On leaving Oxford, Benson took to the professional stage, and made his first appearance at the Lyceum, under Henry Irving, in "Romeo and Juliet", as Paris, in 1882. In the next year he went into managership with a company of his own, taken over from Walter Bentley, and from this time he became gradually more and more prominent, both as an actor of leading parts himself and as the organizer of practically the only modern repertory company touring through the provinces.