Charlotte Cushman, Strong Enough to Play the Breeches Parts

During the 1800s, women with ambition were demeaned, villainized, and judged no better than a prostitute. Despite this, actress Charlotte Cushman became one of the most famous women in the world. President Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, and Louisa May Alcott were some of her most ardent fans. They weren’t the only ones impressed by her talent. She wowed audiences on two continents. Somehow, in a time when there was no word for, or acceptance of, queer sexuality, the role that launched her as a celebrity was the role of Romeo.

Early Life

Charlotte was born on July 23, 1816 in Boston, Massachusetts to father, Elkanah, and mother Mary Eliza Babbit Cushman. She came from two generations of strong-willed, independent women on her mother’s side. On her father’s side, she was an eighth generation descendant of Pilgrim Robert Cushman, who helped organize the voyage of the Mayflower. Charlotte’s father escaped poverty when he became a successful West Indian merchant.

A self-described tomboy with a flair for the dramatic, Charlotte grew up and attended school in Charlestown. It was there she received her first elocution lessons. She was a natural performer and often mimicked her pastor’s mannerisms, even while he was visiting her home. She performed in amateur theatricals. Her roles included “breeches parts,” a period term for male roles.

Unfortunately, her father abandoned the family, suffered financial setbacks, lost his fortune, and died. Charlotte was thirteen. As the eldest, she felt she needed to support the family. For her, opera was the place to start.

A Short Career in Opera

After training in New Orleans, Charlotte gave her debut performance at the Tremont Theater in Boston as the Countess Almaviva in “The Marriage of Figaro.” She was eighteen. Her performance was an immense success and seemed a harbinger of a long career.

After Boston, she returned to perform professionally at the large St. Charles Theater in New Orleans. Unfortunately, she had a true contralto voice, and most opera roles for women were for sopranos. A season of singing soprano strained her singing voice beyond repair. Theater manager James Caldwell suggested she become an actress.

A Turn to Acting

Charlotte Cushman as Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth" holding daggers in both hands

Under the guidance of leading actor James Barton, Charlotte learned to act. On April 23, 1836, she debuted as Lady Macbeth. Her energetic interpretation of Lady Macbeth as a forceful, domineering woman was in stark contrast to the usual softer interpretation popular then. The performance was a critical and popular success. Charlotte was nineteen.

She scored a contract at New York City’s Bowery Theatre. She was a “walking lady” in the stock company. As such, she played a wide variety of roles–young and old, star and walk-on, male and female. She eventually played bigger and bigger roles, each more popular and more acclaimed than the previous one. She prepared for each role. She went to New York City’s slums to prepare for the role of Nancy in the play version of Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist. (a proto- “method-acting” technique.)

Literary & Legitimacy Pursuits

In addition to acting, Charlotte befriended Sarah Josepha Hale and contributed short stories and poetry to “Godey’s Lady Book” and “The Ladies Companion.” These literary efforts not only augmented her income so she could support her mother and siblings, it helped shape her public image. One of Charlotte’s goals was to make the theater and acting more acceptable and family oriented. These “ladylike” pieces identified her as a member of genteel society and offset the general suspicion that actresses were not virtuous women.

Networking

Charlotte made important professional contacts during her early career. Contacts that included British actress Fanny Kembel and British actor William Charles Macready. Though she had long been considering making a performance tour in England, Macready is who she attributes the idea to in case anyone thought it a presumptuous idea for her to have.

Armed with a collection of letters of introduction and reference, accompanied by her newly hired black maid, Sallie Mercer, Charlotte made the voyage to Great Britain at 28.

Breaking into London Theater

When she arrived in London, MacReady offered her supporting roles in his theatrical company. He had already learned her performances overshadowed his own during his American tour and was unwilling to share equal billing. So Charlotte turned him down. She insisted on staring roles and equal pay. He couldn’t completely forgive her for critics believing she had vastly superior skills compared to him.

So she made connections and friends in London’s social circles of intellectual and creative women, authors, artists, publishers, radicals, social reformers.

But breaking into London’s theatrical circles as an American actress wasn’t easy. The British believed American actors were incapable of portraying iconic roles (in plays like Shakespeare) on the British stage.

An Offer He Couldn’t Refuse

Her first opportunity came when the manager of a London theater company rejected the idea of allowing her to join the company. She threw an over-the-top melodramatic meltdown, then calmly told him, “That’s what I’m offering you.” She got the starring role and enjoyed immense success for her role as Bianca in Fazio at the Princess Theatre.

The power of Charlotte’s interpretations of her roles made her a sensation in London. She had successful performances as Rosalind, Mrs. Haller, Emilia, and Lady Macbeth. Her success made her comfortable enough to bring her mother and siblings to England.

She even advocated for her younger sister, Susan, an actress since 1839, to be given the role of Juliet to Charlotte’s Romeo. They gave their first performance in London during December 1845. Critics praised her portrayal of Romeo. The performance made her a celebrity.

Charlotte was not a conventionally pretty girl. She had a muscular build, heavy brows, a square face with a lantern jaw, and was an unladylike five foot six (tall for the time). She leaned into her masculine persona and commanding contralto voice when she took on the “breeches roles.” Her performances yielded fame in Europe and America.

Her sister, Susan, never enjoyed acting the same way Charlotte did and quit. Charlotte continued.

In time, she performed before a captivated Queen Victoria, in Dublin, and the provinces. Charlotte’s home in Mayfair became a center of artistic and literary society. She spent part of each winter in Rome.

Romantic Relationships

In 1843, Charlotte became romantically involved with Rosalie Sully, daughter of artist Thomas Sully. They exchanged many passionate letters. But Rosalie depended on her family for financial support and Charlotte could not afford to support another person. So they remained apart. Then, in November 1844, Charlotte left for a tour in Great Britain and during the tour met someone else.

Charlotte grew close to the writer Anne Hampton Brewster on that tour that started in 1844. However, Anne’s brother disapproved of the socially unacceptable behavior and soon pressured them until they had to part.

Daguerreotype of actors Charlotte Cushman (seated) (1816-1876) and Matilda Hays (1820-1897) leaning on a book atop a short pillar. Dated 1858

In 1848, Charlotte met journalist, writer, and part-time actress Matilda Hays. They wrote to one another, became close friends, and developed a romantic relationship.

Charlotte coached Matilda in acting and toured the British Isles with her in Romeo and Juliet and The Lady of Lyons. But never comfortable as an actress, Matilda soon quit acting. Their romantic partnership continued.

First Retirement

By 1852, Charlotte retired from the stage. She lived with Matilda in an American expatriate community in Rome, Italy. They were together constantly and became known for dressing alike. In Europe, they could appear publicly as a couple. Their community consisted mostly of the many lesbian artists and sculptors of the time.

During this time, Charlotte grew to be friends with and admire the work of African American/Native American sculptor Edmonia Lewis. Charlotte used her fame to promote Lewis’s work.

In 1854, Matilda left Charlotte for sculptor Harriet Hosmer. The jealousy between the three of them grew heated and painful. Matilda eventually returned to live with Charlotte, but the damage done to their relationship could never be healed.

An Unofficial Marriage

By late 1857, Charlotte developed a secret relationship with sculptor Emma Stebbins. One night Matilda walked in on Charlotte while she was writing a note. Suspecting that the note was to Emma, Matilda demanded to see it. Charlotte denied the note was to Emma but refused to show Matilda the note. Enraged, Matilda chased Charlotte around the house, hitting Charlotte with her fists when she could. The relationship ended immediately and Matilda moved out. She then sued Charlotte, stating she had sacrificed her own career to support Charlotte’s. Charlotte paid her an unknown sum. They never got back together.

Emma moved in with Charlotte shortly after Matilda moved out. In 1858, they exchanged unofficial vows and considered themselves married.

A few months after that, Charlotte returned to America for a brief tour.

And An Affair

On tour in St. Louis, she met 18-year-old Emma Crow, an actress and the daughter of Wayman Crow. The two women began a passionate and long-lasting affair besides Charlotte’s relationship with Stebbins. Charlotte called Crow “my little lover”.

Crow followed Charlotte back to Italy. To avoid the jealousy of wife Emma while keeping her “little lover” close, Charlotte encouraged Crow to marry Ned Cushman, Charlotte’s nephew. The two married in April 1861. They had five sons. Charlotte’s letters to Crow show a long-lasting, intimate, and deep relationship between them.

Charlotte also cared deeply for Stebbins. Their relationship seemed to calm Charlotte to a degree. She dressed and behaved socially in a more subdued and socially acceptable manner. For the last six or more years of Charlotte’s life she spent more time on promoting Stebbin’s career than her own. She campaigned for Stebbins to win a commission to create a sculpture of Horace Mann that would stand in front of the State House in Boston. They split their time between Italy and the United States.

Farewell to an Acting Career

When Charlotte visited Washington, DC, she stayed at the home of her friend, William Seward, the Secretary of State. In July 1861, Seward introduced her to President Abraham Lincoln. The president told her his favorite play was Macbeth, and he hoped to see her perform as Lady Macbeth one day. Lincoln saw her perform in Macbeth in October at Grover’s Theatre with his family when she returned to the States in 1863.

Over the course of her career, Charlotte gave hundreds of performances as a male character. She continued doing so even after the war. But society had changed, or perhaps she had. She focused on Queen Katherine and Lady Macbeth.

In 1871, after a residence in Europe, she returned to the United States as a dramatic reader giving performances of scenes from Shakespeare, ballad poetry, dialect poems and humorous pieces. Her success was at least equal to her acting success.

She announced her farewell appearance at least seven times over the next few years. Her last performance in New York was on May 15, 1874, at Booth’s theatre, where she played the part of Lady Macbeth. After a reading tour to Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse, she retired with a large fortune to her villa at Newport, where doctors diagnosed her with breast cancer. In October, she went to Boston for surgical and medical treatment. Stebbins was at her side continuously.

Death

Obelisk monument on Grave of Charlotte Cushman at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts

On February 18, 1876, fifty-nine-year-old Charlotte Cushman died of pneumonia, a complication of her breast cancer, in her third-floor hotel room at the Parker House Hotel in Boston. They buried her in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral service. Newspapers across the United States reported on the funeral. For weeks after her death, eulogies and tributes to her circulated in newspapers across the United States. There were even sermons that presented her moral example as one to emulate—highly unusual in a time in which the church was one of the greatest critics of the “demoniac” theater.

Legacy

Often described as a “whirlwind or “a tempest”, Charlotte had a keen intellect and interpreted Shakespeare in ways audiences found exciting and new. Her success in the United States and Europe helped make a life in the theater respectable for women. When her Romeo cried at Juliet’s death, society opened up to the idea that men could and should express their emotions.

When Charlotte lived in England, she developed a friendship with author Geraldine Jewsbury. Reportedly, Jewsbury based a character on Charlotte in the 1848 novel, The Half Sisters.

Carolyn Gate wrote a one woman play about Charlotte, “The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman.”

photograph of Bethesda Fountain in Central Park taken on June 6, 2009, shows an angel with wings spread standing on top of three dishes supported by columns at three different levels. Water cascades over the sides of the dishes to a large round pond surrounded by a large red brick paved walkway.

Charlotte inspired Emma Stebbins in the design of “The Angel of the Waters,” a statue that sits above the fountain in Central Park‘s Bethesda Terrace. (A familiar setting for many television shows and movies)

Stebbins also wrote a memoir, Charlotte Cushman: Her Letters and Memories of Her Life.

Founded in 1907, the “Charlotte Cushman Club” was named in her honor. In 2000, the club became the “Charlotte Cushman Foundation.” The focus of the foundation is providing grants to professional nonprofit theater companies for actors’ salaries in staged productions, and it welcomes proposals from the greater Philadelphia area.

A bust of Charlotte Cushman from the Hall of Fame for Great Americans

In 1915, they elected her to the “Hall of Fame for Great Americans.”

Her Charlestown home is part of the “Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.”

Dr. Lisa Merrill studied the archives that held many of Cushman’s personal papers, including her surviving correspondence and diary. Merrill published her findings in 1999’s When Romeo Was a Woman: Charlotte Cushman and Her Circle of Female Spectators. Much of the information about Cushman’s relationships only survives because Emma Crow refused to burn her letters when asked to.

Most of Charlotte’s surviving papers are now part of the Library of Congress.