SIR

See also:

• HERBERT (FAMILY)
• HERBERT, GEORGE (1593-1633)
• HERBERT, HENRY WILLIAM
• HERBERT, SIR THOMAS (1606-1682)

HERBERT BEERBOHM

See also:

• TREE (0. Eng. treo, treow, cf. Dan. tree, Swed. Odd, tree, trd, timber; allied forms are found in Russ. drevo, Gr. opus, oak, and 36pv, spear, Welsh derw, Irish darog, oak, and Skr. dare, wood)
• SIR HERBERT BEERBOHM TREE (1853- )

TREE (1853- )  , English actor and manager, was born in London, on the 17th of December 18J3, the son of Julius Beerbohm, a London merchant of German parentage; his half-brother, Max Beerbohm (b . 1872), became well known as a dramatic critic, a miscellaneous writer and caricaturist . Taking the stage name of Beerbohm Tree he made his first professional appearance in London in 1876 . After some years of varied experience he made a striking success in 1884 as the curate in The Private Secretary, but he was making himself well known meanwhile in dramatic circles as an admirable actor in many roles . In September 1887 he became lessee and manager of the Haymarket theatre, London, where his representations of melodramatic " character " parts, as in Jim the Penman, The Red Lamp, and A Man's Shadow, were highly successful . His varied talents as an actor were displayed, however, not only in a number of modern dramas, such as H . A . Jones's Dancing Girl, but also in romantic parts such as Gringoire, and in the production of so essentially a literary play as Henley's Beau Austin; and in classic parts his ability as a comedian was shown in The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which he played Falstaff, and as a tragedian in Hamlet; his presentations of Shakespeare were notable too as carrying forward the methods of realistic staging inaugurated at the Lyceum under Irving . In 1897 Mr Tree moved to the new Her Majesty's (afterwards His Majesty's) theatre, opening with Gilbert Parker's Seats of the Mighty; but his chief successes were in Stephen Phillips's poetical dramas, and in his splendid revivals of Shakespeare (especially Richard II. and the Merchant of Venice) . The magnificence of the mounting, the originality and research shown in the " business " of his productions, and his own versatility in so many different types of character, made his management memorable in the history of the London stage; and on the death of Sir Henry Irving he was generally recognized as the leader in his profession . His wife (Maud Holt), an accomplished actress, and their daughter Viola, were also prominently associated with him . In 1907 he took his company to Berlin at the invitation of the German emperor, and gave a selection from his repertoire with great success .

In the same

year he established a school of dramatic art, for the training of actors, in London; and in this and other ways he was prominent in forwarding the interests of the stage . He was knighted in 1909 .