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| Maud Jeffries (1869-1946) |
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In Press and Literature |
(Black and White [London], 15th June, 1901)
THE GIRL FROM DOWN THERE
FROM A TENNESSEE PLANTATION TO THE LONDON STAGE
The Southern States of America have given us many a charming singer and actress. Who has forgotten the wonderful high notes of the Californian nightingale, Miss Ellen Beach Yaw? At the Queen's Hall, and later at the Savoy, thousands and thousands of willing listeners gave up their hearts to so rare a voice. Miss Maud Jeffries comes, not from California, but from Tennessee, and to Tennessee she has now gone back for a rest.
You remember the old chorus of Ellie Rhee, which some have set as "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and how we used to shout the words:
Carry me back to old Tennessee,
There let me live and die
Among the rigs of yellow, yellow corn,
When the bloom is on the rye.
Well, Miss Maud Jeffries has had enough of old England, and longs for the sunlight and sweet warmth of old Tennessee. The sunlight got into her heart and into her eyes as well long before she left to cross the Atlantic. That is how she has such a wonderful eye for colour. You remember the wonderful magenta hair in Marianne, and how a few crack-brained critics thought it all wrong. Some blamed Mr. Tree, some blamed Mr. Willie Clarkson, and some Miss Jeffries. None thought of blaming themselves, or of noticing how splendid was the success of this rich note of colour. Mrs. Brown-Potter, with all her red and passionate dresses, never did anything half so daring - and nothing venture nothing win!
Shakespeare hardly suits an American, unless one is cosmopolitan like Ada Rehan, so that the all-but failure of her appearance in Twelfth Night was not unexpected. Mr. Tree, however, would hear of no criticism, and has always maintained that she acted her part to perfection; and after all he probably knows best.
England, of course, first made her acquaintance as Mercia in The Sign of the Cross. Her beauty and the intense sympathy of her impersonation brought thousands to the theatre who had hitherto shunned its very sight. So tremendous was her fascination, indeed, that the walls between church and stage threatened to topple down for ever. Others of less religious mind also were fascinated by the wonderful American. One undergraduate in Oxford had twenty photographs of Miss Mabel Love on his mantelpiece. It was indeed a memorable sight to see him solemnly remove them from their place of honour, and put up in their stead thirty of Miss Maud Jeffries.
The subject of these few remarks has no hesitation in owning to almost thirty-one years, and puts her first appearance as an actress to the year 1875 when she amused the darkies on her father's plantation in Cashoma country Mississippi. At the age of twelve she organised a great equestrian performance, in which she took the part of the White Lily of the Prairie, who was carried off by the Redskins till Jariet Joe, the Terror of the Plains, came to her rescue. The charge to see this wonderful performance was six pins, and the pin-money of Miss Maud Jeffries, as manageress of the show, would have been beyond the most sanguine expectations had not the treasurer decamped. The next appearance was in some amateur theatricals at a ladies college in Columbia, Tennessee, where Miss Jeffries played the part of Rudolph in Leahy the Forsaken.
An application to Mr. Augustin Daly gave her a chance of appearing professionally in A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It, but when she saw Wilson Barrett act, no company but Wilson Barrett's was good enough for her. That's how she came to England.
Who will take Miss Maud Jeffries' place as leading lady to Mr. Tree remains yet to be seen. It may be questioned whether anyone has proved so successful a foil or counterpart to the most individual of actor-managers as Mrs. Brown-Potter; but that lady has the gipsy instinct for roaming, and Her Majesty's seems to be a fixed place of entertainment.
Miss Lily Brayton certainly has won golden opinions through her acting in Twelfth Night. Possessed as she is of a very beautiful face, she has quickly lost all the amateurishness which still seems to cling round Miss Dorothea Baird, the closest parallel to Miss Brayton of whom we can think.
Anyhow, Her Majesty's Theatre will not lose its usual crowd at the pit-door, much as Miss Jeffries will be missed. For the present, Madame Bernhardt and M. Coquelin hold the boards at Mr. Tree's Temple of art, and though L'Aiglon is to be the main attraction, we shall probably have an opportunity of seeing one or two old friends as well. Curiously enough, M. Coquelin has expressed to a recent interviewer his desire some day to play the part of Malvolio, and his regret that he has been unable to see Mr. Tree in the part. A rendering of Twelfth Night by French actors would indeed be worth going to see, and on the whole would be much better suited to the French temperament than so essentially Teutonic a play as Hamlet.
Meanwhile we all wish Miss Jeffries bon voyage and trust that the yellow, yellow rigs will not keep her for ever. Tennessee is all very well as a home, but there are appreciative and affectionate audiences in England.
(The Decatur Review, 12th December, 1897)
MISS JEFFRIES
Success of a Talented Southern Girl
After a Triumph In England She Goes to Australia to Support Wilson Barrett
Miss Maud Jeffries, who is going to Australia to support Mr. Barrett, was born In 1870, "way down south in Dixie," on a cotton plantation in Coahoma County. Miss., and until she reached the age of 12 years she had never seen a city or a village of any kind. The solitude of the surroundings in which she lived so happily was doubtless the means of inculcating in her a love of home, parents and brothers which to this day is one of the most marked of the many beautiful and worthy traits in Miss Jeffries' character.
At this period in her life she was sent to a large college In Columbia, Tenn., where she remained until her nineteenth year. During her school days all the entertainments promoted were placed in her hands to conduct, and every week she was relied upon for an interesting programme for the Friday night concert. Monetary lasses of a very serious nature made it necessary for her to earn her own living, and, looking upon the stage as one of the most likely vocations, she wrote to Mr. Augustin Daly, and as a result was given work with him in New York.
Among the various plays she performed in under his management were "A Midsummer Night's Dream" And "As You Like It." It was about this time that Miss Jeffries first saw Mr. Wilson Barrett act, and the romantic element surrounding the play in which he took part so delighted her that she felt nothing would satisfy her until she became a member of his company.
The outcome of a communication to Mr. Barrett was an offer from him which Miss Jeffries immediately accepted, and she then made her first journey to England, playing a variety of small parts and understudying some of the larger ones, her first appearance in that country being at Liverpool. Miss Jeffries then went to London, starting at the Olympic theater, and it was shortly after this that Mr. Barrett experienced some little difficulty about a leading lady. Miss Jeffries received an invitation to Mr. Barrett's home, where a few friends had assembled, and after dinner, she was asked in a casual way to give the end of the second act of "Claudian." This was done, those present arranging themselves round and forming an audience, and at the conclusion they all expressed the utmost pleasure at her performance.
It was then that Mr. Barrett told her he wished her to play "leading business." She was so utterly surprised at the proposition that she burst out sobbing and said she would not do it, for she not only felt incapable of accomplishing it successfully, but she did not believe in such "jumps." Miss Jeffries immediately cabled home to America, telling her parents that she was leaving England by the next ship. The following day, as Mr. Barrett knew, she was lunching with some American friends, and he sent word to them to do all in their power to persuade her to accept his offer. Miss Jeffries friends did nothing but talk to her of the advantages which would accrue to her from taking such a position, and, eventually, out of sheer desperation, she accepted, and it may safely be said has never regretted it.
She had 14 leading parts to get ready in three weeks and since then she has been constantly with Mr. Barrett, a period of about seven years. During this time she has played many parts and has appeared in the following plays: "Hamlet," "Othello," "Ben-my-Chree," "The Color Sergeant," "Chatterton," "The Miser," "People's Idol," "The Acrobat," "Jenny the Barber," "A Clerical Error." "Our Pleasant Sins," "The Bondman," "Pharoah," "The Silver King," "The Stranger," "Claudian," "Virginius," and lastly "The Sign of the Cross." Miss Jeffries prefers "Virginius," chiefly because it departs somewhat from the beaten track, the interest not lying solely in the love of Icilius for Virginia, but as showing the great love between father and daughter.
The reason Miss Jeffries turned her attention to the stage instead of teaching, which exercised a strong fascination for her, was because her parents felt she was more fitted for such a calling. And they had a good chance of judging, for in early youth — her years could not have numbered more than five in this great world — one of the joys of her father and the many friends assembled for the shooting season was to coax her out of her cozy bed after their day's sport and have her recite some simple or dramatic old poem.
She is passionately fond of an athletic and outdoor life, and her innumerable accomplishments — especially with the gun — are of no mean order. The sweet disposition of Miss Jeffries carries everything before her and makes her loved and respected by everybody.