Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/479

 he inaugurated a lifelong connection with ‘Punch,’ and until 1874 he was an active member of the staff. In that year he succeeded Shirley Brooks as editor, and he held that office till his death six years later. In art criticism Taylor also made some mark, and for many years was art critic for the ‘Times’ and the ‘Graphic.’ He numbered C. R. Leslie, W. P. Frith, and other artists among his closest friends, and among his miscellaneous works was a valuable biography of Benjamin Robert Haydon (3 vols., 1853). He also edited ‘Charles Robert Leslie's Autobiographical Recollections’ (1860), completed Leslie's ‘Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ (1865), and edited as ‘Pen Sketches by a Vanished Hand’ (1879) the essays of his friend Mortimer Collins. He had already translated ‘Ballads and Songs of Brittany’ from the Barsaz-Breiz of Hersart de la Villemarqué, and in 1874 he published an entertaining volume called ‘Leicester Square: its Associations and its Worthies’ (London, 8vo).

Taylor, however, found his true vocation as a playwright. From his early boyhood he had written and acted plays, and as soon as he settled in London he worked assiduously for the theatre. In his first year in London—in 1844—no fewer than four burlesques by him were brought out by the Keeleys, who were then managing the Lyceum Theatre. Their titles were ‘Valentine and Orson’ (March 1844), ‘Whittington and his Cat’ (Easter Monday, 1844), ‘Cinderella’ (Whit-Monday, 1844), and ‘A Trip to Kissingen’ (14 Nov. 1844). Other plays followed in rapid succession, and in thirty-five years he supplied more than seventy plays to the principal theatres of London. He essayed almost every department of the drama, but made his chief success in domestic comedy. His mastery of stage-craft was great, and many of his pieces still keep the boards; but he lacked dramatic genius or commanding power of expression.

The first piece of Taylor's that signally attracted the public was ‘To Parents and Guardians,’ a farce, which Keeley brought out at the Lyceum on 28 Sept. 1845. In some burlesques that followed he co-operated with Albert Smith. ‘Masks and Faces’ (London, 1854, 8vo), which he wrote in conjunction with Charles Reade, was produced at the Haymarket on 20 Nov. 1852. Hardly less successful was his ‘To Oblige Benson’ (Olympic, 6 March 1854), an adaptation from the French vaudeville, ‘Un Service à Blanchard,’ by Moreau and Delacour; and ‘Our American Cousin,’ first produced at Laura Keene's theatre at New York in 1858, which gave Sothern the opportunity of creating the character of Lord Dundreary. ‘New Men and Old Acres,’ in which Mr. Augustus W. Dubourg assisted him, was produced at the Haymarket on 25 Oct. 1859, and in the same year he dramatised Dickens's ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’ Next year he brought out at Manchester one of his most successful comedies, ‘The Overland Route.’ Almost equally popular were his ‘Still Waters run deep’ (Olympic, 14 May 1855), and ‘A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing’ (10 Feb. 1857), adapted from Mme. de Girardin's ‘Femme qui déteste son mari.’ Probably his best play was ‘The Ticket-of-leave Man,’ based upon ‘Le Retour de Melun’ of Brisebarre and Nuz, which was produced at the Olympic Theatre on 27 May 1863.

In 1869 Taylor induced the beautiful Mrs. Rousby and her husband to try their fortunes in London. The Queen's Theatre in Long Acre was engaged for them, and Taylor wrote for Mrs. Rousby a series of three historical dramas, in which he hardly realised his ambitious designs, although the public were attracted. The theatre was opened with ‘The Fool's Revenge,’ an adaptation of Victor Hugo's ‘Le Roi s'amuse,’ on 19 Dec. 1869. An adaptation from the German, ‘'Twixt Axe and Crown,’ followed on 22 May 1870, and ‘Joan of Arc’ on 10 April 1871. Other efforts on similar lines were ‘Lady Clancarty,’ which was produced at the Olympic on 9 March 1874, and long retained popularity, and ‘Anne Boleyn,’ which was produced at the Haymarket in March 1875, and was Taylor's penultimate piece and only complete failure.

Taylor was fond of theatrical life in all its aspects. He essayed several parts as an actor, and is said to have been successful as Adam in a performance of ‘As you like it’ at Manchester, in aid of the Calvert memorial fund, on 1 Oct. 1879. Taylor died at his residence, Lavender Sweep, Wandsworth, on 12 July 1880. He had married, on 19 June 1855, while resident at Eagle Lodge, Brompton, Laura, third daughter of the Rev. Thomas Barker, vicar of Thirkleby in Yorkshire. Mrs. Tom Taylor, a skilled musical composer, contributed the original overture and entr'acte to her husband's ‘Joan of Arc;’ she died in March 1905.

Other successful plays by Taylor, besides those already named, were:
 * 1) ‘Diogenes and his Lantern’ (Strand, 28 Dec. 1849).
 * 2) ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’ (Strand, 4 March 1850).
 * 3) ‘The Philosopher's Stone.’
 * 4) ‘Prince Dorus’ (Olympic, 26 Dec. 1850).
 * 5) ‘Our Clerks’ (Princess's, 6 March 1852).
 * 6) ‘Wittikind and his Brothers,’ a fairy tale (Princess's, 1852).
 * 7) ‘Plot