Writing Women In: Emma Stubbs and the year was 1827

When I began searching for Miss E Stubbs, on the 1837 list of past pupils of the Academy as having ‘acted at the Olympic as Miss Sydney. Now deceased,’ I had little idea that such a fascinating and sad story would emerge. Although there is little information as yet to go on, her life is as much about a livelihood and a successful career as any of the others so far and is certainly one of (short-lived) success in the face of real tribulation.

1827 was a quiet year for the Academy, which took in fewer students than in any year yet. Emma, a principal study pianist, was one of them. It’s not clear when she left the Academy (the dates in the 1837 list are not always accurate), but we can certainly surmise that she wasn’t the most stellar student while there. She seems to vanish into the mass of students who took an uneventful path through the system, without being chosen for concerts or prizes or even to enter a counterpoint exercise into the student albums. She predates Potter’s exam reports to the Committee, so there isn’t a record of how she did at those points. Certainly there is nothing to be found on her life between entry and 1831, when she reappeared as the actress Miss Sydney.

There is a clue, however, that those years weren’t easy. Her father was a petty criminal, a thimblerig and card-sharp according to one paper, and at some point in the late 1820s, he abandoned his family to flee to Belgium, where he continued his illegal practices (all the time, apparently, boasting that he was the father of the successful Miss Sydney). This left the family without an income, and one paper saw this as the reason for Emma’s decision to take to the stage: ‘if report be true, she merits public patronage, having come forward in the honourable hope of doing something in aid of her family, who are all females, and have been abandoned by their natural protector to their own exertions.’

As the list suggests, she began her career in the Olympic Theatre, the London theatre that specialised in comedies and that was taken over in 1830 by Lucia Elizabeth Vestris, the first (and supremely successful) female actor-manager in London theatre. Her debut was in January 1831, and there is clearly an Academy link, as she shared the stage with Ernesto Spagnoletti, a fellow ex-student who was happy to use the Academy to advertise himself – Emma remained hidden behind her pseudonym. The reviews of her appearance in the burletta ‘The Chaste Salute” were excellent although gendered; the piece itself drew oppobrium:

“We must not, however, omit to notice the first appearance of Miss Sydney in this piece, a young lady of very powerful attractions, whose lovely person strongly reminded us of some twenty years since, when Vestris herself first bloomed forth to our admiring eyes, a perfect model of the Venus Calipyga. The fair debutante’s acting is very much in the style of Jenny Vertpre, and in faith, Madame must keep a watchful eye upon her aid-de-camps, or there will be more sighs than our own for a chaste salute from such lips. We hope to see her shortly in a part better suited to her talents.”

Another review offered even more lyrical length, although perhaps a clue to why the young Emma was not particularly noticeable during her time at the Academy:

“A young lady (Miss Sydney) made a most successful debut at this Theatre last night. From the way she was announced, we were almost at a loss to know whether she was altogether new to the stage, and yet it appears she is so. We will, however, venture to predict, that the profession which she has embraced, will not find her one of its least ornamental members. Her figure is petite, with an elegantly proportioned form, and she possesses a countenance of great sweetness. Of this lady’s powers, as a first-rate singer, we will not speak; she certainly executed some of the passages in her songs with no inconsiderable effect. We would rather give her the merit, from her performance last night, of a good actress. She played the part assigned to her in the amusing burletta, called the Chaste Salute, with great liveliness, and her exertions were liberally rewarded by a crowded audience, who expressed great delight at her exertions, and with the gay and lively acting of the fair debutante. Miss Sydney will very shortly require from us a more extended notice. It is impossible we can judge fairly of the powers of an actress on her first appearance, when she labours under embarrassment and hesitation (though not perceptible to any extent in Miss Sydney’s instance) yet undoubtedly operating. We never recollect to have seen a debut that promises better; and we think this young lady will prove a high ornament to the London stage when time has matured her powers. […] We shall follow this young lady’s performances with high hopes, as we are certain, after her reception last night, she will not disappoint our sanguine expectations of her future excellence.”

Miss Sydney remained at the Olympic through 1832, also appearing at the Haymarket. Comedy seems to have been where her talents lay; an attempt at The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden in September 1832 was received at best with lukewarm enthusiasm, and at worst with blunt advice for her to ‘take a few lessons in elocution; at present she is totally incompetent to do justice to the lines of Shakespeare. Blank verse and Miss Sydney are, we fear, not upon speaking terms.’ Nevertheless, the following year she had a season at the Royal Victoria Theatre, where reviews again were good. Often these reviews spoke of her looks, sometimes describing her figure in lurid terms, and even rating them above her acting ability.

Emma Stubbs vanishes from sight again in 1834. Perhaps she tried her luck in Paris, for it was here that she died on 19 May of that year: ‘Miss Sydney, who made her debut at the Olympic Theatre a few years back, and whose beauty proved no small attraction to the gay Lotharios of the day, died in Paris a few days ago of inflammation.’ She was buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery. Emma Stubbs has remained unearthed until now, and it is to be hoped that this small biography goes some way towards acknowledging her and her talents.