James Boaden
James Boaden was a prominent English journalist, playwright, and biographer born on May 23, 1762, in White Haven, Cumberland. After moving to London as a toddler, he was educated at home and initially apprenticed in commerce, following in his father's footsteps. However, Boaden found his true calling in journalism, where he gained recognition as a drama critic and editor under the pseudonym Thespis for The Oracle. He became well-known for exposing forgeries related to Shakespeare and was a versatile writer, creating plays, operas, and numerous pamphlets on literary topics.
Boaden is particularly celebrated for his biographies of significant figures in British theater, notably his acclaimed work *Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble*, which offers a detailed account of the theater scene in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His writing also included notable biographies of actresses like Mrs. Siddons and Mrs. Inchbald, as well as the edited *The Private Correspondence of David Garrick*, showcasing insights into Shakespearean theater. While he experienced a fallow period in his career, Boaden's legacy as a gifted playwright and critic, especially in gothic drama, remains influential. He passed away on February 16, 1839, and is buried beside his wife, leaving behind nine children.
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Subject Terms
James Boaden
Playwright, Biographer
- Born: May 23, 1762
- Birthplace: White Haven, Cumberland, England
- Died: February 16, 1839
Biography
James Boaden, the son of a businessman engaged in international commerce with Russia, was born in White Haven, Cumberland, in northwestern England on May 23, 1762. While still a toddler, he moved with his parents to London, the center of his father’s business affairs. His parents educated him at home and expected him to pursue a career in commerce. He was apprenticed to the counting house of Alderman Perchard, where he gained some expertise in business.
However, a career mirroring that of his father did not appeal to Boaden. He left the counting house and became a journalist, soon rising to editor and drama critic, writing under the pseudonym Thespis for The Oracle: Or, Bell’s New World, founded in 1789. In 1795 and 1796, he became controversial when his articles exposed book collector William Henry Ireland’s forgery of papers that were believed to be signed by William Shakespeare.
A versatile writer, Boaden composed an opera, produced numerous pamphlets on Shakespeare, wrote seven plays for the London stage, and was the author of two novels. In his later years, however, he gained his greatest recognition for five biographies that focused on figures in British theater toward whom Boaden, modest and self-deprecating, was highly deferential.
His most famous biography, Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, Esquire (1825), the actor and manager of London’s Drury Lane Theater, is among the most accurate accounts of London theater during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His other theatrical biographies focus on dramatists and actors. Among these, the best received were his Memoir of Mrs. Siddons (1827), and Memoir of Mrs. Inchbald (1833). In 1831, he published his The Private Correspondence of David Garrick, which he had collected and edited. This work revealed the inner workings of Shakespearean theater in England as observed by Garrick, Britain’s most renowned Shakespearean actor.
Despite his emphasis on dramatic criticism, Boaden was himself a gifted playwright whose extensive use of gothic elements established him as a leading gothic dramatist. His Fontainville Forest was enthusiastically received when in premiered in London in 1794. His most famous play and most ambitious undertaking,The Italian Monk, was said to “out-gothic the gothic.” This play caused his audiences to cry out in anguish as the suspense mounted.
His last play, The Maid of Bristol, a romantic melodrama produced in 1803, was disappointing. Boaden never wrote for the stage again. He entered a fallow period that lasted for two decades, after which his theatrical biographies began to appear and were received appreciatively by readers. Boaden’s wife died late in 1838, and he followed her in death on February 16, 1839. Survived by nine children, he is buried beside his wife in the churchyard at Kernal Green.