Editing Squire Bancroft

{{Short description|English actor-manager}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2013}}
[[File:Sir Squire Bancroft.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Squire Bancroft (1841–1926)]]
'''Sir Squire Bancroft''' (14 May 1841 &ndash; 19 April 1926), born '''Squire White Butterfield''', was an English [[actor-manager]]. He changed his name to Squire Bancroft Bancroft<!-- Yes, he wrote Bancroft as his middle and surnames --> by deed poll just before his marriage.<ref>{{cite web|last=Gare|first=Chris| title= The mystery of Charles Bancroft & Margaret Grimston| url=http://www.oldwhitelodge.com/bancroft.htm|website= oldwhitelodge.com|accessdate= 31 August 2020}}</ref> He and his wife [[Effie Bancroft]] are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama', owing to the realism of their stage sets.

==Early life and career==
Bancroft was born in [[Rotherhithe]], London. His first appearance on the stage was in 1861 at [[Birmingham]], and he played in the provinces with success for several years. His first London appearance was in 1865 as Jack Crawley in J. P. Wooler's ''A Winning Hazard'' at the [[Scala Theatre|Prince of Wales's Theatre]] off [[Tottenham Court Road]]. He was then using the stage name Sydney Bancroft; also in the cast was his future wife, [[Effie Bancroft|Effie Wilton]].<ref>{{cite news|title= Prince of Wales's Theatre |newspaper=[[The Era (newspaper)|The Era]]|date= 23 April 1865|page= 15}}</ref> This theatre was managed by [[Henry James Byron|Henry Byron]] and Wilton, whom Bancroft married in December 1867.<ref>{{cite news|title= Marriages |newspaper= Pall Mall Gazette |date= 4 January 1868|page= 6}}</ref> After their marriage the Bancrofts became joint managers of the theatre.<ref>[[Thomas Edgar Pemberton|Pemberton, T. Edgar]]. [https://archive.org/stream/societyandcastee00robeuoft/societyandcastee00robeuoft_djvu.txt ''The English Drama from its Beginning to the Present Day'' – ''Society'' and ''Caste''], D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers Boston USA and London (1905)</ref>

Mr and Mrs Bancroft produced and starred in all the [[Thomas William Robertson]] comedies beginning in 1865: ''[[Society (play)|Society]]'' (1865), ''Ours'' (1866), ''[[Caste (play)|Caste]]'' (1867), ''Play'' (1868), ''School'' (1869) and ''M.P.'' (1870), and, after Robertson's death, in revivals of the old comedies, for which they surrounded themselves with an admired company.  Together, Robertson and the Bancrofts are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as "drawing-room comedy" or "cup and saucer drama".<ref>Stedman, p. 87</ref> The Bancrofts gave Robertson an unprecedented amount of directorial control over his plays, which was a key step to institutionalizing the power that directors wield in the theatre today.<ref>Vorder Bruegge, Andrew "W. S. Gilbert: Antiquarian Authenticity and Artistic Autocracy" (Associate Professor, Department Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance, Winthrop University).  Professor Vorder Bruegge presented this paper at the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States annual conference in October 2002 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510212618/http://faculty.winthrop.edu/vorderbruegg/winthropweb/vitaindex/gilbert.html|date=10 May 2011}}, retrieved 26 March 2008</ref>

The Bancroft management at the Prince of Wales's Theatre constituted a new era in the development of the English stage and had the effect of reviving the London interest in modern drama.  They were also responsible for making fashionable the "box set", which [[Lucia Elizabeth Vestris]] had first used at the [[Olympic Theatre (London)|Olympic Theatre]] in the 1830s – this consisted of rooms on stage which were dressed with sofas, curtains, chairs, and carpets on the stage floor.  They also provided their actors with salaries and wardrobes.  Also, the Bancrofts redesigned their theatre to suit the increasingly upscale audience: "The cheap benches near the stage, where the rowdiest elements of the audience used to sit were replaced by comfortable padded seats, carpets were laid in the aisles, and the pit was renamed the stalls."<ref>[http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/19th_century/cup.php Information about Cup and Saucer realism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070416042300/http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/19th_century/cup.php |date=16 April 2007 }} (PeoplePlay UK)</ref>

Other plays they premiered or produced there were [[W. S. Gilbert]]'s ''Allow Me To Explain'' (1867) and his romantic comedy tribute to Robertson, ''[[Sweethearts (play)|Sweethearts]]'' (1874), as well as ''Tame Cats'' (1868), [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton|Lytton's]] ''Money'' (1872), ''[[The School for Scandal]]'' (1874), [[Dion Boucicault|Boucicault's]] ''London Assurance'' (1877), and ''[[Diplomacy (play)|Diplomacy]]'' (1878), an adaptation of [[Victorien Sardou|Sardou]]'s ''Dora'' by [[Clement Scott]] and [[B. C. Stephenson]].
[[File:SquireBancroftBrompton01.jpg|thumb|right|Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London]]

==Later life and career==
In the 1870s and 1880s, in addition to his management responsibilities, Bancroft continued to play leading roles in numerous contemporary plays, as well as in works by Shakespeare and [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]]'s and other classic plays, often opposite his wife.<ref name=NYPL>[http://archives.nypl.org/the/21493 "Squire Bancroft letter book, 1836-1922"], Billy Rose Theatre Division, [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]], retrieved 8 December 2013</ref> In 1879, the Bancrofts moved to the [[Haymarket Theatre]], where they produced or starred in a revival of ''Money'', and in Sardou's ''Odette'' (for which they engaged Madame [[Helena Modjeska]]), ''Fedora'', and Pinero's ''Lords and Commons'', with revivals of previous successes.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Having made a considerable fortune, they retired from management in 1885, but Bancroft continued to act until 1918.<ref name=NYPL/> Bancroft was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1897. Between 1917, and his death in 1926, Bancroft maintained rooms at the fashionable [[Albany (London)|Albany]], in [[Piccadilly]].<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41481 ''Albany'', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 367-389] accessed: 5 November 2007</ref> He and his wife are buried in [[Brompton Cemetery]]; a flat, arch-shaped memorial marks the graves, but their mausoleum was destroyed by bombing in World War II.<ref>[https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/brompton-cemetery/explore-brompton-cemetery/sir-squire-and-lady-effie-bancroft "Sir Squire & Lady Effie Bancroft"], Explore Brompton Cemetery, The Royal Parks, retrieved 4 November 2019</ref>

==Publications==
Bancroft wrote two books, and in collaboration with his wife, he wrote two volumes of reminiscences called ''Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft On and Off the Stage, Written by Themselves'' (London, 1888) and ''The Bancrofts: Recollections of Sixty Years'' (London: Dutton and Co., 1909).

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* ''The Bancrofts: Recollections of Sixty Years'' (Dutton and Co.: London, 1909)
* {{cite book|last=Stedman|first=Jane W.|year=1996|title=W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-816174-5}}

==References==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070416042300/http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/19th_century/cup.php Information about the Bancroft's and "cup and saucer drama" from the People Play website]
*[http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-51376/Sir-Squire-Bancroft Britannica.com article]
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bancroft, Sir Squire}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Commons category|Sir Squire Bancroft}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Squire Bancroft}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bancroft, Squire}}
[[Category:1841 births]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:19th-century British theatre managers]]
[[Category:20th-century theatre managers]]
[[Category:19th-century English memoirists]]
[[Category:21st-century English memoirists]]
[[Category:Actors awarded knighthoods]]
[[Category:English male stage actors]]
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[[Category:Actor-managers]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan]]
[[Category:Actors from the London Borough of Southwark]]
[[Category:Burials at Brompton Cemetery]]
[[Category:People from Rotherhithe]]