Page:Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day.djvu/30



is a native of Dublin, where he was born on December 26th, 1822. He is the youngest son of Samuel Boucicault, a well-known merchant. His elder brothers have earned in Australia both fame and fortune on the colonial press as newspaper proprietors and editors: one, George D. Boucicault, having been for many years editor of the 'Melbourne Daily News;' the other, Arthur Boucicault, is now the editor and proprietor of the 'Northern Argus.' The late George Darley, the dramatic poet and essayist, was the uncle of these men— so literature may be said to be hereditary in their family.

In 1841, at the age of nineteen, Mr. Dion Boucicault produced his first dramatic work, 'London Assurance.' His later works, 'The Colleen Bawn' and 'Arrah-na-Pogue,' have somewhat eclipsed his earlier productions, and the public are inclined to regard him as a writer of melodrama only. But of all the dramatists who are now living and writing, he is the only one who has produced a series of plays of the highest class, amongst which the following five-act comedies and tragic plays may be recorded: 'Old Heads and Young Hearts,' 'The School for Scheming,' 'The Irish Heiress,' 'Woman,' 'Love in a Maze,' 'Louis the Eleventh.' His comedy, 'London Assurance,' was played for one hundred and sixty-five nights in 1872 at one of the West-end theatres.

Amongst the dramas which have flowed unceasingly for the last thirty years from his prolific pen, we remember 'The Willow Copse,' 'The Corsican Brothers,' 'Faust and Margaret,' 'The Vampire,' 'Janet Pride,' 'Used Up,' 'The Octoroon,' 'The Colleen Bawn,' 'The Streets of London,' 'Rip Van Winkle,' 'Formosa,' 'After Dark,' 'Hunted Down,' 'Arrah-na-Pogue,' 'Jezebel,' 'The Long Strike,' 'Flying Scud,' 'Babil and Bijou,' and recently a little piece entitled 'Night and Morning.'

In 1853, Mr. Boucicault married Miss Agnes Robertson, an actress, and