Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/70

 as Sampson Burr in the ‘Porter's Knot.’ This piece by Oxenford was founded to some extent on ‘Les Crochets du père Martin’ of Carmon and Grangé. At Christmas he played Mazeppa in an extravaganza so named. Pawkins, in Oxenford's ‘Retained for the Defence’ (L'avocat d'un Grec), was seen on 25 May 1859, and Reuben Goldsched in Tom Taylor's ‘Payable on Demand’ on 11 July. Zachary Clench in Oxenford's ‘Uncle Zachary’ (L'Oncle Baptiste) was given on 8 March 1860, and Hugh de Brass in Morton's ‘Regular Fix’ on 11 Oct. On 21 Feb. 1861 there was produced H. T. Craven's ‘Chimney Corner,’ in which Robson's Peter Probity was another triumph in domestic drama. Dogbriarin Watts Phillips's ‘Camilla's Husband’ was given on 14 Nov. 1862. This was the last play in which Robson appeared.

In addition to the parts named the following deserve mention: Boots in ‘Boots at the Swan,’ Poor Pillicoddy, Mr. Griggs in Morton's ‘Ticklish Times,’ Alfred the Great in Robert Brough's burlesque so named, B. B. in a farce so called, Timour the Tartar in a burlesque by Oxenford and Shirley Brooks, Wormwood in the ‘Lottery Ticket,’ and Christopher Croke in ‘Sporting Events.’ At the close of 1862 Robson's health failed, in part owing to irregular living. Although ceasing to act, he remained a lessee of the Olympic until his death, which took place unexpectedly on 12 Aug. 1864. He was married, and two sons became actors.

During his short career Robson held a position almost if not quite unique. With so much passion and intensity did he charge burlesque that the conviction was widespread that he would prove a tragedian of highest mark. A report prevails that he once, in the country, played Shylock in the ‘Merchant of Venice’ without success, but this wants confirmation. A statement made in print that he played it in London is inaccurate. It is none the less true that he conveyed in burlesque the best idea of the electrical flashes of Kean in tragedy, and that there were moments in his Macbeth and his Shylock when the absolute sense of terror—the feeling of blood-curdling—seemed at hand, if not present. He may almost have been said to have brought pathos and drollery into association closer than had ever been witnessed on the stage. Nor in parts such as Peter Probity, Sampson Burr, and the like belonging to domestic drama, has he known an equal. In farce, too, he was unsurpassable. It is impossible to imagine anything more risible than was, for instance, his Slush in Oxenford's ‘A Legal Impediment.’ In this he played a lawyer's bemused outdoor clerk, who, visiting a gentleman, is mistaken for an unknown son-in-law-elect expected to arrive in disguise; and the manner in which he ‘introduced into the drawing-room of his astonished host all the amenities, refinements, and social customs of the private parlour of the Swan with Two Necks’ will not be forgotten by those fortunate enough to have seen it. In his later days, however, in farce and burlesque, he took, under various influences, serious liberties with his audience and his fellow-actors. So great a favourite was he with the public that proceedings were condoned which in the case of any other actor would have incurred severe and well-merited condemnation. Robson was small in figure, almost to insignificance, and was, it is said, of a singularly retiring disposition. In vol. v. of the ‘Extravaganzas of J. R. Planché’ are two lithographed portraits of Robson, one after a photograph by W. Keith, and the other after a grotesque statuette of Robson as the Yellow Dwarf. The cover of Sala's scarce memoir (1864) had a design of Robson as Jem Bags in the ‘Wandering Minstrel’ of Henry Mayhew.



ROBSON, WILLIAM (1785–1863), author and translator, was born in 1785. In early life he was a schoolmaster, but, when he was over fifty years of age, he devoted himself to literature. His earliest work, ‘The Walk, or the Pleasures of Literary Associations,’ London, 12mo, appeared in 1837, and was followed in 1846 by ‘The Old Playgoer,’ London, 12mo. This volume consists of a series of letters describing the British stage at the beginning of the nineteenth century. His criticisms are scholarly and his recollections are always interesting. His later works are of little value. Besides writing original books, Robson also translated, without much skill, many French works, including Michaud's ‘History of the Crusades,’ 1852, 8vo; Dumas's ‘Three Musketeers,’ 1853, 8vo; and Balzac's ‘Balthazar,’ 1859, 8vo. In later life Robson fell into poverty. Routledge the publisher raised, by public subscription, a fund to purchase an annuity for him, but before Robson could reap the benefit he died on 17 Nov. 1863. 