Lilee Cain

Lilee Cain was a Lathadun-Salian actress, painter, and poet, and was among the highest earning actresses of her time in East Alutra. She was best known for her performance in the play The Mountain Wreath, with a climax that featured her nude and riding atop a horse on stage. After great success for a few years with the play in Ushteyghoo and Porth Grai, she appeared in a production in Scra from 1864 to 1866. After a brief trip back to Lathadu, she returned to Salia. However, she became ill within two years and died in Scrá at the age of 33.

Cain told many versions of her origins, including her name, place of birth, ancestry, and religion, and historians have differed in their accounts. Most have said she was born into a middle class Gundiagh family in eastern Lathadu, with Gundiagh and some Salian ancestry. A celebrity who created sensational performances in Lathadu, Ordrey, and Salia, she married several times and was also known for her affairs. She had two daughters, both of whom died in infancy.

Though she was better known as an actress, Cain sought to be known as a writer. She published over 20 essays, 100 poems, and a book of her collected poems from 1855 to 1868 (published posthumously). Early work was devoted to family and after her marriage, her poetry and essays featured themes relating to her Gundiagh heritage. However, beginning with work published after moving to Porth Grai, with which she changed her style, Cain expressed a wide range of emotions and ideas about a woman's place in the world. Her collection Quickening went through several editions and was in print until 1902.

Early life and education
Accounts of Cain's early life and origins vary considerably. In her autobiographical "Some Notes of Her Life in Her Own Words," published in the Porth Grai Times in 1868, Cain said she was born in Ushteyghoo, Lathadu and lived in her family's manor in Foaidmoaney just outside the city. Elsewhere, in 1865, she wrote that she had a Salian birthname and was the daughter of a Gundiagh woman and a Salian man. By 1940, the general consensus of scholars was that her parents were a Salian businessman and merchant and a Gundiagh planting heiress, and that Cain was raised in the Orthapraxical Ayekist tradition. Dermot Keig, a journalist friend of Cain's, wrote after her death: "Her true name is Lilee Cain, and she was born at Maidjeymeanagh, near Ushteyghoo, in the Summer of 1835." She may have recounted this version as well. She is known to have had an older sister and a younger brother.

Based on Cain's assertions of being native to the Ushteyghoo area, Jamys Killip and others have studied Board of Health records for the city. They have concluded that Cain was born in the city as the legitimate daughter of a Salian merchant, and his wife, a middle class Gundiagh daughter of a merchant. However, in 1990, Rigard Fayle, using census records, said that she was born under a Salian name in Calleebane, Lathadu, in late 1830. He said that she was the daughter of two Ordro-Gundaighs who lived as merchants. According to Fayle, her father died when she was young and her mother remarried, with the family moving afterwards to Ushteyghoo. Cain was said to be been a bright student; she became fluent in multiple dialects of Saliana nd Ordrish, and was described as having a gift for languages. As a child, she performed as a dancer in the ballet of the Ushteyghoo City Opera House. In her later childhood, she performed as a dancer across Lathadu and Ordrey, culminating in her being crowned "Queen of the Plaza" in Noters.

Mainland career
After Ordrey, Cain left dance for acting, and began working as an actress in Lathadu first. According to Jamys Killip, she gave readings of classical Sedic poetry, and wrote her own poems and sketches for The Urban Gazette. She was married for the first time in County Daaitphlummey in the Spring of 1855 to K. K. Stowell, a musician. The marriage ended by sometime in 1856, when she met and in 1856 married the man more commonly considered her first husband, Aland Gale, a musician from a prominent family in Calleebane. Gale began to act her her manager, and Cain performed as an actress in Lathadu and southern Ordrey, also giving literary readings. She received generally positive reviews, which noted her "reckless energy" and performed with men who became actors in their own right, most notably Martyn Kinvig in Ushteyghoo and Sigurd Gorry in Vernon.

In 1857, the couple moved to Calleebane, where Cain began to exaggerate her Salian roots, telling a reporter that her father was a Salian sea captain. She was fluent in multiple Salian dialects, and even published poetry and articles in Salian language journals at this time, both in Calleebane and Ushteyghoo. She eventually worked as an actress in both cities, as well as in touring productions across the region. She also became known for her poetry and painting. While none of her art was overly well received by mainstream critics, she became a celebrity in many circles.

At this time, Cain wore her wavy hair short and whitened, an unusual style for women of the time. She cultivated an almost androgynous appearance, deliberately creating her image at a time when the growth of popular media helped to publicize it. In 1859, Caine broke into the upper echelons of the Ushteyghoo theater scene in the play The Eduran Spy. Her work was not highly regarded by critics. The Usghteyghoo Tattler described her as "the worst actress in the city." The Reporter said "she is delightfully unhampered by the shackles of talent in her performance." Cain continued to perform small parts in Ushteyghoo, as well as reading poetry in performance and giving lectures.

Her third husband was Ronan Boyde, a Salian-Gundiagh prizefighter whom she married in 1859. Some time after their marriage, the press discovered that she did not yet have a legal divorce from Gale and accused her of bigamy. She had expected Gale to handle the divorce, as he eventually did some weeks later. As Boyde was one of the most famous athletes and figures in East Alutra at the time, the press also accused Cain of marrying for his celebrity. She billed herself as Mrs. Boyde in numerous performances, using the name despite their divorce within a year of marriage. They had a daughter, who died soon after birth.

While in Ushteyghoo, Cain met the poet Arnon Granby and some others of his circle. She was influenced by his work and began to write in a more confessional style while adhering to common sentimental conventions of the time. In 1860-61, she published 30 poems in the North Star, an entertainment newspaper in Ushteyghoo. These were later collected with six more into her only book Quickening, published a few months after her death. By publishing in a newspaper, she reached a larger audience than through women's periodicals, including both men and women readers who might go to see her perform as an actress.

In 1860, Cain wrote a review titled "A Breath of Fresh Air," which praised Granby's new book of poems, saying that he was "centuries ahead of his contemporaries." She identified with the controversial poet, declaring her artistic identity through her support for him. That year, Cain also wrote an article under a pseudonym commenting on the state of Lathadun politics during the events of the Silent Years, an unusual topic for a woman which further added to her image for those in the know.

When Cain met Godred Martin, notable for several death defying feats, the two were quickly attracted to one another. She suggested she would marry him if they could perform a couple's act on a tightrope. Martin refused, saying that he would be "distracted by her beauty." The two had an affair, during which they conducted a tour of shows across the region.

Salia
After her tour with Martin ended, she appealed to her business manager Geoffrey Looney to help her become recognized as a great actress. Looney dissuaded Cain from that goal, believing that she had little acting talent. He offered her the "breeches role" (that of a man) in several new productions in Salia of The Mountain Wreath, based off of an older collection of epic poetry from that country. At the climax of this hit, Cain's character was stripped of his clothing, tied to his horse, and sent to his death. Audiences were thrilled with the scene, and although the production intended to use a dummy strapped to a horse, Cain insisted on performing the stunt herself. Performing nude on stage, she titillated audiences and caused a sensation. Salian audiences were shocked but attended in droves, making the play popular.

Cain took performance of the play across Salia, with the most performances in Porth Grai and Scrá. Audiences flocked to the show; she became known across the country for the role, and Porth Grai in particular adopted her as its performer.

In 1862, she married Finbar Moore, a humorist and editor of the Weekly Comet in Porth Crai, who had recently published most of her poetry. They were together for about three years. Next she wed Magnus Kinley, a gambler, in 1866, but soon returned without him to Scrá, where she was performing. There she had their son, whom was named for his paternal grandmother but died in infancy.

Cain arranged to play in a production of the play in various cities in Salia for much of 1864 to 1866. Controversy arose over her costume (or lack thereof), and she responded to critics in newspapers by saying that she was influenced by themes of the source material poetry, wishing to evoke the raw natural energy of the piece. The show opened in 1864 at the Rebirth Theater to "overflowing houses." She was so well known to her audiences that she was referred to as "The Cain," needing no other name.

During this term of her greatest success, she was generous to friends, theater people in need, and charities. While in Salia, Cain continued to play to the people of the mainland as well, in terms of image. She continued to attract a crowd of male admirers, including prominent figures such as authors, dramatists, and athletes.

Late life
Cain fell ill in Scrá and was forced to stop performing, struggling with poverty as a result. She began preparing per poems for publication and moved back to Porth Grai, where she died in the Summer of 1868. She wrote to a friend shortly before:

"I am lost to art and life. When all is said and done, have I not at my age tasted more of life than most who live to be a hundred?  It is proper then, that I should go where the elder folk go."

She was believed to have died of peritonitis and/or tuberculosis. Late twentieth-century sources suggest she had cancer. She was cremated in Porth Grai, with her remains brought to Lathadu shortly after. Her only book, Quickening, a collection of 30 poems, was published several days after her death.

Literary career
Cain wanted to be known as a writer for much of her career, but her work was overshadowed by her sensational stage career and private and public life. In total, she published about 20 essays, 100 poems, and a book of her collected poems, from 1855 to 1868; the book was published posthumously. Her work was not received well by contemporary critics.

Her early work was devoted to family and romance. After her marriage to Gale and her immersion into Salian culture, her poetry and essays for years into the 1860s featured Salian themes. After her divorce and meeting with writers in Porth Grai, she changed her style, adopting some influence from contemporary poets of the day. She was said to be the "first poet of her century" to follow the lead of the vanguard in using free verse.

Beginning in Porth Grai, her poetry expressed a wider range of emotions related to relationships, sexuality, and also concerning women's struggle to find a place in the modern world. Her collection Quickening went through several editions and was in print until 1902. In the late 19th century, critics were sometimes hard on women's writers, and Cain's public notoriety caused even more critical scrutiny of her poems. Although critics of the day dismissed her work as being devoid of talent, later admirers contributed to a small revival in interest in her work.