Wives of Fame

Their relationship too grew easier in the last years. Tussy remembered their immense sense of humour:

Assuredly two people never enjoyed a joke more than these two. Again and again - especially if the occasion were demanding decorum and sedateness -have I seen them laugh till the tears ran down their cheeks, and even those inclined to be shocked at such awful levity could not choose but laugh with them. And how often have I seen them not daring to look at one another, each knowing that once a glance was exchanged uncontrollable laughter would result. To see these two with eyes fixed on anything but one another, for all the world like two schoolchildren suffocating with suppressed laughter … is a memory I would not barter for all the millions I am sometimes accredited with having inherited.

One of Tussy’s theatrical friends remembered the relaxed, good-humoured atmosphere of the Marxes’ home in these later years. Tussy was a leading member of a Shakespeare reading club, the Dogberry, whose fortnightly meetings were often held at Maitland Park. Marx and Jenny in these later years rarely went out at night, so they delighted in the readings. Jenny must have taken part, though Marx never did. According to Marian Skinner, a friend, ‘He had a guttural voice and decided German accent’ - and he was very self-conscious. Jenny herself was remembered as a lovable, charming woman, obviously beautiful in her youth - ‘but ill health and perhaps turbulent times, had taken their toll. Her skin had faded to a waxen pallor, there were purple brown stains under her eyes, yet there was still an air of breeding about her and a certain distinction of manner.’

I should so like to live a little longer