THE VICTORIANS
SIR,—May I briefly correct a few points in Mr. Michael Slater's article on the Victorian Theatre (Spectator, August 9)?
The theatre to which Robertson's comedies re- called 'polite 'society' was not the renovated St. James's, but the old Queen's Theatre in the Totten- ham Court Road, which Marie Wilton and H. J. Byron had re-christened 'The Prince of Wales's.' Its previous nickname was certainly 'the Dusthole,' occa- sioning Sir Squire Bancroft's remark in his memoirs (Nelson edition, 1911, p. 83) that it was soon destined to become 'the Gold-dust Hole.' Not- is Mr. Slater wholly consistent in his treatment of the financial rewards of nineteenth-century playwrights: he states that The Lady of Lyons only earned Bulwer-Lytton £500, yet Society, which he claims made Robertson's 'fortune,' can hardly have brought its author a great deal more, Bancroft stressing (p. 109) that Robertson was never paid more than £5 a performance. Society originally ran for 150 nights.'Finally, The Ticket-of- Leave Man was first produced at the Olympic Theatre on May 27, 1863, not 1865 as Mr. Slater suggests.
Previous page
