Martin, SIR THEODORE, born in Edinburgh in 1816, was educated there at the High School and university, and in 1846 settling in London, became a prosperous parliamentary solicitor. Among his earliest writings were the well-known 'Bon Gaultier' ballads, written in conjunction with Professor Aytoun. This was followed by translations of Goethe's Poems and Ballads, Henrik Hertz's King René's Daughter, and Oehlenschläger's Corregio and Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp. Further metrical translations were of Horace's Odes (1860), of his whole works (1882), Catullus (1861), the Vita Nuova of Dante (1862), Faust (i. and ii. 1865-86), Heine (1878), and the Énéid (i.-vi. 1896). In 1863 he issued a volume of original and translated poems, and in 1870 an admirable little book on Horace in the 'Ancient Classics for English Readers.' In 1875 he was made C.B., in 1880 K.C.B., and in November of that year was elected Lord Rector of St Andrews University. He has written a series of biographies of Aytoun (1867), the Prince Consort (5 vols. 1874-80), Lord Lyndhurst (1883), and the Princess Alice (1885).
LADY MARTIN, well known as an actress by her maiden name, Helen Faucit, was born 11th October 1820, and made her professional début as Julia in the Hunchback at Covent Garden in January 1836. She was at once successful, took a leading part in Macready's Shakespearian revivals, in the first representation of Lytton's plays, and in Browning's Blot in the Scutcheon and Strafford. As an interpreter of Shakespeare's heroines, Juliet, Rosalind, Portia, Beatrice, Imogen, Cordelia, and Lady Macbeth, she stood first among the actresses of her time. After her marriage to Theodore Martin in 1851 she left the stage, appearing only at rare intervals for public or charitable purposes, as in Beatrice at the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford. In 1885 she published a volume of delightful studies entitled, On Some of Shakespeare's Female Characters. She died 31st October 1898. See her Life by Sir Theodore Martin (1900).