Sydney Grundy
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Sydney Grundy (March 23, 1848 – July 4, 1914) was an English dramatist. He was born in Manchester, England, and died in London.
Grundy was the son of Alderman Charles Sydney Grundy. He was educated at Owens College, Manchester, and practiced at the bar from 1869 until 1876.
[edit] Life and career
His early farce, A Little Change, was produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1872.
Grundy became well known as an adapter of French plays. Among his earlier successes were The Snowball (1879), based on Oscar, ou le marl qui trompe sa femme by Eugène Scribe and Duvergne, In Honour Bound (1880), based on Scribe's tine Chaine, and The Silver Shield (1885). The Bells of Haslemere, written with H. Pettitt, was a success in 1887. In 1889–90 Grundy produced two original comedies, A White Lie and A Fool's Paradise, which had been produced two years earlier as The Mouse-Trap.
Grundy's original libretti included the one-act "musical absurdity" Popsy Wopsy (1880), the full-length The Vicar of Bray (1882) and Pocahontas (1884), both with Edward Solomon, and Haddon Hall (1892), with Sir Arthur Sullivan.
Other successful adaptations were A Pair of Spectacles (1889), from Les Petits Oiseaux of Labiche and Delacour, A Village Priest (1890), from Le Secret de la terreuse, and a melodrama by Busnach and Cauvin. These were followed by Sowing the Wind (1893); An Old Jew (1894); an adaptation of Octave Feuillet's Montjoye, called A Bunch of Violets (1894); The New Woman (1894); The Slaves of the Ring (1894); and The Greatest of These (1895).
Later notable works included A Marriage of Convenience (1897) from Un Mariage de Louis XV, by Alexandre Dumas, père, The Silver Key (1897) from his Mlle de Belle-isle, and The Musqueteers (1899) from the same author's novel. These were followed by The Degenerates (1899); A Debt of Honour (1900); Frocks and Frills (1902) from Doigts de fees of Scribe and Ernest Legouvé; The Garden of Lies (1904) from Justus Miles Forman's novel; Business is business (1905), a rather free adaptation from Octave Mirbeau's Les affaires sont les affaires; and The Diplomatists (1905) from La Poudre aux yeux, by Labiche.
