ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1875, 12 years after the Ticket-of-Leave Man first appeared on the stage of the Olympic, Horace Wigan was once again engaged in the business of impersonating a detective. In the world of The Detective, the theatre itself remains something of a false friend, threatening to undermine the same professional aspirations it so tantalizingly appears to guarantee. Clement Scott was deeply invested in the status of the professional, and its imbrication in The Detective with the process of theatrical codification seemed to be a source of both comfort and concern. Clement Scott's personal commitment to establishing his professional standing as well as his own experience of a snobbish disregard for his status is evinced in a telling anecdote he recounts in his self-reflective volumes, The Drama of Yesterday and To-Day.
