Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson's death breaks a link with the early Victorian stage and cells to mind a memory of just a hundred years ago-For from Samuel Phelps, the Shakespearean actor-manager Forbes-Robertson in 1874 took his first lessons in elocution and just as the then young aspirant was turning from painting to the stage, so the master had deserted journalism to learn the rudiments of his chosen profession in the oard school of provincial acting in 1826. So far did this training carry him and win for him a reputation for tragedy, that Samuel Phelps made his London debut at the Haymarket on Aug. 28, 1837 in the part of Shylock. Phelps was a sound, competent actor; although his tragic parts gave him most satisfaction, the critics were generally more pleased with his comedy presentation of characters requiring a dry humour which came out best in his Sir Pertinax MacSychophant in Macklin's "The Man of the World",
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.