English literature Also in 1896 A.E. Housman published at his own expense "A Shropshire Lad". Writers of comic verse included the dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator W.S. Gilbert (1836–1911), who is best known for his fourteen comic operas, produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include "H.M.S. Pinafore", and "The Pirates of Penzance". Novelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) wrote poetry throughout his career, but he did not publish his first collection until 1898, so that he tends to be treated as a 20th-century poet. Now regarded as a major poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins's (1844–1889) "Poems" were
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (play) was given in 1938 with Grahame Clifford as Claudius, Erik Chitty as Guildenstern, Leonard Sachs as Rosencrantz, and Peter Ridgeway as Hamlet. The play continues to receive occasional productions. It figures in the plot of the 2009 film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead". 1874 was a busy year for Gilbert. He illustrated "The Piccadilly Annual"; supervised a revival of "Pygmalion and Galatea"; and, besides "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern", he wrote "Charity"; a play about the redemption of a fallen woman; a dramatisation of "Ought We to Visit Her?" (a novel by Annie Edwardes), an adaptation from the French, "Committed for Trial",