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
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",