INTRODUCTION practitioner, but undertaking this study of Victorian actresses has certainly convinced me of the historical logic of that principle In Griselda Pollock’s words, ‘the meaning of the term woman is effectively installed in social and economic positions and it is constantly produced in language, in representations made to those people in those social and economic positions—fixing an identity, social place and sexual position and disallowing any other’.3 This identity is constantly changing and, consequently, requires a flexible explanatory touch I depart from Marxian philosophy by refusing to comply with its doctrinaire interpretive options Instead, I see more affinity between feminists and advocates of the concept of mentalité in history Lawrence Stone describes this as consisting of ‘the deliberate vagueness, the pictorial approach, the intimate juxtaposition of history, literature, religion and art, [and] the concern for what was going on inside people’s heads’.4 This widens the scope of eligible historical sources, and delicate complicated interpretations ensue In the case of actresses, the hard facts of theatrical legislation, business history, labour supply, legal dockets, and aesthetic innovations interact with ‘soft’ evidence about social beliefs, customs, and values to form the warp and woof of the cloth of history The different methodological approaches in this book roughly correspond to the chapters In the first chapter, various aspects of social and labour history are addressed Information about the organization of employment and crucial demographic and economic background is provided to lay the foundations of the arguments that follow Women’s choice to go on the stage is examined in the light of the growing ‘surplus’ of women needing employment, the expansion of the theatrical industry, changing attitudes to the theatre, and the gentrification of the upper ranks of the profession This does not accept, however, the myth of the rise of the Victorian actor Literary records, personal accounts, and professional surveys support statistical data demonstrating that the advantages of middle-class respectability attributed to the lateVictorian stage were actually enjoyed by very few performers— and even fewer women The reality for most was a low workingclass wage, social ostracism, and the constant threat of unemployment The profession was rigidly stratified into an aristocracy of labour, reflected in the career opportunities and wages available to women; the opportunity to successfully escape the drudgery and exploitation endemic to other types of skilled xiii