Ella Rose oder die Rechte des Herzens

Ella Rose oder die Rechte des Herzens, a five-act play (Schauspiel) by K. Gutzkow, first performed in 1856 at Dresden. It is set in England. Rose, Ella's husband, lives with a mistress; Ella goes on the stage, becomes a great actress, and attracts the love of the author Tailfourd. Rose sets her free, but she will have none of this and plans a dramatic suicide in the last scene of her farewell performance. But the actor-manager guesses her intention and saves her life by cancelling the performance. Ella is ostensibly reconciled with her husband. Gutzkow himself called this improbable play, in which the insignificant wife becomes a famous actress, a double tragedy, ‘Beide [Ella and Tailfourd] sterben den Zivilisationstod unserer Institutionen’.