In this extract from a rhymed polemic, in support of the theatre as a suitable, professional space for women of the late Victorian period, the dramatist Clo-tilde Graves reaffirmed the enduring popularity of an actress who, it seemed, had already been accorded an almost otherworldly, iconic status in the eyes of an adoring public. Graves's poetic accolade to Ellen Terry, delivered at the International Congress of Women in 1899 to a sympathetic and predominately female audience, was neatly sandwiched between United States and German responses to the same topic. Graves's tribute, generously laced with metaphorical drawings of imperial female majesty – no doubt intended to reflect the golden age of Victoria, aged Queen Empress and embodiment of female power – drew in this stanza on the symbolism of a heavenly realm, an enchanted galaxy which situated Terry in the ascendency of a quintet of illustrious Victorian actresses including: Margaret Kendal, ‘the queen of smiles and tears’; Ada Rehan, purveyor of a ‘peerless Katherine’; and the ‘magic spell’ of both Sarah Bernhardt and Eleanora Duse.