John O'Keeffe (24 June 1747 – 4 February 1833) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

actor and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He wrote a number of farces, amusing dramatic pieces and librettos for

pasticcio In music, a ''pasticcio'' or ''pastiche'' is an opera or other musical work composed of works by different composers who may or may not have been working together, or an adaptation or localization of an existing work that is loose, unauthorized, o ...

operas, many of which had great success. Among these are '' Tony Lumpkin in Town'' (1778), ''

Love in a Camp ''Patrick in Prussia, or Love in a Camp'' is a 1786 comic opera with music by William Shield and a libretto by John O'Keeffe. An afterpiece, it was a sequel to the 1783 hit ''The Poor Soldier'' with the characters now serving in the Prussian army ...

'' (1786), and ''

Omai Mai (c.1751-late 1779), known as Omai in Britain, was a young Ra'iatean man who became the second Pacific Islander to visit Europe, after Ahu-toru who was brought to Paris by Bougainville in 1768. Life Ma'i, born c.1751, described himself ...

'' (1785), an account of the voyages of the Tahitian explorer

, and '' Wild Oats'' (1791).

Early life

O'Keeffe was born in

Abbey Street Abbey Street () is located on Dublin's Northside, running from the Customs House and Store Street in the east to Capel Street in the west. The street is served by two Luas light rail stops, one at the Jervis shopping centre and the other ne ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

in 1747 to

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

parents and was educated by the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

. His father was from King's County and his mother (née O'Connor) from County Wexford. After showing a talent for drawing he studied

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

at an academy in Dublin, but grew increasingly more interested in the theatre. After a two-year period in London, where he became an admirer of David Garrick, he settled on a career as an actor and playwright. O'Keeffe wrote his first play ''The She Gallant'' when he was twenty, and it was performed in Dublin at the

Smock Alley Theatre Since the 17th century, there have been numerous theatres in Dublin with the name Smock Alley. The current Smock Alley Theatre () is a 21st-century theatre in Dublin, converted from a 19th-century church building, incorporating structural mat ...

. In Cork, in late September 1774, O'Keeffe married Mary Heaphy, a Protestant actress and the daughter of Tottenham Heaphy, manager of the Dublin Theatre Royal. The marriage ended badly when O'Keeffe discovered that she was having an affair with the Scottish actor George Graham. O'Keeffe left Ireland with their children, and Mary was denied access to her son and daughter, John Tottenham O'Keeffe and Adelaide O'Keeffe.Clare L. Taylor: 'O'Keeffe, Adelaide (1776–1865)', in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 2004); online edn, May 2009, accessed 20 Jan 2017. Mary Heaphy, according to Adelaide O'Keeffe's memoir of her father, married Graham without first divorcing her husband. She did not consider her marriage to the Catholic John O'Keeffe to be sufficiently binding.

Success

In 1777, O'Keeffe moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The following year he wrote '' Tony Lumpkin in Town'', a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to Oliver Goldsmith's ''

She Stoops to Conquer ''She Stoops to Conquer'' is a comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in the English-speaking world. It is one of the few plays from the 18t ...

'', and sent it to the manager of the Haymarket Theatre. The play was successfully produced, and O'Keeffe regularly wrote for the Haymarket thereafter.Hager (2005), p. 182. In 1782, O'Keeffe had his two children sent abroad to France to prevent their mother's access to them. His son did well but his daughter suffered in convent schools. Between 1782 and 1796, O'Keeffe wrote around 28 plays and librettos for

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

s. '' The Poor Soldier'' (1783), a comic opera with libretto by O'Keeffe and music by

William Shield William Shield (5 March 1748 – 25 January 1829) was an English composer, violinist and violist. His music earned the respect of Haydn and Beethoven. Life and musical career Shield was born in Swalwell near Gateshead, County Durham, the so ...

, was a farce about the lives of British soldiers returning home after the American War of Independence. O'Keeffe also wrote ''The Son-in-Law'', ''Agreeable Surprise'' (which includes the lyrical poem ''Amo, Amas''), and ''The Castle of Andalusia''. O'Keeffe had problems with his eyes ever since he had fallen into the

River Liffey The River Liffey ( Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the Riv ...

in his youth. From the mid-1770s, O'Keeffe increasingly lost his sight, and from 1781 his plays had to be dictated by him. In spite of this, he was a prolific writer and was the most-frequently produced playwright in London in the last quarter of the 18th century. O'Keeffe contributed many Irish folksongs to the musical scores by Samuel Arnold and Shield such as '' I am a Friar of Orders Grey'' and '' The Thorn'' are still popular. For many of these songs, the comic operas are the earliest source. From 1788, his only daughter Adelaide became his amanuensis and eventual caretaker until his death. Adelaide O'Keeffe was a popular novelist and an important children's poet who authored the first children's novel in verse, ''A Trip to the Coast'' (1819).For additional information on Adelaide O'Keeffe's importance as a children's poet, see Donelle Ruwe ''British Children's Poetry: Verse, Riddle, and Rhyme'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). See also Donelle Ruwe: "Dramatic Monologues and the Novel-in-Verse: Adelaide O'Keeffe and the Creation of Theatrical Children's Poetry in the Long Eighteenth Century", in ''The Lion and the Unicorn'', vol. 33, no. 1, 2009, pp. 219–34. In 1800, a benefit performance was staged for him at Covent Garden. In 1826, O'Keeffe wrote his memoirs, which covered his life experiences and various interactions with the leading artistic figures of his day. The memoirs were dictated to his daughter Adelaide who oversaw their publication. The same year he was awarded a pension by

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

. However, much of the information in his memoir is not accurate. In the year following his death, Adelaide O'Keeffe completed her own memoir of her father; "Memoir" prefaced her edited collection of his poetry, ''O'Keeffe's Legacy to His Daughter, Being the Poetic Works of the Late John O'Keeffe, Esq., the Dramatic Author''. He died in 1833 in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and was buried there.Baines p.256

Legacy

In the 19th century, the essayist

William Hazlitt William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English lan ...

described O'Keeffe as the "English

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

", observing "in light, careless laughter and pleasant exaggeration of the humorous, we have no equal to him". His ''Wild Oats'' has been revived in 1976, 1995 and 2012 by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and the

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a f ...

respectively.

Selected works

* '' The Dutchman Outwitted'' (1767) * '' The She Gallent'' (1767) * '' The Giant's Causeway'' (1770) * '' The Shamrock'' (1777) * '' Tony Lumpkin in Town'' (1778) * '' The Son-in-Law'' (1779) * '' The Banditti'' (1781) * '' The Agreeable Surprise'' (1781) * '' The Castle of Andalusia'' (1782) * '' Harlequin Teague'' (1782) * '' The Lord Mayor's Day'' (1782) * ''

The Dead Alive ''The Dead Alive'', also called ''John Jago's Ghost'', is a novella written in 1874 by Wilkie Collins based on the Boorn Brothers murder case. It was reprinted with a side-by-side examination of the case by Rob Warden in 2005 by the Northweste ...

'' (1783) * '' The Poor Soldier'' (1783) * '' The Young Quaker'' (1784) * ''

Peeping Tom Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly re ...

'' (1784) * ''

'' (1785) * '' The Blacksmith of Antwerp'' (1785) * ''

'' (1786) * '' The Siege of Curzola'' (1786) * '' The Farmer'' (1787) * '' Wild Oats'' (1791) * '' The Wicklow Mountains'' (1795)

References

Bibliography

* Baines, Paul & Ferraro, Julian & Rogers, Pat: ''The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth Century Writers and Writing: 1660-1789'' (Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) *Boydell, Brian: "O'Keeffe, John", in: ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (MGG), biographical part, vol. 15 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2006), cc. 702–3 * Fleischmann, Aloys (ed.): ''Sources of Irish Traditional Music c.1600–1855'' (New York: Garland, 1998) * Hager, Alan: ''Encyclopedia of British Writers: 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries'' (New York: Book Builders, 2005) * Klein, Axel: "Stage-Irish, or The National in Irish Opera, 1780–1925", in: ''Opera Quarterly'' vol. 21 (2005) no. 1, p. 27–67.

External links

John O'Keeffe
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)

The Poor Soldier: A Comic Opera, in Two Acts: with all the original songs
by John O'Keefe (O'Keeffe). A prompter's copy of the dialog and lyrics (no music) digitized from the collections of the New York State Library. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okeeffe, John 1747 births 1833 deaths 18th-century Irish writers 19th-century Irish writers Irish librettists Irish male dramatists and playwrights Writers from Dublin (city) Irish emigrants to Great Britain