Complex sentence: Gilbert wrote "Foggerty's Fairy" for British actor Edward Sothern, who had commissioned an earlier play from Gilbert, "The Ne'er-do-weel", but Sothern had not been satisfied with it, despite various rewrites, and refused the piece.
Split into simpler sentences: Gilbert wrote "Foggerty's Fairy" for British actor Edward Sothern, who had commissioned an earlier play from Gilbert, "The Ne'er-do-weel". But Sothern had not been satisfied with "The Ne'er-do-weel", despite various rewrites, and he refused the piece.