Dramatist. Born William Thomas Thomas. Son of a tradesman; worked in London solicitor's office; was for some time law stationer, music shop proprietor. Early became theatre manager; connected throughout his life with numerous theatres; for a time manager of AstIey's and of Vauxhall Gardens. Composed for the stage some one hundred pieces, original and adapted—extravaganzas, burlettas, farces, comedies, and dramas, many of them highly successful. Most popular of the adaptations was Tom and Jerry, based on Pierce Egan's Life in London. Member of Dramatic Authors' Society, Wrote theatrical criticisms for Satirist and Scourge; contributed to New Monthly, Sunday Times, and other periodicals. Published some books of verse; also some miscellaneous non-dramatic prose writings. Became totally blind in 1843; admitted a brother of the Charterhouse, 1844.
Among Moncrieff's stage adaptations were pieces based on Pickwick and Nicholas Nickleby. His version of "the very original, graphic, and clever" Pickwick, wrote Moncrieff, had increased the popularity and sale of that book, and he was at a loss to understand the indignation of Dickens's "injudicious friends" at his making the successful stage version (advertisement to Sam Weller, cited in Fitzgerald, Dickens and the Drama, pp. 83-87). The adaptation of Nickleby, which (like that of Pickwick) appeared on the stage before Dickens had completed publication of the novel in monthly parts, led to an ugly quarrel between the two writers. Dickens introduced into Nickleby (chap. xlviii) a caricature of Moncrieff in the person of the "literary gentleman" who in his time had dramatized "two hundred and forty-seven novels as fast as they had come out—some of them faster than they had come out". Moncrieff replied in a long address "To the Public" (cited in Fitzgerald, pp. 121-126), in which he admitted the unfairness of novelists' having no control over the adaptation of their works, but defended his right to make adaptations; he termed the caricature "intemperate and vulgar" and regretted that Dickens, forgetful of the manners of a gentleman, had resorted to "scurrility and abuse".
Dickens was convinced (in part by information given to Bulwer-Lytton by Moncrieff) that the conditions under which the brothers of the Charterhouse lived were deplorable, and, as he wrote to Bulwer-Lytton, February 4 1852, had for some time wished to publish in H.W. an article on the subject. The article, assigned in the Office Book to Morley and Moncrieff, appeared four months later. Lives of the Illustrious, 1852 (II, 295), enumerating some of the "public wrongs, nuisances, and abuses" dealt with in H.W. stated: "The Charterhouse received a castigation in an article the data of which were furnished by Moncreiff [sic], the old dramatist who spoiled 'Nickelby', that injury being remembered, be it said to Dickens's honour, only to be forgiven". Wills, who was a friend of Moncrieff, made him the generous payment of five guineas for his share in the article.
Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
