ABSTRACT
The most famous child actor of the Victorian era is not a real performer at all but a fictional construct: Charles Dickens’s pathetic “infant phenomenon,” Miss Ninetta Crummles, who staggers through a few scenes in Nicholas Nickleby. Prodigies such as Betty were therefore celebrated for their ability to slip seamlessly into a variety of roles and to demonstrate a broad range of artistic abilities. The Terry sisters were exceptionally talented, but they were certainly not alone in playing featured roles at a young age. The public’s fascination with precocity manifested itself in a variety of other ways as well. Gifted classical musicians such as the young piano prodigies Josef Hofmann and Pauline Ellice took London by storm in the 1880s. Yet contemporary descriptions and reviews of these shows constitute a rich resource for cultural historians hoping to gain a better understanding of the cult of the child actor.
