ABSTRACT
Lewis Carroll's first reference to a member of the Terry family occurred in his diary entry for 16 June 1856 when he attended a performance of The Winter's Tale at the Princess's Theatre and 'especially admired the acting of Mamillius, Ellen Terry, a beautiful little creature, who played with remarkable spirit and ease'. On 16 December he recorded: "'Puck" was cleverly acted by the little Ellen Terry, who was "Mamillius" in The Winter's Tale exactly six months ago'. Since Ellen Terry was aged nine at the time and Carroll was twenty-eight it is tempting to see her as an early example of the theatrical child-friend and he does indeed describe her as 'a beautiful little creature'. However, the most striking thing about these two brief entries is Carroll's judgement of Ellen Terry's acting ability: 'especially admired the acting of Mamillius ... played with remarkable spirit and ease', 'Puck was cleverly acted'. Carroll was then only in his second year of theatre-going, but he singled out the nine-year-old and particularly commended her 'remarkable spirit and ease', qualities which were to be hallmarks of Ellen Terry's lengthy and distinguished career and which he also used as a benchmark for his acting protegees decades later.
