Macbeth: Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre (1889?).

"Miss Terry surprised everyone with an entirely new and scholarly rendering of the part. Mrs. Siddons has up to now been thought the ideal Lady Macbeth, but it may seriously be questioned if Miss Terry’s conception is not truer to nature and truer to the author’s own idea. Miss Terry makes Lady Macbeth a true woman, who for devoted love she bears her husband will demand any depth of wickedness and depravity, but with one main object in view – her lord’s advancement. The scenery is magnificent. . . [and] the melodious strains of Sir Arthur Sullivan will find no lack of warm admirers.” Theatrical Gossip, Blackburn Standard, Jan. 5. 1889, 19th C. British Library Newspapers.

The sombre colors of the costume and the subdued lighting contribute markedly to the dark tone of the play. HMR