Miss Clements
made her stage debut in 1893 in Dion Boucicault's The Octaroonat
the Theatre Royal in Margate, England. In that same venue she
played Juliet in 1893. Her next Shakespeare part was in London at
Her Majesty's Theatre where she played Hippolyta in A Midsummer
Night's Dream in 1900. Her last recorded performance in a play
by Shakespeare is as Hero in Much Ado About Nothing at His
Majesty's Theatre, London, in 1905.Source:
http://shakespeare.emory.edu/actordisplay.cfm?actorid=207
The Candid
Friend,
10 August 1901, p 589
Miss Miriam Clements
expresses the splendour of life. She recalls the rich and glowing
personages of the Venetian painters. She is made to bear jewels and
brocades and the sumtuous garments of the pictorial ages.
I imagine her
as the consort of one of Alexander's generals, and I can see her contending
with other consorts over the partition of Alexander's empire. She
could refuse a province and claim a kingdom with the insolent confidence
of Marlowe's women. Her figure is tall and stately, her movements
have freedom and dignity, and her features are more ready to express
the primary emotions than th shades of feeling.
I have to insist
on Miss Clements' appearance, because, so far, she has not been given
the parts that fit her temperament; and I use that expression deliberately,
because I think Miss Clements has a temperament to reveal, and that
in that revelation is her opportunity as an actress. The character
in "My Friend the Prince" was not the right one for Miss
Clements, but in "A Court Scandal" she aroused hopes scarecely
fulfilled by her Hippolyta in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
The cast
of "A Court Scandal" is memorable for the beauty of the
women. There were Miss Dorothea Baird, Miss Ethel Matthews, and Miss
Miriam Clements. A more thorough and felicitous contrast it would
be hard to find. And they were as different in their styles of acting
as they were in their appearance. Miss Clement's part was not the
longest, but she made it stand out, and aroused the hopes I have already
spoken of.
Those hopes
are not abandoned. I feel sure that an actress who has so well justified
her promotion from the lyric stage can do more than Miss Clements
has yet done. But I do not know that acting holds the first place
in her affections. She has a great capacity for enjoyment, and is
much interested in improving the English thoroughbred. Quidquid
agunt homines seems to be her motto; a kindly and tolerant motto
certainly, but one that conflicts with the exclusive devotion which
art requires.