Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/423

 proved his learning in: 1. 'The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,' 1897. 2. 'The Hittites and their Language,' 1898. 3. 'The First Bible,' 1902. 4. 'The Rise of Man,' 1908. 5. 'The City of Jerusalem,' 1909. His minor works are: 1. 'Primer of Bible Geography,' 1883. 2. 'Eastern Palestine,' 1892. 3. 'The Bible in the East,' 1896. 4. 'The Hebrew Tragedy,' 1900. 5. 'Critics and the Law,' 1907. Conder, a prolific writer for magazines and reviews, particularly 'Blackwood's Magazine' and the 'Edinburgh Review,' contributed very largely to Smith's 'New Bible Dictionary,' to the publications of the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, and from 1872 to 'The Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund,' where his last article on 'Recent Hittite Discoveries' appeared in January 1910. He was a competent artist and drew the illustrations in 'Pictorial Scenes from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress' (4to, 1869).

 CONNEMARA, first. [See (1827-1902).]

CONQUEST, GEORGE (AUGUSTUS), whose real surname was (1837–1901), actor and manager, born at the house adjoining the old Garrick Theatre, Leinan Street, Goodman's Fields, on 8 May 1837, was eldest son of Benjamin Oliver(1805-72), actor and theatrical manager, who used professionally the surname of Conquest, and was then manager of the old Garrick Theatre. There in 1837, as a child in arms, in the farce 'Mr. and Mrs. White,' George made his first appearance on the stage. He played there, while a child, in such pieces as 'Peter the Waggoner,' 'Isabella, or the Fatal Marriage,' and 'The Stranger.' Educated at the college communal, Boulogne, he was a contemporary there of Benoît Coquelin, the eminent French actor, and acquired a full command of the French language. He was intended for a violinist, but from his earliest years he resolved on the profession of acrobatic pantomimist. Before he left school he made numerous adaptations from the French for his father, who in 1851 became manager of the Grecian Theatre in City Road. His first play, 'Woman's Secret, or Richelieu's Wager,' was produced at the Grecian on 17 Oct. 1853. In 1855 he adopted the stage as his vocation, and long combined acting at the Grecian with dramatic authorship on a prolific scale. On 3 Sept. 1855 he was highly successful as the Artful Dodger in a version of Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' At Christmas 1855 he first appeared as a pantomimist, in his own pantomime, 'Harlequin Sun, Moon, and the Seven Sisters'; and at Easter 1857 he made his first notable success in this class of work as Hassarao, in 'The Forty Thieves.' At Christmas 1857 he appeared as Pastrano Nonsuch, a 'Dying pantomimist,' in 'Peter Wilkins and the Flying Indians.' Subsequently he effectively adapted Charles Reade's novel, 'It is never too late to mend,' which ran for six months at his father's theatre, and in which he appeared as Peter Crawley. In 1861 he distinguished himself as Prince Pigmy in 'The Blue Bird in Paradise.'

Conquest became manager of the Grecian in 1872, on the death of Ms father, continuing to fill leading parts there. In 1881 he joined Paul Merritt as co-lessee and manager of the Surrey Theatre, of which he was sole lessee and manager from 1885. His only appearances in the west end of London were at the Gaiety Theatre, hi 1873, in 'The Snaefell,' and at the Globe, in 1882, in 'Mankind'; but he once visited America, performing in 'The Grim Goblin' at Wallack's Theatre, New York, on 5 Aug. 1880, when he sustained severe injuries through the breaking of trapeze ropes, caused, it was stated, through the treachery of a rival. He retired from the stage in 1894.

Conquest was best known as an acrobatic pantomimist. He produced no fewer than forty-five pantomimes, and played in as many as twenty-seven. He impersonated animals with much popular approval, and is said to have invented the modern method of 'flying' by means of 'invisible' wires. It was his boast that as a pantomimist he had broken every bone in his face and body. In his performance of the title role in 'The Devil on Two Sticks' he employed no fewer than twenty-nine 'traps'—one 'vampire' and twenty-eight ordinary.

Of the hundred and more plays, for the most part original melodramas or adaptations from the French, of which he was author, several were written in collaboration, and of these the more successful were 'Velvet and Rags' (with Paul Merritt, 1874); 'Sentenced to Death' (with Henry Pettitt, 1875); 'Queen's Evidence' (with Pettitt, 1876); 'The Green Lanes of England' (with Pettitt, 1878); 'Mankind' 