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Dramatist, b. in Durham, came to London to study law, which he discarded in favour of play-writing. He wrote about 25 plays, of which several had great popularity. In one of them, Speed the Plough, he introduced Mrs. Grundy to the British public. Poet, b. and ed. in Glasgow, he held the office of depute sheriff-clerk at Paisley, at the same time contributing poetry to various periodicals.
To play-writing, then, the needy young attorney or barrister possessed of literary talent turned his eyes at that day, as he does now to journalism; and it is almost beyond a doubt, that, of the multitudinous plays of that period which have survived and the thousands which have perished, a large proportion were produced by the younger sons of country gentlemen, who, after taking their degrees at Oxford or Cambridge, or breaking away from those classic bounds ungraduated, entered the Inns of Court, according to the custom of their day and their condition.
Every little while Mark Twain had a fever of play-writing, and it was about this time that he collaborated with W. D. Howells on a second Colonel Sellers play. It was a lively combination. Once to the writer Howells said: "Clemens took one scene and I another. We had loads of fun about it. We cracked our sides laughing over it as we went along.
This occurred on the first day of my sojourn, when my play-writing energy was at its height and I regarded the incident simply as an annoying distraction the waste of five minutes. I returned to my scenario.
Probably also he spoke of it under the disappointment he experienced from his continued failures in play-writing. Twice, during the twelvemonth, he tackled pieces which he described to Madame Hanska.
His tragedies Isabella, or the Fatal Marriage and Oroonoko , both founded on tales by Mrs. Aphra Behn, are powerful presentations of human suffering. His comedies are amusing, but gross. Southerne had business ability enough to make play-writing pay, and the amounts he received for his productions fairly staggered his friend Dryden.
But this part of the business of play-writing must always be a cross to the poet who is not at one with the world of the stage. In The Cup Miss Ellen Terry made the strongest impression, her part being noble and sympathetic, while Sir Henry Irving had the ungrateful part of the villain.
It was then taken to the provinces, and was very successful, both there and in America, holding the stage for seven years. It was afterwards reproduced, with some success, in London. Having now given up journalism, he devoted himself entirely to fiction and play-writing.
"However, I was too angry to stand for that sort of talk. I said to him: "'I daresay you're a very great and enviable man, Mr. Florance, but I propose to save fifteen years on your twenty-five. I'll equal or better your position in ten years. "He shoved me out just shoved me out of the room.... It was that that made me turn to play-writing.
There's one thing the fellow's got to understand, and that is that he can choose between his precious stuff and his bread and meat. Before I give him a job, he'll have to let me see that he is done with all this business of play-writing."
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