present distinguished actor, 
 whose impressive performance of "Macbeth" at the Aldwych will be fresh in 
 the minds of play-goers. Mr. Hackett himself told me how strongly the 
 sense of unbroken tradition was with him upon that memorable first night, 
 November 2, 1920. 
 
 a The once popular spectacle, " Cherry and Fair Star," in which Mrs. 
 Stirling had played at the Pavilion, in 1832, was burlesqued at the 
 Princess's, April 1844. 
 
DRURY LANE AND THE STRAND 81 
 
 time, to be a woman of keen psychological penetration, 
 quite capable of observing analytically the finer shades of 
 character in mankind. As " Lady Anne," therefore, she was 
 able to detect at once the simple though subtly-phrased 
 wiles of " Gloucester," and to detect them so swiftly that 
 the meeting of the pair, from the first, was no more to her 
 than what Richard calls it at the close a " keen encounter 
 of our wits " an exquisitely skilful, and consequently enjoy- 
 able, thrust and parry of words. Nor do I believe that 
 any actress possessing a developed sense of humour could 
 readily accept the duologue as anything else. Throughout 
 the scene this fleet-tongued couple are just flirting and 
 coquetting over " the pale ashes of the house of Lancaster." 
 This is one instance, it seems, in which Shakespeare per- 
 mitted his marvellous command of words and his trained 
 instinct for theatrical situation, to override his sense of the 
 probable. 1 " Lady Anne's " perviousness to flattery is too 
 great to be convincing ; and consciousness of that fact made 
 the role, for Mrs. Stirling, another stifled study in burlesque. 
 The Times critic certainly thought so. 2 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is an excellent comic actress, and shines also in the 
 domestic pathetic ; but she was not herself as " Lady Anne." She 
 seemed as if she would have liked much to make a comedy part of itt 
 
 The Era of January 28 told the same tale: 
 
 Mrs. Stirling was out of her element in " Lady Anne 2 ' ; " Thalia' 1 
 marked her for her own, in spite of all her sabled woes and cambric 
 handkerchief. 
 
 Even more direct was the Dramatic and Musical Review : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling failed most lamentably as " Lady Anne"; her 
 reproofs were scoldings, her pathos artificial. We are sure she longed 
 to laugh, as we ourselves could scarcely forbear doing. 
 
 The comedienne was to appear many times more in 
 Shakespearean tragedy, but never again in that part. 
 
 Of her other performances at Drury Lane, that season, 
 I have no record, except in one for May 28, when she 
 
 1 Nevertheless, the scene, well played, is always effective, as those know 
 who saw Miss Dorothy Green and Mr. Baliol Holloway play it recently at 
 Stratford (May 1921). 2 January 23, 1844. 
 
 6 
 
82 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 played " Maria " in " The Daughter of the Regiment," 
 singing all Donizetti's music, which she followed by por- 
 traying the heroine, " Black-Eyed Susan," in Douglas 
 Jerrold's once most popular nautical melodrama, first pro- 
 duced at the Surrey, on Whit -Monday, June 8, 1829. 1 
 
 1 Douglas Jerrold, by Walter Jerrold, i. 115. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 AT THE PRINCESS'S 
 
 1844-47 
 
 Engaged by Maddox at the Princess's Retirement of Mrs. Nisbett 
 "Don Caesar de Bazan" Mrs. Stirling plays "Desdemona" A com- 
 parative failure Letters of " Theates " to the Examiner The 
 Examiner's opinion thereon Success as "Cordelia" Reasons for her 
 success The two parts compared Another eulogy of Mrs. Stirling 
 at this time Her " Hermia " and " Katharine " Strength of the 
 Princess's company Its members Masque, " The Ruins of Athens " 
 Macready in " The King of the Commons " " Dreams of the 
 Heart " Irregularities of London managements Lack of unity in 
 productions " Margaret " in "A New Way to Pay Old Debts " 
 ^ Miss Hardcastle." 
 
 AFTER leaving Drury Lane, Mrs. Stirling was at once engaged 
 by Maddox for the Princess's, to supply the place left vacant 
 by Miss Fortescue. Maddox had been running opera for 
 a time, but, owing to difficulties with his singers, had been 
 compelled to return to drama, and had collected a strong 
 company, including, in addition to Mrs. Stirling, James 
 Wallack, Henry Wallack (as Stage Manager), Walter Lacey, 
 and Oxberry. 
 
 They opened on October 8, soon after an event that 
 must be recorded here the withdrawal from the stage of 
 Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett, 1 before her marriage to Sir William 
 Boothby, Controller of the Customs, then in his seventieth 
 year. With her there vanished from theatrical life a ripe 
 actress, of unchallenged supremacy in playing fashionable 
 great ladies, of the then modern school ; and one whose 
 beauty, high spirits, and infectious gaiety had conquered 
 many a heart, besides that of Samuel Phelps. 2 Her buoyant 
 spirit and ringing laugh, her swift appreciation of every 
 racy jest, her ready and complete self-abandonment to 
 
 1 Mrs. Nisbett was then in her thirty-third year. She died January 16, 
 1858, aged forty-six. * See ante, p. 72. 
 
84 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 each joyous impulse, were as irresistible to an audience 
 then as they would be to-day. 
 
 With Mrs. Nisbett's passing, only Mrs. Glover was now 
 left, to challenge Mrs. Stirling's claim to first place among 
 the high comediennes of her time, though the younger actress 
 herself was probably unable, as yet, to realize the full 
 possibilities that were before her. 
 
 On November 13, 1844, she played " Mrs. Lorimer," 
 in "A Widow Bewitched," a slight adaptation from a 
 French Vaudeville, redeemed from insignificance by her 
 acting, and that of Walter Lacey and Granby. After a 
 revival of " The Rent Day " Douglas Jerrold being not 
 yet in eclipse she essayed the lead, " Maritana," the gipsy, 
 in a commonplace, fustian melodrama, typical of its time, 
 known as " Don Cesar de Bazan," followed, during 
 February, by "Rebecca," in "The Carbonari," or "The 
 Bride of Parma," a very thin play, concerning which a 
 critic wrote : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's acting is deserving of great praise. She shows 
 that she fully understands every character that she attempts, though 
 she has not always the art to conceal the art that she uses in por- 
 traying it. 
 
 Then came a harder task, when the young actress 
 attempted, for the first time, " Desdemona " to Forrest's 
 "Othello," and the "Emilia" of Miss Cushman, the 
 American actress, with whom she played much at this time. 
 Press comments were not, upon the whole, very favourable. 
 A majority of the critics damned her performance with 
 faint praise, as, for example, the Sunday Times, which wrote : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling looked very lovely and spoke very sensibly, but she 
 wants tenderness and trustfulness ; in the last scene she gave us no 
 idea of the creature who only hopes for life, and will not even attempt 
 to contend for it. Yet what comic actress of the present day could 
 play " Desdemona " with her ? Not one. l 
 
 The verdict was just. Mrs. Stirling, no doubt, was 
 not of gentle enough temperament, nor then skilled enough 
 
 1 Macready said to Fanny Kemble concerning "Desdemona": "There 
 is absolutely nothing to be done with it, nothing ; nobody can produce 
 any effect in it ; and really ' Emilia's ' last scene can be made a great deal 
 more of." Many will agree with him. 
 
AT THE PRINCESS'S 85 
 
 in portraying gentleness to make an ideal " Desdemona " ; 
 and yet, delving among the journals of the day, and forming 
 a vivid mental picture of the artist's capabilities at that 
 period of her development, I was not altogether satisfied 
 that these press-men were quite awake to her possibilities, 
 nor was I surprised to chance upon the following letters, 
 both of which are very interesting, for their intrinsic critical 
 value, and as showing what was already in my mind, as 
 a probability that, to a certain number of intelligent and 
 cultured play-goers of the time, Mrs. Stirling had revealed 
 capacity and promise of which neither the critics nor the 
 public in general were as yet fully conscious. 
 
 The Editor of the Examiner, in which the letters appeared, 
 did not profess to agree with the writer, but " would not 
 withhold from this clever lady the honest tribute of an 
 intelligent and accomplished critic." 
 
 March 8, 1845. 
 SIR, 
 
 As you did not yourself see the performance of " Othello " 
 lately at the Princess's Theatre, will you take from one who did a 
 few observations upon one of the parts, which has not, I think, been 
 praised as much as it deserves. I say nothing of Mr. Forrest, because 
 he deserves no praise at all ; or of Miss Cushman, because, though 
 she deserves much, she has received much, and I hope we shall see 
 a great deal more of her. But with regard to Mrs. Stirling's 
 " Desdemona," your brethren of the press do not seem to be aware 
 of its intrinsic merit or of the depth and range of the genius it indi- 
 cates ; and therefore I fear that managers will not be encouraged 
 to bring her forward in the class of characters for which she is fittest 
 for which, indeed (in our present dearth of actresses) I should my- 
 self say that she alone is fit. " Pretty and interesting, though in 
 a part out of her usual line " " Very pretty, but ' Desdemona ' 
 sadly out of her line " " Pleasing and intelligent, though not aris- 
 tocratic enough for the daughter of ' Brabantio.' " Such, or such 
 like, are the only notices I find in the newspapers of one of the most 
 feeling, natural, delicate, musical, and truly lady-like performances 
 that I ever saw : and they make me think that newspaper critics 
 do not understand either what Mrs. Stirling's proper line is, or how 
 one of Shakespeare's women ought to be acted. To see her in a part 
 worthy of her is indeed difficult enough ; but that is not her fault. 
 Managers have generally provided her with nothing better than empty 
 farce, or trashy melodrama or sickening sentiment ; and the British 
 public, seeing her so provided by those who should know best, have 
 
86 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 concluded that this is her proper sphere, and that if she occasionally 
 undertakes a character of a higher order, it is but for a shift, and to 
 be treated with indulgence. They know that if they were expected 
 to applaud her, her name would be printed in much larger type ; 
 and not being asked to admire, they are well satisfied if they see 
 nothing to blame. Now my own impression is widely different. 
 When I first saw Mrs. Stirling (whom I should tell you, by the way, 
 I have never seen but on the stage) eight or nine years ago, in some 
 worthless character which had no interest, except what her own feel- 
 ing and imagination imparted to it, I felt that her proper province 
 was Shakespearean comedy. Since that time I have seen her in many 
 parts, and by accident in two or three good ones ; and I have always 
 observed that the better the part the better was her acting, so that 
 if my original opinion has undergone any change, it is only in this 
 that instead of limiting her province to comedy, I am now inclined 
 to limit it only to nature. Her tears are quite as true as her laughter, 
 and I never saw her act otherwise than naturally, except in char- 
 acters which were not themselves in nature. From her " Constance " 
 in " The Love Chase " I could only infer that she ought to be playing 
 "Beatrice" and "Katharine." Her "Lady Rodolpha " in "The 
 Man of the World " made me wish to see her in " Lady Teazle." Her 
 " Celia " (which I am sure you have not forgotten) proved she would 
 be quite at home in " Rosalind " and " Portia." And now that I 
 have seen her in " Desdemona " nothing shall convince me (short 
 of seeing her with my own eyes fail) that she would not make the 
 best " Ophelia," the best " Cordelia," the best " Viola " nay, the 
 best "Miranda" and " Perdita " that our stage can now produce. 
 This is a bold opinion, which I could not make good without a 
 long criticism . . . but you will perhaps allow me in a second com- 
 munication to explain briefly what are the peculiar merits which 
 I seem to perceive in her acting, and from which I infer that her 
 proper characters are to be found in Shakespeare. 
 
 THEATES. 
 
 The second letter followed a week later. 
 
 March 15, 1845. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 According to my promise I will now state shortly the leading 
 qualities which, in my judgment, distinguish Mrs. Stirling from 
 English actresses, and ought specially to appropriate her to Shakespeare. 
 
 The first, and though not the greatest, perhaps the most indis- 
 pensable, is her power of recitation ; which though beautifully articu- 
 late, and audible in all parts of the house, is as easy and natural as 
 if she were talking in a room ; and though ranging at will through 
 every variety of feeling and expression, yet passes so gracefully from 
 change to change that the sense of the rhythm and measure is never 
 lost, always musical, never monotonous. 
 
AT THE PRINCESS'S 87 
 
 The second, which is higher and rarer, is the fulness and complete- 
 ness with which she enters into the spirit of her part : the sense, 
 which never quits her, not only of her own situation, but of all the 
 surrounding scene and circumstance. It is not only while she speaks 
 or is spoken to, that she feels who or where she is ; she feels, and 
 feels in every nerve, all that is going on around her. When she was 
 brought into the Senate (in " Othello ") her consciousness of the 
 threefold embarrassment of her situation (which by the way I never 
 so fully felt before) the first meeting with her father, the first pub- 
 lication of her marriage, the awful and unaccustomed presence 
 expressed itself long before she spoke, in every action, as sensibly 
 as words could do. When she was waiting on the platform for tidings 
 of " Othello," she seemed to be sinking at the sound of the breakers 
 against the bulwarks. She never forgets who are within hearing, 
 nor whether she is under a roof or in the open air. 
 
 The third and greatest is what, for want of a better word, I must 
 call the individuality which she imparts to all her personations ; the 
 power of perceiving and portraying the undefinable peculiarities of 
 character, which, in Nature and in Shakespeare, make us feel that 
 no two persons are exactly like each other. Try to describe any 
 one woman, and there are a hundred others whom the description 
 will fit as well ; yet no one who knows her could mistake her for any 
 one of them. You cannot state in words wherein the difference lies, 
 yet you feel that the difference is essential. So it is in Mrs. Stirling's 
 acting. If she were to play first " Mrs Ford " and then " Mrs. Page " ; 
 or " Regan " one night and " Goneril " the next, it would not be 
 like the same person uttering different sets of speeches, but like two 
 distinct persons bearing a strong resemblance to each other distinct 
 in the basis of the character, resembling in the accidentals. And this 
 I take to be the most Shakespearean quality which a player can possess ; 
 an excellence not to be obtained but by a profound conception of the 
 idea, and a perfect sympathy with the feeling of the poet, which implies 
 no small measure of the poetic imagination itself. 
 
 Now, Sir, I know nothing whatever of Mrs. Stirling, except as 
 an actress ; never heard her voice except on the stage ; and it is 
 simply on behalf of judicious play-goers, who like to see Shakespeare 
 worthily acted, that I ask why, if she possesses such qualities as these, 
 she does not appear oftener in parts which bring them into play ? 
 Why is she condemned to waste such talents in throwing some human 
 interest into such wretched trash as " Don Cesar de Bazan " or so 
 slight and thin a manufacture as " Carbonaro." The public, perhaps, 
 as critics, are not prepared to rate her as highly as I do ; but I observe 
 that, though she does not draw down " repeated plaudits," she 
 receives a great deal of the best kind of applause the only applause 
 indeed that can truly be called hearty (for those " plaudits " express 
 opinion rather than feelings), I mean the pleasure, sympathy, and 
 natural interest with which she is always attended. The public feel 
 
88 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 that her acting is agreeable, and I am persuaded that (if they were 
 but told to do so by a received authority) they would very readily 
 think it fine. 
 
 THEATES. 
 
 Editorial comment upon these letters was to the effect 
 that the writer had allowed too little for the foils that set 
 off Mrs. Stirling's talent. " The lady being natural and 
 intelligent, shines forth among those who surround her a 
 good deed in a naughty world." This was hard upon her 
 collaborators ; yet certain admissions must be made. 
 
 Sensible, shrewd, and penetrating though the quoted 
 epistles are, it seems probable that the great admiration of 
 "Theates " for Mrs. Stirling's personality and methods had 
 made him somewhat too sanguine a prophet, nor was his advo- 
 cacy powerful enough to bring critics or play-goers, as a body, 
 to his side ; for when, in the autumn of the same year, she 
 played "Desdemona" again, to the " Othello" of Macready 
 then by common consent the foremost actor of his day 
 the reception of her performances by the press was not 
 particularly favourable, the Examiner stating bluntly that 
 the company's resources fell short of the drama's require- 
 ment. The Era, perhaps, best summarized general opinion, 
 when it characterized Mrs. Stirling's "Desdemona" as "soft, 
 sweet, innocent, unsuspicious, and pathetic," but beyond 
 her calibre. " The public have only to thank her for essaying 
 a part that no one else in the establishment could so well 
 portray " or, in other words, " a good deed in a naughty 
 world " again. The Times throws further light upon her 
 comparative failure, in the significant sentence : " It is 
 the representation of a nature that cannot believe a wrong, 
 and treats the approach of one with an unconsciousness 
 that appears almost like levity." 
 
 " Levity ! " Was " Thalia " still calling ? How hard is it 
 for an accomplished young comedy actress, or comedian 
 of any sort, to live down the implied limitation Ne sutor 
 ultra crepidam! 
 
 But we must return, for a moment, to the spring of 
 1845. 
 
 44 Theates," in the first letter above quoted, had expressed 
 
AT THE PRINCESS'S 89 
 
 the conviction that his favourite would make the best " Cor- 
 delia " that the stage of her day could produce. She was 
 soon given the opportunity appearing in that part, in 
 March and April, to Forrest's " Lear." This time there 
 was no failure. " Cordelia " is less exacting a role than 
 "Desdemona." She does not demand the same sustained 
 and tragic tension, nor is the actress called upon, as in " Lady 
 Anne," to tempt her sincerity by entering upon dialogue in 
 which, at bottom, the head rules the heart. Titanically 
 tragic though "Lear" be, beyond all that ever was written, 
 or shall be written, the pathos of " Cordelia's " opening scenes 
 remain within the range of domestic drama. The King's 
 " So young and so untender," capped by "Cordelia's" "So 
 young my Lord and true," is the simple yet most noble 
 wit of heart, rather than of head. In " Cordelia," therefore, 
 Mrs. Stirling found herself within her range, and if not 
 completely successful, came nearer to complete success than 
 in any other Shakespearean tragic impersonation. The 
 critics, upon the whole, were well satisfied, as witness the 
 Era 1 : 
 
 The " Cordelia " of Mrs. Stirling was exceedingly natural, grace- 
 ful, and touching. She is a charming as well as a talented actress . . . 
 was loudly called for at the conclusion of the tragedy, and received 
 a well-merited portion of the applause bestowed upon Mr. Forrest. 
 
 Upon Mrs. Stirling's intellectual and technical develop- 
 ment as an actress, during these seasons at the Princess's, 
 more light is thrown by that sympathetic writer in Tallis's 
 Magazine, whom we have already found occasion to quote. 
 
 We remember her " Cordelia " in " Lear," and accounted it, at 
 the time, one of the finest embodiments of character that we had 
 ever witnessed. The sweetness of her intonation, the beauty of her 
 person, the stateliness of her demeanour, and the grace of her action, 
 all qualified Mrs. Stirling for the representation of this, the loveliest 
 character in dramatic poetry. It was clear from her attitudes that 
 Mrs. Stirling had begun to study the statuesque ; and we perceived 
 in the fact an evidence that she was devoted to her profession in 
 earnest, ambitious of its honours, and in a fair way to win them. It 
 was now, too, that criticism made her the object of special remark ; 
 and general hopes were entertained that in Mrs. Stirling we possessed 
 
 i March 9, 1845. 
 
90 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 an actress capable of doing extraordinary things, when suitable demands 
 should be made upon her talents. . . . We have singled out " Cordelia " 
 for particular remark ; but in " Rosalind," 1 " Portia," and " Des- 
 demona" she achieved equal success, and in all her acting blended 
 pathos with power. 2 
 
 In " Hermia," too, she succeeded admirably, as one 
 would have supposed. The Musical and Dramatic Review 
 (July 18, 1846), described this as one of her most meritorious 
 performances, while the Examiner (April 10, 1847) praised 
 her thus : 
 
 It was pleasant to see Mrs. Stirling deliver the lovely part of 
 " Hermia.' 1 Whatever her position as an actress, as an elocutionist 
 she was always in the front rank. 
 
 Almost hyperbolic is the Theatrical Times of April 10, 1847 : 
 
 Compton and Mrs. Stirling were excellent in " Bottom " and 
 " Hermia." Probably no performer alive could have at all surpassed 
 them. " Hermia " is a small part, but the grace and poetic feeling 
 of the actress raised its importance. Mrs. Stirling is the best genteel 
 actress we have, and her every movement is easy as her every accent 
 is delightful. Nature might well smile upon her to see her own image 
 in such a form, and art almost despair to find a grace beyond her reach. 
 
 Into all the details of the heavy work done by her during 
 those busy years at the Princess's, we have no space to 
 enter. The varied list of her parts can be read at the end 
 of this book. A few of them only we will recall. 
 
 In May 1845 was put on " The Chevalier de St. George," 
 from the French original of the same name, played first 
 about 1840 by Lafont at the Theatre des Varietes ; here, 
 at the Princess's, by Wallack, who showed great breadth 
 and vigour in the part." 
 
 The " Comtesse de Presle n was played with extraordinary taste 
 and elegance by Mrs. Stirling. There was an indescribable combina- 
 tion of coquetry, gaiety, and pathos in her acting that pleased us 
 exceedingly. 3 
 
 1 " Rosalind " was probably her favourite Shakespearean part. See 
 Miss Mary Anderson's recollections of Mrs. Stirling in the last chapter of 
 this book. 
 
 a Her other Shakespearean parts at the Princess's were " Beatrice," 
 October 28, 1845, to Wallack's "Benedick"; "Rosalind," November 11, 
 1845; "Mrs. Ford," July 1, 1847; "Hermia," April 5, 1847. 
 
 3 Sunday Times, May 25, 1845. 
 
AT THE PRINCESS'S 91 
 
 In " Katharine and Petruchio " * also, and " Advice to 
 Husbands," she did very well. Concerning the latter the 
 same critic writes : 
 
 We have rarely seen a little piece played with more truth and feeling 
 than this was by Mr. James Vining, Mr. Granby, and Mrs. Stirling 
 more particularly the latter, who threw into the character of " Mrs. 
 Trevor " a degree of quiet pathos and womanly tenderness which 
 quite equalled, if it did not surpass, anything of the kind we have 
 hitherto witnessed in her performances. 
 
 The company, as a whole, was very strong. Besides 
 Macready, Wallack himself was an actor of high repute, 
 whether in tragedy or comedy; Leigh Murray, a promising 
 young player in juvenile tragedy ; James Vining, excellent in 
 seconds and in juveniles, serious or humorous ; R. Roxby, 
 clever in light and eccentric comedy ; Walton, good in heavy 
 business ; Granby, a favourite in stout and plethoric citizens 
 and old men ; Oxbery, in quaint boys and serving-men ; 
 and Compton, the best Shakespearean clown upon the English 
 stage. Charles Mathews and Mme. Vestris were also engaged. 
 One leading lady was Miss Emma Stanley, while in Mrs. 
 Stirling the management possessed an actress " able to assume 
 almost any character in the range of the drama with 
 absolute excellence in many, and taste, judgment, and 
 artistic feeling in all." 
 
 With such a wealth of talent at his command, it seems 
 strange that Maddox should ever have brought himself to 
 court almost certain failure, by such a production as " The 
 Ruins of Athens," adapted from Kotzebue's "Masque," that 
 had been first produced at Pesth. It was altogether a queer 
 affair, cited here only as an example of the extraordinary 
 lapses of judgment of which every manager, almost, at one 
 time or another, is guilty. Maddox, apparently, had 
 endeavoured to enliven the dreary bombast of the classical 
 portion of the show with a national procession, suggested, 
 
 1 " Mrs. Stirling fully understands her author ; she is the veritable 
 * Katharine ' ; her scornful laugh, her biting retorts, and her shrewish 
 soliloquy were perfect nature ; nor does she stop here ; she is not tamed 
 at once, but fights her ground inch by inch. In that part of the play in 
 which she perforce obeys ' Petruchio,' in changing sun for moon, her com- 
 pliance was such as ' Katharine's * ought to be angry, acid, and forced ; 
 nor does ' Petruchio ' gain a triumph until Mrs. Stirling completed hers 
 in the last act." Theatrical Times, October 28, 1848. 
 
92 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 said one of the press critics, " by that stunning work of 
 art, the Stratford Jubilee, exhibited in the window of Mr. 
 Grossmith's soap-shop, at the corner of Wellington Street, 
 Strand." 
 
 During the course of the proceedings, " Mercury," allotted 
 to Mrs. Stirling, delivered a popular lecture upon British 
 glory with a side kick at America and some highly 
 seasoned adulation for the Duke of Wellington, whose statue 
 politely popped up through a trap door, to receive the 
 compliment, and then popped down again, while afterwards 
 a procession marched round the stage, carrying banners, 
 on which were written the titles of Shakespeare's plays. 
 These puerilities were a reversion to the type of spectacle 
 extant circa 1832, when at Drury Lane, as an after-piece, 
 you would see the characters of Walter Scott's works grouped 
 about the poet's bust and empty chair, in his study at 
 Abbotsford ; " concluding with a grand scenic apotheosis 
 of the Minstrel of the North ! " 
 
 This masque was followed by a comedy, equally absurd, 
 " The Dreamer," 
 
 in which Mrs. Stirling played a very bad part with great humour, 
 which is much to her credit, and looked exceedingly beautiful, for 
 which we do not praise her, as it is impossible for her to look 
 otherwise. l 
 
 Upon only two more of these performances, during 1846 
 and 1847, will we comment. The first is a play with 
 some pretension to literary merit, and one that brought to 
 its author a genuine, though temporary, celebrity " The 
 King of the Commons," by the Rev. James White, in which 
 Macready, as "King James V 2 of Scotland," had some noble 
 and harmonious lines to speak. 
 
 What to hear? 
 
 His threats, and worse than threats his patronage ? 
 As if we stooped our sovran crown, or held it 
 As Vassal from the greatest king alive. 
 No, we are poor I know we are poor, my lords ; 
 
 1 Sunday Times, March 22, 1846. 
 
 2 Macready wrote in his diary : " Acted ' King James ' . . . very fairly 
 considering all things. Was called and very warmly received." May 20, 
 1846. 
 
AT THE PRINCESS'S 98 
 
 Our realm is but a niggard in its soil, 
 
 And the fat fields of England wave their crops 
 
 In richer dalliance with the autumn winds 
 
 Than our bleak plains ; but from our rugged dells 
 
 Springs a far richer harvest gallant hearts, 
 
 Stout hands, and courage that would think foul scorn 
 
 To quail before the face of mortal man. 
 
 The play, " though not so successful as the big placards 
 on the advertising van would have led one to suppose," 
 had a certain vogue, and, according to the Examiner, showed 
 Macready at his best, because 
 
 it afforded him opportunity in those masterly and delicate touches 
 of portraiture which are turned to good account by a great actor, 
 but are scarcely done justice to in criticism. One must see a portrait 
 by Titian or Holbein. Such is Macready's " James V." Mra. 
 Stirling's part of "Madeline Weir" was very weak. 
 
 An eccentric management indeed ! A few weeks before 
 playing " Hermia," in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 Maddox's leading lady is condemned to attempt " Hermine," 
 in " Dreams of the Heart," which, according to the Sunday 
 Times, was a " shabby, vulgar compound of nonsense and 
 immorality " hashed up from a French piece entitled 
 "Mesmerism," and lustily hissed by the audience almost 
 from beginning to end, as worthy only of Bartholomew 
 Fair. Nothing but Mrs. Stirling's acting saved it from being 
 hooted from the stage, 
 
 and the only natural and amusing incident in the performance was 
 the entry of a supernumerary actor, in the shape of a rough, ugly 
 little brown cur, in one of the most pathetic scenes of the drama, who 
 refused to quit the stage, although poked at from the orchestra, 
 whistled to from the coulisses, pelted from the flies, until having 
 satisfied himself by a general survey of the house, and paid a passing 
 tribute to one of the wings, he trotted off amid the only genuine 
 applause we heard during the evening. 
 
 Taken altogether, and despite the presence of so many 
 players of ability, the London drama was in rather a bad 
 way. By this time, including the French theatre at St 
 James's, there were nineteen theatrical and musical houses 
 open in London, in addition to the Saloons which were, by 
 
94 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 licence, theatres and a number of concert rooms also. 
 The supply somewhat exceeded the demand, and many 
 prominent actors, including Kean, Macready, and Wallack, 
 had, at one time or another, been induced to cross the Atlantic. 
 Of those named, only two Kean and Macready could 
 claim public confidence, as heads of a National Theatre. 
 Among many causes of the decline, a principal one was 
 the rentals, which though small when compared with 
 the figures of to-day were then considered exorbitant. 
 Elliston, at one time, was giving 11,000 a year for Drury 
 Lane ; and 25 to 30 a week was paid for the tiny 
 Strand. Proprietors, too, were often at fault in letting 
 deliberately to men of straw, hoping thereby to be in a 
 position to enforce better terms, and, if necessary, to obtain 
 ejectment more easily. Management excepting always 
 Macready 's was often very loose. Spirits were sold without 
 a licence; common informers being bribed to keep silence. 
 There was chicanery in the booking of seats ; defalcations by 
 under-paid doorkeepers ; managers' orders sold in Holywell 
 Street, and so forth. Moreover, there were too many of 
 the manager's friends visible behind the scenes gentlemen 
 who, knowing little, talked more than they knew. To the 
 lower-class houses demi-mondaines were admitted free, as 
 an additional attraction. 
 
 Rehearsals were often very badly conducted. Com- 
 paratively little work was done at home, and there was 
 too much reading upon the stage. Seldom was there enough 
 rehearsal with the scenery set the result being that the 
 manager was unable properly to judge beforehand of the 
 effect of a piece ; and actors, on the first night, would make 
 ludicrous mistakes, such as leaning against the walls of 
 distant castles. The dressing, also, was frequently in- 
 appropriate. Mme. Vestris, in the character of a soubrette, 
 wears white satin, decked with diamonds of great value, 
 while her mistress treads the stage in muslin. " Alfred 
 Jingle," penniless and starving, sports, at the Strand Theatre, 
 a handsome brooch and a diamond ring ; and even so 
 experienced an actress as Mrs. Jordan is seen in the " Country 
 Girl " in a wig stuck to the side of her head with a substance 
 that melted visibly during the bustle of the play. There 
 
AT THE PRINCESS'S 95 
 
 were too many sloppy revivals, dressed in old clothes ; too 
 much of the " I-have-played-it-fifty-times-and-know-it-inside- 
 out " sort of attitude. Ill-feeling was fostered among the 
 players by the bad managerial habit of putting up, in the 
 Green Room, the names of the original cast ; so that every 
 one knew who had been asked first for any particular part. 
 Only little by little were such stage abuses to be put an 
 end to, and a production at last conceived as a complete 
 and harmonious whole. 
 
 Yet, amid all these mistakes, failures, infelicities, and 
 exasperations, our actress was unremittingly at work, 
 increasing daily her technical efficiency, and charming many 
 a play-goer, and not a few of the critics also. In November 
 1846, for example, she played " Margaret," in "A 
 New Way to Pay Old Debts," to the "Sir Giles" of 
 an American actor, Scott, in one of Edmund Kean's most 
 tempestuous parts. The Theatrical Times (November 26) 
 writes : 
 
 The feminine delicacy, the winning grace, the ease, the nature, 
 the polish, of charming Mrs. Stirling, in " Margaret," are worthy of 
 the best days of the drama. We like sometimes to cast off our critical 
 glasses, and be children again in the enjoyment of the mimic scene ; 
 and it is impossible to be a critic when this actress is before one. She 
 is entirely English in her style, and yet we think she must have studied 
 in the French School of Art she is so entirely free from mannerism 
 and affectation. She has some points of resemblance to Rose Cheri, 1 
 but is superior to her. She realizes the exquisite idea in " Episy- 
 chidion," without any hyperbole " A metaphor of youth and spring 
 and morning." 
 
 1 In The Stage As It Is, by Dramaticus, published in 1847, the writer, 
 when mentioning Julia Bennett, says : " We frankly confess we don't like 
 her half as well as Mrs. Stirling, whom we regard as a true artist, the Rose 
 Ch^ri of our stage graceful and intellectual." 
 
 Rose Cheri (Rose Marie Cizos Montigny), born October 27, 1824, began 
 playing, at five years old, in her father's troupe, throughout central France 
 and Brittany. During the forties she played at the Gymnase, Paris, in 
 works by Scribe, Bayard, A. Dumas Fils, Emile Augier, and others ; and 
 married Lemoine Montigny, the Director of that theatre. Among her 
 principal r61es were the leads in " Le Collier de Perles," " Manon Lescaut," 
 "Mariage de Victorine," "Le Pour et le Centre," "Le Gendre de M. 
 Poirier," "Le Demi -Monde," and "Les Pattes de Mouche." Rose Cheri 
 had great personal charm, and a natural, flexible talent that fitted her 
 alike for comedy or serious drama. Dumas Fils said of her : " C'est la 
 seule actrice a laquelle lea femmes du monde accordent le droit de les 
 represented " 
 
96 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 And of her "Miss Hardcastle," in " She Stoops to 
 Conquer," thus : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling was all that could possibly be desired by the most 
 fastidious in " Miss Hardcastle." We hardly know of an actress on 
 the boards so very equal as she is. Mrs. Keeley l has more spirit, 
 intensity, and point, but then Mrs. Stirling possesses personal attrac- 
 tions, with a glad smile that steals like sunshine into the heart and 
 warms it, a clear bell-like voice, and an ease and airy lightness that 
 leave all rivalry behind. 
 
 1 Mrs. Keeley was considered by many to be the most intense performer 
 then upon the boards. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LYCEUM AND OLYMPIC 
 
 1847-49 
 
 Engaged by Mme. Vestris at the Lyceum Mme. Vestris as a performer 
 Mrs. Stirling plays " Mrs. Bracegirdle " in " The Tragedy Queen " 
 The original Mrs. Bracegirdle Macready's Benefit Performance at 
 Drury Lane His position on our stage Mrs. Stirling engaged with 
 Leigh Murray at Olympic " Laura Leeson " in " Time Tries All " 
 Complete success at last The place of these plays in the evo- 
 lution of our modern theatre Leigh Murray as man and actor 
 " Pauline " in " The Lady of Lyons " Mrs. Stirling's popularity 
 at the Olympic Her success in " Cousin Cherry " Destruction of 
 the Olympic by fire. 
 
 BY midsummer, 1847, Mrs. Stirling's long spell of work 
 at the Princess's had come to an end, when the actress, 
 after a holiday, was at once engaged by Mme. Vestris, 
 who had taken the Lyceum for the autumn season. 1 
 
 Mme. Vestris (Mrs. Charles Mathews) had probably 
 been the first female lessee of an English theatre, when 
 she had opened the Olympic, in January 1831. Technically 
 but a third-rate actress, this lady possessed great physical 
 charm, and a contralto voice so rich in quality that, had 
 its owner been endowed also with the necessary musical 
 patience and industry, she might well have queened it in 
 Italian opera. Though never attaining to that giddy 
 eminence, Mrs. Mathews remained, nevertheless, without 
 an equal, as a singer of songs upon the stage, and was a 
 general favourite, exploiting recklessly her gifts of archness, 
 fascination, and mutinerie, together with a certain careless 
 acceptance of homage, a prettily assumed simplicity, and a 
 confidential appeal to an audience, that made her the 
 spoiled darling of her public. The daring of her costumes 
 added also to her vogue among many play-goers, as did 
 
 1 Mme. Vestris had done good work for the drama, in being the first 
 to introduce a rational measure of realism into her drawing-room settings. 
 
 7 97 
 
98 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 also her playfulness, in which she was excelled by no 
 actress upon the stage, excepting only Mrs. Nisbett. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the woman beneath whose flag Mrs. 
 Stirling now found herself enrolled, opening, on October 18, 
 1847, as "Mary of Denmark" in "The Two Queens," 
 with Harley and Charles Selby also in the cast. The play 
 ran until October 30 ; November seems to have been idle, 
 and, on December 7, Mrs. Stirling takes part in a memorable 
 performance, the " Shakespeare Night," at Co vent Garden, 
 given to raise funds for the purchase of Shakespeare's house 
 at Stratford. Selections were acted from seven plays, Mrs. 
 Stirling's contribution being "Mrs. Ford," always one of 
 her best parts. 
 
 Then came the first of those " actress " impersonations, 
 her excellence in which was, in itself, a proof of the thorough- 
 ness of her professional attainment. " Mrs. Bracegirdle " 
 in "The Tragedy Queen "adapted by John Oxenford 
 from the French " Tiridate," in which Mme. Fargeuil had 
 represented the tragedienne, Dumesnil gave her opportunity 
 to impersonate, before the public, one of her most famous 
 predecessors upon the stage ; Oxenford having substituted, 
 for the French heroine, Mrs. Bracegirdle, the contemporary 
 of Congreve, whom rumour notwithstanding the protests 
 of Colley Cibber had persisted in making the dramatist's 
 wife, by a private marriage. 
 
 Antony Ashton says of her 1 : 
 
 She was of a lovely height, with dark brown hair and eyebrows, black, 
 sparkling eyes, a fresh blushy complexion ; and whenever she exerted 
 herself she had an involuntary flushing in her breast, neck and face, 
 having continuously a cheerful aspect, and a fine set of even white 
 teeth, never making an exit but that she left the audience in an 
 imitation of her pleasing countenance. 
 
 Cibber adds " that it was even a fashion among the gay 
 and young to have a taste or tendre for Mrs. Bracegirdle," 
 that other dramatists made their private court to her in 
 fictitious characters ; and further that " if anything could 
 excuse that desperate extravagance of love, that almost 
 frantic passion of Lee's ' Alexander the Great,' it must have 
 been when Mrs. Bracegirdle was his * Statira.' ' 
 
 1 "A Brief Supplement," etc. i.e. to Colley Gibber's Lives o' the Actors. 
 
LYCEUM AND OLYMPIC 99 
 
 Part of Mrs. Stirling's task was precisely, by reciting from 
 that " Statira," so to work upon an old man's feelings as to 
 bring the drama to a happy conclusion. This, it seems, she 
 successfully accomplished, showing great versatility of talent 
 in the declamatory dignity of the stage queen, the assumed 
 vulgarity of the actress, and the vivacity and tenderness 
 of the woman in her natural character. 
 
 After the conclusion of the Lyceum engagement, which 
 seems to have come to an end with the run of " A Happy 
 Family " with Mme. Vestris, Mathews, Buckstone and 
 Harley also in the cast I lose sight of her until July, when 
 she reappears behind the scenes at Drury Lane, walking 
 on, or taking a small part, upon the occasion of Macready's 
 benefit performance, July 10, 1848, previous to his departure 
 for America. 
 
 The evening was a compliment to the great actor, almost 
 without precedent in the later history of the stage. The 
 Queen had commanded the play, and visited the theatre 
 in state. The Queen Dowager, and other members of the 
 Royal Family, were also present, the building being thronged 
 with persons distinguished in the public life of the day, 
 and in the higher branches of literature and of art. Not 
 since the great assembly of rank and fashion that had 
 gathered to do honour to Garrick, 1 had such a tribute of 
 respect and admiration been offered to any English actor. 
 For Macready, as the Examiner had written, 2 was not 
 merely the greatest English actor of his time, he repre- 
 sented, in its poetical and national aspects, a stage that, 
 by his own private character, as well as by his own 
 public achievements, he had uplifted and exalted. As our 
 leading tragedian he was to be succeeded ultimately by 
 Samuel Phelps ; but, with all due recognition of Phelps' 
 good work for the theatre especially at Sadler's Wells 
 no man of Macready's calibre was to appear until Henry 
 Irving took the vacant place at the head of our national 
 drama. It is interesting to note that the play chosen by 
 Queen Victoria, upon that occasion, was " Henry VIII," the 
 " Cardinal " being one of Macready's best representations, 
 
 1 His farewell appearance June 10, 1776, as "Don Felix" in 'The 
 Wonder." a October 18, 1845. 
 
100 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 as it was also in the case of Henry Irving. Both actors 
 were great enough to interpret worthily the grandeur and 
 nobility of the character. 1 
 
 From " Henry VIII," with Macready, at Drury Lane, to 
 Leigh Murray's company, with light comedy, at the 
 Olympic, seems something of a descent ; but to that little 
 theatre, then standing in Wych Street, our story now 
 takes us. 
 
 It was not then a prosperous theatre. Indeed, it had 
 fallen upon evil days, and was near its end ; yet there was 
 in store for it a last burst of success, of which Mrs. Stirling 
 was to be one of the most potent causes. After some 
 sixteen years of laborious striving, with many failures, 
 and many set-backs, her patience and industry are, at last, 
 to be rewarded. She has reached the period of her life 
 to which, in later years, she was to look back, as the most 
 pleasant and successful of her long and arduous career 
 these coming seasons at the old and new Olympic, and 
 the New Strand. 
 
 Quite unpretentious was Courtnay's little play taken 
 from a story in the Family Herald " Time Tries All," a 
 with which, as " Laura Leeson," her first appearance at the 
 Olympic ushered in those days of complete success. It 
 was nothing more than a neatly written, simple, sentimental, 
 domestic comedy, concerning a wilful young heroine, who re- 
 jects her true lover, and drives him abroad, only to discover 
 not too late, of course that he is, after all, the man of 
 her mind. There was nothing striking in dialogue or 
 situation only ease, elegance, and such negative virtue as 
 enabled the actress, and actors too, so to imbue the simple 
 scenes with truth, that " though you are untouched by any 
 reading of the lines," when Mrs. Stirling gave the author 
 to the public, bearded men were seen crying. This is a 
 triumph of art, of which only great players are capable ; 
 and few there are to-day who can do it. Not many then 
 were so endowed. Mrs. Stirling was one of them ; another 
 
 1 Miss Ellen Terry recently told the writer that she considered " Wolsey " 
 to be Henry Irving's best part. 
 
 8 Courtnay had succeeded Douglas Jerrold as the tame playwright of 
 the 
 
LYCEUM AND OLYMPIC 101 
 
 was Macready, whose genius also could breulhb iinith': a 
 vitality, even into figures so artificial as " Werner " and 
 " Virginius." 
 
 Concerning " Laura Leeson " the press were more than 
 usually enthusiastic, one of the most laudatory and pertinent 
 critiques being that of the Era, 1 which ran : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling hits off the bewitching and wayward tormentor to the 
 life. She is too beautiful to be condemned ; too clever to be contra- 
 dicted . . . the drawing lesson she gives to her lover, while ignorant 
 of the obligation she is under to him, is an inimitable piece of 
 acting. 
 
 But there was more in " Laura Leeson's " success than 
 just that. This little comedy, and one or two others that 
 were to follow it, are landmarks, not merely in Mrs. Stirling's 
 career, but regarded from the right point of view in the 
 history of nineteenth-century drama. We have discussed, 
 in a previous chapter, the impossibility in the theatre, as 
 elsewhere, of putting new wine into old bottles. For the 
 successful establishment of the more developed stage, we 
 need always those long initiations. Plays, players, and 
 audiences must be wrought, little by little, towards the 
 change ; and I do not think that we shall be far from the 
 truth if, even in such simple plays as " Time Tries All," so 
 perfectly acted, with all the ease and facility of great art, we 
 claim to see the earliest stilly dawn of the newer and more 
 natural style, that, beginning definitely with the comedies 
 of Robertson, and the stage art of the Bancrofts, was to 
 come to fruition in the last quarter of the century. 
 
 Whatever their place or importance in the history of the 
 stage, these unpretentious comedies were certainly popular 
 successes, and that success was due first to the skill of Mrs. 
 Stirling, and in part also to the talent of Leigh Murray, who, 
 after being first stage manager to Stocqueler, had become 
 sole manager of the Olympic, and was now responsible for 
 the theatrical policy that introduced such happy trifles 
 as " Time Tries All," and " First Champagne." 
 
 Leigh Murray, as an actor, was generally considered to 
 be the best representative of juveniles then upon the stage. 
 
 1 September 10, 1848. 
 
102 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 But he was snore than that word conveys ; he was a versatile 
 player, well practised in catching the distinctive and salient 
 points of character, excellent in parts, calling for a patois 
 or a foreign accent, and clever at hitting off, with evident 
 gusto, any individual peculiarity. The man was no mere 
 imitator. He could personate and portray. His merits 
 were his own, and, like those of some plays he favoured, 
 they were partly negative, in that he avoided carefully 
 too much conventionality and mannerism. Murray was a 
 scholar and a gentleman, 1 and, in consequence, a friend of 
 Macready. 
 
 Altogether we may regard him as a careful, zealous, 
 energetic, sincere, and essentially natural actor, of the 
 newer school, conforming thoroughly with the newer type 
 of play he introduced. His company liked him, were on 
 good terms with him, and appreciated his work, as proved 
 by the presentation of a silver tankard to their chief, at 
 the close of the season. 
 
 Of the plays written during the first half of the nineteenth 
 century, very few remain in the permanent repertoires 
 of our stage. One drama, at least, however, has come near 
 to doing so, namely Bulwer's " The Lady of Lyons, " which, 
 though technically inferior to the same author's " Money," 
 appealed more to the public taste, and, being much more 
 easily put on, has long been a stand-by for theatrical benefit 
 matine*es. Nor is it yet quite extinct, for Mr. F. J. Nettle- 
 fold courageously, though unsuccessfully, revived it at 
 the Scala, during the autumn of 1919. Despite its obvious 
 crudities, the drama has two acting parts always alluring 
 to players endowed with the breadth of style essential to 
 their portrayal. From " Laura Leeson," wayward and 
 bewitching, Mrs. Stirling passed to " Pauline," the proud 
 and passionate, with Leigh Murray as " Claude." This 
 she followed with the lead in " Patronage," a play adapted 
 from a French comedy, " La Prote*ge*e sans le Savior " : then 
 came " Katharine " again, in " Katharine and Petruchia " 
 "played as though the part were written for her" 
 
 1 My mother said of him : "A moat charming and gentlemanly actor." 
 He was a frequent visitor at my grandmother's house, Arundel Street, 
 Strand. 
 
LYCEUM AND OLYMPIC 108 
 
 " Lucille," in a sentimental domestic drama, also, as usual, 
 from the French. It was Mrs. Keeley's old character, 
 but it suited Mrs. Stirling, who, according to the Era, was 
 exceedingly natural and finely impassioned. 
 
 Despite the ephemeral quality of the majority of her 
 roles, the leading lady at the Olympic was enhancing 
 her reputation with every week, and adding greatly to her 
 popularity. Of her next performance, " Julia Amor," in 
 a farce, " Love and Charity," the critic of the Era writes : x 
 
 This lady has become, and deservedly so, an enormous favourite here, 
 as she is everywhere. Indeed, we know not any whom the lessee 
 could have selected more capable of sustaining by her talent the 
 reputation of the theatre in such style of pieces. 
 
 Two qualities of her acting the work she was now doing 
 enabled her fully to display. We mean tenderness the ten- 
 derness that some had failed to see in her " Desdemona " 
 and vivacity ; and in no r61e undertaken by her throughout 
 her career did that second quality find more scope than in 
 her last and greatest success at the Olympic, as " Cousin 
 Cherry." The play adapted from a French Vaudeville, 
 " Le Moulin a Paroles " was put on, no doubt, for the express 
 purpose of exploiting that side of Mrs. Stirling's talent ; and 
 it succeeded admirably well. " Cousin Cherry " is the belle of 
 the village, and its shining light, the acknowledged authority 
 upon all matters, and upon every topic, whether sacred, 
 secular, social, or political. She is the lady oracle of the 
 district, to whose mandates all pay the most perfect obedience, 
 and before whose shrine all bow in humble submission. 
 She is, moreover, the accredited and undisputed dictatress 
 upon the family affairs of the Primroses, concerning which 
 she is inordinately inquisitive, and extravagantly loquacious ; 
 her merry little tongue resting never from morning till 
 night. 
 
 But her tongue having an edge, as well as a facility, 
 she begins, at last, by force of circumstance, to realize that 
 her endless prattle arouses at least as much dislike as 
 admiration. This discovery brings about the best situation 
 in the play, when, after a vain attempt, on the damsel's 
 1 November 19, 1848. 
 
104 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 part, to stem the torrent of her words, her volubility, in the 
 end, breaks down all obstacles, and sweeps on the stronger 
 for its check. 
 
 Such a part gave opportunities to an actress of the Stirling 
 type ; and she took them. The Era described her best. 
 
 To say that Mrs. Stirling was a charming representative of " Cousin 
 Cherry " would be only faint praise ; the arch vivacity and nawett 
 she threw into the part, the sparkling espUglerie with which she 
 invested the vain, capricious, yet kind-hearted coquette, were beyond 
 all praise : naturally truthful throughout, we saw, not Mrs. Stirling, 
 but, in " Cousin Cherry," a relative that would thaw the heart of the 
 most inflexible stoic that ever existed. 
 
 Let the reader note that " not Mrs. Stirling." As Charles 
 Reade was to observe later, 1 the actress had learned the great 
 importance to an impersonation, of first appearing before 
 the audience, not as a star performer, but in the character 
 to be portrayed 2 a merit which, upon this occasion, did 
 not escape the critic of the Theatrical Times. 3 
 
 In " Cousin Cherry " Mrs. Stirling comes on in her own delightful 
 way, pulling a greyhound with her, and setting all the house at once 
 in good humour. 
 
 Many others praised her rattling vivacity ; and forty- 
 seven years later, in an obituary notice of Lady Gregory, 
 as she had become The Times* referred to her engage- 
 ment at the Olympic, as being made important by her 
 acting in this part. 
 
 Then, on Thursday, March 29, 1849, occurred a disaster 
 all too common in theatrical annals the passing of a play- 
 house in fire. Under a cloud though not of smoke the 
 Olympic had been almost continuously since its erection, 
 some fifty years before, by that enterprising theatrical 
 speculator, Philip Astley, upon a site formerly occupied 
 by the mansion of the Earl of Craven, husband of Elizabeth, 
 titular Queen of Bohemia and only sister to Charles I 
 who, returning to England at the Restoration, was then 
 privately married to the Earl. 
 
 1 See infra, p. 134. 
 
 2 Lucien Guitry possesses this faculty in a very high degree. 
 8 November 25, 1848. * December 31, 1895. 
 
LYCEUM AND OLYMPIC 105 
 
 Obscurely placed in Wych Street, between Craven 
 Buildings and Newcastle Street, its occupiers had always 
 struggled ineffectually to make their house rank in fashion 
 and popularity with other West-End theatres. All had 
 failed, excepting only El listen, round about 1818. and Mme. 
 Vestris, from 1830-39. The majority of its managements 
 until Spicer and Davidson took it in 1847 -had been 
 of poor quality, from the dramatic standpoint ; and its 
 audiences, from time to time, had been regaled with musical, 
 equestrian, and even pugilistic entertainment. Now, in a 
 golden sunset of prosperity, the old Olympic was to pass. 
 
 At half-past five upon that Thursday afternoon, Mrs. 
 Stirling's husband, Edward Stirling, the stage-manager, 
 was standing near the wings. The gas-fitter was trying the 
 lights on the prompt side, when as is supposed the 
 curtain of cotton velvet, lined with calico, which had not 
 been properly festooned up out of the way, was blown on 
 to the light, and immediately caught fire. Stirling did 
 what he could, with buckets of water ; but the flames spread 
 with great rapidity, and though the dresses for the night 
 were saved, the theatre, in a few hours, was completely 
 destroyed, and the company rendered professionally homeless. 
 
 The Farrens were then holding an agreement for the 
 Olympic Theatre, so Mrs. Stirling took service under Henry 
 Farren at the New Strand, to which house Leigh Murray 
 accompanied her. Its fallen fortunes they were jointly 
 to assist in raising, as they had raised those of the old 
 Olympic. There, from June to September, she appeared 
 in four or more different plays, of which the two most note- 
 worthy were " Hearts are Trumps," by Mark Lemon, and 
 "Where there's a Will there's A Way," by J. M. Morton, 
 in which the newcomer played " Princess Francesca." 
 
 In a very short time the public began to render justice 
 to the talents of the company at the Strand, now " a hot- 
 bed in which farces sprang up like mushrooms," to endure 
 in general only for a mushroom space. 
 
 It was not to be all farce, however, for, after a short 
 illness, during which her parts were taken by Miss Gray 
 and Mrs. Leigh Murray, there followed an event of great 
 importance in Mrs. Stirling's theatrical career. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 " ADRIENNE LEGOUVREUR " 
 
 1849 
 
 Adrienne Lecouvreur," Mrs. Stirling's best tragic part Rachel in the 
 r61e Oxenford's version put on by the Farrens at the Strand 
 Difficulties of an English rendering Quotations from French classics 
 unfamiliar to an English audience Mrs. Stirling's qualifications for 
 "Adrienne" Favourable press comments Rachel plays "Adrienne" 
 at St. James's The two performances compared "Miss Hard- 
 castle " " lolanthe " in " King Renews Daughter " Great success 
 in this poetical play. 
 
 ON October 9, 1849, Mrs. Stirling played, for the first time, 
 the part that, in after years, she was to look upon as her 
 best in tragedy, and would sometimes speak of as, in many 
 respects, the best performance of her life. Artists often say 
 of themselves and it is often said of them that they are 
 incapable of passing sound judgment upon their own en- 
 deavours. Not everyone will accept the limitation as true ; 
 but in the case of executive performers generally painters, 
 sculptors, actors, and musicians it is certain that a majority 
 probably a large majority possess the analytical skill 
 combined with power of detachment enough to enable 
 them to gauge, as well as any other critic, the quality of their 
 own work. Macready could do so, and, in the diary, passes 
 upon his own performances every variety of critical judg- 
 ment, from complete condemnation, through indifference, 
 to unstinted praise. Not public applause only, nor 
 favourable press comment, but the artist's own con- 
 science, is the alter ego that can stand aloof, and appraise 
 judicially the value of his achievement. And the verdict 
 of posterity, at last, will, in general, concur with his 
 own. 
 
 Edmund Kean knew that the third act of " Othello " was 
 
 106 
 
"ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR " 107 
 
 his " most satisfactory performance " ; and posterity has 
 endorsed that judgment. Mrs. Stirling thought that her 
 best serious work was done in " Adrienne Lecouvreur," l and 
 the probabilities are that she was right. 
 
 Even to those who, like the writer, never saw Mrs. 
 Stirling upon the stage, a reason for her legitimate pride 
 in this performance of " Adrienne" is not far to seek. When 
 she took up the part in London, the English actress, if not 
 competing, was directly challenging comparison with the 
 leading tragedienne of the day, perhaps of all time, Mdlle. 
 Rachel, 2 for whom the play was written, whose favourite 
 r61e it became, and to whose genius its success was largely 
 due. 
 
 " Adrienne Lecouvreur," considered from our modern 
 point of view, is no masterpiece. It is crude in character- 
 drawing, stagey, and artificial to the last degree ; but, 
 constructed with all Scribe's technical deftness, it tells as 
 do the highly coloured dramas of his successor, Sardou 
 an intensely dramatic tale of pride and passion, that 
 provides powerful acting scenes, for players competent to 
 take advantage of them. 
 
 The French version, by Scribe and Legouve*, was played, 
 for the first time, at the Theatre Franais, on April 14, 1849, 
 
 1 Adrienne Lecouvreur, the celebrated French tragedienne and intimate 
 friend of Voltaire, made her first appearance at the Come*die Fran$aise, 
 May 14, 1717, when in her twenty-seventh year. She died suddenly, on' 
 March 17, 1780, two days after playing the part of " Jocaste." Rumour 
 accounted for her death by asserting that, while playing " Phedre," 
 Adrienne saw, one night, in a box, the Duchesse de Bouillon, a lady known 
 to be intimate with Maurice, Comte de Saxe, whom Adrienne loved and 
 had befriended. The actress, stung by jealousy, recited certain of her lines 
 to the Duchess, when the audience, by their clamour, showed that they 
 understood the allusion. The Duchess revenged herself by poisoning 
 Adrienne. Upon this legend, which is supported by no evidence whatever, 
 is based the plot of both French and English versions of the drama. 
 
 8 Rachel, born in 1820, was then twenty-nine years old, and at the 
 height of her fame. " Adrienne Lecouvreur " was her first prose part, 
 and the first step out of her classical repertoire. She played it for the 
 first time at the Theatre Francais, April 14, 1849. Her last appearance 
 in it was at Charleston, U.S.A., on December 17, 1856, when she was 
 already mortally ill. She died at Cannet, near Cannes, January 3, 1858. 
 "Adrienne" is the only part devised for her that has kept a place in the 
 theatre. The writer saw it billed at Nantes, May 1920. 
 
 Mme. Sarah Bernhardt has also made the part her own, but Matthew 
 Arnold, writing in 1879, expresses the opinion that Rachel is intellectually 
 far above Bernhardt. " She began almost where Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt 
 ended." Will posterity endorse that verdict ? 
 
108 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 with Rachel, then at the height of her fame, in the title 
 part. Six months later, while the strong emotions roused 
 by Rachel's performance were yet fresh in public memory, 
 the Farrens played their coup. They billed " The Reigning 
 Favourite," 1 an English version of "Adrienne," with Mrs. 
 Stirling in Rachel's part. Oxenford, as translator and 
 adapter, was a sound choice. He had done " The Tragedy 
 Queen" (Mrs. Bracegirdle) for Mrs. Stirling at the Lyceum, 
 and was experienced at such work. In this instance also he 
 acquitted himself well, maintained the play at a reasonably 
 high standard of literature and poetry, and, by compressing 
 his version, greatly aided the English actress's chances of 
 success, if, as I suppose, lack of power to sustain was one of 
 her weaknesses in tragic work. 
 
 Yet there still remained many and grave disadvantages, 
 from which there was no escape for any English rendering 
 of the play this one, in particular, that the French authors 
 had cleverly woven into the fabric of " Adrienne's " r61e 
 passages from the French classics, perfectly familiar, and 
 therefore welcome, to Parisian audiences, but robbed of 
 half their significance in a London theatre. In Act II, 
 for example, occurs a charming passage between the 
 lovers, when "Maurice" produces the bullet-pierced copy 
 of La Fontaine's fables, that "Adrienne" had given 
 him, whereby to improve his scanty knowledge of her 
 language. 
 
 ADRIENNE. Et ce petit exemplaire de La Fontaine, que je vous 
 avals donne* en partant ? 
 
 MAURICE. II ne m'a jamais quitte* . . . il etait la, toil jours la 
 ... a telles enseignes qu'il m'a sauve* d'une balle dont il a garde* 
 1'empreinte. Voyez plutot ! 
 
 ADRIENNE. Et vous 1'avez lu ? 
 
 MAURICE. Ma foi, non. 
 
 ADRIENNE. Pas mSine la fable des deux pigeons, que je vous 
 avals recommande'e ? 
 
 MAURICE. C'est vrai . . . mais pardonnez moi, ce n'est qu'ime 
 fable. 
 
 1 An earlier English adaptation had been made by Theodore Martin, in 
 which Helen Faucit, Lady Martin, appeared as "Adrienne," at Manchester, 
 with great success. Sir Theodore Martin, in his biography of Helen Faucit, 
 does not mention Mrs. Stirling, saying merely that Kachel " had hitherto 
 been identified with the part," p. 233. 
 
"ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR " 109 
 
 ADRIENNE (d/un air de reproche). Une fable ! vous ne voyez la 
 qu'une fable ? 
 
 (rtcitant) " Deux pigeons s'aimaient . . . 
 
 (avec expression) d'araour tendre." 
 MAURICE. Comme nous ! 
 ADRIENNE. " L'un d'eux, s'ennuyant au logis, 
 
 Fut assez fou pour entreprendre 
 
 Un voyage en loin tain pays." 
 MAURICE. Comme moi ! 
 ADRIENNE. " L'autre lui dit : Qu'allez-vous faire ? 
 
 Voulez vous quitter votre frere ? 
 
 L'absence est le plus grand des maux. 
 
 Non pas pour vous, cruel ! " 
 MAURICE. Est-ce qu'il y a cela ? 
 ADRIENNE (continuant). " Helas ! dirai-je, il pleut ! 
 
 Mon frere a-t-il tout ce q'il veut, 
 
 Bon souper, bon gite, et le reste ? " 
 MAURICE (vivement). Le reste ! Ah ! apres ? apres ? 
 ADRIENNE (souriant). Apres ? . . . (avec finesse). Ah ! cela vous 
 interesse done, Monsieur? 
 
 Now all this is tender and charming, even to an English 
 ear ; but it was doubly beautiful, and doubly significant, to 
 an audience who had read that same fable to their children, 
 or, as children, had heard it read to them. As Rachel 
 spoke those words, with exquisite grace and simplicity, 
 they possessed, henceforth, a fuller meaning in all French 
 ears upon whom they fell ; but upon an English audience, 
 in translation, they were wellnigh lost. 
 
 Again, at the climax of the play, Scribe makes use, 
 once more, and most effectively, of the same device. 
 " Maurice," released from prison through the generous 
 intervention of " Adrienne " who has raised on her jewels 
 the amount of his debt and believing the treacherous 
 *' Princesse de Bouillon " to be his benefactress, comes to her 
 house, to thank her. There he meets " Adrienne," who has 
 been invited, that same evening, to recite before a large 
 company. The moment comes ; and the actress, furious 
 at the attentions paid by "Maurice" to "Mme. de Bouilbn," 
 revenges herself upon her supposed rival by reciting at her 
 the well-known lines of " Phedre " to " Oenone " : l 
 
 i " Ph6dre," Act III, Sue 3. 
 
110 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 ADEIENNE (rtcitant avec une agitation et une fi&vre toujours crois- 
 sante, Us yeux fixts sur la princesse, qui se penche plusieurs fois tur 
 Vtpaule de Maurice et lui parle bas avec affection). 
 " Juste ciel . . . qu'ai je fait aujourd'hui ? 
 Mon e*poux va parattre, et son flls avec lui ! 
 Je verrai le te"moin de ma flamme adultere 
 Observant de quel front j'ose aborder son pere. 
 Le coeur grog de soupirs qu'il n'a point e"coutes 
 
 (regardant Maurice). 
 
 L'oeil humide de pleurs par 1'ingrat rebutes, 
 Pense-tu que, sensible a Phonneur de The"se*e, 
 H lui cache 1'ardeur dont je suis embrasde ? 
 Laissera-t-il trahir et son pere et son roi ? 
 Pourra-t-il contenir 1'horreur qu'il a pour moi ? 
 II se tairait en vain ! je sais mes perfidies, 
 Oenone ! . . . et ne suis point de ces femmes hardies, 
 
 (hors cTelle meme et s'avancant vers la Princesse) 
 Qui goutant dans le crime une honteuse paix, 
 Ont su se faire un front qui ne rougit jamais ! " 
 (Elle continue a s'avancer vers la Princesse, qu'elle 
 dtsigne du doigt . . . pendant que les dames et 
 seigneurs se levent comme effraye's de cette scene). 1 
 
 Now this provides a scene strong both in situation and 
 expression ; but, though Oxenford has done his best, this 
 version of the closing outburst : 
 
 For I am one of those who cannot feign ; 
 Not one of those who, sinning, shows no trace, 
 Blest with the gift of an unblushing face, 
 
 will not bear comparison with the directness, power, and 
 
 passion of 
 
 Oenone . . . et ne suis point de ces femmes hardies, 
 Qui, goutant dans le crime une honteuse paix, 
 Ont su se faire un front qui ne rougit jamais. 
 
 1 Oxenford's version of the passage is as follows : 
 Oh, fatal is the deed which I have done, 
 I must behold my husband with his son ; 
 The youth aware of my unholy fire, 
 Will watch the face with which I meet his sire, 
 Knowing my heart swells with unheeded sighs, 
 Unheeded tears still glisten in these eyes. 
 Will he, indifferent to his father's name, 
 Conceal that love which is my crime, my shame ? 
 Conceal the horror which he feels for me 
 Betray his king ? No, no it cannot be. 
 Nay ! if he tried to shield me 'twould be vain, 
 For I am one of those that cannot feign, 
 Not one of those who, sinning, shows no trace, 
 Blest with the gift of an unblushing face ! 
 
"ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR " 111 
 
 Upon " ne rougit jamais," a tragedienne trained in declama- 
 tion can pour out all her strength ; and in France she could 
 do it with correspondingly heightened effect, upon a stage 
 rival, and upon an audience who, we may suppose, had 
 heard her deliver that identical passage in the r61e of 
 " Phedre." 
 
 Against all such disadvantages, and many others, the 
 English exponent of "Adrienne" had to contend, with the 
 counterpoise only in her favour that her style, graceful, 
 natural, subtle, and very Latin in its limpid lucidity, was 
 essentially of the French school. 1 Granted this, the part 
 remains a very difficult one. Strong passion has to be 
 displayed in many scenes ; but in none, save the last, is 
 it allowed full expression. 2 Its intensity, therefore, must 
 be indicated and suggested, rather than fully revealed. 
 Only in the death scene, when " Adrienne " has breathed 
 the slow and subtle poison placed by her rival within her 
 lover's bouquet, can her agony of soul find vent. 
 
 These difficulties Rachel's English follower triumphantly 
 overcame, as one may read in the press comments of the 
 morrow. That of The Times is as follows : 
 
 Probably Mrs. Stirling never acted so finely as in the character 
 of " Adrienne." . . . The intelligence with which she seized upon 
 points not of themselves salient, and the great though quiet force 
 with which she gave them, was admirable. There was a whole history 
 of internal emotion, without anything like violent ebullition. In the 
 cited speeches she had to deliver . . . she laboured under a difficulty 
 which did not exist on the Parisian stage. To the French public 
 these speeches are all familiar, but to the English they were only 
 rendered significant by Mrs. Stirling's excellent delivery. The part 
 of " Michonnet," a strange mixture of comicality and pathos, was 
 beautifully acted by Mr. Farren. The success of the drama was 
 unequivocal, and the principal actors and the author were loudly 
 called. 
 
 This verdict the Examiner endorsed. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is so very admirable in it that the drama may be 
 looked upon as an important epoch in her dramatic career. She 
 
 1 I incline to think that Mrs. Stirling had some French blood in her : 
 Miss Baylis believes that she was Irish-Celt on one side of her family. 
 
 a In the French version " Adrienne" also recites passages from Corneille's 
 " Psyche," 
 
112 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 really sustained it, lifting it up, when it flagged towards the begin- 
 ning ; and, when the introductory part was over, giving full force 
 to the great recitation scene. 
 
 Here we may anticipate a little, by adding that Rachel 
 herself played the part for the first time in England, at 
 St. James's Theatre, on July 8, 1850, with extraordinary 
 success, " the curtain descending upon the concluding 
 tableau amid the audible sighs and sobs of the audience." l 
 
 The event, indeed, created something of a sensation 
 in theatrical London ; but the management of the little 
 Strand, nothing daunted, promptly challenged comparison, 
 by reviving the English version. One evening a slim young 
 woman was observed to be sitting in the stalls, and frequently 
 applauding Mrs. Stirling. It was Mdlle. Rachel herself. 
 What her detailed impressions of the performance were, 
 it would be interesting to know. That the two renderings 
 differed greatly, and that there was no imitation, and that 
 in intensity the English woman did not approach the French 
 tragedienne, we may be absolutely sure. Some of the 
 critics, therefore, took occasion to admonish severely the 
 Strand management, for thus daring to rush in. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is unquestionably an accomplished and versatile 
 actress, and has no superior on the English stage in many parts in 
 which she has achieved deserved popularity : she cannot, however, 
 increase her reputation by competing with the greatest of living 
 artistes in this part. Had we seen only Mrs. Stirling's " Adrienne 
 Lecouvreur " we should have pronounced it an excellent performance, 
 exhibiting great variety of style, and powerful development of passion : 
 but, having witnessed Rachel in the part, we must, despite our nation- 
 ality, confess that there is only one actress in the world who can really 
 play it. 2 
 
 This is honest and fair, and probably expresses the 
 opinion of nine-tenths of those who saw both performances ; 
 yet I cannot help thinking it possible that, in the lighter 
 touches of the part I mean especially in tenderness and 
 pathos Mrs. Stirling was at least Rachel's equal, if not 
 her superior, even though the French actress eclipsed her 
 in vehemence and in passion. Those latter qualities in 
 
 1 Sunday Time*, July 14, 1850. 2 Ibid, July 6, 1851. 
 
"ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR " 113 
 
 Rachel, it is interesting to note, did not wholly please all 
 English critics. Macready, in his diary, July 9, 1847, had 
 written : 
 
 Went to see Rachel in ** Phddre." It was a very striking performance, 
 all intensity ; all in a spirit of vehemence and fury, that made me feel 
 a want of keeping. I could have fancied a more self-contained per- 
 formance, more passionate fondness, not fury, in her love, and more 
 pathos. I could imagine a performance exciting more pity for the 
 character than she inspired, and equal effect in the scenes of rage 
 and despair. 
 
 The*ophile Gautier, moreover, had written : " Rachel fut 
 froide comme Pantiquite." These comments are some- 
 what paradoxical ; yet one wonders whether Rachel did 
 not, on occasion, tear her passion to tatters, and lose in 
 tenderness what she gained in intensity? But we may 
 not push too far a comparison between actresses whom we 
 have not seen. 
 
 Having here touched tragedy, and gained a popular 
 success in a serious play, it might have been supposed that 
 Mrs. Stirling, henceforth, would be seen more often in 
 dramas that would draw upon, and so develop, her tragic 
 power, This was so ; but only to a limited extent, because 
 the Farrens always relied principally upon lighter work 
 for their financial success, and also for the reason that we 
 lacked, and were to continue to lack, playwrights and 
 plays capable of providing the necessary medium. Mrs. 
 Stirling's versatility, moreover, was, in this respect, a handicap 
 to her. The actress who can " do anything," is naturally 
 given everything to do ; and the lady herself had no par- 
 ticular desire to specialize. All was fish that came to 
 her net. 
 
 With the close of the year she was given two parts that 
 pleased her: "Miss Hardcastle," in "She Stoops to 
 Conquer," December 1, 1849, followed, on the llth, by one 
 of the most delicately fragrant little productions of the 
 century, a versified translation, by Sir Theodore Martin, of 
 a play from the Danish of Henrik Hertz, entitled " King 
 Renews Daughter." l The monarch in question being " Good 
 
 1 Revived a few years ago at the Old Vic, with Miss Sybil Thorndyke 
 as " lolanthe." 
 
 8 
 
114 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 King Rene," the aesthetic and dilettante prince, whose 
 portrait is still to be seen carved upon the cathedral doors 
 of Aix, and whose memories yet linger pleasantly among 
 the sunny vine-lands of Provence. The play, which had 
 proved a triumphant success on the continent, was originally 
 translated for Miss Faucit, and should have been produced 
 in Dublin, for the season of 1848-49 : that lady's illness, 
 however, necessitated a postponement, and ultimately, 
 with her permission, it was put on, instead, at the Strand, 
 where Mrs. Stirling replaced Miss Faucit as the blind princess, 
 " lolanthe." 
 
 The success of the venture was as great as could have 
 been expected, seeing that the little idyll is of the lightest 
 texture, almost wholly devoid of dramatic quality, and 
 dependent for success upon its limpid, lyrical beauty, the 
 atmosphere of mediaeval romance in which it is conceived, 
 and, of course, upon the ability of the players worthily to 
 interpret the author's poetry. This Mrs. Stirling was able 
 to do, throughout a part which, in its simplicity, innocence, 
 and idealism, was as far removed as any r61e could be from 
 the passionate intensity of " Adrienne." " This pleasing 
 little Danish drama," says the Examiner, " has elicited a 
 new phase of Mrs. Stirling's versatility and talent." It is 
 pleasant, moreover, to have to record her appearance, 
 during those barren days of theatrical literature, in a 
 play that possessed some claim to literary feeling and 
 excellence. 1 
 
 The critic of The Times best describes this rendering of 
 " lolanthe." 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is just the actress to seize on a definite idea, and to 
 work it out with thoughtfulness and accuracy. The uncertainty of 
 her movements as the blind girl, the attitudes which were too pleasing 
 to be called awkward, but which yet conveyed the notion of an in- 
 
 1 The play was first translated into English by Jane Francis Chapman 
 in 1845, and first played in these islands on November 28, 1848, at the 
 Theatre Royal, Dublin a translation by the Hon. Edward Phipps. This 
 was a triumph for the Keans, the comments of the Irish press being among 
 the most laudatory I ever saw. The Irish are wholehearted in blessing, 
 as in cursing. The Keans revived it at the St. James's, April 10, 1850, 
 with Charles Kean as " Count Tristan " and Mrs. C. Kean as " lolanthe." 
 Sir T. Martin, in his biography of Helen Faucit (Lady Martin), does not 
 mention Mrs. Stirling in connection with " lolanthe," nor with " Adrienne." 
 
"ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR " 115 
 
 ability in the body to obey the dictates of the mind, were highly 
 truthful, and the air of trusting simplicity with which she replied 
 even to a strange voice, was the more pathetic from the complete 
 absence of exaggeration. The attitude with which, on her restoration 
 to sight, she greeted the sky above her, approached the statuesque, 
 and showed a profound conception of the beauty of the situation. 
 
 My mother tells me that she remembers "lolanthe" 
 as among the most beautiful of her mother's performances. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET 
 
 1849-51 
 
 Mrs. Glover's last appearances Her " Mrs. Heidelberg " in " The 
 Clandestine Marriage " Her farewell to the stage Popularity of 
 the Strand Mrs. Stirling's " Minerva " in Talfourd's " Diogenes " 
 As " Constance " in " The Love Chase " Her " Constance " and 
 Mrs. Nisbett's compared " Olivia " in " The Vicar of Wakefield " 
 " Polly Crisp," a popular success Plays from Germany : " Poor 
 Cousin Walter " and " Power and Principle " Death of Mrs. 
 Glover Mrs. Glover's and Mrs. Stirling's renderings of " Mrs. 
 Malaprop " compared Mrs. Stirling succeeds Mrs. Glover as leading 
 English exponent of old comedy " The Daughter of the Stars " 
 and " My Wife's Daughter " Revival of " Speed the Plough " 
 Uses of crude melodrama Critical article on Mrs. Stirling in 
 Tains' s Magazine " All is not Gold that Glitters " Mrs. Stirling 
 as " Martha Gibbs " Retirement of Macready " King Charles " 
 and " Sir Roger de Coverley." 
 
 DURING this memorable season at the Strand, where Mrs. 
 Stirling's star was in the ascendant, one of her old stage 
 companions in the same company was making her fare- 
 well appearances, in plays and parts that had long been 
 associated with her name. We refer, of course, to Mrs. 
 Glover, who, on November 12, 1849, appeared as " Mrs. 
 Heidelberg " in Garrick's and Colman the elder's famous 
 comedy, " The Clandestine Marriage," to the "Lord Ogleby " 
 of William Farren senior, and the " Fanny " of Mrs. Stirling. 
 The veteran actress had now abandoned new parts ; 
 but in old favourites, such as this, she was almost as good 
 as ever, and notably as " Mrs. Heidelberg." 
 
 It is in such parts [wrote the critic of the Sunday Times] l that 
 this admirable actress still plays with all the fire and spirit of her 
 youth, and we perceive the vast distance that lies between her and 
 the cleverest of her modern successors. 2 
 
 1 November 18, 1849. 
 
 8 " The Clandestine Marriage " was one of the best comedies of its 
 
 116 
 
STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET 117 
 
 This, be it observed, with " the cleverest of her modern 
 successors " in the same cast ! 
 
 This " little nutshell of a theatre," called the Strand, 
 though, of course, limited in its holding and financial 
 capacities, was then very popular and prosperous, as might 
 be expected, in view of the company's strength, and the 
 variety of dramatic fare supplied. Among the attrac- 
 tions at the close of the year was a clever burlesque by 
 Sergeant Talfourd, 1 entitled " Diogenes," in which Mrs. 
 Stirling played " Minerva," followed, on January 21, 1850, 
 by that really excellent and representative farce of Sheridan 
 Knowles, " The Love Chase," with Mrs. Glover in her 
 old part of " Widow Green," and W. Farren senior, for 
 the first time, as " Sir William Fondlove," played at the 
 original production by Strickland. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling took Mrs. Nisbett's role of " Neighbour 
 Constance," in which she had already appeared with 
 Macready at the Haymarket, in 1840. " Constance " was 
 a character that suited her well, and she made quite a hit 
 in it, the manner in which she rallied " Neighbour Wildrake," 
 and her forced gaiety, when she fancies that he is about 
 to marry elsewhere, being, it seems, most naturally and 
 effectively done. Comparing her acting in " The Love 
 Chase " with that of Mrs. Nisbett, contemporary critics 
 opined that, while the latter was more excellent in the 
 expression of irresistible mirth a faculty in which she 
 appears to have had never an equal upon the legitimate 
 stage, excepting only Mrs. Jordan Mrs. Stirling put more 
 light and shade into the picture. Touches of natural 
 tenderness, visible through the assumed indifference of 
 the wayward girl, gave an inexpressible charm to the 
 interpretation. 
 
 century. Coleman, in his Charles Reade makes the latter say, con- 
 cerning the spoken word in this play, "No private reader could ever see 
 these words as Glover used to fire them in ' The Clandestine Marriage.' 
 . . . * Will Sir John take Fanny without a fortune ? No ! After you 
 have settled the largest part of your property on your youngest daughter, 
 can there be an equal portion left to the elder ? No ! Doesn't this over- 
 turn the whole system of the family ? Yes ! ' ' 
 
 1 Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854) had become known to the 
 theatrical world by the production of his tragedy, " Ion," at Covent Garden, 
 in 1836. None of his other writings for the stage met with great success. 
 
118 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 "The Love Chase" was followed by Tom Taylor's 
 version of the " Vicar of Wakefield," in which Mrs. 
 Stirling played " Olivia," l a performance still remembered 
 with pleasure by living persons, including Sir Squire 
 Bancroft, who has told the writer how much he enjoyed 
 it, boy though he was at the time. Later on Mrs. Stirling 
 made " Olivia " one of her most popular parts, after 
 41 Peg Woffington," though her performance was never 
 technically equal to that of Mrs. Glover as " Mrs. Prim- 
 rose." There followed an opportunity to burlesque Mrs. 
 Glover herself, in a farce specially written for Mrs. Stirling, 
 by Stirling Coyne, entitled " A New and Peculiar Scene 
 in the Life of an Unprotected Female." This unprotected 
 female, " Polly Crisp," had the play all to herself, and, 
 with the aid of a little ventriloquism, could have done it 
 alone. " Polly," in doubt concerning her future way of life, 
 decides upon the stage, and proceeds accordingly to pre- 
 pare herself. Mrs. Stirling, always ready for some fun, 
 entered thoroughly into the spirit of the thing. As " Mrs. 
 Heidelberg," " Juliet," and other well-known characters, 
 she gave the audience extremely clever imitations of Mrs. 
 Glover and Mrs. Kean, with a clothes-horse for balcony, 
 and, for " Romeo," a stick robed in a barrister's gown, 
 and wigged. It all sounds very undignified to modern 
 ears, but was typical of the time. 
 
 One critic's appreciation moved him twice to latinity. 
 
 As to the performance of Mrs. Stirling (omnes junctce in una) ? twas 
 inimitable. The unflagging energy and the vivida vis animi which she 
 threw into the part were truly astonishing ; and just as " Diogenes," 
 in the after piece, seeks with his lantern for an honest man, we shall 
 only say, were Mr. Coyne to search the metropolis for a " Polly 
 Crisp," he could find but one, and that one decidedly Mrs. Stirling. 2 
 
 The part was one of her popular triumphs. 
 
 April brought " Poor Cousin Walter," in which Mrs. 
 Stirling, Cooke, W. Farren junior, and Leigh Murray took 
 part, in costumes of 1660. The story was quite im- 
 
 1 Recently revived, in Wills's version, by Miss Viola Tree, at the 
 Aldwych, with Miss Gladys Cooper as " Olivia." The most fascinating of 
 all the " Olivia's," no doubt, was Miss Ellen Terry, who, with (Sir) John 
 Hare, was the first to play it in Wills's version. 
 
 Sunday Times, February 10, 1850. 
 
STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET 119 
 
 probable, not to say impossible, yet there was a certain 
 elegance and neatness about Palgrave Simpson's work, that 
 as in the case of " Time Tries All " eked out by good 
 acting, saved the play, and effectually concealed its German 
 origin ; for the author acknowledged indebtedness to 
 " Der Landwizth," " The Farmer," by Princess Amelia 
 of Saxony. 
 
 The management of the New Strand produced, in 
 June 1850, without much success, another work of Teutonic 
 origin, " Power and Principle," from Schiller's early play, 
 " Kabale und Liebe," of his " storm and pressure period," l 
 adapted by Morris Barnett. 
 
 Mrs. Glover, meanwhile, had retired from the stage. 
 On June 8 she gave her last performance at the Strand, 
 as " Mrs. Malaprop," and on July 12 she chose the same 
 part for her farewell performance at Drury Lane. Ill and 
 almost voiceless, the veteran actress came through the 
 evening as best she might, and was seen no more upon 
 the boards. Within a few weeks she had passed from the 
 world-stage also, dying on July 16, 1850, amid the general 
 regrets of all who knew her, whether only as a great 
 actress, or also as a good woman. Having already referred 
 more than once to this great descendant of Betterton, 
 we need not here reiterate ; but, since Mrs. Stirling 
 was to be her legitimate successor in high comedy 
 generally, and in old English comedy in particular, it may 
 be interesting to compare the methods of the two actresses 
 in the rdle of " Mrs. Malaprop," the last that Mrs. Glover 
 played, and one in which neither she nor Mrs. Stirling, in 
 their respective manners, have ever been equalled. The 
 following study is by Westland Marston, one of the most 
 penetrating, and also among the sanest, of nineteenth- 
 century dramatic critics : 2 
 
 Those who having seen Mrs. Glover in " Mrs. Malaprop," have 
 also seen Mrs. Stirling's admirably telling delineation, full of intrigue, 
 life, and movement, of the same part, have had an opportunity of 
 seeing the utmost that two differing methods can produce, and of 
 comparing their effects. In the hands of each, the general outlines 
 
 1 Sturm und Drangperiode. 
 
 2 Our Recent Actors, 1888, i, 262. 
 
120 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 of a character so broadly defined as " Mrs. Malaprop," were, of course, 
 identical. The difference and it was considerable lay in shades 
 of expression. In uttering the grandiloquent phraseology of the 
 part, Mrs. Glover's self-satisfaction was more restrained, but not less 
 profound, than Mrs. Stirling's. The former seemed to hug the secret 
 of her superiority, the latter to revel in its presumed effect upon her 
 listeners. The compliments of " Captain Absolute " were received 
 by Mrs. Glover with evident pleasure, indeed, but with a conscious- 
 ness that they were absolutely her due ; by Mrs. Stirling with a flutter 
 of delighted vanity. In hearing herself described as an old weather- 
 beaten she-dragon resentment predominates with Mrs. Stirling, whilst 
 with Mrs. Glover an appealing astonishment against the profanity 
 of the impeachment was the leading sentiment. There are now few 
 who have had a chance of contrasting the claims of these two admir- 
 able actresses in the part in question ; but even those who have the 
 liveliest recollection of Mrs. Glover will recognize in Mrs. Stirling's 
 "Mrs. Malaprop" the finest example of old comedy acting left to 
 the contemporary stage. 
 
 This sagacious analysis was written a quarter of a 
 century or so later than 1850, the year we are now con- 
 sidering. Mrs. Stirling had not then played " Mrs. Mala- 
 prop," nor had she done so could she have matched 
 the technical acquirements of the more mature actress. 
 The passing of Mrs. Glover was to bring her larger oppor- 
 tunities in old English comedy, and, with opportunity, 
 experience that had not hitherto come her way. 
 
 Heavy, indeed, was the work imposed upon Farren's 
 leading lady at this time. On August 5 she played 
 " Miriam," " The Daughter of the Stars," a strong acting 
 part, in the character of an impertinent yet withal virtuous, 
 philosophical, poetical, and epigrammatic gipsy. Shirley 
 Brooks, the author, here curiously dodging dramatic con- 
 vention, by denying to " Miriam," at last, the man of her 
 love, and so bringing down upon the head of an innocent 
 victim all the misery entailed by the sins of others. 
 
 During the same month, W. Farren, the lessee of the 
 Strand, took the Olympic, and on September 2 trans- 
 ferred thither his whole company, with " The Daughter 
 of the Stars." " Miriam," however, broke down on 
 September 4, and " Secret Service " was substituted, 
 until the 12th, when Farren put on " Giralada, or the 
 Invisible Husband," a somewhat colourless, and rather 
 
MRS. STIRLING, ABOUT 1850. 
 
 To face p. 120. 
 
STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET 121 
 
 suggestive, piece, adapted by Welstead from Scribe, 
 who, though too fond of trafficking in morbid sensibilities 
 as in "Adrienne Lecouvreur" was the ablest and most 
 prolific dramatist of his day, highly skilled in constructing 
 a plot of intrigue, and in weaving a complex story, with- 
 out too much entangling his threads. Another version of 
 the same play, by Ben Webster, was done at the Hay- 
 market at the same time. 
 
 October brought " My Wife's Daughter," cleverly 
 adapted from " La Femme de Quarante Ans," by Stirling 
 Coyne, who, in this piece, slight as it was, touched a level 
 rather higher than any reached in his earlier work, which 
 had consisted mainly of broad farce. The play, though 
 no wiser than many of its kind, was, as the French title 
 suggests, deftly contrived to provide a competent actress 
 with a carefully developed character-sketch of a married 
 lady of forty a woman of warm affections and of fine 
 sensibility, yet so acutely alive to the difference of years 
 between herself and her husband, that " un ombre, un 
 souffle, un rien, tout lui donnait la fievre." 
 
 The Sunday Times l was appreciative. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's impersonation of the loving and sensitive wife is 
 one of the most highly finished and perfectly artistic delineations 
 of character that we have ever seen. Mr. Compton, too, has struck 
 out for himself a new and distinct line of comic assumption in the 
 dignified " Gillyflower," the gentleman's gentleman a vulgar arro- 
 gance and imperturbable carelessness admirably sustained. 
 
 This run of success was bringing the Olympic, as it had 
 previously brought the Strand, prominently into public 
 notice ; and the house, despite its inferior situation, was 
 not only fully, but also fashionably attended. The Farrens 
 took the opportunity to engage Miss Helen Faucit, who, 
 after an absence of three years, reappeared upon the stage, 
 in a tragedy by Westland Marston, "Philip of France 2 and 
 Marie de Meraine," with Gustavus Brooke as the King. 
 Later Miss Faucit played " Pauline " in " The Lady of 
 Lyons," and appeared also in "The Hunchback," leaving, 
 just before Christmas, for a provincial tour. 
 
 1 October 17, 1850. 2 Philippe Auguste. 
 
122 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, meanwhile, was appearing in a number of 
 revivals of her old parts, including " Laura " in " Time 
 Tries All," and " Portia " to G. W. Brooke's " Shylock " ; 
 but the strain of incessant and arduous work was beginning 
 already to make itself so felt that, for a time, she was 
 seriously indisposed. Billed for " Gwynneth Vaughan," 
 her breakdown compelled the Farrens to substitute that 
 once popular old melodrama, tc Speed the Plough," by 
 Thomas Morton the elder, the heroine of which, " Susan 
 Ashfield," she had played in the old days. 1 In "Mrs. 
 Grundy," Mrs. Ashfield's mythical friend, we have, I sup- 
 pose, the original of the social critic, whose name except 
 among students of the stage has outlived her creator ; 
 for this must have been one of the last revivals of a class 
 of work that as Downton says of his spendthrift son, in 
 another famous play of bygone days, " The Road to Ruin " 
 is just " a jumble of fatuity." 
 
 " Speed the Plough " teems with stage devices dear to 
 the melodramatist. There are blood-stains, an old portrait, 
 a long-lost brother, a castle in flames, unexpected reap- 
 pearances, clasped hands, and wedding bells, set in a 
 dialogue of which two samples will give a sufficient idea : 
 
 SIR PHILIP. Have you removed every dreadful vestige from the 
 fatal chamber ? O ! speak ! 
 
 And this: 
 
 HENRY. The opiate that brings me sleep will be the recollection 
 of the day passed in innocence ! 
 SIR PHILIP. Noble boy ! 
 
 Such gems of dramatic conversation either recall Sir 
 Peter's phrase concerning sentiments, or raise a laugh, 
 according to one's humour ; yet, while we smile at them, 
 it is well to remember that such plays as " Speed the 
 Plough," despite their pompous verbosity, staginess, crude 
 characterization, and utter remoteness from real life, did, 
 nevertheless, by their inherent dramatic qualities, help to 
 imbue Mrs. Stirling, and other players of her day, with a 
 bigness and breadth of style essential to complete tech- 
 1 I cannot trace the date. 
 
STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET 123 
 
 nical equipment. Many modern actors and actresses fail 
 in almost all but drawing-room drama, for want of those 
 very qualities, of broad technique, that stage methods and 
 plays of seventy years ago demanded, and consequently 
 supplied. 
 
 During this year, 1850, when her daughter Fanny is 
 eight years old. and domestic pleasures and duties are 
 beginning already to conflict with stage ambitions, there 
 appeared in Tallis's Magazine a critical article that well 
 describes, though in somewhat too Victorian language, 
 Mrs. Stirling's development and achievement up to this 
 time. The writer evidently knew the many difficulties and 
 dangers that had beset the actress from the outset of her 
 career, and appreciated sympathetically the courage and 
 perseverance with which they had been met. 
 
 The course of theatrical experience to whicli Mrs. Stirling has 
 been destined, operating upon a flexible and plastic capacity, has 
 given her a versatility of talent which makes her equally ready in 
 all classes of the drama. From the domestic to the heroic, from the 
 comic to the tragic, from farce to the classical drama, Mrs. Stirling 
 is found in every grade of character an efficient representative. To 
 the highest poetry she is now capable of giving appropriate expression. 
 The sweet versification of " King Rene's Daughter " " fell mended 
 from her tongue." Her elocution, though in tragedy somewhat want- 
 ing in variety, is always accurate. Her cadences arc exceedingly 
 musical, the tones of her voice remarkably pathetic, and her gestures 
 intensely expressive. She has a countenance capable of displaying 
 remarkable emotion, and also of relapsing into placidity and cheer- 
 fulness. Her art is peculiar and individual, unlike that of any other 
 actress. It combines simplicity with art, and not seldom conceals 
 the latter by the prudent interposition of the former. 
 
 In this narrative we have traced the course of a well-educated 
 lady, who by the accidental practice of an art, has at length ascer- 
 tained its principles and their useful application ; not the favoured 
 pupil of a school, who by early and timely discipline has been taught 
 the rules and enabled to foresee every step of her progress. All that 
 Mrs. Stirling has attained she has conquered by the labour of a long 
 professional life. Not the slightest toil has been spared her ; not 
 the slightest favour been enjoyed. Unassisted, unguided, without 
 patronage or direction, the solitary woman has been deserted, to do 
 battle with the trials, temptations, perils, and difficulties of her posi- 
 tion, by means of her native energies, and according to their unin- 
 structed capacity of development. Nature was trusted to do all 
 for her not fortune. Her bark has been left to the mercy of the 
 
124 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 winds and the waves ; but the novice at the helm, by simply doing 
 her best, has, after many delays and disappointments, nevertheless 
 succeeded in bringing it into port. 
 
 All this implies a heroism of character, perhaps little suspected, 
 but undoubtedly possessed. Mrs. Stirling is one who has suffered 
 much, who has had to endure both wrong and sorrow, whose path 
 has been beset with seductions and dangers ; one who has been com- 
 pelled to submit and patiently to wait ; one who has been enabled 
 by Providence to persevere, to find work and to do it ; and finally, 
 through good and ill report, to achieve a triumphal issue. Could 
 she have started in life with her present experience in it, she would 
 probably have conducted it after a different model, if indeed it can 
 be said to have a model at all. From the necessity of circumstance, 
 on the contrary, it was from the beginning without plan ; instinct 
 throughout, it may be, has substituted reason. But " in that," as 
 the poetic essayist on man has opined, it is " God directs " ; in this, 
 " 'tis man." " There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow " ; 
 and the destitute girl, seeking to remedy the evils of her social position 
 simply by her disposition to work, has, with whatever pain and toil, 
 found at length a partial recompense in the public acknowledgment 
 of her merit as an artist ; not holding the first place, only because 
 fortune has not been so favourable to her as to others. 
 
 44 Speed the Plough " was not the only once famous 
 but now extinct melodrama that Farren put on during 
 this season at the Olympic. There followed, on January 13, 
 1851, another that had a great vogue in its day 
 44 All is not Gold that Glitters," by Thomas Morton 
 the younger, and J. M. Morton, who need it be said 
 were adapting from a French original 44 Le Journal 
 d'une Fille," or something of the kind. The play 
 throughout is typical of its species, telling a story as 
 artificial as it is improbable. The nature to which 
 it should hold up the mirror to a superficial glance, 
 at any rate is not the human nature about us. 
 High-born lady, employer, factory girl, are not of the 
 metal that rings true to ordinary life. And yet one 
 can hardly quarrel with the critic of the Leader l when he 
 tells us that the play is 44 a piece very near being charm- 
 ing." Indeed, one might go a step farther and say that 
 it is quite charming, upon this one condition that the 
 spectator, consciously or unconsciously, accept without 
 
 1 January 18, 1851. 
 
STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET 125 
 
 reservation the luminous though profound metaphysical 
 truth, that human creatures are sound at heart, that the 
 love of man for woman is powerful, to the overcoming of 
 obstacles, and that a sense of humour, and a deed of kind- 
 ness, will shine always, as good deeds in a naughty world. 
 Humanity is the elemental strength of melodrama. " II 
 connait done son monde, ce bon Morton " well enough, 
 at least, to serve a melodramatic purpose. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, no doubt, enjoyed playing the part, though 
 she must have smiled at the naivetS of such lines as this, 
 concerning her aristocratic benefactress : 
 
 She stands upon the brink of ruin ! Shall I not snatch her from 
 destruction ? Yes, yes I I will save her, whose mother preserved 
 mine I (Looks at Sir A. the villain and drops her bouquet the 
 sign.) 
 
 Mrs. Stirling could play an intrigue with anybody, but 
 she was always ready, also, for an open-hearted piece of 
 acting ; and there was much of the open-hearted in 
 " Martha." That cast at the Olympic, with the Farrens 
 and Leigh Murray also there, must have well satisfied 
 authors and public. The Times of January 15 com- 
 mented : 
 
 The factory girl, " Martha Gibbs," is chiefly marked by her quiet 
 unobtrusiveness, for even her great sacrifices are made without osten- 
 tation, and it is just this quiet unobtrusiveness that is admirably 
 assumed by Mrs. Stirling. 
 
 Occasionally, however, she seems to have allowed remi- 
 niscences of " Adrienne " and " Mrs. Bracegirdle " to intrude 
 themselves ; for the Leader, while appreciating the charm- 
 ingly natural touches thrown into the part, asserts that 
 the actress once or twice forgot herself, and mounted the 
 stilts of the tragedy queen. Here was manifest again the 
 old tendency to over-act, due to a too intense desire to 
 please. 
 
 " All that Glitters " was followed, at the Olympic, by 
 a light comedy from the pen of Palgrave Simpson, " That 
 Odious Captain Cutter," which I should have passed over, 
 had not the author done what dramatists are not always 
 ready to do namely, make admission of how much a 
 
126 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 play may owe to the manner of its interpretation, and to 
 the indispensable filling up, that a novelist may do for 
 himself, but a playwright must leave to the player. Time 
 after time, during these years, did Mrs. Stirling and her 
 companions save their authors ; yet how many returned 
 to give thanks ? Simpson did so, at the close of the printed 
 version of his work. 
 
 To Mrs. Stirling and Mr. Leigh Murray the author takes this 
 occasion of offering his grateful acknowledgements of that display 
 of talent, which so very mainly contributed to the success of this 
 little comedy. To both the highest praise is due ; for the exquisite 
 grace, finesse, and the true comedy tone with which they so ably 
 filled up the sketches of the characters they represented. 
 
 This beginning of 1851 was a time of considerable 
 theatrical prosperity in London. The Princess's, Adelphi, 
 Lyceum, and Olympic were all doing well, and the Queen 
 had been commanding Shakespeare at Windsor Castle. 
 Macready, at the Haymarket, was giving his final per- 
 formances before taking a last farewell of the London 
 stage, on February 26, amid a scene of enthusiasm 
 almost without parallel in the history of the stage. Too 
 seldom do actors or actresses consent, as Macready and 
 the Bancrofts did, to retire while yet at the height of their 
 powers ; still more seldom do they so withdraw, as 
 Macready did, without one pang of regret for the beautiful 
 art they are abandoning. Failure to respect his art was a 
 part of his life's tragedy. 
 
 At the Olympic, however, the performances during the 
 spring and summer were not of exceptional interest. March 
 brought " King Charles," a comediatta, in which Mrs. 
 Stirling played " Mimi," a French girl. 
 
 If King Charles to Charles King will grant a long day 
 Charles King for King Charles for ever will pray ; 
 If King Charles to Charles King will grant liberty's light, 
 Then Charles King for King Charles for ever will fight. 
 
 This was followed by " Sir Roger de Coverley," x 
 adapted from Addison by Tom Taylor, who, while 
 
 1 April 21, 1851. 
 
STRAND, OLYMPIC, AND HAYMARKET 127 
 
 keeping as close as he might to Addisonian speech, had 
 largely to rely upon his own ingenuity for giving the thing 
 a dramatic bent. 
 
 Farren, as " Sir Roger n [said the Sunday Times] x seemed to have 
 stepped out of one of the family pictures ; and Mrs. Stirling, in whose 
 hands every character she assumes acquires importance, portrayed 
 with charming grace and vivacity the coquettish " Lady Bellairs. 11 
 
 1 April 27, 1851. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 CHARLES READE AND "THE LADIES' 
 BATTLE " 
 
 1851 
 
 Enter Charles Reade Introduced by Rogers, he reads " Christie John- 
 stone " to Mrs. Stirling The beginning of a friendship " La 
 Bataille des Dames " A dinner party at the " Star and Garter " 
 Reade adapts " The Ladies' Battle " Mrs. Stirling as the 
 " Comtesse d'Autreval " Reade as rehearser and critic French 
 and English renderings of the " Countess" Comparisons with Rachel 
 Letter of " Aristarchus " to Mrs. Stirling Reade's letter con- 
 cerning it Revivals at the Haymarket " The Man of Law " 
 Filching from the French Scandals due to absence of International 
 dramatic copyright Years of transition. 
 
 OUR story, hitherto, has brought us into contact with very 
 few individuals who were known personally to any of our 
 contemporaries ; but now, as we pass into the second half 
 of the nineteenth century, we are to meet people well 
 remembered by many still living ; and this book, though 
 not primarily concerned with the private life of its subject, 
 will lift, here and there, a corner of the veil, and become 
 momentarily, upon occasion, a biography as well as a record. 
 
 The very next production at the Olympic, in fact, is to 
 bring vividly into the picture the strange personality of a 
 certain impressionable, eccentric, impetuous, and imaginative 
 young genius, Charles Reade by name. Graphically has he 
 recounted, 1 through the medium of his friend, the late actor 
 John Coleman, the events that led up to, and the results 
 that grew from, his first meetings with Mrs. Stirling. 
 
 Charles Reade then, in 1850, a young man of thirty- 
 six years, 2 smitten, almost from boyhood, with a love of 
 the stage, that was to develop into a passion numbered 
 
 1 Charles Reade, by John Coleman, p. 81 et seq. 
 8 Born June 8, 1814. 
 
 128 
 
CHARLES READE, "THE LADIES' BATTLE" 129 
 
 already among his friends certain actors, with one of whom, 
 Jimmy Rogers, 1 otherwise " Melancholy James " melan- 
 choly off the stage, though humorous upon it, after the 
 manner of his kind he was upon terms of close intimacy. 
 
 Now Reade, having written a play, " Christie John- 
 stone," that he was anxious to see produced, had asked 
 " Melancholy James " for assistance in the matter. In the 
 month of November 1850 2 the latter had written to Reade, 
 to the effect that the " gorgious Stirling " had consented 
 to hear " Christie " read by its author. Reade at once 
 left Oxford, with the manuscript in his pocket, came to 
 London, and from a seat in Rogers' box, at the Olympic, 
 saw Mrs. Stirling play " Laura Leeson " in " Time Tries 
 All," Courtnay's little comedy, of which we have already 
 written. 3 
 
 When the play was over, " Melancholy James " took 
 his companion across the stage a first experience that 
 made his heart glow and introduced him to Mrs. Stirling, 
 in her dressing-room. Let him describe her as she then was. 4 
 
 You who have only seen Fanny Stirling in her declining years 
 can form no idea of what she was like when she first dawned on me 
 in the full rich glow of ripe womanhood. Above the middle height, 
 an abundance of brown waving hair, a somewhat pronounced nose, 
 sparkling eyes, luscious rosy lips, a bewitching smile, and a mouthful 
 of teeth like a young horse. . . . 
 
 44 Well, Jimmy," said she, beaming, " so this is your young friend 
 from Oxford ? " 
 
 44 M'yas, queen of my soul, the very identical flute," responded 
 James. 44 This blessed play of his is O.K. and has a rippin' part for 
 you. He's come all the way to town to read it to you. When is it 
 to be ?" 
 
 44 To-morrow at eleven second floor 27 Arundel Street. Excuse 
 me. Glad to form your acquaintance, sir. Emily, the door." 
 
 Then she bowed us out, like an empress ; and it had all been done 
 without my getting a word in edgeways. 
 
 1 " There was a complete unconsciousness of his own power to make 
 one laugh, which was more droll than I can describe. It was irresistible : 
 a sad face with a curious under-current of humour an odd quiet look of 
 surprise when an audience roared at him ; the more sadly surprised he 
 appeared, the more they laughed." The Bancrofts, p. 37. 
 
 1 Almost certainly November 13 or 16, 1850. The play was frequently 
 put on for a few nights. 
 
 8 See ante, p. 100. 
 
 4 Coleman's Reade, pp. 81 et aeq. Her beauty was evidently vital and 
 temperamental, rather than regular or classic. 
 
 9 
 
130 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Next morning the lady gave him a very cordial welcome 
 at Arundel Street. He read his play, of which, to his intense 
 disappointment, she did not approve. Personally, however, 
 he made an impression, received an invitation to stay to 
 lunch a good lunch. He accepted it, and so began a 
 friendship that was to have consequences, as is not 
 unusual when a beautiful and brilliant actress, and a clever 
 impressionable artist of the pen, are brought by destiny 
 together. 
 
 Some six months later, Charles Reade recently installed 
 Vice-Chancellor of Magdalen, Oxford, for 1851 finding 
 himself at Paris, on private business, attended March 17 
 the premiere of a new comedy, by Scribe and Legouve", 
 entitled " La Bataille des Dames." Pleased with the play, 
 and perceiving, in the " Comtesse d'Autreval," a fine part 
 for Mrs. Stirling, he obtained a copy of Scribe's work, and 
 without so much as a " By-your-leave ! " proceeded, after 
 the piratical fashion of the day, to translate and adapt 
 it for the London stage. On his return to town he read 
 " The Ladies' Battle " to Mrs. Stirling, who this time was 
 duly impressed. The two put their heads together ; a 
 dinner party was arranged, at the " Star and Garter," 
 Richmond, to which were invited Tom Taylor, the Farrens, 
 Leigh Murray, and others, who were all to be of the cast ; 
 and ultimately, on May 7, " The Ladies' Battle " was 
 produced at the Olympic, this being, according to Reade, 
 the first occasion and I suppose the last upon which 
 any Vice-Chancellor of a University College had accom- 
 plished such a feat during his year of office. 
 
 The play was only moderately successful, despite excellent 
 acting, in which Leigh Murray, though too robust and 
 manly, distinguished himself highly as " de Crignon." As 
 for Mrs. Stirling, " she," says Reade, " was head and 
 shoulders above everybody." This may well have been 
 the case, though, for reasons that will be more apparent 
 before long, it is necessary already to discount somewhat 
 his enthusiasm for his new friend. Intensely susceptible 
 to woman's beauty, and extraordinarily impulsive by nature, 
 his heart sometimes overruled his head, and he was eager 
 at this time to lavish upon Mrs. Stirling praises that he 
 
CHARLES READE, "THE LADIES' BATTLE " 131 
 
 never again bestowed upon any actress, excepting perhaps 
 only one Kate Terry. 
 
 Concerning Mrs. Stirling's performance in " The Ladies' 
 Battle," Reade, nevertheless, was able to give sound reasons 
 for the faith that was in him. Immature though it might 
 be, his faculty of analysing an actor's performance was 
 already strongly developed ; while his vivid and intensely 
 dramatic imagination, and his intuitive sympathy with 
 the art of the stage, rendered him already a competent, 
 though difficult and precocious, stage-manager. That he 
 was fully aware of his abilities in this respect, the following 
 extract shows : 
 
 A play of mine loses so enormously when not rehearsed by me, 
 that I fear I shall always torment them for the sake of my own credit. 
 What a difference there was in " The Ladies' Battle " brought out 
 at a second-rate theatre under my rehearsal, and at a first-rate theatre 
 under Leigh Murray's. ... He (the author) cannot speak beauti- 
 fully, as actors ought, but he can give the exact point of every sen- 
 tence in his work, and the acting business is to tune these words, 
 and point, and tone, and dilate, and beautify them. This is done 
 by Mrs. Stirling in the long soliloquy in *' The Ladies' Battle," and 
 was done all through the play. 
 
 Very interesting, too, is his comparison between Mrs. 
 Stirling's methods in the part and those adopted by French 
 actresses. 
 
 The " Count ess " is so much better acted than on the French stage 
 that it merits a particular notice. 
 
 The French artists who have attempted this character have gone 
 through it with elegance and weakness ; of the latter the text is 
 innocent. Mrs. Stirling is the first who has rendered Scribe and 
 Legouv6 in full. These gentlemen meant the " Countess " to be seriously 
 affected by her feelings and her passion. People with brains, who 
 love, are apt to be. 
 
 The soliloquy in Act I is one of the longest that, in a Comedy, has 
 been risked in a Female Comedian's hands (in England) for some 
 years. It is, however, perfectly safe with this lady. Each change 
 of passion in it is marked by her with truth and vigour. The irreso- 
 lute inspection of the mirror, the ejaculation, and still more the look 
 that precedes it, are fine strokes of art. It is more than a change 
 of expression ; a new face radiant with beauty and hope, glides into 
 the place of one clouded with misgivings. These things escape a 
 vulgar audience, and vulgar critics, for an obvious reason : they are 
 
182 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 great feats of acting ; but the fact is, the world would have to be 
 ransacked to find another artist who should render this beauty alto- 
 gether as well as it is done in little Wych Street. 
 
 This point was taken in Paris, as far as the voice, which is nearly 
 half the business ; but at the French theatre in London it is entirely 
 missed. . . . Mrs. Stirling gives the part the reality that belongs to 
 it, and acts it with equal power and grace, instead of walking, gliding, 
 or dancing through it. C. R. 
 
 Following upon " The Ladies' Battle " came a com- 
 parative failure, made memorable principally by another 
 of Reade's intrusions. 
 
 The success of " Adrienne Lecouvreur," very naturally 
 had tempted Farren to experiment again with a French 
 tragedy, that Mdlle. Rachel and her company had been 
 performing recently at St. James's Theatre. This was 
 Victor Hugo's "Angelo," a heavy, lurid, melodramatic, 
 and unpleasant, though strong, play of Italian life in Padua 
 during the turbulent sixteenth century. Mrs. Stirling was 
 entrusted with another of those stormy actress parts, " La 
 Tisbe," in which she could portray all those conflicting 
 passions, of love, jealousy, hatred, cunning, duplicity, 
 heroism, and self-sacrifice, with a fidelity and power that 
 no other English actress of her day could match, and that 
 Rachel only could surpass. 
 
 Again the press teemed with comparisons, of which 
 we will print one here. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's was a highly finished delineation of the fascinating 
 comedienne, who, despite the errors that her position has drawn her 
 into ... is so brilliant, so ardent, so noble, and so unselfish in her 
 love, that we are constrained to admire her and sympathize with her. 
 The love that can forgo its own gratification to promote the happi- 
 ness of the beloved object was pourtrayed with extraordinary intensity 
 by Mrs. Stirling. We think we have witnessed few personations 
 upon the stage in which the lights and shadows of the character were 
 more carefully preserved than in this. Mdlle. Rachel electrified us 
 by some of the great points, in some of her scenes, especially that 
 in which " Tisbe " draws a contrast between the open immorality 
 of the comedienne, and the secret sinning of the reputedly modest 
 lady of the "Podesta" ; nothing could equal the withering effect of 
 the French artist's eloquence in this powerful invective, but if Mrs. 
 Stirling could not compete with Rachel in this scene, she left an im- 
 pression that, as a whole, the character was more completely filled 
 
CHARLES READE, "THE LADIES' BATTLE" 188 
 
 up. In the lighter scenes, at the commencement of the play, Mrs. 
 Stirling had decidedly the advantage of the French artiste ; her 
 acting in the scene when she obtains the master-key from the " Podesta," 
 by pretending that she loved him, was marked by the most delicate 
 finesse and charming spirit of coquetry imaginable. 1 
 
 About the same time, in mid- August 1851, Mrs. Stirling 
 received a criticism that probably interested her much 
 more. It took the form of an anonymous letter, and was 
 as follows : 
 
 In May last, Madam, Fate conducted me to the pit of the Olympic 
 Theatre. 
 
 I saw you play in Genteel Comedy. 2 
 
 You played with an ease and brilliance rarely combined in 
 these days. 
 
 I was surprised. I knew you to have talent, grace, glee, and a 
 pathos peculiar to yourself but I did not know you were the first 
 genteel Comedian in England. Seeing you announced in Tragedy, 
 I returned to Wych Street Monday last ; 3 shall I own, with some 
 misgivings. Madam, I am an Old Critic, who criticized Actors in 
 days when Criticism implied some sensibility, some judgment, quick 
 senses, and a dash of Integrity. Of late I have not written, but I 
 have talked ; and you teach me I have talked too fast. 
 
 I have not canted nor descended to wholesale abuse, which is 
 always dishonest ; I have admitted that we have actresses who rant 
 with more delicacy, and recite with a better fervour than their pre- 
 decessors of the same calibre. 
 
 But I have complained of the want of that real force of Imper- 
 sonation which makes the Actor, male or female. 
 
 I have been looking to the Future for this : you seem to tell me 
 it has been all these years under my Nose, and I without the wit to 
 discern it. 
 
 Is it really so ? are you not like Goldsmith " a flower that bloomed 
 late," or has the jealousy of Theatrical management kept you from 
 your place at the highest pinnacle of your Art ? I cannot understand 
 it let us confine ourselves to the Facts as they are. 
 
 Had I seen you fifteen years ago play the Countess Something * and 
 " La Tisbe," I should have told you what I tell you now that you 
 are perhaps the first Impersonator of great and contrary characters 
 in Europe ; and this is a long way on the road to being the first 
 Actress. 
 
 1 Sunday Times, August 17, 1851. 
 "The Widow" in "Sir Roger de Coverley." 
 
 3 Either the first night, Monday, August 11, or Monday, August 18. 
 The play was withdrawn Sat. August 24. It was an adaptation of 
 Victor Hugo's " Angelo." 
 
 4 "Comtesse d'Autreval" in "The Ladies' Battle." 
 
134 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 In England there is no actress at present who could play either 
 the Tragic or the Comic part so well as you do both. Such, Madam, 
 is your Merit. 
 
 Heaven knows what is your position : let it not affect your 
 Estimate of yourself too much : there were not half a dozen people 
 in my early day who could judge Acting, and I am sure that there 
 are not half that now ; but go on as you are going, and what I tell 
 you now all the world will tell you by and by. 
 
 Will you now let an old fellow go through the part of " Tisbe " 
 with you. It is a fine performance, full of faults, as all human per- 
 formances are, but full of beauties, which they generally are not. 
 
 1. You enter speaking. Spirited and judicious ! * It shows 
 sense and self-denial to enter as a character, not Mrs. So-and-So. 
 Impersonation and Illusion cannot begin too soon. 
 
 2. Your narrative is skilfully told and varied, and the way you 
 indicate a Mind going back, along with the tale, to early scenes and 
 sentiments, shows Mind in your conception. 2 
 
 3. Two little speeches to the " Podesta" "Why don't you die?' 1 
 and "Would you like 'yes* better?" are spoken by you a shade too 
 roughly. 
 
 4. The scene with "Rodolfo" 3 is beyond praise, almost as far 
 as it is beyond Mademoiselle Rachel. I mention her because she is 
 your predecessor, and eclipses you in several scenes of this play that 
 you do in common. 
 
 In this scene you rise from impersonation to personification ; you 
 are the Goddess of Love en "Tisbe.' 8 This is the poetry of 
 acting. 
 
 5. " Angelo " and " Tisbe " : I cannot judge you here ; you 
 follow Rachel ; and I must say it is six for one and half a dozen for 
 the other. The way in which both ladies say " I love you," 4 in the 
 chain business, is not to be surpassed by a third since you separate 
 often and with the best effect from your predecessor, we are the more 
 indebted to you that you can imitate her where so much is to be gained 
 by it. 
 
 ACT 2. You have not the lightning declamation of Rachel. What 
 you want is a little more indignation, a little less spite, and greater 
 
 1 A good entrance was one of Mrs. Stirling's characteristics. 
 
 2 The " Podesta," in love with " Tisbe," has seen her talking with another 
 man, and is jealous, and curious. " Tisbe " reveals something of her past, 
 and how she is looking for a young woman, who, years before, had saved 
 her ("Tisbe's") mother's life. The mother had given that woman a crucifix, 
 telling her to keep it, as it would bring her happiness. By means of that 
 crucifix "Tisbe" hopes to, and does, identify her benefactress, who turns out 
 to be the " Podesta's " wife. 
 
 8 She is in love with "Rodolfo," but does not yet know that he is not in 
 love with her. 
 
 * " Tisbe " pretends to be in love with " Angelo " in order to coax from 
 him his chain, on which is the master key to his private apartments. A 
 spy has promised her sight of her lover if she can first get the key. 
 
CHARLES READE, "THE LADIES' BATTLE" 135 
 
 rapidity. Act it a little more, and quicker, and let the points take 
 care of themselves you are nearly right, but not quite, a trifle will 
 do it. Your position, however, on the stage as you hurl back the 
 three invectives of your preceding speech is finely imagined for the 
 rhetorical purpose, and gives you one effect she missed. 1 
 
 Your dumb play with the crucifix is also superior ; Rachel does 
 not so visibly soften. The authors, French and English, are in your 
 debt here, for you take better care of their plot at a critical juncture 
 than they have taken themselves. 
 
 Your play of feature and manner, whilst making up your story 
 and answering the " Podesta's " questions, is admirable ; your com- 
 petitor's is good, but not quite so good. Her self-possession comes too 
 soon for the suspense of the audience, she inclines to put them at 
 their ease, you to keep them on tenter-hooks. 2 I think you are right. 
 I will trouble you with a few more remarks to-morrow, meantime 
 may Heaven give you Health, Spirits, Perseverance. I suppose you 
 must be forty, 3 but to me you come as a young Actress just entering 
 upon a bright and high career. May I be so fortunate as to encourage 
 you a little. I know how much artists prize and need encourage- 
 ment, and therefore snatch a moment for you from my musty 
 duties. 
 
 Were I to sign my Name, I might seem to wish to court your atten- 
 tion, and to turn out an old fool. So adieu, and whenever you play 
 a new part, remember that there will be a surly old dog in the pit who 
 will snarl if he sees you disposed to retrograde and this old dog you 
 may call 
 
 ARISTARCHUS. 
 
 The " surly old dog " might call and sign himself " Aris- 
 tarchus," or by any other name he pleased, but it did not 
 need a woman of Mrs. Stirling's penetration to identify 
 him, at once, as Charles Reade. Apart from other evidences, 
 the eccentricity of the conceit, the cocksureness of the style, 
 at once revealed the author, who was compelled to own 
 up. Years later he wrote to his friend, Mrs. Baylis, this 
 letter recalling and explaining the incident: 
 
 1 " Tisbe," now the " Podesta," " Angelo's" mistress, has obtained entry 
 by means of the key into the chamber of th^ "Podesta's" wife, "Catarina," 
 which " Rodolfo," who loves and is loved by " Catarina " and whom 
 44 Tisbe " also loves, though in vain has just quitted. Thsre is a violent 
 scene between the women. " Tisbe " is already calling " Angelo," when 
 " Catarina," expecting instant death, rushes to pray before the crucifix. 
 " Tisbe" then recognizes the crucifix of which she is in quest. Hence- 
 forth she is " Catarina's " friend, and for her makes the great sacrifice. 
 
 2 The "Podesta" has entered, and "Tisbe," to save her new friend, 
 invents a story that, by deceiving, pacifies him. 
 
 8 Mrs. Stirling was in her thirty-ninth year. 
 
136 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Charles Reade to Mrs. Baylis. 
 
 MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD, 
 
 (no date). 
 DEAR MRS. BAYLIS, 
 
 Rummaging among my papers I have found this which I 
 send you because I think you will like me none the less for having 
 written it it was an anonymous letter to Mrs. Stirling this is the 
 copy in my own handwriting. I had observed that she valued praise 
 from strangers more than from me and I was going to write her 
 a series of anonymous letters to cheer her in her profession. 
 
 I was fool enough to think I could disguise myself need I add 
 that her keen eye penetrated the very first attempt and nipped my 
 anonymous flower at the root. However, it may amuse you, and 
 I make you a present of it. Say ! did I not love this woman ? I 
 am quite contented, dear Mrs. Baylis, and hope to be an artist of 
 the pen before I die 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 READE. 
 
 In " The Cloister and the Hearth " that aspiration was 
 completely realized. 
 
 Upon the failure of the Hugo drama, " Hearts are 
 Trumps " and " All that Glitters " were revived for a time, 
 until, in October, Mrs. Stirling left the Olympic, after a 
 stay of rather more than one year, during which she had 
 greatly increased her professional reputation. During the 
 autumn she negotiated with the management of the Adelphi, 
 while touring for a few weeks in the North of England and 
 Scotland. Her Adelphi plan, however, did not mature, 
 and she was engaged, instead, by Ben Webster at the Hay- 
 market, opening on Monday, November 17, in a revival 
 of " The Ladies' Battle." 
 
 Its successor, " The Man of Law," produced on Decem- 
 ber 9, was, alas! equally French, having been adapted 
 for the Parisian stage by the actor, Regnier, from a novel 
 written by George Sand's friend, the Academician, Jules 
 Sandeau, from whom she had taken her nom-de-plume. 
 Very successful at Paris, under the title "Mdlle. de la 
 Seigli&re," it had been brought across the Channel by Ben 
 Webster, after one of his many foraging expeditions to 
 the French capital, in search of dramatic stuff for the Adelphi 
 or the Haymarket. 
 
CHARLES READE, "THE LADIES' BATTLE" 187 
 
 Writers for the stage were then internationally un- 
 protected, and managers exploited them without scruple. 
 It was a lamentable state of affairs. Ever since the success 
 of " Don C6sar de Bazan," in 1844, English authors had 
 been filching, right and left, from the French dramatists. 
 With equal audacity, and want of consideration, the 
 Americans were pirating English plays when there were 
 any to pirate as Charles Reade, and others, were soon, 
 to their great chagrin, to discover. The press of the time 
 was despondent concerning the stage in general. It bewailed 
 sorrowfully the lack of original pieces, and the utter dearth 
 of fresh stage talent especially of the more robust sort 
 as players of the old school died out. Where, they sighed, 
 shall we find another Mrs. Glover ? where a Macready, 
 a James Wallack, a Listen, an Elliston, or a Mathews ? 
 Fears were voiced that the ever increasing facilities of access 
 from town to town, and the exodus of the stars to the 
 provinces, at large salaries, would utterly do away with 
 provincial theatres, as schools of art, in which young players, 
 under experienced managers, could learn thoroughly their 
 work, without being driven to confront a London audience 
 before years of study had equipped them for the ordeal. 
 
 Such were the forebodings of the critics during this 
 opening decade of the second half of the century : and 
 there was much to colour their arguments. They could 
 not be expected to see clearly, as we can to-day, that these 
 years of apparent decadence were also days of healthy 
 transition from the old order to the new ; for on the first 
 night of that revival of " Hearts are Trumps " at the 
 Olympic, August 25, 1851, was produced Robertson's first 
 important play, " A Night's Adventure " and Robertson, 
 with the Bancrofts, may be looked upon as a welcome 
 herald of the modern drama. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, meanwhile,' was appearing, with Leigh 
 Murray, Howe, Lambert, and Miss A. Vining, in " The 
 Man of Law," a post-revolution play, in which, as so 
 often before, the leading lady must needs exert all her wiles 
 and powers of fascination, against a doughty opponent. 
 She succeeded once more, maintaining fully her reputation 
 as the first actress on the stage, in characters requiring a 
 
188 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 polished style, good breeding, and the art of elaborating 
 effectively, and without apparent effort, the minutest traits 
 of a dramatic portrait. Ben Webster, too, as the lawyer, 
 subtle, prolific of stratagems, adept at intrigue, smooth 
 and insinuating of address, gave an unusually excellent 
 study. 
 
 One of the last things produced before the Haymarket 
 closed temporarily, on July 21, was " The Spitalfields 
 Weaver," in which a then promising amateur, J. S. Toole, 
 made his first professional appearance. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 "PEG WOFFINGTON" 
 
 1852-53 
 
 A holiday in Devon Return to London Reade conceives the idea of 
 Mrs. Stirling as " Peg Woffington " Collaboration with Taylor Dis- 
 agreements and discords Rehabilitation of the actor a subject then 
 in vogue at Paris Authors' respective shares in " Masks and 
 Faces " Criticisms of the play Of Mrs. Stirling as " Peg " A 
 triumphant first night Knight's comparison between Mrs. Stirling 
 and Mrs. Bancroft as " Peg " Miss Thorndyke as " Peg " at the 
 Old Vic. Webster as " Triplet " Phillips's portrait of Mrs. Stirling 
 as " Peg " Provincial engagements Mrs. Stirling unhappy despite 
 her successes Pathetic letter to Mrs. Baylis The causes Edin- 
 burgh and Newcastle Critique in the Newcastle Journal A " state 
 of irritation " Glover, Mrs. Stirling, and Charles Reade Dangers 
 and difficulties. 
 
 THIS book bearing the title that it does, I do not propose 
 greatly to concern myself, or the reader, with the private 
 life, or the private friendships, of Mrs. Stirling ; nor, indeed, 
 had I the inclination, do I possess the knowledge necessary 
 to make the picture complete. An occasional momentary 
 lifting of the curtain, however, by throwing light upon my 
 grandmother's character as a woman, and upon the often 
 difficult circumstances in which her stage-work was done, 
 must certainly conduce towards a more complete, and 
 therefore juster, estimate of her rank as an artist ; and, at the 
 same time, by humanizing the story, will afford some relief 
 from a too monotonous recital of dramatic events. 
 
 As will have been gathered from a single sentence of 
 Charles Reade J s letter to Mrs. Baylis, quoted in the last 
 chapter, the friendship that had been established over the 
 manuscript of " Christie Johnstone " between the young 
 dramatist and the admired actress, was fast developing, 
 particularly on the part of the man, whom we may suppose 
 planning in his fertile brain many schemes for her advance- 
 
 139 
 
140 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 ment, and concocting the plot of more than one play about 
 the personality of his adored Mrs. Stirling. 
 
 That lady, while her friend's dreams are maturing, is 
 still working hard at the Haymarket, without accomplishing 
 anything that was to add materially to her reputation. 
 Her principal parts, from January to June 1852, were 
 " Lady Gay " in " London Assurance " ; " Fanny Mor- 
 rison " in Mark Lemon's " Mind Your Own Business " ; 
 the lead in Buckstone's play " Married Life," at his own 
 benefit performance ; and the r61e of " Mrs. Moore " in 
 " A Novel Expedient." 
 
 By the middle of July she has thrown up work for a 
 time, and is making holiday, with her daughter Fanny, in 
 a farmhouse, at Uphill, Devon, whence, on the morning of 
 her thirty-ninth birthday, she writes to Mrs. Baylis 1 a very 
 characteristic letter : 
 
 Thursday Morning, 
 My birthday, 
 
 July 29, 1852. 
 MY DEAR LITTLE WOMAN, 
 
 Here we are in a great dairy farm swimming in milk, 
 cream, curds, whey, cheeses, Fan a running wild with cows, fat 
 pigs, fowls, and curly-headed children such bread such eggs 
 such butter as you have no idea of! You don't know what 
 bread means ! I am turning into a complete animal ! have not 
 opened a book since I've been here. I do nothing but listen to 
 the " sad sea wave " sit a top of a hill ! and drink in the fresh 
 air eat, drink, bathe, and sleep and with all that the day is gone 
 before I feel that I am up ! You cannot tell how I wish you were 
 here ! We are at '* Uphill " the name will tell you that it rises 
 from the sea great green lanes and a little church atop of a hill 
 that breaks your back to climb up to it ! Everything smelling of 
 buttercups, daisies, fruit, flowers, cows and birds all the doors open 
 everybody making butter, cheese, and truck everybody speaks 
 to everybody as they pass ! I've tried so to get you a loaf, but they 
 only bake on Mondays, and 'tis too stale, but here is a wee bit of 
 butter just for you to taste, and two eggs Fan has just carried in from 
 under the poor hen. 
 
 You shall hear from me by post, for Mrs. Gregory goes to London 
 with this, and now I am all alone with Fan, and shall have time to 
 read and write. If you can spare time for a word to tell me of your 
 
 1 Grandmother of Miss Lilian Baylis. the present Manager of the 
 Old Vic. 
 
 8 Fanny Stirling, the writer's mother, then in her eleventh year. 
 
"PEG WOFFINGTON" HI 
 
 movements, and will leave it at Piccadilly for me, Mrs. Gregory l 
 comes back here on Sunday, and will bring it. God bless you 
 till then. 
 
 At what date exactly the actress returned to London, 
 I do not know; but suppose it to have been during the 
 autumn of the same year. 
 
 When telling, in the last chapter, the origin of " The 
 Ladies' Battle," I mentioned that Charles Reade, at Mrs. 
 Stirling's suggestion, had included Tom Taylor among the 
 guests invited to a Sunday dinner party at the Star and 
 Garter Hotel, at Richmond. The two young dramatists 
 took to one another for a time and Taylor subsequently 
 visited Reade at Oxford, where the latter first broached to 
 him a subject that " had been seething in his mind from 
 the first moment that he met Mrs. Stirling 4 Peg Wofnngton ' 
 as the heroine of a play." Peg's facial acquaintance, by the 
 way, he had already made, through the medium of the 
 portrait by Hogarth, in the Garrick Club. 
 
 Taylor approved the idea; collaboration was decided 
 upon, and Reade having already written a scene or two 
 they played battledore and shuttlecock with the manu- 
 script for some considerable time, without getting " a bit 
 forarder." Hoping thereby to make better progress, Reade 
 went to stay with Taylor, at Chiswick, and while his host 
 was absent at office, during the day, wrote scene after scene, 
 that Taylor by far the more experienced dramatist of the 
 two invariably cut out at night. 
 
 Both men were irritable and pugnacious, and were soon 
 at loggerheads. In fact, they could agree upon very little 
 concerning the play, except that Mrs. Stirling was to be its 
 heroine, a request to which she had consented, subject to 
 certain alterations being made in the manuscript " this 
 would not do, and that would not do," when the play was 
 read and discussed at Mrs. Baylis's house. When the 
 authors ultimately agreed to differ, she sided, more or less, 
 with Taylor, as did also Ben Webster, who had accepted 
 the play from Taylor, for the Haymarket. 
 
 1 This lady I presume to be the first wife of Mr. C. H. Gregory, after- 
 wards Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, the well-known civil engineer, whom 
 Mrs. Stirling married in 1894. 
 
142 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Reade, in a huff, went off to his home at Ipsden, and 
 thence to a hydro at Malvern, whence he returned, to find 
 the comedy willy-nilly on the eve of production, at last. 
 What sort of a fabrication was it, that, after many months 
 of wrangling between two choleric authors, had come to the 
 test of public opinion ? 
 
 The subject rehabilitation of an actress's character 
 was rather in vogue across the Channel at that time, and 
 Tom Taylor and Reade decided that England should follow 
 suit. They produced, accordingly, their version, for the 
 glorification of our national actress, Peg Woffington. Con- 
 cerning their respective shares in the comedy, there has been 
 much debate, but the truth is now clear. The main idea 
 was Reade's ; so were most of the characters and incidents. 
 The whole of the garret scene was his also ; but the con- 
 struction and detail of the play were mainly Taylor's, he 
 being by far the more experienced man, in technical matters. 
 Taylor's summing-up was thus : " He (Reade) put them 
 (the scenes) together higgeldy-piggledy. They stood on their 
 heads, and I put them on their heels." 
 
 Knowing the story of its growth, one is not surprised 
 to observe that " Masks and Faces," from the constructional 
 point of view, is poor. Situations and characters are of the 
 stock variety, nor is even the most telling incident new 
 the face in the picture having been seen already, in Bernard's 
 " Mummy "; and a face through a curtain in Victor Hugo's 
 " Notre Dame." The weakest point of all, however, is the 
 plot, which is of the very thinnest texture, being very little 
 more than a series of pictures cleverly combined. " Masks 
 and Faces," nevertheless, as the critic of the Leader l pointed 
 out, 
 
 has the elements of eternal success character and emotion. . . . 
 Laughter and tears of sympathy alternate through the varying scene ; 
 bright, ingenious dialogue, playing like lambent flame, stimulates the 
 intellect ; and homely pathos, homely mirth, kind hearts and loving 
 voices gently touch the various chords of emotion. 
 
 I should not have ventured to describe the comedy quite 
 so lyrically, nor so exuberantly ; but that is how " Masks 
 
 1 November 27, 1852. G. H. Lewes was the writer. 
 
"PEG WOFFINGTON" 148 
 
 and Faces," at its first production, struck one of the most 
 intelligent critics of his century. He continues : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling has not, for a long while, had a part which shows 
 her off to such advantage, and she evidently resolved not to let a bit 
 of it slip through her fingers. She was gay, natural, touching, loving 
 throughout, and made one perfectly understand Ernest Vane's infatua- 
 tion, though not his subsequent desertion of her for his wife. 
 
 Other journals were equally emphatic. 
 
 Stepping gracefully from seriousness to gaiety, and equally natural 
 in both, Mrs. Stirling is completely in her element as " Peg Woffington," 
 and has all the benefit of a contrast in the girlish, effusive manner 
 which is very prettily assumed by Miss Rose Bennett in the character 
 of " Mrs. Vane." * 
 
 The Daily News 2 shrewdly pointed out, as a defect of the 
 play, that while the idealized Mrs. Woffington was just 
 such a character as Kitty Clive was in real life, the " Kitty 
 Clive " of " Masks and Faces " has a part that is insignificant 
 and untrue. The actor, Quin, of Bath fame, moreover, 
 was less of a bounder than Tom Taylor would have him 
 to be. Nevertheless, whatever the comedy's defects, 
 Webster who played " Triplet " Mrs. Stirling, and her 
 companions touched all hearts. And upon the stage with 
 the vast majority of the paying public hearts are always 
 trumps. 
 
 The first night was a memorable one for all con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Webster was a bit loose in the text (he always is) ; then that 
 infernal " Zummersetshire " dialect was against him, but he can act ; 
 and as for La Stirling, she carried everything before her like wild- 
 fire ; and the curtain fell upon a scene of unbounded enthusiasm. 
 
 I forgot all about the alterations and the rows, and ramped round 
 in a transport of delight, embraced my faithless " Peggy " in the sight 
 of all Israel, hugged Taylor and Webster, and then, for the first time 
 in my life, was called for ; and Taylor led me before the curtain, and 
 the house rose at us, and I cried for joy. 3 
 
 Of Mrs. Stirling's performance many play-goers, then 
 
 1 The, Times, November 22, 1852. November 22, 1862. 
 
 * Coleman's Reade, p. 94. 
 
144 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 young, retained for years a delightful impression. A critic 
 of 1869 writes : 
 
 In " Peg Woffington " all her talents shine forth with peculiar 
 lustre ; in fact, we may judge of them from that impersonation alone. 
 Peg Woffington was not only a great actress, but a woman of 
 wonderful natural powers, cramped and perverted by the imper- 
 fection of her early training. She was perpetually yearning for that 
 which the accidents of her birth and position denied her. These 
 conflicting passions are fully shown in Mrs. Stirling's impersonation, 
 which will be always remembered among playgoers as one of the 
 finest efforts of the modern stage. 
 
 In the Daily Graphic of January 1, 1896, we get another 
 pleasant memory of " Peg " : 
 
 Mrs. Stirling was at that time, even, disposed to be artificial and 
 mannered. This tendency, in this character, she held completely 
 in restraint, and the scenes in the garret of " Triplet " were among 
 the most bewitching in comedy. The appearance of the face peeping 
 through the hole in the picture, and maintaining a mock gravity in 
 the presence of the absurd censure of the critics, is one of the things 
 that the recollection is delighted to retain. 
 
 Joseph Knight has left us * an interesting comparison 
 between Mrs. Stirling's methods and those of Mrs. Bancroft, 
 who later succeeded her in the part : 2 
 
 Mrs. Bancroft has never failed to cast new light upon a character 
 in which she appeared. Her " Peg Woffington " differs from that 
 of Mrs. Stirling in more than one important respect. With Mrs. 
 Stirling the triumph of goodness which raised the actress to the capacity 
 for complete self-abnegation, seemed due to a rich and ripe nature, 
 and to an overflow of animal spirits. With the latter exponent it 
 springs from a succession of impulses. To accomplish the sacrifice 
 cost more in the later interpretation than in the earlier. Something 
 in the bright being Mrs. Stirling presented seemed antagonistic to 
 sorrow. With Mrs. Bancroft impulses, bad and good, followed each 
 other in wave-like succession. . . . 
 
 Speaking of a more recent revival at the Old Vic 
 when that accomplished actress, Miss Sybil Thorndyke, 
 played " Peg " Mr. Newton Baylis recently expressed to 
 
 1 Theatrical Notes, 1893, p. 74. 
 
 ' Lady Bancroft's rendering was deliberate. She " could see but one 
 way out of the difficulty, to treat the part in a distinctly new way." 
 The Bancrofts, p. 173. 
 
"PEG WOFFINGTON' 145 
 
 the writer his recollection of the wonderful fascination of the 
 original " Peg," in the part, and with what extraordinary 
 vivacity she always threw herself into the jig, in the garret 
 scene. With recollections of the original in his mind, Mr. 
 Baylis ventured to offer Miss Thorndyke some hints con- 
 cerning the dancing of that jig, with the result that it was 
 encored every night, when he would jokingly remind the 
 latest " Peg " : " That was my encore, you know, not 
 yours ! " Mr. Ben Greet tells me that he looks upon " Peg 
 Woffington " as a test part for a comedy actress. And he 
 should know ; for he has played " Triplet " about one thousand 
 times, to about a dozen " Pegs," of whom Miss Thorndyke 
 was the latest and best ; though none of them came up to 
 the original. 
 
 Concerning the success of Webster's " Triplet," in the 
 original production, Westland Marston has written thus : 1 
 
 The study of " Triplet " in the actor's hands might be taken as 
 a type of the penurious author of the time. The distraction amid 
 the sordid cares of life ; the nervous impatience, soon atoned for by 
 contrition ; the moods of gloomy reverie, at times half pierced by 
 the hope of a nature originally sanguine, but which time and suffering 
 had tamed and daunted ; the desperation with which, when unable 
 to please himself with " Peg's " likeness, he plunged his knife through 
 the canvas, together with an artlessness of look and voice which spoke 
 an unworldly mind all these degrees of the better mental worker 
 were so truly indicated, that a glance, a change of tone, however 
 delicate, a stoop, a step backward or forward, or a fluttering move- 
 ment of the hand, were more significant even than the excellent dia- 
 logue in which he took part. And withal this " Triplet " was a 
 gentleman ; no poverty of garb or surroundings could hide that ; while 
 the perfect unconsciousness with which this inner refinement showed 
 itself, was a touch of art so true and unpretending that it was seen 
 only in its effects. 
 
 Of Mrs. Stirling's personal appearance at this period of 
 her life she was in her fortieth year when " Masks and 
 Faces " was first produced and of the type of face that, 
 for night after night, gazed through the hole in the hacked 
 picture, Charles Reade has already given the reader a vivid 
 idea. 2 There is also the portrait of her as " Peg Woffington," 
 painted by Henry Wyndham Phillips, 3 that hangs in the 
 
 1 Our Recent Actors, i. 246. a See ante, p. 129. 8 Opposite p. 146. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Garrick Club ; and a replica of it or vice versa in the 
 Shakespeare Memorial Gallery, at Stratford-on-Avon. The 
 picture is that of a very pretty woman, delicately graceful, 
 with a rather long, oval face, large expressive eyes, arched 
 eyebrows, a straight nose, a daintily curved mouth and chin, 
 and a demure, almost wistful expression, that, one easily 
 supposes, may, upon slight provocation, become merry or even 
 roguish. The costume is charming a scarlet dress, cut low, 
 and edged with white ; a broad-brimmed hat to match, and 
 a lace cap beneath in the fashion of the time tied under 
 the chin with a broad white knot. The lady wears a blue- 
 grey cloak, against a dark background. 
 
 The original portrait of Mrs. Stirling [according to the Catalogue 
 of the Garrick Club l ] was painted for the late Mr. Tom Taylor, and 
 was ultimately in Mrs. Stirling's possession. 2 The sittings were given 
 after performances, late at night, in Mr. Phillips's studio. The style 
 and treatment are in part borrowed from an old miniature. The 
 picture used during representation at the Hay market Theatre was 
 also a sketch by the (same) artist, with a practical cut for the 
 insertion of the face. 
 
 Regarded as a revelation of character, this portrait 
 seems to me to differ from and to be inferior to those painted 
 later, in this that Phillips has not conveyed so much as a 
 hint of the rich, ripe, mellow humour and joy of life, in which 
 the part abounds, and which was generally characteristic 
 of the actress that humour so plainly visible in the other 
 portrait of her at the Garrick, 3 and in photographs taken 
 round about the period of her " Nurse " at the Lyceum. 
 I cannot easily escape the conclusion that the painter in 
 an attempt to make the face conventionally pretty has 
 refined and idealized his subject out of all true resemblance. 
 Mrs. Stirling was a beautiful woman one who knew her 
 well described her to me as "the loveliest creature he ever 
 saw " but that beauty was not of a classic order, as Charles 
 Reade's description proves. The charm of the face depended 
 less upon regularity of form and feature, than upon expres- 
 sion, intelligence, and animation. 
 
 1 No. 96. 
 
 2 Who bequeathed it or a replica of it to Lady Bancroft. Bancroft 
 Memoirs, p. 173. Opposite p. 180. 
 
MRS. STIRLING AS " PEG WOFFINGTON. 
 
 From the Painting by H. WYNDHAM PHII/LIPS, in the Garrick Club. 
 Reproduced by courtesy of the Committee of the Garrick Club. 
 
 To fare p. 146. 
 
t -O ^ . 
 
 ; 
 
"PEG WOFFINGTON' 147 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, of course, in common with other leading 
 players of her day, frequently, and profitably, filled in the 
 weeks between her London engagements, by touring the 
 provinces. 1 I have not thought it worth while to dig out, 
 from the provincial press, all the details, nor even all the 
 dates of these tours. It will be remembered, however, 
 that the whole period, from the close of her engagement 
 at the Pavilion Theatre, in October 1832, to her appearance 
 at the Adelphi, London, in January 1836, was spent in the 
 provinces. From that time onward she toured occasionally, 
 especially during the fifties and early sixties, when her 
 established position assured her the reception, and salary, 
 of a star. 2 
 
 In October 1851, for example, she was engaged for a 
 week, at the Amphitheatre, Liverpool, in " The Reigning 
 Favourite" ("Adrienne Lecouvreur"), "The Factory Girl" 
 ("All is not Gold that Glitters"), and "King Rene's 
 Daughter," concerning which last the correspondent of the 
 Era wrote : " We find it a task of some difficulty to decide 
 whether she or Miss Helen Faucit play it the best." As for 
 " All that Glitters," the request, " Take a card," became a 
 catch-word wherever the melodrama was put on. 
 
 March 1853 brought her to the Theatre Royal, Edin- 
 burgh, where she played for a week in " Time Tries All " 
 and " Masks and Faces," which latter had already super- 
 seded " The Reigning Favourite," as the most popular play 
 in her repertoire. The success of the performance, as a 
 whole, does not appear to have been so complete as in 
 England, for, with the possible exception of Gourlay, who 
 played " Triplet," the rest of the company were unprepared 
 and imperfect ; and the critic of the Scotsman, in the " gude " 
 Scottish fashion of his time, commented adversely upon the 
 moral tone of the comedy. Everywhere, however, the leading 
 lady herself conquered all hearts, and won, not infrequently, 
 a reception that can only be described as triumphant. 
 
 Here then some readers, unmindful of what has gone 
 before, may well be imagining the actress famous, feted, 
 
 1 She received about this time a liberal offer from America, but declined 
 it. So far as I know, she never played further afield than Scotland. 
 * Her provincial salary sometimes reached 100 a week. 
 
148 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 and rich as among the happiest and most enviable of 
 mortals. Not so smoothly, alas ! run the invisible under- 
 currents of our lives. Mrs. Stirling, far from being happy, 
 was now at war with herself, as witness the following letter 
 to Mrs. Baylis, written from Edinburgh at about this period 
 of her life : 1 
 
 55, PRINCE'S STREET, EDINBURGH, 
 
 Monday Night. 
 (Probably March 21, 1853.) 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. BAYLIS, 
 
 I was glad to find a line from you with my letters to-day. 
 My time is so filled up, or I could be very wretched at being away 
 from home. 
 
 I have made a grand success, you must know ! I cannot spare 
 the newspapers for you, but I will keep you a copy of them all, for 
 extracts are being printed for Glascow (sic), where I play next Monday, 
 and as there are no trains out of this Holy drunken place on Sundays, 
 why I can't go to Glascow until Monday morning, as I play here 
 Saturday night so any letters posted after Friday night's post must 
 be directed to me at the Prince's Theatre Royal, Glascow. The people 
 here are warm and kind beyond anything, and they are talking already 
 about my going back. I am writing for an extension to Webster, 
 and if I get it, most probably should return here after Glasgow, then 
 go to Newcastle, but all that is in the clouds at present, and yet with 
 all success and kindness and so on, I am longing to get back home. 
 Oh ! if mine was a real happy home, what a home-bird I should be ! 
 My little Fan goes to Malvern to-morrow I hope she will get there 
 safely. 
 
 You must not miss me yet, dear little woman, though I feel my- 
 self as though I had been away an age, and can hardly believe that 
 I have only played four nights of my engagement. 
 
 My dear little friend, I feel that I am hardly the right sort of 
 companion for you in your unhappiness you ought to be with those 
 who could not make it a subject of conversation, or if they did should 
 be better able to advise you than I. Pity is not good for you, be 
 sure be certain that unhappiness is doled out to us all pretty evenly ; 
 the happiest person one could find would tell us there was something 
 wanting, depend on it. 
 
 If your poor sister herself is well and safe, I think the poor 
 child not living a happiness, tho' I'm quite aware I should be looked 
 upon as a wretch for saying so- one trouble and responsibility (and 
 perhaps unhappiness in the end) the less for her. 
 
 Yes ! The gude folk here in this land o' cakes do like me and 
 are civil, and I feel how hard-hearted and ungrateful I am in not 
 
 1 I cannot exactly determine the date. Certainly it is between 
 1852 and 1854, probably during spring of 1853. 
 
44 PEG WOFFINGTON' 149 
 
 loving them in return. The penalty one pays in heaping all one's 
 love on any one particular being is a kind of hardening of the heart to 
 all others' amiabilities and kindness. We lose much comfort through 
 this, I am convinced, and so my theory is proved, that all is ironed 
 out pretty smoothly by Dame Fate or whoever it is does these things. 
 I only know that with kindness, success, money, a dear child such 
 as there are but few I am not happy ! and I know, at the same 
 time, 'tis because I am not good ! 
 
 Those pathetic closing lines shed a revealing light upon 
 Mrs. Stirling's state of mind during this period of her life, 
 and afford a typical example of the ceaseless mental warfare 
 that is waged between the artist and the mother, in many 
 women's hearts. I have not the slightest doubt this letter 
 and others that will follow make it too evident that, for 
 all her stage triumphs, my grandmother was in secret 
 conflict with her profession, and was longing, with all the 
 intensity of her nature, for a complete domestic happiness, 
 that was to be denied her utterly until perhaps the last 
 year or so of her long life. Upon one particular being she 
 had set all her affection, and that being was not a man ; 
 it was her daughter, Fanny, from whom, nevertheless, cir- 
 cumstance, and the coming years, were, at last, completely 
 to alienate her. 
 
 Yet the round of work must be accomplished, and the 
 unclouded face conceal the aching heart. From Edinburgh 
 the actress went to the Theatre Royal in Dunlop Street, 
 Glasgow, where she played " Peg," for a week, to the 
 " Triplet " of Glover, 1 the manager, who became, it seems 
 or would have become one of her closest friends. Her 
 success here was complete. The Glasgow Herald records 
 " bumper houses," " deafening acclamation," and " de- 
 lighted audiences." At her benefit, on April 14, she 
 played in " The Ladies' Battle " and " Masks and Faces " ; 
 then went off to Newcastle her first appearance in that 
 town where, in addition to " Peg," she played " Adrienne," 
 and " Julia Amor " in " Love and Charity." 2 
 
 Concerning her art the critic of the Newcastle Journal* 
 wrote an appreciation that is perhaps worth preserving, 
 
 1 Glover had taken over the theatre in the autumn of 1852. 
 
 2 April 11-23, 1853. 3 April 16, 1853. 
 
150 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 though I do not agree with the " reflecting critic's " definition 
 of art set forth in the first paragraph : 
 
 As Mrs. Stirling is no ordinary actor, it may not be amiss to notice 
 the kind of art a Newcastle audience has made acquaintance with 
 in the person of the artist. All reflecting critics are agreed that " art 
 is a true but brilliant copy of nature," and there is the key to Mrs. 
 Stirling. Such as retain a lingering faith in the existence of such 
 things in art as a stage walk, or a stage voice, or stage gestures, will 
 be staggered at first, and ultimately converted by the simplicity and 
 truth of Mrs. Stirling, who is simple and true, because she is as profound 
 in art, as those who are not simple and true are shallow. In common 
 with Mdlle. Rachel, this artist has discovered that deep passion can 
 only be represented by an apparent attempt to repress and force it 
 in, never by that obvious attempt to force it out that we call rant, 
 and therefore, like Rachel, and unlike all other tragedians, she never 
 rants under any circumstances whatever ; but yet she holds the audience 
 with iron power in moments of passion. The best evidence of her 
 truth is, that the audience reflect back the exact image of her emotion. 
 When she personifies sorrow, they do not exhibit applause, which 
 represents admiration, but tears, which prove sympathy. When she 
 impersonates gaiety, the heart really warms and exults under her 
 sunny smile, and the rich music of her laugh and voice. But perhaps 
 her greatest trait is her power of genuine personation. Few actors 
 possess this ; still fewer actresses. If the general run even of admired 
 performances are looked into, it will be found that the actor has, 
 as far as he is concerned, varied himself but little. The writers, 
 in giving one man different words, sentiments, and actions have made 
 nearly all the difference that ever shows itself. Miss H. Faucit's, 
 Miss Glyn's, Mr. Brooke's performances, have, spite of their rhetorical 
 beauties, this considerable flaw. For this is not the Histrionic Art, 
 as distinguished from all branches of the Rhetorical Art ; it is not 
 the full measure of art as practised by Garrick, Oldfield, and Woffington, 
 by Rachel and Bouffe in France, and in a smaller walk by Wigan 
 and Webster, and in a wide range by Mrs. Stirling. This lady is the 
 artist of the day who has, partly from nature and immense study, 
 the rare power of dropping Mrs. Stirling in her dressing-room, and 
 coming on the stage a Frenchwoman, an Englishwoman, a countess, 
 a charity girl, a peasant, an actress, a virgin, a matron, a prude, a 
 coquette, etc., etc., with face, mien, voice, manner, gesture, all exactly 
 fitting the part of the hour, and not its predecessor or successor. And 
 this is the great art of acting, as distinguished from the great art of 
 speaking, which is rare, though not so rare as the other. Our readers 
 will, we think, understand at once what we are endeavouring to point 
 out, when they see the Proteus-like powers of Mrs. Stirling exhibit 
 themselves in one or two characters of an opposite description. Mrs. 
 Stirling plays tragedy, comedy, and farce ; and while she is upon 
 the stage, it is impossible to say which she does best, but if we look 
 
M 
 
 PEG WOFFINGTON" 151 
 
 at the number and character of her pieces, it will be evident that 
 she has a predilection, however well concealed ; and this predilection 
 we pronounce to be in favour of genteel or interesting comedy, or 
 the higher kind of drama. Until lately the novel writers understood 
 the public better than (did) the playwrights, but latterly these have 
 learned to tell novels upon the stage . . . naturally such a story will 
 be at one moment gay, at another sad, for . . . human life is your 
 true comtdie larmoyante, and lies, together with the truth, between 
 the monotonous groan of tragedy and the monotonous grin of farce. 
 Of this comtdie larmoyante Mrs. Stirling is the priestess. . . . We 
 hear on all sides that Mrs. Stirling's " Peg Woffington " is the most 
 unrivalled performance seen for many years upon the French or British 
 stage. There are actors who gain the first night all the applause 
 that will ever be due to them. On the contrary, it requires many 
 nights and close attention to appreciate the various and subtle art 
 of so profound an artist as Mrs. Stirling. 
 
 In addition to, and partly because of, her other troubles, 
 Mrs. Stirling was beginning already to suffer in health, 
 and for that reason, probably, seems to have rested during 
 the summer of 1853. She accepted, however, an autumn 
 engagement, to appear for six nights, from September 19, 
 at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, in " Masks and Faces." 1 
 The critic of the Liverpool Journal, whose memories went 
 back to the time of Miss O'Neill, described " Peg Woffington " 
 as the greatest performance he had ever seen, and Mrs. 
 Stirling as the greatest actress of the age. 
 
 From the Royal she migrated, with Compton, to the 
 Liverpool Amphitheatre, where she played in addition to 
 " Masks and Faces " in " Love and Charity," " My Wife's 
 Daughter/' and " She Stoops to Conquer." Dramatically 
 successful, she was still unhappy and restless, if, as I suppose, 
 the following fragment of a letter, written to Mrs. Baylis, 
 may be dated from Liverpool during this engagement : 
 
 44 ... He sends a boy instantly, who takes me to the first den 
 he can find, and such a den ! You can fancy nothing like it ! So 
 picture me here, wet, cold, wretched, with nothing to do my books 
 lost my journey useless, too wet to go out to try and find even a 
 clean den to sit down in, and this prospect all to-morrow no one 
 to speak to, no nothing ! Fancy all this added to the state of irri- 
 tation I was already in ; and, just to crown all, this moment comes 
 from Wigan a letter in answer to one I had sent begging for a week 
 
 1 Compton the comedian was with her, appearing in the after pieces, 
 "Friend Waggles," and "Founded on Fact." 
 
152 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 in Edinbro', beginning 17th Oct., and for which Wyndham offers 
 me a clear 100, and I am obliged to refuse it because Wigan will 
 be ready to open on the 7th, 1 and I am in both the opening pieces, 
 he says ! Good-bye write to me here till Friday. 
 
 The poor lady's " state of irritation " is easily accounted 
 for by troubles more serious than the discomforts of a pro- 
 vincial tour. Borne hither and thither by her duties, while 
 her heart was with her daughter at home ; in failing health, 
 beset, as every attractive actress is, to some extent, by the 
 importunate attentions of men, Mrs. Stirling knew not where 
 to find heart's ease. She was, as we have seen, on terms 
 of friendship with Glover, the manager of the Theatre Royal 
 at Glasgow, friendly also with Charles Reade, 2 who sanguine, 
 impetuous, and dazzled by her charm and ability was 
 offering to ally his fortunes with hers, and to help her to 
 raise herself as he then believed she could, and would to 
 the very highest pinnacle of professional advancement. 
 
 He had written to her, some time previously, a letter to 
 that effect, too intimate and too passionate for quotation. 
 What the tenor of her reply was I do not know, but I suppose 
 it to have been more cold than cordial. There had followed 
 a breach of friendship, and, probably, some sort of recon- 
 ciliation. The atmosphere, nevertheless, was still electric, 
 as Charles Reade was fully aware, when he wrote to Mrs. 
 Baylis the following letter, probably in the early autumn 
 of 1853 : 
 
 Charles Reade to Mrs. Baylis. 
 
 MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 (No date.) 
 DEAR MRS. B., 
 
 When a storm is blowing it is well to give all parties notice. 
 That shuffling personage Mr. Glover received from me, whilst I was 
 at Newcastle, a request that he would settle with me, for the first 
 
 1 She began at the Olympic on the 17th, not the 7th, the pieces being 
 " Plot and Passion " and " The Camp at the Olympic." 
 
 2 Miss Ellen Terry's penetrating description of Charles Reade is : 
 " Dear, kind, unjust, generous, cautious, impulsive, passionate, gentle 
 Charles Reade, who combined so many qualities far asunder as the poles. 
 He was placid and turbulent, yet always majestic. He was inexplicable, 
 and entirely lovable a stupid old dear, and as wise as Solomon. He 
 seemed guileless, and yet had moments of suspicion and craftiness worthy 
 of the wisdom of the serpent." 
 
"PEG WOFFINGTON' 153 
 
 time in his life no answer. A month later I proposed to him to 
 pay rae a small sum for " Masks and Faces " and " Ladies' Battle " 
 (I asked him some four or five pounds, I think, for the two), and also 
 settle with me for " Gold," which is the subject of a distinct agree- 
 ment. His Treasurer writes to me, by order no doubt, and tells me 
 he is out as if a manager was ever out of communication with his 
 theatre and its affairs. On this, after awhile insisting upon an answer 
 evasion or procrastination having failed, Mr. G. now bids his 
 Treasurer take a very different ground. Mr. Houghton writes to 
 me to say that I had promised Glover my plays gratis during Mrs. 
 Stirling's engagements, and that it was only on this understanding 
 Glover produced them and that but for this he would not have * 
 produced them. I answer Glover, I remind him of the simple Truth : 
 viz. that I offered him both plays gratis provided he shared the house 
 with Mrs. Stirling for this obvious reason I should have been 
 giving them not to Sam Glover but to Mrs. S. 
 
 He declined this proposal in presence of Mrs. S. at Glasgow, and 
 said very justly that the Author's fees were too small an inducement 
 to lead him to share with a star. He therefore forfeited my offer, 
 preferring another advantage to it he separated entirely his interest 
 from Mrs. Stirling's and of course he shall pay me something for my 
 plays. I have not asked the shabby dog much, and if he won't pay 
 that little, I shall instantly take legal proceedings against him, and 
 as I have told him, if he gives me that trouble I shall take the full 
 benefit of the Act, and sue him for 40s. per representation both of 
 " Masks and Faces " and " Ladies' Battle." Liberality or kindness 
 is wasted upon the blackguards of the stage. 
 
 When I brought Mrs. Stirling and this man together I charged 
 him nothing for my trifles ; this was perhaps from regard for her, 
 but she benefited nothing by it it was this man who benefited. 
 
 A year later, although Mrs. S. and I were not friends, this beggar 
 still got my work for nothing because, God knows why, I did not 
 choose in short, I can't tell why, but this animal was the gainer. 
 
 And now all the presents I have made him don't assist me in 
 getting out of him a few pounds for a piece of work that has cost me 
 so much trouble. I asked him nothing for the Benefit Night, because 
 that Night I considered the Theatre Mrs. Stirling's. The other nights 
 he shall pay, by God. 
 
 And I will trouble you, if necessary, to communicate to Mrs. S. 
 my feelings on this systematic robbery practised upon the class I 
 represent, and upon myself in particular, and I venture to hope in 
 a clear case like this I shall not have her to fight against as well as 
 Mr. G. 
 
 The Newcastle case was different. Davis produced a letter written 
 by Mrs. S. ; the sentence he relied on was not so intended by her, 
 but it bore that signification, and I had the pleasure in waiving all 
 
 1 N.B. A notorious lie, 
 
154 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 claim as an Author of showing him that it was done out (of) 
 deference to a sentence that had fallen from her pen but here there 
 is no evasion or reason. It is simply the old story all the lower 
 orders of intellect, the actors, the fiddlers, the carpenters, the money- 
 takers are to be paid for their feats, but the real man of mind, the 
 creator of that which alone keeps these heroes and heroines from 
 sinking gradually out of all public estimation is not to be re- 
 munerated for his hard toil nous verrons. 
 
 These fools run in their groove like moles, till they fancy they 
 are below the notice of the law, and their tricks without remedy in 
 this world. Secure of being damned, they assume too readily that 
 they are not to be kicked. 
 
 Now, I have carefully studied the Act for the protection of Liter- 
 ary Property in these Islands, an Act framed against rogues, as 
 appears on the face of it, and I will venture to attack Sam Glover 
 with its penalties, if he does not come to book. Meantime oblige 
 me by informing Mrs. Stirling that to this Man henceforth, until 
 further notice, the price of any play of mine is 40s. per representation. 
 He has a similar warning from me until my just claims are satisfied. 
 
 Christie Johnstone goes on but slowly. I corrected this day proof 
 sheets up to p. 240. 1 I think there are 100 pages more to come, 
 so I fear it will be no fatter a vol. than Peg Woff. 
 
 I dare say I shall send Mrs. Stirling a copy and you must read 
 hers : it will only take you an hour and a half. 
 
 It wants juice, to my fancy is good fruit, perhaps, but not 
 ripened. 
 
 My two vols. will be a much heavier blow at least I think so 
 but Lord, if you knew the trouble and bother of writing a solid work 
 upon my present plan, i.e. verifying everything I say or describe ! 
 To write my two vols. I must read twenty, and hunt up men as well 
 as books. 
 
 C. J. concludes with a panegyric on Marriage (as I understand it). 
 I describe it as Moses might the promised land, all the brighter because 
 I have no hope of ever tasting it. God's will be done I My head 
 aches because I have allowed this lump of dirt, Glover, to put me 
 in a passion ; so I must leave off with apologies for an egotistical 
 letter, and am 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 CHARLES READE, 
 
 That Mrs. Stirling had, in part, brought these troubles 
 upon herself is undoubtedly true ; yet it is difficult to blame 
 her. Launched from earliest youth, without knowledge or 
 experience, without friends, or wise counsel, or guidance, 
 
 1 Christie Johnatone was published in the autumn or early winter of 
 1853. 
 
" PEG WOFFINGTON " 155 
 
 into an arduous, seductive, and dangerous profession, with 
 all the added temptations that accompany unusual personal 
 attractions graces imposed, moreover, upon an impulsive 
 and ardent temperament who can wonder that she made 
 many and irreparable mistakes? A quarter of a century 
 had already gone towards the perfecting of her dramatic 
 art ; a yet longer span of years must be lived, before she 
 could acquire the rudiments of a not less difficult art 
 practical wisdom in the guidance of her life. No period of 
 her career had brought her greater personal triumphs, as an 
 actress, than had these of the early fifties ; nor had any years 
 brought her, at the same time, graver problems, difficulties, 
 and disillusionments. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 
 
 1853-61 
 
 Mrs. Stirling resumes, under Wigan at the Olympic " Plot and Passion " 
 Robson's great success The quality of his acting " Most singular 
 dramatic genius of the day" Mrs. Stirling breaks down, and 'con- 
 templates retirement Her return to the Olympic " Lady Teazle " 
 " Anne Carew " in "A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing " " Leading 
 Strings," another success More illness, and provincial tours 
 " The Red Vial " Robson's comparative failure Mrs. Stirling 
 as " Mrs. Bergmann " The climax of her tragic work Popularity 
 of Olympic comedies, and high reputation of the company Mrs. 
 Stirling's versatility Her melancholy ; and verses thereon First 
 appearances of Miss Fanny Stirling " The Enchanted Island " 
 Mother and daughter play together in " A Duke in Difficulties " 
 Failure of Taylor's comedy Miss Fanny Stirling leaves the stage 
 Mrs. Stirling temporarily retires. 
 
 NOT until October, as we have seen, did London audiences 
 have another opportunity to applaud their favourite, when, 
 on the 17th, she reopened at the Olympic, under Alfred 
 Wigan, who had succeeded Farren in the management. 
 The curtain-raiser was an extravaganza by Planche "The 
 Camp at the Olympic " in which Mrs. Stirling played 
 " Comedy, still old fashioned but opposing a flippant grace 
 to the stateliness of Tragedy, in the person of Mrs. 
 Chatterley," a then retired actress, of some repute in her 
 day. This light prelude was a set-off to the once well- 
 known drama, " Plot and Passion," x the staple fare of the 
 evening. 
 
 To the modern reader it is poor stuff, from the French, 
 as usual, cleverly woven and contrived, as Taylor's work 
 always is, but lacking in charm, for the sufficient reasons 
 that every principal character in it is either a fool, or a 
 knave, or both, and that the element of intrigue is over- 
 
 1 John Lang, who collaborated with Taylor, was leader of the Calcutta 
 Bar. 
 
 156 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 157 
 
 done. Taylor, with memories of " Adrienne " yet linger- 
 ing, had intended to give his leading lady a strong part ; 
 and, as the impassioned, heart-broken gambler, she threw 
 all her pathos into the role of " Marie." But, though she 
 did her utmost " What a favourite she is ! " commented 
 G. H. Lewes it was not her fault that the feature of the 
 evening was the acting of Robson, 1 in the serious r61e of 
 " Desmarets," underling of Fouche, the famous Minister of 
 Police, of 1810, played by Emery. 
 
 Robson had already reached celebrity under W. Farren, 
 Wigan's predecessor at the Olympic, and, in " Plot and 
 Passion," was playing for the first time under Wigan's 
 management. Few critics, at that date, were quite certain 
 whether this actor's true bent was comedy or tragedy ; 
 for in his most successful parts such as " Daddy Hard- 
 acre," in an adaptation of Balzac's "Eugenie Grandet" 
 the tragic and comic elements were so evenly balanced that 
 none knew which predominated, and only the most acute 
 observers could surmise that Robson's peculiar genius was 
 best displayed in transition from one to the other. The 
 farces in which he gained greatest success were those that 
 allowed him to transmute " the tragic passion of terror 
 into its droll equivalent fright," 2 where all the humour 
 lay in the contrast between the intense seriousness of his 
 emotions, and the ludicrous circumstances that called them 
 forth. Later on, when Mrs. Stirling's pre-eminence at the 
 Olympic was declining, Robson was to be its principal 
 attraction. 
 
 Contemporary writers often refer to this extraordinary 
 comedian " the most singular dramatic genius of the 
 day," as Hollingshead calls him 3 and the most amazingly 
 clever trimmer between tragedy and farce in all our 
 theatrical annals. 4 
 
 In him the extremes of the sublime and the ridiculous came very 
 near meeting only that his acting ever kept preponderatingly sub- 
 
 1 His first appearance at the Olympic was in " Salvatore," 1853. 
 
 2 Saturday Review. 8 Memoirs, i. 127. 
 
 4 My mother's recollection of him is : " Just perfect in burlesque ; no 
 one else at all like him." Robson became a close friend of Mrs. Stirling's 
 though he was never a frequent visitor at her house, as, for example, was 
 Leigh Murray. 
 
158 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 lime, and that even the loudest burst of laughter that greeted the 
 wonderful little man's comic play and utterances had in them, may 
 be unconscious to actor and audience alike, a subdued undercurrent 
 of sobs and tears. 1 
 
 His coming tragedy thus cast its shadow before. Often 
 nervous, fidgety, and restless upon the stage and always 
 so off it this actor, who might have remained long at the 
 head of his profession, became increasingly intemperate, 
 and died in his forty-fourth year, a dipsomaniac. 2 
 
 Of this sad consummation, however, there was no sign 
 when he made what was, I believe, his first appearance 
 with Mrs. Stirling in " Plot and Passion," the after-piece 
 to " The Camp at the Olympic." 
 
 Concerning his performance the critic of the Sunday 
 Times wrote 8 : 
 
 To compare his acting in the character with that of any other 
 actor upon the English stage, would give no idea of his peculiarity ; 
 he is an actor sui generis, and must be seen to be thoroughly appre- 
 ciated. His power of facial expression is something marvellous, 
 and the manner in which, by means apparently comic, he produces 
 the most profound tragic passion, is perfectly wonderful. The inten- 
 sity of his emotion when he declares his love for " Mme. de Fontanges," 
 in the second act, was the ne plus ultra though ludicrous, it was 
 terribly real and effective. 4 
 
 During the early part of 1854, Mrs. Stirling, for reasons 
 of health, was not working at full pressure ; and about 
 the middle of May, she broke down and withdrew from the 
 cast. A part of the physical trouble was rheumatism of 
 the eyes, for which she was bled, cupped, and otherwise 
 malpractised upon, after the surgical fashion of that day. 
 She spent a portion of her enforced holiday at Brighton, 
 whence Mrs. Baylis received from her the following 
 letter: 
 
 1 Toole's Reminiscences, Hatton, p. 155. 
 
 1864. 8 October 23, 1853. 
 
 * Sir Squire Bancroft writes : "I was enthralled by an actor whom 1 
 shall never forget Frederick Robson. I saw him often, and vividly recall 
 his intensity as * Pesmarets ' in * Plot and Passion.' . . . The power of 
 Robson on the stage was contagious like a fever, and, take him all in all, 
 I think he was the most remarkable actor of those days, and perhaps one 
 of the most remarkable of any days." The Bancrofts, p. 45. 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 159 
 
 BRIGHTON, Wednesday. 
 
 Ah ! little woman ! little woman ! you wouldn't take time by 
 the " fire " lock, and Saturday, I believe, sees me on my road to the 
 great muddle or puddle, or whatever you like to call it, of London, 
 there to try and arrange something for the future to decide if I act 
 again, and so on. 
 
 I am sorry you have not been with us, for we have had lovely 
 weather, and my Fan yesterday had her first plunge this year into 
 the open sea. 
 
 I cannot say I find the sight of my eye improved, it looks a little 
 more like the other, and wind and light does not seem to affect it, 
 so after taking the opinion of some good oculist it will soon now be 
 decided whether I am to risk it and act again. 
 
 The newspapers put me into such a rage that I really cannot 
 command myself nothing but horrors and follies and wickednesses 
 I really believe the best way is never to read one. I shall just get 
 to town too late for all the gaieties and just as the hot weather com- 
 mences and London is more hateful than ever. 
 
 I got a letter the other day commencing : " So ' Clive Newcome ' 1 
 has actually married that pretty simpleton, * Rosy Mackenzie l isn't 
 it abominable ? " Really, it is very provoking of Thackeray that 
 he will make his heroes and heroines marry the wrong people just 
 as they do in real life. 
 
 From this it will be seen that Mrs. Stirling was con- 
 templating retirement from the stage. The doctors, how- 
 ever, must have decided in her favour, for when the 
 Olympic, after closing in August, was reopened on 
 October 9, Emery, Vining, and Mrs. Stirling had all been 
 re-engaged. The leading lady, when the time came, being 
 still too unwell to appear, her parts were taken by Miss 
 Fitzpatrick ; and Mrs. Stirling did not return to the stage 
 until the summer of 1855. It is probably to June, of that 
 year, that the next letter belongs. 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Only a line, my dear little woman, to tell you I have just signed 
 an engagement, and hope to go to work this day fortnight. It isn't 
 exactly the piece I should have chosen, but 'tis to be hoped something 
 better will come. 
 
 Work begins, of course, before the actual night for rehearsals, 
 and study and preparation is the work, and that begins literally to-day, 
 for I am going to write my own part out directly. This will knock 
 my trip on the head, but that must come by and by. 
 
 1 The Newcomes was published during that year, 1854. 
 
160 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 I am sorry to have lost you just now, when you might have helped 
 me with this very part, for I shall have to drag lines, sentences and 
 ideas from all sorts of sources, and put them into this, if I am to do 
 anything with it. This isn't a letter, dear, only a line to tell you 
 I'm going into harness again, and a trap to drag a letter from you. 
 I hope you'll enjoy your sea. 
 
 Her next appearance at the Olympic, of which I have 
 any record, is that for Mrs. Wigan's Benefit, on June 22, 
 1855, as " Lady Teazle." She was getting rather too old 
 for the part, 1 but brought back with her, nevertheless, 
 
 all her accustomed vivacity and finesse, and never looked better than 
 in the stately dress of the last century. . . . The point of the dialogue 
 was duly given by her delivery, and that is no small praise in an age 
 when the art of wielding the language of polished repartee is fast 
 fading away. Emery, as " Sir Peter," and the others scarcely recog- 
 nize the subtleties of that artificial comedy dialogue, which belong to 
 another time, but which lies within the reach of Mrs. Stirling's quick 
 discernment. 2 
 
 The fact is, that the players, as a company, were rather 
 far out of their ordinary line, namely drawing-room comedy, 
 and domestic drama, varied with farce, in which the 
 Olympic was building up for itself the reputation of being 
 the leading London house, in that class of work. 
 
 Over Mrs. Stirling's performances there during the last 
 half of the year 1855, 3 and the year 1856, I do not propose 
 to linger. On July 2, 1855, she played in " Where there's 
 a Will there's a Way." On February 12, 1856, as " Mrs. 
 Metcalfe," she helped to give a little life to an otherwise 
 flat comedy by G. H. Lewes, disguised as " Slingsby 
 Lawrence " ; and on May 26 she took up again the part 
 in which she had appeared at the Lyceum in 1847 " Mrs. 
 Bracegirdle," " The Tragedy Queen." My grandmother 
 always enjoyed playing actresses, because such roles gave 
 her more opportunity to make use of her elocutionary powers 
 than most drawing-room dramas afforded. Always fond of 
 recitation, she just revelled in the tragedy speeches, and 
 
 1 Born July 29, 1813 therefore nearly forty-two. 
 
 2 The Times, June 23, 1855. 
 
 8 On September 1, 1855, Bartholomew Fair was proclaimed for the 
 last time. 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 161 
 
 it was her delight in them, no doubt, together with her 
 need for more rest, that turned her mind little by little 
 towards an alternative occupation, which, while suited to 
 her taste and abilities, would tax her physique less than 
 would play-acting upon the legitimate stage. 
 
 Two more roles, during 1856, I have notedthe lead 
 in " Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are," by 
 Mrs. Inchbald, and " Miss Dorrillon," with Robson, in 
 44 A Conjugal Lesson." Then, on February 19, 1857, she 
 was seen as " Anne Carew," in another domestic drama 
 by Tom Taylor, " A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing," 1 which 
 takes us to Taunton, after Sedgemoor, in 1685, when 
 Kirke's Lambs were loose about the West Country, and 
 rebel fruit, of King Monmouth's army, dangled from the 
 sign-boards of the Somerset Inns. 
 
 One would naturally suppose that a play upon such a 
 theme would be English through and through ; and that 
 a week spent at the " White Hart," Taunton, with 
 wanderings about the vale of Sedgemoor, were the inspira- 
 tions that set Taylor to work. Such, however, was not 
 the method of our dramatists of the fifties. At the head 
 of the printed play we read, as usual, " from the French." 
 Taylor, almost wholly deficient in natural creative power, 
 had done no more than adapt to his purpose Mme. de 
 Girardin's " Une Femme qui D6teste son Mari." 
 
 The play, nevertheless, is a deft piece of work, and with 
 the help of a new historical setting, and broad Somerset 
 dialogue, does effectually conceal its first nationality from 
 all those to whom the purposeful coquetry of " Anne Carew " 
 does not suggest a French origin. Its story is of the 
 simplest. " Anne Carew " has concealed her husband, 
 whom people suppose to have fallen at Sedgemoor, while 
 fighting upon Monmouth's side. " Colonel Percy Kirke " 
 (Addison) is making to her advances that she pretends to 
 welcome. " Jasper Carew " (Vining), and his wife's faithful 
 duplicity, come of course to light at last ; but the sudden 
 appearance of " Lord Churchill " puts an end to <c Kirke's " 
 command, before he has had time to revenge himself ; and 
 the curtain falls upon the reunited pair, to the jingle of 
 
 1 A play in which the Kendals later on made a great success. 
 
 11 
 
162 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 the rhyming tags, without which Taylor thought no comedy 
 complete. 
 
 Such a part, with a play within a play, was exactly 
 suited to Mrs. Stirling's talent. The Times l critic writes 
 that she, 
 
 though perhaps hardly realizing all that was expected from her, in 
 consequence of the memory of her many successes in previous parts 
 of the kind, still endowed the character with that vivid force of 
 expression that told strongly upon the audience. The transitions, 
 from the playful assumptions of love for the hated destroyer of her 
 friends, to the earnest devotion that she exhibits to her husband, were 
 marked by the skilful employment of those talents in which she has 
 yet scarce a rival. 
 
 On March 4, however, when the play was yet only a 
 fortnight old, Mrs. Stirling, seized with sudden illness, 
 was compelled to resign her part to Mrs. Alfred Wigan, 
 and excepting a visit to Edinburgh Theatre Royal, where 
 Henry Irving was acting, and an appearance during August, 
 in a farce, " The Subterfuge," on the occasion of the 
 reopening of the theatre, under Robson and Emden's 
 management did not, I think, take up any heavy work, 
 until October, when, on the 19th, she reappeared in a 
 typical Olympic comedy of the time, " Leading Strings," 
 by A. C. Troughton, from " Tou jours," the last but one 
 of the interminable list of plays to the credit of the 
 French dramatist, Scribe. 
 
 " Mrs. Leveson," a widow, played by Mrs. Stirling, 
 dotes upon her son, and would marry him to her niece 
 " Florry." The boy, however, has conceived a passion 
 for the proud, selfish, high-born " Edith," who lives with 
 them. Her he will absolutely possess " aut ' Edith ' aut 
 nullus," as Edmund Kean would have put it. The shrewd, 
 designing mother, knowing well her boy's character, pre- 
 tends to give way, and astutely contrives that " Frank " 
 and " Edith " shall be bottled up, for weeks together, at 
 a dull old country house in the North of England, there to 
 feast upon one another's charms. The result, of course, 
 is surfeit, followed, in due time, by loathing and fast. The 
 lively and ingenuous " Florry " is then introduced at 
 
 1 February 22, 1857. 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 163 
 
 the critical moment; u Edith" finds solace elsewhere; 
 and the mother's triumph, and her son's happiness, are 
 simultaneously accomplished. Simple stuff, this, depending 
 wholly upon interpretation for effect, it proved, never- 
 theless, to be one of the most successful of Mrs. Stirling's 
 long list of characters. 
 
 Her natural and earnest style [says the critic of the Era l ] gave 
 to the portrait of the watchful and contriving mother those vivid 
 colours that only the absolute mistress of her art could have employed 
 so dexterously. Her " Mrs. Leveson " will be fit to hang on the 
 walls of memory beside those other pictures that belong to the famous 
 gallery of comedy portraits limned so cleverly by the same hand. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, as the mother, exhibits one of the most finished 
 and sustained pieces of drawing-room acting that has been seen in 
 London for some years ; and, from one end to the other, her part 
 is excellent. 8 
 
 The run of " Leading Strings," like that of " A Sheep 
 in Wolf's Clothing," was cut short so far as Mrs. Stirling 
 was concerned by another illness. On November 23 
 she broke down suddenly, and her part was read by Miss 
 Castleton. From that time forward the actress felt herself 
 unequal to the strain of long-sustained theatrical work, 
 and made less frequent appearances upon the stage. She 
 continued to tour, at intervals, though not very willingly. 
 February 1858 finds her at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 
 from the 1st to the 6th; at the Theatre Royal, Edin- 
 burgh, from the 8th to the 13th ; and back at Glasgow 
 from the 15th to the 20th, where she played with Glover 
 in " The Jealous Wife," " A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing," and 
 " Subterfuge." " The Tragedy Queen " and " Masks and 
 Faces " were also included in the repertoire of that tour. 
 
 From one of these towns, probably, was written, to 
 Mrs. Baylis, a letter of which I give a fragment here. It 
 shows, only too plainly, that the long-drawn dilemma 
 between duty and daughter was still agitating her mind. 
 
 Ah ! my child ! you think me free to fly here and there and there ! 
 you don't see all the different strings that pull me here and there ! 
 and the chain cable that holds my heart tightly in one place while 
 my wretched body is dragged here and there, to toil on as it can with- 
 out it ! all to make these pounds, shillings and pence that I cannot 
 
 1 October 25, 1857. * Saturday Review, October 31, 1857. 
 
164 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 enjoy when made. I have a dreadful cold, there is no getting warm 
 through ; here I sit in shawls and fur shoes over my boots, and yet 
 shiver, and my landlady is an old maid, oh ! so cold ! it's all cold 
 and wretched together. I write and tell a friend of mine to leave 
 you a Scotch paper or two which you will keep for me, as they are 
 to go in the London Press. It must have been a Mrs. Gillett, I fancy, 
 you met at my house, an enthusiastic little woman, like yourself, 
 who has the happy gift of words. If you send here again it must 
 not be after Friday's post, as there's no delivery here on the " Sabbath " 
 eh, mon ! oh ! M ! you may drink and light and murder, be a beast 
 in any way, but you mustn't have your letters or travel, so I shall 
 be shut up here Sunday, but off on Monday before the post comes. 
 Hoping to see you, dear, very soon, 
 
 Believe me yours truly, 
 
 F. S. 
 
 Not consideration of health only, then, was the cause 
 for her gradual withdrawal from the stage. The first 
 sentence of the above letter supplies a reason more potent. 
 Still, however, with the stubborn determination that she 
 could always summon at command, Mrs. Stirling remained, 
 for the time being, a faithful servant of the Olympic 
 management, appearing, on April 19, as "Mrs. Flower- 
 dale," in Oxenford's comedy, "A Doubtful Victory," and, 
 during the autumn of the same year, as " Mrs. Bergmann," 
 the housekeeper, in a gloomy play of crime and lunacy, 
 by that melodramatic writer, Wilkie Collins. 
 
 " The Red Vial " proved commercially a failure ; in 
 part because it was utterly unsuited to the tastes of an 
 Olympic audience, and in part because of Robson's com- 
 parative weakness in a purely tragic role most of the 
 critics laying the bulk of the blame upon him. The really 
 interesting point of the production was the conclusive 
 proof it afforded that, of the two comedians, Robson and 
 Mrs. Stirling, upon whom the fortunes of the house mainly 
 depended, the actor could not, or did not, succeed in 
 tragedy, while the actress could, and did. As the Saturday 
 Review put it : 
 
 If Mr. Robson l had felt a real sympathy with the half-shrewd idiot 
 entrusted to his talent, he might have rendered him a conspicuous 
 
 1 The following interesting passage concerning Robson, and his work 
 in this play, is from Hollingshead's My Lifetime, i. 127, 128. 
 
 " . . . ' The Red Vial * was a decided failure, and it was the fashion 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 165 
 
 and commanding figure amid the general dullness, as indeed the 
 murderous housekeeper was made by Mrs. Stirling ! 
 
 Her " Mrs. Bergmann " was generally regarded as " the 
 most brilliant failure of the day." 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, in the manifestly repulsive part of "Mrs. Bergmann," 
 adopts the bold expedient of idealizing the would-be murderess into 
 a sort of " Lady Macbeth," and by the imposing character of her 
 attitudes, and the force of her by-play, gives a poetical aspect to the 
 piece, which would not otherwise have belonged to it. 1 
 
 The Daily Telegraph went farther yet in commendation, 
 and paid full tribute to the actress's " noble effort " to save 
 the play from failure, adding further that 
 
 her acting was such as cannot fail to heighten the fame she has 
 established, great though it be, and to raise her in the estimation of 
 her most ardent admirers. 2 
 
 There is little doubt that in " The Red Vial " 3 poor 
 though the play was Mrs. Stirling reached the climax of 
 her serious powers, and came closer to high tragedy than 
 she had done, even in " Adrienne Lecouvreur." Her 
 performance arouses curiosity, as to what she might have 
 accomplished in "Lady Macbeth," had the opportunity ever 
 been afforded to her, in the days of her dramatic maturity. 
 
 to throw the blame upon Robson. I was present the first night with Mr. 
 Serjeant Ballantyne, and we could not honestly abuse anything but the 
 piece : nothing could have saved ' The Red Vial.' Robson died a few 
 years later of dipsomania. He was a little nervous man, with a large head 
 and a small body; his legs and feet were particularly neat. He was a 
 bundle of nerves. When he spoke to you and shook hands, they were 
 damp with perspiration ; when he acted, on a first night, he was sick after 
 nearly every scene. No one knows the agony of the stage, except those 
 who are on it. His tragedy was terrific for a few minutes, and his lapses 
 into common-place most comic and startling. His style was his own. He 
 made his first hit in my friend Frank Talfourd's burlesque of * Shylock.' 
 Mme. Ristori has left on record her astonishment on seeing his travesty 
 of 'Medea' her own 'Medea.' ... He was one of the most humorous 
 and original farce actors unlike any of the popular low comedians and 
 could breathe the breath of eccentric life into the vulgarest comic song. 
 His nervousness made him doubt his own staying powers." 
 
 1 The Times, October 12, 1858. 
 
 2 Blanchard, present on the first night, wrote in his diary : " Mrs. 
 Stirling wonderfully fine." 
 
 3 " The Red Vial " is perhaps a forerunner of the French naturalistic 
 play. Zola, one of the founders of French naturalism, was to write his 
 first successful book, TMrtse Raquin, in 1867. L'Assommoir, which made 
 his fortune, appeared in 1878. 
 
166 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Apart from the attraction of two strong parts, for 
 Robson and the leading lady, one wonders what were the 
 managers' l reasons for producing such a play as " The 
 Red Vial " at the Olympic, a house that, after the 
 Princess's where Charles Kean was putting on spectacular 
 Shakespearean revivals with considerable success was ad- 
 mittedly the second theatre in London, and a fashionable 
 resort of comedy-seeking play-goers. 
 
 For these ventures in domestic comedy, Wigan and 
 Robson, with Emden who succeeded him had brought 
 together and trained a company, of whom few, excepting 
 Mrs. Stirling, had any claim to celebrity, before the days 
 of Wigan's management. But now, by the autumn of 
 1858, they had " come on " so fast, and were so well 
 together, that no theatre in London could rival them at 
 this class of work. Mrs. Stirling, as we have seen, had 
 reached, at the Olympic, a degree of popularity not excelled 
 at any period of her career ; Robson had made himself 
 the leading burlesque actor of the day ; Addison, in such 
 parts as the old butler in " Leading Strings," and the 
 East Indian fire-eater in " Going to the Bad " ; and 
 lastly Vining, in character sketches, such as the rough 
 military lover of " A Doubtful Victory," and as 
 44 Jasper Carew " in Taylor's " after-Sedgemoor " play, 
 had brought the comedian's art, each after his manner, 
 to a high degree of perfection, and the house into great 
 repute. 
 
 On September 24, 1859, then, the little Olympic, still 
 under Robson and Emden, reopened for the autumn season, 
 with a new version of de Musset's comedy, 4t II faut qu'une 
 Porte soit Ouverte ou Fermee," or in English dress, 4t A 
 Morning Call." Mrs. Stirling did well in it, as she did 
 also in the plays that followed: "The Head of the 
 Family " ; a revival of her old triumph, 4t Cousin Cherry " ; 
 and 44 Nine Points of the Law," in which she appeared 
 before the Court, at Windsor Castle, on January 31, 1860. 
 
 A popular magazine, The Players, published during 
 the following month 2 an appreciative article commenting 
 
 1 Robson and W. S. Emden, as joint managers, had succeeded Wigan. 
 8 February 25, 1860. 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 167 
 
 upon Mrs. Stirling's extraordinary versatility. Its readers 
 were reminded that 
 
 it is by no means uncommon to meet with persons who, remembering 
 her impersonations of "Juliet," "Cordelia," "Desdemona, 12 etc., 
 prefer them to those of any other lady upon the stage. 
 
 Others thought her best in domestic drama, while some 
 ranked her highest in the lighter, more dainty, French 
 style of part. Certainly, as proof of her scope and 
 variety, it was a most remarkable fact that she played a 
 far greater range of character after being established in 
 public favour, as a leading comedy actress, than she had 
 ever done before. How many other comediennes in 
 theatrical history, for example, have been capable of 
 sending every young lady in the house into floods of tears 
 over sorrows considered obsolete for years such as the 
 griefs of " Clarissa Harlowe " ? 
 
 Yet, all the while, beneath the merriment of her lightest 
 work, the brooding melancholy was there, undreamed of, 
 doubtless, by the many, but discerned, or suspected, by 
 the more penetrating of her sympathizers. One such, 
 perhaps, was the writer of the following lines, which aroused 
 comment, at this time, by their association of the pale- 
 dark companion, Melancholy, with the bright and cheery 
 creator of "Peg Woffington." 
 
 With eyes upraised and ringlets curling, 
 
 Pale Melancholy (Mrs. Stirling) 
 
 Comes from behind the prompter's seat 
 
 Her lamentations to repeat ; 
 
 And while she pours her pensive cries 
 
 On all the wings and flats around 
 
 There is an echo in the flies, 
 
 That seems to mock the mournful sound. 
 
 Through box and pit the plaintive accents stole; 
 
 Hung o'er the orchestra with fond delay ; 
 
 Through all the house a calm diffusing 
 
 The sounds not e'en the gallery losing 
 
 Till in the slips they die away. 
 
 That Mrs. Stirling's devotion to her art was becoming, 
 to some extent, vicarious, all theatre-goers were now to 
 know, when her daughter Fanny the " Little Fan " of the 
 
168 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 letters to Mrs. Baylis then in her nineteenth year, made 
 her first appearance upon the West-End stage. 1 
 
 The occasion was at Drury Lane Theatre, on July 25, 
 1860, at a benefit arranged for the family of R. B. Brough, 
 who had died not long before. Actors from three different 
 theatres gave their services that night, and G. A. Sala spoke 
 an address, specially written by himself. These prelimi- 
 naries took up so much time that it was near midnight 
 before the most important item of the programme came 
 on, namely, " The Enchanted Island," a burlesque of 
 Shakespeare's "Tempest," written by Robert Brough, in 
 collaboration with his brother and other dramatists. 
 
 Before the curtain a prologue, written by Shirley 
 Brookes, for the occasion, was spoken by Mrs. Stirling. 
 Then followed the burlesque, played mainly by amateurs, 2 
 many of whom were members of the Savage Club. Miss 
 Ellen Terry's elder sister, Kate Terry described by Charles 
 Reade as the meekest, tenderest, and most intelligent 
 actress of her day was "Ariel " ; and Fanny Stirling, the 
 younger, made her d6but as " Miranda." 
 
 The appearance of Miss Fanny Stirling as " Miranda " fully 
 answered the most sanguine expectations. Endowed with remark- 
 able personal attractions, the young lady acts and sings with native 
 vivacity and spirit, accompanied by an amount of grace and self- 
 possession that could only be acquired through careful training. The 
 acting of the amateurs may be recorded as exceedingly creditable, 
 but there is real importance in the accession to the stage of so promising 
 a young actress as Fanny Stirling. 3 
 
 On Monday, January 7, 1861, Miss Fanny Stirling 
 played again at Drury Lane, in her first important part, 
 " Miss Vandeleur," in Falconer's comedy, " Does He Love 
 Me?" a performance concerning which the Athenceum critic 
 wrote : 
 
 Miss Stirling has great natural powers, and merely requires culti- 
 vation in the art which she has chosen to realize a decided success. 
 
 1 She had begun by " walking on," dressed in a scarlet cloak, in a play 
 with the Wigans about three years before. 
 
 2 " Ferdinand," Miss Woolgar (Mrs. Alfred Mellon) ; " Trinculo," John 
 Hollingshead ; " Stephano," George Cruickshank ; " Caliban," Mr. Frank 
 Talfourd. " Miranda " was described on the play-bill as " Prospero's pet 
 and Ferdinand's passion " which gives a clue to the crudity of the text. 
 
 8 The Times, July 26, 1860. 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 169 
 
 Her portraiture of the heroine was exceedingly natural, full of girlish 
 impulse, and occasionally revealing extraordinary powers of fascina- 
 tion. In person and style she much resembles her mother, and in 
 time will probably become as attractive an actress. 
 
 All this was well enough for a beginning ; and from 
 that time onward, until her second de*but if I may call 
 it so the daughter appeared, with a fair measure of suc- 
 cess, at various West-End theatres, in several plays 
 among which was " She Stoops to Conquer " before her 
 first appearance in a full-dress comedy, with her mother 
 also in the cast. 
 
 The date was March 6, 1861, 1 the play, at the Hay- 
 market, " A Duke in Difficulties," specially written by 
 Tom Taylor for the Stirlings, from a tale published some 
 years before in Blackwood, entitled, " A Duke in a 
 Dilemma." Its original source was, I believe, a German 
 novel, and one rather regrets that the story ever left 
 Germany, since its morals were doubtful, and its interest 
 but small. Briefly the tale is this : 
 
 A German princeling, short of money, receives at his 
 court a number of French actors, for whom he has made 
 no provision. The French manager, an alert individual, 
 proposes that they shall all become courtiers, and so enable 
 the princeling fittingly to receive a neighbouring prince, 
 whose wealthy sister he hopes to marry. Ainsi dit, ainsi fait ! 
 The duke jumps at the idea, appoints the manager his 
 prime minister pro tern., and hands portfolios to the 
 remainder of the travelling company. Ultimately the 
 duke marries the princess, who, of course, restores his 
 shattered finances, while the actors their identities always 
 undiscovered are despatched upon foreign missions, so 
 as to allow the real courtiers to leave the state prison, in 
 which they had been languishing, and return to their normal 
 inactivities. The visiting prince, meanwhile, falls in love 
 with one of the actresses, " Colombe " (Miss Fanny 
 Stirling) whose actress-mother (Mrs. Stirling) has to guard 
 her daughter as best she may. 
 
 1 Sir Squire Bancroft has told me that in this same year, 1861, he ran 
 away from home, and went on the stage in his twentieth year, I think. 
 He began at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham. 
 
170 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Such a plot, well handled, might have made a good 
 comedy, and should have afforded excellent opportunities 
 for the two ladies principally concerned. Unfortunately, 
 it was badly written. Taylor, for want of time, or want 
 of care, bungled the thing ; and so overloaded his second 
 and third acts with irrelevant dialogue, that the comedy 
 became tedious and wearisome, despite the interest aroused 
 by, and the pointed allusions in the text to, the first 
 and the last appearance of the Stirlings together. The 
 reception, by press and public alike, was, on the whole, 
 unfavourable, notwithstanding the special circumstances, 
 and the strength of the cast, which included Howe, Buck- 
 stone, Compton, Rogers, and Mrs. Wilkins. 
 
 The mother [wrote the critic of The Times] l is represented with great 
 feeling by Mrs. Stirling . . . and the final speeches which she utters 
 when she leads her daughter to the foot-lamps evidently refer to the 
 recent de"but of Miss Fanny Stirling, and were understood in that 
 sense by the audience, who applauded them with enthusiasm. 
 
 The Era also realized the significance of the occasion : 
 
 It was impossible not to feel the full force of the earnestness of 
 expression with which Mrs. Stirling, as the experienced actress, 
 " Joconde," depicted the perils of life to the young actress, " Colombe," 
 her daughter ; and the anxiety for her future welfare, displayed with 
 all that depth of emotional feeling that we know, in this instance, 
 was not the mere proof of the artist's skill, was thoroughly appre- 
 ciated by the audience, who gladly bestowed encouraging plaudits 
 as often as they were invited, and, truth to say, they were invited 
 pretty frequently. Miss Fanny Stirling was seen to more advantage 
 in this part than in any she has previously undertaken . . . still, 
 notwithstanding that one of Mr. Tom Taylor's usual rhymed tags 
 brought the curtain down to applause, elicited by the pointed utter- 
 ance of a strong appeal which Mrs. Stirling made on behalf of her 
 daughter, we must doubt if the piece has sufficient vitality to ensure 
 it long life. 
 
 It certainly had not. The production was a mistake ; 
 and my mother soon after left the stage, with which, 
 despite fine physical and mental qualifications, she had 
 never, I think, possessed much real sympathy, nor shown 
 any deep natural instinct. The elder lady also, at this 
 
 * March 8, 1861. 
 
WITH ROBSON AT THE OLYMPIC 171 
 
 time, withdrew temporarily from public life, at the height 
 of her popularity, and with a reputation equalled by few 
 actresses in the history of our English theatre. 1 
 
 In The Modern Drama, of 1862, appeared the following 
 lines concerning Mrs. Stirling : 
 
 No living actress can approach her in comedy. Unless we except 
 a somewhat inelegant walk, she combines every qualification to pro- 
 duce a matchless embodiment of the piquant, the high-bred, the witty 
 heroines of the old drama. Her voice is soft and pleasing, capable 
 at once of sweetness and acerbity ; her face is essentially womanly, 
 tender, gentle, refined ; her vigorous understanding knows how to 
 give point to the wit of her author, pathos to his melancholy, emphasis 
 to his satire, and illumination to his obscurity. 
 
 1 CHARACTERISTICS OF ACTRESSES, CHARACTERISTICS OF ACTORS, 
 from Diprose's The Stage and from the same. 
 
 The Players. 
 
 Helen Faucit is ideal, Samuel Phelps is good and ready, 
 
 Mrs. Stirling is most real j Old John Cooper always steady ; 
 
 Isabella Glyn is strong, Mr. Kean, an artiste Dutch ! 
 
 Mrs. Kean is seldom wrong. Anderson is never such. 
 
 Graceful, fair Miss Vandenhoff, Robson, clever, shrewd, and fine, 
 
 Charlotte Cushman somewhat gruff. Wigan in French parts doth shine ; 
 
 Mrs. Keeley always clever, Webster is so good and yet 
 
 Wee Miss Saunders, live for ever ! Walter Lacy betters it. 
 
 Edith Heraud, poet's daughter, Charles Mathews, rattling, free, 
 
 Amy Sedgwick Nature taught her. Don, Sir William, six feet three, 
 
 Genius smiled on Fanny Kemble, Many good and hardly great, 
 
 Shall we genius' faults dissemble ? But, in a transition state, 
 
 Rare the genius, rare and great, We must take what we can get, 
 
 When will such rise again, O Fate ? And past greatness must forget. 
 
 BETA. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 
 
 1861-68 
 
 The General Theatrical, and Dramatic and Musical Sick Funds Ladies 
 relegated to galleries at these dinners Protests from Chairmen and 
 Revocation of the Edict Mrs. Stirling's first reply from the ladies 
 Her gift of public speaking Northern tour, and letters thereon 
 " A lost life " The demands of art upon the artist Con- 
 templated withdrawal Return to the Adelphi in "Hen and 
 Chickens," 1863 Mrs. Stirling at the Royal Mint Her speech at 
 Dramatic and Musical Sick Fund Dinner in 1864 " A Woman of 
 Business," and a drink play Her success as " Marguerite " in 
 " The Workmen of Paris " Her speech on St. Valentine's Day, 
 1865" The Huguenot Captain " " From Grave to Gay "A long 
 withdrawal in 1868. 
 
 THE theatrical profession is certainly a precarious one, 
 and, upon the whole, underpaid. Its members, moreover, 
 being, in many instances, individually more generous than 
 provident, cases of grievous necessity too often arise. 
 
 In 1839 had been established the General Theatrical 
 Fund, for the provision of pensions to old actors ; but, as 
 the need for help grew with the development of the theatre, 
 there was founded, in 1855, a kindred organization, for the 
 relief of sickness and distresses among the profession. It 
 was named, somewhat clumsily, " The Dramatic, Musical 
 and Equestrian Sick Fund Association," of which the first 
 annual dinner was held on April 9, 1857, at Willis's Rooms, 1 
 in St. James's Street. 
 
 There Tom Taylor presided over a comparatively small 
 meeting, at which no ladies were present, excepting perhaps 
 a few in the gallery, as tantalized spectators and listeners, 
 forbidden either to speak or eat. Woman's emancipation 
 
 1 Fanny Kemble (Frances Anne Kemble, 1809-93) had given a series 
 of Shakespearean readings there in 1848 ; Thackeray also lectured there 
 successfully, after moments of paralysing nervousness, as related by Fanny 
 Kemble in her Records of Later Life. 
 
 172 
 
THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 173 
 
 had not proceeded far in those days ; nor was it, I believe, 
 then the general custom to admit ladies to public dinners, 
 even though as was the case with members of the 
 theatrical profession those ladies were publicly exercising 
 their art, and earning their bread, upon the same boards 
 with the men. The boards were open to the ladies ; the 
 board was not. 
 
 For some years this anomaly was permitted to continue. 
 At the second meeting, with Ben Webster in the chair ; 
 at the third under Robert Keeley ; at the fourth under 
 Thackeray on Ash Wednesday, February 22, 1860 the 
 unfortunate women were still relegated hungrily to the 
 gallery, though their healths were cursorily proposed at 
 the very close of the proceedings, when everybody was 
 tired, and those who had not already left were preparing 
 to do so. 
 
 At the meetings of the General Theatrical Fund, the 
 same sort of thing was happening, and the absence of the 
 actresses began annually to be commented upon. Tom 
 Taylor, presiding at their dinner, on April 12, 1860, in 
 proposing " The Ladies," at 11.30 p.m., said : " I do so 
 in the confident hope that the time is not long distant when 
 ladies and gentlemen will take their places side by side, 
 and that the ladies will not be content with a miserable 
 toast at the fag-end of the evening." 
 
 As regards the elder, and more conservative, charity, 
 however, the change was long in coming ; and at their 
 functions, held usually at the Freemason's Tavern, Great 
 Queen Street, the fact that the ladies were still in the gallery, 
 behind the men and a grill, became the subject of annual 
 sentiment, jest, or remonstrance, according to the tempera- 
 ments of the speakers. Alfred Wigan, on April 16, 1862, 
 " heard a downy rustle that could not have proceeded from 
 coarse masculine broadcloth and leather, but which, I am 
 convinced, must have been caused by those lighter, lovelier 
 fabrics that veil the iron cages which, in the present day, 
 contain those delicate creatures whom some of us have 
 the happiness to call ours." 
 
 Dickens, at the next dinner, found himself in a tanta- 
 lizing position. " I always want to look this way (facing 
 
174 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 the ladies) and I am obliged to look this (facing the gentlemen). 
 Also I never have so painful a sense that my hair is going 
 a little behind." The Lord Mayor of London, presiding 
 in 1866, complains, for the same reason, of a stiff neck ; 
 and Dion Boucicault, in 1867, affirms publicly, that " this 
 is the first time that ever he turned his back upon a lady." 
 The younger Institution, meanwhile The Dramatic Sick 
 Fund had set their house in order, long before. At their 
 dinner on Ash Wednesday, March 5, 1862, under the presi- 
 dency of Sir Charles Taylor, ladies were admitted, for the 
 first time, on equal terms with the men ; and Mrs. Stirling, 
 accompanied by Miss Fanny Stirling, came down from the 
 gallery to the dining table, and responded to the toast of 
 " The Ladies." 
 
 Sir Charles Taylor, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have presided 
 how long ago I don't perhaps care to remember as Mrs. Fitz-Smythe 
 over a Ladies' Club, 1 but I am now called upon to perform a still more 
 original part, that of spokeswoman for the ladies present, and actually 
 dining at a public dinner. I think the Dramatic Association deserves 
 credit for this innovation, which allows us to be comfortably seated 
 at this table, instead of being ranged drearily up in a gallery, like so 
 many cherubim sitting aloft, keeping watch over the knives and forks 
 of poor Jack. (Laughter.) In the name of the ladies present I 
 beg to thank you for this change in the order of your dining. I do 
 not think that the presence of the petticoats however, perhaps, in 
 their present form, they may a little cripple the legs of the gentlemen 
 need cripple their eloquence nor check their joviality, except perhaps 
 at those points where it were none the worse for being checked. 
 
 But for other and graver reasons I am both proud and happy in 
 acknowledging the toast on behalf of my professional sisters. If 
 the men find the pathway of theatrical art a rugged and difficult one, 
 think what it must be, or rather, I should say, what it is, for the 
 women ! (Hear, hear.) If you, with your thews and sinews, born 
 to buffet the world and fight your way, often have need of a helping 
 hand o'er this rugged bit of road, and are still apt to stumble and 
 founder, think what it must be for young, weak, inexperienced and 
 too often unfriended and unprotected woman ! (Cheers.) Oh ! what 
 heart-sickening disappointment, what pinching need, what terrible 
 temptations might perhaps be averted by a kind hand, with just a 
 little money in it, held out to them at the critical moment ! (Cheers.) 
 
 And if I turn from the difficulties which now and then beset the 
 
 1 March 20, 1840, at Olympic " The Ladies' Club," by Mark Lemon, See 
 ante, p. 16. 
 
THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 175 
 
 path of health, and strength, and youth, to the more dreary priva- 
 tions which are so often the lot of age and sickness, in a calling so 
 precarious as ours, oh, what sad reason has the poor old worn-out 
 actress to bless such a Society as this, which provides for her sick- 
 bed those comforts which she is unable to provide for herself, and 
 when all other offices of friendship, save the last, are superfluous 
 soothes her death-bed pillow, and saves her from a pauper's grave. 
 (Hear, hear.) 
 
 You will forgive me, I hope, for intruding such sad words on this 
 occasion, but there appear special reasons why the women in our 
 profession should take an interest in this Charity, and it seemed to 
 me that in acknowledging this toast they might not be altogether 
 out of place. In the name of all the ladies, I beg to return you our 
 most grateful thanks for the honour you have done us, and allow me 
 in return to drink all your healths. (Loud applause.) 
 
 Whether Mrs. Stirling was making here her d6but as 
 an after-dinner speaker, or whether she possessed previous 
 experience, I do not know, but the lofty tone of the speech, 
 its ease, pathos, eloquence, and no doubt, the grace, truth, 
 and technical excellence of its delivery, made this first 
 effort a complete success. From that time forth, until 
 1880, with only occasional absences, Mrs. Stirling either 
 responded for the ladies at these functions, or took charge 
 of the toast of the evening. Within a few years she had 
 established herself as the leading speaker for the Fund, 
 on behalf of which she must have collected, during those 
 two decades, several thousands of pounds. 
 
 This faculty of public speaking was only another example 
 of Mrs. Stirling's quite unusual versatility. Actors and 
 actresses, in general, do not make very facile orators. In 
 her own words, 1 they " generally draw upon the author 
 for speech currency," and so find themselves somewhat 
 at a loss, when thrown back upon their own inventiveness. 
 Not so with this lady. Her roving eye, swift intelligence, 
 and wide human sympathies supplied her readily with all 
 necessary material. Her method of preparing a speech 
 as may be seen by a glance at the back numbers of 
 the Era, in addition to those in the text was to take 
 sundry topics of the time a political event, a cause cttibre, 
 a social function, or whatever else might serve her turn 
 
 i February 10, 1864. 
 
176 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 to extract from them analogies, verbal and other, with the 
 cause she was pleading, and so adroitly to shape the 
 subject to her ultimate purpose the acquisition of money 
 for the fund. 
 
 To the accomplishment of this end she brought all her 
 feminine art, and woman's artifice. Rich humour, and 
 tender pathos ; subtle mutinerie, and easy grace ; worldly 
 knowledge, and simple truth ; personal fascination, and 
 acquired power, were all in turn laid under contribution, 
 and used with the trained skill that had already raised her 
 so high in her profession. When reading her best speeches, 
 one feels instinctively that she possessed, on the platform 
 as on the stage, the essential and incommunicable faculty 
 of open-heartedness, which alone can put a speaker at once 
 upon good terms with an audience, and bring them im- 
 mediately into mutual confidence. 
 
 The chief fault of her speeches, it seems, was her common 
 failure to make enough use of incidents that had occurred 
 during the evening, thus conveying, to the more thoughtful 
 hearers, the impression that the discourse was either learned 
 by heart, or at least fully prepared, before the speaker sat 
 down to dine. We know, of course, that almost every 
 after-dinner speech is so prepared ; but, by the exercise of 
 a little contrivance, that fact can be screened, if not con- 
 cealed, from all but the acutest hearers. 
 
 At the dinner of February 18, 1863, over which G. A. 
 Sala presided, Mrs. Stirling was not present, she being 
 then busy with preparations for a northern tour, which 
 opened at the Prince of Wales's, Liverpool, on March 16, 
 when " every nook and cranny of the theatre was crammed 
 by legions of her loyal and admiring subjects," come to 
 see her play during the fortnight of her engagement, in 
 "Masks and Faces," "Nine Points of the Law," "The 
 Tragedy Queen," and " The Ladies' Battle." 
 
 There all went well ; but when she opened at the Queen's, 
 Edinburgh, on April 13, a different tale had to be told. 
 The boxes were almost vacant, and though there was a 
 fair gathering in pit and gallery, the house, as a whole, 
 was only half full. A similarly cool reception had recently 
 been accorded to the Wigans and Charles Mathews. During 
 
THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 177 
 
 this visit Mrs. Stirling wrote to Mrs. Baylis, on or about 
 April 16, 1863 : 
 
 38, ALBANY STREET, 
 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. BAYLIS, 
 
 I shall feel ever so many years younger to be talking and writing 
 to you again, only mind, if I bestow my tediousness upon you, you, 
 who have more and better things to do, are not bound to answer. 
 
 What would you suffer if you saw the theatre here ! I have just 
 come from Liverpool, where all was a sort of triumph house packed 
 nightly manager a liberal, practical man and I come to this fine 
 city, find a large, beautiful theatre perfectly empty manager out 
 of repute, deserted by actors and audience. Poor " Peg " ! In 
 Liverpool all was like a flash of lightning, and here however, I just 
 send you a paper or two to let you see I am not exaggerating. They 
 prophesy it will pick up ! Yes ! just as I'm going they'll be beginning 
 to think they'll come some night. It's aggravating here in this 
 beautiful place, which looks just now bright and light, like a contin- 
 ental town, and where people should be to match. Thursday week 
 I go to Glasgow things are much dirtier and darker, but 'tis to be 
 hoped more " jolly " there. 
 
 You remember the Glovers ? You know that Glover died ? that 
 the Royal has since been burnt, 1 reducing poor Mrs. Glover's money 
 terribly ? Julia, the eldest daughter, married wretchedly (of course), 
 separation and quarrels after but a few months. I don't know if 
 I sent you Liverpool papers. I am glad you've told me of Mrs. 
 Trench's book, 2 I shall get it in Glasgow. I liked one or two extracts 
 I had seen from it, but for some months I've been kept in too great 
 a state of irritation and distress to care about anything. I must 
 begin to interest myself about others, and throw myself thoro'ly 
 into my work, or leave it altogether. I waver as to which is best. 
 I look back and see what a lost life mine has been ! how if I'd thrown 
 myself into my art as I ought to have done, how it would have repaid 
 me in every way. There ought to be no family no ties no any- 
 thing but a sort of priesthood of art or to it (I don't know which is 
 grammar) and then it repays you. This is all twaddle to be put in 
 the fire and for no eye but your own, but I thought you'd like a line 
 of some kind from 
 
 F. S. 
 
 1 Glover died in 1860. The Theatre Royal, Glasgow, was burned before 
 daybreak on January 31, 1863, after the pantomime " Blue-Beard," when 
 all the scenery, wardrobes, armoury, and musical and theatrical libraries 
 one of the largest provincial collections was destroyed. The building 
 was insured for 9,000, and effects for 3,000, but neither amount was 
 sufficient to cover the loss. When the above letter was written Mr. Edmund 
 Glover was lessee of the Royal, and of the Prince's, Glasgow. 
 
 3 I suppose, Mary Caroline Trench, author of A Box oj Ointment (1851) 
 and Little Richard (1861). This latter may be the book referred to. 
 
 12 
 
178 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 This pathetic outpouring, intended only for the eye of 
 an intimate friend and written, no doubt, like so many 
 others partly with the object of eliciting a sympathetic 
 response is in striking contrast with Mrs. Stirling's naturally 
 cheery and optimistic humour, as revealed in her comedy 
 acting, and in her later public speeches. The cause of her 
 " irritation and distress," at this time, is to be found, I 
 think, chiefly as indeed she almost hints in the impending 
 marriage of her daughter to the writer's father, who, though 
 a man of noble character, and very great business 
 ability, was not artist enough to possess either interest 
 in, or sympathy with, the theatre. The immediate result 
 of the marriage a very happy and prosperous one was 
 a complete and permanent breach of relations between 
 mother and daughter, who, after the separation, met no 
 more, nor were ever reconciled. 
 
 As regards Mrs. Stirling's lament over her " lost life " 
 the life that she might have found, had she consecrated 
 herself wholly to her art what can one say, with all respect 
 and sympathy, except that the statement was, in a measure, 
 true ? While looking over this record, we feel convinced 
 and we may haply have convinced some readers that it 
 had been in Mrs* Stirling's power to win for herself that 
 which it had once been Charles Reade's aspiration to help 
 her to win a place upon the loftiest pinnacles of histrionic 
 fame. But Art is an exacting mistress. Though she 
 require as the sculptor, M. Bourdelle, phrased it to the 
 writer " une longue initiation," she demands equally, as 
 sequel, a long and perfect consecration. Mrs. Stirling gave 
 the one, and reaped a corresponding reward. The other 
 she was too much the woman, too much the mother, 
 wholly to give : and it was not until too late that she 
 realized the futility of compromise, and the imperative 
 necessity of deliberate choice between two incompatible 
 devotions. 
 
 This tour of 1863 ended, on May 8, at Glasgow, where 
 Mrs. Stirling took her benefit, at the Prince's Theatre, with 
 " The Ladies' Battle," and " The Tragedy Queen." Thence 
 she wrote to her friend: 
 
THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 179 
 
 \ 
 
 145, WEST CAMPBELL STREET, 
 
 GLASGOW. 
 
 Only time for a line to tell you you must have mistaken the title 
 of the book you told me to read Nut Brown Maids. I got it Satur- 
 day, and feel certain 'tis not what you meant. There's no old woman 
 in it. It's about Queen Bess, with a tedious affectation of the old 
 style tiresome to the last degree. Mrs. Trench I'm to have to-morrow. 
 Do you know of anything dramatic a sort of semi "sensation" 
 drama ? The difficulty is that I am not young and lovely. " East 
 Lynne " x has been suggested, if we could get over the difficulty of 
 the cause of her running away. Can you suggest anything ? 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's doubts, as to whether she should continue 
 her stage life, were over by the summer. On August 24, 
 1863, she accepted an engagement at the Adelphi, under 
 Ben Webster, to undertake the lead in "Hen and Chickens," 
 a domestic comedy from the French, by Ben Webster 
 junior. She had a warm reception from a full house, and 
 
 acted with all that natural vivacity and refined grace and feeling 
 which have so long obtained for her the deserved admiration of the 
 public. The overflowing of maternal love, excusable in its very 
 excess, could not have been more earnestly depicted, and her 
 occasional touches of unaffected pathos went directly home to the 
 heart. 
 
 Thus the Daily Telegraph, in its best lyrical style, 2 and 
 other papers followed suit. Her part, " Mrs. Soft Saw- 
 derley," was that of 
 
 a gently despotic mother-in-law, who stifles and disarms opposition 
 by the use of every wile and artifice known to the feminine mind 
 a soft-hearted aristocrat, now coaxing and hypocritically deferential, 
 now compelling sympathy by violent displays of emotional grief! 
 
 This sort of work had been for years well within her 
 range ; and won for her the honours of the evening. Ben 
 Webster led her before the curtain, to take her call ; and 
 it was on this occasion, I think, or very soon after, that 
 a certain impulsive and appreciative young lady, sitting 
 among the audience, was heard to exclaim concerning Mrs. 
 Stirling : " Ah ! that's what I call an actress ! " Her 
 name was Ellen Terry. 8 
 
 1 Mrs. Henry Wood's novel had been published in 1861. 
 
 a August 25, 1863. 
 
 8 Then in her sixteenth year. 
 
180 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 During these Adelphi days, under Ben Webster, occurred 
 another incident that may as well come in here. 
 
 With a party of three or four friends, Mrs. Stirling, one 
 day, visited the Royal Mint. Immediately upon their arrival, 
 Mr. Joseph Newton, Her Majesty's Chief Coiner, recognized 
 the actress, and, without revealing his secret, dismissed the 
 official guide, and himself did the honours of the building, 
 where a coinage of gold was then in progress. When the 
 inspection was over, Mrs. Stirling made a little speech of 
 appreciation and thanks to their guide, who answered, that 
 this was but a small return for the pleasure she had given 
 him upon many occasions. 
 
 "Then you knew me when I came to the Mint ? " 
 
 "Knew you! I was present when you made your first 
 curtsey to a metropolitan audience at the Adelphi Theatre, 
 and played ' Biddy Nutts ' in Buckstone's drama, ' The 
 Wreck Ashore'." 1 
 
 "Please do not say how long ago it was, but you are 
 quite correct as to the fact." 2 
 
 " Since that day I have seen you hundreds of times, in 
 an infinite variety of characters, and have admired you in 
 them all ! " 
 
 "This is indeed fame," murmured the actress, as she 
 thanked him, and said good-bye. 
 
 " Yet one moment," said the man of money ; " I do not 
 wish you to leave the Mint empty-handed. Will you please 
 accept this small case of Maundy Money, as a memento of 
 your visit ? " 
 
 " This is really too bad ! You make me a presentation 
 of plate ; and I, having had no notice of it, have no speech 
 ready in reply. Are you married ? " 
 
 Newton admitted to a wife and children. 
 
 " I will send you a box for the Adelphi, next Friday, 
 when you will see me attempt ' Peg Woffington ' in ' Masks 
 and Faces,' which I think the best part I ever played." 
 
 1 He should have said " West-End audience " : moreover, the play 
 was not " The Wreck Ashore " in which she had played at the Pavilion 
 in 1832 it was "A Dream at Sea," the date January 1, 1836. See ante, 
 p. 35. 
 
 2 He was not correct. See last note. The anecdote is from the Era 
 Almanac. 
 
MRS. STIRLING. 
 
 From the Painting by WALTER, GOODMAN. 
 Reproduced by courtesy of the Committee of the Garrick Club. 
 
 To face p. ISO. 
 
THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 181 
 
 So it was done ; and the pair were friends from that day 
 forth. 
 
 On February 10, 1864, Mrs. Stirling sat on the right of 
 the chairman, J. B. Buckstone, the veteran author of the 
 play referred to by Mr. Newton, of the Mint at the Ash 
 Wednesday l dinner of the Dramatic and Musical Sick 
 Fund and replied to the toast of " The Lady Visitors," 
 proposed by Robert Bell. 
 
 We all know that we of the theatrical profession do not keep much 
 ready talk about us. We generally draw upon the author for speech 
 currency, and our drafts, or ladies' debts, are generally honoured 
 and paid. I am proud to be your spokeswoman on this occasion. 
 It always seems to me, through the large preponderance of black 
 coats at public dinners, that the gentlemen represent a dark cloud. 
 (Laughter.) Your Committee has been the first to give the dark 
 cloud a silver lining in the shape of the ladies. (Cheers.) Instead 
 of sending poor Jill to that dreary little ladies' gallery, all alone to 
 the cold chicken and sherry, you have brought her down to the good 
 cheer of the table, and Jack ought to feel much happier with his Jill 
 beside him. (Laughter.) By Jill I do not, of course, allude to his 
 half-pints of wine, but only to his guardian angel in crinoline. 
 (Laughter.) 
 
 I have lately played in " Hen and Chickens," and I feel to-night 
 that I am going along in the same character. I feel monstrously like 
 an old hen clucking with all her chickens round her, in the shape of 
 my young sisters of the stage, or, as I should call them, our ducks. 
 (Loud cheers.) You are right, gentlemen ; that is a more fitting 
 image to express the subject of " Dame Partlett's " affection, the 
 object of her tender anxiety the brood she sees playing by the water's 
 edge, into which so many poor little chicks have so thoughtlessly 
 plunged. She does not know which of them cannot swim, and her 
 heart flutters with alarm for the safety of her little ones. She only 
 knows the water is deep and dangerous, and she must be fussy and 
 sad at heart in thinking of the horrible perils and sufferings that may 
 be in store for her pretty, bright-winged, and happy looking ducklings. 
 (Cheers.) I thank Heaven there are safeguards and preservations 
 that our foresight cannot but call up before us. 
 
 Thus, between stages and speeches, the years passed 
 by. The actress's next part was played, some twelve months 
 later, at the same theatre, in a curtain-raiser, also from 
 
 1 These functions were held on Ash Wednesday, because the Lord 
 Chamberlain had seen fit to close the London theatres upon that day. 
 Despite many and bitter protests from John Hollingshead in particular 
 the order remained in force for several years. 
 
182 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 the French, by the same author, Ben Webster junior, 
 as a prelude to her " Peg," in " Masks and Faces," which, 
 with " Olivia," in " The Vicar of Wakefield," were still two 
 main items in her repertoire. The piece in question, " A 
 Woman of Business," asked nothing new of her. The 
 interest of the occasion to a modern reader is just this, 
 that she played it in company with the friend one of the 
 few intimate friends of Henry Irving, namely J. L. Toole. 
 The famous comedian undertook, on that night, a role 
 somewhat outside his usual line, thus moving The Times 
 critic to write : " People may require to be told that Mr. 
 J. L. Toole can depict a bumpkin with a South-country 
 dialect, as accurately as he pourtrays a cockney." l 
 
 A drink-play well written as Reade, Robertson, Zola, 
 and others have realized is certain of some popular success. 
 It touches chords of human emotion, and awakens interest 
 in moral problems that come close to the lives of the people : 
 it provides effective contrasts, and dramatic situations, 
 and, withal, affords opportunities for powerful acting, at 
 once humorous and serious. Provided that the author will 
 consent to remain a dramatist, without descending to the 
 mere pamphleteer, he may, if he knows his business, be 
 sure of a run, even though there be no Charles Warner 
 ready to hand. 
 
 In such a play, at the Adelphi, Mrs. Stirling next took 
 part. 2 It was from " Les Drames du Cabaret," 3 (" The 
 Workmen of Paris ") written by Adolphe d'Ennery and 
 Dumanoir, for the Porte St. Martin, and was a complete 
 success in London. Ben Webster, as " Von Gratz," gave 
 a great performance one of the strongest of his career 
 and, as " Marguerite," Mrs. Stirling was also at her best. 
 Blanchard wrote in his diary, that he was " delighted with 
 it," and the press generally, as well as the public, approved. 
 The following is from the Daily Telegraph : 4 
 
 For intensity of purpose and minute discrimination of character 
 there has been nothing like it, of late, exhibited upon the English stage. 
 Mrs. Stirling had full scope for the display of that earnestness and 
 
 1 The Times, August 31, 1854. 
 
 2 November 30, 1864. 
 
 1 Another forerunner of the naturalist drama 
 4 December 1, 1864. 
 
THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 183 
 
 natural emotion, of which she is so complete a mistress. . . . Through- 
 out the performance the most unequivocal indications of the deep 
 interest taken by the audience were abundantly manifested, and the 
 curtain fell amid loud and prolonged applause. 
 
 During 1865 Mrs. Stirling rested, or occupied herself 
 principally with teaching, which, in view of her gradual 
 retirement from the stage, was engaging more and more 
 of her time. March 1, however, found her again at her 
 post, on the occasion of the ninth anniversary dinner of 
 the Dramatic Fund. Her speech by no means reached 
 her usual level of excellence ; but the one she delivered 
 on Valentine's Day of the year following, 1866, was a great 
 improvement, and was in a degree towards her happiest 
 vein. The speaker stood on the right hand of Dickens, 
 who was in the chair. On his left sat Miss Howard, and 
 next to her Serjeant Ballantyne, to whom Mrs. Stirling 
 was later to make witty reference, when the Tichborne 
 Case was London's only theme. Dickens introduced her 
 thus : 
 
 It is the privilege of this Society annually to hear a lady speak 
 for her own sex. Who so competent to do this as Mrs. Stirling ? 
 Surely one who has so gracefully and so captivatingly, with such 
 an exquisite mixture of art, and fancy, and fidelity represented her 
 own sex in innumerable characters, under an infinite variety of phases, 
 cannot fail to represent them well in her own character, especially 
 when it is, amid her many triumphs, the most agreeable of all. I 
 beg to propose to you " The Ladies," and I will couple with that toast 
 the name of Mrs. Stirling. 
 
 That lady then replied : 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, You have thought fit to 
 couple my name with the ladies. Now, for that act I retort by 
 charging you with high treason to Saint Valentine and his day. You 
 are the last man to deserve pardon for the offence, for you have shown 
 by your witty and eloquent allusions that you had the day and its 
 duties fully in your mind. It is treason, I say, to Saint Valentine and 
 his day, to couple anything with the ladies but the gentlemen. And, 
 talking of Saint Valentine in these days of archaeology, ecclesiology, 
 and other ologies isn't it a great reproach to our learned men that 
 they have not been able to discover why Saint Valentine should be 
 selected as patron of the sweet-hearting and billet-douxing which 
 goes on to-day through the post ? 
 
184 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Til be bound the ladies would not have been so long in finding 
 the reason ; indeed, I believe the first lady who ever tried to find 
 it did find it, and, as "Peg Woffington" might say, "Sure, that's 
 myself." I'll tell it you. But mind, I give you all notice, the 
 reporters in particular, that the discovery, like our ghosts and sen- 
 sation effects, is copyright and patent. No, if it were patent anybody 
 might have found it out only they haven't. Well, this is my dis- 
 covery ; I made it by the help of the old lives of the Saints called 
 The Golden Legend. It told me first that Saint Valentine was a 
 saint and martyr of the time of Claudius. Now, there seemed some- 
 thing to the point even in that. Most young ladies are disposed to 
 make saints of their sweethearts, and vice versa ; and if Valentines 
 lead to the Temple of Hymen, as so many of them do, not a few wives 
 are ready to make martyrs of their husbands, and vice versa. 
 
 But that didn't satisfy me. Reading further, I found that Saint 
 Valentine's great miracle was opening a blind young girl's eyes, and 
 then I felt I had it. Love is blind, they say. I say, au contraire, 
 young ladies are blind to the merits of the gentlemen, tilJ love opens 
 their eyes for them, and Cupid works quite as great miracles that 
 way as ever Saint Valentine did ; and that, I take it, is the reason 
 why Saint Valentine is Cupid's father confessor, and his day the love- 
 letter day of the calendar. As this is the first public dinner at which 
 the ladies have been invited to sit down with the gentlemen, what 
 day can be more appropriate for its celebration than Saint Valentine's ? 
 I hope every gentleman present has come prepared not only with 
 his subscription, but with his Valentine, to slip into the hand of the 
 fair lady at his side. If any of you have come unprepared with the 
 necessary documents, instead of a billet-doux slip a billet de banque 
 into her hand, to be added to her subscription. I defy you to find 
 a fitter way of paying your addresses ; for what better love-letters 
 than s. d. when they go on an errand of mercy, like subscriptions 
 to this charity ? 
 
 But to-day, as we have been reminded, is Ash Wednesday, as 
 well as Saint Valentine's Day. We actors and actresses should be 
 the last persons to be startled by the coincidence. How many of 
 our days, in the earlier stages of our career at least, are like this, 
 consecrated at once to love-making in play and in public, and to 
 fasting in sorry earnest at home. Our object to-day is not feasting 
 but charity. If there be feeding, let it not be ours only, but that 
 of the hungry mouths your benevolence will help to fill. There used 
 to be Lenten oratorios. Let our Lenten oratorio be the chorus of 
 grateful prayers that your kindness will call forth the songs of thank- 
 fulness from the sick and the suffering the widow and the orphan 
 from those who, but for you, might be abandoned those who, 
 but for your timely aid, might sink into the sad ranks of the forlorn 
 and the despairing. 
 
 And now, Sir, in the name of the ladies, what am I to say to you 
 that is at once as pretty as the faces about me, and as grateful as 
 
THE ADELPHI, AND SOME SPEECHES 185 
 
 my own heart ? You have coupled my name with the ladies, but 
 how are the ladies bound to couple your name with theirs, not here 
 only but all the world over, as the creator of so many pure and beauti- 
 ful pictures of womanhood between whom, if not between you and 
 our sex, should be established the title of " Our Mutual Friend." 
 
 Gentlemen, you have kindly drunk our healths. Let me, for 
 self and sisters, say to you in -the words of Rip Van Winkle : " Here's 
 your good healths, and your families and may they live long and 
 prosper." (Loud and long-continued cheering.) 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's only important appearance during 1866, 
 in a new r61e, was at the Princess's, on July 2, when 
 she impersonated a French aristocrat, the Duchesse Jeanne 
 d'Armenonville, in Watts Phillips' play, " The Huguenot 
 Captain," the plot of which though the story be set in 
 sixteenth-century Paris, soon after the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew is taken from a scene in Beaumont and 
 Fletcher's " Custom of Country," where " Guiomar," a noble 
 Portuguese lady, conceals a foreign gentleman, who, pursued 
 by officers of justice, rushes into her house. She then 
 discovers that he has killed her own son in a duel. 
 
 Dramatically " The Huguenot Captain " was not very 
 effective, though interesting, as the work of an archaeologist, 
 as well as a playwright one who knew, and loved, the old 
 Paris of King Henry of Navarre, to whom the shining Seine, 
 the Tour de Nesle, and the soaring bulk of Notre Dame, 
 were full of memories, and of meaning, and who had seen 
 the truth and beauty of those grotesque figures that have 
 come down to us from the pen of the Lorrainer, Jacques 
 Callot. 
 
 There follows a space of silence ; and then, after a lapse 
 of several years, says The Times l not very accurately, for 
 " The Huguenot Captain " had been running only seventeen 
 months before 
 
 Mrs. Stirling has returned to the Olympic, a theatre whose best days 
 are closely associated with her name, to enact " Lady Diver Kidd," 
 and gives a richly coloured picture of a woman in whom love of gain 
 has risen to a glowing passion, and who is totally distinct from those 
 charming widows of whom M. Scribe created so many specimens, 
 until he ended by marrying one himself. 
 
 1 December 6, 1867. 
 
186 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 The play referred to was " From Grave to Gay," another 
 of Ben Webster junior's adaptations, this time from the 
 French of Scribe and Charles Potron, " Feu Lionel," the 
 penultimate effort, I believe, of the playwright from whom 
 so many Englishmen had borrowed. Its plot, turning upon 
 the supposed suicide of one who was in fact alive, recalls, 
 to that extent, Mr. Arnold Bennett's " Great Adventure." 
 Mrs. Stirling won a fair share of what little sympathy was 
 going, " rattled off quotations from the share list as fluently 
 as if her whole life had been passed in a Stockbroker's 
 Office," and was as gay, fresh, and welcome as ever. But 
 the life and soul of the whole performance was the " Richard 
 Wise " of Charles Mathews, " the man whom no difficulty 
 can perplex, to whom every peril suggests a mode of escape, 
 and who is constantly kept up to the mark by a keen sense 
 of the ridiculous, which enables him to detect a droll side 
 ever to the most serious calamity." 
 
 Early in the .next year, February 1868, Mrs. Stirling, 
 after playing the original " Mrs. Eddystone," in Stirling 
 Coyne's domestic comedy, " The Woman of the World " 
 a good acting part in an otherwise undistinguished produc- 
 tion left the Olympic Theatre, upon whose boards she had 
 won so many successes, and withdrew once more this 
 time for a period of some ten years from active stage 
 work. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 CONDITION OF THE ENGLISH THEATRE 
 
 IN 1868 
 
 1868-78 
 
 Causes of Mrs. Stirling's withdrawal Decadence of the Stage in 1868 
 Dearth of great players and playwrights The coming people 
 Robertson and the Bancrofts harbingers of the revival Pinero's 
 tribute to them Robertson as Dramatist Compared with Tom 
 Taylor Beginnings of Realism in Europe Naturalistic School in 
 France The Scandinavians and Strindberg Ibsen's influence upon 
 the revival Pinero and H. Arthur Jones Matthew Arnold on 
 " The Silver King " as a transitional play Mrs. Stirling teaches 
 elocution Her qualifications and limitations as Professor " Bigger ! 
 my dear, bigger ! " The Royal Academy of Music Legend Its 
 genesis, and the facts Mrs. Stirling reads " A Midsummer Night's 
 Dream " at Brighton Repeats it at St. James's Hall, London 
 Benefit performances of " Mrs. Candour." 
 
 WHAT causes, exactly, may have brought about Mrs. Stirling's 
 decision to withdraw from the stage, I am unable with 
 absolute certainty to determine ; but, in addition to the 
 fact that the actress was now in her fifty-fifth year, and 
 physically ailing, other potent reasons are not far to seek. 
 A primary one, I doubt not, was the condition of the English 
 stage at that time. 
 
 The picture is not, at first sight, a very hopeful one. 
 Actors and actresses of first-rate ability there were very 
 few ; playwrights there were almost none, competent to 
 furnish her with original parts really worthy of her calibre ; 
 nor was there, in those days, any manager, who, as Macready 
 had done and as Irving was to do could take upon his 
 shoulders the representation of our national dramatists, and 
 make his theatre the home of a truly national art. Upon 
 Samuel Phelps, if upon any man, the mantle of Macready 
 fell ; but Phelps, though an excellent and praiseworthy 
 manager who deserved perhaps more recognition than ever 
 
 187 
 
188 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 he obtained was never in charge of a West-End theatre 
 Sadler's Wells, which he governed from 1844 until Novem- 
 ber 6, 1852, being only a "minor." It was, nevertheless, the 
 success of Phelps at Sadler's Wells, in national drama, that 
 induced Charles Kean his rival for nine years to enter 
 the lists at the Princess's ; but Charles Kean's management 
 was, from the critic's point of view, archaeological and 
 spectacular, rather than histrionic ; so that neither of these 
 actors can be said to have represented the national drama, 
 as had their predecessor, Macready. 
 
 On the whole, the ever- recurring cry, " Our Drama is 
 decadent," was more true of those days, I should judge, 
 than of any others throughout the century. In the autumn 
 following upon Mrs. Stirling's retirement, a Saturday 
 Reviewer wrote : l 
 
 We are justified in concluding that the drama has reached a lower 
 stage in its decline than at any former period of its existence, and 
 that, as a peculiar institution, it closely approximates to utter extinc- 
 tion. In the drama two arts co-operate that of the writer and that 
 of the actor and, however the Nestors of former times lamented 
 on the deterioration of the stage, they did not contemplate a school 
 in which writing and acting alike should be without practical value. 
 . . We are passing from drama, good or bad, into no drama at all. 
 
 These are strong words. How far were they justified ? 
 Let us look for a moment, rather more in detail, at the 
 then condition of the British stage. 
 
 To take the players first, there was, as we have seen, 
 no living individual upon whom the mantle of the great 
 ones had fallen. Macready, long since retired, 2 had but 
 some five years more of life before him. Charles Kean, 
 who, though never a great actor, was at least a Shakespearean, 
 and a conscientious producer, had died in the year of which 
 I am writing 1868 ; and Henry Irving, already an ex 
 perienced and rising player, for whom the highest honours 
 are in store, had yet before him ten years of arduous work, 
 ere the coming of that memorable day 3 when, as sole 
 manager of the Lyceum, he was to appear in his first, and 
 
 1 September 26, 1868. 
 
 2 February 1851. He died April 27, 1873. 
 8 Boxing Night, December 26, 1878. 
 
THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN 1868 189 
 
 in some respects greatest, Shakespearean impersonation, 
 "Hamlet."! 
 
 Of the lighter actors, many had already passed their 
 prime. Charles Mathews the younger, who had played 
 "Frank Merriton " to Mrs. Stirling's "Mrs. Eddystone " 
 in "A Woman of the World," and was destined to die in 
 harness at seventy-five, had already sixty-five years to his 
 credit. Robson, the greatest burlesque actor of his day, 
 had passed prematurely, at forty-three years of age, in 1864 ; 
 John Hare 2 and Kendal, still very young, had their feet 
 only upon the lower rungs of the ladder of fame, while, 
 of other men then known or to be known in their various 
 spheres, Squire Bancroft was twenty-seven, 3 Forbes- 
 Robertson 4 who did not act until he was twenty-one 
 was fifteen, Beerbohm Tree 5 was the same age, and Frank 
 Benson 6 was ten. 
 
 In the matter of actresses, as well as of actors, these 
 were days of comparative dearth. The passing of Mrs. 
 Glover, and the retirement of Mrs. Stirling, had robbed 
 our theatre of its two greatest comediennes. Helen Faucit 
 though her last appearance upon the stage was as late as 
 1879 had already accomplished the bulk of her life's work, 
 and, personal successes notwithstanding, was often inclined 
 to despond concerning its result. " She had seen so great a 
 decline in the tone of the theatrical world " wrote 'her 
 husband " and in the character of the plays which were 
 most popular, that this fear [that she had lived in vain] 
 at times took a strong hold of her." 
 
 Of the remaining notable actresses of the day, Ellen 
 Tree 7 (Mrs. Charles Kean), though with twelve years of life 
 yet before her, had withdrawn from active work, and, of 
 the younger actresses, who were to attain foremost positions, 
 EUen Terry, though already well known, was not to achieve 
 her first great Shakespearean triumph, as "Portia," until 
 1875. Two young comediennes of quite rare ability were, 
 
 1 Miss Ellen Terry, I think, puts "Wolsey" first; and many others, 
 doubtless, think so with her. 
 
 8 First appearance in London at Princess's, 1859, in John Oxenford's 
 romantic drama, " Ivy Hale." 
 
 3 Born May 14, 1841. ' Born January 16, 1853. 
 
 8 1853-1917. 6 Bora November 4, 1858. ' 1808-1880. 
 
190 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 however, nearing already the height of their fame I mean, 
 of course, Madge Robertson (Mrs. Kendal) whose brother, 
 T. W. Robertson, was now the leading dramatist of the day 
 and Marie Wilton (Lady Bancroft), who by producing, with 
 her husband, Robertson's " Society," at the " Dust Hole," 
 off Tottenham Court Road, on November 11, 1865, had 
 proved her capacity as manageress as well as actress ; and 
 had given a stepping-stone to another actor of high ability, 
 John Hare. 
 
 From a perusal of this long catalogue of facts, the plain 
 truth clearly emerges, that, dark though the night had been, 
 the dawn was already rising, had indeed risen ; that its 
 harbingers were Robertson and the Bancrofts ; and its east 
 The Prince of Wales's Theatre. Of those days of quickening, 
 Mr. Pinero, as he then was, wrote to the Bancrofts, at the 
 time of their retirement, in 1884 : 
 
 It is my opinion, expressed here as it is elsewhere, that the 
 present advanced condition of the English stage throwing as it 
 does a clear and natural light upon the manners and life of the people, 
 where a few years ago there was nothing but mouthing and tinsel 
 is due to the crusade begun by Mrs. Bancroft and yourself in your 
 little Prince of Wales's Theatre. When the history of the stage and 
 its progress is adequately and faithfully written, Mrs. Bancroft's name 
 and your own must be recorded with honour and gratitude. 
 
 Pinero's was no lonely voice. Others, who possessed 
 the vision Moy Thomas among them wrote in similar 
 strain : 
 
 The influence of your reign, both at the Prince of Wales and 
 the Haymarket, will remain and grow. It is easy, as Tennyson says, 
 to sow where you have the seed. 
 
 Yes, it is easy then ; but let us turn again to the personnel. 
 
 If there were dearth, at that time, of great players, 
 the same was not less true of playwrights. This may 
 seem a hard saying, when one recalls that, only a year before, 
 in April 1867, the triumphant success of " Caste," at the 
 little Prince of Wales's, had set all London talking, and had 
 almost marked a new era in stage history, by driving a nail 
 into the coffins of the old stock companies, when, in due 
 
THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN 1868 191 
 
 course, a properly trained and equipped company took 
 that dainty comedy into the provinces. 
 
 That these things happened is true : that one swallow 
 makes no summer is true also. Yet Tom Robertson, though 
 not in himself that summer, was assuredly its winged herald ; 
 and we who love the stage, and have basked in that full sun- 
 shine, when it came, owe gratitude to the man who brought 
 so refreshing a human sentiment, and so delicate an art, 
 to a theatre that sorely needed them all. That said, however, 
 and said earnestly it must be admitted that, from the 
 technical point of view, Robertson can hardly be regarded 
 as an original writer much in advance of the dramatic fashion 
 of his time. 
 
 Where he did show himself greatly in the quality of 
 pioneer, was as a producer, and as a striver after truth both 
 in acting and in stage setting, reforms in gratitude for 
 which we can forgive and forget his triviality, his haste, 
 and his occasional carelessness. 1 
 
 Nevertheless, though touched by the newer truth, he 
 was neither strong enough, nor big enough, to become its 
 prophet. Not through one alone, but gradually, in many 
 minds, the transforming ideas were to be begotten. Little 
 by little the spirit of revolt, from the influences of Scribe 
 and Sardou, was to permeate Western Europe. In their 
 own France the naturalistic school among whom Zola's 
 is the greatest name reacting against mechanical con- 
 struction and characters devoid of truth, began to gather 
 about Antoine and the Theatre Libre. Ugly, coarse and 
 formless the work of those men may often have been, but 
 they did, at least, make plays that were real, according to 
 their interpretation of that word. 
 
 Then, in Scandinavia, the true dramatic realists make 
 themselves heard most vehement among them Strindberg, 2 
 despairing, hopeless, terrible almost ; yet gifted with a 
 surprising naturalness of dialogue, and a wonderful capacity 
 to create characters of compelling interest, who often suggest, 
 or reveal, a certain elemental grandeur in the stubborn 
 intensity of their revolt. 
 
 1 Especially he reformed the then prevalent sin of over-acting. 
 
 * Strindberg became almost as prominent in Sweden as Ibsen in Norway. 
 
192 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 But the man whose influence proved to be crucial was not 
 that Nietzsche of the stage, Strindberg ; it was that much 
 wider, nobler, and loftier realist and idealist, Henrik Ibsen. 
 Himself, for a time, under the spell of the French masters, 
 he was soon to shake off their yoke, and fashion a drama 
 that, for spiritual intensity, and absolute mastery of technique, 
 has never been rivalled by any modern writer for the stage. 
 Already the years 1866 and 1867 had seen the birth, in 
 Scandinavia, of two of his early dramatic attempts " Brand " 
 and " Peer Gynt." In 1879 was to come " The Dolls' House," l 
 and ten years later, in June 1889, the same play, in Mr. 
 Archer's translation, was to be first worthily presented 
 to the London public. 2 
 
 In this transformation of the English drama, Russian 
 and German playwrights also had a share, but Ibsen, be 
 it repeated, was the man who, bearing down all hostile 
 criticism, principally determined the forms of the new 
 school. Had there been no Ibsen, there would have been 
 a different Shaw, and a modified Galsworthy. As for the 
 more popular predecessors of those two Pinero and Jones 
 Sir Arthur Pinero who began his stage career in 1874, 
 and produced his first play " 200 a Year," at the Globe 
 in 1877 though perhaps as near at heart to the old order 
 as to the new certainly felt Ibsen's influence, and showed 
 it plainly in such work as " The Second Mrs. Tanqueray " 3 
 and "The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith." * 
 
 Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, also a trimmer, on occasion, 
 between old France and New Scandinavia, was seventeen 
 years old when this chapter begins ; but he was not to win his 
 spurs before 1882, when " The Silver King " 5 was produced 
 at the Princess's, on November 16. 
 
 Matthew Arnold, a very keen follower of the theatre, 
 was present upon that occasion, and has left us impressions 6 
 
 1 " The Dolls' House " was unworthily presented in 1885 one reviewer 
 heading his notice "A silly play by silly people." 
 
 8 " Rosmersholm," the height of his achievement, first appeared in 1886. 
 
 3 First performed 1893. "Ghosts" and " Hedda Gabler " had been 
 played in England two years before. 
 
 4 These developments are ably sketched by Mr. Storm Jameson in his 
 Modern Drama in Europe. 
 
 5 Herman collaborated with Jones on the construction. 
 
 6 Letters oj an Old Play-goer. 
 
THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN 1868 193 
 
 which are interesting, as showing his consciousness of the 
 new forces then at work within our drama. He reverts 
 first to the old Princess's of Macready's day, when Mrs. 
 Stirling also was working there, in 1845. 
 
 It was another world from the old Princess's of my remembrance. 
 The theatre itself was renewed and transformed . . . but the real 
 revival was not in the paint and gilding, it was in the presence of 
 the public ... a representative public, furnished from all classes, 
 and showing that English society at large had now taken to the 
 theatre. 
 
 In " The Silver King " Arnold sees clearly a link between 
 the transpontine melodrama of the old days and the literary 
 drama of the new. 
 
 The sensational incidents of the transpontine are there, but in 
 general the diction and sentiments are natural, they have sobriety 
 and propriety ; they are literature. It is an excellent and hopeful 
 sign to find playwrights capable of writing in this style, actors capable 
 of rendering it, and a public capable of enjoying it. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the condition of the English stage, 
 when Mrs. Stirling withdrew from it, so far as regular and 
 sustained work is concerned. The old order, artificial and 
 anti-national in that it drew from the French most of 
 the small inspiration it possessed had passed, or was passing ; 
 and the new order, worthily heralded by Robertson and 
 the Bancrofts, though already upon the horizon, was not 
 yet risen. Its coming Mrs. Stirling lived to see ; and in 
 its stage triumphs she was ~o play awhile, a notable part, 
 thus linking together, in her own personality, generations 
 of art far distant one from another. 
 
 Meanwhile, she was to rest, in so far as her eager, in- 
 dustrious, and indomitable nature would allow her to do 
 so ; and, resting, her thought turned toward a branch of art 
 not highly enough esteemed to-day in which, from her 
 earliest Adelphi efforts, almost, she had been in the front 
 rank I mean the art of elocution. She was now to make 
 further use of this talent, both as a teacher, and upon 
 the platform. 
 
 When exactly she first began systematically to teach, 
 I do not know nor does the subject come strictly within 
 
 13 
 
194 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 the scope of this book ; but already the actress, it seems, 
 was no novice at that work. Yet I cannot help thinking 
 that many of the beginners whom Mrs. Stirling taught, 
 must have had a rather trying time in her presence. My 
 estimate of my grandmother's character leads me to suppose 
 that she did not possess, at all times, patience enough to suffer 
 incompetents gladly. Of gifted, eager, and promising pupils, 
 I can imagine her an interested and excellent instructress ; 
 but of dense or stupid ones, rather the reverse. Mrs. 
 Stirling may well, upon occasion, have proved too big for 
 the task ; and my view is borne out by the following passage 
 from Frederick Wedmore's Memories in which her phrase 
 " Bigger, my dear, bigger ! " that she reiterates, rings 
 through one's mind, beside Mrs. Charles Kean's call to her 
 pupils Ellen Terry among them " Plaster that BUT please 
 against the gallery wall." l Thus Mr. Wedmore : 
 
 In the reading the delivery, that is, of Imaginative Literature, 
 in prose or poetry breadth seems to me of the first importance 
 general effect the ensemble ; ... it must be broad first. ... In 
 this connection I am reminded of the phrase of Mrs. Stirling, that 
 accomplished English actress, who, in her later life, gave lessons in 
 what is called elocution I am reminded of the word she was in the 
 habit of launching from one end of the room to the other from the 
 end where she sat, to the end where there stood before her a young 
 woman, a friend of mine, who was at that time her pupil. At the 
 close of a passage Mrs. Stirling would condescend to no other comment 
 than the utterance of this word, and the repetition of it " Bigger, 
 my dear, bigger ! " The passage, begun again by the pupil, was 
 now quickly interrupted, " Bigger ! " And yet again, " Bigger, 
 bigger, my dear ! " Nothing else. 
 
 My young friend thought Mrs. Stirling not meant quite, by 
 Nature or by Art, to be a teacher of elocution. As an actress, 
 authoritative ; but as a professor, wanting in resource. Yet Mrs 
 Stirling's first and most cryingly needed business was to attack and 
 bear down the pettiness of the amateur. 
 
 My grandmother, in one of her later after-dinner speeches, 
 refers to this branch of her work, and it was, I believe, for 
 some years, the custom of Miss Ellen Terry, and of other 
 actresses, to send pupils to her. The knowledge that she 
 did private teaching of this kind caused the appearance, after 
 
 1 Miss Ellen Terry's Autobiography. 
 
THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN 1868 195 
 
 her death, in several obituary notices including that of 
 The Times of the statement that Mrs. Stirling was for 
 several years a Professor of Elocution at the Royal Academy 
 of Music. I adopted this belief, for a while, until, after 
 writing to Mr. J. A. Creighton, the Secretary of that Institu- 
 tion, for information concerning dates, I was courteously 
 informed that Mrs. Stirling had never been engaged in any 
 capacity at the R.A.M. Further investigation revealed the 
 fact that a Mrs. Stirling, following, or contemporaneously 
 with, Mrs. Kendal, had been a Professor of Declamation at 
 the Royal College of Music, which is not connected with the 
 Academy. This lady, I discovered, was not Fanny Stirling 
 nor any relation of hers, but Mrs, Arthur Stirling, herself 
 a fine actress, as her husband was actor. To this confusion 
 of names, then, is due the widespread belief, that Fanny 
 Stirling taught at the Royal Academy of Music. 
 
 Deprived though the public now were of opportunity 
 to see her upon the stage, the veteran had not withdrawn 
 altogether into private life. She had been giving occasional 
 public readings in the provinces ; and on February 24, 1869, 
 at the Grand Concert Hall, Brighton, 1 her first appearance 
 there she read " A Midsummer Night's Dream," with 
 Mendelssohn's incidental music, sung by way of accompani- 
 ment. 
 
 The chief performer stood at a desk on the right of the 
 conductor, upon whose left were the two solo vocalists, 
 Mesdemoiselles Liebhardt and Angele. The comments of 
 the Brighton Herald 2 are sufficiently picturesque to stand. 
 
 She was one amidst many, and the only agency she used was that 
 of simple speech, coloured, at times, by a little action. When she 
 entered all eyes were upon her, and when she spoke all ears were 
 stretched to catch her lightest accents. She took her seat her 
 throne en reine. For the time, she was the sole representative of 
 the poet . . . the musicians and singers were at her command, doing 
 loyal service indeed, but as an inferior power. ... As our readers 
 are doubtless aware, she is no longer young ; but we doubt if any 
 young woman could read the " Midsummer Night's Dream," even 
 in the condensed form in which it was presented on Wednesday. 
 Few young women would like to sacrifice their individuality to the 
 
 1 The actress stayed for a short time at the Queen's Hotel. 
 February 27, 1869. 
 
196 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 exigencies of such characters as " Bottom," *' Quince," etc. But 
 Mrs. Stirling has arrived at that period of life when art is supreme 
 in the mind. . . . Sitting in that immense room, it seemed to be 
 impossible that a female voice could reach even those seated midway. 
 But the first lines those of " Theseus " to " Hippolyta "-disposed 
 of that doubt. Uttered in a ringing tone, proper to a hero-king, 
 they reached to the furthest extremity of the hall. Nor were the 
 softer accents of " Hippolyta " less audible ; nor the musical utter- 
 ances of " Titania " ; nor the dove-like complainings of " Helena," 
 to say nothing of the sharper tones of " Puck," and the rougher 
 voices of " Bully Bottom " and his co-mates of Athens. 
 
 The warm welcome given to this performance induced 
 Mrs. Stirling to repeat it at St. James's Hall, London, 
 April 23, 1869, the anniversary of Shakespeare's birthday. 
 Defying, even before a West-End audience, the stage tradition 
 that the faculties of actor and reciter are rarely allied, the 
 actress proceeded to show her hearers that both may be 
 blended in one individual. Her reception must have recalled 
 vividly to her mind though perhaps not without a pang 
 the days when, nearly a quarter of a century before, 1 she 
 had often charmed London, as " Hermia," one of her loveliest 
 Shakespearean impersonations. 
 
 Here in St. James's Hall, standing before the orchestra, 
 with a full band, and a chorus of women in the background, 
 she read the abridged text of the comedy, without attempting 
 histrionic action of any kind. She seems to have adopted 
 an almost declamatory style throughout, excepting only 
 in "Bottom" the weaver, and in " Puck," whom she 
 distinguished from the rest by a marked change in voice 
 and manner. " Her delivery," says The Times critic, 
 44 was excellent ; being equally notable for grace and per- 
 spicuity." 
 
 During the years immediately following, Mrs. Stirling 
 played very seldom, the only part I have recorded being 
 44 Mrs. Candour " generally held to be about the richest 
 and ripest of her humorous impersonations on the occasion 
 of Webster's Farewell Benefit at Drury Lane, on March 2, 
 1874, and Buckstone's Benefit, at the same theatre, on 
 March 4, 1878. About the mid-seventies, on a date unknown 
 
 1 1847, at the Princess's. 
 
THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN 1868 197 
 
 to me, she played " Lady Vavasour," to the " Lilian 
 Vavasour " of Miss Ellen Terry, in " New Men and Old 
 Acres " the part of " Lilian Vavasour " being that in which 
 Mrs. Kendal had gained her first triumph at the Hay market, 
 in October, 1867. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE " NURSE" IN "ROMEO" 
 
 1879-82 
 
 Mrs. Stirling returns to the stage " Lady Bountiful " in " The Beaux's 
 Stratagem " Farquhar as dramatist A short run Her last speech 
 for the Dramatic Sick Fund, February 11, 1880 Accepts invitation 
 from Henry Irving to play the " Nurse " in " Romeo and Juliet " 
 Irving's position at the head of our stage Her difficulties at 
 rehearsal " Battle " with Miss Ellen Terry over " tradition " 
 Mrs. Stirling's complete success as the " Nurse " Edward Russell 
 and Miss Ellen Terry upon her performance Percy Fitzgerald's 
 criticism The " undue prominence " of the part Reasons for this 
 prominence inherent in the play Young lovers playing with an 
 old nurse Mrs. Stirling's peculiar qualifications for the part Her 
 record, leading up to it Value of tradition in playing Shakespeare 
 Her " Nurse " built up upon tradition. 
 
 To withdraw from theatrical life is one thing : to remain 
 long withdrawn from it is quite another, as many an actor 
 and actress have discovered ere now. Sooner or later, most 
 professionals find the lure of the lime-light irresistible, and, 
 while strength remains, return where their hearts still are. 
 
 So it was with Mrs. Stirling, even though nearly half a 
 century had passed since her first appearance upon the 
 London boards. Whether it were the music of the name, a 
 handsome salary, or a now almost traditional love of old 
 comedy, that tempted her back, I know not : but back 
 she came, to play "Lady Bountiful," in Miss Litton's 
 production of " The Beaux's Stratagem," at the Imperial 
 Theatre, near the Aquarium. Sentimental or loyal memories, 
 perhaps, may in part also have influenced her decision, 
 since " Archer," in that play, was one of Macready's favourite 
 characters, though I do not know that she herself had ever 
 taken part in the comedy before. 
 
 Be that as it may, she appeared on September 22, 1879, 
 
 198 
 
THE "NURSE" IN "ROMEO" 199 
 
 and spoke, in addition to her part, a prologue written by 
 Clement Scott, and beginning : 
 
 A play by Farquhar, gentleman and wit ; 
 Here is the text in honest Saxon writ. 
 
 Of the four famous comic dramatists of the Restoration, 
 Farquhar is the last in point of time, and the second 
 in point of merit. He is more human, and better humoured, 
 than the others, " making us laugh from pleasure oftener 
 than from malice " as Hazlitt puts it genuinely gay, 
 and never bitter. 
 
 But, though in a middle position between the rank 
 indecencies of the Restoration, and the comparative purity 
 of the eighteenth century, such a play as " The Beaux's 
 Stratagem," Farquhar's last and best, 1 was still too coarse 
 for late Victorian taste. The production was not a marked 
 success. Some of the acting, according to The Times, was 
 very good, and none of it was positively bad ; but the perform- 
 ances were unequal, neither the spirit of the period, nor that 
 of the dramatist, being generally caught. The run, conse- 
 quently, was brief, and the event interesting chiefly as an 
 opportunity to the public to welcome, and to the players 
 to observe once again, a veteran actress, who, thirty-seven 
 years before, in company with Laura Nisbett, had won the 
 highest honours in Restoration comedy, 2 just as though 
 in a lesser degree she won them again upon this occasion. 
 The most successful impersonation of the night, says Button 
 Cooke, " was Mrs. Stirling's 4 Lady Bountiful ' strictly 
 natural, while extremely comical." 3 
 
 In Georgian comedy also she had been recognized, since 
 the passing of Mrs. Glover, as the first among English 
 actresses ; and the opening of the Bancroft season at the 
 Haymarket, on January 31, 1880, gave her an opportunity 
 to appear once more as " Mrs. Malaprop," 4 which part 
 to anticipate for a moment she played again in December 
 
 1 Written, in sickness, at close of 1706 ; first produced at Queen's 
 Theatre, Haymarket, March 8, 1707. Farquhar died April 29 of that year. 
 
 2 " Love for Love," November 19, 1842, during Macready's second season 
 at Drury Lane. See pp. 74-5. 
 
 3 Nights at the Play, ii. 209. 
 
 * For her and Mrs. Glover's rendering of " Mrs. Malaprop," see ante, 
 pp. 119-20. 
 
200 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 1882, under Thorne, at the Vaudeville a performance 
 that drew from Wilkie Collins the following tribute : l 
 
 Pray add my thanks to Mr. Thorne for his kindness, and my 
 congratulations on his admirable performance of " Acres." He and 
 Mrs. Stirling are comedians in the highest and best sense of the word. 
 
 Mr. Ben Greet tells me that, about this time, being 
 " behind " at the Imperial Theatre, one night, when the old 
 actress was playing "Mrs. Malaprop," he was highly amused, 
 and a little bit disappointed, at seeing her applauding herself 
 loudly, as she came off the stage with " Sir Anthony Abso- 
 lute " who was Mr. Farren. She insisted on dragging him 
 back on to the stage, to take a call ; but he " did not like 
 it all, thought it most inartistic ; and they almost came to 
 friendly blows over it. It made a great impression upon 
 me in my apprentice days." To-day Mr. Greet probably 
 regards Mrs. Stirling's self- appreciation as nothing worse 
 than the attempt of a veteran actress to administer to 
 herself much needed encouragement. 
 
 Active though she still was, one by one her links with the 
 past were being loosened. On Ash Wednesday, February 11, 
 1880, at Willis's Rooms, King Street, St. James's, she 
 made the last of a long series of brilliant speeches, that, 
 with only an occasional absence, due to sickness, she had 
 delivered on behalf of the Dramatic and Musical Sick Fund, 
 since 1862. Her words had given delight to many hearers, 
 and had been the means of gathering many thousands of 
 pounds for the charity. This closing effort is characterized 
 by all the old mental alertness and allusiveness, all the wit, 
 humour, word-play, pathos, and daring of the old days ; 
 nor can one say for how many years longer she might have 
 gone on, had the Institution survived. The year 1880, 
 however, seems to have been its last, perhaps for the reason, 
 among others, that the Royal General Theatrical Fund 
 was fast taking the premier place. Her last petition, made 
 under the presidency of Henry Ranee, Mayor of Cambridge, 
 was thus: 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Though Christmas time 
 be over, and the Pantomimes put to bed, with the help, I suppose, 
 
 1 Letter to Mr, W. Archer, May 5, 1882. 
 
THE " NURSE" IN "ROMEO" 201 
 
 of Clown's warming-pan and Pantaloon's hot poker, we are still 
 in the region of transformation scenes. There, on one side of me, 
 is the old Haymarket play-house, beloved by the oldest inhabitant, 
 turned into a new Haymarket. Its old face re-made up, its inside 
 turned inside out, its pit drawn off into the upper boxes, its new 
 Management, with its old partner prosperity at the helm. And here, 
 at my elbow, is the St. James's, a name that has long spelled loss, 
 but now spells profit, with its " Hare and many friends," no fable, 
 but a fact, laying the British public under contribution, like Falstaff, 
 " in company with two knaves in Kendal green " ; its venerable 
 hall, lobby, and crush-room, which I remember musty and damp 
 enough to suggest the appropriate rhyme of " mush-room," all in 
 the freshest flower of high aesthetic decoration, furnished like a 
 drawing-room, and hung like a picture gallery. 
 
 We used, in the old days, to be satisfied with tableaux on the 
 stage, and glad to get them ; two chairs and a deal table was the 
 extent of our set in that pre-aesthetic period ; now its management, 
 calling a poet-laureate to its boards, and flying not " kites " but 
 " falcons," and with " the Queen's shilling " enlisting all London in 
 the St. James's Rifle Corps. Ah ! if I could only be made young 
 again, like the Haymarket, and the St. James's. Alas ! it is not 
 so easy to put a new face upon the player as upon the play-house. 
 If I could change, no, I won't say change my bill for this evening, 
 for that must still be, like the Bancroft's " Money," your money for 
 this charity. Great is the power of speech, given the right " stump." 
 Look at Mr. Gladstone ; he draws, not the " stumpy," but, at least, 
 equivalents in kind, new rigs-out, from silk hats to shepherd's-plaid 
 unmentionables the only cheques Scotland seems to have for him. 
 By-the-bye, I don't find, somehow, that my eloquence helps to find 
 me in frocks I like that word, it has such a youthful ring about it 
 and hats. Oh ! I should like to see myself in a beautiful, broad- 
 brimmed, fluffy hat, that I might sing or say 
 
 I've been photographed like this, 
 I've been photographed like that, 
 I've been photographed so youthful 
 In a lovely fluffy hat. 
 
 But, never mind : though I don't work up to a wardrobe, or even 
 have my shepherd's plaid pattern, like Mr. Gladstone, I can do with- 
 out my own cheques if only I can work you out of yours. But, if 
 I cannot succeed by fluency, a la Gladstone, perhaps I may be more 
 successful, by condensation, a la Beaconsfield. Look what his 
 Liebig's essence of policy, his concentrated champagne-jelly, which, 
 we are told, he likes himself, and which he certainly administers to 
 the public, his " peace with honour," his " scientific frontier," his 
 " irrepressible chatter of irresponsible verbosity," have brought him ! 
 My stars and garters ! Looking up to the sublime heights at which 
 
202 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 he soars, one feels fairly " dizzy." If I could spin phrases like him, 
 to what a figure might I not raise myself, or, what I value more, 
 to-night's subscription list ! And then to think that, besides the 
 gold I should put into Mr. Auron's pocket I beg his pardon, I mean 
 the Fund's I might bring some of the gold to my own brows, in the 
 shape of a nice " people's tribute " of my own ; they must be nice 
 people to contribute to such a purpose. But alas ! as Agamemnon 
 wanted his Homer, I must wait for my Tracy Turnerelli. If he 
 is in this room, and hears me, or if anybody here knows where he 
 is to be found, and will kindly communicate with him, let him be 
 assured that when he does offer me my wreath, it will be accepted. 
 I will not send it to Madame Tussauds. But, in the meantime, I 
 will take out the gold of my wreath in the shape of your contribution 
 to this charity. When our new Dramatic School, in the leading 
 strings of Professor Morley, is in full swing, let us hope that the 
 poverty and suffering which this fund is founded to relieve will be 
 less of a constant quantity. Of course, in that blessed time, when 
 nobody shall make mistakes, and everybody shall know his or her 
 vocation, and be taught to follow it, we may hope, even without the 
 active exertions of the Church and Stage Guild, that the Theatre will 
 be a region of gifted artists, all receiving large salaries, and all deserv- 
 ing them ; all respectable, aesthetic, cultivated, and provident ; in 
 short, artists worthy of the Theatre of that blessed world of Cockayne, 
 where the larks rain down ready-roasted, and crying " come eat me." 
 But, while waiting for this consummation, devoutly to be wished, 
 if not confidently anticipated, we have still our old ravel of suffering 
 and poverty to knit up in the sleeves of the stage-wardrobe ; still 
 the grim old need to meet, the hungry mouths to fill ; the wounds 
 of a hard and bitter battle of life to staunch and bind. Our charity 
 craves ever, with many open mouths. I crave, with my poor mouth, 
 on its behalf to-night, as on this same Ash Wednesday night these 
 twenty years and more. One doesn't like to look back, but I am 
 afraid 'tis past a score ; but after all there is little perhaps in their 
 record that I may be gladder to look back on. I am, I believe with 
 my old friend John Ryder, of about the oldest dramatic school going. 
 I know that, in these days of School Boards, " dames " schools are 
 apt to be very lightly valued ; but at all events he and I may claim 
 to have educated our fair proportion of the rising talent of the pro- 
 fession ; and if it is our rising talent that makes the theatrical 
 horizon so bright and promising, who but the old school is to thank 
 for it ? But there is one dramatic school even older than mine, and 
 that is the school in which actors, and actresses, have learned the 
 blessed lesson of charity and mutual kindness. It may be a hard 
 school ; but it has turned out apt pupils, who have learnt its lessons 
 well, and zealously put them to the proof by practice. May the new 
 Dramatic School, when it comes, be as justified of its pupils. One 
 fortunate feature of the Theatre, in our times, is the countenance 
 granted to it by our Royal Family. O ! good gracious, a thought 
 
THE " NURSE" IN " ROMEO " 203 
 
 strikes me not a happy thought by any means ! If that counten- 
 ance, as it beams on us from the royal box, should ever have a foul 
 anchor in blue on its august nose or noses ! On this point of the royal 
 nasal promontory, I pause ; words cannot carry me further ; I will 
 only say, stifle your emotions, and take out your pocket-handker- 
 chiefs, and while doing so take out your purses too. It would be 
 unseemly, if not disloyal, in the case of a profession Royalty has so 
 honoured with its favour, to allow its distresses to go unrelieved, if 
 I may be allowed the expression, under the royal nose ; so let me 
 as " dashing white Sergeant " beat up my call for your contributions. 
 How could I better finish the roll of my drum to-night, than with 
 the royal tattoo ? 
 
 After many years of retirement from public life, Mrs. 
 Stirling, we may suppose, did not contemplate much more 
 active stage-work, and would probably have declined all 
 offers, had not the glamour of a Shakespearean regime at the 
 Lyceum, and the personal petition of Henry Irving, overcome 
 her irresolutions, and lured her back to the boards once more. 
 
 The occasion was the production of " Romeo and Juliet," 
 the opportunity that of playing the " Nurse," a part which 
 she had never before attempted. Mrs. Stirling consented 
 to undertake the character, and it was well for her, as for 
 the play-going public, that she did so. Already Henry 
 Irving at the Lyceum, by common consent, and with public 
 acclamation, had won the place to which, since Macready, 
 no English actor had ever boldly aspired, or laid legitimate 
 claim that of the acknowledged Trustee and representative 
 of the ancient traditions of our British stage, in its national 
 and poetical aspects. In Miss Ellen Terry, moreover, 
 Irving had found, for his leading lady, a worthy collaborator, 
 an artist of rare and distinctive ability, and a personality 
 of extraordinary charm. It was fitting that he should com- 
 plete his company by the acquisition of an actress who 
 had played " Cordelia " to Macready's " Lear," and " Desde- 
 mona " to his " Othello," and who now, in the maturity 
 and ripeness of her age and art, was to put all she had 
 learned and it was much of Shakespeare's wide humanity 
 and woman's universal motherhood, into the part of Juliet's 
 " Nurse." 
 
 New rdles and new lines, however, are less easily acquired 
 
204 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 at sixty-nine than they may have been thirty years before ; 
 and the old lady found some difficulty, it seems, in adapting 
 herself readily to more modern conditions. Harking back, 
 as she did, in memory and affection, to the primitive 
 methods in vogue before the stage carpenters and electricians 
 wielded the dominion that is now theirs, she disliked the 
 elaborate settings and cumbersome scenery of the Lyceum 
 stage in the eighties. 
 
 That she found the rehearsals inadequate, Miss Terry 
 has told us. 1 " ' O these modern ways,' Mrs. Stirling used 
 to say. ' We never have any rehearsals at all. How am 
 I going to play the " Nurse " ? J " 
 
 Then again, over traditional renderings, the old actress, 
 who had been nourished almost upon tradition warred 
 occasionally with the younger school. Let Miss Terry, 
 the " Juliet " of the play, continue the story. 
 
 I had one battle with Mrs. Stirling over " tradition ". It was 
 in the scenej 2 beginning 
 
 The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse t 
 In half an hour she promised to return ! 
 
 Tradition said that " Juliet " must go on coquetting and clicking 
 over the " Nurse ?J to get the news of " Romeo " out of her. Tradition 
 said that " Juliet " must give imitations of the "Nurse" on the line, 
 " Where's your mother ? " in order to get that cheap reward, " a 
 safe laugh." I felt that it was wrong. I felt that "Juliet" was 
 angry with the "Nurse." Each time she delayed in answering I lost 
 my temper, with genuine passion. At " Where's your mother ? " 
 I spoke with indignation, rage and tears. We were a long time 
 coaxing Mrs. Stirling to let the scene be played on these lines, but 
 that is how it was played eventually. 
 
 Granting the fidelity of Miss Terry's rendering of the 
 scene, and having admitted, without reserve, that when 
 that lady has made up her mind to coax someone, that 
 someone may as well surrender soon as late unless for the 
 purpose of drawing out a delight I venture to uphold, 
 in general, Mrs. Stirling's desire to stand resolutely for 
 tradition, since upon ancient tradition the fabric of Shake- 
 spearean acting is assuredly built up. Upon that subject I 
 
 1 Ellen Terry's Memoirs, pp. 210, et seq. 
 8 Act II, Scene 5. 
 
THE " NURSE" IN "ROMEO" 205 
 
 will say more later, and do but mention it now to complete 
 the picture of her last important Shakespearean r61e, and the 
 little difficulties she met with in preparing for it. All those 
 difficulties moving scenery, limited rehearsals, modern 
 readings were triumphantly overcome, and the old actress 
 crowned her long career with a complete and unequivocal 
 success. Of the praises bestowed upon her, none, I think, 
 were more to the point than this, by Edward R. Russell, 
 in an article on the dramatic revival, in Macmillari's 
 Magazine : l 
 
 This is the proper place to pay a brief tribute to the " Nurse 1J of Mrs. 
 Stirling, which is a wonderful piece of elaborate and unctuous acting. 
 Such perfection of mechanism is rarely seen. Every muscle, every 
 expression, every syllable of the mellow voice is obedient to the will 
 of the artist, and the result is that one of the most amusing, natural, 
 and irresistible old women ever imagined lives before you, treads the 
 stage, and asserts a phenomenal importance in the action of the play. 
 
 Miss Terry herself has written of the performance: 
 
 She played it splendidly indeed, she as the " Nurse " and old 
 Tom Mead as the " Apothecary " the two " old 'uns " romped 
 away with chief honours, had the play all to nothing. . . . She was 
 the only " Nurse " that I have ever seen who did not play the part 
 like a female pantaloon. She did not assume any great decrepitude. 
 In the cords scene, where the " Nurse " tells " Juliet " of the death 
 of " Paris," she did not play for comedy at all, but was very emotional. 
 Her parrot scream when she found me dead was horribly real and 
 effective. . . . When she played the " Nurse " at the Lyceum, her 
 voice had become a little jangled and harsh, but her eye was still 
 bright, and her art had not abated not one little bit ! nor had her 
 charm. Her smile was the most fascinating, irresistible thing 
 imaginable. 
 
 With the last sentence of that vivid sketch all will concur 
 who, though not having seen the original, may know the 
 familiar portrait of Mrs. Stirling as the " Nurse," with Miss 
 Mary Anderson as "Juliet." 2 Her humour, in that picture, 
 has about it a rich, generous, satisfying quality, like a comedy 
 of Shakespeare, the flavour of an old vintage port, or a chapter 
 of George Meredith. 
 
 Miss Terry's frank admission that Mrs. Stirling and Tom 
 
 1 Vol. xlvi, 1882. a See Frontispiece. 
 
20G THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Mead " had the play all to nothing " is borne out by the 
 other critics, so far as the " Nurse " is concerned. The 
 Era l gives first place among the ladies to Mrs. Stirling ; 
 and Percy Fitzgerald, in his book upon Henry Irving at 
 the Lyceum, 2 and telling the same tale of the " Nurse's " 
 pre-eminence, raises an interesting point. 
 
 Terriss was the " Mercutio," which he gave with his favourite 
 blunt impetuosity. But one of the most perfectly played characters 
 was Mrs. Stirling's " Nurse." This accomplished woman represented 
 all the best traditions high training, admirable elocution, with the 
 art of giving due weight and breadth to every utterance. And yet 
 here was a curious phenomenon. The very excellence of the delinea- 
 tion disturbed the balance of the play. The " Nurse " became almost 
 as important as the leading performers, but not from any fault of the 
 actress. She but followed the due course. . . . But there should be 
 subordination. . . . With an actress of Mrs. Stirling's powers and 
 rank the manager, no doubt, felt too much delicacy to interfere ; 
 nor perhaps would the audience have placidly accepted any effacing 
 of her part. But as it was, the figure of this humble retainer became 
 unduly prominent. 
 
 The problem is one that, out of the very nature of the 
 play, must sometimes arise in productions of " Romeo 
 and Juliet." We saw an example of it not long ago, at 
 the Lyric, when, curiously enough, Miss Ellen Terry herself, 
 as the "Nurse," by reason of those same gifts her elocution, 
 her temperamental qualities, and her matured stage technique 
 was able, in her turn, to do as had been done long since 
 unto her, and to have most of the other players, excepting 
 only " Mercutio," 3 " all to nothing." 
 
 The reasons for such happenings are to be found, of 
 course, in the difficulties that attend the playing of the 
 title parts in " Romeo and Juliet " difficulties so great 
 that not one actor nor actress in a hundred can completely 
 overcome them. The young " Juliet " who may reveal 
 the beauties of that exquisitely lyrical opening, cannot 
 always sustain the swiftly moving emotions of the southern 
 maid, nor rise to the tragic intensity of the death- visions and 
 the potioned cup. By the time that she is mature enough 
 
 1 March 11, 1882. 
 
 8 Henry Irving : Twenty Years at the Lyceum. 1893. 
 
 8 Mr. Leo Quartermaine. 
 
THE " NURSE" IN " ROMEO " 207 
 
 for the one, she is already too old to look or to feel the other. 
 There is the eternal tragedy of " Juliet," of the actress's 
 art in general we might almost say. And with " Romeo " 
 the difficulty is similar : he also must be both boy and man. 
 
 Then, beside these two young lovers at the very moment 
 when their youthful incompleteness and technical in- 
 efficiencies are perhaps being revealed to the audience 
 comes this benignantly conceived personality of the " Nurse," 
 into whom Shakespeare has wrought his tenderest love, 
 his ripest humour, his deepest sense of woman's sublime 
 and universal motherhood ; a character to be played, 
 necessarily, by a well-matured actress, in whom years, no 
 longer a fault, have become an essential virtue. What 
 wonder, then, that, too often, the "Nurse" usurps more 
 than a mere retainer's share of the audience's sympathy and 
 attention, since in all the beautiful art of the stage there is 
 nothing more delightfully restful and pleasing, to an under- 
 standing play -goer, than to see a broadly maternal part 
 played by an actress, with all the perfect ease and unerring 
 certainty that only decades of experience can give ? 
 
 The foregoing facts apply, in principle, to every nurse 
 in stage history ; but Mrs. Stirling's case, nevertheless, 
 was quite exceptional, when it is remembered that she 
 was playing to a " Romeo " and " Juliet " who were the 
 leading actor and actress of their day, appearing in one 
 of the notable revivals of the century. Granted that the 
 lovers of Verona were not parts peculiarly suited to the 
 genius of Henry Irving, or of Miss Ellen Terry, the quali- 
 fications of this " Nurse " were still superlative. 
 
 Naturally a woman of keen intelligence, and of strong 
 understanding, endowed with an intense and ardent nature, 
 an abounding sense of humour, and a deep love of art, she 
 brought also inevitably to the part a range of experience 
 that almost no actress, of any time, could match. For 
 over forty years she had maintained her position as one 
 of England's leading performers ; and for thirty years her 
 supremacy had been unchallenged, as the first comedienne 
 of her day. Farce, comedy, drama, tragedy all had come 
 alike to her. She had played many times " Cordelia," 
 44 Desdemona," "Rosalind," "Portia, 5 ! and the other 
 
208 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Shakespearean heroines. In " Adrienne Lecouvreur," and 
 in " Tisbe," she had touched the hem of Rachel's garment ; 
 she had transformed bad plays into good ones, and artificial 
 roles innumerable into almost as many living creations. 
 And now, at last, though with " voice a little jangled," but 
 with her art not one wit abated, and all her energies yet 
 intact aged, but not old there had come to her the 
 opportunity to personate this ancient retainer, into whom 
 Shakespeare had breathed something of his broadest, sweetest, 
 and tenderest sympathies about the heart-compelling 
 motherhood of woman. What more natural than that 
 Mrs. Stirling should see here a last worthy occasion ; should 
 fasten upon it, and even to undue prominence make that 
 character the one in which she should carry down to posterity 
 her share in our loftiest dramatic tradition. 
 
 Tradition, as Sir Frank Benson well reminded me recently, 
 is of vital importance in the playing of Shakespeare. 1 It is 
 the essential thought of his time, the torch of dramatic 
 learning and authority handed down from stage to stage, 
 from actor to actor, linking and unifying, across the centuries, 
 the great arts of the dramatist and his interpreters. Some 
 players and Mrs. Stirling was one of these can handle 
 such tradition marvellously well, can let it come to them, 
 penetrate them, permeate them, and shine through their 
 personalities, as Garrick did, and after him some of those 
 mellow actors of the old school, such as Howe to name 
 but one. Others have harder work with this living light 
 from the past as Kemble had, and Henry Irving. They 
 must go out to meet it, must parley with it not always 
 easily before they can open to it their hearts, and warm 
 themselves, at last, in its beams. 
 
 Upon that great Shakespearean tradition Mrs. Stirling's 
 " Nurse " was built up. She moulded it into her own 
 personality, carrying it on, adapting and enlarging it, into 
 the perfect " Nurse " that will go down to posterity as the 
 model. To few only is it given to do such things. Who 
 would play Shakespeare worthily must have something 
 of his greatness, fortified by natural gift, and perfected by 
 
 1 Sir Frank Benson made his first professional appearance as " Paris " in 
 this production, for which see his preface to this book. 
 
THE "NURSE" IN " ROMEO " 209 
 
 long initiation. He, or she, must bring to such work love and 
 sympathy past telling, and high nobility of soul : they 
 must make, at the same time, all needful sacrifice, before 
 they can become the chosen vessel, and the child of the 
 larger life, understanding the divinity of man, understanding 
 also the Deity of God. Only thus, and only then, in the 
 measure of that understanding, will he, or will she, succeed. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 LAST APPEARANCES, RETIREMENT AND 
 
 DEATH 
 
 1883-95 
 
 Mrs. Stirling plays " The Marquise," in the Bancrofts' revival of " Caste " 
 at the Haymarket A new rendering of the partHer struggle 
 against physical disabilities " Lady Caryll " in Pinero's " Lords 
 and Commons " Her last original part The " Nurse " again, with 
 Miss Mary Anderson Miss Anderson's recollections of her, and 
 Mr. Ben Greet's Charity matinees Retirement of the Bancrofts 
 Is persuaded to play " Martha '* in Henry Irving's production of 
 "Faust," at the Lyceum A fine scene with " Mephistopheles " 
 Failure of her sight Miss Ellen Terry's story of Mrs. Stirling as 
 " Martha " Plays for the last time on July 31, 1886 Irving's 
 speech thereon Her final withdrawal Spiritual troubles Intimate 
 correspondence with Miss Anderson Marriage with Sir Charles 
 Gregory Last days, and death, December 28, 1895. 
 
 MRS. STIRLING'S success as the "Nurse" naturally brought 
 other actor managers to realize that the veteran actress 
 was not yet a spent force. The Bancrofts, at the Hay- 
 market, were contemplating a revival of " Caste," that 
 most tender and human of the Robertson comedies, first 
 produced on April 6, 1867. The revival which commenced 
 on January 21, 1883, was quite as successful as productions 
 under that management usually were, and that is saying 
 much Mrs. Bancroft herself, as "Polly," being once more 
 the life of the piece, and David James, as " Eccles," giving 
 one of the most convincing studies of drunkenness recorded 
 in the history of the stage. 
 
 But, in the Bancrofts' own words, these performances of 
 " Caste " were chiefly memorable to them 
 
 by the sincere pleasure we had in persuading that perfect mistress of 
 her art, Mrs. Stirling, to play the "Marquise de St. Maiir," which 
 proved of infinite value, and whose influence at the rehearsals owing 
 to the unwearying pains she put into them was also of good effect. 1 
 1 The Bancroft Meinoirs, p. 250. 
 
 210 
 
LAST APPEARANCES 211 
 
 Some critics had predicted failure for her. Mrs. Stirling, 
 they thought, could never subordinate her grand style, 
 and old English traditions, to the minutiae of Robertsonian 
 comedy. They were wrong. The old lady vindicated 
 completely her selection, and deserved, as well as earned, 
 her considerable salary seven times larger than that paid 
 to the original representative of the " Marquise." Her broad 
 humanity enabled her to put enough of the mother into 
 the high-born woman, just as she had put it into the " Nurse " 
 and so to tone down towards acceptance the aristocratic 
 snobbishness of the consequential "Marquise," whose exit 
 most audiences receive with undisguised pleasure, when 
 " Esther Eccles " opens the door. One critic * opined that 
 the part of the " Marquise de St. Maur" had never been 
 thoroughly understood until Mrs. Stirling took it up; and 
 Squire Bancroft himself wrote : 2 
 
 We were fortunate enough to persuade that great actress, Mrs. 
 Stirling, to appear as the " Marquise." She played the part as it 
 had never been acted ; the tones of her grand voice still linger in the 
 memory, as she said to her son : " I may never see you again. I am 
 old, you are going into the battle," 
 
 Back again in the melee, she was still undaunted, though 
 the effort taxed even her resolute determination, as this 
 further extract from the Bancroft Memoirs makes clear: 
 
 I have known that grand old actress, Mrs. Stirling, when suffering 
 from a severe attack of bronchitis, to go to the theatre in all weathers, 
 and at great risk, more especially at her age, when she ought to have 
 been in bed. I have seen her arrive scarcely able to breathe, but 
 insisting on going through her duties. This has often been an anxiety, 
 for while admiring her courage, I have feared bad results from it. 
 Mrs. Stirling's sight being impaired, she always dreaded stairs, and, 
 unfortunately for her, in the hall of Caryll Court there was a long 
 gallery and then a tall flight of steps leading from it to the stage, 
 while behind the scenes there was another flight, to reach this gallery. 
 Luckily, she did not enter alone, but had the kindly help of Miss 
 Eleanor Calhoun, who played her daughter in the piece. When Mrs. 
 Stirling was ill, these stairs would naturally be a double anxiety, 
 but she would listen to no change of entrance in the scene which might 
 affect the arrangement of the play, and I often felt anxious about her. 
 
 One would imagine, to see her slowly and cautiously ascend the 
 
 1 Daily Telegraph, January 22, 1883. 8 The Bancrofts, p. 110. 
 
212 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 flight of steps, stopping every now and then to murmur " O ! these 
 stairs ! " that she would scarcely be able to get through her part ; 
 but although she has stood gasping for breath, and terribly ailing, 
 the moment her cue came to go on the stage she seemed to become 
 twenty years younger ; vigour returned to her limbs, and she walked 
 with such a firm and stately gait that the change was extraordinary. 
 Her grand voice alone was worth a good walk to listen to, and her 
 acting of the part was as no one else could act it. 
 
 " Never," commented Sir Squire Bancroft, " will a true 
 artist break faith with the public, while able to stand or 
 speak." 
 
 On November 24, 1883, despite the handicap of increasing 
 physical disabilities, the actress undertook what proved 
 to be her last original part, " Lady Gary 11," in Pinero's 
 comedy, " Lords and Commons " a performance interesting 
 chiefly because it links up her stage career with a great 
 and still active dramatist, and with a living generation 
 of players. The Bancrofts, Mrs. Bernard Beere, Johnston 
 Forbes-Robertson were all in the cast of a play, which, though 
 it ran for some eighty nights, was generally reckoned a 
 failure. Sir Arthur Pinero had not then come fully into 
 his own as a playwright : his rendering of that popular 
 theme, " New Men and Old Acres," was technically immature, 
 and rather too cynical, perhaps, to win much popular favour. 
 The Times was severe upon it: 
 
 Mr. Pinero has yet to learn, it would seem, one of the elementary 
 principles of his art, which is that the sympathies of the house must 
 never be trifled with, that a dramatist mystify his characters as 
 he may must never mystify his audience. 
 
 As for Mrs. Stirling, she, in the role of an aristocratic 
 dowager, struggled along as best she might, generally able, 
 by her indomitable determination, to concealfrom observers 
 in front the fact that the practice of her art was now an effort. 
 It was concerning her appearance in this play that the 
 Bancrofts wrote : 
 
 It would be very interesting to an audience to be given, now and 
 then, a peep behind the scenes, or in the Green Room ; they would 
 often see what good servants to the public are the actors ; how often, 
 when suffering acute pain, they have gone through their work so 
 
LAST APPEARANCES 218 
 
 bravely that the audience has not detected even a look of it. The 
 public owe more to the actor than they will perhaps be prepared 
 to admit. 
 
 Not long after the termination of the run of " Lords 
 and Commons," Mrs. Stirling presented to Mrs. Pinero the 
 stick she had used as the " Nurse " in Irving's production 
 of " Romeo " at the Lyceum, and also in Mr. Pinero's own 
 play. Upon it she had inscribed a quotation from her own 
 part in " Lords and Commons " " I am of the old fashion." 
 Lady Pinero kept this souvenir until the outbreak of the 
 Great War, when, by her desire, it was sold, at the first auction 
 held by Christie's, in aid of the Red Cross Fund. 
 
 After her success at the Lyceum, in 1882, any London 
 revival of " Romeo and Juliet " was bound to bring the 
 veteran actress again into request, if she were still willing, 
 and able, to undertake the " Nurse." When, therefore, in 
 November, 1884, at the same theatre, Miss Mary Anderson 
 put the play on, with herself and William Terriss in the 
 title parts, Mrs. Stirling was naturally asked again to take up 
 once more her old part, when her first husband, Edward 
 Stirling, 1 was cast for " Friar Lawrence " ; this being, no 
 doubt, the last production in which the couple played together. 
 Mrs. Stirling repeated her success, and her acting received 
 the usual chorus of press approval, though the criticisms 
 made, in some quarters, two years before were again heard 
 against the dominance that the old lady put into the 
 part. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's "Nurse" [wrote the Athenceum] is too distinguished. 
 That a woman occupying her position in a household such as that 
 of the Capulets, might be a person of consideration, may be granted ; 
 Shakespeare, however, takes care to show that she is not. 
 
 The chief interest of the production, from our point of 
 view, lies in the fact that it remains well within the memory 
 of the younger actors and actresses, who, through playing in 
 it, became Mrs. Stirling's close friends. I refer especially 
 to Miss Mary Anderson herself, and to Mr. Ben Greet. 
 
 The last named had been engaged by Miss Anderson as 
 the "Apothecary." He was he tells me the twelfth 
 1 Stirling lived nearly ten years longer, dying August 14, 1894. 
 
214 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 " Apothecary " : and he overheard Miss Anderson say that, 
 good or bad, he must be kept, as she could not be bothered 
 with a thirteenth ! Weariness, or caution ? Mr. Greet 
 did not know ; but he was kept ; and he made friends with 
 the old " Nurse." 
 
 We had long rehearsals ; and the dear old lady used to sit in the 
 stalls, or sometimes in the dress-circle, at the Lyceum, and, while 
 taking keen interest in the proceedings, would pass the quaintest 
 remarks upon the performers, and the general methods adopted. 
 Between her racy comments, and comparisons between the old order 
 and the new, she would hug her knees, crippled by rheumatism 
 and, swaying to and fro upon her seat, would murmur : " O ! my 
 knees, my knees ! " 
 
 One day, during these rehearsals, she confided to me that she 
 still loved acting, but was sick and tired of the dressing-up and un- 
 dressing. " If only someone would take me up, and drop me down, 
 ready dressed, on the stage ! But for myself, I think it is time I 
 gave it up." 
 
 When eventually the play was produced, I used to fetch her nearly 
 every night from her dressing-room Miss Mary Anderson would do 
 it sometimes and take her across to her entrance. She needed my 
 help most when the " black-outs " came to change the scenes. This 
 was an American innovation, to black out all lights, so that the scenes 
 could be changed in the pitch dark, without having the drop curtain 
 down. They could do it over there, where they had electric light 
 in theatres years before we did here. Poor dear ! she was rather 
 blind in those days, and very nervous ; and just could not stand the 
 tremendous shiftings of the scenes. She used to think the whole 
 bag-of-tricks was tumbling on her, and would say : " O ! those 
 toppling cathedrals ; they always make me feel as though I were 
 in an earthquake ! " 
 
 But the member of the company who came most closely 
 into the last years of Mrs. Stirling's life, both as fellow- 
 actress and friend, was Miss Mary Anderson herself. One 
 glance at the well-known photograph l of them together, as 
 " Juliet " and her " Nurse " the best photograph of Mrs. 
 Stirling ever taken, and one of the loveliest of Miss Anderson 
 also suggests a mutual affection that was not put off with 
 the parts. 
 
 At her beautiful house at Broadway, Mme. de Navarro, 
 as she now is kindly gave me some very interesting 
 recollections of the old lady and her art. 
 1 By Messrs. Downey. 
 
LAST APPEARANCES 215 
 
 When Mrs. Stirling walked on to the stage she ceased to be Mrs. 
 Stirling, but became somebody else in " Romeo and Juliet" the old 
 Italian retainer, Shakespeare's " Nurse." No one has been quite 
 the same, quite as real, before or since not even Miss Ellen Terry, 
 when she played with Doris Keane. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling's scene with " Romeo," where she pretends to refuse 
 the bribe, 1 was magnificent. " No, truly sir, not a penny ! " stand- 
 ing with her hands behind her back. Then, when she had taken the 
 money, she would cross the stage, chinking the coins as she went, 
 with her hands under her chin, until " Peter " was within reach of 
 her stick. Then it was thwack ! thwack ! thwack : chink, chink, 
 chink quite legitimate business, that every night would set the 
 house in a roar. 2 
 
 In the garden-scene also Mrs. Stirling was wonderful. While 
 exasperating " Juliet " almost to distraction by withholding the 
 longed-for news of " Romeo " she would convey to the audience, 
 all the time, the deep affection that underlay her love of fun and 
 mischief. This quality of living impersonation, it was, that made 
 her so delightful to work with. Remembering that great actress, 
 there seems to me to be so little of such spirit upon the modern 
 stage ; but rather a tendency, when your scene is done, to go off, 
 talk about motor-cars, and take little more interest in the remainder 
 of the play. 
 
 She was a darling ! and very charming in all her ways. Between 
 the morning and evening performances she used to love to sit cosily 
 with me in my dressing-room ; and have something to eat oysters, 
 I remember, were a favourite dish of hers and then she liked to sit 
 by the fire, and give up all activity, and just play at being very old. 
 I used to lecture her for giving in so ; and when she repeated that 
 she was " finished with, and done for," I would say : " No, indeed, 
 you are not : you must cheer up, and not give way. Remember Mrs. 
 Keeley : she is older than you are, but doesn't give up so." 3 
 
 One day, during the run at the Lyceum, when I was lunching 
 with W. E. Gladstone the G.O.M. he said to me : " You will be 
 seeing Fanny Stirling to-night ; please tell her from me she was 
 my first love. 4 No harm to tell her so now ! " 
 
 Mme. de Navarre's further, and beautiful, relations with 
 her old friend I must leave until I have completed the story 
 of Mrs. Stirling's stage career. 
 
 1 Act II, Scene 4. 
 
 * Miss Anderson played this for me with great zest the " Juliet " of 
 1884 became the "Nurse" in 1921. 
 
 3 Mrs. Keeley, born in 1805, was then in her eightieth year. She died 
 in 1899. 
 
 4 The year referred to was probably 1838. or thereabouts. See 
 Chapter III. 
 
210 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Concerning 1885, there is little of interest to relate, but 
 on March 25, willing and eager as ever in the cause of 
 charity, Mrs. Stirling appeared with Mrs. Keeley in a rhymed 
 epilogue by Clement Scott, at a matinee on behalf of the 
 National Aid Society for the sick and wounded in Egypt 
 and the Soudan. On July 20 of the same year, at the 
 Haymarket, with many other professionals, including Irving 
 and Toole, she took part in Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft's fare- 
 well performance, upon their retirement. Her task was 
 to portray, for the last time, one of her favourite characters 
 in the old days " Lady Franklin," in the first act of Bulwer 
 Lytton's "Money." At Creswick's Benefit, October 29, 
 she was once more on the stage with Mrs. Keeley, and recited 
 " Our Whaler Fleet." Occasionally she would be persuaded 
 to appear at some charity matinee, in one of her old parts, 
 as, for example, " Mrs. Steinhold," in " Still Waters Run 
 Deep," at the Naval College, Greenwich, when Carlotta 
 Addison played " Mrs. Mildmay." Mr. Ben Greet, who 
 was present, remembers Mrs. Stirling's performance, as 
 being most remarkable. 
 
 Then, in December, came Henry Irving's production of 
 Goethe's " Faust," as adapted by Wills. The actor-manager, 
 in search of a "Martha," offered the part to Mrs. Stirling. 
 The old lady, dubious of her physical strength, hesitated. 
 She went to Mr. Bancroft, who, with Mrs. Bancroft, was then 
 among her closest friends. He thought that she might 
 well attempt it ; she consented, therefore, and took up 
 what proved to be her last part. 
 
 All things considered, the actress succeeded remarkably 
 well, in a production that, despite some unfavourable 
 comment, received much approval and support. The 
 Daily Telegraph, always faithful to an established favourite, 
 told us that " to atone for all the failure in fancy and fervour " 
 the critic, Clement Scott I suppose, had complained 
 of lack of melody in the orchestral music 
 
 we had the scene between " Martha " and " Mephistopheles " inimit- 
 ably played by Mrs. Stirling and Mr. Irving. It was not the " Martha " 
 of our imagination, but what actress of our time could do so much 
 with so little ? Each line on each side was a point, and the best point 
 made by Charles Kean, 
 
LAST APPEARANCES 217 
 
 Where will she go by and by, 
 I wonder ? I won't have her, 
 
 was doubly emphasized by Mr. Irving. The whole house rose 
 at it. * 
 
 Other critics complained that, as in the " Nurse," Mrs. 
 Stirling usurped, upon the stage, greater prominence than 
 the author had intended for her ; while, concerning her age, 
 The Times was almost brutally frank. " Mrs. Stirling, as 
 "Martha," though she has done her best, is too old for the 
 part, which in opera is appropriately played by robust con- 
 traltos of forty- five " ; and, indeed, the truth of the matter 
 is, that, clever as the old lady might be at concealing the 
 fact, her sight, which had been failing her since " Romeo 
 and Juliet," had now almost completely gone. 
 
 Miss Ellen Terry herself, I well remember, over a cup of 
 tea, in her house at Chelsea, told me the story, almost in 
 these words : 
 
 One night, at the beginning of the run it was just before " Henry's " 
 entrance I was sitting here on the stage, and your grandmother 
 there. Then came the knock at the door rat-a-tat ! That was 
 " Mephistopheles." Your grandmother started at the noise, dropped 
 her work, rose, and went to open the door for him. Meanwhile, I 
 crossed the stage, and took up the work, which I thought might 
 be in the way. " Martha," by this time, was ushering " Henry " in. 
 She had been able to see pretty well, at his entrance, because a red 
 light was thrown upon him ; but as soon as she was well on the stage 
 again, she lost her way, and nearly fell into the orchestra. When 
 the play was over, the old lady came to me, and said : 
 
 " My dear, why did you pick up my work ? " 
 
 " Because I thought it would be in your way ! " 
 
 44 It wasn't in my way ; I dropped it there on purpose. When 
 I come from the door I can see that white patch, and when I get to 
 the patch I can see my seat ; but I can't find my way to my seat 
 without first getting to my work." 
 
 The dropping of the work had followed so naturally upon 
 the start, at hearing " Mephistopheles' " knock, as to make 
 even the " Marguerite " think the incident involuntary. 
 When I heard the story from the original " Marguerite," 
 that lady transformed herself into " Martha," dropped her 
 handkerchief upon the floor, to represent the work, and 
 1 Daily Telegraph, December 21, 1885. 
 
218 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 acted the scene for me. It is a recollection that will long 
 remain. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling continued to play " Martha" until the close 
 of the summer season at the Lyceum, on Saturday, July 31, 
 1886. When the curtain had fallen that evening, Henry 
 Irving, in response to a call, came forward, still dressed as 
 " Mephistopheles," and expressed his thanks, and those of 
 Miss Terry, for the unstinted kindness of their public. He 
 then added : 
 
 I regret to tell you that we are about to lose the help of one of 
 the most distinguished actresses of the British stage Mrs. Stirling. 
 Not that this is her leave-taking. I hope that she will be persuaded 
 to appear once more ; but she feels the necessity of rest and retire- 
 ment. Mrs. Stirling has indeed done the stage good service, having 
 been constantly before the London public for fifty-seven years. 1 I 
 am sure that all true lovers of the drama hope that her future sur- 
 roundings may be serene and bright. I do with all my heart. 
 
 Irving then led Mrs. Stirling before the curtain to make 
 her bow, after which ceremony, Miss Ellen Terry and other 
 ladies of the company " waited upon her," and presented 
 her with a basket of flowers. Thus quietly, and character- 
 istically, without formal leave-taking, this long stage career 
 came to an end. When the run of " Faust " was resumed, 
 the part of "Martha" was taken by Mrs. Chippendale. 
 
 From that time forward the veteran actress lived in 
 complete retirement at her London home, 3, Duchess Street, 
 Portland Place. Her old age, during these years, was some- 
 what lonely and unhappy, and found its chief solace, I think, 
 in the close friendship of Miss Mary Anderson, who corre- 
 sponded with her much, and visited her frequently. " She 
 treats me absolutely as a child, but would come to me again 
 and again for help. When I visited her, she would say: 
 4 Sit here, Mary, and hold my hand ' ; and then she would 
 pour out all her troubles." 
 
 These were in part religious. The longing for spiritual 
 peace was strong within her at this time ; and, having been 
 educated, when a girl, as a Roman Catholic, she naturally 
 found herself turning for help to the devoted friend who 
 was also of the same faith. In Miss Anderson's own words : 
 
 1 If this be correct, it fixes her London de"but at the year 1829. 
 
LAST APPEARANCES 219 
 
 " I, being a woman, and her close friend, knew better perhaps 
 than any priest exactly where she was, and how to deal 
 with her." Conversation on spiritual matters was the sub- 
 ject she preferred to any other during these years. Three 
 characteristic letters, written to Miss Anderson about this 
 time, will be read with interest. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling to Miss Mary Anderson (Mme. de Navarro). 
 
 3, DUCHESS STREET, 
 
 PORTLAND PLACE, W. 
 
 (no date) Friday. 
 MY DEAREST MARY, 
 
 You will, from not hearing earlier this morning, have guessed 
 that I have not been able to see my way to leaving home just now. 
 I will not bother you with all the reasons that make it undesirable 
 for me to do so ; they would all seem so trifling in comparison with 
 the comfort and peace that might perhaps ensue. I live a life of 
 great loneliness and quiet, sometimes not hearing a voice all day, 
 but my own, and I ought, I feel, to be able to commune with myself 
 and try to help myself during this quiet and I must be content for 
 the present to try and do so. While writing this you are perhaps 
 saying your promised little prayer for me. May God hear you on my 
 behalf ! I shall never forget your goodness in coming to me to tell 
 of the possibility of gaining peace and comfort. I envy you, dear, 
 the happiness you have been blessed with, and cannot tell you how 
 happy it made me to see your happiness. I prize so much the little 
 book you gave me : it will never leave me, and I shall look into it 
 every day, reminding me of your love and thought for me. God 
 will bless you for it, dear. I hope you will not leave England without 
 letting me see you again. It is selfish to ask this, but to see you and 
 to know you to be happy is next door to being happy myself! 
 
 F. S. 
 
 3, DUCHESS STREET, 
 
 PORTLAND PLACE, W. 
 
 29th (July, 1886). 
 
 Oh ! my dearest Mary, I am so angry with you ! for months not 
 a line ! I did not know whether you were in England or where, and 
 tho' thinking of you all day yesterday did not know where to send 
 to let you know how much I was thinking of you ; but now, dear, 
 you must take the will for the deed, and imagine all the love and 
 blessings I wished to send. I have been very unwell all this time, 
 but I thank God, who has heard all the prayers of my sister, and of 
 those better able to pray for me than I for myself, I am a little better 
 and hoping to leave town next week for a few days in search of air. 
 
220 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
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LAST APPEARANCES 221 
 
 I shall only be away about ten days, and then, if I am equal to it, 
 after a week or two, go away again for a short time. I have not been 
 out of London for months, so you must pray that I may come back 
 safely ! I hope I may live to see you in September, it will be quite 
 something to look forward to. London is clearing fast after all that 
 dreadful jubilee business. 1 I hope you are having a real good time 
 of rest and peace. Good-bye, my " lady bird," 2 and God bless you 
 for thinking of " Nurse " Stirling. 
 
 3, DUCHESS STREET, 
 
 PORTLAND PLACE, W. 
 
 (no date) Thursday. 
 MY DEAREST MARY, 
 
 I am so glad to get your letter. I concluded you had left 
 Malvern, so did not write. I hope you have had a " good time " 
 of it ! I think I told you Father Gavin was called away to a convent 
 at Brighton ; he went to see my sister at our Lady's Priory he had 
 been to see me nearly every day up to that time, and immediately 
 on his return, so that I have not seen him for some little time, he 
 being still away, but, during his first absence I went to Nazareth 
 House 3 to talk with Sister Mary (the General Superioress) who much 
 wished me to know " Father Bede," who was there giving them a 
 retreat, and whom she had known for years. I had a long talk with 
 him, and the result was a confession made there at once I felt if 
 it was not done then, at the moment, I might never be able to nerve 
 myself again. I know you will rejoice at this, dear, together with 
 my sister and all the good sisters at Nazareth House, all of whom 
 have been praying for me incessantly. I cannot stop to tell you 
 half, and I leave town on Saturday for about three weeks. Letters 
 sent here will be forwarded. I am so sorry to think I shall miss seeing 
 you just yet. God bless you, dear. 
 
 F. S. 
 
 The sister referred to in the last letter was Agnes, who 
 for many years had been Lady Superior at a convent on 
 the continent at Bruges, I think and was now returned 
 to England. It was typical of Mrs. Stirling's lonely isolation 
 from her family connexions, that when these two met, after 
 some twenty-five years of separation, they did not, at first, 
 recognize one another. At that very time, too, the old 
 actress would occasionally pass, in Portland Place, a young 
 woman of distinguished appearance. The two ladies ex- 
 
 1 Queen Victoria, 1886. 
 
 8 "Romeo and Juliet," Act I, Scene 3. "Nurse," calling " Juliet "i 
 " What, lamb ! what, lady-bird ! " 
 3 The Convent at Hammersmith. 
 
222 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 changed glances ; but only the younger knew what she 
 was not free to tell that Mrs. Stirling was looking upon her 
 own granddaughter. 
 
 Mrs. Stirling still did a little teaching. On October 26, 
 1892, at the time when Irving was about to revive " Lear " 
 at the Lyceum, Miss Ellen Terry wrote in her diary : 
 
 A fine day. To call on the young Duchess of S. What a sweet 
 and beautiful young girl she is ! I said I would write and ask Mrs. 
 Stirling to give her lessons, but feared she could not, as she was ill. 
 
 In November came this answer, from the old " Cordelia " 
 to the young one : 
 
 I am too ill and weak to see anyone in the way of lessons. I am 
 just alive in pain and distress always, but always anxious for news 
 from the Lyceum. " Lear " will be a great success, I am sure. I 
 was " Cordelia " with Macready. 
 
 On August 14, 1894, her first husband, Edward Stirling, 
 died, and a few months later, in the same year, at the age 
 of eighty-one, the widow married an old friend with whom 
 she had long been very intimate, and who, for years past, 
 had been a familiar figure in the stalls, whenever Mrs. 
 Stirling was performing. This was Sir Charles Gregory, 1 
 past -president of the Society of Civil Engineers in Miss 
 Ellen Terry's phrase, 
 
 a very courtly old gentleman, who honoured her, and was most devoted 
 to her. They used to walk up Portland Place together every morning, 
 both looking very distinguished, and a little bent. Sir George and 
 Lady Lewis, from a neighbouring window, would look out, every 
 morning, for " the old couple." 
 
 Serene and peaceful were those last months of her life, 
 passed in the companionship of her husband, and further 
 cheered by occasional visits from some of her stage friends. 
 Miss Mary Anderson when in England was the most frequent 
 visitor of them all, and perhaps the best beloved. Mrs. 
 Kendal went once, and was received "as by a queen." 
 
 Sir Squire Bancroft also has told me how, on Sunday 
 evenings, after service, he used to stroll up to her house, 
 
 1 Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, K.C.M.G., born October 14, 1817. 
 
LAST APPEARANCES 228 
 
 No. 3, Duchess Street, Portland Place, and chat with the 
 old lady. Upon one occasion, as she was about to retire, 
 he rose, offered her his arm, and led her to the door. When 
 he had returned to his chair, Sir Charles Gregory, who was 
 present, said to his guest : " You are the only man I know 
 whom she would allow to do that." 
 
 Sometimes the late Lady Bancroft also was of the party. 
 She has told us that, 
 
 My husband and I often enjoyed Lady Gregory's society until the 
 close of her long life. We often sat and gossiped at her house in 
 Duchess Street, until her peaceful end. I seem still to see her sad- 
 dened eyes, as, in answer to my farewell words, they accompanied 
 her lips, which said, " And God bless you, my dear." 
 
 On December 28, 1895, Lady Gregory died, at the age 
 of eighty-two. The funeral, which, according to her express 
 wish, was strictly private, took place at the Brompton 
 Cemetery. The actress bequeathed her estate to her husband, 
 and a few mementoes to personal friends. Her portrait, as 
 " Peg Woffington," went to Lady Bancroft, and the stick 
 which she had used in 1884, as the " Nurse," went to 
 Sir Squire Bancroft, in whose possession it still remains. 1 
 
 On January 10, 1898, Sir Charles Gregory also passed 
 away, and was buried beside his wife. The grave is on the 
 west side of the main avenue of Brompton Cemetery, not 
 very far from the Richmond Road entrance. 
 
 1 Another had gone to Lady Pinero. See ante, p. 213. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 MRS. STIRLING'S position among the players of the nine- 
 teenth century posterity alone can determine ; but, how- 
 ever critically one may regard the actress, her extraordinary 
 versatility, and the length and prominence of her stage- 
 career, entitle her, beyond challenge, to a foremost place. 
 
 Summing up her chief characteristics as an actress, in 
 the memories of those who knew her best, one recalls, at 
 once, Miss Ellen Terry's words, in her autobiography : 
 
 She (Mrs. Stirling) swept on to the stage, and in that magical way 
 never to be learned, filled it. She had such breadth of style, such 
 a lovely voice, such a beautiful expressive eye . . . her smile was 
 the most fascinating, irresistible thing imaginable. 
 
 That voice, Mme. de Navarro told me, was rich and deep 
 sometimes almost masculine. 
 
 This powerful and dominant personality, it was this 
 knowledge of the largeness of her art the " bigger, my 
 dear, bigger," of the class-room moulded with half a 
 century of experience, that gave her the broad range, and 
 the queenly distinction, so remarkable in this last exponent 
 of the grand manner in comedy. At the same time as 
 Sir Frank Benson has pointed out Mrs. Stirling was never 
 of the old, stilted declamatory school, that Sir Arthur 
 Pinero has satirized in " Trelawney of the Wells " but 
 was essentially natural and human, though not of a certain 
 modern natural type, that is comparatively untrained, 
 and reveals, upon occasion, some of the " naturalness " of 
 the amateur. Moreover, she spoke her lines beautifully, 
 because she felt them beautifully, and into every part in 
 which she was really interested, could throw a compelling 
 
CONCLUSION 225 
 
 animation, a truth, and a sincerity that enabled her, at 
 times, to rise from mere impersonation to that loftiest 
 and rarest of all histrionic achievements absolute personifi- 
 cation. 
 
 Yet this general effect, though due, in part, of course, 
 to temperamental faculties that defy analysis, owed much 
 also to scrupulous attention to minutest details. Nothing 
 was so small as to be beneath her attention. Dame May 
 Whitty told the writer that she still remembers Mrs. 
 Stirling's advice to her : " Mind you dot your I's and 
 cross your T's " ; and the old " Nurse," it appears, used 
 to say approvingly to her " Juliet," when they were 
 reading Shakespeare together : " You pay attention to 
 the author's punctuation ; and so many of the younger 
 people don't : but it is essential that they should do so, 
 for our best editors, no doubt, give us Shakespeare's own 
 punctuation pretty closely ; and it must be adhered to," 
 Still, while neglecting no detail that would complete the 
 picture, Mrs. Stirling never lost her sense of proportion, 
 nor failed to realize the greatness of the whole. As an 
 expression of the ideal besides an interpretation of the 
 real she was always conscious of the nobility of her art. 
 
 In private, as in public, Mrs. Stirling was a fine reader 
 of Shakespeare ; and among all the many Shakespearean 
 parts she had played, none appealed to her more than 
 44 Rosalind." She read it several times to Miss Anderson, 
 who thought it a very beautiful interpretation, though 
 quite different from that of Helen Faucit. 
 
 The actress's greatest technical fault noticeable, in 
 some degree, from her early stage years, but more pro- 
 nounced towards the close of her career was an occasional 
 tendency to over-accentuate, and to over-act a weakness 
 due to her intense desire to please. Again and again the 
 pressmen comment upon this defect. Even so urbane 
 and gracious a critic as Westland Marston wrote, con- 
 cerning one of her later performances of " Mrs. Candour " : 
 44 Poor dear, she makes wrinkles of what ought to be 
 dimples ! " 
 
 Of her completeness as an artist, nevertheless, there can 
 be no question. Even her method of taking a call the 
 
 15 
 
226 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 finishing touch that is so often a great revealer of char- 
 acter 1 was in itself a lesson in the grace and dignity of 
 high art. No contemporary actor was her equal at such 
 significant givings of thanks, nor are there many living 
 to-day who suggest her method of appearing before the 
 curtain, excepting, perhaps, Dame Genevieve Ward herself 
 Mrs. Stirling's pupil in " Maritana " who has something of 
 her queenly presence. 2 The elder actress's method of 
 doing homage reminded her contemporaries of Colley 
 Gibber's well-known description of Mrs. Mountfort. " Down 
 goes her dainty diving body to the ground, as if she were 
 sinking under the conscious load of her own attractions . . 
 still playing her chest forward in fifty falls, and rising like 
 a swan upon the waving water." In short, to quote once 
 more one who is herself a great artist, a great giver Miss 
 Ellen Terry : " Mrs. Stirling, from the rise of the curtain 
 until its last fall, just gave, gave, gave." And therein 
 you have a powerful secret, perhaps the most potent 
 secret, of all great and noble art. 3 
 
 Nor must this gifted woman be wholly forgotten in her 
 second, and lesser, public capacity, as an after-dinner 
 speaker. When one considers the pleasure that such an 
 art, well used, can give, and the ineffable and laborious 
 dullness of the average post-prandial attempt, her ora- 
 torical efforts shine like good deeds in a naughty world. 
 Sometimes, 'tis true, her tun, or her pun, was thin, and 
 her humour occasionally cheap ; but the adroit, facile, 
 and often daring manner in w r hich a multitude of topical 
 subjects, and personalities of the day, were used to point 
 her wit, and were drawn, by artful allusion, towards her 
 ultimate purpose of extracting guineas for the fund, from 
 the pockets of her hearers ; the range of her ideas, the 
 
 1 Not long ago I saw a well-known actor at a West-End theatre take a 
 call with a pipe in his mouth, and two ladies beside him on the stage. No 
 one, save myself, seemed to consider the incident unseemly. 
 
 2 Dame Ward told me of " Maritana " when, during the winter of 1920, 
 she was playing " Volumnia " in " Coriolanus " at the Old Vic. That 
 lady also referred to the pleasure with which she remembered Mrs. Stirling 
 in " Plot and Passion." Sir Squire Bancroft has the same recollection. 
 
 3 I asked an actor who played much with Mrs. Stirling : " Who was 
 her successor upon the English stage ? " His answer was : " If she had 
 a successor, it was Mrs. Kendal : and Mrs. Kendal has had no successor." 
 
CONCLUSION 227 
 
 readiness of her illustration, the felicity of her antithesis, 
 the allusive skill, and the simple eloquence, of her con- 
 cluding appeals all these graces accompanied as they 
 were by the charm of her personality, and technical excel- 
 lence of her delivery must have made her speeches a 
 delight to listen to. That she had then no equal at the 
 dining-table, nor, so far as I know, has had one since 
 among her sister actresses, is suggested by the fact that 
 for nearly twenty years she remained the principal speaker 
 at those functions in King Street, St. James's. 
 
 My grandmother's ways, tastes and preferences, in 
 private life, have been almost enough touched upon, in 
 a record which is not intended to wander far outside her 
 stage career. But a word or two may come in here. 
 
 While neither her speeches nor her letters reveal a really 
 literary turn of mind, that she was interested in literature 
 is evident, though her correspondence, it must be remem- 
 bered, was dashed off impetuously, upon any piece of paper 
 that might come handy, without forethought, for the eye 
 of the reader alone, and, in most cases, with the primary 
 intention of drawing a reply. As for her other accom- 
 plishments, she knew something of French, played occa- 
 sionally in that language, sang with a certain skill, and 
 could draw and paint ably in water-colours. One picture, 
 at least, from her hand, hangs in the Savage Club. 
 
 Of her private life in general I know little, nor is it 
 necessary to say much, though a moment's recapitulation 
 may be interesting. 
 
 Mary Anne Hehl, as we have seen, was denied a full 
 measure of that precious commodity, wise training at 
 home. Cast at an early age, unbefriended, upon a difficult 
 world, with her livelihood to earn, and the dangerous 
 gifts of beauty and fascination, to help or hinder her pro- 
 gress, she made, as was most probable, the initial mistake 
 of a rash and unhappy marriage, that was to disturb the 
 under-current of her life, and lead her into many an eddy 
 and backwater, before she found the main stream again. 
 That the domestic instinct, at times, was strong in her, 
 and that she longed often for safe harbourage, is positively 
 certain. As some readers may remember, she wrote, on 
 
228 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 one occasion, to Mrs. Baylis : " O, if mine was a really 
 happy home, what a home-bird I should be ! " l 
 
 But the trouble lay deeper than that. Mrs. Stirling, 
 as well as artist, was idealist through and through ; and 
 for such there comes not easily a full measure of happi- 
 ness, in a world like this. Admired and sought after as she 
 was, the fascinating smile and the benignant good-humour 
 were generally forthcoming at command ; but, behind 
 them, the face, in repose, was always sad, and the eyes 
 wistful and far away. Until her latest years, at any rate, 
 the woman's inner and intimate life lacked serenity and 
 poise. Frequently impatient, and often hasty and im- 
 pulsive in her actions, capable of strong likings, of equally 
 strong dislikes, and of unreasoning prejudices, suffering 
 fools sorrowfully, intolerant of failure in others, as well 
 as in herself because failure marred the harmony and 
 largeness of her deeper concepts of life Mrs. Stirling 
 reveals herself as a complex, tragical-humorous figure of 
 great and beautiful human import. The friend who knew 
 her best declares that she had always an ear for conscience, 
 a profound regard for rectitude, in her dealings with those 
 about her, and that, beneath all her personal grandeur, 
 there lay a deep humility, and a beautiful sense of the 
 spiritual realities and diviner values of life. " She was a 
 woman of genius, and a great and noble soul," one who 
 had her outward circumstance been somewhat different, 
 and her life set a generation later in time might easily 
 have attained an even higher rank, in the history of the 
 nineteenth-century stage, than posterity is now likely to 
 accord her. 
 
 The individual passes ; yet the torch is never extin- 
 guished. Handed down, the ancient traditions endure. 
 Mrs. Stirling, as we have seen, had written, upon the stick 
 that she gave to Lady Pinero, the words : "I am of the 
 old school." Here was at once a confession, and a fact. 
 Though her long span of life had brought her before her 
 
 1 She was always hospitable. Even Charles Reade's " Laura " no 
 friend to Mrs. Stirling admits that. 
 
CONCLUSION 229 
 
 final retirement into the heyday of the new dramatic 
 movement, she could not, in the nature of things, do more 
 than observe, and give a hand to, such changes. She was 
 not able to identify herself with them, any more than were 
 others of her time, as, one by one, the old players 
 vanished, while the drama went still upon its way, reflect- 
 ing always, more or less faithfully, the thoughts of the 
 age that had begotten it. 
 
 What path did our drama take ? and whither goes it 
 to-day ? 
 
 Ibsen's influence, at present having done what it had 
 to do seems to be passing, and the world's stage is being 
 made ready for the advent of a new drama. Upon the 
 form that drama will take, it would be idle to speculate ; 
 but we may easily observe a few tendencies already visible 
 upon the horizon. 
 
 The war, as was inevitable, brought a season of 
 theatrical futility, during which millions of individuals 
 seeking nepenthe wherever, or in whatever forms, it might 
 be found welcomed any sort of dramatic production, good, 
 bad, or indifferent, that might hide them, for one instant, 
 from the abhorrent actual. Those days have long passed ; 
 and now, while, with emptier purses, we proceed to set our 
 ruined house in order, the drama must once more adjust 
 itself to strangely altered conditions ; though these con- 
 ditions be so complex, and so involved, that many years 
 must elapse, it seems, before the new work shall take shape, 
 and be established. 
 
 For that reason we need not be at all dismayed, nor 
 even much disappointed, if many plays recently put on 
 in London are found to be actively vicious, or merely form- 
 less, meaningless, and inane. Here in England the frantic 
 strife of armed millions has passed, in the triumph of the 
 juster cause, but not with less fury the mental warfare is 
 still being waged. Between the material and the spiritual 
 there can never be truce ; their enmity is permanent and 
 implacable ; and never more so than in years, such as 
 these, of universal challenge and readjustment. That, 
 surely, is why one hears it declared in the market-place : 
 " Never before was so material an age ; let us eat and 
 
230 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 drink, for to-morrow we die ! " while, at the next street 
 corner, is gathered a group with vision enough to see and 
 hear the ever-present spiritual forces whispering among 
 the nations : " Say not Lo here ! nor Lo there ! for behold, 
 the kingdom of God is within you ! " Even the labour 
 movement though apparently concerned almost wholly 
 with material reward is probably, at bottom, more inhe- 
 rently idealistic than its loudest protagonists are aware; 
 and other modern cults may be regarded, even by their 
 bitterest opponents, as honest, if misguided, efforts to shake 
 off a part, at least, of the heavy burden of materialism. 
 The world, in fact, is seeking a truer statement of life, and 
 the drama of the future should, and ultimately will, 
 reflect that endeavour ; only we must be ready to take long 
 views, and to despair never of attainment. More than 
 ever before in our history, we need plays that shall be true, 
 beautiful, optimistic, with healthy laughter in them, and 
 some spiritual perception, to brace and arm us for the 
 fight. This we hope to get, and Mr. Storm Jameson may be 
 right when he sees in " Abraham Lincoln " a forerunner 
 of the newer and nobler school of drama, now, like the 
 children in Maeterlinck's " Betrothal," eagerly awaiting 
 rebirth. 
 
 We cannot yet form conclusions herein ; still less can 
 we prophesy ; but one very hopeful tendency, at least 
 already appears in the modern theatre ; and that is 
 unity of idea. By unity of idea we do not mean just team 
 work, and the suppression of the star, as rightly encouraged, 
 for example, by Mr. Bridges Adams, in his Shakespearean 
 company ; we refer to the increased attention being given 
 everywhere, by the more testhetic producers, to unity in 
 the whole scheme of production, so that settings, costumes, 
 lighting, and music shall all accord, co-operate, and blend 
 into one harmonious whole. 1 
 
 Another very encouraging sign of the times is the 
 increased, and still increasing, interest in the drama shown 
 throughout Britain by the populations of the villages and 
 smaller towns a movement that is fast making towards 
 the establishment of a people's theatre in Western Europe. 
 
 1 The Russian Ballet, it seems, has " had & word to say " here. 
 
CONCLUSION 231 
 
 As for the cinema, one has often heard it said, of late, that 
 the picture-houses are destroying the theatres. That they 
 are injuring them financially, I agree ; but that they 
 will continue permanently to do so, I cannot believe. 
 Rather I think that they will, in the end, create a new 
 public for the theatre, by drawing towards legitimate 
 drama people who otherwise might never have come 
 within its influence. Great plays depend always for their 
 effect upon living words spoken, with action, by an actor 
 upon the stage ; and surely the living soul can never be 
 supplanted by his own photograph, however cunningly it 
 may be focused, or however cleverly voiced by a gramophone 
 behind the screen. Shakespeare has never yet been pro- 
 duced successfully in the picture-house, nor, perhaps, will 
 he ever be. And, whatever one may say concerning the 
 present, or the future, of the British theatre, it is neces- 
 sarily to the matchless Elizabethan that we turn always, 
 in the end : for generations of men and their fashions 
 with them may come and go ; but the vogue of the mighty 
 ones is eternal. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 A LIST OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL PARTS 
 PLAYED BY MRS. STIRLING. 
 
 (The dates are usually those of her first appearance.) 
 
 Date. 
 
 Theatre. 
 
 Title of Play. 
 
 Part. 
 
 1831 (?) 
 
 Coburg 
 
 Lovers' Vows (Kotzebue) 
 
 Amelia Wildenheim 
 
 1831 (?) 
 
 East 
 
 The Pretender, or The Rose of 
 
 
 1832 Jan. 
 
 London 
 9 i Pavilion 
 
 Alvery (John Stafford) 
 The Devil and the Widow 
 
 Zephyrina the 
 Widow 
 
 Jan. 
 
 12 
 
 Thirteen Years' Labour Lost | Lubin 
 
 Jan. 
 
 16 
 
 The Shipwreck of the Medusa, Eugene 
 
 
 
 or The Fatal Raft 
 
 Jan. 
 
 16 : 
 
 A Family Party, or The Philo- 
 
 Harriet 
 
 
 
 sopher Puzzled 
 
 
 Jan. 
 
 23 
 
 The Huguenots, or The Mas- Marie de Noir- 
 
 
 
 sacre of 1576 moutiers 
 
 Jan. 
 
 30 
 
 The Man in the Iron Mask 
 
 Mdlle. Aubry 
 
 Jan. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 30 
 13 
 
 The Wept of Wish -ton -Wish 
 Eugene Aram (Bulger's Adap- 
 
 Faith Gough 
 Elinor Lester 
 
 
 
 tation) 
 
 
 Feb. 
 
 13 
 
 Masaniello Elvira 
 
 Feb. 
 
 20 ; 
 
 Faustus, or The Demon's Bond Rosalia 
 
 Feb. 
 
 24 ; 
 
 William Tell Agnes 
 
 April 
 
 23 
 
 Cherry and Fair Star, or The 1 Fair Star 
 
 
 j 
 
 Orphan of Cyprus 
 
 May 
 
 9 
 
 The Wreck Ashore (J. B. Buck- Bella 
 
 
 
 stone) 
 
 May 
 
 19 
 
 The Red Rover Geraldine 
 
 June 
 
 18 
 
 The Porter of Bagdad Zarde 
 
 June 
 
 18 
 
 The Witch of Tartary ' Cepherenza 
 
 July 
 
 12 
 
 A Woman Never Vext Jane 
 
 July 
 July 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 Billy Snivel and Sally Sly Sophia Graceville 
 Aladdin ; Princess Badroul- 
 
 
 
 boudour 
 
 July 
 
 16 
 
 Peter Wilkina ! Peter Wilkins 
 
 July 
 
 31 
 
 Blue Beard 
 
 Beda 
 
 Aug. 
 
 16 
 
 Giovanni in London 
 
 Squalling Fan 
 
 Aug. 
 
 20 j 
 
 Law and Lions 
 
 Jane Suavey 
 
 Aug. 
 
 21 
 
 The Wild Boy of Bohemia 
 
 Countess Czar- 
 
 
 
 
 toryski 
 
 Oct. 
 
 3 i 
 
 Lone Hut of Limehouse Creek 
 
 Fan 
 
 Oct. 
 
 3 
 
 The Tower of Nesle, or The 
 
 Charlotte 
 
 
 
 Black Gondola 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 4 
 
 The Irish Tutor 
 
 Rosa 
 
 Oct. 
 
 9 
 
 The Iron Hand, or The Black- 
 
 Moritz 
 
 
 
 smith of Warsaw 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 15 
 
 The Dwarf of Naples 
 
 Amanda 
 
 Oct. 
 
 16 
 
 Trial by Battle 
 
 Geraldine 
 
 233 
 
234 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Date. 
 
 Theatre. Title of Play. 
 
 Part. 
 
 1832 Oct. 22 
 
 Pavilion 
 
 Black Hugh, or The Outlaw's 
 
 Caroline 
 
 
 
 Fate 
 
 
 Oct. 22 
 
 M 
 
 The Idiot Witness 
 
 Jeannette 
 
 1S36 Jan. 1 
 
 Adelphi 
 
 A Dream at Sea (Buckstone) 
 
 Biddy Nutts 
 
 Jan. 3 
 
 t 
 
 A Ghost Story 
 
 Catherine Graham 
 
 Jan. 18 
 
 
 Luke Somerton 
 
 Louisa Somerton 
 
 Feb. 3 
 
 , } 
 
 Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes 
 
 A minor part 
 
 March 7 
 
 M 
 
 Yictorine, or I'll Sleep On It 
 
 Victorine 
 
 
 (Buckstone) 
 
 
 March 7 
 
 The Unfinished Gentleman 
 
 
 Oct. 3 
 
 ii 
 
 The Doom of Marana 
 
 
 Oct. 30 
 
 
 Rosina, or Am I a Princess ? 
 
 Rosina 
 
 Nov. 7 
 
 ,, 
 
 A Flight to America (Lemon 
 
 Sally Snow 
 
 
 
 Rede) 
 
 
 Dec. 5 
 
 ,, 
 
 Paulina, or The Passage of the 
 
 Nanette 
 
 
 
 Beresina 
 
 
 Dec. 
 
 M 
 
 Grace Huntley 
 
 Grace Huntley 
 
 1837 Jan. 
 
 
 Alexander the Great (Coyne) 
 
 
 Jan. 9 
 
 99 
 
 The Humours of an Election 
 
 Lucy Contest 
 
 Feb. 6 
 
 99 
 
 The Peacock and the Crow 
 
 Lady's Maid 
 
 
 
 (Parry) 
 
 
 Feb. 20 
 
 ,, 
 
 Hassan Pacha, or The Arab's 
 
 The Georgian 
 
 
 
 Leap 
 
 
 March 1 
 
 99 
 
 Douglas (Leman Rede's Tra- 
 
 Lady Randolph 
 
 
 
 vesty) 
 
 
 March 27 
 
 New Strand 
 
 The Gallantie Showman, or Mr. 
 
 Fanny Flitter- 
 
 
 
 Peppercorn 
 
 mouse 
 
 April 24 
 May 8 
 
 )9 
 
 The Golden Calf (Jerrold) 
 Venus in Arms 
 
 Mrs. Mount joy 
 Arabella 
 
 May 24 
 
 f) 
 
 Nell G wynne 
 
 Nell Gwynne 
 
 May 29 
 
 
 
 Bachelors' Buttons (Stirling) 
 
 Emily Wilton 
 
 Sept. (?) 
 
 M 
 
 Poachers in Petticoats 
 
 
 Sept. 29 
 
 St. James's 
 
 The Young Widow 
 
 Amelia 
 
 Sept. 29 
 
 ,, 
 
 Methinks I see My Father 
 
 
 Oct. (?) 
 
 99 
 
 A Day in Paris 
 
 
 Oct. 26 
 
 
 Natural Magic 
 
 HSloise de Miran 
 
 
 
 
 court 
 
 Nov. 
 
 tf 
 
 The Miller's Maid 
 
 
 Nov. 11 
 
 99 
 
 Temptation, or The Vale of 
 
 Ninette 
 
 
 
 Sarnen 
 
 
 Nov. 27 
 
 ft 
 
 Angeline 
 
 Ang61ine 
 
 Nov. 27 
 
 99 
 
 The Cabinet 
 
 Curioso 
 
 Dec. 18 
 Dec. 26 
 
 99 
 
 The Siege of Belgrade 
 Pascal Bruno 
 
 Catherine 
 Pascal Bruno 
 
 1838 Jan. 3 
 
 99 
 
 The Culprit 
 
 Mrs. Hussey 
 
 Feb. 6 
 
 99 
 
 'Tis She, or Maid, Wifo and 
 
 
 
 
 Widow 
 
 
 Feb. 6 
 
 99 
 
 The Black Domino 
 
 Black Domino 
 
 March 
 
 Garrick, 
 
 A Married Rake 
 
 
 
 Whitechapel 
 
 
 
 March 
 
 99 
 
 Angeline de Lys 
 
 Angeline 
 
 March 
 March 26 
 
 99 
 99 
 
 Hunting a Turtle 
 The Maid of Switzerland 
 
 Gene vie ve 
 
 March 30 
 
 M 
 
 The Irresistibles 
 
 Victoria 
 
 April 
 
 St. James's 
 
 The Valet de Sham 
 
 
 April 
 
 99 
 
 The Brothers 
 
 Two characters 
 
 [PBOVINCIAL TOUB, AND FIBST RETIREMENT.] 
 
 1839 April 
 
 Lyceum | Lady Mary Wortley Montague, 
 (formerly or Courtship and Matrimony 
 
 Opera House) in 1712 
 
 Lady Mary 
 
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PARTS 
 
 235 
 
 Date. 
 
 Theatre. 
 
 Title of Play. 
 
 Part. 
 
 1839 Oct. 30 
 
 Drury Lane 
 
 Much Ado About Nothing 
 
 Beatrice 
 
 Nov. 8 
 
 99 
 
 The Hypocrite 
 
 Charlotte 
 
 Nov. 10 
 
 99 
 
 Englishmen in India 
 
 Sally Scraggs 
 
 Nov. 1 1 
 
 H 
 
 Pizarro 
 
 Cora 
 
 Nov. 27 
 
 
 A Woman's Trials j Ellen Marchmont 
 
 Dec. 4(?) 
 
 
 
 A Night in the Bastille | Gabrielle de 
 
 
 
 Brionne 
 
 1840 Jan. 7 
 
 ,, 
 
 Cupid's Diplomacy " Albert " (Louis 
 
 
 
 XV of France) 
 
 March 20 
 
 Olympic 
 
 The Ladies' Club (Mark Lemon) The Chairwoman 
 
 
 
 (Mrs. Fitzsmith) 
 
 April 1 
 
 n 
 
 Gwynneth Vaughan (Mark Gwynneth Vaughan 
 
 
 
 Lemon) 
 
 
 Sept. 29 
 Oct. (?) 
 
 Haymarket 
 
 The Man of the World Lady Rodolpha 
 The Stranger Countess Wintersen 
 
 Oct. (?) 
 
 
 
 Town and Country Rosalie Somers 
 
 Oct. (?) 
 
 99 
 
 The Love Chase Constance 
 
 Nov. (?) 
 
 H 
 
 The Road to Ruin | Sophia 
 
 1841 Jan. 7 
 
 
 Money (Bulwer) Clara 
 
 Feb. 25 
 
 
 The King and the Barber Paghita 
 
 April 12 
 
 99 
 
 The Rent Day (Jerrold) , Rachel Hey wood 
 
 April 13 
 May 3 
 
 } 
 
 Wild Oats Lady Amaranth 
 Money Lady Franklin 
 
 May 12 
 
 9 
 
 The Hunchback Helen 
 
 May 17 
 
 . 
 
 The Stranger Countess Wintereen 
 
 May 18 
 
 1 
 
 The Philosopher of Berlin j Amelia 
 
 May 19 
 
 H 
 
 The Provoked Husband ! Lady Grace 
 
 June 10 
 
 
 Belford Castle (Lunn) Comedy Lead 
 
 Sept. 17 
 
 
 
 Riches (adaptation from Mas- Lady Traffic 
 
 
 
 singer) 
 
 Sept. 21 
 
 
 
 Foreign Affairs Baroness Fitz- 
 
 
 
 stoutz 
 
 (?) 
 
 H 
 
 Venice Preserved : Belvidera 
 
 [TEMPOBABY RETIREMENT.] 
 
 1842 Sept. 15 Haymarket 
 
 The Road to Ruin Sophia 
 
 Oct. 1 
 
 Drury Lane 
 
 As You Like It 
 
 Celia 
 
 Oct. 29 
 
 J} 
 
 The Provoked Husband 
 
 Fanny 
 
 Oct. 29 
 
 99 
 
 The Eton Boy 
 
 Fanny Curry 
 
 Nov. 16 
 
 
 King Arthur (Dry den) 
 
 Emmeline 
 
 Nov. 19 
 1843 Feb. 11 
 
 ' 
 
 , Love for Love (Congreve) 
 A Blot on the T Scutcheon 
 
 Mrs. Foresight 
 Gwendolen 
 
 
 
 (Browning) 
 
 
 Feb. 25 
 
 99 
 
 The Gamester 
 
 Charlotte 
 
 May 6 
 
 
 ! The School for Scandal 
 
 Mrs. Candour 
 
 May 10 
 
 ?> 
 
 The Jealous Wife 
 
 Lady Freelove 
 
 May 18 
 
 M 
 
 Athelwold 
 
 Gilbertha 
 
 June 5 
 
 Strand 
 
 Rights of Women (Lunn) 
 
 Mrs. Blandish 
 
 July 3 
 
 
 The Lady of the Lake 
 
 Ellen 
 
 July 10 
 
 99 
 
 Aline, or the Rose of Killarney 
 
 Aline 
 
 
 
 (Stirling, from Scribe) 
 
 
 Aug. 2 
 
 9> 
 
 ! The Ambassador's Lady (Wilks) 
 
 Lady Elizabeth 
 
 Aug. 2 
 
 99 
 
 A Night of Surprise 
 
 
 1844 Jan. 22 
 
 Drury Lane 
 
 Richard III 
 
 Queen Anne 
 
 May 28 
 
 > 
 
 ; Daughter of the Regiment (she 
 
 Maria 
 
 
 
 sang Donizetti's music) 
 
 
 May 28 
 
 J9 
 
 j Black -Eyed Susan (Jerrold) 
 
 Susan 
 
 (?) 
 
 Princess's 
 
 1 Werner 
 
 Ida 
 
 Oct. 8 
 
 >} 
 
 i Don Caesar de Bazan 
 
 Maritana 
 
 Nov. 13 
 
 
 i A Widow Bewitched 
 
 Mrs. Lorimer 
 
 Nov. 27 
 
 " 
 
 < The Rent Day 
 
 Rachel Heywood 
 
236 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Date. 
 
 Theatre. 
 
 Title of Play. 
 
 Part. 
 
 1845 Feb. 10 
 
 Princess's 
 
 Othello 
 
 Desdemona 
 
 (circa) 
 
 
 
 
 March 
 
 t> 
 
 The Carbonari, or the Bride of 
 
 Rebecca 
 
 
 
 Parma 
 
 
 March 26 
 
 tf 
 
 Metamora, the Last of the 
 
 Oceana 
 
 April 4 
 
 
 Wanpanoags 
 King Lear (with Forrest) 
 
 Cordelia 
 
 April 19 
 
 ,, 
 
 The Hunchback (Knowles) 
 
 Helen 
 
 May 20 
 
 ,, 
 
 The Chevalier St. George 
 
 Comtesse de Presle 
 
 Oct. 6 
 
 tt 
 
 Advice to Husbands 
 
 Mrs. Trevor 
 
 Oct. 6 
 
 ft 
 
 Katharine and Petruchio 
 
 Katharine 
 
 Oct. 15 
 
 tt 
 
 King Lear (with Macready) 
 
 Cordelia 
 
 Oct. 28 
 
 
 
 Much Ado About Nothing (with 
 
 Beatrice 
 
 
 
 Wallack) 
 
 
 Nov. 
 
 > 
 
 The Merchant of Venice 
 
 Portia 
 
 Nov. 11 
 
 
 As You Like It 
 
 Rosalind 
 
 and 15 
 
 
 
 
 Nov. 18 
 
 tt 
 
 The Violet 
 
 Blanchette 
 
 1846 Jan. 1 
 
 M 
 
 Cricket on the Hearth 
 
 Dot 
 
 Feb. 2 
 
 , 
 
 Richelieu 
 
 Julie de Mortemar 
 
 March 5 
 
 ( 
 
 The Ruins of Athens 
 
 Mercury 
 
 March 19 
 
 t 
 
 The Dreamer 
 
 Lady Clara Bolton 
 
 April 14 
 
 , 
 
 Ernestine 
 
 Ernestine 
 
 May 2 
 
 P 
 
 Pizarro 
 
 Cora 
 
 May 20 
 
 t 
 
 The King of the Commons 
 
 Madeline Weir 
 
 
 
 (Rev. J. White) 
 
 
 July 1 
 
 ,, 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor 
 
 Mrs. Ford 
 
 Aug. 17 
 
 ,, 
 
 A Curious Case 
 
 Mrs. Aubrey 
 
 Sept. 28 
 
 Jt 
 
 Clarissa Harlowe 
 
 Clarissa Harlowe 
 
 Nov. 4 
 
 ,, 
 
 A New Way to Pay Old Debts 
 
 Margaret 
 
 Nov. 26 
 
 M 
 
 She Stoops to Conquer 
 
 Miss Hardcastle 
 
 Dec. 13 
 
 M 
 
 The Heir at Law (Colman) 
 
 Cicely Homespun 
 
 Dec. 26 
 
 ,, 
 
 Blanche de Valery 
 
 Blanche 
 
 1847 March 17 
 
 tj 
 
 Dream of the Heart 
 
 Hermine 
 
 March 
 
 M 
 
 The Widow Bewitched 
 
 
 April 5 
 
 M 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream 
 
 Hermia 
 
 April 26 
 
 
 The Hunchback 
 
 Helen 
 
 May 25 
 
 M 
 
 The Wonder 
 
 Donna Violante 
 
 June 1 
 
 f) 
 
 Romance and Reality 
 
 Florence 
 
 June 18 
 
 f) 
 
 King Lear (with Macready) 
 
 Cordelia 
 
 Oct. 18 
 
 Lyceum 
 
 The Two Queens 
 
 Mary of Denmark 
 
 Dec. 7 
 
 Covent 
 
 Selections from Merry Wives 
 
 Mrs. Ford 
 
 
 Garden 
 
 
 
 Dec. 13 
 
 Lyceum 
 
 The Tragedy Queen (Oxenford, 
 
 Mrs. Bracegirdle 
 
 
 
 from Scribe) 
 
 
 1848 Feb. 1 
 
 M 
 
 A Curious Case 
 
 Mrs. Aubrey 
 
 March 23 
 July 10 
 
 Drury Lane 
 
 A Happy Family 
 Henry VIII (Macready's Bene- 
 
 Mrs. Catlin 
 Small Part 
 
 
 
 fit) 
 
 
 Sept. 4 
 
 Olympic 
 
 Time Tries All (Courtnay) 
 
 Laura Leeson 
 
 Oct. 2 
 
 M 
 
 The Lady of Lyons 
 
 Pauline 
 
 Oct. 16 
 
 
 Patronage 
 
 Edith 
 
 Oct. (?) 
 
 > 
 
 The Honeymoon 
 
 Juliana 
 
 Oct. (?) 
 
 ft 
 
 Monsieur Jacques 
 
 
 Oct. (?) 
 
 ff 
 
 First Champagne 
 
 
 Oct. 24 
 
 M 
 
 Katharine and Petruchio 
 
 Katharine 
 
 Oct. 30 
 
 tf 
 
 Lucille 
 
 Lucille 
 
 Nov. 13 
 
 if 
 
 Love and Charity 
 
 Julia Amor 
 
 Nov. 20 
 
 99 
 
 Cousin Cherry 
 
 Cousin Cherry 
 
 1849 Jan. 22 
 
 M 
 
 The Brigands in the Bud 
 
 Ulric, Count of 
 
 
 
 
 Bornholm 
 
 Feb. 12 
 
 ' 
 
 The Lost Diamonds (Stirling) 
 
 
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PARTS 
 
 237 
 
 Date. 
 
 Theatre. 
 
 Title of Play. 
 
 Part. 
 
 {OLYMPIC DESTROYED BY FIRE, MARCH 29TH, 1849.] 
 
 1849 June 11 
 
 New Strand 
 
 Honesty is the Best Policy 
 
 Theresa 
 
 July 30 
 
 M 
 
 Hearts are Trumps (Mark 
 
 Miss Ruby 
 
 
 
 Lemon) 
 
 
 Aug. 20 
 
 ,, 
 
 My First and Last Courtship 
 
 Lead 
 
 Sept. 6 
 
 
 
 Where there's a Will there's a 
 
 Princess Francesca 
 
 
 
 Way (J. M. Morton) 
 
 
 (?) 
 
 9 
 
 Still Water Run Deep (Tom 
 
 Mrs. Hector Stern- 
 
 
 
 Taylor) 
 
 hold 
 
 Oct. 9 
 
 
 
 The Reigning Favourite (Oxen- 
 ford's adaptation from Scribe 
 
 Adrienne Le- 
 couvreur 
 
 Nov. 12 
 
 H 
 
 and Legouve) 
 The Clandestine Marriage (Gar- 
 rick and Colman) 
 
 Fanny 
 
 Nov. 26 
 
 > 
 
 The Man Trap 
 
 Countess de Ros- 
 
 
 
 
 seille 
 
 Dec. 1 
 
 If 
 
 She Stoops to Conquer 
 
 Miss Hardcastle 
 
 Dec. 5 
 
 
 The Poor Gentleman (G. Col- 
 
 Emily Worthington 
 
 
 
 man the younger) 
 
 
 Dec. 1 1 
 
 }i 
 
 King Rene's Daughter 
 
 lolanthe 
 
 Dec. 26 
 
 
 
 Diogenes andHis Lantern (Tal- 
 
 Minerva 
 
 
 
 fourd) 
 
 
 I860 Jan. 21 
 
 n 
 
 The Love Chase (Knowles) 
 
 Constance 
 
 Feb. 4 
 
 }t 
 
 A New and Peculiar Scene in 
 
 Polly Crisp 
 
 
 
 the Life of an Unprotected 
 
 
 March 4 
 
 
 Female (Stirling Coyne) 
 Vicar of Wakefield (Tom Taylor) 
 
 Olivia 
 
 April 8 
 
 ,, 
 
 Poor Cousin Walter (Palgrave 
 
 Helen 
 
 
 
 Simpson) 
 
 
 June 10 
 
 ,. 
 
 Power and Principle (Morris 
 
 Louise Muller 
 
 
 
 Barnett). 
 
 
 Aug. 5 
 
 
 
 A Daughter of the Stars (Shirley 
 
 Miriam 
 
 
 
 Brooks) 
 
 
 Sept. 12 
 
 Olympic 
 
 Giralda, or The Invisible Hus- 
 
 Giralda 
 
 
 
 band (from Scribe) 
 
 
 Oct. 14 
 
 > 
 
 My Wife s Daughter (Stirling 
 
 Mrs. Ormonde 
 
 
 
 Coyne) 
 
 
 Dec. 
 
 
 
 The Merchant of Venice 
 
 Portia 
 
 (?) 
 
 5> 
 
 Speed the Plough (T. Morton 
 
 Susan Ashfield 
 
 
 
 the elder) 
 
 
 1851 Jan. 13 
 
 : 
 
 All that Glitters is not Gold 
 
 Martha Gibbs 
 
 
 
 (T. Morton the younger, 
 
 
 
 
 and J. M. Morton) 
 
 
 Feb. 21 
 
 99 
 
 That Odious Captain Cutter 
 
 The Widow Har- 
 
 
 
 (J. Palgrave Simpson) 
 
 court 
 
 March 17 
 
 js 
 
 Charles King 
 
 Mimi 
 
 March 17 
 
 
 My Wife's Second Floor 
 
 
 April 21 
 
 9> 
 
 Sir Roger de Coverley (Tom i The Widow 
 
 May 7 
 
 jy 
 
 Taylor's adaptation) 
 The Ladies' Battle (Charles 
 
 The Countess 
 
 
 
 Reade, from Scribe and Le- 
 
 
 
 
 gouve) 
 
 
 June 15 
 
 
 The Lost Diamonds 
 
 
 Aug. 11 
 Aug. 25 
 Dec. 9 
 
 99 
 
 Angelo (Victor Hugo) 
 Hearts are Trumps 
 The Man of Law 
 
 Tisbe 
 Baronne de Vau- 
 
 
 
 
 bert 
 
 1852 Jan. 20 
 
 ,, i London Assurance 
 
 Lady Gay 
 
 April 21 
 
 ,, Mind Your Own Business 
 
 Fanny Morrison 
 
 
 (Mark Lemon) 
 
 
 June 16 
 
 ,, ; Married Life (Buckstone) 
 
 
 
 
 
238 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Date. 
 
 Theatre. 
 
 Title of Play. 
 
 Part. 
 
 1852 June 22 
 Nov. 20 
 
 Olympic 
 
 A Novel Expedient 
 Masks and Faces (T. Taylor 
 and C. Reade) 
 
 Mrs. Moore 
 Peg Woffington 
 
 [A NORTHERN PROVINCIAL TOUR.] 
 
 1853 Oct. 17 Olympic 
 
 Oct. 17 Haymarket 
 
 1854 March 
 
 1854 (?) May 
 
 1855 June 22 j 
 
 1856 Feb. 12 
 
 May 26 
 May 26 
 
 Olympic 
 
 July 
 1857 Feb. 
 
 14 | 
 
 19 ' 
 
 Olympic 
 
 Aug. 10 ! 
 
 Oct. 19 
 
 1858 Feb. 
 April 19 
 June 8 
 Oct. 11 
 
 1859 Sept. 24 
 
 1860 Jan. 16(?) 
 
 Jan. 31 I Windsor 
 
 Castle 
 July 25 Drury Lane 
 
 1861 Jan. 17 
 March 6 
 
 Windsor 
 
 Castle 
 Haymarket 
 
 The Camp at the Olympic 
 Plot and Passion (T. Taylor 
 
 and Lang) 
 To oblige Benson (T. Taylor, 
 
 from French) 
 Still Waters Run Deep 
 School for Scandal (Mrs. 
 
 Wigan's Benefit) 
 Stay at Home (Slingsby Law- 
 rence, G. H. Lewes) 
 The Tragedy Queen 
 Wives as They Were, and 
 
 Maids as They Are (Mrs. 
 
 Inchbald) 
 A Conjugal Lesson 
 A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing (T. 
 
 Taylor, from French) 
 The Subterfuge (re -opening 
 
 under Robson and Emden) 
 Leading Strings (A. G. Trough - 
 
 ton, from Scribe) 
 Northern Tour 
 
 A Doubtful Victory (Oxenford) 
 All in the Wrong 
 The Red Vial (Wilkie Collins) 
 A Morning Call 
 The Head of the Family 
 
 (adaptation from Alfred de 
 
 Musset). 
 Nine Points of the Law 
 
 Brough's Benefit. Prologue to 
 Burlesque " The Enchanted 
 Isle " (The Brough Bros.) 
 
 Masks and Faces (Command 
 Performance) 
 
 A Duke in Difficulties (Tom 
 Taylor) 
 
 Marie de Fontange* 
 
 Mrs. Trotter South- 
 down 
 
 Lady Teazle 
 Mrs. Metcalfe 
 Mrs. Bracegirdle 
 
 Miss Dorrillon 
 Anne Carew 
 
 Mrs. Leveson 
 
 Mrs. Flowerdale 
 Lady Restless 
 Mrs. Bergmann 
 Mrs. Chillingstono 
 
 Peg Woffingtoa 
 Joconde 
 
 [TEMPORARY RETIREMENT, 1861-1863.] 
 
 1863 Aug. 24 
 1864 Aug. 29 
 
 Adelphi 
 
 Hen and Chickens 
 A Woman of Business (Ben 
 
 Mrs. Soft Sawderley 
 Mrs. Hall 
 
 
 
 Webster, Jun.) 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 St. James's 
 
 How Will They Get Out of It ? 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 ff 
 
 Woodcock's Little Game 
 
 
 Nov. 30 
 
 Adelphi 
 
 The Workmen of Paris (from 
 
 Marguerite 
 
 
 
 Drames du Cabaret) 
 
 
 1866 July 2 
 
 Princess's 
 
 The Huguenot Captain (Watts 
 
 Jeanne d'Armenon- 
 
 
 
 Phillips) 
 
 ville 
 
 1867 Dec. 4 
 
 Olympic 
 
 From Grave to Gay (Ben 
 
 Lady Diver Kidd 
 
 
 
 Webster, Jun., from Scribe) 
 
 
 1868 Feb. 18 
 
 M 
 
 A Woman of the World (Stir- 
 
 Mrs. Eddy stone 
 
 1869 March 29 
 
 Adelphi 
 
 ling Coyne, from French) 
 Black and White (Wilkie Collins 
 
 
 
 
 and Charles Fechter) 
 
 
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PARTS 
 
 239 
 
 Date. Theatre. Title of Play. 
 
 l ' 
 
 Part. 
 
 1 i 
 
 
 1869 Easter 
 
 New Won by a Head (Tom Taylor) 
 
 
 Monday 
 
 Queen's ; 
 
 
 April 23 
 
 St. James's Midsummer Night's Dream (A 
 
 
 1870 (circa) 
 
 Hall DramaticReadingwithMusic) 
 ! New Men and Old Acres (Tom ' Lady Vavasour 
 
 
 Taylor) 
 
 1874 March 2 
 
 Drurv Lane Webster's Farewell Benefit i Mrs. Candour 
 
 1876 June 8 Buckstone's Farewell Benefit Mrs. Candour 
 
 1878 March 4 
 
 Chatterton's Benefit j Recites " The 
 
 
 Whaler's Fleet, " 
 
 [RETURN TO THE STAGE.] 
 
 1879 Sept. 22 
 
 Imperial The Beaux's Stratagem (Far- 
 Aquarium) ! quhar). (Mrs. Stirling spoke 
 
 Lady Bountiful 
 
 
 
 prologue by Clement Scott) 
 
 
 1880 
 
 Haymarket 
 
 Played Mrs. Malaprop with the 
 
 
 
 Bancrofts 
 
 
 1882 March 8 
 
 Lyceum 
 
 Romeo and Juliet (with Ellen 
 
 The Nurse 
 
 
 
 Terry) 
 
 
 Dec. 
 
 Vaudeville 
 
 The Rivals 
 
 Mrs. Malaprop 
 
 1883 Jan. 21 
 
 Haymarket 
 
 Caste (Robertson) 
 
 Marquise de St. 
 
 
 
 
 Maur 
 
 Nov. 24 
 
 n 
 
 Lords and Commons (Pinero) 
 
 Lady Gary 11 
 
 
 
 (her last original part) 
 
 
 1884 Nov. 1 
 
 Lyceum 
 
 Romeo and Juliet (with Miss 
 
 The Nurse 
 
 
 
 Mary Anderson) 
 
 
 1885 March 25 
 
 Criterion 
 
 Mrs. Stirling and Mrs. Keeley 
 
 
 
 
 spoke an address and rhymed 
 
 
 
 
 epilogue by Clement Scott. 
 (Matine"e for National Aid 
 
 
 
 
 Society's Sick and Wounded 
 
 
 
 
 in London Fund) 
 
 
 July 20 
 
 Haymarket 
 
 Retirement of Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 
 
 
 Bancroft. Plays " Lady 
 
 
 
 
 Franklin" in First Act of 
 
 
 
 
 " Money " 
 
 
 Oct. 29 
 
 
 Creswick's Benefit 
 
 Recites "Our 
 
 
 
 
 Whaler Fleet " 
 
 Deo. 19 
 
 Lyceum 
 
 Faust (Wills) (with H. Irving 
 
 Martha 
 
 
 
 and Ellen Terry) 
 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adams, Bridges, 230 
 
 Addison (actor), 56, 161, 166 
 
 Addigon, Curlotta, 216 
 
 Adelphi Theatre, 35-42, 147, 179 
 
 Adrienne Lecouvreur (see Mrs. Stirling) 
 
 " All Is Not Gold That Glitters," 124, 125, 
 
 136, 147 
 Amherst, 24 
 
 Anderson (actor), 73, 75, 171 
 Anderson, Mary (Mme. de Navarro), 48, 66, 
 
 6Q, 205, 213 ; letters to, 219-21, 224, 225 
 " Angeline," Mrs. Stirling in, 45 
 " Angelo " (play), 132-35 
 Antoine, Theatre, 191 
 Archer (actor), 61 
 
 " Aristarchus " (Charles Reade), 133-35 
 Armitstead, 35 
 Arnold, Matthew, 79, 192 
 Ashton, Antony, 98 
 Astley's Amphitheatre, 55, 56 
 
 " Bachelor's Buttons," 43 
 
 Ballantyne, Sergeant, 183 
 
 Bancroft, Lady, 144, 146, 223 
 
 Bancroft, Sir Squire, 13, 158, 169, 189,222, 226 
 
 Bancrofts, The, 11, 12, 101, 193, 199, 210, 218 
 
 Barnett, Morris, 119 
 
 Bartholomew Fair, 160 
 
 Baylis, Lilian, 13, 22, 140 
 
 Baylis, Mrs., 135, 136, 139, 140, 141, 151, 
 
 152, 158, 163, 177 
 Baylis, Newton, 13, 144, 145 
 " Beaux's Stratagem, The," 198, 199 
 Bennet, Arnold, 186 
 
 Benson, Sir Frank R., 13, 189, 208, 224 
 Bernhardt, Sarah, 107 
 Beta's " Characteristics of Actors," 171 
 Beveridge, J. D., 8 
 Birmingham Theatre Royal, 35, 38 
 " Black Domino," 46 
 Blanchard, 182 
 
 " Blot On The 'Scutcheon, The," 75 
 Bond, 35 
 
 Boothby, Sir W., 83 
 Boucicault, Dion, 174 
 Bouffe, 77, 150 
 
 " Bouillon, Mme. De," 109, 110 
 Bourdelle, E., 40 
 Braham, 44, 45, 80 
 Brighton, Reading at, 195 
 Brooke, G. B., 121, 122, 150 
 Brookes, Shirley, 168 
 Brough, Robert, 168 
 Browning, Robert, 75, 76 
 Buckstone, J. B., 23, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 
 
 77, 78, 99, 140, 170, 180, 181, 196 
 Bulwer, Edward (Lord Lytton), 27, 28, 37, 
 
 49, 102 
 
 Bunn, 21, 39, 50, 79, 80 
 Burns, Robert, 78 
 Burroughs, Watkin, 34 
 Byron, Lord, 21, 76 
 
 Calhoun, Eleanor, 211 
 
 " Caste," 190, Mrs. Stirling in, 210-212 
 
 C61este, Mdlle., 26, 32 
 
 Chapman, Jane Francis, 114 
 
 Ch6ri, Rose, 95 
 
 " Cherry and Fair Star," 32, 80 
 
 Chippendale, Mrs., 218 
 
 " Christie Johnstone," 129, 139, 154 
 
 Cibber, Colley, 98, 226 
 
 City Theatre, 47 
 
 " Clandestine Marriage, The," 116, 117 
 
 " Clarissa Harlowe," 167 
 
 " Clifton, Fanny " (Mrs. Stirling), 22, 24, 25, 
 
 28, 31, 32, 34, 35 
 " Clive, Kitty," 143 
 
 " Cloister and the Hearth, The," 136 
 Coburg Theatre (Old Vic), 22, 23, 27, 28, 
 
 29, 37 
 
 Coleman, John, 72, 117, 128 
 
 Collins, Wilkie, 164, 200 
 
 Come" die Francaise, 107 
 
 Compton, 90, 91, 121, 151, 170 
 
 Congreve, William, 74, 75, 98 
 
 " Conjugal Lesson, A," 161 
 
 Cooke, Dutton, 199 
 
 Cooper, 79 
 
 Cooper, Miss Gladys, 118 
 
 " Countess Wintersen," 67 
 
 Court Theatre, 33 
 
 Courtnay, 100, 129 
 
 Covent Garden Theatre, 27, 49, 50 
 
 Coyne, Stirling, 41, 118, 121, 186 
 
 Creswick, 56 
 
 Crow, Jim, 41, 42 
 
 Cruickshank, George, 168 
 
 " Cupid's Diplomacy," 61 
 
 Cushman, Miss, 84, 85, 171 
 
 " Daughter of the Stars, A," 120 
 
 Davidge, 28, 34, 37 
 
 De Quincey, on Helen Faucit, 68 
 
 " Desmarets," Robson as, 157, 158 
 
 Dickens, Charles, 173, 174, 183 
 
 Diderot's paradox, 80 
 
 Dimond, 26 
 
 " Doll's House, The," 192 
 
 " Don Cesar de Bazan," 84, 87, 137 
 
 " Doom of Marana," 40 
 
 " Douglas " (burlesque), 42 
 
 Dramatic Magazine, 57 
 
 Dramatic, Musical and Equestrian Sick 
 
 Fund, 172, 174, 175, 181, 183, 200. 
 
 (Mrs. Stirling's speeches) 
 " Dream at Sea, A," 35, 180 
 " Dreams of the Heart," 93 
 Drury Lane Theatre, 27, 28, 50, 52, 60, 61, 
 
 72, 168, 196 
 Dryden, John, 74 
 " Duke in Difficulties, A," 169 
 Dumas, 45 
 Dumesnil, 98 
 
 East London Theatre, 24, 25 
 
 Edinburgh, 177 
 
 Edinburgh, Queen's Theatre, 176 
 
 Edinburgh, Theatre Royal, 147, 148, 162, 183 
 
 " Ellen Marchmont," 59-61 
 
 Elliston, 63, 105, 137 
 
 PJlton, 23, 38, 73 
 
 Emden, 166 
 
 Emery, 157, 159, 160 
 
 " Enchanted Island, The," 168 
 
 " Englishman in India, An," 59 
 
 Enthoven, Mrs. Charles, 13, 23 
 
 " Eton Boy, The," 74 
 
 Fagan, J. B., 33 
 
 " Fanny Flittermouse," 43 
 
 Farley, 80 
 
 16 
 
242 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Farquhar, Robert, 199 
 
 Farrell, 31 
 
 iFarren, William, 39, 62, 111, 117, 120, 127, 
 
 156, 157 
 
 Farrens, The, 105, 113, 121, 122, 130 
 Faucit, Helen, 29, 66, 68, 69, 75, 78, 108, 
 
 114, 121, 147, 150, 171, 189, 225 
 " Faust," at Lyceum, 216-18 
 Fitzgerald, Percy, 206 
 Fitzpatrick, Miss, 159 
 " Flight to America, A," 41, 48 
 Forbes-Robertson, Johnston, 212 
 Forrest, 85, 89 
 Forster, John, 51, 78 
 Freer, 31 
 
 " Gabrielle de Brionne," 61 
 
 Garrick Club, 141, 146 
 
 Garriek, David, 8, 22, 99, 116, 150, 208 
 
 Garrick Theatre (Whitechapel), 47 
 
 Gautier, Th6ophile, 113 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., 48, 201, 215 
 
 Glasgow, Prince's Theatre, 148, 149, 178 
 
 Glasgow, Theatre Royal, 163, 177 
 
 Glennie, Charles, 8 
 
 Glover, Mrs., 21, 49, 61, 62, 67, 69, 84, 116, 
 
 117, 118, 119, 137, 189, 199 
 Glover, Samuel, 149, 152-54, 163, 177 
 Glyn, Miss, 150, 171 
 " Gold," 153 
 " Golden Calf, The," 43 
 " Goldfinch " <" Road to Ruin "), 67 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 22 
 Graham, 73 
 Granby, 91 
 
 " Grave to Gay, From," 186 
 Gregory, Mrs., 140, 141 
 Gregory, Sir C. H., 141, 222, 223 
 Green, Miss Dorothy, 81 
 Greet, Ben, 13, 145, 200, 213, 216 
 Grub Street Theatre, 23, 24 
 " Grundy, Mrs.," origin of, 122 
 Guitry, Lucien, 104 
 
 Hackett, James K., 80 
 
 Hammond, W. J., 47, 56, 59 
 
 " Happy Family, A," 99 
 
 Hare, Sir John, 8, 118, 189, 201 
 
 Harley, 39, 79, 98, 99 
 
 Haviland, 8 
 
 Haymarket Theatre, 49, 51, 63, 136, 138, 
 
 141, 210 
 Hazlitt, 63 
 
 " Hearts are Trumps," 105, 137 
 Hehl, Agnes, 20 
 Hehl, Captain, 19, 20, 30 
 Hehl, Mary Ann (see Mrs. Stirling) 
 " Heidelberg, Mrs.," Mrs. Glover ag, 116 
 Hemming, 36, 40 
 " Hen and Chickens," 179, 181 
 "Hernani," 76 
 Hertz, Henrik, 113 
 Holcroft, 67 
 
 Hollingshead, John, 29, 49, 157, 168, 181 
 Holloway, Baliol, 81 
 Honey, Mrs., 38, 40 
 Howe, J. B., 8, 65, 187, 170, 208 
 Hugo, Victor, 76, 132, 142 
 ' Huguenot Captain, The," 185 
 " Humours of an Election," 41 
 "Hunchback, The," 71 
 
 Ibsen, Henrik, 191, 192, 229 
 Imperial Theatre, 198, 200' 
 Inchbald, Mrs., 161 
 
 Irving, Henry, 8, 25, 99, 100, 182, 187, 188, 
 203, 207 
 
 Jameson, Storm, 230 
 
 Jerrold, Douglas, 33, 43, 70, 82, 84 
 
 Jones, Henry Arthur, 192 
 Jordan, Mrs., 21, 94, 117 
 
 Kean, Charles, 80, 166, 171, 188, 216 
 Kean, Edmund, 21, 22, 23, 29, 40 68 71 
 
 76, 94, 95, 106 
 Keane, Miss Doris, 215 
 Keans, The, 11, 71, 114. 118 
 Keeley, Mrs., 40, 72, 77, 96, 103, 171, 
 
 Keeley, 'Robert, 73, 77, 78, 79, 178 
 
 Kemble, Charles, 80 
 
 Kemble, Fanny, 64, 84, 171, 172 
 
 Kemble, John P., 11, 21, 22, 63, 76 208 
 
 Kendal, Mrs., 190, 194, 197, 226 
 
 Kendals, The, 8, 161, 189, 201 
 
 " King Charles," 126 
 
 " King of The Commons," 92 
 
 " King Rene's Daughter," 113, 123, 147 
 
 Knight, Joseph, 11, 26, 144 
 
 Knowles, Sheridan, 49 
 
 Kotzebue, 23, 91 
 
 Lacey, Walter, 83, 84, 171 
 
 " Ladies' Battle, The," 130-32, 136, 149, 
 
 153, 176, 178 
 
 " Ladies' Club, The," 81, 62, 174 
 " Lady of Lyons, The," 49, 102, 121 
 " Lady Rodolpha Lumbercourt," 67 
 La Fontaine, fable of, 108, 109 
 Lambert, 137 
 Lawrence, Frederic, 51, 52 
 " Lawrence Slingsby " (G. H. Lewes), 180 
 " Leading Strings," 162, 166 
 Legouve, 107, 130, 131 
 Lemon, Mark, 61, 105, 140 
 Lewes, G. H., 142, 157, 160 
 Liverpool Amphitheatre, 34, 147, 151 
 Liverpool, Prince of Wales's, 176 
 Liverpool, Theatre Royal, 151 
 Listen, 80, 137 
 " London Assurance," 140 
 " Lords and Commons," 212, 213 
 " Love and Charity," 103, 149, 151 
 " Love Chase, The," 49, 67, 86, 117 
 " Love for Love," 74 
 " Lucy Contest," 41 
 " Luke Somerton," 36, 37 
 Lyceum Theatre, 7, 48, 54, 97-99 
 
 Macarthy, Miss, 33 
 
 Macklin, 67 
 
 Macready, W. C., 21, 28, 37, 39, 49, flO, 
 
 63-66, 68, 74, 75, 79, 80, 91, 92, 93, 94, 
 
 99, 100, 101, 113, 126, 137, 187 
 Maddox, 83, 91 
 
 Manchester, Queen's Theatre, 34 
 " Man in the Iron Mask, The," 32 
 " Man of Law, The," 136, 137 
 " Man of the World, The," 67 
 " Mariage a la Mode," 74 
 Marston, Westland, 119, 121, 145, 225 
 Martin, Sir Theodore, 108, 113, 114 
 "Masks and Faces," 142-46, 149, 151, 153, 
 
 163, 176, 180, 182 
 Mathews, Charles, 51, 74, 76, 91, 99, 337, 
 
 171, 176, 186 
 
 Mathews, Mrs. Charles (see Mme. Vestrifi) 
 " Maurice de Saxe," 107-10 
 Maywood, 67, 78, 79 
 Mead, Tom, 8 
 Meadows, 45, 79 
 "Midsummer Night's Dream, A," Beading*. 
 
 195, 196 
 
 " Money," 49, 68, 69, 102 
 Morton, J. M., 105, 124 
 Morton, Thomas (the elder), 122 
 Morton, Thomas (the younger), 124 
 Moscovitch, Maurice, 33 
 
INDEX 
 
 243 
 
 Monntfort, Mrs., 226 
 
 Murray, Leigh, 91, 100, 101, 102, 105, 118, 
 
 12ft, 130, 131, 137, 157 
 Musset, Alfred de, 166 
 " My Wife's Daughter," 151 
 
 " Natural Magic," 44 
 
 Navarro, Mme. de (see Mary Anderson) 
 
 Nettlefold, F. J., 102 
 
 Newcastle, 149 ; Journal's appreciation of 
 
 Mrs. Stirling, 149-51 
 " Newcomes, The," 159 
 New Strand Theatre, 43 
 Newton, Joseph, 180, 181 
 "New Way to Pay Old Debts, A," 95 
 " Night's Adventure, A," 137 
 " Nine Points of the Law," 166, 176 
 Nisbett, Mrs., 49, 67, 72, 73, 74, 83, 117 
 Norton Folgate Theatre, 47 
 
 O'Connor, 41 
 
 Oldfleld, Mrs., 150 
 
 Old Vic, The, 29, 113, 144 
 
 " Oliver Twist," 29 
 
 " Olympic, Camp at The," 152, 156 
 
 Olympic Theatre, 50, 51, 61, 100-05, 120-27, 
 
 152 ; with Robson, 156-71, 185, 186 
 Orger, Mrs., 78 
 Oxberry, 83, 91 
 Oxenford, John, 98, 108, 110, 189 
 
 Pantheon, The City, 23 
 
 Parry, 42 
 
 " Pascal Bruno," 45 
 
 Patent Theatres' monopoly, 27 
 
 Pavilion Theatre (Whitechapel), 24, 26, 27, 
 
 30, 31-33, 47, 147 
 Payne, 31 
 
 " Peacock and Crow, The," 42 
 Penley, 54 
 
 Penny Theatre, The, 52 
 " Phedre," 107, 109, 110, 113 
 Phelps, Samuel, 8, 40, 65, 66, 72, 73, 75, 
 
 83, 99, 171, 187 
 
 Phillips, H. Wyndham, 145, 146 
 Phillips, Miss, 73 
 Phillips, Watts, 185 
 " Philosopher of Berlin, The," 71 
 Phipps, The Hon. Edward, 114 
 Phoenix Society, The, 74 
 Pinero, Lady, 213, 226 
 Pinero, Sir Arthur, 13, 190, 192, 212, 213, 224 
 " Pizarro," 59 
 Planchd, 156 
 
 " Plot and Passion," 152, 156, 158, 226 
 " Polly Crisp," 118 
 Pope, C., 39 
 
 " Power and Principle," 119 
 Prince of Wales's Theatre, 190 
 Princess's Theatre, 79, 83-96, 185, 188, 
 
 189, 193 
 
 Qnartermaine, Leon, 206 
 
 Rachel, Mdlle., 107-13, 132, 150 
 
 Racine, Jean, 110 
 
 Reade, Charles, 117, 128-36, 137, 139, 141, 
 
 142, 143, 146, 152, 178, 182, 228 
 " Red Vial, The," 164-66 
 Rede, Leman, 41, 42 
 Reeve, John, 40, 41 
 Regnier, 136 
 
 " Reigning Favourite, The," 108-12, 147 
 " Rent Day, The," 70, 84 
 Rice, 41 
 " Riches," 71 
 "Rienzi," 37 
 
 " Rights of Women, The," 78 
 Ristori, Mme., 165 
 " Road to Ruin, The," 67, 68 
 
 Robertson, Madge (see Mrs. Eendal) 
 Robertson, T. W., 101, 137, 182, 190, 191 
 Robins, George, 50 
 Robson, Frederic, 8, 157, 158, 161, 165, 
 
 166, 171, 189 
 
 "Roger de Coverley, Sir," 126, 127, 133 
 Rogers, " Jimmy," 129, 170 
 " Romeo and Juliet," 203-09, 213-15 
 Romer (actor), 79 
 Romer, Miss, 79 
 " Rosine," 40 
 Roxby, R., 91 
 
 Royal Academy of Music, 195 
 Royal College of Music, 195 
 " Ruins of Athens " (masque), 91 
 Russell, Edward R., 205 
 Ryder, 73 
 
 Sadler's Wells Theatre, 27, 99, 188 
 Saint James's Hall, Reading at, 196 
 Saint James's Theatre, 46, 56, 114, 132 
 Sala, G. A., 168, 176 
 " Sally Scraggs," 59 
 Saloons, The, 53 
 Sand, George, 136 
 Sandeau, Jules, 136 
 Sardou, Victorien, 191 
 Savage Club, 168, 227 
 Savile, E. F., 29, 30 
 Schiller, 119 
 
 Scott, Clement, 199, 216 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 92 
 Scribe, 107, 121, 130, 131, 185, 186, 191 
 Sedgwick, Miss, 171 
 Selby, Charles, 98 
 Selby, Mrs., 61 
 Seyler, Athene, 74 
 Shaw, Bernard, 192 
 Shaw, Mrs. A., 79 
 
 ' ' Sheep in Wolf's Clothing, A," 161 
 Sheridan, R. Brinsley, 22 
 " Silver King, The," 193 
 Simpson, Palgrave, 119, 125, 126 
 Smith, O., 36, 40, 47 
 " Society," 190 
 " Sophia," 68 
 
 " Speed the Plough," 122, 124 
 Stafford, John, 26 
 Stanfteld, Clarkson, 72, 80 
 Stanley, Emma, 91 
 
 " Star and Garter," Richmond, 130, 114 
 Stirling, Mrs. Arthur, 195 
 Stirling, Edward, 32, 33, 34, 48, 73, 105, 213 
 Stirling, Fanny (Mrs.) 
 Birth, 20 
 
 Character, 57, 58, 227, 228 
 Compared with Mrs. Bancroft, 144 
 Compared with Mrs. Glover in "'. 
 
 prop," 119, 120 
 Compared with Mdlle. Rachel, 132-35 
 Criticisms of, 47, 48, 123, 124, 150, 151, 
 
 224-27 
 Death, 223 
 
 Elocution, Teacher of, 193-95 
 Letter from Reade, 132-35 
 Letters to Miss Anderson, 219-21 
 Letters to Mrs. Baylis, 140, 148, 149, 159, 
 
 163, 164, 177-79 
 Marriage, 33, 34, 222 
 Parts (principal) 
 ' Amor, Julia," 103 
 ' Anne, Queen " (" Richard III "), 80, 
 
 81 
 
 ' Armenonville, Jeanne d'," 185 
 ' Ashfield, Mrs.," 122 
 ' Autreval, Comtesse d'," 131, 132 
 ' Beatrice," 58, 59, 86 
 'Bella," 33 
 
 ' Bergmann, Mrs.," 164, 165 
 ' Biddy Nutts," 35, 180 
 
 Mala- 
 
244 THE STAGE LIFE OF MRS. STIRLING 
 
 Stirling, Fanny (Mrs.), Parts (principal) con. 
 " Black -Eyed Susan," 82 
 " Blandish, Mrs.," 78 
 "Bountiful, Lady," 198, 199 
 " Bracegirdle, Mrs.," 98, 160, 161 
 " Candour, Mrs.," 77, 196 
 "Carew, Anne," 162 
 " Caryll, Lady," 212, 213 
 "Celia," 72, 73, 86 
 ' Cherry, Cousin," 103, 104 
 ' Clara " (" Money "), 68, 69 
 ' Constance " (" Love Chase "), 67, 117 
 ' Cordelia," 86, 89, 90, 167, 203 
 ' Desdemona," 84-88, 167, 203 
 ' Eddystone, Mrs.," 186 
 ' Fanny " (" Clandestine Marriage "), 
 
 116 
 
 " Fitzsmith, Mrs.," 61, 62 
 ' Fontange, Marie de," 156-58 
 ' Ford, Mrs.," 98 
 ' Foresight, Mrs.," 74, 75 
 'Gay, Lady," 140 
 ' Gibbs, Martha," 124, 125 
 "Hardcastle, Miss," 96, 113 
 " Hermia," 90 
 "Heywood, Rachel," 70 
 " lolanthe " (" King Rent's Daughter"), 
 
 113, 114 
 
 " Joconde," 169, 170 
 "Juliet," 167 
 " Katharine " (" Taming of Shrew "), 
 
 102 
 
 " Kidd, Lady Diver," 186 
 " Lecouvreur, Adrienne," 107-13 
 " Leeson, Laura," 100, 101 
 " Leveson, Mrs.," 162 
 "Malaprop, Mrs.," 119, 120, 199, 200 
 " Margaret " (" New Way to Pay Old 
 
 Debts"), 95 
 " Marguerite " (" Workmen of Paris "), 
 
 182 
 
 " Maritana " (" C6sar de Bazan "), 84, 87 
 " Martha " (" Faust "), 216-18 
 "Mary Montagu, Lady," 54-56 
 "Miriam," 120 
 " Morrison, Fanny," 140 
 "Nurse, The" ("Romeo and Juliet"), 
 
 203-09, 213-15 
 "Olivia," 118 
 " Ormonde, Mrs.," 121 
 " Pauline " (" Lady of Lyons "), 102 
 " Portia," 86, 90, 122 
 "Rosalind," 86, 90, 225 
 "St. Maur, Marquise de," 210-12 
 '* Snow, Sally," 41 
 " Soft-Sawderley, Mrs.," 179 
 "Sophia" ("Road to Ruin"), 68 
 "Teazle, Lady," 160 
 "Tisbe La" ("Angelo"), 132-35 
 "Woffington, Peg.," 143, 144, 177 
 "Vavasour, Lilian," 197 
 "Victorine," 38 
 Parentage, 19, 20 
 
 Personal Appearance, 129, 145, 146 
 Portraits of, 145, 146 
 Private Life, in, 57, 58, 218-23 
 Readings of Shakespeare, 195, 196 
 Retirements, 49, 170, 171, 186, 218 
 Speeches (Dramatic and Musical Sick 
 Fund), 174, 175,, 176, 181, 183-5, 
 200-03 
 Stirling, Miss Fanny, 71, 77, 140, 148, 149, 
 
 167-70, 174 
 Stock Companies, 190 
 Strand Theatre, 106-20 
 Strindberg, August, 191 
 Surrey Theatre, The, 22, 27 
 
 Talfourd, Sergeant, 117, 165 
 
 Tallis'* Dramatic Magazine, 25, 35, 89, 
 
 Talma, 8 
 
 Taylor, Tom, 118, 126, 130, 141, 142, 143, 
 
 146, 156, 161, 169, 172, 173 
 Terry, Ellen, 11, 13, 118, 152, 179, 189. 
 
 194, 197, 203-06, 217, 226 
 Terry, Kate, 131, 168 
 Thackeray, W. M., 159, 172, 173 
 " Theates " letters to Examiner, 85-88 
 Theatre, Condition of, in 1832, 26-30 in 
 
 1838, 49-53 ; in 1868, 187-93 
 Theatres Act, 53 
 
 Theatrical Fund, General, 172, 173, 200 
 Thomas, Moy, 190 
 
 Thorndyke, Miss Sybil, 113, 144, 145 
 " Time Tries All," 100, 101, 119, 122, 129, 
 
 147 
 
 " 'Tis She," 45 
 Toole, J. L., 138, 182 
 " Tragedy Queen, The," 176, 178 
 Tree, Beerbohm, 189 
 Tree, Ellen (Mrs. C. Kean), 23, 39, 171, 
 
 189, 194 
 Tree, Viola, 118 
 Trench, Mrs., 177 
 
 " Triplet," Webster as, 143, 145, 147 
 Troughton, A. C., 162 
 
 Uphill, Devon, 140 
 
 Vandenhoff, 39 
 
 Vandenhoff, Miss, 171 
 
 Vaudeville Theatre, 200 
 
 " Venus in Arms," 44 
 
 Vestris, Mme., 50, 51, 91, 94, 97, 99, 105 
 
 " Vicar of Wakefield, The," 118 
 
 Victoria Theatre (see Coburg) 
 
 " Victorine," 38, 48 
 
 Vining, Miss A., 137 
 
 Vining, James, 23, 91, 159, 161, 166 
 
 Wallace, James, 45, 71, 83, 90, 91, 94, 13T 
 
 Walton, 91 
 
 Warde, Dame Genevieve, 8, 13, 226 
 
 Warner, Charles, 182 
 
 Warren, Mrs., 65 
 
 Webster, Ben, 46, 121, 136, 138, 141, 150, 
 
 171, 173, 179, 182, 196 
 Webster, Ben, Junior, 179, 182, 186 
 Webster, Ben (the present), 13 
 Wedmore, Frederick, 194 
 " Where there's a Will," etc., 105, 160 
 White, Rev. James, 92 
 Whitty, Dame May, 13, 225 
 Wigan, Alfred, 77, 79, 150, 152, 156, 166, 
 
 171, 173 
 
 Wigan, Mrs., 160, 162 
 Wigans, The, 12, 176 
 Wilkins, Mrs., 170 
 Wilkinson, Tate, 42 
 Willis's Rooms (St. James's), 172 
 Wilmot, 65 
 
 Wilton, Marie (see Lady Bancroft) 
 " Wives as They Were," etc., 161 
 " Woman of Business, A," 182 
 " Woman of the World, The," 186, 189 
 " Woman's Trials, A," 59-61 
 Woolgar, Miss (Mrs. Alfred Mellor). 168 
 " Workmen of Paris," 182 
 " Wreck Ashore, The," 33, 180 
 Wyndham, 152 
 Wyndham, Sir Charles, 8 
 
 Yates, 36 
 
 Yates, Mrs., 38, 40 
 
 Young, 63, 80 
 
 Zola, Emile, 165, 182, 191 
 
 Printed in Great Britain by 
 
 tTHWIH BROTHEB8, LIMITED, THK GBESHAM PRBSS, WOKINO AND LOWDOH 
 

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 .4 
 
 DEC 8 
 
 REC.CIR.NOV U 78 
 
 JUL13197 
 BEG. cm JUL 
 
 1978 
 
 LD 21-100m-9,'48(B399sl6)476 
 
YCI0408 
 
 846460 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY