Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Vezin, Jane Elizabeth
VEZIN, Mrs. JANE ELIZABETH, formerly Mrs. Charles Young (1827–1902), actress, born while her mother was on tour in England in 1827, was daughter of George Thomson, merchant, by his wife Peggy Cook, an actress, whose aunt, Mrs. W. West [q. v.], enjoyed a high position on the stage. At an early age she accompanied her parents to Australia, and at eight, as a child singer and dancer, earned the reputation of a prodigy. In 1845 she was playing at the Victoria Theatre, Melbourne, and in June 1846, at Trinity Church, Launceston, Tasmania, she was married to Charles Frederick Young, a comedian. She supported G. V. Brooke, the well-known actor, during his Australian tour of 1855, appearing with him as Beatrice in ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ Emilia in ‘Othello,’ Pauline in ‘The Lady of Lyons,’ and Lady Macbeth.
As Mrs. Charles Young she made her first appearance on the London stage under the management of Samuel Phelps, at Sadler's Wells Theatre, on 15 Sept. 1857, playing Julia in ‘The Hunchback.’ She was welcomed with enthusiasm as an accomplished interpreter of the poetic and romantic drama. During the seasons of 1857 and 1858 she played most of the leading parts in Phelps's productions, making striking successes as the Princess of France in ‘Love's Labour's Lost,’ Rosalind in ‘As You Like It,’ Clara Douglas in ‘Money,’ Portia, Desdemona, Fanny Stirling in ‘The Clandestine Marriage,’ Imogen, Cordelia, Mrs. Haller in ‘The Stranger,’ Mistress Ford in ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor,’ Lydia Languish in ‘The Rivals,’ Lady Mabel Lynterne in Westland Marston's ‘Patrician's Daughter,’ Pauline in ‘The Lady of Lyons,’ Virginia in ‘Virginius,’ Mrs. Oakley in George Colman's ‘The Jealous Wife,’ Lady Townley in Vanbrugh and Cibber's ‘The Provoked Husband,’ Viola in ‘Twelfth Night,’ Constance in ‘King John,’ and Juliet.
During the summer vacation of 1858 she had appeared at the Haymarket and Lyceum theatres, playing at the former house the Widow Belmour in Murphy's ‘The Way to Keep Him,’ on 10 July, the last night of Buckstone's five years continuous ‘season.’
In March 1859 she appeared at the Lyceum under Benjamin Webster and Edmund Falconer. At the opening of the Princess's Theatre under the management of Augustus Harris, senior (24 Sept.), she rendered Amoret in ‘Ivy Hall,’ adapted by John Oxenford from ‘Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre’; Henry Irving made his first appearance on the London stage on this occasion. When Phelps reopened Sadler's Wells Theatre, under his sole management, on 8 Sept. 1860, Mrs. Young appeared as Rosalind, acting for the first time with Hermann Vezin [q. v. Suppl. II], who appeared as Orlando. She remained with Phelps through the season of 1860–61, adding the parts of Miranda in ‘The Tempest,’ and Donna Violante in ‘The Wonder’ to her repertory. Her chief engagement during 1861 was at the Haymarket Theatre, where on 30 Sept. she played Portia to the Shylock of the American actor Edwin Booth, who then made his first appearance in London.
In May 1862 she obtained a divorce from her husband, Young, and on 21 Feb. 1863, at St. Peter's church, Eaton Square, she was married to Hermann Vezin [q. v. Suppl. II], whom she at once accompanied on a theatrical tour in the provinces. Afterwards she played with him in Westland Marston's ‘Donna Diana,’ at the Princess's theatre on 2 Jan. 1864. On the tercentenary celebration of Shakespeare's birthday at Stratford-on-Avon, in April 1864, she acted Rosalind. There followed a long engagement at Drury Lane Theatre, under F. B. Chatterton and Edmund Falconer. There she first appeared on 8 Oct. 1864 as Desdemona, in a powerful cast which included Phelps as Othello and William Creswick as Iago. She repeated many of the chief parts she had already played at Sadler's Wells, adding to them the Lady in Milton's ‘Comus’ (17 April 1865), Marguerite in Bayle Bernard's ‘Faust’ (20 Oct. 1866), in which she made a great hit; Helen in ‘The Hunchback,’ with Helen Faucit as Julia (November 1866); and Lady Teazle in ‘The School for Scandal’ (4 March 1867). At the Princess's Theatre, on 22 August 1867, she gave a very beautiful performance of the part of Peg Woffington in Charles Reade's ‘Masks and Faces.’ Again with Phelps at Drury Lane, during the season of 1867–8, she played Lady Macbeth (14 Oct. 1867); Angiolina in ‘The Doge of Venice’ (2 Nov.); and Charlotte in ‘The Hypocrite’ (1 Feb. 1868).
Less important London engagements followed. At the St. James's Theatre, on 15 Oct. 1870, she was highly successful as Clotilde in ‘Fernande,’ adapted from the French by H. Sutherland Edwards, and on 4 March 1871 as Mrs. Arthur Minton in James Albery's comedy, ‘Two Thorns.’
During March 1874 she toured in the chief provincial cities with her own company, playing parts of no great interest. At Drury Lane Theatre she reappeared under F. B. Chatterton as Lady Elizabeth in ‘Richard III’ (Cibber's version) (23 Sept. 1876), as Lady Macbeth (22 Nov.), as Paulina in ‘The Winter's Tale,’ with Charles Dillon (28 Sept. 1878), and later in the season as Emilia in ‘Othello,’ and Mrs. Oakley in ‘The Jealous Wife.’ She subsequently joined the company at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in Tottenham Court Road, under the management of the Bancrofts, appearing on 27 Sept. 1879 as Lady Deene in James Albery's 'Duty,' an adaptation from Sardou's 'Les Bourgeois de Pont Arcy.' She again supported Edwin Booth at the Princess's Theatre on 6 Nov. 1880, as the Queen in 'Hamlet'; on 27 Dec. as Francesca Bentivoglio in 'The Fool's Revenge'; and on 17 Jan. 1881 as Emilia in 'Othello.'
After playing at the Adelphi Theatre, Olga Strogoff in H. J. Byron's 'Michael Strogoff' (14 Mar. 1881), she fulfiUed her last professional engagement at the St. James's Theatre, under the management of Messrs. Hare and Kendal on 20 Oct. 1883, when she effectively acted Mrs. Rogers in William Gillette and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett's 'Young Folks' Ways.'
Mrs. Vezin was a graceful and earnest actress, of agreeable presence, with a sweet and sympathetic voice, a great command of unaffected pathos, and an admirable elocution. Comedy as well as tragedy lay within her compass, and from about 1858 to 1875 she had few rivals on the English stage in Shakespearean and poetical drama. The death of an only daughter (by her first marriage) in 1901 unhinged her mind. At Margate, on 17 April 1902, she eluded the vigilance of her nurses, and flung herself from her bedroom window, with fatal result. She was buried at Highgate cemetery.
[Era, May 1862 and 26 April 1902; Henry Morley's Journal of a London Playgoer, 1866; Pascoe's Dramatic List, 1879; Dutton Cook's Nights at the Play, 1883; Pascoe's Dramatic Notes, 1883; May Phelps and Forbes Robertson's Life of Samuel Phelps, 1886; Scott and Howard's Blanchard, 1891; Joseph Knight's Theatrical Notes, 1893; Athenæum, 26 April 1902.]