Joseph Comyns Carr was a playwright, art and drama critic, and gallery director (he was particularly engaged with the Pre-Raphaelite movement). His wife, Alice, was Ellen Terry’s costume designer (she was responsible for the striking iridescent costume worn by her in the role of Lady Macbeth). Carr’s essay was written in advance of Terry’s performance, which debuted in late 1888, and criticises the late 19th century perception of her as ‘a sexless creature endowed with the temper of a man and the heart of a fiend’ who was the driving force behind her husband’s actions.