Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/275

 Heliers, Jersey, where, through the influence of friends, he was allowed to play Claude Melnotte in the ‘Lady of Lyons.’ Under the name of Douglas Stuart he became a stock member of the St. Heliers company, playing a large number of characters from Hamlet downwards. In Weymouth in October 1851 he was seen as Claude Melnotte and Sir Charles Coldstream in ‘Used up’ by Charles Kean, who gave him encouragement. For the benefit of Monsieur Gilmer, his Jersey manager, he played at the Birmingham theatre, with which Gilmer was also associated, Frank Friskley in ‘Boots at the Swan,’ the performance resulting in an engagement at thirty shillings a week with the Birmingham company. Reluctant to fulfil an engagement in Liverpool for which he was told off, he accepted an invitation to America, and appeared at the National Theatre, Boston, as Dr. Pangloss in the ‘Heir at Law’ and in a farce called ‘John Dobbs.’ Dismissed for incapacity, he played juvenile parts at the Howard Athenæum in the same city. He is described at that period as ‘tall (for an actor), willowy and lithe, with a clear red-and-white English complexion, bright blue eyes, wavy brown hair,’ and ‘graceful carriage.’ He had been overpraised, however, and was ignorant of his profession, not even knowing how to make up. Discouraged and defeated, he went to New York and played at Barnum's Museum. He then acted in Washington, Baltimore, and other cities, and, after gathering some experience, became a member of Wallack's company, New York. There he remained four years, changing his stage name from Stuart to Sothern. He made a success with the part of Armand Duval in ‘Camille,’ a version of ‘La Dame aux Camélias,’ to the Camille (Marguerite Gautier) of Miss Matilda Heron. Subsequently he joined the company in New York of Miss Laura Keene, and played a large number of parts, chiefly in light comedy, including Charles Surface, Young Marlow, Bob Acres, Dr. Pangloss, Lyttleton Coke in ‘Old Heads and Young Hearts,’ Benedick, Charles Courtley in ‘London Assurance,’ Raphael in the ‘Marble Heart,’ St. Pierre in the ‘Wife,’ and Harry Jaspar in the ‘Bachelor of Hearts.’

On 12 May 1858 was produced at Laura Keene's theatre ‘Our American Cousin’ by Tom Taylor. In this he reluctantly played the then small part of Lord Dundreary, a brainless peer. The character did not at first take. In time, however, he wrote it up, introducing into it any remunerative eccentricity of manner he could study in life. On 11 Nov. 1861, as ‘Mr. Sothern formerly of the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, and from the principal American theatres,’ he made at the Haymarket as Lord Dundreary his first appearance in London. At the Haymarket, in the management of which he soon participated, he remained. His opening experiment proved doubtful. The play was weak and on the whole indifferently acted, and, though Sothern won some recognition, the public was not at first attracted. Buckstone, the manager, was on the point of reviving ‘She stoops to conquer’ when Charles Mathews [q. v.] encouraged him to hold on. Before many weeks were over Lord Dundreary was the talk of London. It ran at the Haymarket for 496 consecutive nights. What was known as the Dundreary whisker came into fashion, as did Dundreary attire generally. A clever caricature at first, the character in later years became very extravagant, without, however, losing its popularity. The part grew eventually into a series of monologues, which were almost entirely of Sothern's own invention. His second rôle in London was that of Captain Howard Leslie in ‘My Aunt's Advice,’ a slight adaptation by himself from the French. On 13 March 1863 he was seen as Captain Walter Maydenblush in the ‘Little Treasure’ to the Gertrude of Miss Ellen Terry, who was erroneously described as then making her début. Turning to account the popularity of the character of Dundreary, he was also seen at a little later date in the burlesque of ‘Dundreary Married and Done for,’ written by H. J. Byron, and in ‘Dundreary a Father.’ In February 1864 he was Bunkum Muller in a piece of extravagance so named. During the slack season he visited various country centres, being seen for the first time in Edinburgh as Lord Dundreary on 25 May 1863, and in Dublin 9 Nov. of the same year. In Dublin his parts included Count Priuli in an Olympic play called ‘Retribution,’ and Sir Hugh de Brass in ‘A Regular Fix.’

After some hesitation Sothern settled on ‘David Garrick,’ an adaptation by T. W. Robertson of ‘Sullivan,’ for his next appeal to the London public, 30 April 1864. In this he played David Garrick, which was, next to Dundreary, his best part. In the country he acted in ‘Used up,’ and on 19 Dec. was seen at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, as Frank Jocelyn in Watts Phillips's ‘Woman in Mauve,’ in which he appeared at the Haymarket on 18 March 1865. On 24 May he was the Hon. Sam Slingsby in Oxenford's ‘Brother Sam.’ Frank Annerley, in Westland Marston's ‘Favourite of Fortune,’ was seen in Glasgow in March 1866 and at the