R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

138 Sir Arthur Pineroquently styled the Theatre Royal Woolwich and theTheatre Royal Windsor. It was while he was at Windsorthat he had the misfortune to lose a little daughter;whereupon, sorely stricken—for he was a man of deepaffections—he resolved to leave the stage and devotehimself wholly to writing, his wife continuing to actwhenever the chance presented itself. Lacy was stillemploying him as an adaptor, and, in addition, he waspicking up small sums by doing sketches and articles forthe lighter magazines and journals. In 1863 he wrote apiece called David Garrick, founded upon a French play,Sullivan. Rescuing it from the clutches of Lacy, he waslucky enough to get it acted by a famous comedian—Edward Askew Sothern, the creator of the now forgottenLord Dundreary. The piece is a flashy bit of theatricality,but one offering golden opportunities to a 'star' actor,and it holds the stage to this day. And then, heartenedby the success of David Garrich, he wrote an originalcomedy which he called Society, dealing with fashionableand Bohemian life; and there we have the first glimpseof the real Robertson.The circumstances attending the production of Societyin London are interesting. Marie Wilton, a fascinatingand ambitious young actress who had won fame at thetheatres in the Strand, had taken the old 'Dusthole' fora term, scoured and tidied it, given it, as I have said, anew name, and started upon a career of management.Trouble befell her quickly. She had entered into a sortof partnership with Byron, who had now come to thefront as a playwright, under which he was to supply herwith burlesques, the kind of play she was chiefly associatedwith, and short pieces of the class known as' domestic drama'. Her opening programme was not longin exhausting its attractiveness, and she turned to Byronfor fresh material. But Byron at the moment was com-