(The Theatre [UK] - December, 1893.)
Miss Winifred Emery : AN APPRECIATION AND A FORECAST

To the thoughtful playgoer there can be no more interesting phenomenon than the sudden "arrival" of the younger players of the day. The growth of the new generation has indeed been well-nigh as rapid as that of Jonah's gourd, so suddenly has it sprung up - we might almost say been sprung upon - the public. The facts are noticeable enough when we think of our actors - the jeunes premiers, Mr. Fred Terry, Mr. Lewis Waller, and Mr. George Alexander; the younger comedians, Mr. Cyril Maude, Mr. Weedon Grossmith, and Mr. Brandon Thomas; but we appreciate the true strength of the argument only when we come to deal with our actresses. Here the interval between the younger and the older dramatic artists has never been bridged; the transition stage has lasted longer, and has consequently been much more marked. In passing from Mrs. Kendal to Miss Kate Rorke, from Mrs. Beere to Miss Julia Neilson, and from Miss Ellen Terry to Miss Winifred Emery, we are conscious of many gaps. Indeed, one has only to look back carefully over the early eighties to realise the wonderful change that has come over theatrical affairs in this respect.

Who were the leading ladies of the English stage about this time? Of course, I am not referring to Mrs. Kendal or Miss Ellen Terry, to Miss Marion Terry or Mrs. Bernard Beere. The two former ladies were already established favourites; while the two latter, winning their successes rather late in life, form a kind of connecting link between the older and the younger school.

Who, then, were the younger leading ladies between the years 1880 and 1886? The answer is not difficult. Putting aside migratory stars like Madame Helena Modjeska, Mrs. Langtry, and Miss Mary Anderson, and well-known actresses of the robuster drama, like Miss Ada Cavendish and Miss Isabel Bateman, we find three actresses occupying a more or less prominent position in "the coming race" - Miss Mary Eastlake, Miss Eleanor Calhoun, and Miss Alice Lingard. There is little need to recall ancient history, or to record the respective fates of these three ladies. Miss Eastlake and Miss Lingard both made their earlier successes in comedy, and their transference to serious parts was perhaps more or less of a mistake. Neither had much charm, neither had much sensibility, though both possessed a certain measure of rough but genuine power. Miss Eastlake only got one chance she could take advantage of, under Mr. Barrett, and that in a not too successful play - Mr. Grundy's impressive tragedy "Clito." In the scene of Helle's repudiation of her patriot lover, the actress acted with really thrilling effect.

Of Miss Lingard pretty much the same may be said. It is in strong roles that she shows her true mettle. In such plays as "Sister Mary" and "A Million of Money," and in classical works like "Adrienne Lecouvreur" and "La Dame aux Camelias," Miss Lingard plays with undeniable power. Of Miss Calhoun it is more difficult to speak. There seems no reason why she should not dispute the premier place with Miss Emery and Miss Rorke. Beginning, like Mrs. Campbell, with Rosalind, this (still) young actress has played Mabel Vane, Dora in "Diplomacy," Hester Prynne, and Vashti Dethic all with genuine charm and sensibility. It is a pity that the English stage should be deprived of the services of so accomplished an artist; and even now Miss Calhoun can hardly be said to be out of the running.

These were the actresses who filled the gaps. Very brilliant artists they were not, but they served their turn. Their reign, however, was not destined to be a long one. It lasted barely five years. Then came the deluge, and since 1886 the English stage has been literally flooded with capable leading ladies. It was about this time that the two most gifted of our younger actresses got their first real chance. Fortunately they had the ability to take advantage of it. Since then Miss Eastlake and Miss Lingard have been in the shade. The lead has passed into the hands of younger artists. Most people know the circumstances under which Miss Winifred Emery and Miss Kate Rorke won their spurs. While the latter lady came to the front as the representative of the heroine in a bowdlerisation of "Tom Jones" - Mr. Buchanan's misnamed "Sophia" - her rival, Miss Winifred Emery, made her first real hit while understudying Miss Ellen Terry in "Olivia," and subsequently in "Faust." Just as "Sophia" stamped Miss Rorke as an actress of remarkable power and charm in melodramatic parts, so "Olivia" first directed public attention to Miss Emery's suitability for the imaginative drama.

Any dissection of the art of a favourite actress - and any comparison of her style with that of her rivals - must needs be in some respects an ungrateful task; though some such operation as this seems an indispensable factor in any attempt to discuss Miss Emery's present position and future prospects on the English stage.

Just at present, however, I am not so much concerned with the necessity for contrasting our heroine's methods with those employed by Miss Marion Terry or Miss Kate Korke, as desirous of arriving at some general idea of Miss Emery's talent. A not unfair estimate of the actress's rank in the dramatic hierarchy would perhaps be conveyed in the assertion that she occupies among "leading ladies" a position similar to that which Mr. Alexander fills among "leading men." Like him, she has a charm of manner, a distinction of style, and a beauty of voice which would in themselves make the fortune of an actress of far inferior ability. And, like her former manager, Miss Emery has a pathos which is present in nearly all her serious work - a true pathos where "there is the surging of a buoyant wave in the heart, breaking the force of the wave which overwhelms it with dejection."

With Mr. Alexander this gift of pathos threatened at one time to degenerate into a mannerism; but, thanks to "Liberty Hall" and "Mrs. Tanqueray," the danger has been avoided. Miss Emery has never been betrayed into this mistake. Her voice is always charged with earnest feeling, but it is never overloaded with pathos.

But though she will never over-act, she never under-acts; she heeds the advice conspicuous on the Haymarket proscenium. She possesses that highest art of appearing natural. She moves her audience at her will, yet she gets her effects with the very minimum of effort. Another point in which Miss Emery resembles Mr. Alexander is in a certain incapacity for robust work. But just as the last act of "Mrs. Tanqueray" showed the St. James's manager's increase of strength, so of late have Miss Emery's resources been growing proportionately with the demands made upon them. This acquisition of power was first noticeable in the actress's Vashti Dethic. Miss Olga Brandon is an actress (probably) of more force than Miss Emery; but, in this role at least, the third exponent of Mr. Jones's heroine was more passionate than her "creator." Then came the New Olympic engagement, over which there was so much ominous shaking of heads. Her experience here gave the young actress breadth of style, without impairing the delicacy of her touch in poetical parts.

"Handfast" followed the season with Mr. Barrett. Here, as in "Sowing the Wind," Miss Emery was a beautiful singer of dubious antecedents, with Mr. Cyril Maude as her persecutor. In Mr. Hamilton's play the actress delivered a "Rule Britannia" kind of speech with very telling declamatory power. Then came "The Crusaders," wherein Miss Emery's delightful Cynthia hardly bears on our argument. It was, in fact, in "Lady Windermere's Fan" that the young artist's growth of power first attracted general attention. In the scenes of recrimination between husband and wife, and between mother and daughter, Miss Emery displayed real passion. In Mr. Grundy's new play at the Comedy wherein, as in "That Dr. Cupid," she is the betrothed of a young rake Miss Emery shows us the high-water mark of her powers. Never has she played in so passionate a part, and never has she more ably risen to the required level. So consistently moving and beautiful a creation the English stage has not seen since the same actress gave us her Clarissa.

The third act of Mr. Grundy's play, couched in language of a noble simplicity and pregnancy of which, among our other dramatists, only Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Wilde know the secret, is done the very fullest justice to by both Miss Emery and Mr. Brandon Thomas. And the conjunction of these two names in "Sowing the Wind" suggests some other notable combinations for purposes of dramatic art. In plays dealing with "the great duel of sex," these two artists would make worthy champions of the opposing forces. Miss Emery seems the one actress supremely qualified to represent her sex in that "ancient strife which is the very central fact of life;" and in Mr. Brandon Thomas an actor who has fully justified the predictions of his powers indulged in by the Echo and The Theatre Miss Emery would find a sympathetic colleague for such work. How delightfully she would fill the title role in "Denise." And what other actor could you get to fill Got's part of Brissot if not Mr. Thomas? Mr. Maude, too, judging from his Cayley Drummle, would be admirable as Thouveniri. I can only see one reason for Dumas Fils' play being given at the St. James's, and that is Mr. Alexander's suitability for the not too prominent and priggish role of the Count.

"Clarissa," too, might well be seen in the near future at the Comedy, with Miss Emery in the part which established her fame, Mr. Brandon Thomas as the Avenger, and Mr. Sydney Brough as Lovelace. And of course there is "Beau Austin!" Here would be the actress's great opportunity. As Dorothy Musgrave she would be above praise. Her physique, her sweet seriousness, her exquisitely modulated tones, her passionate earnestness, and her unsurpassed delivery of dialogue, should nobly equip her for success in the arduous role of Stevenson's heroine. And, to stray for a moment into the Shakespearean drama, can any actress on our stage be thought of as more suitable to represent Isabella's white passion of purity than Miss Emery? In the great pleading scene of "Measure for Measure" the actress would be at her very best.

What an ear Miss Emery has for delicate inflexions of voice and subtle nuances of dialogue! With what genuine artistry she and Mr. Gould managed the first act of "The Fan." They both caught to a nicety the contrast of tones required. It is the same in comedy, witness the first act of "The Crusaders;" the same in the more poignant passages of a play. Think of the last act of "Clarissa," the exalted inspiration breathed into the scenes with Lovelace and the reading of the will. Take the second act of "Sowing the Wind," the parting of Rosamund from Ned Annesley, or the big scene of the third act. It matters little what the play be; if the dialogue be at all well written, Miss Emery makes her appeal through it with irresistible force.

The quiet but touching pathos of Lady Windermeres reproach to her husband, "You who have loved me, you who have taught me to love you, to pass from the love that is given, to the love that is bought!" The wonderful soliloquy which reveals the very soul of the young wife as she finds herself alone in Darlington's rooms: "And will he love me always, this man to whom I have given my life? What do I bring him? Lips that have lost the note of joy, eyes that are blinded with tears!" Rosamund Athelstane's passionate vindication of her sex in Mr. Grundy's moving play! All these passages Miss Emery delivers with faultless intonation. Into all of them she infuses a searching pathos, or a throbbing passion - infinitely touching.

It is this self-same purity of diction that establishes one of the few points of resemblance between the respective styles of Miss Emery and Miss Marion Terry. Both actresses are admirable elocutionists, both are wonderfully effective in scenes of appeal, both have demonstrated their fitness for imaginative as well as modern work, both, too, are finished comic actresses. But here all likeness ends. Miss Terry has scarcely so sure a touch in the poetic drama as Miss Emery, and she lacks certain physical advantages possessed by the younger actress, but in width of range she stands without her fellow on the English stage.

To pass from the melodramatic anguish of Henrietta Laroque to the delicate pathos of Helen Latimer was something gained; but to grapple successfully with two such different parts as the pure yet passionate Lady Harding and the too resourceful yet maternal Mrs. Erlynne was a veritable triumph. Nor is this all, for Miss Terry has a beautiful vein of maternal feeling, as evidenced in "Sunlight and Shadow," which would make her the ideal heroine of George Moore's "A Modern Lover." If ever "The Struggle for Life" is revived, Miss Marion Terry should play the Duchess; she would easily surpass the English creator of the part.

Now, Miss Emery has hardly manifested the existence of so rare a gift as this, though of course it would be premature to say that she does not possess it. Nor is she likely to rival Miss Terry in the versatility of her powers, though her range is wider, I think, than most playgoers would admit. Indeed, in the modern drama, Miss Emery has scarcely shown the full measure of her ability. Her Vashti was rather a novel role for her to assume, and her success in it seems to suggest her as the one actress who could give us the true Rebecca in "Bosmersholm." Probably, too, Mr. Clement Scott is right in casting her for Tess in any dramatisation of Mr. Hardy's great novel. She would act the part beautifully; but is her physique quite suited to so rustic a heroine?

Of course her art has obvious limitations; in the part of a really vulgar, vicious woman, she would fail just as Miss Marion Terry would fail. Physique, temperament, and style all are barriers. A hardness of tone she can assume, but it is the hardness of a proud, pure woman of Lady Windermere or Hester Prynne, not the insolent hardness of a Tosca or Mrs. Tanqueray; and, curiously enough, while unsympathetic vulgarity is rendered by Mr. Cyril Maude with astonishing realism, this actor's wife cannot possibly be vulgar.

Again, Miss Emery was obviously never meant to enact powerfully melodramatic parts. She can move her auditors to laughter or to tears; but administering electric shocks in either comedy or drama is not her forte. Her method is not melodramatic; physique (the lack of lung power) and style (a true and consistent method of characterisation) alike forbid it. Yet, although we can hardly expect Miss Emery to develop into a Mrs. Kendal, though perhaps she can never hope to rival Miss Rorke in her more showy parts, there is this much to be said: her rendering of Leslie Brudenell would be eminently sympathetic and moving; and surely in the first act of "Diplomacy" would she satisfy even Mr. Scott.

In the Shakspearean drama it is evident that Miss Emery cannot pass beyond certain well-defined limits. As Juliet, as Lady Macbeth, she would fail, as Miss Ellen Terry has failed before her. She might be successful as Hermione, but never as Constance, Queen Catharine, or the Shrew. In the pathetic repertoire of Shakespeare Miss Emery would, however, find her metier. Ophelia, Desdemona, Imogen, she would verily embody. And Portia, beloved of Bassanio, she would play equally well with Portia beloved of Brutus. But, though Miss Emery can safely be pitted against Miss Terry in these parts, there are two characters at least in which she is hardly likely to obliterate recollections of her elder sister in art, Rosalind and Viola.

True, Miss Ellen Terry has never appeared in the former role, but we know how delightfully impulsive she would be in it; and we recollect her playing of another Ganymede in "Twelfth Night." As Beatrice, too, she would scarcely be convincing; she has hardly the physique which Miss Terry and Miss Rehan have accustomed us to look for in these grand specimens of Renaissance womanhood; but I can well believe that she would realise all phases of the character admirably. And assuming the possibility of "King Lear" being staged again in this generation, the only possible Cordelia would be she. She would be calmer, quieter, less prodigal of gesture than Miss Terry ; and if ever the time comes when Miss Emery gets such a chance she might do worse than follow Miss Laura Johnson's example in Mr. Vezin's recent revival of the tragedy, and double the part of Lear's youngest daughter with that of the Fool. The young actress would hardly object to assume male attire, for she has already worn "the lovely garnish of a boy" in "The Merchant of Venice."

As the heroine of romance our subject has already won some distinguished triumphs. On her Clarissa it were needless to dilate. Mr. Scott has surely said the last word on this subject in ranking Miss Emery's performance in Mr. Buchanan's play with that of Miss Terry in "Olivia." To the actress's Marguerite I have already referred. When I saw it, in Liverpool, in the autumn of 1887, I was greatly struck by the beauty and tenderness of the conception. And with all due deference to Mr. Hall Caine's compliments to Miss Eastlake, I cannot help thinking that the ideal Mona Mylrea was Miss Winifred Emery. Need I speak of "Hypatia" and Miss Emery's suitability to the part of the beautiful young pagan? Surely not. The only imaginative artist among our younger actresses would assuredly make Theon's daughter a very different being from the Girton young lady dabbling in amateur Greek theatricals whom Miss Neilson presented to our astonished gaze. The pity is that Mr. Ogilvie should have destroyed the possibility of any further version of Kingsley's romance by his own melodrama on the subject. Else why should we not have had, say, an adaptation by Mr. Buchanan, with Mr. Kyrle Bellew as Philammon and Miss Emery as Hypatia, Miss Janet Achurch as Pelagia, and Mr. Tree as the delightful cynic, Raphael.

Why expatiate on "The Scarlet Letter" in this connection? Of course Miss Emery was born to impersonate Hester Prynne. But it is useless, and worse than useless, to speak of the future of the imaginative drama, or to dwell on possible triumphs in it. Tragedy has been dead in England these twenty years, and at the Lyceum Mr. Irving finds it hard enough to keep alive even the poetic and romantic drama. When he is gone, who shall fill his place? who can hope to give us the classical drama? If no successor is forthcoming, how of Miss Emery's future? True, she is the only one among our younger actresses, whose gifts lie in this direction; but what can she do without a manager? The future of the poetic drama may depend on Mr. Forbes Kobertson and Miss Winifred Emery; but what can the lady do if her only possible colleague wastes his fine talent on paltry plays of Sardou and Robertson?

On Miss Emery's comedy powers I have barely time to touch. In modern plays her comedy is very dainty and charming witness her Cynthia Greenslade; and in old comedy, too, she is delightfully piquant. Her Lady Teazle, her Miss Hardcastle, both prove this; as does one of her earlier successes at the Vaudeville - her Lydia Languish, played to Mr. Henry Neville's Captain Absolute. But Miss Tomboy suggested even higher possibilities. The actress's irresistible fun and high spirits in this part seemed to foretell a very noteworthy future for Miss Emery in comic roles of some breadth of humour. Of course, nothing certain can be said at present; but were Miss Emery to make an adorable Peggy in Wycherley's "Country Girl," or play with success either of the girls in "The Inconstant," I for one should not be surprised.

For the actress's comedy seems more robust than might have been expected from an artist of so delicate a style in serious plays, and I can fancy even the scabrous works of Mrs. Aphra Behn being made endurable by Miss Emery's art. As it is, we can only wait and hope that, in the future, this charming actress may have as many delights in store for us, in both comic and pathetic parts, as she has given us in the past.

W. A. LEWIS BETTANY.

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(The Westminster Budget [London, UK] - November 12th, 1897)
A CHAT WITH MISS WINIFRED EMERY

Miss Winifred Emery does not like being interviewed although a correspondent of the Budget succeeded in doing so prior to the production in London of "The Little Minister." And the reason she gives for her objection is logical enough - " I do not care for publicity; not in the least. My nightly work at the theatre entirely satisfies me in that respect, and the knowledge that people may obtain of me from across the footlights surely may suffice them. Anyhow, it suffices me. Besides, the ordinary interviewer - pray forgive me - makes so many mistakes. Accounts of me have been published destitute of a shadow of truth."

"Ah! but you will be kind enough to let bygones be bygones," I pleaded. "Just now your name is on every lip, and the interest felt in your assumption of Babbie so great. And after the wonderful accounts which have reached us from America of 'The Little Minister,' playgoers can talk of little else. May I ask you at least a few questions on the subject?"

Miss Emery, notwithstanding her objection to being interviewed, was good-natured enough to turn a willing ear to my appeal. "I would answer any question on the subject," she replied. "Only perhaps it would be foolish. You will make the acquaintance of 'The Little Minister' so shortly, and if I told you all - why, I should rob you of the pleasures of anticipation. But this you may say if you like: that I have never played in a piece which has moved me to tears one minute, and laughter the next to such a degree as this one does, and if our audiences appreciate work with heart in it, 'The Little Minister' cannot fail."

"You must dearly love acting, or you could not bring things home to your audience as you never fail to do."

"Oh, yes, I love my work; no woman could love it better. But, strange to say, unlike some other actresses, I could be quite happy without it. You must know that our profession is an arduous one. To play a trying part eight times a week - why, it's herculean labour for a woman not over-strong. And everything that I do in my daily life has to be done with the evening's work kept in view. If you wish to play with freshness and vigour in the evening you must husband your resources during the day. The voice must rest; the body must rest. Sometimes I fear that my friends and acquaintances must imagine that I wish to avoid them. Before my marriage it was so different. I had so very little to interfere with my work. But times have changed. Now, my house and family divide my days and my attention."

"You would be an irreparable loss to the stage."

"Oh! Do not think that because I say I should be happy away from my work that I mean to give it up. In ten years, maybe, I shall feel quite ready to take up my abode in the country with my husband and children. A pretty home, with a large garden full of flowers, not very far from London - I love London - that is my ambition."

"You have not regretted, I hope, entering into, management?

"Far from it. Our experience has been a delightful one. There is, however, one thorn among the roses - I cannot help regretting that actor-managership is at times so all-absorbing. The tax upon my husband's strength is great. The stage-management is done altogether by Mr. Maude, save for a few suggestions from the author. In the good old days, I believe, the direction and production of a new play was left almost entirely in the author's hands. Every now and then, therefore, I pine for the good old days."

"Those days," I put in, "had much to recommend them."

Miss Emery smiled the rare and beautiful smile which bewitches us upon the stage. "I think I am old-fashioned," she continued. "There are so many views of my father which I still hold. He was, as you may know, an actor of remarkable talent. To give any incompetent beginner a part because he or she happens to look it is, in my mind, such a mistake. The result to the play may not be harmful - but it is to the beginner. I don't care, either, for the present system of understudying. Formerly an actress understudied a part after the production of the play. Now she attends every rehearsal before a play is out, and is allowed, moreover, to sit 'in front' as often as she chooses, and watch the actress she is understudying. The result is this - that the beginner may become little better than a parrot! The voice, the gestures, the faults, as well as the good points of an actress she reproduces. Yes," repeated Miss Emery, "the result is fatal. An actress, if she is worth anything, must be herself - must be sincere, and live her own dramatic life, so to speak.''

Miss Emery, I thought, spoke like a book. And I meditated that, without doubt, the secret of her own extraordinary success is that she has always been content to show us her own charming self, and no one else's self. Altogether, she has struck out a line of her own and has steered clear of the advertising spirit of so many modern actresses. She is a star, but has never posed as one. Her great but most modest pride is in her work. Little wonder that the respect and affection of the public have been meted out to her in no ordinary degree,

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