BOUCICAULT, DioN (1822-90). An Irish American playwright and actor, born in Dublin, of French parentage, Decemlicr 26, 1822. Ile was brought up under the guardian ship of Dr. Dionysius Lirdaer. after whom he was named, and was educated at University Col lege, London. His first dramatic work, produced before he was 19 years old, was London A ssur ance, Covent Garden, in March, 1811. Its sig nal success determined his career. it has ever since remained a favorite with British and American play-goers. The plot was slight, but ingenious; it abounded in comic situations; the dialogue was brisk and sprightly; there was no lack of wit, and there were perhaps more than enough of those flippan•ies and pleasant im pertinences which average theatre-goers prefer to wit. Boueicault next produced, in rapid suc cession, Old Heads and Young Hearts; Lore in a Maze; Used Up; Louis XI.; and The Corsican Brothers. When he went upon the stage, in 1852, he added the vogue of an actor to the reputation he had previously gained as an au thor. From 1853 till 1860 he was in America. where his popularity was scarcely less than it had been in England. On his return to London in IS60, he produced at the Ado1phi Theatre a play, The Colleen Baum, which proved among the most successful of modern times, and which, if not the first of a new school, has at least sup plied a new descriptive name to our dramatic literature. The author made a fortune by it. It has been performed in almost every theatre in the United Kingdom; it had a great run in America ; it was even translated into French, nd brought out at the Ambigu Theatre in Paris. Boucicault subsequently produced at the Adelphi —of which he was for some time joint -manager —another 'sensation' drama, The Octoroon, the popularity of which was only a little less than that of The Colleen Baum. In 1862 he opened a
new theatre in London, the Westminster; but this speculation turned out unfortunately. afterwards reestablished his fortunes by new plays, in some of which he and his wife—for merly :Nliss Robertson, a very popular actress— took the leading parts. The Streets of London, Flying Scud, After Dark, and The Shaughraun were among the most popular of his later works. all of which are of the type with which he had familiarized the public. His character of Con in The Shaughraun was perhaps his most effec tive and amusing creation. In collaboration with Charles Reade he wrote the novel Foul Play, which was afterwards dramatized. In all he wrote more than 300 dramatic pieces: and in illustration of the facility with which he com posed works which—all deductions made—are of considerable merit, it may be said that he once even wrote to a royal commission that he would undertake to write plays for all the the atres in London. As an actor, Boucicault was always very popular, without attaining to high excellence in his vocation. His lack of marked histrionic talent was, in part at least, made up by his keen sense of humor: and whatever his artistic ability may have been, it is certain that he was immensely popular with his audiences. In 1876 he took up his residence in New York, where he died. September 18, 1590. Consult Clement Scott, The Drama of Yesterday and To day (London, 1899 )