Clement Scott
Clement William Scott (6 October 1841 – 25 June 1904[1]) was an influential English theatre critic for The Daily Telegraph and other journals, and a playwright, lyricist, translator and travel writer, in the final decades of the 19th century. His style of criticism, acerbic, flowery and (perhaps most importantly) carried out on the first night of productions, set the standard for theatre reviewers through to today.
Scott accumulated enemies among theatre managers, actors and playwrights over the years, picking quarrels with William Archer, Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw and others. After he gave a particularly ill-considered 1898 interview, in which he attacked the morals of theatre people, especially actresses, he was forced to retire as a theatre critic, and his reputation and prospects suffered badly until, by the end of his life, he was impoverished.
Life and career
Born the son of
Early career
Encouraged to write by the humourist Tom Hood the younger, who also was a clerk in the War Office, Scott contributed to The Era, Weekly Dispatch, and to Hood's own paper, Fun, where Scott and W. S. Gilbert were colleagues. Scott's interest in writing and the theatre led him to brief dalliance with the failed Victoria Review.[2]
He became the dramatic writer for
As well as criticism, Scott wrote plays, including The Vicarage, The Cape Mail, Anne Mié, Odette, and The Great Divorce Case. He wrote several English adaptations of
Poppyland and later years
In 1883, The Daily Telegraph printed an article which Scott had written about a visit to the north
Scott married Isabel Busson du Maurier, the sister of George du Maurier, and the couple had four children. She died in 1890, and he remarried Constance Margaret Brandon, an English journalist and actress, in San Francisco.[3][14] Scott's long-time wish to be elected a member of the famous literary gentlemen's club, the Garrick Club (to which Henry Irving, Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, among many other notable men belonged), was finally realised in 1892. After an ill-considered 1898 interview in Great Thoughts, Scott was forced to retire as a theatre critic and moved to Biarritz to write The Drama of Yesterday and Today. He then worked for a couple of years at the end of the century for the New York Herald, later returning to London. In 1900, he founded The Free Lance, a Popular Society and Critical Journal, for writers who worked by the job, which he edited.[3]
Scott fell into illness and poverty in his last years and died at his residence in Woburn Square at the age of 62.[3][15][16]
Style, controversies and influence
Scott's position on The Daily Telegraph and the support of its proprietor, J. M. Levy, allowed him to pioneer the essay-style review of drama, which came to replace the earlier bare notices. His column of notes and reviews became very popular throughout Britain, and later his own magazine, The Theatre, achieved wide circulation. He wrote his theatre reviews immediately after he saw the opening night of a piece which, together with his short temper and his dislike of critic William Archer, the chief English supporter of Ibsen, tended to involve him often in controversies.[2]
Scott played an important part in encouraging a more attentive attitude by theatre audiences. In his early days, it was not uncommon for audiences to be very boisterous and noisy, frequently booing and talking during productions, especially through the overture. He also insisted on first night reviews. It had been common for reviewers to wait a few days before writing about a production. Scott insisted that the paying audience on the first night should expect to see a fully fledged production, and not one where the leading characters did not know all their lines. Theatre managers disliked the opening night reviews when they felt that a new piece had not had time to settle down yet.[17] On the other hand, Scott supported actor-managers of his time by providing them with translations of popular French plays and with his own plays.
Early in his career, he wrote approvingly of the "cup and saucer" realism movement, led by
Scott outraged the theatre community with an extraordinary attack on the morals of theatre people in general, and especially of actresses, in an interview that was published in the evangelical weekly Great Thoughts in 1898. He said that the theatre warps people's character and that it was impossible for a pure woman to be successful in a stage career, and that all leading actresses were immoral and could have achieved their success only by virtue of the extent of their "compliance". Even before the publication, the transcript of the interview was released to the press, and Scott immediately received a firestorm of condemnation. Although he apologised and recanted his remarks, he was barred from theatres, and The Daily Telegraph was forced to dismiss him. He soon retired and found his reputation and prospects much diminished. By the end of his life, however, he received a measure of forgiveness, and shortly before his death the theatre community held a generous benefit for him.[17]
His papers are located in the library of
Notes
- ISBN 0-02-864970-2.
- ^ a b c d Burner, Alma J. "A Chapter of the London Stage: The Clement Scott Papers", Vol. XXVII, Winter 1973–1974, No. 2, University of Rochester Library Bulletin, University of Rochester, accessed 1 May 2014
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35982. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ The Era, 23 June 1878, p. 12
- ^ "Theatrical Gossip", The Era, 7 April 1878, p. 6
- ^ "Theatrical Gossip", The Era, 28 April 1878, p. 7
- ^ "Theatrical Gossip", The Era, 24 September 1876, p. 4
- ^ Scowcroft, Philip L. "A 206th Garland of British Composers, June 2001, MusicWeb International, accessed 1 May 2014
- ^ "Music: Now Is the Hour", Time, 19 January 1948
- ^ "Search Me, O God" at the Cyber Hymnal.
- The Sunday Star-Times, 13 December 2009
- ^ "Norfolk History and Past Times – Louie Jeremy", Norfolkcoast.co.uk, 2005, accessed 21 September 2009
- ^ "Norfolk History and Past Times – Garden of Sleep", Norfolkcoast.co.uk, 2005, accessed 21 September 2009
- ^ "The Theatrical Bazaar". The Sketch. XIV (179): 388. 1 July 1896. Retrieved 17 September 2023 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Death of Clement Scott". The New York Times. London (published 16 June 1904). 25 June 1904. p. 7. Retrieved 17 September 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "A Dramatic End". London Evening News. 25 June 1904. p. 3. Retrieved 17 September 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ a b c Gillan, Don. "The Fall of Clement Scott", StageBeauty.net, 2007, accessed 13 June 2014
- ^ "Screen Two: Poppyland", BBC Radio Times 1923–2009, 13 January 1985
References
- Poppyland – Strands of Norfolk History, Stibbons and Cleveland, Poppyland Publishing, Fourth ed. 2001. ISBN 0-946148-56-2
- Poppyland in Pictures, Elizabeth Jones, Poppyland Publishing, Second ed. 2004. ISBN 0-946148-66-X
- The Drama of Yesterday and Today, Clement Scott, London: Macmillan, 1899. (two volumes)
- Ellen Terry, Clement Scott, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1900.
- From The Bells to King Arthur, Clement Scott, London: John Macqueen, 1896.
- Poppy-land; papers descriptive of scenery on the East Coast, Clement Scott, Carson & Comerford, 1886.
- Some Notable Hamlets of the Present Time, Clement Scott, Illus: Will G. Mein, London: Greening & Co., 1900.
- Old Days in Bohemian London: Recollections of Clement Scott, Mrs. Clement Scott (ed.), London: Hutchinson, 1919.
External links
- Works by or about Clement Scott at Internet Archive
- Works by Clement Scott at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Poppyland (1985) (TV) at IMDb
- Information about the Scott and Stephenson collaborations
- Clement Scott at the Internet Broadway Database
- Sheet Music for "O Promise Me", G. Schirmer, Inc., 1889.
- Free scores by Clement Scott at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)