William Bayle Bernard

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William Bayle Bernard (1807–1875)[1] was a well known American-born London playwright and drama critic. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of English comic actor John Bernard,[2] he came to Britain with his family in 1820, where he first worked as a clerk in an army accounts office. His plays include Casco Bay (1832), The Kentuckian (1833), The Nervous Man (1833), The Mummy (1833), Marie Ducange (1837), The Round of Wrong (1846), The Doge of Venice (1867), The Passing Cloud (1850) and A Storm in a Teacup (1854), as well as adaptations of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle (1834) and Wilkie Collins's No Name (1863).[2][3] He also wrote the five-volume historical romance The Freebooter's Bride (1829).[4]

His play The Mummy, a popular success on its debut at the Theatre Royal, Adelphi,[5] influenced Edgar Allan Poe's "Some Words with a Mummy".[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Lee, Sidney (1903). Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.. 
  2. ^ a b Bordman, Gerald; Hischak, Thomas S. (2004). The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, 3rd, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195169867. 
  3. ^ "The Victorian Age: Part I". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature XIII. (1907–21). Ed. Ward, A. W; Waller, A. R.. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on 2008-02-01. 
  4. ^ Title details for Freebooter's Bride, The. British Fiction 1800–1829. Cardiff University. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  5. ^ Nelson, Alfred L.; Cross, Gilbert B. (1988). Seasonal Summary for Summer 1833. The Adelphi Theatre 1806–1900: A Calendar of Performances. Eastern Michigan University. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  6. ^ Benton, Richard P. (December 1971). "Edgar Allan Poe: Current Bibliography". Poe Studies IV (2): pp. 38–44. Washington State University Press. 
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