aptation of Sardou's
_Dora_--were among their _premieres_, which helped to make the little
playhouse famous. The Bancroft management at the Prince of Wales's
constituted a new era in the development of the English stage, and had the
effect of reviving the London interest in modern drama. In 1879 they moved
to the Haymarket, where Sardou's _Odette_ (for which they engaged Madame
Modjeska) and _Fedora_, W. S. Gilbert's _Sweethearts_ and Pinero's _Lords
and Commons_, with revivals of previous successes, were among their
productions. Having made a considerable fortune, they retired in 1885, but
Mr Bancroft (who was knighted in 1897) joined Sir Henry Irving in 1889 to
play the abbe Latour in a revival of Watts Phillips's _Dead Heart_.

See _Mr and Mrs Bancroft, on and off the Stage_ (1888), and _The Bancrofts:
Recollections of Sixty Years_ (1909), by themselves.

BAND, something which "binds" or fastens one thing to another, hence a
cord, rope or tie, _e.g._ the straps fastening the sheets to the back in
book-binding. The word is a variant of "bond," and is from the stem of the
Teutonic _bindan_, to bind. From the same source comes "bend," properly to
fasten the string to the bow, so as to constrain and curve it, hence to
make into the shape of a "bent" bow, to curve. In the sense of "strap," a
flat strip of material, properly for fastening anything, the word is
ultimately of the same origin but comes directly into English from the
French _bande_. In architecture the term is applied to a sort of flat
frieze or fascia running horizontally round a tower or other parts of a
building, particularly the base tables in perpendicular work, commonly used
with the long shafts characteristic of the 13th century. It generally has a
bold, projecting moulding above and below, and is carved [v.03 p.0309]
sometimes with foliages, but in general with cusped circles or quatrefoils,
in which frequently are shields of arms.

The two small strips of linen, worn at the neck as part of legal, clerical
and academic dress, are known as "bands"; they are the survival of the
falling collar of the 17th century. These bands are usually of white linen,
but the secular clergy of the Roman Church wear black bands edged with
white. The light cardboard or chip boxes now used to carry millinery were
formerly made to carry the neck-bands, whence the name of "band-box."

In the sense of company or troop, "band" is probably also connected with
_bindan_, to bin