Ellen Terry

Joy Melville

"Ellen Terry (1847-1928) rose to fame as an actress in the 19th century, when her stage partnership with Henry Irving at London's Lyceum Theatre drew capacity crowds. She was notorious for flaunting the moral code of her day, marrying three times - first, at 17, to the painter G F Watts (who sent her back to her parents with a sum of [pound]300 a year 'so long as she shall lead a chaste life') and then living with her lover, Edward Godwin by whom she had two illegitimate children. A perfectionist on stage, she was cruelly forced to continue to act beyond a point she found appropriate in order to earn enough money to support her children: 'Look at me, 61 and still doing one-night stands', she said to a friend. As her sight and memory worsened, and her partnership with Irving ended, her acting career closed. She reinvented herself as a lecturer, touring Britain and American speaking on...

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