John O'Keeffe (24 June 1747 – 4 February 1833) was an
Irish actor and
dramatist. He wrote a number of farces, amusing dramatic pieces and librettos for
pasticcio operas, many of which had great success. Among these are ''
Tony Lumpkin in Town
''Tony Lumpkin in Town'' is a 1778 Irish play by John O'Keeffe. An afterpiece, it was intended as a sequel to the 1773 play ''She Stoops to Conquer'' by Oliver Goldsmith. It is centred on the character Tony Lumpkin. It ran successfully at the Ha ...
'' (1778), ''
Love in a Camp'' (1786), and ''
Omai'' (1785), an account of the voyages of the Tahitian explorer
Omai, and ''
Wild Oats'' (1791).
Early life
O'Keeffe was born in
Abbey Street,
Dublin in 1747 to
Roman Catholic parents and was educated by the
Jesuits. His father was from
King's County and his mother (née O'Connor) from
County Wexford
County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...
.
After showing a talent for drawing he studied
art 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
David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...
, 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. 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. The following year he wrote ''
Tony Lumpkin in Town
''Tony Lumpkin in Town'' is a 1778 Irish play by John O'Keeffe. An afterpiece, it was intended as a sequel to the 1773 play ''She Stoops to Conquer'' by Oliver Goldsmith. It is centred on the character Tony Lumpkin. It ran successfully at the Ha ...
'', a
sequel to Oliver Goldsmith's ''
She Stoops to Conquer'', and sent it to the manager of the
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote ...
. 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 ]libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
s for comic operas. ''The Poor Soldier
''The Poor Soldier'' is a 1783 British pasticcio opera with music by William Shield and a text by John O'Keeffe. It was a comedy set around Irish soldiers returning home after fighting in the British army in the American War of Independence, w ...
'' (1783), a comic opera with libretto by O'Keeffe and music by William Shield, was a farce about the lives of British soldiers returning home after the American War of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. 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 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 Samuel Arnold may refer to:
*Samuel Arnold (composer) (1740–1802), English composer and organist
* Samuel Arnold (Connecticut politician) (1806–1869), U.S. Representative from Connecticut
* Samuel Arnold (conspirator) (1834–1906), co-conspira ...
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
Benefit or benefits may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Benefit'' (album), by Jethro Tull, 1970
* "Benefits" (''How I Met Your Mother''), a 2009 TV episode
* ''The Benefit'', a 2012 Egyptian action film
Businesses and organisation ...
performance was staged for him at Covent Garden. In 1826, O'Keeffe wrote his memoirs
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
, 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
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
by George IV. 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 and was buried there.[Baines p.256]
Legacy
In the 19th century, the essayist William Hazlitt described O'Keeffe as the "English Molière", 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 Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
, the Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...
and the Bristol Old Vic respectively.
Selected works
* '' The Dutchman Outwitted'' (1767)
* '' The She Gallent'' (1767)
* ''The Giant's Causeway
The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking Columnar basalt, basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcano, volcanic fissure vent, fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, abou ...
'' (1770)
* ''The Shamrock
''The Shamrock'' is a 1777 Irish play or pasticcio opera by John O'Keeffe. It was first staged on 15 April 1777 at Crow Street Theatre in Dublin. According to White (1983), it is unsure whether the work was performed as a straight play or as a p ...
'' (1777)
* ''Tony Lumpkin in Town
''Tony Lumpkin in Town'' is a 1778 Irish play by John O'Keeffe. An afterpiece, it was intended as a sequel to the 1773 play ''She Stoops to Conquer'' by Oliver Goldsmith. It is centred on the character Tony Lumpkin. It ran successfully at the Ha ...
'' (1778)
* ''The Son-in-Law
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
'' (1779)
* ''The Banditti
''The Castle of Andalusia'' is a 1782 comic opera by Samuel Arnold and a libretto by John O'Keeffe. It was a heavily rewritten version of the 1781 work ''The Banditti'', which had been a failure.
After its first performance on 2 November 1782, ...
'' (1781)
* ''The Agreeable Surprise
''The Agreeable Surprise'' is a 1781 comic opera in two acts, with music composed by Samuel Arnold (composer), Samuel Arnold and the libretto by John O'Keeffe (Irish writer), John O'Keeffe. It was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket ( ...
'' (1781)
* ''The Castle of Andalusia
''The Castle of Andalusia'' is a 1782 comic opera by Samuel Arnold and a libretto by John O'Keeffe. It was a heavily rewritten version of the 1781 work ''The Banditti'', which had been a failure.
After its first performance on 2 November 1782, ...
'' (1782)
* '' Harlequin Teague'' (1782)
* ''The Lord Mayor's Day
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
'' (1782)
* '' The Dead Alive'' (1783)
* ''The Poor Soldier
''The Poor Soldier'' is a 1783 British pasticcio opera with music by William Shield and a text by John O'Keeffe. It was a comedy set around Irish soldiers returning home after fighting in the British army in the American War of Independence, w ...
'' (1783)
* '' The Young Quaker'' (1784)
* '' Peeping Tom'' (1784)
* '' Omai'' (1785)
* ''The Blacksmith of Antwerp
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
'' (1785)
* '' Love in a Camp'' (1786)
* ''The Siege of Curzola
''The Siege of Curzola'' is a 1786 comic opera with music by Samuel Arnold and a libretto by the Irish writer John O'Keeffe. It is set in 1571 during the Ottoman siege of Curzola at the time of the Battle of Lepanto.Worrall p.63
It was stage ...
'' (1786)
* '' The Farmer'' (1787)
* '' Wild Oats'' (1791)
* ''The Wicklow Mountains
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...
'' (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
The New York State Library is a research library in Albany, New York, United States. It was established in 1818 to serve the state government of New York and is part of the New York State Education Department. The library is one of the largest ...
.
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*
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{{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