The Ticket-of-Leave Man (play)

The Ticket-of-Leave Man is an 1863 stage melodrama in four acts by the British writer Tom Taylor, based on a French drama, Le Retour de Melun.

It was not well received by critics, but proved very popular with audiences and was constantly revived, becoming one of the standard works of Victorian melodrama.

[3] A reviewer in The Spectator wrote, " Mr. Tom Taylor, one of our ablest dramatic writers, has treated a great social question with a definite purpose, a degree of artistic skill, and a depth of earnestness... which render The Ticket-of-Leave Man to be viewed in no ordinary light.

Two criminals, Melter Moss and James Dalton, pretend to lend him money, giving him a forged note.

He had been kind to May, a young woman, who waits for his release from prison, even though Brierly's forged note caused the ruin of May's landlady Mrs Willoughby.