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In April 1865, she began, in partnership with [[Henry James Byron|Henry Byron]], the management of the [[Prince of Wales's Theatre]]. For two seasons before her marriage she managed the theatre alone. She secured as a leading actor [[Squire Bancroft]], whom she had met shortly before in [[Liverpool]] and married in December 1867. Her son Charles Edward Wilton (born 1863) changed his name to Bancroft upon the marriage of his mother to Squire Bancroft. Their sons together were George Louise Pleydell Bancroft (born 1869) and Arthur Hamilton Bancroft (born and died 1870).<ref name=Lodge>{{cite web|last=Gare|first=Chris| title= The mystery of Charles Bancroft & Margaret Grimston| url=http://www.oldwhitelodge.com/bancroft.htm|website= www.oldwhitelodge.com|accessdate= 31 August 2020}}</ref> The Prince of Wales's soon became noted for its series of successful comedies by [[Thomas William Robertson|T. W. Robertson]], namely: ''[[Society (play)|Society]]'' (1865), ''Ours'' (1866), ''[[Caste (play)|Caste]]'' (1867), ''Play'' (1868), ''School'' (1869) and ''M. P.'' (1870).<ref>[[Thomas Edgar Pemberton|Pemberton, T. Edgar]]. [https://archive.org/stream/societyandcastee00robeuoft/societyandcastee00robeuoft_djvu.txt ''The English Drama from its Beginning to the Present Day'' – ''Society'' and ''Caste''], D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers Boston USA and London (1905)</ref>
Bancroft regularly took the principal female parts in these pieces, her husband playing the leading man. Together, Robertson and the Bancrofts are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama'.<ref>Stedman, p. 87</ref> The Bancrofts gave Robertson an unprecedented amount of directorial control over the plays, which was a key step to institutionalizing the power that directors wield in the theatre today.<ref>[
The Bancrofts were also responsible for making fashionable the 'box set', which [[Lucia Elizabeth Vestris]] had first used at the [[Olympic Theatre]] in the 1830s – this consisted of rooms on stage which were dressed with sofas, curtains, chairs, and carpets on the stage floor. They also provided their actors with salaries and wardrobes. Also, the Bancrofts redesigned their theatre to suit the increasingly upscale audience: "The cheap benches near the stage, where the rowdiest elements of the audience used to sit were replaced by comfortable padded seats, carpets were laid in the aisles, and the pit was renamed the stalls."<ref>[http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/19th_century/cup.php Information about Cup and Saucer realism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070416042300/http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/19th_century/cup.php |date=16 April 2007 }} (PeoplePlay UK)</ref>
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{{Reflist}}
==
*''The Bancrofts: Recollections of Sixty Years'' (Dutton and Co.: London, 1909)
* {{cite book | title=Lives of Victorian Literary Figures, Part V | publisher=Pickering & Chatto |author1=William Baker |author2=Judith L Fisher |author3=Andrew Gasson |author4=Andrew Maunder | year=2007 | isbn=978-1-85196-819-0}} (Online summary [http://www.wilkie-collins.info/plays_bancrofts.htm here].)
* {{cite book|last=Stedman|first=Jane W.|year=1996|title=W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-816174-5}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051109140749/http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/24863/mcms.html Information from the Picture History website]▼
==External links==
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070416042300/http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/19th_century/cup.php Discussion of the Bancrofts and their theatres]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060112155918/http://www.sensationpress.com/mariebancroft.htm Photographs of Bancroft]
▲* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051109140749/http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/24863/mcms.html Information from the Picture History website]
* {{NIE|title=Bancroft, Marie Effie Wilton, Lady}}
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