Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/174

 he had visited from Mauritius, to 'Once a I Week.' No acknowledgment was received. By chance Besant discovered at the end of the year that the paper was published with many misprints in the issues of 16 and 23 Oct. Besant expostulated in a letter to the editor, who proved to be James Rice [q. v.]. Rice offered a satisfactory explanation, and courteously requested further contributions. Besant wrote a short Christmas story, 'Titania's Farewell,' for the Christmas number of the journal (1870). Friendly relations with the editor followed, and in 1871 Rice asked Besant to collaborate in a novel, the plot of which he had already drafted. The result was 'Ready Money Mortiboy,' which first appeared as a serial in 'Once a Week' and was published in three volumes in 1872. The book was welcomed by the public with enthusiasm. The partnership was pursued till Rice's disablement through illness in 1881. The fruits were 'My Little Girl' (1874), 'With Harp and Crown' (1874), 'This Son of Vulcan' (1875), 'The Golden Butterfly,' a triumphant success (1876), 'The Monks of Thelema ' (1877), 'By Celia's Arbour' (1878), 'The Chaplain of the Fleet' (1879), and 'The Seamy Side' (1881). Besant and Rice also wrote jointly the Christmas number for 'All the Year Round' from 1872 till 1882. The division of labour made Rice mainly responsible for the plot and its development, and Besant mainly responsible for the literary form (see, preface to Library edit, of Ready Money Mortiboy, 1887, and Idler, 1892). With Rice Besant further wrote an historical biography, 'Sir Richard Whittington' (1879 ; new edit. 1894), and made his first attempt as a playwright, composing jointly 'Such a Good Man,' a comedy, produced by John Hollingshead at the Olympic Theatre in Dec. 1879 (, My Lifetime, i. 38-9). Besant made a few other dramatic experiments in collaboration with Mr. Walter Herries Pollock. In 1887 they adapted for an amateur theatrical company which played at Lord Monkswell's house at Chelsea, De Banville's drama 'Gringoire' under the title of 'The Balladmonger.' It was subsequently performed by (Sir) H. Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket Theatre (Sept. 1887) and at His Majesty's Theatre (June 1903). With Pollock, too, Besant published 'The Charm, and other Drawing-room Plays' in 1896.

While Rice lived, Besant made only one independent effort in fiction, producing in 1872 an historical novel, 'When George the Third was King.' On Rice's death, he continued novel-writing single-handed, producing a work of fiction of the regulation length each year for twenty years, besides writing the Christmas number for 'All the Year Round' between 1882 and 1887 and many other short stories. The plots of Besant' s sole invention are far looser in texture than those of the partnership, and he relied to a larger extent than before on historical incident. In 'Dorothy Forster' (3 vols. 1884), which Besant considered his best work, he showed ingenuity in placing a graceful love story in an historical setting. 'The World went very well then' (1887), 'For Faith and Freedom' (1888), 'The Holy Rose' (1890), and 'St. Katharine's by the Tower' (1891) deal effectively with English life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Besant's treatment of current society is for the most part less satisfactory. But two of his pieces of modern fiction, 'All Sorts and Conditions of Men' (1882) and 'Children of Gibeon' (1886), achieved a popularity in excess of anything else from his pen, but on other than purely literary grounds.

Besant, in whom philanthropic interest was always strong, had made personal inquiry into the problems of poverty in East London, and in these two novels he enforced definite proposals for their solution. The second book dwelt on the evils of sweating, and helped forward the movement for the trades-organisation of working women. The first book, 'All Sorts and Conditions of Men,' which was mainly a strenuous plea for the social regeneration of East London, greatly stimulated the personal sympathy of the well-to-do with the East End poor. In this novel Besant depicted a fictitious 'Palace of Delight,' which should cure the joyless monotony of East End life. Besant helped moreover to give his fancy material shape. A bequest of 13,000l. left in 1841 by John Thomas Barber Beaumont [q. v.], with the object of providing 'intellectual improvement and rational recreation and amusement for people living at the East End of London,' was made the nucleus of a large public fund amounting to 75,000l., which was collected under the direction of Sir Edmund Hay Currie, with Besant's active co-operation, for the foundation of an institution on the lines which Besant had laid down. The Drapers' Company added 20,000l. for technical schools. Ultimately, Besant's 'People's Palace' was erected in Mile End Road, and was opened by Queen Victoria on 14 May 1887. The Palace contained