New-York tribune., 1910-12-30
THE DRAMA
Ellen Terry on 'The Children in
ShakeSpeare'S Plays"

Miss Terry appeared yesterday ioi tiiO
fourth time this season. The happy occur
renee was not unexpected. The three dis
courses in November were successful
that an extension of the series was in
cvitabie There is no reason why it may
Tot go on coursing through the seasons
There are subjects a-plenty. There can be
1.-THE Lovers in Shakespeare and also
"The Lawyers: there can be The Villains
in Shakespeare" The Philosophers
and "Shakespeare's Fat Folks and his
lean" kind there can be ''Shakespeares
Heroes ''Shakespeare's Statesmen. The
Mothers In Shakespeare, The Girls IN
Shakespeare, and on. on in vast variety
Of change the themes can be rln. And the
more. the more welcome. for there will be
more Ellen Terry. After the Shakespeare
subjects seem to have been exhausted, the
gracious lady that incarnation of poetic
harmony" can give us. say. the old come
dies. Would she net enchant You as Lady
Teaaie. end so following? Now IT matters
Eot whit whether you agree or disagree
with her exposition in the discourse of
characte or q play whether her comments
prosper in the mind or fade there whether
her Lady Macbeth inclines to favor and 10
prettiness whether her theory of Portals
law be just or unjust to the learned BELL
ario, whether she can suggest Voiumrla
like Mrs. Siddonss, Falstafs chucKie, or
Coriolanus's mighty grief-it is this n1atch-
less woman herself you have come to hear,
to watch. to delight in. She would fill the
house if she were to recite only Inc
quality of mercy speech. as she recited It
again yesterday by request, after THE
Children had been put away. She IS the
finest entertainment that the stage to-day
Ja1io 10 ina apir, SatiS-
flying.
What can she do with such a theme as
1.-The Children in Shakespeare's Plays?
she can illustrate it with her unrivalled
self. the grace of her mind and motion, the
music Of her voice. Of course. she began
the afternoon at the Empire Theatre by
telling about her thoughts of Manlillius In
"The Winters Tale" Mamillius was the
first part she ever played. She was eight
years old at the time. and the place was
The Princess's Theatre, London, during
the management of Mr.. and Mrs. Charles
Kean MamiIltus, she thinks, was "a little
Romeo or Hamlet Again she speaks OF
him as "the boy with Hamlet mind.
The second part she ever played was Ar
thur in king John 1t was the second.
naturally, in her references of yesterday
She gave the scene from THE Merry Wives
OF Windsor in which little VIII Page
takes his Latin lesson, a scene usually
omitted from the acting versions, as IS the
scene between Little Macduff and his
mother Yesterday the audience heard
what Little Macduff. poor prattler,' was
like Only once, Miss Terry thinks, has
this scene been publicly performed, and
that was last summer, in London, when
the Elizabethan Stage Society played Mac
BETH
Robin, F-alstaff's page. had a good deal
OF attention yesterday. Marcus. Corlo-
ialus's son, was the subject of charming
word picture. F1eance, Of course, was not
NEGLECTED. when Macbeth" was considered,
and the Princes In the Tower could not
be omitted from such programme. Just
as Miss Terry found two score letters to
equip discourse on the Plays, although
some cocksure friend could remember only
one. and others none, she found children
enough in Shakespeare's world to entertain
large audience for the afternoon. What
if she reads rather than lectures; what II
she gives flashes rather than discourse;
have you not her luminous. joyous spirit?
Any of a score of pedants can lecture on
Shakespeare, expound, comment, quarrel
with and about him, If you like, but who
in these days can do what Ellen Terry
does, light up by look and a word the
poetry Of him. the vast humanity of him,
set his living women and children before
US as she can? She enchants because she
Is a living poem. She is also the best
criticism Of the contemporary stage-you
have but to behold her in action, listen TO
her verse, in order to realize how little
acting there is where she is not, how little
beauty, grace and inspiration; TO know
how much miss at the beginning of
another decade. a W.