Thomas William Robertson, Actor and Dramatist

Robertson, Thomas William (DNB00)

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Similarly, in Caste , Robertson's best-known play, a young actress earns the respect and affection of her aristocratic husband's family by patiently enduring hardship and criticism. In other plays, Robertson depicted conflicts between the aristocracy, with its devotion to tradition, and the rising middle class, which favored social change. Realistic Style Although conventional in sentiment, Robertson's plays were markedly different from those of his predecessors in terms of dialogue, characterization, and staging.

These drawing-room dramas featured meticulous directions concerning details of staging and production, realistic characterization, and realistic dialogue.

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Seeking to avoid the exaggeration and posturing of earlier Victorian acting methods, Robertson created characters that spoke in a realistic manner and provided his actors with elaborate directions concerning facial expression, hand gestures, and vocal intonation. Especially innovative, his dialogues are composed of short speeches that require the actors to address one another, thus avoiding the prevailing oratory style. Louisa May Alcott — American novelist best known for her book Little Women She was also a seamstress, servant, teacher, and Civil War nurse before becoming an author.

French writer best known for his novel Madame Bovary American civil rights advocate and leader, she was instrumental in the securing of women's rights, including the right to vote. African American civil and women's rights advocate who cofounded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in English astronomer, he became India's government astronomer, initiated the Madras Catalogue of stars, and made several important discoveries.

Russian novelist, essayist, dramatist and philosopher, he is known for his masterpieces, Anna Karenina — and War and Peace — Robertson enhanced this dramatic realism by insisting on authenticity in his stage sets: Robertson's combination of stage realism with a focus on themes drawn from English life of the period is considered his most significant contribution to the English drama.

His innovations prompted a trend which later culminated in the works of Henrik Ibsen , W. Gilbert, and George Bernard Shaw and are widely viewed as a significant contribution to the development of modern drama. Robertson was recognized as one of the first English dramatists to bring timely social issues to the stage.

Yet, the critics have been divided on his treatment of those issues. These nineteenth-century critics bemoaned the commonplace representations and the realistic attention to physical detail.

Others note that Robertson's treatment of common, everyday Victorian concerns was similar to that of earlier Romantic dramatists—his treatment relying too heavily upon the redeeming power of worthwhile sentiments. Some critcs, however, praised Robertson's attempt to mirror reality on the stage. His unique use of stage directions was appreciated by later playwrights, who acknowledged their debt to his innovations. Gil-bert, for example, offered this tribute: I look upon stage-management, as now understood, as having been absolutely invented by him.

Many earlier critics praised Robertson's contributions to dramatic production methods, yet did not see any literary value in the plays, which were rarely performed after the s. In addition, the dramatic changes subsequently brought to the stage by such Realists as Ibsen and Shaw overshadowed the efforts of Robertson and many of his contemporaries.

Recent scholarship, however, has brought renewed awareness of Robertson's contributions to the theater. William Tydeman echoes these modern sentiments: The art of Late Antiquity famously rejected illusionism for expressive force, scientific methods of representing perspective were developed in Italy and gradually spread across Europe, and accuracy in anatomy rediscovered under the influence of classical art. As in classical times, idealism remained the norm, intriguingly, having led the development of illusionic painting, still life was to be equally significant in its abandonment in Cubism.

The depiction of ordinary, everyday subjects in art also has a history, though it was often squeezed into the edges of compositions. However these objects are at least largely there because they carry layers of complex significance, pieter Bruegel the Elder pioneered large panoramic scenes of peasant life. Gilbert — Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for the fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.

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The most famous of these include H. S, Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. The popularity of works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that they founded. Eleven of the Savoy operas continue to be performed in the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies, repertory companies, schools.

Lines from these works have become part of the English language, such as short, sharp shock, What, and Let the punishment fit the crime. Gilberts creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, and numerous stories, poems and lyrics. He also began to write burlesques and his first comic plays, developing a unique absurdist and he also developed a realistic method of stage direction and a reputation as a strict theatre director.

Gilbert won the lawsuit, but the argument caused hurt feelings among the partnership. Although Gilbert and Sullivan were persuaded to collaborate on two last operas, they were not as successful as the previous ones, in later years, Gilbert wrote several plays, and a few operas with other collaborators. He retired, with his wife and ward, Nancy McIntosh, to a country estate, Gilbert died of a heart attack while attempting to rescue a young woman to whom he was giving a swimming lesson in the lake at his home.

Gilbert was born at 17 Southampton Street, Strand, London and his father, also named William, was briefly a naval surgeon, who later became a writer of novels and short stories, some of which were illustrated by his son. Gilberts mother was the former Anne Mary Bye Morris, the daughter of Thomas Morris, Gilberts parents were distant and stern, and he did not have a particularly close relationship with either of them.

They quarrelled increasingly, and following the break-up of their marriage in , his relationships with them, especially his mother, Gilbert was nicknamed Bab as a baby, and then Schwenck, after his fathers godparents. As a child, Gilbert travelled to Italy in and then France for two years with his parents, who returned to settle in London in He then attended Kings College London, graduating in , instead he joined the Civil Service, he was an assistant clerk in the Privy Council Office for four years and hated it. In he joined the Militia, a volunteer force formed for the defence of Britain, with which he served until With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in , where he established himself as a writer and novelist.

By the mids he was a theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society, Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, s Arms and the Man. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctors Dilemma and Caesar, Shaws expressed views were often contentious, he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform while opposing vaccination and organised religion.

He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable and he castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period, and became a citizen of the Irish Free State in , maintaining dual citizenship. He was prolific, finishing during the years a series of often ambitious plays which achieved varying degrees of popular success. Since Shaws death, opinion has varied about his works and he has at times been rated as second only to William Shakespeare among English-language dramatists, analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of playwrights.

The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaws ideas, Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, George Carr Shaw and his relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early s, thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant.

In he married Bessie Gurly, in the view of Shaws biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt, if, as Holroyd and others surmise, Georges motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her familys money.

She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of shabby-genteel poverty. By the time of Shaws birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father, there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he recalled that her indifference. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house, Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing, Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lees unorthodox method of vocal production.

The Shaws house was filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players. The town grew around Newark Castle, now ruined, and a marketplace, now lined with historic buildings. The estimated population in was 26,, increasing to 27, at the census, the origins of the town are possibly Roman due to its position on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way. In a document which purports to be a charter of , after his death it changed to, and remained in the hands of, the Bishops of Lincoln from until the reign of Edward VI.

There were burgesses in Newark at the time of the Domesday survey, the Newark wapentake in the east of Nottinghamshire was established during the period of Anglo-Saxon rule. Newark Castle was originally a Saxon fortified manor house, founded by King Edward the Elder, in , Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln founded an earthwork motte and bailey fortress on the site.

From —33, Bishop Alexander the Magnificent completely rebuilt the castle, the river bridge was built about the same time under charter from Henry I, also St. He also gained from the king a charter to hold a fair at the castle each year. He gained a charter under King Stephen to establish a mint in the town, the town became a local centre for the wool and cloth trade, certainly by the time of Henry II a major market was established.

Wednesday and Saturday markets in the town were established during the period — when a series of charters granted to the Bishop of Lincoln made them possible, King John died of dysentery in Newark in There is no record of his ever having been retrieved from the river following his death.

The dissolution affected Newarks political landscape heavily, and even more changes came in when the Bishop of Lincoln exchanged ownership of the town with the Crown. Newark was incorporated under an alderman and twelve assistants in , during the English Civil War, Newark was a mainstay of the royalist cause, Charles I having raised his standard in nearby Nottingham. It was attacked in February by two troops of horsemen, but beat them back.

The town fielded at times as many as soldiers, and raided Nottingham, Grantham, Northampton, Gainsborough, and others with mixed success, but enough to cause it to rise to national notice. In it became a garden cemetery, a semi-public park arboretum, and an educational institute. A total of , burials had taken place there up to the year and it is a Local Nature Reserve.

The manor of Stoke Newington belonged to him in the early 18th century and his house, built in Details of the Abney Park Cemetery Company can be found in the diaries of William Copeland Astbury, in , Abney Park opened as a model garden cemetery, a pioneering non-denominational place of rest. Its approach was based on the Congregational churchs role in the London Missionary Society and it also drew on American burial ideas, specifically Mount Auburn in Massachusetts. The trustees would be appointed by the members, under the trust deed, the founders sought to preserve the park in perpetuity.

The weakness of the lay in the detail however.

Robertson, Thomas William (1829-1871), actor and dramatist

In consequence, company income could not be held in trust for the park, from then onwards standardised park-like landscaping principles came to be applied at Abney Park, replacing much of the unique arboretum planting. Air pollution also took its toll, affecting the conifer walks, after the First World War, path infill began to be practised, a situation that became severe in the s and was continued into the s, when the commercial cemetery company went into liquidation. In , apart from one building, the park passed to the local council as a burial ground. Abney Park was included on the Heritage at Risk Register in , as one of Britains historic parks and gardens at risk from neglect and decay.

Robertson, T. W.

Similarly, from time to time, some sections of boundary wall become too weak due to people climbing over them, and decay has set in. However these matters could be put right and the park is a place to visit, with a range of educational, training and cultural events. Church Street retains the distinct London village character which led Nikolaus Pevsner to write that he found it hard to see the district as being in London at all, Stoke Newington is nicknamed Stokey by many residents. The modern London Borough of Hackney was formed by the merger of three former Metropolitan Boroughs, Hackney and the considerably smaller authorities of Stoke Newington and Shoreditch.

These Metropolitan Boroughs had been in existence since but their names and boundaries were very closely based on much older ancient parishes dating back to the medieval period. As described the Metropolitan Borough largely adopted the Ancient Parishes boundaries, there were minor rationalisations but the major change to the area covered was the transfer of part of Hornsey.

Stoke Newington northern and western boundaries have become the north-west borders of the modern London Borough, the eastern boundary was formed primarily by the A10 road where it goes by the name Stoke Newington High St and Stoke Newington Road, further south. For a small district, Stoke Newington is endowed with an amount of open space. It was designed, by William Chadwell Mylne, to look like a towering Scottish castle and it is now a nature reserve, a role that it was in many ways intended for, as it was set up as an arboretum. Abney Park became scheduled in as one of Britains historic parks and gardens at risk from neglect, finally, across the high street to the east is the fragmented Stoke Newington Common, which has had an extensive and diverse programme of tree planting.

From the 16th century onwards, Stoke Newington has played a prominent role in assuring a supply to sustain Londons rapid growth. Hugh Myddletons New River runs through the area and still makes a contribution to Londons water and it used to terminate at the New River Head in Finsbury, but since its main flow has ended at Stoke Newington reservoirs. The river bank, the New River Path, can be walked for some distance to the north through Haringey and on to its source near Hertford, Stoke Newington East and West Reservoirs, to the north of Clissold Park, are quite substantial for urban facilities.

Stoke Newington Reservoirs were constructed in to purify the New River water, the West Reservoir is now a leisure facility, offering sailing, canoeing and other water sports, plus Royal Yachting Association-approved sailing courses. Besides the water facilities and the New River, Clissold Park contains two large ornamental lakes, a home to many water birds and a population of terrapins. He created some of the worlds best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius.

His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity, born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors prison. Dickenss literary success began with the serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the publication of narrative fiction.

The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audiences reaction, and he modified his plot. For example, when his wifes chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities and his plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the poor chipped in hapennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up.

Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age and his novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre.

Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also adapted, and, like many of his novels. Chesterton—for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. The term Dickensian is used to something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings.

Polly is expecting to marry Sam, and he has gone into business as a gasfitter. The Marquise arrives; she got a letter from Mr Eccles saying that Esther needed assistance. She wants to take the baby back with her, but Esther refuses. Mr Eccles is disappointed when the Marquise goes without leaving any money. Esther goes to lie down.

Sam asks Mr Eccles if he can marry Polly, and he acquiesces when Sam unnoticed by Polly says he would supply him with alcohol and tobacco. George, not dead in spite of reports, arrives and meets Polly and Sam. Polly breaks the news to Esther, while George is out of the room, by acting excerpts from the ballet Jeanne la folle, or, the Return of the Soldier , which Esther remembers. George explains that he was taken prisoner in India but managed to escape.

The Marquise is overjoyed that her son has returned, and is reconciled to Esther.

Hawtree, however, who is now a Major but has no title, gets a letter informing him that the girl he hoped to marry, daughter of a countess, is to marry a son of a marquis — Caste has thwarted him. He says, "Best to marry in your own rank of life. A th anniversary production of the play ran at the Finborough Theatre , London, in April , the first UK production in over 20 years. Caste was adapted for a British film directed by Laurence Trimble.

Sir John Hare made his first appearance in motion pictures, reprising his acclaimed later stage portrayal [7] of Eccles. Michael Powell who later made films with Emeric Pressburger was an additional uncredited director. The period of the play was moved to — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Edgar Pemberton , www. His Plays and Stagecraft. Retrieved 22 August An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. Archived from the original on 3 May

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