| Henry M. Milner | |
| Period: | 19th century |
| Genre: | Melodrama; Popular tragedy |
Henry M. Milner was a 19th-century British playwright and author of melodramas and popular tragedies.[1] Milner wrote numerous plays, including two popular equestrian dramas/hippodramas featuring live horses on stage. These are: Mazeppa; or, the Wild Horse of Tartary (which was based on Lord Byron's 1819 poem), which kicked off a wave of interest in the legend and Dick Turpin's Ride to York; or, Bonny black Bess, about the famous highwayman and his horse. Both of these plays included great spectacle in performance and enjoyed great popular success during the mid to late nineteenth century. ' 'Mazeppa' ' was extremely popular and often produced; it is recalled as one of, if not the most, significant and popular equestrian drama of all time.[2]
Another of Milner's noteworthy and successful works is, The Man and The Monster; or The Fate of Frankenstein, with O. Smith as The Monster and which opened on 3 July 1826 at the Royal Coburg Theatre (now known as The Old Vic), eight years after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published.[3] subsequent film adaptations follow Milner's example, in making Frankenstein's monstrous creation a pivotal scene.