Paying a Visit to the Crown

Abstract

Many hundreds of actors performed before the Queen in London theatres. A much smaller number were invited to appear in court theatricals. Only a happy few were granted the privilege of an audience with the monarch. This opening chapter looks at four of the most private, most intimate, encounters between actors and royalty. Two of them took place at the beginning of Victoria’s reign, while the other two occurred near its end. These meetings were nothing if not indiscriminate. For the Queen, as we shall see, bestowed her favour equally upon a nineteen-year-old French Jewish tragedienne, a six-year-old Yankee midget, an ageing actress of loose morals and a nearly ninety-year-old retired burlesque artiste. At least in matters of theatrical taste, Victoria, like Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, possessed an infinite variety.