1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smithson, Henrietta Constance

SMITHSON, HENRIETTA CONSTANCE (1800–1854), Irish actress, was the daughter of a theatrical manager. She made her first stage appearance in 1815 at the Crow Street theatre, Dublin, as Albina Mandeville in Reynolds’s Will. Three years later she made her first London appearance at Drury Lane as Letitia Hardy. She had no particular success in England; but in Paris, in 1828 and 1832, whither she first went with Macready, she aroused immense enthusiasm as Desdemona, Virginia, Juliet and Jane Shore. She had a host of admirers, among them Hector Berlioz (q.v.), whom she married in 1833. They separated in 1840. At the time of her marriage her popularity was already over and she was deeply in debt. A benefit was given her, but she had the mortification of seeing rival applauded when she herself was coldly received. She retired from the stage, and died on the 3rd of March 1854.