Henrietta Hodson
Encyclopedia
Henrietta Hodson was an English
actress and theatre manager best known for her portrayal of comedy roles in the Victorian era
. She had a long affair with the journalist-turned-politician Henry Labouchère
, later marrying him.
, London. She was the eldest daughter of George Alfred Hodson (1822–1869), an Irish-born comedian, singer and innkeeper, and Henrietta Elizabeth Noel, an actress and singer. Her two sisters, Kate (later Mrs Charles Henry Fenton, but known on stage as Kate Gordon) and Sylvia (Mrs J. Stripling Blythe), were also actresses. Her cousin was George Musgrove
, the theatre producer.
, in 1858. In 1860, she and Henry Irving
worked together in Manchester
in The Spy, or, A Government Appointment. She joined J. H. Chute's Bath and Bristol companies in 1861 and built a reputation as a popular soubrette and burlesque actress. An 1883 New York Times article calls her "...the cleverest Aladdin
in H. J. Byron's piece I remember to have seen." In 1863, at the Theatre Royal in Bath, England, she played the role of Oberon
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
under the management of Madge Robertson
(later Mrs Kendal), who also starred in the play, and Ellen Terry
. There she also played the title role in the burlesque Endymion. In 1864, she married Richard Walter Pigeon, a solicitor and widower from Bristol, England, who had several children, and left the stage. They had one child, George Walter Noel Pigeon, born in 1865. Hodson left her husband, amid rumours of abuse, and returned to acting, using her maiden name.
In 1866, Hodson made her London début at the Prince of Wales's Theatre under the management of Marie Wilton (later Lady Bancroft) and H. J. Byron, as Prometheus in Byron's Christmas show, Pandora's Box, or, The Young Spark and the Old Flame. In 1867, with Charles Wyndham
, Irving, J. L. Toole, Lionel Brough
and Terry, Hodson joined a new company at Queen's Theatre, Long Acre
, and opened with Charles Reade
's The Double Marriage, in which Hodson played the small role of Jacintha. About 1868, she moved in with Henry Labouchère
, a member of parliament and later a journalist and playwright, who was one of the founders of Queen's Theatre, but they could not marry until years later when her first husband died. Other roles that season included Arabella Fotheringay in The First Night, Lucy in Byron's Dearer than Life and in the same author's The Lancashire Lass, and the title role in Oliver Twist. In addition to roles in other Byron pieces, she acted at Queen's in various extravaganza
s and burlesques, including La Vivandière
by W. S. Gilbert
, The Stranger by Robert Reece
, The Gnome King by William Brough, the successful The Turn of the Tide by F. C. Burnand, and Twixt Axe and Crown by Tom Taylor
. She stayed with that company for three years.
for a season, playing in many of its pieces. She starred in Reece's Whittington Junior and his Sensation Cat and other burlesques. Back at Queen's Theatre, she played Ariel in The Tempest
and Imogen in Cymbeline
. In 1871 she began to manage the Royalty again, starring there in The Honeymoon as Juliana. She instituted the innovation of using a hidden orchestra below the stage. Also in 1871, she played Lady Amaranth in John O'Keefe's Wild Oats, followed by such roles as Nydia the blind girl in John Oxenford
's version of Lord Lytton's
The Last Days of Pompeii
(1872), Dick Wastrell in Old London, adapted from Les Chevaliers du Brouillard (1873; a French dramatization of Jack Sheppard
), and Jane Theobald in Gilbert's Ought We to Visit Her? (1874). During that play, she quarrelled with Gilbert, threatened him with legal action when he described the quarrel to others, and demanded a written apology, which she then made public.
In 1875 in Liverpool
, Hodson created the title character of Clytie in Joseph Hatton's dramatization of his novel of the same name. That year she also created the lead role of Eliza Smith in Arthur Sullivan
's The Zoo
in London. She repeated the role at the Olympic Theatre
in 1876. In 1877, she became the leading actress with the Haymarket Theatre
, then managed by John Baldwin Buckstone
. There she played Cynisca in a revival of Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea. Gilbert did not wish to cast her, but under her contract with the Haymarket, she insisted on taking the role and again threatened legal action. The next Gilbert piece at the theatre was a revival of The Palace of Truth
, and Hodson insisted on playing a different role than the one Gilbert and Buckstone wished. Buckstone gave the actress notice that she would not be needed the next season. Hodson blamed Gilbert and consulted her solicitor. When he told her that she had no case, she instead complained of Gilbert's "persecution" of her and criticized his demanding directing methods in a pamphlet-letter circulated among theatre professionals. Gilbert responded quickly with an open letter, setting forth a series of letters and references that showed inaccuracies in Hodson's statements. This was published on 27 May 1877 in The Era
, along with Hodson's rebuttal. In the end, she did not appear in The Palace of Truth.
In 1878, Hodson returned to Queen's Theatre as Dolores, Countess Rysoor, in Labouchère's Fatherland, an adaptation of Victorien Sardou
's Patrie!. She retired from acting soon afterwards and lived in comfort at Alexander Pope
's Villa at Cross Deep Twickenham
, near London, with Labouchère. However, in 1881, she tutored and mentored Lillie Langtry
in her early stage work, accompanying Langtry to America the next year, although the two soon fell out, and Hodson returned to England.
In 1887, she finally married Labouchère, with whom she already had a daughter, Mary Dorothea (1884–1944). In 1903 Hodson and her husband moved to Villa Christina, near Florence, Italy. She died there at the age of 69. Her daughter, Mary Dorothea, married Carlo Emanuele Starabba, 2nd Marchese di Rudinì (the son of Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì
, prime minister of Italy) in 1903, then the Prince Gyalma Odescalchi De Szerem, and finally Don Eugenio Ruspoli
. Hodson and Labouchère are buried at the cemetery of San Miniato al Monte, Florence.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actress and theatre manager best known for her portrayal of comedy roles in the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. She had a long affair with the journalist-turned-politician Henry Labouchère
Henry Labouchere
Henry Du Pré Labouchère was an English politician, writer, publisher and theatre owner in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. He married the actress Henrietta Hodson....
, later marrying him.
Biography
Hodson was born at Upper Marsh in St Mary's parish, WestminsterWestminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, London. She was the eldest daughter of George Alfred Hodson (1822–1869), an Irish-born comedian, singer and innkeeper, and Henrietta Elizabeth Noel, an actress and singer. Her two sisters, Kate (later Mrs Charles Henry Fenton, but known on stage as Kate Gordon) and Sylvia (Mrs J. Stripling Blythe), were also actresses. Her cousin was George Musgrove
George Musgrove
George Musgrove was an English-born Australian theatre producer.-Early life:Musgrove was born at Surbiton, England, the son of Thomas John Watson Musgrove, an accountant, and his wife, Fanny Hodson, an actress and sister of Georgiana Rosa Hodson who married William Saurin Lyster...
, the theatre producer.
Early career
Hodson made her first professional stage appearance at the Theatre Royal, GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, in 1858. In 1860, she and Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
worked together in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in The Spy, or, A Government Appointment. She joined J. H. Chute's Bath and Bristol companies in 1861 and built a reputation as a popular soubrette and burlesque actress. An 1883 New York Times article calls her "...the cleverest Aladdin
Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
in H. J. Byron's piece I remember to have seen." In 1863, at the Theatre Royal in Bath, England, she played the role of Oberon
Oberon
Oberon is a legendary king of the fairies.Oberon may also refer to:-People:* Merle Oberon , British actress* Oberon Zell-Ravenheart , Neopagan activist-Media and entertainment:* Oberon...
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
under the management of Madge Robertson
Madge Kendal
Dame Madge Kendal GBE , born as Margaret Shafto Robertson, was an English actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for her roles in Shakespeare and English comedies. Together with her husband, W. H...
(later Mrs Kendal), who also starred in the play, and Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
. There she also played the title role in the burlesque Endymion. In 1864, she married Richard Walter Pigeon, a solicitor and widower from Bristol, England, who had several children, and left the stage. They had one child, George Walter Noel Pigeon, born in 1865. Hodson left her husband, amid rumours of abuse, and returned to acting, using her maiden name.
In 1866, Hodson made her London début at the Prince of Wales's Theatre under the management of Marie Wilton (later Lady Bancroft) and H. J. Byron, as Prometheus in Byron's Christmas show, Pandora's Box, or, The Young Spark and the Old Flame. In 1867, with Charles Wyndham
Charles Wyndham
Sir Charles Wyndham was an English actor-manager, born as Charles Culverwell in Liverpool, the son of a doctor. He was educated abroad, at King's College London and at the College of Surgeons and the Peter Street Anatomical School, Dublin...
, Irving, J. L. Toole, Lionel Brough
Lionel Brough
Lionel Brough was a British actor and comedian. After beginning a journalistic career and performing as an amateur, he became a professional actor, performing mostly in Liverpool during the mid-1860s...
and Terry, Hodson joined a new company at Queen's Theatre, Long Acre
Queen's Theatre, Long Acre
The Queen's Theatre was established in 1867, as a theatre on the site of St Martin's Hall, a large concert room that opened in 1850. It stood on the corner of Long Acre and Endell Street, with entrances in Wilson Street and Long Acre...
, and opened with Charles Reade
Charles Reade
Charles Reade was an English novelist and dramatist, best known for The Cloister and the Hearth.-Life:Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire to John Reade and Anne Marie Scott-Waring; William Winwood Reade the influential historian , was his nephew. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford,...
's The Double Marriage, in which Hodson played the small role of Jacintha. About 1868, she moved in with Henry Labouchère
Henry Labouchere
Henry Du Pré Labouchère was an English politician, writer, publisher and theatre owner in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. He married the actress Henrietta Hodson....
, a member of parliament and later a journalist and playwright, who was one of the founders of Queen's Theatre, but they could not marry until years later when her first husband died. Other roles that season included Arabella Fotheringay in The First Night, Lucy in Byron's Dearer than Life and in the same author's The Lancashire Lass, and the title role in Oliver Twist. In addition to roles in other Byron pieces, she acted at Queen's in various extravaganza
Extravaganza
An extravaganza is a literary or musical work characterized by freedom of style and structure and usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody. It sometimes also has elements of cabaret, circus, revue, variety, vaudeville and mime...
s and burlesques, including La Vivandière
La Vivandière (Gilbert)
La Vivandière; or, True to the Corps! is a burlesque by W. S. Gilbert, described by the author as "An Operatic Extravaganza Founded on Donizetti's Opera, La figlia del regimento." In the French or other continental armies a vivandière was a woman who supplied food and drink to troops in the...
by W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
, The Stranger by Robert Reece
Robert Reece
Robert Reece was a British comic playwright and librettist active in the Victorian era. He wrote many successful musical burlesques, comic operas, farces and adaptations from the French, including the English-language adaptation of the operetta Les cloches de Corneville, which became the...
, The Gnome King by William Brough, the successful The Turn of the Tide by F. C. Burnand, and Twixt Axe and Crown by Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine...
. She stayed with that company for three years.
Later years
In 1870, she managed the Royalty TheatreRoyalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
for a season, playing in many of its pieces. She starred in Reece's Whittington Junior and his Sensation Cat and other burlesques. Back at Queen's Theatre, she played Ariel in The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
and Imogen in Cymbeline
Cymbeline
Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
. In 1871 she began to manage the Royalty again, starring there in The Honeymoon as Juliana. She instituted the innovation of using a hidden orchestra below the stage. Also in 1871, she played Lady Amaranth in John O'Keefe's Wild Oats, followed by such roles as Nydia the blind girl in John Oxenford
John Oxenford
John Oxenford , English dramatist, was born at Camberwell, London, England.-Life:He began his literary career by writing on finance...
's version of Lord Lytton's
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling dime-novels which earned him a considerable fortune...
The Last Days of Pompeii
The Last Days of Pompeii
The Last Days of Pompeii is a novel written by the baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. Once a very widely read book and now relatively neglected, it culminates in the cataclysmic destruction of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.The novel uses its characters to contrast...
(1872), Dick Wastrell in Old London, adapted from Les Chevaliers du Brouillard (1873; a French dramatization of Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th-century London. Born into a poor family, he was apprenticed as a carpenter but took to theft and burglary in 1723, with little more than a year of his training to complete...
), and Jane Theobald in Gilbert's Ought We to Visit Her? (1874). During that play, she quarrelled with Gilbert, threatened him with legal action when he described the quarrel to others, and demanded a written apology, which she then made public.
In 1875 in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Hodson created the title character of Clytie in Joseph Hatton's dramatization of his novel of the same name. That year she also created the lead role of Eliza Smith in Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's The Zoo
The Zoo
The Zoo is a one-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson, writing under the pen name of Bolton Rowe. It premiered on 5 June 1875 at the St. James's Theatre in London , concluding its run five weeks later, on 9 July 1875, at the Haymarket Theatre...
in London. She repeated the role at the Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
in 1876. In 1877, she became the leading actress with the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
, then managed by John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826....
. There she played Cynisca in a revival of Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea. Gilbert did not wish to cast her, but under her contract with the Haymarket, she insisted on taking the role and again threatened legal action. The next Gilbert piece at the theatre was a revival of The Palace of Truth
The Palace of Truth
The Palace of Truth is a three-act blank verse "Fairy Comedy" by W. S. Gilbert first produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 19 November 1870, partly adapted from Madame de Genlis's fairy story, Le Palais de Vérite. The play ran for approximately 140 performances and then toured the British...
, and Hodson insisted on playing a different role than the one Gilbert and Buckstone wished. Buckstone gave the actress notice that she would not be needed the next season. Hodson blamed Gilbert and consulted her solicitor. When he told her that she had no case, she instead complained of Gilbert's "persecution" of her and criticized his demanding directing methods in a pamphlet-letter circulated among theatre professionals. Gilbert responded quickly with an open letter, setting forth a series of letters and references that showed inaccuracies in Hodson's statements. This was published on 27 May 1877 in The Era
The Era (newspaper)
The Era was a British weekly paper, published from 1838 to 1939. Originally a general newspaper, it became noted for its sports coverage, and later for its theatrical content.-History:...
, along with Hodson's rebuttal. In the end, she did not appear in The Palace of Truth.
In 1878, Hodson returned to Queen's Theatre as Dolores, Countess Rysoor, in Labouchère's Fatherland, an adaptation of Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
's Patrie!. She retired from acting soon afterwards and lived in comfort at Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
's Villa at Cross Deep Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
, near London, with Labouchère. However, in 1881, she tutored and mentored Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry , usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S., born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a British actress born on the island of Jersey...
in her early stage work, accompanying Langtry to America the next year, although the two soon fell out, and Hodson returned to England.
In 1887, she finally married Labouchère, with whom she already had a daughter, Mary Dorothea (1884–1944). In 1903 Hodson and her husband moved to Villa Christina, near Florence, Italy. She died there at the age of 69. Her daughter, Mary Dorothea, married Carlo Emanuele Starabba, 2nd Marchese di Rudinì (the son of Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì
Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì
Marquis Antonio Starabba di Rudinì was the 18th and 21st Prime Minister of Italy between 1891 and 1892 and from 1896 until 1898.-Biography:...
, prime minister of Italy) in 1903, then the Prince Gyalma Odescalchi De Szerem, and finally Don Eugenio Ruspoli
Ruspoli
The Ruspoli are an old and noble Italian family .The origins of the family can be traced back to the Ruspolis of Florence in the 13th Century and through the family's claimed direct descent from Marius Scotus in the 8th Century and the Marescottis of Bologna...
. Hodson and Labouchère are buried at the cemetery of San Miniato al Monte, Florence.