Modjeska, Helena, actress, born in Cracow; went on the stage after her first marriage in 1861, and from 1868 to 1876 was the favourite of Warsaw; retired to California on her second marriage, but returned to the stage, having learned English in seven months in California 1877, and till her final retirement in 1895, was eminently successful in America and Britain in such parts as Rosalind, Beatrice, &c.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Modern Babylon * Modred, Sir