Henry James Byron
Henry James Byron (8 January 1835 – 11 April 1884) was a prolific English dramatist, as well as an editor, journalist, director, theatre manager, novelist and actor.
After an abortive start at a medical career, Byron struggled as a provincial actor and aspiring playwright in the 1850s. Returning to London and beginning to study for the
Biography
Byron was born in
Early career
Byron joined several provincial companies as an actor from 1853–57, sometimes in his own plays and sometimes in those of
Byron also wrote for periodicals, and in 1861, he became the first editor of Fun magazine, where he showcased the comic talents of the then-unknown W. S. Gilbert. He became editor of Comic News in 1863. He also founded the short-lived Comic Trials and wrote a three-volume novel, Paid in Full, in 1865. In 1867, he became the editor of Wag, another humour magazine,[2] and in 1877, the sixpenny magazine Mirth.[4] He wrote numerous dramatic critiques and humorous essays for magazines, including the rival of Fun, Punch.[5] During this period, he was a well-known man-about-town, joining, and popular as a guest at, various London dining clubs and, in 1863, becoming a founding member of the Arundel Club.[1] Henry Morley acknowledged with dismay Byron's position in the literary world as chief punster but found in him "a true power of fun that makes itself felt by high and low".[6] He became a Member of the Dramatic Authors' Society by 1860.[7]
At the same time, he continued writing for the Strand, the Adelphi, the
Between 1865 and 1867, he joined
Return to acting and later years
He returned to acting, making his London acting début, in 1869, achieving much greater success than in his early attempts, as Sir Simon Simple in his comedy Not Such a Fool as He Looks.[10] He followed this with successful outings as Fitzaltamont in The Prompter's Box: A Story of the Footlights and the Fireside (1870), The Prompter's Box (1870, revived in 1875 and often thereafter, and later renamed The Crushed Tragedian), Captain Craven in Daisy Farm (1871) and Lionel Leveret in Old Soldiers (1873). Byron's acting was again admired in An American Lady in 1874, with which he began as the manager of the Criterion Theatre, and then Married in Haste (1875) which was much revived. In 1876, he played in his The Bull by the Horns and Old Chums. Other roles included Dick Simpson in Conscience Money (1878), Charles Chuckles in his An English Gentleman (1879) and John Blunt in his Michael Strogoff (1881).[2] In 1881, he played the role of Cheviot Hill in a revival of his friend Gilbert's eccentric comedy, Engaged.[10] He continued acting until 1882, when ill health forced him to retire. Not surprisingly, Byron achieved his greatest acting successes in timing of the delivery of his own witty lines.[1] The Times explained that "in such parts as Gibson Greene in Married in Haste, a self-possessed, observant, satirical, well-bred man of the world, [Byron] was beyond the reach of rivalry. To ease and grace of manner he united a peculiar aptitude for the delivery of the good things he put into his own mouth."[5]
Byron continued to write prose comedies with the ambitious semi-autobiographical Cyril's Success (1868), The Upper Crust (starring Toole), Uncle Dick's Darling (1870, starring Henry Irving), An English Gentleman (1871, starring
From 1876 to 1879, he wrote several successful burlesques for the Gaiety Theatre, London, such as a burlesque of Dion Boucicault's Don Caesar de Bazan called Little Don Caesar de Bazan,[13] and The Gaiety Gulliver (1879). Also during that period, he edited the humour magazine Mirth.[2] In 1878, he co-wrote a highly successful charity pantomime, The Forty Thieves, together with Robert Reece, W. S. Gilbert and F. C. Burnand. In 1880, four volumes of his plays were published, with fourteen plays in each book.[14] After 1880, as his health greatly declined, so did Byron's playwriting output.[5] The popular three-act comedy The Guv'nor, credited to "E. G. Lankester" and first performed in the 1880s, has been attributed to Byron on stylistic grounds.[15]
Byron is described by Jim Davis in the introduction to his 1984 collection, Plays by H. J. Byron, as the most prolific playwright of the mid-Victorian period, as he produced over 150 dramatic pieces. The Times called Byron a master of "genial wit and humour".[16] It also commented that "The secret of his success... lay chiefly in his dialogue, which is seldom otherwise than neat, pointed and amusing. He fires verbal shots in such rapid succession that one laugh has scarcely died away when another is raised. In the delineation of character, too, he is often extremely happy".[5]
By 1874, he was showing symptoms of tuberculosis, which caused his retirement in 1882. His first wife died in 1876 at the age of 45, and the same year he remarried Eleanor Mary née Joy, the daughter of Edward Joy, a lawyer. His son Henry and daughter Crede (a pun on Crede Byron, the Byron family motto) also became actors, and he had another son.[1]
During the last few years of his life Byron was in frail health, and he died at his home in Clapham, London, England, in 1884 at the age of 49. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.[2]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Thomson, Peter. "Byron, Henry James (1835–1884)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008, accessed 19 December 2008
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lee, Amy Wai Sum. "Henry J. Byron"[permanent dead link], Hong Kong Baptist University
- ^ Script for Robinson Crusoe, or Harlequin Friday[permanent dead link] (1860)
- ^ "The new six penny humorous monthly magazine Mirth". John Bull. 1 December 1877. p. 1. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ a b c d e The Times, 14 April 1884, p. 7, col. C
- ^ Journal of a London Playgoer, 1866, p. 209
- ^ Script of Byron's Robinson Crusoe; or, Harlequin Friday (1860)[permanent dead link]
- ^ Byron's 1861 Aladdin featured the début of the pantomime character, Widow Twankey, first played by James Rogers.
- ^ Stedman, Jane. W.S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian and His Theatre, Oxford University Press, 1996
- ^ a b Stedman, Jane W. "General Utility: Victorian Author-Actors from Knowles to Pinero", Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3, October 1972, pp. 289–301, The Johns Hopkins University Press
- ^ The Times, 2 May 1871, p. 12
- ^ Booth, Michael R. Review of plays by H. J. Byron including Our Boys in The Modern Language Review, Vol. 82, No. 3, pp. 716–17, July 1987, Modern Humanities Research Association
- ^ Information about Little Don Caesar de Bazan and the Gaiety Theatre at VictorianWeb.org
- ^ Byron, Henry James. "Plays Volumes One to Four", Samuel French & Thomas Lacy (1880)
- ^ "Amusements". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 17, 909. New South Wales, Australia. 12 August 1895. p. 7. Retrieved 6 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Funeral of the Late Mr. H. J. Byron", The Times, '18 April 1884, p. 10, col. C
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.
References
- Bancroft, Squire and Marie. Mr and Mrs Bancroft on and off the stage (1888)
- Barnes, J. H. Forty years on the stage (1914)
- Cordova, R. de, ed. Dame Madge Kendal by herself (1933)
- Davis, Jim. Plays by H. J. Byron (Cambridge University Press, 1984), with The Babes in the Wood, The Lancashire Lass, Our Boys, and The Gaiety Gulliver.
- Hibbert, H. G. A playgoer's memories (1920)
- Hollingshead, J. Gaiety chronicles (1898)
- Irving, L. Henry Irving: the actor and his world (1951)
- Lee, Amy. "Henry J. Byron"[permanent dead link], Hong Kong Baptist University
- More, Elizabeth A. "Henry James Byron: His career and Theatrical Background", Theatre Studies, 26–27, pp. 51–63, (1979–1981)
- More, Elizabeth A. "Henry James Byron and the Craft of Burlesque", Theatre Survey: The American Journal of Theatre History, 23, pp. 55–70 (1982)
- Pemberton, T. E. The life and writings of T. W. Robertson (1893)
- Pemberton, T. E. A memoir of Edward Askew Sothern, 2nd edn (1889)
- Pemberton, T. E. Sir Charles Wyndham (1904)
- Swears, H. When all's said and done (1937)
- Walbrook, H. M. A playgoer's wanderings (1920)
- Wilman, George (1882), "Henry James Byron", Sketches of living celebrities, London: Griffith and Farran, pp. 113–115