Ellen Terry, Epistolary Eccentric

The art of letter writing is like the art of acting in that it is the impression of (i)______ which
usually makes a performance convincing. Great letter writers, like great actors, have a gift for
(ii)_____, for the here and now, the depth of expression depending on its closeness to actual
processes of thought. By these criteria Ellen Terry was a remarkable letter writer indeed: her letters invariably have an air of (iii)_____.

a good writing // acting--follow actual processes of though-- spontaneity/immediacy/impro

1. spontaneity

2. immediacy (the quality that makes an event or a situation seem important or exciting because it is happening at the present time)

3. improvisation


original--youmightknowyourself

The art of letter writing is like the art of acting in that it is the impression of spontaneity which usually makes a performance convincing. Great letter writers, like great actors, have a gift for immediacy, for the here and now, the depth of expression depending on its closeness to the actual processes of thought. Even when we are not the addressee but a later reader, they make us feel that we are members of a fortunate audience. With the very best letters of all it is as if we are reading along with the original recipient yet hearing the voice of the writer at the moment of composition, occupying some theatricalized realm where the usual rules of time and space are in abeyance.

By these criteria Ellen Terry was a remarkable letter writer indeed, and her letters invariably have an air of improvisation rather than premeditation. This she achieved by being notably eccentric in her approach. Punctuation, grammar and spelling were of interest only to the extent that she could make them work for her own ends, achieving the emphases and, crucially, the sound that she wanted. Her writing is supremely, almost madly, alive with single, double and triple underlinings, crossings-out, gaps, unexpected capitals, multiple dashes, strung-out hyphens, parentheses, squiggles, blots, and sudden variations in the size of her script. It is regrettable that neither of these volumes contains any facsimiles, a weakening omission.

Any published correspondence, especially if we only have one side of it, is discontinuous, interrupted by variable periods of inactivity. And like the records of other kinds of performance, it can be a matter of chance which letters survive materially and which are placed in an archive. But which letters “survive” in the sense that they stay vital on the page has nothing at all to do with chance and everything to do with the felt life they feelingly record. The presence of Ellen Terry is palpable in these extraordinarily expressive documents, the bridge between her private existence and her appearances in theatres where emotional needs and physical practicalities were joined on a nightly basis. “*Love* – (that’s the only thing I really *do* want in the world.)”, she wrote to a friend, adding, “– & an umbrella!! One to keep me warm – the other to keep me *dry*!!!”.


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