Trilby

Pen and ink drawing by A.S. Boyd showing characters from the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's novel Trilby, Haymarket Theatre, 1895.

Trilby, adapted for the stage by Paul M. Potter, was first staged in Boston and New York in the spring on 1895. British actor manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852-1917) saw the play in New York and, realising its potential as a vehicle for himself, quickly bought the rights. A new version, adapted to give greater prominence to the villainous hypnotist Svengali, the role taken by Tree, opened at the Haymarket Theatre on 30 October 1895. It played there for 254 performances and made a star of the twenty year-old Dorothea Baird.

The work of artist and illustrator Alexander Stuart Boyd (1854-1930) appeared in many British periodicals, notably the Graphic and Punch.