Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 2).djvu/274

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Portraits of Celebrities.
275

MRS. W. H. KENDAL.


Age 17.Age 27.Age 33.
From a Photo by W. & D. Downey.From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry.From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey.


I T will be safe to say that there is scarcely a reader of The Strand Magazine
Present Day.
From a Photo. by Falk, New York.
to whom the features of Mrs. Kendal will not be familiar. Her maiden name was Margaret Robertson, "Our Madge," a famous name; her brother, T. W. Robertson, having enriched our dramatic literature with that series of pure and brilliant comedies, "School," "Caste," "Ours," &c., which may be said to have made the fame and fortune of the Bancrofts at the little Prince of Wales's Theatre, in Tottenham Court-road. The name by which she is known to the theatrical public is a nom de théâtre, her proper designation being Mrs. W. Hunter Grimstone. Mrs. Kendal commenced her dramatic training early; she was no more than four years of age when she took the part of the Blind Child in "The Seven Poor Travellers." Thirteen years afterwards, in 1865, she made her appearance at the Haymarket Theatre—a theatre associated with so many of her triumphs—as Ophelia to the late Walter Montgomery's Hamlet. Engagements in the provinces, and afterwards at Drury Lane and the Haymarket again, followed; each fresh engagement being marked by a distinct advance in her powers. Her successes during her subsequent career are fresh in the remembrance of playgoers. Mrs. Kendal's triumphs in the United States are too recent, and our space too limited, to need recapitulation here. She goes again to the States this year, to the regret of her numerous admirers, who are looking forward eagerly to her return, when it is hoped she will once more take her place at the head of a London company.