3-039-039 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. T. W. Robertson, the dramatist, 1871. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. S. Walker, of the '...celebrated dramatist...[who] was buried at Abney Park Cemetery...his funeral was attended by a large number of his friends and admirers. One signal mark of respect paid to his memory deserves to be recorded. Mrs. Bancroft (Miss Marie Wilton) closed her theatre (the Prince of Wales's) on the occasion, showing thus her feeling and gratitude for the benefit conferred on her management by the production of his pieces...Before starting as a playwright in the metropolis he had composed a novel, full of promise, but for which he could not obtain a publisher. For the last eleven years he has maintained a prominent position as a dramatic author, and merits attention as having furnished for histrionic talent a number of natural characters, and much elegant dialogue frequently marked with many felicities of diction. Several of his works were original, others were indebted to foreign sources for their plot and structure. No doubt, however, he mended whatever he adopted, and gave it to the public in an improved and refined condition, to such an extent making it his own'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.