ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses about Ellen Terry's Mistress of the Robes which lies outside of the usual canon of her work, and provides an opportunity to explore her decision to embrace a character which, though suitable to her temperament and easily within the scope of her considerable talent as a comedienne, was arguably ill-suited aesthetically to her physical appearance and age. The Clotilde Graves's poetic accolade to Ellen Terry, delivered at the International Congress of Women in 1899 to a sympathetic and predominately female audience, was neatly sandwiched between United States and German responses to the same topic. Graves achieved her ambition, creating a play for Terry, albeit a somewhat unsuitable anachronistic piece entitled The Mistress of the Robes, with Terry portraying the eponymous heroine. The Mistress of the Robes, illustrates both Terry's willingness to try out new material and her confidence in accepting roles for which she was no longer necessarily aesthetically suited.
