The San Francisco call., 1909-01-31

dpout EilcH IeffE ) lie on the stag
would know more of her own inner
personal llfe and she is always vague.
yelled. secrf tive and uninteresting. Tile
disconnected and few paragraphs which
tell of her brief two years of life
with Watts read as IL written of some
other person that herself She tells OF
what she wore at the wedding and then
OF the people who frequented their
home; of the names so famous in his
tory-Gladstone. Disraeli, Browning
and Tennyson. Ellen Terry's lack of
schooling may be responsible for the
ggeness of her memories OF this
period of her life. She appreciates her
lack now. for she says:
AT the time of my first marriage.
when 1 met these great men. had
never had the advantage assume
that 1t is an adyantage.-of single
days schooling in real school. What
I have learned outside my own pro-
fession | have learned from my en-
vfronment Perhaps it is this which
makes me think environment more
valuable than set education. and
stronger agent in forming character
even than heredity--I should have
written the externals of character-for
primal. inner feelings are. l suppose,
: inherited"
The story of her married life is not
told. She tells little bit of the ex-
ternals of her life. but of Watts scarce
ly word. He supposedly tired or her
and she appears to have been surprised
she says of her married life:
when 1t suddenly came to an end
] was thunderstruck, and refused at
first TO consent to the separation, which
was arranged for me in much the same
way as my marriage had been
Two years more of the stage follow
when Miss Terry had unusually inter-
eStfnC exnerioOppS Tom TaVlOr. who
was a leading playwright as we'll as
dramatic critic of the Times and editor
of Punch had great influence upon
her-Charlcs Reade. Rossetti. Charles
Wyndham. Lionel Brough and finally
Henry Irving. At this time she saw
Irving and acted with him, but he
made no great impression upon her.
She tells further that neither was he
much impressed with her Then fol-
lows without even the break of "A para
graph one of the most startling state
ments in the book:
Soon afterward I left the
stage for six years, without the slight
est idea OF ever going back. l left it
without regret. And l was very happy,
leading a quiet domestic life In the
heart of the country. When my two
children were born 7 thought OF the
stage less than ever. They absorbed
all my time, all my interest all my
love"
The following chapter in the hook
describes the six year vacation and IL
tells of her home. her children, her
duties, but never once are the words
husband or father used. and the para
disc in which she lives might be Adam
less for all the mention that is made or
HIM One supposes that some sort of
trouble came later, for she is very hard
up and one day out walking meets
Charles Reade who makes her fiat
tering offer to come back to the stage.
She accepts and plays in Reade's Wan
dering Heir and tells that he came
every night and watched the perform
ance most critically. Miss Terry's pic
ture of Charles Reade is one of the
most graphic i'm the book:
Dear. kind. unjust. generous, eau
tious. impulsive. passionate. gentle
Charles Reade. Never have | known
any one who combined SO many quali
ties. far asunder as the poles. i'm one
single disposition. lie was placid and
turbulent. yet always majestic He was
inexplicable and entirely lovable-a
stupid old dear, and as wise as Solo
mon."
Tom Taylor's training seems to have
impressed the actress as more impor-
tant than anything UP to the time she
was associated with Irving. OF when
TAYLOR died she writes;
new loves, new joys, new interests, new
friends-but they can not replace the
old. When Tom Taylor died l lost a
friend the like of whom l never had
again"
The year with the Bancrofts follows
and it was toward the end of that
neriod she went with Charles Coghlan
10 see Irving act King Philip and she
says he never did anything better TO
the day of his death. The one thing
which one begins to notice here In Miss
Terry's memories is her eXaggeration;
she so often--even in the same chapter
says of Irving, 'he never did anything
finer' OF course we know she was
biased in his favor and yet IL is diff
cult TO refrain from quoting hundreds
OF her little expressions about him.
Toward the end of the year with the
Bancrofts Miss Terry met Charles War
dell whose stage name was keely, and
married him in 1876. Soon after she
left the Court theater for the Lyceum
and the rest of the book is as much
Henry Irving as Ellen Terry. She says
at one place:
Il OF all people can perhaps appre-
ciata Henry Irving least justly, al
though / was his associate on the stage
for a quarter of century and was on
the terms of the closest friendship with
him for almost as long a time
in Ellen Terry is her irresponsibility.
She is as inconsequential and idle as a
child and seems rather immoral than
immoral.
Speaking of the actor William Ter
riss. she says: "Terriss had a beautiful
mouth That predisposed me I'm his IA
vor at oncel I have always been
cracked on pretty mouths
Miss Terry gives many interesting
details of the Lyceum productions. She
also tells OF the American tours. but all
she has to tell of her theatrical life is
of Irving and Terry; one is mentioned
of course as much as the other.
After Irving's death in October. 1895,
Miss Terry made one more tour to
America. She says:
I'm 1907-only the other day-I
toured in America for the first time on
my own account, playing modern plays
for the first time. / made new friends
and found my old ones still faithful.
But this tour was chiefly momentous to
me because at Pittsburg I was mar
rfed for the third time and married an
Perhaps some one who knows will