Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/86

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1891, 8vo. 15. ‘How in 219 B.C. Buddhism entered China,’ London [1891?], 8vo. 16. ‘Mélanges: on the Ancient History of Glass and Coal and the Legend of Nü-Kwa's Coloured Stones in China’ [1891?], 8vo. 17. ‘Sur deux Ères inconnus de l'Asie Antérieure,’ 330 et 251 B.C.,’ 1891, 8vo. 18. ‘The Silk Goddess of China and her Legend,’ London, 1891, 8vo. 19. ‘Catalogue of Chinese Coins from the VIIth Cent. B.C. to A.D. 621,’ ed. R. S. Poole, London, 1892, 8vo. 20. ‘Beginnings of Writing in Central and Eastern Asia,’ London, 1894, 8vo. 21. ‘Western Origin of the Early Chinese Civilisation,’ London, 1894, 8vo. Many of these works were treatises reprinted from the ‘Journal’ of the Royal Asiatic Society and other publications. He also edited the ‘Babylonian and Oriental Record’ from 1886.

[Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soc. 1895, p. 214; Athenæum, 1894, ii. 531; Times, 15 Oct. 1894.]

E. I. C.

TERRISS, WILLIAM (1847–1897), actor, who met his death by assassination, was son of George Herbert Lewin, barrister-at-law (a connection of Mrs. Grote, the wife of the historian, and a grandson of Thomas Lewin, private secretary to Warren Hastings). His true name was William Charles James Lewin. Born at 7 Circus Road, St. John's Wood, London, on 20 Feb. 1847, he was educated at Christ's Hospital, which he entered 4 April 1854 and quitted at Christmas 1856. Having attended other schools, he joined the merchant service, but ran away after a fortnight's experience as a sailor. On coming, by the death of his father, into a small patrimony, he studied medicine, went out as a partner in a large sheep farm in the Falkland Isles, and tried tea-planting at Chittagong and other commercial experiments, in the course of which he had experience of a shipwreck.

Terriss played as an amateur at the Gallery of Illustration, Regent Street; but his first appearance on the regular stage took place in 1867 at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Birmingham. At the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Tottenham Street, on 21 Sept. 1868, under the Bancroft management, he was first seen in London as Lord Cloudwrays in a revival of Robertson's ‘Society.’ In 1871 he was at Drury Lane, where he had a small part in Halliday's ‘Rebecca,’ produced on 23 Sept. On a revival of the same piece on 13 Feb. 1875 he played Wilfred of Ivanhoe. On 21 Sept. 1872 he was the original Malcolm Græme in Halliday's ‘Lady of the Lake.’ He also played Doricourt many consecutive nights in a version of the ‘Belle's Stratagem,’ reduced to three acts, and produced at the Strand at the close of 1873. At the Strand he was the first Julian Rothsay in Robert Reece's ‘May or Dolly's Dilemma,’ on 4 April 1874. Back again at Drury Lane, he was Tressilian in a revival of Halliday's ‘Amy Robsart,’ and on 26 Sept. the first Sir Kenneth in Halliday's ‘Richard Cœur de Lion’ (the ‘Talisman’). He played Romeo to the Juliet of Miss Wallis, was at the Princess's on 3 Feb. 1875 Ned Clayton in a revival of Byron's ‘Lancashire Lass,’ and returned the same month to Drury Lane. In Boucicault's ‘Shaughraun’ he was the first Captain Molineux on 4 Sept. On 12 Aug. 1876 he was at the Adelphi as Beamish MacCoul in a revival of Boucicault's ‘Arrah na Pogue.’ On 18 Nov. he was the first Goldsworthy in ‘Give a Dog a Bad Name’ by Leopold Lewis, and on 11 Aug. 1877 the first Rev. Martin Preston in Paul Merritt's ‘Golden Plough.’ On 22 Sept. he was at Drury Lane Julian Peveril in W. G. Wills's adaptation from Scott's ‘Peveril of the Peak’ (‘England in the Days of Charles the Second’). He then played Leicester in a further revival of ‘Amy Robsart.’ At the Court on 30 March 1878 he played what was perhaps his best part, Squire Thornhill in Wills's ‘Olivia,’ adapted from the ‘Vicar of Wakefield,’ and subsequently reproduced, with Terriss in his original part, at the Lyceum. At the Haymarket on 16 Sept. he was the first Sydney Sefton in Byron's ‘Conscience Money,’ and on 2 Dec. the first Fawley Denham in Albery's ‘Crisis.’ He also played Captain Absolute, and Romeo to the Juliet of Miss Neilson. On the opening of the St. James's under the management of Messrs. Hare and Kendal on 4 Oct. 1879 he was the first Comte de la Roque in Mr. Valentine Prinsep's ‘Monsieur le Duc,’ and Jack Gambier in the ‘Queen's Shilling.’ At the Crystal Palace, on 17 April 1879, he was Ruy Blas in an adaptation by himself of Victor Hugo's play so named. On 18 Sept. 1880 he appeared at the Lyceum in the ‘Corsican Brothers’ as Château-Renaud to the brothers Dei Franchi of (Sir) Henry Irving, and on 3 Jan. 1881 was Sinnatus in Tennyson's ‘Cup.’ In the subsequent performance of ‘Othello’ by Irving, Booth, and Miss Ellen Terry, he was Cassio. Mercutio and Don Pedro in ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ followed. In 1883–4 Terriss accompanied Sir Henry Irving to America. During Miss Mary Anderson's tenure of the Lyceum, 1884–5, he played Romeo to her Juliet, Claude Melnotte to her Pauline, and other parts.