Ellen Terry

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Terry

Charles Kean and Ellen Terry in 1856

Ellen Terry in 1856

Ellen Terry at Sixteen

“The Sisters” (Kate and Ellen Terry)

Ellen Terry at Seventeen

George Frederick Watts, R.A.

Ellen Terry as Helen in “The Hunchback”

Henry Irving

Head of a Young Girl (Ellen Terry)

Henry Irving

Ellen Terry as Portia

Henry Irving as Matthias in “The Bells”

Henry Irving as Philip of Spain

Henry Irving as Hamlet

Lily Langtry

William Terriss as Squire Thornhill in “Olivia”

Ellen Terry as Ophelia

Ellen Terry as Beatrice

Sir Henry Irving

Irving as Louis XI

Ellen Terry as Henrietta Maria

Ellen Terry as Camma in “The Cup”

Ellen Terry as Iolanthe

Ellen Terry as Letitia Hardy in “The Belle’s Stratagem”

Edwin Thomas Booth

Ellen Terry as Juliet

Two Portraits of Ellen Terry as Beatrice

Ellen Terry’s Favourite Photograph as Olivia

Eleanora Duse with Lenbach’s Child

Ellen Terry as Margaret in “Faust”

Ellen Terry as Ellaline in “The Amber Heart”

Miss Ellen Terry in 1883

The Bas-relief Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson

Miss Terry and Sir Henry Irving

Sarah Holland, Ellen Terry’s Dresser

Miss Rosa Corder

Miss Ellen Terry with her Fox-terriers

Miss Ellen Terry in 1898

Sir Henry Irving

Miss Ellen Terry

Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth

Sir Henry Irving

Ellen Terry as Lucy Ashton in “Ravenswood”

Henry Irving as Cardinal Wolsey in “Henry VIII.”

Ellen Terry as Nance Oldfield

Ellen Terry as Kniertje in “The Good Hope”

Ellen Terry as Imogen

Henry Irving as Becket

Sir Henry Irving

Ellen Terry as Rosamund in “Becket”

Ellen Terry as Guinevere in “King Arthur”

“Olivia”

Miss Terry’s Garden at Winchelsea

Ellen Terry as Hermione in “The Winter’s Tale”

INTRODUCTION

    “When I read the book, the biography famous,
    And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man’s life? 
    And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life? 
    (As if any man really knew aught of my life!)
    Why even I myself, I often think, know little or nothing of my real
      life. 
    Only a few hints—­a few diffused faint clues and indirections
    I seek ... to trace out here.”

    Walt Whitman.

For years I have contemplated telling this story, and for years I have put off telling it.  While I have delayed, my memory has not improved, and my recollections of the past are more hazy and fragmentary than when it first occurred to me that one day I might write them down.