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{{Short description|English playwright (1817–1880)}}
{{about|the dramatist and editor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
[[File:Tom Taylor by Lock and Whitfield.jpg|thumb|Tom Taylor (photograph by Lock and Whitfield)|upright=1.3]]
'''Tom Taylor''' (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English [[dramatist]], critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of [[Punch (magazine)|''Punch'']] magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literature and language at [[University of London|University College, London]] in the 1840s, after which he practised law and became a civil servant. At the same time he became a journalist, most prominently as a contributor to, and eventually editor of, ''Punch'', a humour magazine.

In addition to these vocations, Taylor began a theatre career and became best known as a playwright, with up to 100 plays staged during his career. Many were adaptations of French plays, but these and his original works cover a range from [[farce]] to [[melodrama]]. Most fell into neglect after Taylor's death, but ''[[Our American Cousin]]'' (1858), which achieved great success in the 19th century, remains famous as the piece that was being performed in the presence of [[Abraham Lincoln]] when he was [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassinated]] in 1865.

==Life and career==

===Early years===
Taylor was born into a newly wealthy family at [[Bishopwearmouth]], a suburb of [[Sunderland, Tyne and Wear|Sunderland]], in north-east England. He was the second son of Thomas Taylor (1769–1843) and his wife, Maria Josephina, ''née'' Arnold (1784–1858).<ref name=dnb>Howes, Craig. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/27090 "Taylor, Tom"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 3 January 2008 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> His father had begun as a labourer on a small farm in [[Cumberland]] and had risen to become co-owner of a flourishing brewery in [[Durham, England|Durham]].<ref name=dnb/> After attending the Grange School in Sunderland, and studying for two sessions at the [[University of Glasgow]], Taylor became a student of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] in 1837, was elected to a [[scholarship]] in 1838, and graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in both classics and mathematics.<ref>{{acad|id=TLR836T|name=Taylor, Tom}}</ref><ref name=Turney>[http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/tomtaylor.htm Profile of Taylor at the Turney site.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218025102/http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/tomtaylor.htm |date=18 February 2008 }}</ref> He was elected a fellow of the college in 1842 and received his [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|MA]] degree the following year.<ref name=dnb/>

[[Image:Tom Taylor by Spy in Vanity Fair 1876.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Caricature of Taylor by [[Leslie Ward|"Spy"]] in ''[[Vanity Fair (UK magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1876]]
Taylor left Cambridge in late 1844 and moved to London, where for the next two years he pursued three careers simultaneously. He was professor of English language and literature at [[University of London|University College, London]], while at the same time studying to become a [[barrister]], and beginning his life's work as a writer.<ref name=archive>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-27090 "Taylor, Tom"], ''Dictionary of National Biography'' archive, accessed 1 October 2018 {{subscription required}}</ref> Taylor was [[called to the bar]] of the [[Middle Temple]] in November 1846. He resigned his university post, and practised on the northern legal circuit until he was appointed assistant secretary of the [[General Board of Health|Board of Health]] in 1850.<ref>"Tom Taylor Esq.", ''[[The Morning Post]]'', 8 April 1850, p. 6</ref> On the reconstruction of the board in 1854 he was made secretary, and on its abolition in 1858 his services were transferred to a department of the [[Home Office]], retiring on a pension in 1876.<ref name=archive/>

===Writer===
Taylor owed his fame and most of his income not to his academic, legal or government work, but to his writing. Soon after moving to London, he obtained remunerative work as a [[editorial|leader writer]] for the ''[[Morning Chronicle]]'' and the ''[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]''.<ref name=archive/> He was also art critic for ''[[The Times]]'' and ''[[The Graphic]]'' for many years.<ref name=archive/> He edited the ''Autobiography of [[B. R. Haydon]]'' (1853), the ''Autobiography and Correspondence of [[C. R. Leslie]], R.A.'' (1860) and ''Pen Sketches from a Vanished Hand'', selected from papers of [[Mortimer Collins]], and wrote ''Life and Times of Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]]'' (1865).<ref name=dnb/> With his first contribution to ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', on 19 October 1844, Taylor began a thirty-six year association with the weekly humour and satire magazine, which ended only with his death. During the 1840s he wrote on average three columns a month; in the 1850s and 1860s this output doubled. His biographer Craig Howes writes that Taylor's articles were generally humorous commentary or comic verses on politics, civic news, and the manners of the day.<ref name=dnb/> In 1874 he succeeded [[Charles William Shirley Brooks]] as editor.<ref name=dnb/>

Taylor also established himself as a playwright and eventually produced about 100 plays.<ref name=Cambridge>[http://www.bartleby.com/223/0810.html "Tom Taylor", ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21)'' (Volume XIII. ''The Victorian Age'', Part One. VIII. Nineteenth-Century Drama, § 10]</ref> Between 1844 and 1846, the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]] staged at least seven of his plays, including [[Victorian burlesque|extravanzas]] written with [[Albert Richard Smith|Albert Smith]] or [[Charles Lamb Kenney|Charles Kenney]], and his first major success, the 1846 [[farce]] ''To Parents and Guardians''. ''[[The Morning Post]]'' said of that piece, "The writing is admirable throughout – neat, natural and epigrammatic".<ref>"Lyceum Theatre", ''The Morning Post'', 15 September 1846, p. 5</ref> It was as a dramatist that Taylor made the most impression – his biographer in the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' (''DNB'') wrote that in writing plays Taylor found his true vocation. In thirty-five years he wrote more than seventy plays for the principal London theatres.<ref name=archive/>

[[File:Ticket of leave man - Weir Collection.jpg|thumb|Poster for an 1868 revival of ''[[The Ticket-of-Leave Man (play)|The Ticket-of-Leave Man]]'']]
A substantial portion of Taylor's prolific output consisted of adaptations from the French or collaborations with other playwrights, notably [[Charles Reade]]. Some of his plots were adapted from the novels of [[Charles Dickens]] or others. Many of Taylor's plays were extremely popular, such as ''[[Masks and Faces (play)|Masks and Faces]]'', an extravaganza written in collaboration with Reade, produced at the [[Haymarket Theatre]] in November 1852. It was followed by the almost equally successful ''To Oblige Benson'' ([[Olympic Theatre (London)|Olympic Theatre]], 1854), an adaptation from a French vaudeville. Others mentioned by the ''DNB'' are ''Plot and Passion'' (1853), ''Still Waters Run Deep'' (1855) and ''[[The Ticket-of-Leave Man (play)|The Ticket-of-Leave Man]]'' (based on ''Le Retour de Melun'' by [[Édouard Brisebarre]] and Eugène Nus), a [[melodrama]] produced at the Olympic in 1863.<ref name=archive/> Taylor also wrote a series of historical dramas (many in [[blank verse]]), including ''The Fool’s Revenge'' (1869), an adaption of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[Le roi s'amuse]]'' (also adapted by [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] as ''[[Rigoletto]]''), '''Twixt Axe and Crown'' (1870), ''Jeanne d'arc'' (1871), ''Lady Clancarty'' (1874) and ''Anne Boleyn'' (1875). The last of these, produced at the Haymarket in 1875, was Taylor's penultimate piece and only complete failure.<ref name=dnb/> In 1871 Taylor supplied the words to [[Arthur Sullivan]]'s dramatic [[cantata]], ''[[On Shore and Sea]]''.<ref>[http://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/shore_sea/times1871.html "The International Exhibition"], ''[[The Times]]'', 2 May 1871, reprinted at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 5 August 2017</ref>

Like his colleague [[W. S. Gilbert]], Taylor believed that plays should be readable as well as actable; he followed Gilbert in having copies of his plays printed for public sale. Both authors did so at some risk, because it made matters easy for American pirates of their works in the days before international copyright protection. Taylor wrote, "I have no wish to screen myself from literary criticism behind the plea that my plays were meant to be acted. It seems to me that every drama submitted to the judgment of audiences should be prepared to encounter that of readers".<ref>Barrett, Daniel. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30227301 "Play Publication, Readers, and the 'Decline' of Victorian Drama"], ''Book History'', Vol. 2 (1999), pp. 181 and 182</ref>

[[Image:Tom Taylor.jpg|right|thumb|alt=middle aged white man with bushy beard, moustache and hat, seated in semi-profile, glaring towards the camera|Taylor by [[Lewis Carroll]], 1863]]
Many of Taylor's plays were extremely popular,<ref name=Cambridge/> and several survived into the 20th century, although most are largely forgotten today. His ''[[Our American Cousin]]'' (1858) is now remembered chiefly as the play [[Abraham Lincoln]] was attending when he was assassinated, but it was revived many times during the 19th century with great success. It became celebrated as a vehicle for the popular comic actor [[Edward Askew Sothern|Edward Sothern]], and after his death, his sons, Lytton and [[E. H. Sothern]], took over the part in revivals.<ref name=OAC>"Our American Cousin", ''The Era'', 24 October 24, 1885, p. 8; and "Mr. E. H. Sothern", ''The Times'', 30 October 1933, p. 17</ref>

===Personal life===
Howes records that Taylor was described as "of middle height, bearded [with] a pugilistic jaw and eyes which glittered like steel". Known for his remarkable energy, he was a keen swimmer and rower, who rose daily at five or six and wrote for three hours before taking an hour's brisk walk from his house in [[Wandsworth]] to his [[Whitehall]] office.<ref name=dnb/>

Some, like [[Ellen Terry]], praised Taylor's kindness and generosity; others, including [[F. C. Burnand]], found him obstinate and unforgiving.<ref name=dnb/> Terry wrote of Taylor in her memoirs:
{{quote|Most people know that Tom Taylor was one of the leading playwrights of the 'sixties as well as the dramatic critic of ''The Times'', editor of ''Punch'', and a distinguished Civil Servant, but to us he was more than this. He was an institution! I simply cannot remember when I did not know him. It is the Tom Taylors of the world who give children on the stage their splendid education. We never had any education in the strict sense of the word yet through the Taylors and others, we ''were'' educated.<ref>Terry, p. 39</ref>}}

Terry's frequent stage partner, [[Henry Irving]] said that Taylor was an exception to the general rule that it was helpful, even though not essential, for a dramatist to be an actor to understand the techniques of stagecraft: "There is no dramatic author who more thoroughly understands his business".<ref>''Quoted'' in Richards, p. 6</ref>

In 1855 Taylor married the composer, musician and artist [[Laura Wilson Barker]] (1819–1905).<ref>Aaron C Cohen. ''International Encyclopedia of Women Composers'' (1981), p. 33</ref> She contributed music to at least one of his plays, an overture and entr'acte to ''Joan of Arc'' (1871),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JDFGAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Mrs+Tom+Taylor%22+%22composer%22&pg=PA68 "Tom Taylor"], ''The Magazine of Art'', Vol. 4 (1881), p. 68</ref> and harmonisations to his translation ''Ballads and Songs of Brittany'' (1865).<ref>Taylor, Tom (translator). [https://archive.org/details/balladssongsofbr00lavi_0 ''Ballads and Songs of Brittany''] (1865), Internet Archive</ref> There were two children: the artist John Wycliffe Taylor (1859–1925) and Laura Lucy Arnold Taylor (1863–1940).<ref>[https://www.coleshill.org/history/buildings/houses/167-porch-house.html "Porch House"], Coleshill in Buckinghamshire, accessed 20 February 2023</ref> Taylor and his family lived at 84 Lavender Sweep, [[Battersea]], where they held Sunday musical soirees.<ref>[https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/laura-wilson-barker "Laura Wilson Barker (1819–1905)"], Royal Academy of Arts, accessed 19 February 2023</ref> Celebrities who attended included [[Lewis Carroll]], [[Charles Dickens]], Henry Irving, [[Charles Reade]], [[Alfred Tennyson]], Ellen Terry and [[William Makepeace Thackeray]].<ref>Rathbone, Jeanne. [https://damesnet.com/?p=6293 "Laura Wilson Barker"], ''Damesnet'', accessed 18 February 2019</ref>

Taylor died suddenly at his home in 1880 at the age of 62 and is buried in [[Brompton Cemetery]].<ref name=dnb/> After his death, his widow retired to [[Coleshill, Buckinghamshire|Coleshill]], Buckinghamshire, where she died on 22 May 1905.<ref>Stratton, Stephen S. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BwBzEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Mrs+Tom+Taylor%22+%22composer%22&pg=PT182 "''Nicolo Paganini: His Life and Work''"] (2022)</ref>

==Selected bibliography==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
*''Valentine and Orson'', 1844
*''Whittington and his Cat'', 1844
*''Cinderella'', 1844
*''A Trip to Kissingen'', 1844
*''To Parents and Guardians'', 1845
*''Diogenes and his Lantern'', 1849
*''The Vicar of Wakefield'', 1850
*''The Philosopher's Stone'', 1850
*''Prince Dorus'', 1850
*''Our Clerks'', 1852
*''Wittikind and his Brothers'', 1852
*''Plot and Passion'', 1853
*''A Nice Firm'', 1853
*''Masks and Faces'', 1854
*''To Oblige Benson'', 1854
*''Two Loves and a Life'', 1854
*''Still Waters Run Deep'', 1855
*''The King's Rival'', 1855
*''Helping Hands'', 1855
*''Retribution'', 1856
*''Victims'', 1857
*''A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing'', 1857
*''An Unequal Match'', 1857
*''Our American Cousin'', 1858
*''Going to the Bad'', 1858
*''New Men and Old Acres'', 1859
*''A Tale of Two Cities'', 1859
*''Barefaced Impostors'', 1859
*''The Contested Election'', 1859
*''Nine Points of the Law'', 1859
*''The Overland Route'', 1860
*''Up at the Hills'', 1860
*''The Babes in the Wood'', 1860
*''The Ticket-of-leave Man'', 1863
*''Sense and Sensation'', 1864
*''Henry Dunbar'', 1865
*''The Sister's Penance'', 1866
*''The Fool's Revenge'', 1869
*''Mary Warner'', 1869
*''The Babes in the Wood'', 1870
*''Twixt Axe and Crown'', 1870
*''The Hidden Hand'', 1870
*''Joan of Arc'', 1871
*''Arkwright’s Wife'', 1873
*''Lady Clancarty'', 1874
*''Anne Boleyn'', 1875
*''Settling Day'', 1877
{{div col end}}
:'''Source''': ''Dictionary of National Biography''.<ref name=archive/>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==

* {{cite book | last= Richards| first= Jeffrey| title= Sir Henry Irving| year=2007 | location= London| publisher=A C Black | isbn= 978-1-85285-591-8}}
* {{cite book | last= Terry | first= Ellen | title= The Story of My Life | year= 1982| orig-year=1900|location= Woodbridge | publisher= Boydell | isbn= 978-0-85115-204-2}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Tom Taylor}}
* {{Wikisource author-inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=1124}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Tom Taylor}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11343}}
* {{cite DNB|wstitle=Taylor, Tom|volume=55|first=William Charles Mark|last=Kent}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050913153737/http://www.worc.ac.uk/victorian/ Lacy's Acting Edition of Victorian Plays]
* [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C07E1DD143FEE3ABC4052DFB166838B699FDE ''New York Times'' obituary]
* The [http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb71-thm/223 Tom Taylor Collection] at the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Tom}}
[[Category:1817 births]]
[[Category:1880 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Burials at Brompton Cemetery]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Writers from Sunderland]]
[[Category:People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan]]
[[Category:Punch (magazine) people]]

Tom Taylor - Revision history

imported>Jonesey95: Fix Linter errors.