Eliza Chester

A lithograph showing Eliza Chester portraying Miss Teazle
Eliza Chester portraying Miss Teazle

Eliza Chester (1799-1859) was an English actress known for playing roles in the plays of Shakespeare and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Chester was also a sitter for some of the artists of the day. Her image in art was created by three artists, all of whom took her role as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing as their inspiration; they were Alfred Edward Chalon in 1823, Thomas Woolnoth[1] in 1823, and John Cochran in 1825.[2]

Chester became so well known to contemporary society that in 1828 satirist Thomas Jones made an engaving of King George IV sitting beneath a pear tree with "the beautiful actress-mistress, Eliza Chester". A huge pear hangs over the heads of the couple, a possible reference to marital infidelity, and the monarch is singing lyrics from Ben Jonson's Song to Celia, "Leave but a Kiss within the Cup, and I'll look not for Wine". The title of the caricature piece is 'A Windsor PAIR'/ PEAR, Full Ripe.[3]

In 1838, Chester bought Wentworth Place- The property was a pair of semi-detached villas previously owned by John Keats. Chester had the two villas made into one larger dwelling, adding a drawing room and stables.[4]

  1. ^ "Eliza Chester, b. 1799. Actress". National Galleries of Scotland.
  2. ^ "Eliza Chester - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
  3. ^ Curtis, L. P. (1966). "The Queen's Two Bonnets". Victorian Studies. 9 (3): 259–273. JSTOR 3825734 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ "News". Keats-Shelley Journal. 25: 7–13. 1976. JSTOR 30213165 – via JSTOR.