Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/17

 than among the manuscripts of a library. He quickly discovered what manuscripts of value a library contained, and habitually excerpted passages of interest. As a Hebrew bibliographer, he was second only to Steinschneider (1816-1907). At Oxford he stimulated and encouraged the studies of younger scholars. By example and precept he taught the importance of independent research. He retained his racial shrewdness and his quaint humour almost to the last. Though he did not practise Jewish observances, he was strongly Jewish in sympathy. He wrote an excellent Hebrew style.  NEVILLE, HENRY (1837–1910), actor, whose full name was, born at Manchester on 20 June 1837, was son of John Neville (1787–1874), manager of the Queen's Theatre, Spring Gardens, and of his second wife, Marianne, daughter of Capt. Gartside of Woodbrow, Saddleworth, Lancashire. He was the twentieth child of a twentieth child, both being the issue of a second marriage. A brother George was also an actor.

At three he was brought on the stage in his father's arms as the child in 'Pizarro'; but he forfeited all help from his father by refusing to join the army like other members of the family. In 1857, at Preston, he took to the stage as a profession. When John Vandenhoff bade leave to the stage on 29 Oct. 1858, at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, Neville played Cromwell to the tragedian's Cardinal Wolsey in 'King Henry VIII,' act iii. After a stern novitiate in the north of England and in Scotland, he first appeared in London at the Lyceum Theatre, under Madame Celeste, on 8 Oct. 1860, as Percy Ardent in a revival of Boucicault's 'The Irish Heiress.' Prof. Henry Morley hailed him as 'a new actor of real mark.' After other provincial engagements he spent four years at the Olympic under Robson and Emden (1862-6), and the experience proved the turning-point in his career. On 2 May 1863 he was the original Bob Brierley in Tom Taylor's 'The Ticket of Leave Man,' a character in which he made the success of his life. He played it in all some 2000 times. In May 1864, while Tom Taylor's play was still rurming, Neville also appeared as Petruchio in the afterpiece of 'Catherine and Petruchio,' and was highly praised for his speaking of blank verse. On 27 Oct. 1866 he was the first professional exponent of Richard Wardour in Wilkie Collins's 'The Frozen Deep,' a character originally performed by Charles Dickens. Neville's impassioned and romantic style of acting, which gave a character to the Olympic productions, contrasted with the over-charged, highly coloured style then current at the Adelphi. But early in 1867 he migrated to the Adelphi, where, on 16 March, he was the original Job Armroyd in Watts Phillips's 'Lost in London,' and on 1 June the original Farmer Allen in Charles Reade's version of Tennyson's 'Dora.' On 31 Aug., on Miss Kate Terry's farewell, he played Romeo to her Juliet, and on 26 Dec. he was the original George Vendale in Dickens and Collins's 'No Thoroughfare.' On 7 Nov. 1868 'The Yellow Passport,' Neville's own version of Victor Hugo's 'Les Misérables,' was produced at the Olympic vith himself as Jean Valjean. At the Gaiety on 19 July 1869 he played an important role in Gilbert's first comedy, 'An Old Score,' and at the Adelphi in June 1870 he originated the leading character of the industrious Sheffield mechanic in Charles Reade's 'Put Yourself in his Place.' From 1873 to 1879 Neville was lessee and manager of the Olympic Theatre. After experiencing failure with Byron's comedy 'Sour Grapes' (4 Nov. 1873) and Mortimer's 'The School for Intrigue ' (1 Dec.) he scored success through his acting of Lord Clancarty in Tom Taylor's 'Lady Clancarty' (March 1874), and with Oxenford's 'The Two Orphans' (14 Sept.), which enjoyed a great vogue and was revived at the end of his tenancy. Other of his original parts which were popular were the badly drawn title-part in Wills's 'Buckingham ' (4 Dec. 1875), the hunchback in his own version of Coppếe's 'The Violin-maker of Cremona' (2 July 1877), Franklin Blake in Wilkie Collins's 'The Moonstone' (22 Sept.), and Jeffrey Rollestone in Gilbert's 'The Ne'er-do-Weel' (2 March 1878). Subsequently he played at the Adelphi for two years, opening there on 27 Feb. 1879 as Perrinet Leclerc in Clement Scott and E. Mavriel's 'The Crimson Cross,' and acting to advantage on 7 Feb. 1880 St. Cyr in Wills's new drama, 'Ninon.' In a successful revival of 'The School for Scandal' at the Vaudeville, on 4 Feb. 1882, he proved a popular, if somewhat heavy, Charles Surface. A little later he was supporting Madame Modjeska 