May Fortescue company. She toured with her company for many years, frequently performing the plays of W. S. Gilbert. A tour of the United States from 1886 to 1887 included the New York premiere of Gilbert's play "Gretchen", with Fortescue in the title role (although "The New York Times" found her performance wanting). During these touring years, she revived at least eight other works by Gilbert, playing such roles as Jenny Northcott in "Sweethearts", Galatea in "Pygmalion and Galatea", Selene in "The Wicked World" and Clarice in "Comedy and Tragedy". Fortescue's troupe premiered Gilbert's 1897 drama, "The Fortune Hunter", in which she
Engaged (play) seen as drawing on "Engaged" are Noël Coward and Joe Orton. By 1877, Gilbert, now forty years old, was established as a dramatist. After his early burlesques of the 1860s he had turned to writing comic opera libretti and non-musical plays, both comic and serious. His musical successes included "Ages Ago" (music by Frederic Clay, 1869) and "Trial by Jury" (music by Arthur Sullivan (1875). His serious and comic non-musical plays included "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871), "The Wicked World" (1873), "Sweethearts" (1874) and several others that played for well over 100 performances – good runs by the standards of the