Dion Boucicault

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The Irish-American playwright and actor Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) was a theatrical rather than a dramatic talent, more an adapter than a creator of plays. He was noted for ingenious stage effects.

Dion Boursiquot, later Boucicault, was born in Dublin on Dec. 26, 1820, a year after his mother's divorce from a wine merchant. When the budding actor dropped out of London University in 1837, he turned to the stage. His first success was London Assurance (1841), which imitated the earlier English comedy of manners. Because of the lack of an international copyright law, theater managers found it more profitable to adapt French plays than to gamble on untried native ones, so Boucicault became an adapter. He lived in Paris from 1844 to 1848, where he was married and shortly widowed.

In London he adapted French romantic melodrama for Charles Kean and learned from him the technique of staging sensational scenes - a knowledge that would serve him well in America. In 1853 Boucicault "eloped" with Agnes Robertson, a London star, to New York, where for many years she played leading roles in his plays. He branched out from costume melodrama to quasi-realistic and topical plays filled with sensational theatrical effects. The Poor of New York (1857) was based on the financial panics of 1837 and 1857. Jessie Brown or The Relief of Lucknow (1858) dramatized the Sepoy mutiny in India. Produced shortly before the Civil War, The Octoroon (1859) portrayed the love of a slave-holder for his beautiful slave. It was explosive material for Americans; yet, remarkably, the play was praised by both North and South. Though Boucicault brought Dickens's and Scott's tales to the stage, his most famous production from popular fiction was Rip Van Winkle (1865) for Joseph Jefferson, who continued to act the role into the 20th century.

The playwright's most lasting work, however, was with his native Irish material, notably The Colleen Bawn (1860), Arrah-na-Pogue (1864), and The Shaughraun (1874). Though later Irish dramatists were to disparage Boucicault, his native plays are full of comic roguery and the combination of farce and melodrama recognizable later in Synge, O'Casey, and Shaw.

In 1885 Boucicault disavowed marriage with Agnes Robertson, with whom he had lived for 32 years, and eloped with a young actress. Until his death in 1890 he lived with his wife, writing unsuccessful plays and teaching in an acting school in New York.

In 53 years in the theater Boucicault made contributions beyond his fine performances and almost 150 plays. He was the first to develop fireproof scenery; he advocated theater workshops for the training of actors; he campaigned for copyright law which would give the playwright ownership of his play. He developed the road company, which replaced local stock companies, thus improving the quality of provincial theater and making the star less important than the integrity of the play and its direction. Boucicault recognized that his plays were merely melodramatic and external, but he insisted that his first duty was to please the public, and this he did with immense success.

Further Reading

Townsend Walsh, The Career of Dion Boucicault (1915), is the best full-length study. Arthur H. Quinn, A History of the American Drama from the Beginning to the Civil War (1923; 2d ed. 1943), contains a sound review of Boucicault's plays, especially those produced in America. David Krause, ed., The Dolmen Boucicault (1964), provides an excellent introduction, with emphasis on the importance of the Irish plays.

Additional Sources

Fawkes, Richard, Dion Boucicault: a biography, London; New York: Quartet Books, 1981 1979.

Dion Boucicault was perhaps the most commercially successful playwright of the Victorian Era whose plays on the vampire theme were an important landmark in the spread of the vampire in the popular consciousness in mid-nineteenth-century England. Born Dionysus Larder Boursiquot in Dublin, he left school at an early age to join an English drama company with whom he acted under the stage name Lee Moreton. He also began to write his own plays and gradually gave up acting for playwriting. Then in 1844 he began a four-year period in France studying the French stage and absorbing popular plots. He was also in Paris in December 1851 to see his second version of The Vampire and after his return to England he quickly composed a vampire play for the popular actor Charles Keane (1811-68). Boucicault also had the use of the new Princess Theatre which had a full set of innovative technical resources.

Keane refused the part (as he was already engaged for the moment) and Boucicault assumed the role himself. Keane's young ward Agnes Robertson did accept the female lead, and during the process of rehearsing Boucicault fell in love. In the next few years he would write plays not only for Keane but for Robertson. The Vampire earned Boucicault good reviews for his acting, but Robertson's review fell far short of expectations, and the play was not a commercial success. The Vampire, A Phantasm in Three Dramas which opened in June 1852 at the Princess, was set in Wales. Its three acts followed a set of characters through their descendants, each act being 100 years after the previous one. The heroine learns of her danger through a dream sequence in which the portraits of her ancestors come to life to warn her. The vampire is seen as seeking the love and blood of a virgin which if found will give him new life go for another century.

In 1853, Boucicault and Robertson moved to the United States where they would stay until the outbreak of war. While here he rewrote The Vampire and came out with a new play, The Phantom, a much simplified and more realistic drama. He did not, for example, keep the scene in which the portraits came to life. The Phantom opened in Philadelphia in 1856 and in New York the following year. It became a standard part of his repertoire and he continued to develop it. Along the way, he even moved the setting from Wales to Scotland (a la Charles Nordier) and his own vampire character, Alan Raby, became Sir Alan Ruthven. The new play opened in London in 1861 and appears to have been much more successful than his first.

Boucicault himself seems to have had an understanding that in plays like The Phantom he was playing to a popular audience, not producing great drama or art. In reference to it, he is noted as having observed, "I can spin out these rough-and-tumble dramas as a hen lays eggs. It is a degrading occupation, but more money has been made out of Guano than out of poetry ." Boucicault moved back to America in 1870 and stayed there until his death in 1890.

Stuart, Roxana. Stage Blood: Vampires of the 19th century. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994. 377 pp.

This article is about Dion Boucicault Senior. For his actor and stage director son (1859 -1929) , see Dion Boucicault Jr..

Dion Boucicault, ca. 1862.

Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot (26 December c. 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the English-speaking theatre. The New York Times heralded him in his obituary as "the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century."^[1]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Work as actor and playwright 1.2 Work as theatre manager and producer 1.3 Family life 2 Selected works 3 Notes 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Biography

He was born and educated in Dublin, Ireland where he lived on Gardiner Street. Though his mother is known, the identity of his father is questionable. He was probably the son of Dionysius Lardner, a boarder at his mother's boarding-house, who supported him financially until about 1840.^[2] He went to London and was enrolled at University College School at the age of thirteen and also studied for a year at the University of London.

Work as actor and playwright

After a year in London, Boursiquot/Boucicault left to pursue acting in Cheltenham. He joined William Charles Macready while still young, and made his first appearance upon the stage with Benjamin Webster at Bristol, England. Soon afterwards he began to write plays, occasionally in conjunction.

His first play, A Legend of the Devil's Dyke, opened in Brighton in 1838. Three years later he found immediate success as a dramatist with London Assurance. Produced at Covent Garden on 4 March 1841, its cast included such well-known actors as Charles Mathews, William Farren, Mrs Nesbitt, and Madame Vestris.

He rapidly followed this with a number of other plays, among the most successful of the early ones being The Bastile [sic], an "after-piece" (1842), Old Heads and Young Hearts (1844), The School for Scheming (1847), Confidence (1848), and The Knight Arva (1848, all at Her Majesty's Theatre),^[3] as well as his very successful The Corsican Brothers (1852, for Charles Kean) and Louis XI (1855). The last two plays were adaptations of French plays.

In his play The Vampire (1852), Boucicault made his début as a leading actor as the vampire 'Sir Alan Raby'. Though the play itself had mixed reviews, Boucicault's characterization was praised as "a dreadful and weird thing played with immortal genius".^[4] In 1854 he wrote and played the title character in Andy Blake; or, The Irish Diamond.^[5]

From 1854 to 1860, Boucicault resided in the United States, where he was always a popular favorite. Boucicault and his actress wife, Agnes Robertson, toured America. He also wrote many successful plays there, acting in most of them. These included the popular Jessie Brown; or, The Relief of Lucknow in 1858.^[5]

Work as theatre manager and producer

In the summer of 1859, Boucicault took over as manager of Burton's New Theatre (originally Tripler's Theatre) on Broadway just below Amity Street. After extensive remodeling, he renamed his new showplace the Winter Garden Theatre. There on 5 December 1859, he premiered his new sensation, the anti-slavery potboiler The Octoroon, in which he also starred. This was the first play to treat seriously of the Black American population. ^[2]

Poster for a production of Boucicault's farce Contempt of Court, c. 1879. From the Library of Congress.

On his return to England, he produced at the Adelphi Theatre a dramatic adaptation of Gerald Griffin's novel, The Collegians, entitled The Colleen Bawn. This play, one of the most successful of the times, was performed in almost every city of the United Kingdom and the United States. Although it made its author a handsome fortune, he lost it in the management of various London theatres.

After his return to England, Boucicault was asked by the noted American comedian Joseph Jefferson, who also starred in the production of Octoroon, to adapt Washington Irving's Rip van Winkle. He obliged and produced a version of the beloved American classic in 1866 that would make Jefferson one of the most famous and well-respected comedians of his age.

Boucicault's next marked success was at the Princess's Theatre, London in 1864 with Arrah-na-Pogue. He played the part of a County Wicklow, Ireland carman. This, and his admirable creation of "Conn" in his play The Shaughraun (first produced at Wallacks Theatre, New York City, in 1874, and then at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1875), won him the reputation of being the best "stage Irishman" of his time.

In 1875 Boucicault returned to New York City and finally made his home there. He wrote the melodrama Contempt of Court (poster, left) in 1879, but he paid occasional visits to London, where his last appearance was made in his play, The Jilt, in 1885. The Streets of London and After Dark were two of his late successes as a dramatist.

Boucicault was an excellent actor, especially in pathetic parts. His uncanny ability to play these low-status roles earned him the nickname "Little Man Dion" in theatrical circles. His plays are for the most part adaptations, but are often very ingenious in construction. They have had great popularity.

Family life

Boucicault was married three times. He married Anne Guiot at St. Mary Lambeth on 9 July 1845, and he claimed that she died in a Swiss mountaineering accident later in the same year.^[6][7] In 1853, he eloped with Agnes Kelly Robertson (1833-1916) to marry in New York. She was Charles Kean's ward; the juvenile lead in his company ^[8] and an actress of unusual ability. She would bear Dion three children: Dion Jr., (1859–1929); Aubrey, (1868–1913);^[9] and Nina, (1867–1950); who all became distinguished actors in their own right. His granddaughter Rene Boucicault (1898–1935), Aubrey's daughter, became an actress and also acted in silent films.

Between 11 July–8 October 1885, Boucicault toured Australia, where his brother Arthur lived.^[10] Towards the end of this tour, he suddenly left Agnes to marry Josephine Louise Thorndyke (c. 1864–1956), a young actress, on 9 September 1885, in Sydney.^[10] This aroused scandal on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, as his marriage to Agnes was not finally dissolved until 21 June 1888, by reason of bigamy with adultery. The rights to many of his plays were later sold to finance alimony payments to his second wife.^[11]

Boucicault died in 1890 in New York City, and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.^[12]

Selected works

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Dion Boucicault

• London Assurance (1841)
• The Bastile [sic] (1842)
• Old Heads and Young Hearts (1844)
• The School for Scheming (1847)
• Confidence (1848)
• The Knight Arva (1848)
• The Corsican Brothers (1852)
• The Vampire (1852)
• Louis XI (1855)
• The Poor of New York (1857)
• The Octoroon or Life in Louisiana (1859)
• The Colleen Bawn or The Brides of Garryowen (1860)
• Arrah-na-Pogue (1864)
• Rip van Winkle or The Sleep of Twenty Years (1866)
• After Dark: A Tale of London Life (1868)
• The Shaughraun (1874)
• The Jilt (1885)

Notes

1. ^ "Dion Boucicault", The New York Times, September 19, 1890
2. ^ ^{a b} Boylan, Henry (1998). A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan. p. 31. ISBN 0-7171-2945-4. 
3. ^ Victoria Web accessed 1 June 2007
4. ^ David J. Skal (2001) Vampires: Encounters With The Undead: 47-8
5. ^ ^{a b} Stedman, Jane W. "General Utility: Victorian Author-Actors from Knowles to Pinero", Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3, October 1972, pp. 289-301, The Johns Hopkins University Press
6. ^ Anne Guiot Calthrop Boucicault Collection {University of Kent} accessed 5 January 2009
7. ^ Anne Guilot was much older than Boucicault. The ADoB article on his son indicates the relationship was in existence by 1844, and she may have died as late as 1848.
8. ^ Boucicault, Dionysius George (Dot) (1859 - 1929) (Australian Dictionary of Biography) accessed 5 January 2009
9. ^ Aubrey Boucicault at the Internet Broadway Database accessed 6 January 2009
10. ^ ^{a b} Josephine Louise Thorndyke Boucicault Calthrop Boucicault Collection {University of Kent} accessed 5 January 2009
11. ^ Agnes Robertson Boucicault (1833-1916) Calthrop Boucicault Collection {University of Kent} accessed 5 January 2009
12. ^ Letter from Josephine Cheney - formerly Boucicault (NY Times) accessed 5 January 2009

See also

• Dionysius Lardner (probably Boucicault's natural father.)

References

• Asimov's Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan, Patience, note 31
• Michael Diamond, Victorian Sensation, (Anthem Press, 2003) ISBN 1-84331-150-X. Chapter 7.

see also Dion Boucicault by Richard Fawkes, (Quartet books, 1979)

External links

• Works by Dion Boucicault at Project Gutenberg
• A list of his works at www.scholars.nus.edu.sg
• The Fawkes Boucicault Collection at the University of Kent

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• This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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