Add MS 52995 B

'The Colleen Bawn, or, The brides of Garry Owen', drama in three acts by Dion Boucicault. Licence sent 31 August 1860 for performance at the Adelphi. LCO Day Book Add. 52703 records the stipulation that the word 'Heaven' be substituted for 'God'. Nicoll cites first production at Laura Keene's Theatre, New York on 28 March 1860. Contains words for songs. Based on the novel The Collegians, by Gerald Griffin (Saunders and Otley, 1829), itself based on the real-life case of Ellen Hanley, a fifteen year old girl from County Clare, murdered in 1819 on the instructions of her husband John Scanlan when he realised that a (Catholic) Irish country-girl would not be accepted by his Anglo-Irish family. Scanlan's manservant, Gerald Griffin, who committed the foul deed, and Scanlan himself were both hanged for the crime, despite the famous barrister Daniel O'Connell leading Scanlan's defence. Boucicault's was the most successful of many versions of the story. It ran for 230 performances after its opening on 10 September 1860, and helped Boucicault to earn £23,000 in his first year in London. For the title of his play, Boucicault drew on another novel, Willy Reilly and his dear Colleen Bawn, by William Carleton (published 1855); for the plot based specifically on this novel, licensed for the Marylebone Theatre in April 1861, see Add. 53003 S. For versions of the story based on the Gerald Griffin novel, see

Add. 52995 T, 52996 M, 53002 M, 53005 T, 53007 O, 53009 I, 53009 Q, 53003 S, and 53014 Z. For a musical version of the story, The lily of Killarney, with a libretto by John Oxenford and Boucicault (for the music by Sir Julius Benedict), see Add. 53011 G. Keywords: Ireland, stagecraft, attempted murder, marital relationships, family relationships, secret marriage, disfigurement, debt and its consequences, letters, songs, eavesdropping, popular songs, tableau, courtship, blackmail, water scenes, dreams, orphans, suicide, patriotism, class contrasts, engagements.

ff. 107.

Dionysius Lardner Boucicault, formerly Boursiquot; called 'Dion Boucicault' and 'Lee Moreton'; actor and dramatist: Plays by, submitted for licence: 1852-1867: Partly printed and incomplete.