After five years and more than 700 hours of delicate restoration work, a green gown shimmering with the iridescent wings of 1,000 beetles, which caused a sensation when Ellen Terry wore it as Lady Macbeth in 1888, is going on display again.
The dress, transforming the beautiful red-haired actor into a cross between a jewelled serpent and a medieval knight, was the talk of the town after the first night. John Singer Sargent painted Terry wearing it, and the artist's neighbour, Oscar Wilde, recalled the impact of Lady Macbeth arriving in a taxi: "The street that on a wet and dreary morning has vouchsafed the vision of Lady Macbeth in full regalia magnificently seated in a four-wheeler can never again be as other streets."
Another overawed male visitor to her dressing room recorded: "There before me was Lady Macbeth in the glorious robe of green beetle wings … Her face was wreathed in smiles, and almost the first words she said were 'Is not this a lovely robe? It is so easy, and one does not have to wear corsets.'"
Men were bowled over by Terry, both on and off stage. Her third marriage came in 1907, to James Carew, her co-star on an American tour. She was 60 and he was 30. A letter just acquired by the National Trust, on display for the first time with the restored costume at Smallhythe Place in Kent, Terry's last home, records the media hysteria when news broke of her latest adventure.
She wrote to him from Smallhythe: "The horror of it all at first when I arrived in England by that ship!!! Oh dear love, dear husband I wished we had neither of us ever been born. About 50 reporters & photographers all at me!!! I fought! … flew into the railway carriage & pulled down all the blinds – with an enormous crowd outside the windows asking me to put my head out."
By 2006 the fragile costume, preserved as part of Terry's spectacular collection of theatre memorabilia, was falling to pieces. Beetle wings were regularly found lying in the bottom of the display case. It had led a hard life, particularly given Terry's reputation for arriving late and dressing at frantic speed.
Henry Irving's Macbeth ran for more than six months to packed houses, and the costume was reused on many later tours, crossing the Atlantic at least twice. It bears the scars of being trampled on by other actors, snagging on scenery, and tears from the spectacular jewellery she also wore on stage.
The £110,000 cost of its restoration and re-display was met by donations to the National Trust. Most of the money came from visitors to the chocolate-box 16th-century house, her favourite home, where she died in 1928.
An antiques dealer in nearby Tenterden donated a box of jewel beetle wings – which the beetles shed naturally.
The repairs proved as much costume archaeology as needlework. The dress arrived at the Brighton studio of specialist textile conservator Zenzie Tinker with a box of tattered pieces. She soon realised that she was dealing with the remains of two near identical costumes, presumably patched together when both were too badly damaged to wear. She has carefully removed the later additions, restoring the original Victorian appearance of the gown. Hundreds of broken beetle wings were repaired by gluing green-dyed Japanese tissue paper on to the reverse, and stitching them back into place.
Terry was born into an acting family in 1847, first appeared on stage aged eight, and became one of the most famous actors of her day, equally admired for her beautiful voice, sensitive interpretations, and striking appearance – and followed avidly in the Hello magazines of her day for her tumultuous love life.
She first married the artist G F Watts when she was 16 and he was 30 years her senior. The marriage barely lasted a year but did result in some beautiful portraits of her. She had two children by the architect and designer Edward Godwin, who abandoned them. Her marriage to the actor and journalist Charles Kelly lasted four years, and she also had a passionate love affair with George Bernard Shaw, conducted entirely on paper. They were slightly disappointed when they finally met. The marriage to Carew lasted just two years. Her son by Godwin, Edward Gordon Craig, who became a renowned stage designer, is believed to have fathered at least 13 children by eight women.
Terry died quietly in her bed at Smallhythe Place on 21 July 1928 – and as the death mask displayed at the house proves, beautiful to the last.