Ellen Terss whose death on last Saturda must have struck chord of personal loss to all lovers of the beautiful in the world, says invher autobiography, "We players know quite well, and accept' with philosophy the fact that when we have done we are forgotten.
We are Sometimes told that we live too much in the public eye, and enjoy too much public favour and attention; 5 but at least we make up by Teasing no trace of oar short and merry reign behind us when It Those sentiments can hardly be said to be expressive of the public attitude towards the great. Ellen Terry. And yet, {The -Story of My Life" written by her, which found its way a few days ago to the desk of the "Woman's Page" had a little trace of irony inside its cover, The last date which a Shanghai reader had felt inspired to hear from her own lips the charming story of 50 years in the theatre had been in August 1924, Four years later when the news of her death reached Shanghai, someone wa inspired again to read her life, Such a delightful life it is, too, packed full of vivid incidents and contacts with di interesting men and women. whole technique of life in the theatre, its informal camaraderie and struggle towards self-improve-tent in the most complete of the arts, is revealed in a simple direct style which in turn reveals as much about the character of Ellen Terry as mere incident could do.
Almost from her birth she had been trained for the stage, and she took her first part at the age of eight. Emotional to start with, Ellen Terry declares that whatever histrionic triumphs she was able to attain were due to the power of imagining what would be real in a situation. "Imagination, imagin tion, I put it first years ago, when Iwas asked what qualities I thought necessary for success upon the stag And Iam of the same opinion now. Imagination, industry and inance, the three I's are all indispensable to the actress, but of these three the greatest is, without doubt, imagination."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.