Charles Daly in 'Turn Him Out'

From an album of theatrical portraits compiled by the actor (later actor-manager) Charles Daly. According to an inked inscription on the album page, the sitter is seen here dressed as the character 'Roseleaf' in 'the new farce by Mr T.J. Williams' Turn Him Out, first performed at the Strand Theatre in August 1863.

'Without being marked by any striking features of originality, the piece bears evidence of a constructive skill which shows how effectively the old materials may be worked up by a practised hand. The scene is laid at a villa on the outskirts of town, where the natural dreariness of the situation is increased by the road not having yet been converted into a thoroughfare. The owner of the villa has absented himself from home, as his wife believes, on particular business, but, as we afterwards find out, on a holiday excursion to Scarborough, where he has freely surrendered himself to all the flirting and fascinations of the place. While Mr Macintosh Moke is thus enjoying himself, his young wife is left to the annoyances of a conceited fop, Mr Eglantine Roseleaf, who follows the lady home, and who takes advantage of a painter's ladder to come through the window when he is indignantly locked out at the street door [...] The roars of laughter that accompanied the progress of the piece throughout denoted the achievement of a real Strand success, to which it must in fairness be added, the performers greatly contributed' (The Era, 23 August 1863).

Photographed by John Hubbard of 1 Oxford Street, London.