Date |
Events |
Notes |
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1886 |
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15 January 1886 |
Buchanan takes over the management of the Olympic Theatre from Mrs. Anna Conover. |
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10 February 1886 |
Harriett Jay appears in Sappho, a one-act lyrical romance by Harry Lobb and Walter Slaughter, playing the title role. The matinée at the Opéra Comique is in aid of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. |
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12 February 1886 |
100th performance of Alone in London at the Olympic Theatre, London. |
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17 February 1886 |
Second matinée at the Opéra Comique of Sappho. Harriett Jay is also appearing in Alone in London at the Olympic in the evening. At some point she injures her ankle. |
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18 February 1886 |
Harriett Jay unable to appear in the third (advertised) matinée of Sappho and also Alone in London, her place in the latter being taken by Miss Adah Cox. |
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20 February 1886 |
Final performance of Alone in London at the Olympic Theatre. |
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22 February 1886 |
Provincial tour of Alone in London begins in Liverpool with the Olympic Theatre company including Harriett Jay. |
Buchanan now leaves the Olympic Theatre. |
12 April 1886 |
Sophia (Buchanan’s adaptation of Fielding’s Tom Jones) is produced at the Vaudeville Theatre, London at a matinée performance. |
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13 April 1886 |
Sophia is transferred to the evening bill of the Vaudeville Theatre |
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10 May 1886 |
Harriett Jay’s touring production of Alone in London opens at the Grand Theatre, Glasgow. |
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14 June 1886 |
Storm Beaten revived at the Grand Theatre, Islington, London.
The play has also been revised and the ending now matches that in the book, with the death of the villain. |
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17 July 1886 |
100th performance of Sophia at the Vaudeville Theatre, which ends its initial run. |
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2 August 1886 |
Harriett Jay has now left the touring production of Alone in London and is replaced by Alice Yorke in the role of Annie Meadows at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. |
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6 August 1886 |
An article in the Brooklyn Eagle concerning the recent trip to Europe of Walter L. Sinn (Colonel Sinn’s son) mentions that he has arranged to produce Buchanan’s play, Fascination, at the Park Theater, Brooklyn in September 1887. |
The U.S. copyright of Fascination was registered at the Library of Congress on 9th June 1886, by Walter L. and Cora Sinn. Fascination was not performed in London until October 1887. The American production opened at New York’s Fourteenth Street Theatre in September 1888. |
9 August 1886 |
Bachelors revived at the Opéra Comique Theatre, London. |
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18 September 1886 |
Bachelors transfers to Toole’s Theatre. |
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October 1886 |
That Winter Night published by Arrowsmith’s Bristol Library.
Advertised in The Times 12 October,1886. |
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9 October 1886 |
Sophia revived at the Vaudeville Theatre, London. |
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4 November 1886 |
Sophia produced at Wallack’s Theatre, New York. |
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27 November 1886 |
Final (112th) performance of Bachelors at Toole’s Theatre. |
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1887 |
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1887 |
Buchanan sells the rights to Alone in London to J. F. Elliston. The play tours the provinces successfully for the next sixteen years.
In Chapter XXVI of Jay, Henry Murray writes:
“If he took a theatre he invariably lost by hundreds and sometimes by thousands, and that too on the very plays which founded the fortunes of others, as, for instance, when he sold “Alone in London” for a mere song, to see it patrol the provinces year in year out, reaping a golden harvest for its lucky purchasers, who confessed that within ten years they had amassed £14,000 clear profit by the transaction.” |
“But the play which made the most money was “Alone in London,” the very one for which he cared the least; indeed, he could never bring himself to speak of it with anything but contempt. However, it has never failed to make money for everybody connected with it, but the money so earned brought him no satisfaction, for he was always ashamed of the source from which it sprang, and so, taking my consent for granted, he sold the piece for an absurdly small sum to Messrs. Miller and Elliston, and so parted with the goose which laid the golden eggs.” (Jay, Chapter XXIV). Jay never mentioned how much Buchanan sold the rights to Alone in London for but in the Roselle v. Conover court case, a Mr. Burnham (one of the two acting managers at the Olympic) mentions the figures £250 and £350 in relation to the sale of ‘the piece’. |
18 January 1887 |
The court case brought by Amy Roselle against Mrs. Anna Conover, claiming unfair dismissal from the cast of Alone in London and slander, begins at the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division. |
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19 January 1887 |
Buchanan and Harriett Jay give evidence for the defence.
The charge of slander is dismissed but the jury find for the plaintiff on the unfair dismissal charge and award the full amount claimed - £190. |
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February 1887 |
A Look Round Literature published by Ward and Downey.
Advertised in the Times 25 February, 1887. |
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14 March 1887 |
Alone in London is revived at the Pavilion Theatre, Mile End, London. |
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9 April 1887 |
A Dark Night’s Bridal (a one act play based on a prose sketch by Robert Louis Stevenson) is presented as the curtain-raiser for Sophia at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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14 May 1887 |
Alone in London opens at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, Australia. The colonial rights having been secured by Mr. Bland Holt. |
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7 June 1887 |
Another court case brought against Buchanan by Amy Roselle, alleging slander, was settled at the Queen’s Bench Division. Buchanan had apologised and agreed to pay all costs and so the charge was withdrawn. |
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15 June 1887 |
350th performance of Sophia at the Vaudeville Theatre, London. |
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1 July 1887 |
Final (364th) performance of Sophia at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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1 August 1887 |
A revised version of The Queen of Connaught is produced at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, Salford. |
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September 1887 |
Thomas Thorne purchases the sole rights of Sophia in England, America, and the Colonies, for £600. Harriett Jay takes on the management of the Novelty Theatre, London. |
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12 September 1887 |
The Blue Bells of Scotland (based on Buchanan’s novel, A Child of Nature) is produced at the Novelty Theatre. Harriett Jay appears in the play as Lady Ethel Gordon. |
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6 October 1887 |
Fascination (by Harriett Jay and Robert Buchanan) is produced at a matinée at the Novelty Theatre. Harriett Jay stars as Lady Madge Slashton, who assumes the identity of Charles Marlowe. The latter was the name Jay chose to use as a pseudonym for her later collaborations with Buchanan. |
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25 October 1887 |
Harriett Jay gives a reading of the Buchanan poem, Nell, at the matinée benefit for the actor, Mr. W. H. Pennington, at the Opera Comique. The ‘Burmah Act’ from The Blue Bells of Scotland was also performed. |
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3 December 1887 |
The Evening News carries some libellous remarks about Buchanan in relation to criticisms of Sophia. |
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| |
1888 |
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5 January 1888 |
Partners (an adaptation of Alphonse Daudet’s Fromont Jeune et Risler Ainé) is produced at the Haymarket Theatre, starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree. |
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19 January 1888 |
Fascination is produced at the Vaudeville Theatre, London with Harriett Jay reprising her dual role. |
The review in The Times (20 January, 1888) had this to say about Harriett Jay:
“On the other hand, it may be observed that a more plausible representative of the heroine in her dual capacity could hardly be found than Miss Harriett Jay. In her most feminine moments this versatile actress is never quite free from a suspicion of mannishness, and she wears a coat and trousers as though to the manner born. The piece owes much, therefore, to the presence of Miss Harriett Jay in the cast.” |
February 1888 |
The Heir of Linne published by Chatto & Windus. Reviewed in The Graphic, 25 February. |
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25 February 1888 |
50th performance of Partners at the Haymarket Theatre. |
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29 February 1888 |
Final performance of Fascination at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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March 1888 |
A City of Dream published by Chatto & Windus. Advertised in The Times 21 March, 1888. |
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5 March 1888 |
Alone in London at Sanger’s Theatre, London. |
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8 March 1888 |
Joseph’s Sweetheart (an adaptation of Fielding’s Joseph Andrews) produced at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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24 March 1888 |
Final (81st) performance of Partners at the Haymarket Theatre. |
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2 April 1888 |
Partners is produced at the Madison Square Theatre, New York, starring Alexander Salvini. A photograph and accompanying article about Harriett Jay published in The Theatre. |
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6 April 1888 |
Buchanan’s ode, The New Covenant, composed for the opening ceremony of the Glasgow International Exhibition, printed in The Scotsman. |
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7 April 1888 |
Robert Buchanan and Harriett Jay attend the Saturday afternoon performance of The Loadstone by T. Edgar Pemberton and W. H. Vernon at the Lyceum Theatre, London. |
Reported in the Birmingham Daily Post (9/4/1888). |
5 May 1888 |
At the annual banquet of the Royal Academy of Arts, held at Burlington House, Mr. W. E. H. Lecky praises Buchanan’s A City of Dream.
“I would venture to point to a poem which has been but a few weeks in the world, but which is destined, if I am not much mistaken, to take a prominent place in the literature of its time ... I refer to “The City of Dream,” by Robert Buchanan. (Hear, hear.) While such works are produced in England, it cannot, I think, be said that the artistic spirit in English literature has very seriously decayed. (Cheers.)”
(From the report in The Times -7 May, 1888.) This was the speech which caused Browning to remark “Of whom is he speaking? Of Buchanan, the writer of plays?” This was later reported to Buchanan and in his unpublished autobiography, quoted in Chapter X of Jay, he wrote:
“I was just then collaborating with Sims on a melodrama for the Adelphi, and the question was construed by those who heard it, as an expression of ironical contempt.
Naturally enough Browning may have fancied that in writing plays for the market I was selling my birthright for a mess of pottage, but he knew better than most men that I had no option—it was either that or practical starvation.” |
G. R. Sims, in his autobiography, inserts himself into Browning’s comment:
“Buchanan! Buchanan! Is he talking about the man who writes plays with Sims at the Adelphi?”
However, Sims’ first collaboration with Buchanan, The English Rose, was not produced until August 1890, so it would appear that both Buchanan and Sims are mistaken on this point.
|
8 May 1888 |
The Glasgow International Exhibition is opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales. Buchanan’s ode, The New Covenant, set to music by Dr. A. C. Mackenzie, is sung by members of the Glasgow Choral Union. |
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1 June 1888 |
An item in the ‘Chit Chat’ column of The Stage announces a matinée of The Bride of Love will be produced by Harriett Jay at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, on June 21st. |
I have found no further evidence that this performance took place. |
6 June 1888 |
Harriett Jay gives a recitation at Dudley House, Park Lane, London, at a concert arranged by the Countess of Dudley in aid of Dr. Spratt’s Sanatorium.
From the review in The Era - 16 June, 1888:
“Miss Harriett Jay, arrayed in classic costume of a very artistic kind, recited “The Stowaway” with remarkable vigour and expression, and succeeded completely in interesting her auditors.”
And her performance was also described in the diary of Joseph Holloway:
“Miss Harriett Jay's recitation of ‘The Stowaway’ made an agreeable break in the programme, & she looked most picturesque as she stood on the platform in her white statue gown, with a silver band round the waist, harmonizing perfectly with the classic surroundings.” |
The source for this is an entry in the National Archives of Ireland (Record 8968 from ‘Directory of Sources for Women’s History in Ireland’). Ms14993: Diary entries in 2 notebooks relating to public and private theatrical events in Dublin, 1888-1889 compiled by Joseph Holloway. |
11 July 1888 |
Buchanan’s action against the Evening News for libel, contained in some criticisms of Sophia, is heard in the Queen’s Bench Division. A full apology is given and the action is withdrawn. |
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17 August 1888 |
Final performance of Joseph’s Sweetheart at the Vaudeville Theatre prior to a provincial tour. |
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10 September 1888 |
Fascination is produced, by Col. Sinn, at the Fourteenth Street Theatre, New York. It stars Cora Tanner, who had been touring America with Alone in London from September 1885 to March 1888. |
The review in The New York Times makes no mention of Buchanan’s co-author, Harriett Jay.
On February 14, 1886, Cora Tanner and Col. Sinn were married in Cleveland. |
14 September 1888 |
Buchanan meets Lillie Langtry and agrees to write a play for her (Lady Gladys) which she will produce in New York in January 1889.
Lillie Langtry sets out the terms in a letter and Buchanan’s formal reply of acceptance is from Hamlet Court, Southend. |
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24 September 1888 |
Joseph’s Sweetheart returns to the Vaudeville Theatre, London. |
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8 October 1888 |
Alone in London at the Windsor Theatre, New York. Col. Sinn’s original production continues, with Ada Dwyer promoted from ‘Tom Chickweed’ to ‘Annie Meadows’. |
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23 October 1888 |
50th performance of Fascination at the Fourteenth Street Theatre, New York. |
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27 October 1888 |
Final performance of Fascination at the Fourteenth Street Theatre, New York. The play is then taken on tour. |
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November 1888 |
Buchanan delivers his play, Lady Gladys, to Lillie Langtry as per their agreement. She, however, does not like the play and consequently does not produce it in New York, thus breaking her original contract with Buchanan. This becomes the subject of a court case in November 1890. |
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13 November 1888 |
Harriett Jay appears at a benefit concert in aid of Dr. Eldridge Spratt’s Sanatorium for Diseases of the Heart and Nervous System at the Steinway Hall, Seymour Street, London. |
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29 November 1888 |
A Man’s Shadow, produced for copyright purposes at the Elephant and Castle Theatre, London under the title of “Roger la Honte, or Jean the Disgraced.” |
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December 1888 |
In the ‘Dramatic Directory’ of the December issue of The Theatre, Harriett Jay’s address is given as “Hamlet Court, Southend-on-Sea”. According to Chapter XXIII of the biography:
“After a residence at Hamlet Court which lasted two or three years, the poet removed to a house on the Cliff, which is now known as Byculla House; then, finding that he was plunging deeper and deeper into stage work, he settled down in Maresfield Gardens, South Hampstead, where he lived for many years.”
Presumably they moved to Byculla House, Cliff Town Parade, Southend some time after December 1888. |
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1889 |
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4 January 1889 |
250th performance of Joseph’s Sweetheart at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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14 January 1889 |
That Doctor Cupid is produced at a matinee at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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16 January 1889 |
Final performance of Joseph’s Sweetheart at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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17 January 1889 |
That Doctor Cupid replaces Joseph’s Sweetheart at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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March 1889 |
‘The Modern Young Man as Critic’ published in the Universal Review. |
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31 May 1889 |
Harriett Jay attends the first ‘Literary Ladies’ Dinner’ at the Criterion Restaurant, London. The event was reported in The Pall Mall Gazette and The Daily News and the following description was included in ‘A Lady’s Letter From London’ published in the New Zealand paper, the Te Aroha News (10 August, 1889):
“Mrs Mona Caird (who has been much run after by lion-hunters since “The Wing of Azrael” raised a storm of discussion) presided at a new departure called the “Literary Ladies’ Dinner” last Tuesday. None of the male sex were admitted, even the attendants being waitresses. The conversation is understood to have been of the most sparkling and brilliant description, and the speeches far above the level of masculine post-prandial eloquence. Mrs Lynn Linton excused herself from attending in a characteristically caustic effusion, which was read amidst much laughter and not a few blushes; and Mrs Oliphant, Mrs Humphrey Ward and Miss Olive Schreiner also found themselves somehow unfortunately unable to be present. The dinner was, however, graced by Miss Alice Cockran (of “The Queen”), Mrs T. P. O’Connor (a practised platform orator), Miss Friedrichs (“Miss Mantalini” of the “Pall Mall Gazette”) and Mrs Humphreys (of the “Daily News” and “Truth”).
Massive Miss Harriet Jay (gorgeously arrayed in pink liberty silk) replied to the toast of the drama, and little Miss Amy Levy’s name was coupled with that of “literature.” The author of “Reuben Sachs” is a charming brunette, as full of life and sparkle as she can be, and a brilliant conversationalist. She kept those around her in a constant ripple of laughter, and made the best speech of the evening, not even excepting Mrs O’Connor. Lady Colin Campbell will preside at the next ladies’ dinner.” |
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June 1889 |
Buchanan sees Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Novelty Theatre. |
In an undated letter from Buchanan in The Pall Mall Gazette (11/6/1889) he writes: “Up to last night, however, I had never seen one of Ibsen’s plays acted, and certainly nothing could be more admirable, more thoroughgoing, and more completely representative of the dramatist’s conception, than the performance of “A Doll’s House” at the Novelty Theatre. The result was most interesting, and to me, at least, satisfactory, in so far as I had never been so fully convinced of the truth of my own criticism, and the crude unintelligence of Ibsen’s dramatic method.” A Doll’s House opened at the Novelty on June 7th. |
19 June 1889 |
The Old Home is produced at a matinée at the Vaudeville Theatre.
150th night of That Doctor Cupid. |
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20 June 1889 |
Final performance of That Doctor Cupid at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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21 June 1889 |
The Old Home opens at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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July 1889 |
Henry Vizetelly imprisoned for three months following his publication of translations of the novels of Emile Zola. Buchanan responds with a 40 page pamphlet in support of Vizetelly, On Descending into Hell: a letter addressed to the Right Hon. Henry Matthews, Q.C., Home Secretary, concerning the proposed suppression of literature, published by George Redway. |
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6 July 1889 |
Final performance of The Old Home at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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12 September 1889 |
A Man’s Shadow (an adaptation of Jules Mary’s Roger-la-Honte) is produced at the Haymarket Theatre, starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree. |
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7 October 1889 |
Fascination, still starring Cora Tanner, returns to the Fourteenth Street Theatre, New York. |
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8 October 1889 |
Roger la Honte; or, A Man’s Shadow - adapted by Augustin Daly from Buchanan’s version of the French original - opens in New York at Niblo’s Garden. |
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18 November 1889 |
Theodora (an adaptation of Victorien Sardou’s Théodora) is produced at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, starring Grace Hawthorne. The play tours the country until 1891. |
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28 November 1889 |
Joseph’s Sweetheart revived at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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December 1889 |
‘The Modern Drama and Its Minor Critics’ published in the Contemporary Review. |
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16 December 1889 |
100th performance of A Man’s Shadow at the Haymarket Theatre. |
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19 December 1889 |
Man and the Woman is produced at a matinée at the Criterion Theatre. |
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| |
1890 |
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10 January 1890 |
Final performance of Joseph’s Sweetheart at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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18 January 1890 |
Marjorie, a comic opera, music by Walter Slaughter, libretto by Lewis Clifton and Joseph J. Dilley, revised by Robert Buchanan, is produced at the Prince of Wales’ Theatre, London by the Carl Rosa Light Opera Company. It runs for 193 performances. |
An item in The Scotsman (13 December, 1889) mentions another writer of the libretto, a Mr. Lyne, who had recently died. |
6 February 1890 |
Clarissa (an adaptation of Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa Harlowe) produced at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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20 March 1890 |
Miss Tomboy (an adaptation of Vanbrugh’s The Relapse) is produced at the Vaudeville Theatre in the first of a series of matinée performances. |
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29 March 1890 |
Final performance of A Man’s Shadow at the Haymarket Theatre. |
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18 April 1890 |
Final performance of Clarissa at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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5 May 1890 |
Grace Hawthorne’s production of Theodora at the Princess’s Theatre, London. |
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6 May 1890 |
Miss Tomboy produced at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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21 May 1890 |
The Bride of Love produced at a matinée at the Adelphi Theatre. Harriett Jay is in the cast.
The music for the play is provided by Walter Slaughter and Dr. A. C. Mackenzie. |
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9 June 1890 |
Buchanan produces The Bride of Love at the Lyric Theatre. It is not a success and, according to Jay: “This experiment cost him some thousands of pounds”. |
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11 July 1890 |
Final performance of The Bride of Love at the Lyric Theatre. |
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12 July 1890 |
Sweet Nancy (an adaptation of Rhoda Broughton’s Nancy) produced at the Lyric Theatre. It stars Annie Hughes as Nancy and Harriett Jay as her sister, Barbara. |
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26 July 1890 |
Final (101st) performance of Miss Tomboy at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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1 August 1890 |
Final peformance of Sweet Nancy at the Lyric Theatre, due to the expiration of Buchanan’s lease. |
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2 August 1890 |
The English Rose (written in collaboration with G. R. Sims) is produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
According to G. R. Sims in his autobiography, it was on the strength of the success of A Man’s Shadow that the Brothers Gatti (of the Adelphi Theatre) suggested Buchanan as a possible collaborator for Sims. In a letter to Sims regarding the collaboration Buchanan writes:
“I should feel so free for stage purposes if I worked under a pseudonym, and it wouldn’t matter at all whether or not the public knew it to be such (as they would)—it would keep the two kinds of work completely distinct. And after all it is your name, not mine, which attracts to the Adelphi, for you are a popular writer, and I a d—d unpopular one.
I should work with ten times the heart if my dramatic work were kept altogether apart from my poetical, so far as my name is concerned. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to be a poet only—I wish I could, for poetry alone gives me real happiness, not for any reward it yields in pence or praise, but solely because it was my first love and is my last.
Nor have I any scorn for the stage. On the contrary, I honour and delight in it, and as for you, I’ve always held you to be one of the choicest spirits of the time, far higher in thought and power than many of us poets. Dramatic work falls justly and finely into your broad sympathy with life for life’s sake. I, on the other hand, am a dreamer, a whiner after the Unknown and Unknowable. I was ‘built that way.’”
Sims was against the idea of Buchanan using a pseudonym and his view obviously prevailed.
Sims also reveals that as soon as the success of The English Rose was established, Buchanan asked if he could sell his share in the rights - presumably to settle the debts incurred from The Bride of Love. Sims and the Brothers Gatti agreed and Buchanan was paid £2500 for his share. During their collaboration on the five plays for the Adelphi, G. R. Sims introduces Buchanan to the joys of gambling at the racetrack. |
Henry Murray (in Chapter XXVI of Jay) writes that Buchanan “was full fifty years of age before he ever saw a race-course.” This would put the fateful day sometime after August 1891. |
September 1890 |
The Moment After: a tale of the unseen is published by William Heinemann.
Reviewed in The Scotsman (22 September). |
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25 September 1890 |
The Struggle for Life (an adaptation of Daudet’s La Lutte pour la Vie, written in collaboration with Frederick Horner) is produced at the Avenue Theatre, London. |
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29 September 1890 |
First production of The English Rose in the provinces at the Court Theatre, Liverpool. |
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6 October 1890 |
Sweet Nancy produced at the Royalty Theatre, London under the management of Harriett Jay, who remains in the cast. |
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8 October 1890 |
The Sixth Commandment (an adaptation of Dostoievsky’s Crime and Punishment) is produced at the Shaftesbury Theatre. |
At this point Buchanan has four plays running in London: The English Rose, Sweet Nancy, The Struggle for Life and The Sixth Commandment. |
18 October 1890 |
Buchanan attends the performance of The Sixth Commandment at which, following bad reviews from the critics, the manageress of the Shaftesbury Theatre, Miss Wallis, addresses the audience after the performance and asks whether the play should continue to be performed. This is considered ‘very bad form’ and causes a minor controversy in the pages of The Era and other papers. |
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25 October 1890 |
Final performance of The Struggle for Life at the Avenue Theatre. |
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14 November 1890 |
Final performance of The Sixth Commandment at the Shaftesbury Theatre. |
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17 November 1890 |
Final performance of Sweet Nancy at the Royalty Theatre. |
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20 November 1890 |
Buchanan takes Lillie Langtry to court (Queen’s Bench Division) alleging breach of contract over the play Lady Gladys, which Buchanan had written for Lillie Langtry to open her New York season in January 1889. Buchanan claims damages of £2000. Lillie Langtry counter-claims the original £150 she paid Buchanan for the play and says she was not liable to accept the play if it proved unsuitable.
Both Buchanan and Lillie Langtry are called to the stand. |
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21 November 1890 |
In the case of Buchanan v. Langtry, the jury find for Buchanan and award damages of £150. |
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26 November 1890 |
100th night of The English Rose at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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1891 |
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April 1891 |
The Coming Terror, and other essays and letters published by William Heinemann.
Reviewed in The Times (16 April). |
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5 April 1891 |
The date of the 1891 census. Buchanan is now living at 25, Maresfield Gardens, South Hampstead, London.
The Buchanan household now consists of Robert Buchanan (widower, 49, author), Margaret Buchanan (mother, widow, 74, ‘living on her own means’) and Harriett Jay (sister-in-law, single, 36, authoress and actress). Also listed is Louise Dear (niece, single, 25 - presumably the daughter of Harriett Jay’s sister, Eliza) and three servants: a housemaid, a cook and a coachman.
Harriett Jay was actually 37 when the census was taken.
Buchanan’s next-door neighbour, at No. 27, was Herbert Asquith, the Liberal M.P. for East Fife and the future Prime Minister. The annual rent is £195. |
The exact date of Buchanan’s move from Southend to London is not known. A letter to Letty Lind (who appeared in The Bride of Love on 21st May 1890) is dated April 26th and Buchanan’s address is 3 Guildford Place, Russell Square, implying that Buchanan was still living in Southend (presumably at Byculla House) and using rooms in Russell Square as his London base. Buchanan then lost money on his production of The Bride of Love at the Lyric Theatre, but the success of The English Rose at the Adelphi, starting in August 1890, and his sale of his share in the rights for £2500, would indicate that the move to 25 Maresfield Gardens, would have occurred at the end of 1890 or the beginning of 1891.
[click here for copy of 1891 census] |
8 April 1891 |
Marmion (an adaptation of the poem by Sir Walter Scott) is produced at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. |
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May 1891 |
The Wedding Ring: a tale of to-day published in New York by Cassell Publishing Co. |
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2 May 1891 |
Final performance (238th night) of The English Rose at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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26 May 1891 |
Miss Tomboy revived at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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2 June 1891 |
The Gifted Lady (original title, Heredity) is produced at the Avenue Theatre, London. |
The final advert in The Times for The Gifted Lady appeared on June 9, 1891, although there is no indication that the play was about to close. |
27 June 1891 |
Marmion produced at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. |
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August 1891 |
The Outcast: a rhyme for the time is published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Scotsman (31 August) and The Times (3 September). The Times’ reviewer calls it “a very mediocre performance.” |
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1 August 1891 |
The Trumpet Call (written in collaboration with G. R. Sims) is produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
As with The English Rose, as soon as the play proved successful, Buchanan sold his share of the rights to the Brothers Gatti and G. R. Sims. Grace Hawthorne’s production of Theodora opens at the New Olympic Theatre, London. |
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28 August 1891 |
Partners, starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree, is produced at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, Birmingham. |
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8 September 1891 |
Last night of Theodora at the New Olympic Theatre. |
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12 September 1891 |
A paragraph in The Era states that Messrs Howard and Wyndham, who produced Buchanan’s Marmion in Scotland, “are making extensive preparations for the production of a dramatic version by Mr Buchanan of Scott’s ‘Lady of the Lake.’ This never materialised. |
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November 1891 |
Come Live with Me and Be My Love serialised in The Illustrated London News.
The novel is published in London by William Heinemann and in New York by Lovell, Coryell & Co. It is also published under the title, Squire Kate, by Street & Smith (New York). |
I’ve not come across any adverts or reviews of the 1891 editions of Come Live with Me and Be My Love. The second edition published in one volume by William Heinemann was advertised in The Pall Mall Gazette on 4th August, 1892 and was reviewed in The Graphic on 15th October, 1892. |
18 December 1891 |
Buchanan is in court again, this time at the Westminster County Court, over a claim of non-payment of a bill for £89 for newspaper adverts for the play The Gifted Lady (originally titled Heredity) produced at the Avenue Theatre, London, in June 1891. Henry Lee, the manager of the theatre, had ordered the adverts, but was now in America, so Buchanan was deemed liable for the debt. In the case of Greenberg v. Buchanan, the judge found for the plaintiff for the amount claimed, with costs. |
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21 December 1891 |
Alone in London at the Princess’s Theatre, London. |
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1892 |
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1892 |
At some point around 1892 Henry Murray joined the Buchanan household at 25, Maresfield Gardens. In his 1909 autobiography, A Stepson of Fortune, he writes:
“I had been for some time a frequent visitor at his house and guest at his table when, originally with the purpose of doing with him some piece of work which somehow never got done, I became an inmate under his roof. I went there for a day or two, like Ned Strong to Clavering Park, in “Pendennis,” and stayed there nearly two years.”
Since Murray was involved with the disastrous production of A Society Butterfly which led directly to Buchanan’s bankruptcy in June 1894, he presumably became a lodger some time in 1892. A novelisation of Alone in London is published by the Aldine Publishing Company. |
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18 January 1892 |
Squire Kate (an adaptation of La Fermière by Armand d'Artois and Henri Pagat) produced by Daniel Frohman at the Lyceum Theatre, New York. It stars Georgia Cayvan. |
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5 February 1892 |
The Squireen, an Irish drama in 4 acts, by Robert Buchanan and Aubrey Boucicault, is registered for copyright at the Library of Congress. |
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20 February 1892 |
An article about Buchanan is published in Pearson’s Weekly, No. 25 in the ‘Workers and their Work’ series. It begins:
“Mr. Robert Buchanan may very fairly be described as one of the literary giants of the present day. There are few men whose works have been so popular, and who have excited so large an amount of interest both in the wide public who attend his plays, and among the critics who waste much time discussing his theories and opinions.” |
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March 1892 |
The Buchanan Ballads Old and New published by John Haddon and Company. Listed in ‘Recent Publications’ in The Pall Mall Gazette (5 March). |
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9 March 1892 |
The English Rose is produced at Proctor’s Theatre, New York. |
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22 March 1892 |
200th night of The Trumpet Call at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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21 April 1892 |
Final performance of The Trumpet Call at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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23 April 1892 |
The White Rose (an adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's Woodstock written in collaboration with G. R. Sims) is produced at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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16 May 1892 |
The Trumpet Call produced at the Theatre Royal, Manchester. |
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2 June 1892 |
Sophia revived at the Vaudeville Theatre, London. |
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10 June 1892 |
Final performance of The White Rose at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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2 July 1892 |
Final performance of Sophia at the Vaudeville Theatre. |
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30 July 1892 |
The Lights of Home (written in collaboration with G. R. Sims) is produced at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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November 1892 |
Poems of the Hon. Roden Noel. A selection, with an introduction by Robert Buchanan, is published by Walter Scott, Ltd. |
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17 December 1892 |
Final performance of The Lights of Home at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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1893 |
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January 1893 |
The Wandering Jew: a Christmas carol published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Daily Chronicle (11 January) by Richard Le Gallienne.
This review was answered by Buchanan and sparked a debate which ran in The Daily Chronicle, under the heading, “Is Christianity Played Out?”, until 31st January. The editor of The Daily Chronicle in concluding the discussion wrote:
“The great interest the discussion has aroused is proved by the fact that nearly 2,000 correspondents have contributed to it.”
Among the correspondents were several radical clerics (Charles Marson, J. C. Kenworthy, Percy Dearmer), journalists (J. Morrison Davidson, Arthur Clayden), G. W. Foote of the National Secular Society, William Bramwell Booth of the Salvation Army, the prominent socialist, Ben Tillett, the Marquess of Queensberry and Buchanan’s friend, Roden Noel. Dr. Joseph Parker also exported the controversy to the pages of The Echo.
“Is Christianity Played Out?” became the subject of several Sunday sermons throughout January.
The first edition of The Wandering Jew sold out (“in little over a fortnight” according to Buchanan) and Chatto & Windus immediately printed a second edition which included a note from Buchanan on the controversy. |
The Wandering Jew thus became Buchanan’s most successful poetry book since the anonymous publication of Saint Abe and His Seven Wives in 1872.
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22 February 1893 |
First provincial performance of The Lights of Home by Mr. Auguste Van Biene’s Company at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. |
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April 1893 |
Lady Kilpatrick begins serialisation in The English Illustrated Magazine. |
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1 April 1893 |
The Black Domino (written in collaboration with G. R. Sims) is produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
This was Buchanan’s final collaboration with G. R. Sims. |
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May 1893 |
Buchanan’s contribution to the ‘My First Book’ feature of Jerome K. Jerome’s magazine, The Idler, is published. He concludes the article with the following advice to young writers:
“He will never be able to subsist by creative writing unless it so happens that the form of expression he chooses is popular in form (fiction, for example), and even in that case, the work he does, if he is to live by it, must be in harmony with the social and artistic status quo. Revolt of any kind is always disagreeable. ... In Literature, as in all things, manners and costume are most important; the hall-mark of contemporary success is perfect Respectability. It is not respectable to be too candid on any subject, religious, moral, or political. It is very respectable to say, or imply, that this country is the best of all possible countries, that War is a noble institution, that the Protestant Religion is grandly liberal, and that social evils are only diversified forms of social good. Above all, to be respectable, one must have ‘beautiful ideas.’”
The article also contains several photographs of the exterior and interior of 25, Maresfield Gardens. |
Buchanan’s ‘First Book(s)’ in this case are Undertones and Idyls and Legends of Inverburn. He chooses to ignore the two books of poetry which were published in Glasgow before he moved to London, and also his collaboration with Charles Gibbon, Stormbeaten: or Christmas Eve at the “Old Anchor” Inn. |
27 May 1893 |
Final performance of The Black Domino at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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31 May 1893 |
Harriett Jay attends the fifth annual ‘Women Writers’ Dinner’ (formerly ‘Literary Ladies’’) at the Criterion Restaurant, London. |
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August 1893 |
In a letter to Dr. Stodart Walker (quoted by Henry Murray in Chapter XXVI of Jay) Buchanan writes:
“It has been a damnable year for me in every way, and at times I’ve felt quite helpless. ’Tis all very well for me to croak anathemas on the dismal folk, but I’m a dismal, despairing, self-tormenting creature myself and as for the joy of life, my share of it is a flickering candle. Friday next is my birthday. I shall keep it in the coal cellar, a sheet round me, and ashes on my head. Why the deuce was I ever born?”
Murray puts this bout of depression down to a bad day at the races. |
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25 September 1893 |
Revival of A Man’s Shadow at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton. |
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November 1893 |
Woman and the Man published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times (17 November). |
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December 1893 |
The Piper of Hamelin: a fantastic Opera in two acts (with illustrations by Hugh Thomson) published by William Heinemann. |
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20 December 1893 |
The Piper of Hamelin: a fantastic Opera in two acts (with music by F. W. Allwood) is produced at the Comedy Theatre as a series of Christmas matinée performances. |
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1894 |
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18 January 1894 |
The Charlatan is produced at the Haymarket Theatre, starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree. |
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3 February 1894 |
Dick Sheridan is produced at the Comedy Theatre.
The play had originally been written for the American theatre manager, Daniel Frohman, who had rejected it. Buchanan’s failure to sell the play in America was mentioned in the reports of his bankruptcy proceedings later in the year as one of the causes of his financial difficulties. |
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9 February 1894 |
Final Christmas matinée performance of The Piper of Hamelin: a fantastic Opera in two acts at the Comedy Theatre. |
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17 March 1894 |
Final performance of The Charlatan at the Haymarket Theatre. |
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30 March 1894 |
Final performance of Dick Sheridan at the Comedy Theatre. |
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10 May 1894 |
A Society Butterfly (written in collaboration with Henry Murray) is produced at the Opéra Comique, London. It stars Lillie Langtry. |
The unusual genesis of the play and the resulting disaster is dealt with in some detail in Henry Murray’s 1909 autobiography, A Stepson of Fortune. |
11 May 1894 |
After Friday’s performance of A Society Butterfly, Buchanan addresses the audience, attacking Clement Scott’s criticism of the play and explaining the problems of the opening night:
“A cabal was there to insult and terrify a helpless woman. Throughout the play an attempt was made to twist every inherent reference into a personal imputation, and when the third act terminated weakly and feebly through a mishap, the cabal howled and hooted at the leading actress, who was in no way responsible for what had occurred.” |
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26 May 1894 |
Death of Buchanan’s friend, Roden Noel, in Mainz, Germany. |
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28 May 1894 |
Lady Gladys is produced at the Madison Square Theatre, New York, with Minnie Seligman in the title role.
This was the play originally written for Lillie Langtry in 1888, which she rejected, resulting in the court case of November, 1890. |
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June 1894 |
Red and White Heather: North Country tales and ballads published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times (14 June). |
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12 June 1894 |
A receiving order is made against Buchanan. Over the next few months the true state of Buchanan’s financial affairs are revealed in the newspapers as he is declared bankrupt. |
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22 June 1894 |
Final performance of A Society Butterfly at the Opéra Comique. |
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5 July 1894 |
First meeting of creditors called by the Official Receiver. |
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6 July 1894 |
A report in The Times gives a statement of Buchanan’s debts.
He owes £15,672 and has no assets apart from some copyrights. His income from the last three years has averaged £1,500 per annum. Buchanan has kept no record of his financial transactions but he accounts for his massive debt as follows:
“Losses incurred at the Lyric and Royalty theatres in 1890, £5,000; loss at the Opera Comique in the present year, £600; loss by purchase and sale of copyrights, £500; interest on borrowed money, £1,500; excess of household and other expenditure over income (apparently), £4,229; losses by betting, £1,200; money lent and given away, £1,000; loans through acceptances, £674; loss by bad debts, £584; and other small losses (to balance), £385.” |
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25 July 1894 |
First statutory meeting of Buchanan with the Official Receiver.
From the report in The Times (26 July):
“There appeared to be practically no assets except bad debts, and for some time past there had been a deficiency, which was attributed to losses by bad debts and to other causes. The debtor had submitted a proposal to set aside one-third of his future income for the benefit of the creditors until they should be paid in full, but the Official Receiver pointed out that no security was provided for payment of the minimum statutory composition of 7s. 6d. in the pound.
Some discussion followed, in the course of which the debtor said it was very difficult for a man who lived by his wits to find security for a composition. An endeavour was then made to pass a resolution for bankruptcy, but without success, and the proceedings resulted eventually in an adjournment for three weeks to enable the debtor to formulate a proposal with security, his statement of affairs to be amended in the meantime.” |
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8 August 1894 |
Second meeting of Buchanan with the Official Receiver. Buchanan reveals that he has sold the copyrights of most of his work, although he is still entitled to royalties on The Moment After and The Coming Terror, “but both these works had been before the public for some time, and were now rather ‘flat.’” He had lost £5000 on The Bride of Love and Sweet Nancy. He also mentions the matter of Dick Sheridan, accusing Daniel Frohman of stealing the play. Buchanan states that:
“He had not lost money on the Stock Exchange, but had incurred losses in other forms of betting, and had lost about £1,200 on the Turf.”
He also mentions Rudolf Blind’s painting, ‘The World’s Desire’:
“but it had never actually come into his possession. He paid for the picture by means of bills, upon which he was still liable. He did not know where the picture was at the present time. It was valued at £1,500, but he gave £450 only for it.”
Buchanan’s horse had been sold and his carriage returned to the person from whom he’d hired it. Buchanan was also involved in a libel action against the Sketch in connection with Dick Sheridan and A Society Butterfly:
“He considered that the libel was an attempt to sweep him from the earth of created beings altogether.” According to the report in The Times, this comment elicited laughter in the court. Buchanan also says that he never kept any books in relation to his theatrical ventures apart from a diary.
Asked about his income:
“The debtor said it was difficult to state any particular amount, because it all depended on “luck.” His profession was a gambling one, and if he produced a book which was a success, he would reap considerable benefit, but if it proved a failure he would lose. His average annual expenditure did not exceed £1,500 per annum. He did not consider that he was insolvent, but had been driven into a corner, and he thought he had a reasonable probability of paying his creditors out of his future earnings.”
Buchanan then mentions other works from which he could derive an income, including the plays The Lights of Home, The Charlatan, and The Piper of Hamelin, and the books Come Live with Me and Nerissa. The report of Buchanan’s examination concludes with the following:
“He was desirous of paying a composition to his creditors, but had encountered some difficulty in the matter, as he was not aware of the exact claims against his estate, or of the value of his assets. He hoped to be able, with the assistance of friends, to provide sufficient security for 7s. 6d. in the pound, as required by the statute. For many years past he had been in the receipt of a pension from the Civil List, which was granted to him by Mr. Gladstone. His house was rented at £200 per annum, but he did not consider that this sum was too large considering the amount of his income. For several years past he had experienced “bad luck,” but was certain that he had not lived extravagantly.” |
I’ve not come across any other mention of Nerissa.
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20 August 1894 |
First provincial performance of Dick Sheridan at the Theatre Royal, Bath. |
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October 1894 |
Rachel Dene: a tale of the Deepdale Mills published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times (11 October). |
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c. 15 October 1894 |
Buchanan’s mother becomes ill. |
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29 October 1894 |
Buchanan writes to Dr. Stodart Walker asking for advice about his mother:
“Her present condition is much as when you saw her, only that since the dropsy supervened the asthmatical symptoms have disappeared, and such difficulty as she has in breathing clearly comes from heart debility. She has very little appetite, and can take no solids.” |
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5 November 1894 |
Death of Buchanan’s mother, Margaret Williams Buchanan, at the age of 78. |
Jay gives the date as 5th November and quotes extracts from Buchanan’s diary around this date. However, Margaret Buchanan’s gravestone in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist in Southend has the date of death as 24th November. |
8 November 1894 |
Funeral of Margaret Williams Buchanan. She is buried beside her daughter-in-law in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist in Southend-on-Sea. |
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10 November 1894 |
In a letter to Dr. Stodart Walker (quoted in Jay) Buchanan writes the following:
“I would give everything now for such faith as I once felt. I have none. Christianity especially repels me more than ever. Some time before she died my mother said: ‘What kind of a God can it be who permits such suffering all over the earth? Strange the ideas people have of a Providence,’ and I feel more and more that the ordinary religious ideas are hateful. A man must accept Christianity all along the line, i.e., miracles and all, or reject it altogether. And then what is left if we abandon the idea of eternal life, as reason teaches us to do? Only a horrible nightmare—a devil’s dream.” |
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29 November 1894 |
Buchanan applies for an order of discharge in the Bankruptcy court. The Times repeats the financial details of Buchanan’s case, although now the debts arising from his production of A Society Butterfly have risen to £1,500. In his report the Official Receiver stated that Buchanan should not have embarked upon A Society Butterfly since he was already insolvent at the time and being pressed by creditors, and the report concluded:
“The Official Receiver opposed the application on account of the absence of available assets, and on the ground that the debtor had brought on or contributed to his bankruptcy by rash and hazardous speculations and unjustifiable extravagance in living, and by gambling.”
“Mr. Registrar Giffard, in giving judgment, said it appeared that the debtor had been able to earn £1,500 a year in the past by his writings, and there was no reason why he should not do so in the future. He was a man of great ability and versatility, and his works were very popular, and it was only reasonable that some provision should be made for the creditors. The offences alleged by the Official Receiver had not been displaced, and the order of the Court would be that the debtor be discharged subject to his setting aside one half of his income over and above £900 per annum until the unsecured creditors had received dividends amounting to 7s. 6d. in the pound, the debtor to file accounts annually of his receipts.” |
My knowledge of bankruptcy law is, thankfully, minimal, but it would appear that ‘an order of discharge’ is a:
“Court order given at the end of bankruptcy proceeding, either automatically or (depending on the circumstances of the case) upon application by the bankrupt or the official receiver. It generally releases the bankrupt from all current and provable debts, and frees him or her from the legal constraints imposed on an undischarged bankrupt.” |
