BENSON, FRANCIS ROBERT (1858 )

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 745 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BEC-BER

BENSON, FRANCIS ROBERT (1858 ) , English actor, son of William Benson of Alresford,.Hants, was born at Tunbridge Wells on the 4th of November 1858. He came of a talented family, his elder brother, W. A. S. Benson (b. 1854), becoming well known in the world of art as one of the pioneers in the revival of English industrial craftsmanship, especially in the field of the metallic arts; and his younger brother, Godfrey Benson, being an active Liberal politician. He was educated at Winchester and New College,

Oxford

, and at the university was distinguished both as an

athlete

ATHLETE (Gr. aOX177'7r; Lat. athleta)

(winning the Inter-university three miles) and as an

amateur

AMATEUR (Lat. amator, lover)

actor. In the latter respect he was notable for producing at

Oxford

the first performance of a Greek play, the Agamemnon, in which many Oxford men who afterwards became famous in other fields took

part

PART

. Mr Benson, on leaving Oxford, took to the professional stage, and made his first

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

at the Lyceum, under Irving, in Romeo and Juliet, as Paris, in 1882. In the next year he went into manager. ship with a company of his own, taken over from Walter

Bentley

BENTLEY, RICHARD (1662-1742)
BENTLEY, RICHARD (1794-1871)

, and from this time he became gradually more and more prominent, both as an actor of leading parts himself and as the organizer of practically the only modern " stock company " touring through the provinces. In 1886 he married Gertrude Constance Cockburn (Featherstonhaugh), who acted in his company and continued to play leading parts with him. Mr Benson's

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

successes were gained out of London for some years, but in 1890 he had a season in London at the Globe and in 1900 at the Lyceum, and in later years he was seen with his repertoire at the Coronet. His company included from time to time many actors and actresses who, having been trained under him, became prominent on their own account, and both by his organization of this

regular

REGULAR

company and by his foundation of a dramatic school of acting in Igor, Mr Benson exercised a most important influence on the contemporary stage. From the first he devoted himself largely to the production of Shakespeare's plays, reviving many which had not been acted for generations, and his services to the cause of Shakespeare can hardly be overestimated. From 1888 onwards he managed the

Stratford

STRATFORD
STRATFORD, JOHN DE (d. 1348)

-on-Avon Shakespearian Festival. His romantic and intellectual

powers

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

as an actor, combined with his athletic and picturesque bearing and fine elocution, were conspicuously shown in his own impersonations, most remarkable among which were his Hamlet (in 1900 he produced this play without cuts in London), his Coriolanus, his Richard II., his Lear and his Petruchio.

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