Dion Boucicault: Fortune, Fame, Failure

During the years 1840-1880, Dion Boucicault was the most prominent and prolific dramatist on the world stage, popular with international audiences and adored by Queen Victoria. In addition to writing or adapting more than 200 plays, Boucicault proved himself to be an accomplished actor and director, instituted one of the world’s first theatrical touring companies, established the royalty system for the payment of dramatists, won and lost great fortunes, successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress for copyright legislation for playwrights in 1856, directed an American school of acting, and counted fire-proof scenery among his many stagecraft innovations. He was the most prosperous and imitated playwright of the English-speaking stage for half a century, whom some claimed would live on as the greatest dramatist of his age, his works second only to Shakespeare’s. So how is it that Boucicault, so influential and notorious in his day, fails to be mentioned alongside Wilde, Shaw, Ibsen, and Zola today? The reason is simple: Boucicault was elevated, celebrated, challenged, and ultimately destroyed by the very monster he created -- his public.