The day was won, and the successful author could afford to rest on his laurels. But he was ambitious and a hard worker; so he continued to write and adapt. To counterbalance the good-fortune of _David Garrick_ and _Home_ at the Haymarket, and the series of six at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, there was a list of failures--_Birth, Progress, Dreams_ and _War_. But his comedies were far more successful than his heavier plays: his belief in his power to construct good acting dramas must have been sadly shaken by the total failure of _For Love_, the _Shadow-Tree Shaft_ and the _Nightingale_. There can be no better proof of their want of success than the fact that at a time when American managers were eager for his comedies, not one of his dramas was ever produced in the United States. But in spite of the comparative failure of his later works, his death was felt to be the loss of a dramatic author of some performance and of greater promise, We have a way of nicknaming a new writer after one of his most celebrated predecessors whom we imagine him to resemble, and then we find fault with him for not having all the qualities of an author whom he probably has no desire to imitate. False friends of T.W. Robertson called him the "modern Sheridan." Few writers are more dissimilar. Robertson in his dialogue and construction imitated the modern French dramatists; Sheridan, the old English, Congreve, Farquhar and Wycherley. Robertson especially delighted in love-scenes--there are generally two at least in each of his comedies: I cannot remember one in any of Sheridan's. The dialogue of the author of the _School for Scandal_ is artificial and glittering--that of the author of _School_ is generally more natural, and always less brilliant. They have, however, one point in common: they both practiced Molière's maxim, _Je prends mon bien où je le trouve_. They both unhesitatingly plagiarized. Robertson in particular easily assimilated foreign matter. He turned _Le Dégel_ and _Les Ganaches_ of M. Sardou into _A Rapid Thaw_ and _Progress_. _David Garrick_ was taken from _Dr. Robin_, a French play, itself imitated from the German. _Home_ closely follows _L'Aventurière_ of M. Émile Augier. Madame de Girardin's _La Joie fait peur_, previously translated by Mr. G.H. Lewes as _Sunshine through the Clouds_, gave Robertson the situation of the last act of _War_: Mr. Dion Boucicault has since deftly adapted the same delightful little piece under the name of _Kerry, or Night and Morning_. The Cinderella-like plot of _School_ is taken from the _Aschenbrödel_ of Roderick Benedix: the school examination was suggested by a French vaudeville, _En classe, mesdemoiselles!_ The part of Beau Farintosh is a weak revival of Garrick's Lord Chalkstone and Colman and Garrick's Lord Ogleby; and the strong situation in the fourth act is imitated from _Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré_ of George Sand.