Irving and the Lyceum
In 1878 Henry Irving, the new manager of the Lyceum Theatre, engaged the 30-year-old Terry as his leading lady at a generous salary, beginning with Ophelia opposite Irving's Hamlet. She again earned good notices and became fast friends with Irving, who also enjoyed her children. She next starred as Pauline in The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Lady Anne in Richard III, Queen Henrietta Maria in Wills's drama Charles I (all in 1879). The Times said of Terry's acting in Paul Terrier's All is Vanity, or the Cynic's Defeat the same year, "Miss Terry's Iris was a performance of inimitable charm, full of movement, ease, and laughter ... the most exquisite harmony and natural grace ... such an Iris might well have turned the head of Diogenes himself." Their production of The Merchant of Venice, opening at the end of 1879, ran for an unusual 250 nights, and success followed success in the Shakespeare canon as well as in Tennyson, Bulwer-Lytton, Reade, Willis, Sardou and other classic and contemporary playwrights. She was soon regarded as the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. In partnership with Irving, she reigned as such for over 20 years until they left the Lyceum in 1902.
In 1880, at the Lyceum, she played the title role in an adaptation of King René's Daughter called Iolanthe. The Era wrote: "Nothing more winning and enchanting than the grace, and simplicity, and girlish sweetness of the blind Iolanthe as shown by Miss Ellen Terry has within our memory been seen upon the stage. The assumption was delightfully perfect. ... Exquisite ... exercise of the peculiarly fascinating powers of Miss Ellen Terry, who achieved an undoubted triumph ... and was cheered again and again". Her roles in the early 1880s included Camma in Tennyson's short tragedy The Cup (1881, with costumes by Godwin), Desdemona in Othello also in 1881, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1882), Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, another of her signature roles (1882 and often thereafter), Jeanette in The Lyons Mail (1883) and the title part in Reade's romantic comedy Nance Oldfield the same year. Terry made her American debut in 1883, playing Queen Henrietta opposite Irving in Charles I. Among the other roles she portrayed on this and six subsequent North American tours with Irving were Jeanette, Ophelia, Beatrice, Viola and her most famous role, Portia.
Terry's Viola in Twelfth Night (1884) was cut short by a dangerous infection that struck on opening night. Her sister Marion took over the role and also substituted for her in a revival of Willis's Olivia, when Terry was again ill. In 1885, however, the theatre had its biggest commercial hit in a long-running adaptation of Faust by Wills (1885), with Ellen as Margaret. Terry played Lady Macbeth in the Lyceum's "lavish" Macbeth (1888, with incidental music by Arthur Sullivan), resplendent in a gown by Alice Comyns Carr covered in green beetle wings; John Singer Sargent painted her in the dress. The next year she was the mother of the Comte St Valery (played by her son Edward) in The Dead Heart by Watts Phillips, then Katherine of Aragon in Irving's grand-scale production of Henry VIII (1892), Cordelia in King Lear the same year, Rosamund de Clifford in Becket by Alfred Tennyson (1893), Guinevere in King Arthur by J. Comyns Carr, with incidental music by Sullivan (1895).
In 1895, Irving became the first person knighted for theatrical activities, proud of the recognition that this brought for his profession. By this time, however, the Lyceum was in debt, its scenery warehouse burned, destroying 44 productions, and Irving suffered a permanent knee injury, marking the beginning of ongoing health issues. Also, by this time, Terry's memory was becoming a problem, and she increasingly relied on prompters. She played Imogen in Cymbeline (1896), the title character in Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau's Madame Sans-Gêne (1897). Terry's children joined the Lyceum company as actors, Edith from 1887 for several years, and Edward from 1889 to 1897, but both eventually retired from the stage to go on to other careers. Edith, among other endeavors, created costumes for Terry into the 20th century. In 1899, Terry toured as Desdemona and the title character in The Lady of Lyons but was back at the Lyceum as Volumnia in Coriolanus in 1901 and as Portia in Merchant in 1902. The Lyceum was bankrupt and closed. Their last performance together was in a charity matinee at Drury Lane in 1903, again as Portia and Shylock.
Whether Irving and Terry ever had a romantic relationship has been the subject of much speculation. According to Sir Michael Holroyd's book about Irving and Terry, A Strange Eventful History, after Irving's death, Terry stated that she and Irving had been lovers and that: "We were terribly in love for a while". Irving was separated, but not divorced from his spiteful wife, who kept their children from him. Terry had separated from Wardell in 1881, and Irving was godfather to both her children. They travelled on holiday together, and Irving wrote tender letters to Terry. Moira Shearer's biography of Terry calls it "romantic fiction" and notes that biographies by Laurence Irving, Olive Terry and Roger Manvell all disclaim the idea. She also points out that in his later years, Irving had found a loving partner in Eliza Aria. In London, Terry lived in Earls Court with her children and pets during the 1880s, first in Longridge Road, then Barkston Gardens in 1889, but she kept country homes. In 1900, she bought her farmhouse in Small Hythe, Kent, where she lived for the rest of her life.
