The story concerns the attempt of a middle-aged bachelor to help an eloping young couple reconcile with the girl's parents, his growing fascination with her, and his later melancholy.

The play was first produced and staged in London's West End by Charles Wyndham during May 1896, with sets by Walter Hann and incidental music by Victor Hollander.

Dorothy and William, eloping in a post-chaise, find themselves spilled out onto the ground when it overturns on a dark country road.

(Quick Curtain) Act II: Sir Jasper Makes Amends (Dining-room at Ingle Hall, morning.)

Having secured the parents' acquiescence to the nuptials, Sir Jasper suggests they all return to London to view the coronation celebrations.

Both couples, with Sir Jasper and Jogram, have arrived at Mrs. Minifie's Coffee House, where from an upper floor dining room they expect to view the coronation procession.

Sir Jasper, aware he cuts a better figure than the callow and jealous William, now starts to imagine a life with Dorothy.

[2] Carson had previously used a nom de plume "Thorton Clark",[3] but not for Rosemary, That's for Remembrance, nor for the next collaboration with Parker, The Spendthrift.

[8] Charles Frohman had secured the North American rights to produce Rosemary,[9] which was planned as a season-opener for John Drew's company.

The reviewer for The Pall Mall Gazette called the young elopers "a couple of noodles", and thought the play of weak construction, "cleverness misapplied", and deplored the repeated anti-climaxes of Act III.

[18] The Daily Telegraph's critic was receptive to the nostalgia of the piece, but turned severe at two failures of the writing: "A weak, frivolous, heartless, and unsatisfactory heroine", and "a wearisome, tedious, and meaningless monologue called a last act".

[22] John Drew received top billing in ads, without any other actors or the authors mentioned;[23] in the London papers the entire cast was listed in advertisements.

[16] The New York Times reviewer thought Rosemary a sweet but inconsequential triumph of pictures over action, but that it did afford Drew more range for acting than his usual parts.

Alexandra Carlisle (Dorothy Cruickshank), Herbert Druce (Prof. Jogram), and Frank M. Thomas (William Westwood) were the other principals for this limited engagement of eleven evening and four matinee performances.

[27] The revival was made possible by Ethel Barrymore agreeing to postpone her own opening night in The Shadow (L'ombra), by Dario Niccodemi.

This revisionism was a trait shared by some of Parker's contemporaries, such as Hall Caine with The Christian[32] and Israel Zangwill with Merely Mary Ann.