Society and Caste

Robertson was born into an old theatrical family and as early as 1834 began playing children's roles. As a young boy, he was sent to Henry Young's School at Spalding and later to a school at Whitlesea. In 1843 he left school to work for his father, then manager of the Lincoln Company, as a prompter and roustabout. Robertson acted a number of roles there, including Hamlet, but, when the company disbanded in 1848, he went to London, finding work as an actor in a number of lesser-known theaters. Within a few years, his first play, A Night's Adventure (1851), was produced, followed by Castles in the Air (1855). Robertson's success was limited, however, and he continued to work at a number of odd acting and stage manager jobs. He even attempted to join the army but was rejected. The 1861 staging of Cantab brought him to the notice of bohemian London but did little to improve his financial situation. Finally, after the production of David Garrick (1864) and Society (1865), Robertson's career began in earnest; he went on to write a number of successful comedies, including Ours (1866), Caste (1867)---which many believe to be his best play---Play (1868), School (1869), and M.P.(1870). Robertson's significance is in his introduction, to the mid-Victorian stage, of a new, more natural type of comedy, in which the characters evinced a combination of sentiment and shallow worldliness. He has fallen out of favor among critics, and his plays are today seldom produced. A fairly recent edition of the plays have been collected by William Tydeman; a good collection of his most important works is available in Six Plays. The older collection of his plays, from 1889, is notable primarily for the biographical memoir by his son. 020