The Foresters

The Foresters or, Robin Hood and Maid Marian is a play written by Alfred Tennyson and first produced with success in New York in 1892.

Sullivan and Tennyson had worked together before, on a song cycle for tenor, The Window, written and composed in 1867–68, but not published until 1871.

Meanwhile, Tennyson had written a play, The Cup, that was produced with success by Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in 1881.

Encouraged by this, Tennyson started work on a play based on the Robin Hood legend, completing it after a visit to Sherwood Forest in October 1881.

In 1891, however, Anderson's brother, Joseph wrote to the American impresario Augustin Daly recommending that The Foresters would be a good project for him and his star actress Ada Rehan.

[1] The text, consisting of a mixture of blank verse and prose, contained songs and dances which Daly, at Tennyson's suggestion, approached Sullivan to compose.

Despite the respect in which Lord Tennyson was held, the play received poor notices in London, being called "tedious" and compared with a nursery tale, and ran for only seventeen performances.

[4] The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, for example, wrote that the songs were "set with rare taste, discrimination and melody by Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose delightful music gives charm and interest".