Henrietta Hodson

Henrietta Hodson (26 March 1841 – 30 October 1910) 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.

Biography

Hodson was born at Upper Marsh in St Mary's parish, Westminster, 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.

Early career

Hodson made her first professional stage appearance at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 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." [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9A0CE4DA123BE033A25754C1A9679C94629FD7CF&oref=slogin "NY Times" article on Hodson] ] 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. [ [http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/samesizedfeet/Picture2-1.pngBaptisim record from International Genealogical Index maintained by the Church of the Latter Day Saints] ] Hodson left her husband, amid rumours of abuse, and returned to acting, using her maiden name. [ [http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/samesizedfeet/freemandsDecember191871.pngInformation from the "Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser" (Dublin, Ireland, December 19, 1871, p. 4, col. 5) about an 1870 lawsuit in which Hodson's husband attempted to wrest control from her of the Royalty Theatre] ]

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". [http://www.gabrielleray.150m.com/ArchiveTextH/HenriettaHodson.html Pascoe, Charles E. (ed.) "The Dramatic List" (1880) pp. 180–81. David Bogue, London] , accessed 11 June 2008] 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". About 1868, she moved in with Henry Labouchère, [http://www.labouchere.co.uk/linkpages/labbyanddora.htm "Labby and Dora" at the Labouchere genealogy site] ] 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 extravaganzas 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.

Later years

In 1870, she managed the Royalty Theatre 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, threatend him with legal action when he described the quarrel to others, and demanded a written apology, which she then made public. [Ainger, pp. 104–05]

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. [ [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/zoo/html/zoo_home.html G&S Archive page on "The Zoo"] ] 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.Ainger, p. 125] 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 with his own pamphlet, setting forth a series of letters and references that showed inaccuracies in Hodson's statements. In the end, she did not appear in "The Palace of Truth". [Ainger, pp. 126–27] [ [http://faculty.winthrop.edu/vorderbruegg/winthropweb/vitaindex/gilbert.html Vorder Bruegge, Andrew "W. S. Gilbert: Antiquarian Authenticity and Artistic Autocracy"] , Retrieved on 12 March 2008]

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. [Princess Eugene Ruspoli Obituary, "The Times", December 4 1944; p. 6, col. G] Hodson and Labouchère are buried at the cemetery of San Miniato al Monte, Florence.

Notes

References

*cite book|last=Ainger|first=Michael|year=2002|title=Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|id=ISBN 0195147693
*Baker, H. B. "The London Stage: Its History and Traditions from 1576 to 1888", 2 vols. (1889)
*Burnand, Francis. C. ed., "The Catholic Who's Who and Yearbook" (1908)
*Davies, A. and E. Kilmurray, "Dictionary of British Portraiture", 4 vols. (1979–81)
*Hollingshead, John. "Gaiety Chronicles" (1898)
*cite book
title=Dictionary of National Biography
author=
year=2001
publisher=Adamant Media Corporation
isbn=1402170637
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2aNqbQuwZZcC&pg=PA275&lpg=PA275&dq=%22Queen's+Theatre%22+%22Long+Acre%22&source=web&ots=aDnosKL1nx&sig=aBLDB-HWHnkUjnVo10QD2OodNUg&hl=en ISBN 1402170637
*Obituary in the "Daily Telegraph" (1 Nov 1910)
*Scott, Clement. "The drama of yesterday and today", 2 vols. (1899)
*gutenberg|no=12326|name=The Story of My Life by Ellen Terry (1908) London: Hutchinson & Co.;
*Thorold, A. L. "Life of Henry Labouchere" (1913)

External links

* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp90323&rNo=0&role=sit Photo of Hodson at the NPG website]
* [http://www.gabrielleray.150m.com/ArchiveTextH/HenriettaHodson.html Photos of Hodson at the Footlight Notes website]