The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-14
ELLEN TERRY'S ROMANCE.
MARRIAGE TO THE PAINTER
WATTS BEFORE SIZE WAS I6.

counted FOr-Hy Hor DWn St0FS Sne
was Thunderstruck at the Suggestion
and Hated Going Back 70 the Theatre
Ellen Terry's story Of her marriage to
George Frederick Watts. a thai story
appears In McCturs's. leaves the reader a
prey to unsatisfied curiosity.
But why?- 10 the first question one
asks when one has finished the account OF
the separation between the s~ixteen-year-
old girl and the husband who was more
than thirty years her senior.
Everybody has some old story OF the cir
cumstances to resurrect and nobody seems
to find Miss Terry's own somewhat misty
version adequate.
Il was not quite 10 years old" she says;
TOO young to be married even In those
days. when every one married early. But l
was delighted. and my parents were de-
lighted. although the disparity in our ages
was very great.
1T all seems now like a dream. not n clear
dream but a fitful one which in the morning
one tries in vain to tell. And even IL l
could tell it. I would not.
Il was happy. because my face was the
type which the great artist who married
me loved to paint. I remember sitting to
him in shining armour for hours and hours
n never realizing that 1t was heavy until
l tainted!
Little Holland House, where Mr.. Watts
lived. seemed to me a paradise. where only
beautiful things we're allowed to come. All
the women were graceful and all the men
were gifted.
Many inaccurate stories had been told
Of my brief married life. and I have never
contradicted them-they were 30 manifestly
absurd. Those who can imagine the sur
~roundings into which I. a raw girl. unde-
veloped in all except my training as an
actress. was thrown can imagine the situa-
ton.
-0f one thing l am certain. While I was
with Signor-the name by which Mr.. Watts
was known among his friends-I never had
one single pang OF regret for the theatre.
This may do me no credit, but It is true.
Il Wondered at the new life and worshipped
it because Of its beauty. When 1t suddenly
came to an end. l was thunderstruok and
refused at first to consent to the separation
which was arranged in much the same way
as my marriage.
The whole thing was managed by those
kind friends whose chief business in life
seems to be the care Of others. l don't
DLtIIle bIcID. IucTe are C6btb W1eIe no OU6
is to blame. There do exist such things as
honest misunderstanding, az Charles Reade
was always impressing on me at a later
time.
There were no vulgar accusations on
either side. and the words l read in the
deed Of separation-'incompatability Of
temper Ia mere legal phrase) more than
covered the ground. Truer still would have
been 'incompatability Of occupation -
the interference Of well meaning friends.
We all suffer from that sort Of thing. Pray
God one be not a we'll meaning friend ones
self
THE marriage was not a happy one.'
they will probably say after my death. and I
f~orestall them by saying that It in many
ways was very happy indeed. What bitter
ness there was Ell aced itself in a very re-
markable way.
Il saw MIR. Watts but once face to face
after the separation. We met in the street
at Brighton and he told me that 1 had
grownl l was never TO speak to him again.
But years later. after l had appeared at the
Lyceum and had made some success in the
world, / was in the garden of a house which
adjoined Mr., Watts's new Little Holland
House and he. in his garden. saw me
through the hedge.
1T was then that I received from him the
first letter that I had had for years. In
this letter he told me that he had watched
my success with eager interest and asked
me to shake hands with him In spirit.
What success l may have he wrote,
will be very incomplete and unsatisfactory
il o cannot do what l have long been
hesitating to ask. II you cannot. keep
silence. If you can. one word. YES will
81 answered simnlv 'Yes'
After that he wrote to me again. and for
two OF three years We correspondent. but
never came INTO personal contact.
As the past is now to me like a story in Q
book that l once read l oan speak OF il
easily, but II by doing so I thought that
l might give pain or embarrassment to any
one else l should be silent about this long
forgotten time.
After careful consideration it does not
seem to me that it can be either indiscreet
or injurious to let il be known that the
great artist honored and appreciated my
efforts and strife in my art; hat this great
man could not rid himself OF the pain Of
feeling that he had spoiled my life Ia
chivalrous assumption Of blame for what
was. think. a natural, almost inevitable.
catastrophe), and that long after all per-
sonal relation had been broken OF he wrote
to me gently. k~indly-as sympathetically
ignoring the strangeness OF h position,
as II, to use his own expression, we stood
face to face on the brink OF a universal
grave
when this tender kindness was estab-
lished between us he sent me a portrait
head that he had lone Of me when / was his
wife. ! think il q very beautiful picture.
He did not touch IL except to mend the
edges. thinking It better not to try to i'm
prove 1t by the work Of another time.
in one OF these letters he writes that
there is nothing in all this that the world
might not know Surely the world IL al
ways the better for having a little truth in
stead of a great deal Of idle inaccuraoy and
falsehood. That is my justification for
publishing this, il justification is needed.
IF l did not fulfil his too high prophecy,
that in addition to your artistic eminence
| feel that you will achieve a solid social
position. make yourself a great woman and
a a noble place in the history Of your
time. was the better for his having made
it.
IF | had been able TO look into the future
I should have been less rebellious at the
termination OF my first marriage. Was I so
rebellious, after all? I arm afraid / showed
about as much rebellion as a sheep. But I
was miserable. indignant, unable to UNDER
stand that there could be any justice. in
what had happened. In a little more than
two years returned to the stage. / was
practically driven back by those who meant
20 hn ktnI-TAu. T...I0- - L--