BEHIND THE CURTAIN: THE SPECTACULAR RHETORIC OF THE VICTORIAN ACTRESS by ...

218 Pages·2014·12.47 MB·English

by  Rachael Zeleny

BEHIND THE CURTAIN: THE SPECTACULAR RHETORIC OF THE
VICTORIAN ACTRESS

by
Rachael Baitch Zeleny

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English

Spring 2014

© 2014 Rachael Baitch Zeleny
All Rights Reserved
UMI Number: 3631224
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BEHIND THE CURTAIN: THE SPECTACULAR RHETORIC OF THE
VICTORIAN ACTRESS

by

Rachael Baitch Zeleny

Approved: __________________________________________________________
John Ernest, Ph.D.
Chair of the Department of English

Approved: __________________________________________________________
George H. Watson, Ph.D.
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

Approved: __________________________________________________________
James G. Richards, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education
I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Signed: __________________________________________________________
Melissa Ianetta, Ph.D.
Professor in charge of dissertation

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Signed: __________________________________________________________
Margaret Stetz, Ph.D.
Member of dissertation committee

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Signed: __________________________________________________________
Matthew Kinservik, Ph.D.
Member of dissertation committee

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Signed: __________________________________________________________
Kristie Fleckenstein, Ph.D.
Member of dissertation committee
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the incredible support,
encouragement, wit, and guidance that were so generously and selflessly given to me
by my friend and my director, Melissa Ianetta. I cannot imagine where I would be, or
more importantly, where I wouldn’t be, without her in my life. I am also very grateful
to the other members of my committee: Margaret Stetz, Matt Kinservik, and Kristie
Fleckenstein. I couldn’t have asked for a group of individuals that were more invested
in my success, and my happiness. I have never been more proud of my prose than
when it has survived the “Margaret-machine” and my love affair with Nance Oldfield
would have never come to life without my course in eighteenth-century drama with
Dr. Kinservik. Experiencing a conference panel and an independent study with Kristie
Fleckenstein, literally and figuratively, helped me to “see” my dissertation in an
entirely new light.
I also want to acknowledge the support I received from numerous sources to assist me
in gathering archival materials. I especially wish to thank Mark Samuels Lasner, for
in one way or another, my entire dissertation can be found in your beautiful, beautiful
collection. I also wish to thank the curators of the Ellen Terry museum in Smallhythe,
UK for their assistance in helping me find material relating to Terry’s role as Nance
Oldfield. Finally, I wish to thank University of Delaware’s English Department and
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the Office of Graduate studies for the very generous support I received so that I might
travel to London and Boston for my research.
In addition to the support I have received academically, I would like to thank my
family for always being, as my mom would say, “a soft place to fall.” The swims with
my mom, the encouraging texts from my dad, my morning talks with my sister Megan
and my video chats with my sister Jackie were the things I looked forward to every
day. I feel as though this degree at least partially belongs to my husband, Brian.
Managing my anxiety, supporting me, finding my keys and predicting the foods I will
want from the grocery store are no easy tasks and yet he did them well and without
complaint. I love you all and thank you.

 I wish to dedicate this dissertation to my daughter, Juliette. Though it began before
she was born, and it was finished while she was still very small, my words belong to
her. I hope that she takes the world by storm, and knows that, to me, she is the most
spectacular thing of all.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... vii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ix
Chapter
1 BEHIND THE CURTAIN: THE RHETORIC OF THE ACTRESS IN
VICTORIAN ENGLAND…………………………………………………..…1
2 ACTRESS FOR SALE: THE VISUAL RHETORIC OF THE FEMALE
PERFORMER FROM PAINTINGS TO POSTCARDS ................................. 26

Painted Status: Early Visual Strategies for Asserting
Legitimacy…………………………………………….……………...………30
Actress in the Mail: The Theatrical Postcard………….……………………..36
Painting a Legend: Pre-Raphaelite Ellen Terry……………...……….……....60

3 “MAD TO ACT”: MAGDALEN VANSTONE IN WILKIE COLLINS'S
NO NAME….....…….……..............................................................................79

Setting the Stage: Reading Fiction as Rhetorical Theory……………….……84
Blurring the Lines: The Theater and Middle-Class Women……………….…93
Dangerous Persuasions: Magdalen's Revenge……...…………………….…110
4 "SELF-APPOINTED EXECUTIONER": RHETORICAL AGENCY IN
GEORGE PASTON'S A WRITER OF BOOKS..............................................117

Performing Innocence: Bess on Trial……...……….…………….………….122
Looking the Part: An Object of Delicacy……………………………………128
“Had this Wonderful Barmaid Really Quoted Bacon?”: Modeling
Correctness……...………………………………...………………………..140

5 ELLEN TERRY’S THEATRICAL CLASSROOM: LESSONS FROM
NANCE OLDFIELD…………………………………...…………………...149

Buying Nance Oldfield: A Business Opportunity………………….……..…152

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The Brains of the Outfit: Costume Design and Actress-as-
Intellectual……………..………………………………………………….....166
Oldfield Offstage………………………………………….……………....…176
CONCLUSION..…………………………………………………. …….…………..186
REFERENCES...……………………...……………………………..………………194
Appendix
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE SOURCE MATERIALS……………….207
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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 : Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Maude, Mr. and Mrs. F.R. Benson and Mr. and Mrs.
Arthur Bouchier …………………………………………………………...45

Figure 2: Mr. and Mrs. Henry, Mr and Mrs. Gerald Lawrence, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis
Waller …………………………………………………...……………..….46

Figure 3: Mr. Harry as “Jack Meadows” and Miss Phyllis Dare as
“Eileen Cavanagh” in “The Arcadians” ……………..………………...… 47

Figure 4: Miss Dorothea Baird, Master George Hersee, Miss Hilda Trevelyan and
Miss W. Geoghan……………………………….……………..………….48

Figure 5: Miss Ellaline Terriss and Baby ………………………………...…………53

Figure 6: Miss Agnes Fraser and Baby………………………………....…………...54

Figure 7: Terry as Guinevere.……………………………………………...……..…65

Figure 8: Clarisse De Maulucon (Robespierre)……………………………..………66

Figure 9: Miss Ellen Terry as Queen Katharine.…………………………..………..69

Figure 10: Miss Ellen Terry Off to America with Miss Edith Craig (her daughter) as
Stage Manager………………………………………………..……..……75

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ABSTRACT
This dissertation studies late Victorian actresses and their versatile strategies
for obtaining the public’s affection and respect. Drawing from the methods used by
theater historians, art historians and literary critics, I conduct a rhetorical analysis of
the Victorian actress in order to 1) validate the importance of examining figures
outside of the parameters of respectable society in our histories of rhetoric, 2)
demonstrate the ways in which employing multiple scholarly traditions—art history,
theater history and feminist rhetoric—reveals those interdisciplinary rhetorical
arguments made by public women as exemplified by actresses, and 3) enrich our
understanding of the trajectory of women’s entry into public spaces. By evaluating the
full spectrum of materials that existed during the nineteenth century, we are better able
to understand how actresses and their supporters made arguments about women’s
rightful place in the public sphere. To this end, the opening chapter, “Actress for Sale:
The Visual Rhetoric of the Female Performer from Paintings to Postcards,” considers
three visual constructions of ethos available to actresses—domestic ethos, Pre-
Raphaelite Ethos and professional ethos—and determines how actresses might
appropriate the qualities of each for their own benefit. Exploring how the most
subversive of these tropes, the Pre-Raphaelite Stunner, was rendered through text,
“The “Born Actress” in Wilkie Collins’ss No Name: Natural Acting and the Rise of
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