Margaret Mather
Encyclopedia
She was born in poverty in Tilbury, Ontario
Tilbury, Ontario
Tilbury is a community in the municipality of Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. It is located between Chatham and Windsor on Highway 401.-History:...
as Margaret Finlayson, daughter of John Finlayson, a farmer and mechanic, and Ann Mather. She was one of the most famous Shakespearean actresses in the 1880s, although her reputation arose as much from clever publicity as from her skill.
She premiered as Juliet in New York at the Union Square Theater in 1885. Heavy advance publicity guaranteed a large turnout, but response to her performance was mixed. While she was striking in her physicality and energy, many critics found her too indecorous and overbearing, particularly in the later acts. In the following years, she toured the country and returned to New York, to perpetually mixed reviews. Her noteworthy roles included Lady Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, the title role in Bulwer-Lytton
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...
's The Lady of Lyons and in Augustin Daly
Augustin Daly
John Augustin Daly was an American theatrical manager and playwright active in both the US and UK.-Biography:Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina and educated at Norfolk, Va...
's Leah the Forsaken.
She was a manifest failure as Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
in a translation of Jules Barbier
Jules Barbier
Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré...
's play on that subject in 1890. She retired early in the decade, after marrying Gustave Pabst, scion of the Pabst Brewing Company
Pabst Brewing Company
Pabst Brewing Company is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and by 1889 named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently the holding company contracting for the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and malt liquor from defunct companies...
, but they divorced after she threatened him with a whip. She returned as Imogen
Imogen (Shakespeare)
Imogen was the daughter of King Cymbeline, in Shakespeare's play, Cymbeline. She was described by William Hazlitt as "perhaps the most tender and the most artless" of all Shakespeare's women.-Name:...
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...
. The production was lavish, costing forty thousand dollars, but it failed; the play was too little-known to attract large audiences, and Mather herself was judged too emotional to succeed in the role.
She toured the US and Canada in 1883-1884 in the role of Juliet. She suffered from a chronic illness and died on stage. Margaret was buried in a white gown from her role as Juliet on Easter Sunday. She is buried in the Elmwood Cemetery
Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit, Michigan)
Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit is one of Michigan's most important historic cemeteries. Located at 1200 Elmwood Street in Detroit's Eastside Historic Cemetery District, Elmwood is the oldest continuously operating, non-denominational cemetery in Michigan...
in Detroit.
