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ROBERTSON, THOMAS WILLIAM (1829-1871)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 407 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROBERTSON, See also:THOMAS See also:WILLIAM (1829-1871) , See also:English actor and dramatist, was See also:born at See also:Newark on the 9th of See also:January 1829. As a dramatist he had a brief but very brilliant career. The son of a provincial actor and manager, See also:chief of a " See also:circuit " that ranged from See also:Bristol to See also:Cambridge, Robertson was See also:familiar with the See also:stage from his childhood; he was the eldest of a large See also:family, the actress See also:Margaret (Madge) Robertson (Mrs See also:Kendal) being the youngest. His success came See also:late. A farcical See also:comedy by him, A See also:Night's See also:Adventure, was produced at the Olympic under See also:Farren's management as See also:early as 1851, but this did not make See also:good his footing, and he remained for some years longer in the provinces, varying his See also:work as an actor with See also:miscellaneous contributions to See also:newspapers. In 186o he went to See also:London, and edited a See also:mining See also:journal to which he contributed a novel after-wards dramatized with the See also:title See also:Shadow See also:Tree See also:Shaft. He was at one See also:time prompter at the Olympic under the management of See also:Charles See also:Mathews. He wrote a See also:farce entitled A Cantab, which was played at the Strand See also:Theatre in 1861. This brought him a reputation in a Bohemian clique, but so little See also:practical assistance that he thought of abandoning the profession to become a tobacconist. Then, in 1864, came his first marked success, See also:David See also:Garrick, produced at the Haymarket with See also:Edward See also:Sothern in the See also:principal See also:character. It was not, how-ever, till the See also:production of Society at the See also:Prince of See also:Wales Theatre in 1865, under the management of See also:Miss See also:Marie See also:Wilton, afterwards Mrs See also:Bancroft, that the originality and cleverness of the dramatist were fully recognized. See also:Play-writer and See also:company were exactly suited one to another; the plays and the acting together—the small See also:size of the playhouse being also in their favour—were at once recognized as a new thing.

Although some critics sneered at the " See also:

cup-and-saucer comedy," voted it absurdly realistic, said there was nothing in it but See also:commonplace See also:life represented without a trace of Sheridanian wit and sparkle, all London flocked to the little See also:house in Totten-See also:ham See also:Street, and the stage was at once inundated with imitations of the new See also:style of acting and the new See also:kind of play. Robertson, although his See also:health was already undermined, rapidly followed up Society with a See also:series of characteristic plays which made the reputation of himself, the company and the theatre. All his best known plays (except David Garrick) were written for the old Prince of Wales's under the Bancrofts, and that regime is now an See also:historical incident in the progress of the English stage. Ours was produced in 1866, See also:Caste in 1867, Play in 1868, School in 1869, M. P. in 187o. Unhappily, See also:Robert-son enjoyed his success for but a See also:short time. He died in London on the 3rd of See also:February 1871. His work is notable for its masterly stagecraft, wholesome and generous See also:humour, See also:bright and unstrained See also:dialogue, and high dramatic sense of human character in its theatrical aspects. See Principal Dramatic See also:Works of Robertson; with Memoir by his son (1889) ; and T. E. Pemberton, Life and Writings of Robertson (1893). ROBERTSON, WILLIAM (1721-1793), Scottish historian, born at Borthwick, See also:Mid See also:Lothian, on the 19th of See also:September 1721, was the eldest son of the Rev.

William Robertson. He was educated at the school of See also:

Dalkeith and the university of See also:Edinburgh. He was from the first intended for the See also:ministry; in 1743 he was presented to the living of Gladsmuir in See also:East Lothian, and two years later he lost both his See also:father and his See also:mother, who died within a few See also:hours of each other. The support and See also:education of a younger See also:brother and six sisters then devolved upon him, though at that time his income was less than £See also:loo a See also:year. Robertson's inclination for study was never allowed to interfere with his duties as a See also:parish See also:minister, and his See also:power as a preacher had made him a See also:local celebrity while still a See also:young See also:man. His See also:energy and decision of character were brought out vividly by the See also:rebellion of 1745. When Edinburgh seemed in danger of falling into the hands of the rebels he joined the See also:volunteers in the See also:capital. When the See also:city was surrendered he was one of the small See also:band who repaired to See also:Haddington and offered their services to the See also:commander of the royal forces. Such a man could not remain in obscurity, and in 1746 he was elected a member of the See also:General See also:Assembly, where his See also:influence as See also:leader of the " moderate " party was for many years nearly supreme (See See also:PRESBYTERIANISM). During all this See also:period of prominent activity in the public life of Edinburgh, Robertson was busy with his historical labours. His See also:History of See also:Scotland, begun in 1753, was published in 1759. Till he had finished his See also:book Robertson had never See also:left his native See also:country; but the publication of his history necessitated a See also:journey to London, and he passed the early months of the year 1758 partly in the capital and partly in leisurely rambles in the counties of See also:England.

The success of the History of Scotland was immediate, and within a See also:

month a second edition was called for. Before the end of the author's life the book had reached its fourteenth edition; and it soon brought him other rewards than See also:literary fame. In 1759 he was appointed See also:chaplain of See also:Stirling See also:Castle, in 1761 one of His See also:Majesty's chaplains in See also:ordinary, and in 1762 he was chosen principal of the university of Edinburgh. In May 1763 he was elected See also:Moderator of the General Assembly, and in See also:August of the same year the See also:office of See also:king's historiographer was revived, in his favour with a See also:salary of £200 a year. _ The See also:rest of Robertson's life was uneventful. His History of the Reign of the See also:Emperor Charles the Fifth occupied ten consecutive years of labour. It appeared in three volumes See also:quarto in 1769. In 1777 he published his History of See also:America and in 1791 his Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of See also:India, which concluded his historical labours and appeared only two years before his See also:death, which occurred near Edinburgh on the 11th of See also:June 1793. His fame had See also:long been See also:European, and he left no See also:rival in the See also:field of historical See also:composition See also:save See also:Gibbon alone. For an adequate appreciation of Robertson's position in See also:British literature, and more especially of his See also:rank as an historian, we have to consider the country and the See also:age in which he was born and his own See also:personal qualities and limits. Considering the small size and poverty of the country, Scotland had made a more than creditable figure in literature in the See also:great age of the See also:Reformation and the See also:Renaissance, and Scottish contributions to British literature in the last See also:half of the 18th See also:century were distinctly See also:superior to those produced in the See also:southern portion of the See also:island. Of the three great British historians of the 18th century two were Scotsmen.

The exact See also:

place of Robertson with regard to his two See also:friends See also:Hume and Gibbon, and to such historians as the rest of See also:Europe had to offer, presents a question of some nicety, because it is complicated by extraneous considerations, so to speak, which should not weigh in an abstract estimate, but cannot be excluded in a See also:concrete and practical one. If we regard only Robertson's potential historic power, the question is not so much whether he was equal to either of his two friends as whether he was not superior to both. The man who wrote the See also:review of the See also:state of Europe prefixed to the History of Charles V., or even the first book of the History of Scotland, showed that he had a wider and more synthetic conception of history than either the author of the Decline and Fall or the author of the History of England. These two portions of Robertson's work, with all their shortcomings in the See also:eye of See also:modern See also:criticism, have a distinctive value which time cannot take away. He was one of the first to see the importance of general ideas in history. He saw that the immediate narrative of events with which he was occupied needed a background of broad and connected generalizations, referring to the social state of which the detailed history formed a See also:part. But he did more than this. In the appendix to the view of Europe called " Proofs and Illustrations " he enters into the difficult and obscure question of See also:land See also:tenure in Frankish times, and of the origin of the feudal See also:system, with a sagacity and knowledge which distinctly advanced the comprehension of this period beyond the point at which it had been left by Du See also:Bos, See also:Montesquieu and Mably. He was well acquainted with the See also:original documents,—many of them, we may conjecture, not easy to procure in Scotland. It must have been a genuine aptitude for historical See also:research of a scientific kind which led Robertson to undertake the labour of these austere disquisitions of which there were not many in his See also:day who saw the importance. Gibbon, so superior to him for wide See also:reading and scholarship, has pointedly avoided them. Robertson's views are now out of date.

But he deserves the See also:

honour of a See also:pioneer in one of the most obscure if also important lines of inquiry connected with European history. On the other See also:hand, it must be admitted that he showed himself only too tame a follower of See also:Voltaire in his general appreciation of the See also:middle ages, which he regarded with the mingled See also:ignorance and See also:prejudice See also:common in the 18th century. In this particular he was not at all in advance of his age. The neglect and See also:gradual oblivion which have overtaken the greater part of Robertson's historical work are owing to no See also:fault of his. He had not and could not have- the requisite materials: they were not published or accessible. See also:Justice requires that we should estimate his performance in view of the means at his command, and few critics would hesitate to sub-See also:scribe to the See also:verdict of See also:Buckle, " that what he effected with his materials was wonderful." His style is singularly clear, harmonious and persuasive. The most serious reproach made against it is that it is correct to a fault and lacks idiomatic vigour,and the See also:charge is not without See also:foundation. But there can be no doubt that, if Robertson's writings are less read than they formerly were, the fact is to be attributed to no defects of style but to. the growth of knowledge and to the immense See also:extension of historical research which has inevitably superseded his initiatory and meritorious labours. By his wife, See also:Mary Nisbet, whom he married in 1751, Robert-son left three sons: William (1753-1835), who in 1805 was raised to the Scottish See also:bench as See also:Lord Robertson; See also:James, who became a general in the British See also:army; and David, who in 1799 married Margaret; See also:sister of See also:Colonel Donald See also:Macdonald and heiress of Kinloch-Moidart, whose surname he assumed. There are lives of Robertson by Dugald See also:Stewart (Edinburgh, 18oI and 1802), prefixed to most of the collective See also:editions of his works; by See also:George See also:Gleig, See also:bishop of See also:Brechin (Edinburgh, 1812); and by Lord See also:Brougham in Lives of Men of Letters, &c. (1845-1846).

End of Article: ROBERTSON, THOMAS WILLIAM (1829-1871)

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