Edmund Falconer
Encyclopedia
Edmund Falconer also known as Edmund O'Rourke, was an Irish-born 19th century poet, actor, theatre manager, songwriter and playwright, known for his keen wit and outstanding acting skills.

Early life

Edmund O'Rourke was born in Dublin in 1814. He entered the theatrical world as a child, however he did not achieve fame until he was over 40. The first half of his working life was spent playing in repertory theatre in Ireland and the provinces of England. While working as a jobbing actor, he published his first volume of poems - Man's Mission - in 1852.

Midlife success

O'Rourke finally achieved success at the age of 41, when he performed two very diverse roles in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

 and the comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 Three Fingered Jack on the same night at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...

 in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 in 1854. He received such rave reviews that he never had to tour the provinces again.

Two years later he changed his stage name to Edmund Falconer and wrote his first successful play, The Cagot or Heart for Heart. It was the start of his second career, that of a London dramatist. Heart for Heart was performed with great success for the first time at the Lyceum Theatre, London, under Charles Dillon
Charles Dillon
Charles J. Dillon was an English actor-manager and tragedienne.In 1840, he appeared at the City Theatre, London, as Hamlet, giving a performance which attracted some critical attention. He toured extensively, to improve his reputation. Becoming actor-manager of the Theatre Royal, Wolverhampton in...

's management, on 6 December 1856. The Athenaeum
Athenaeum (magazine)
The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....

newspaper commented that 'the dialogue is remarkable for noble sentiment, although the verse is not always correct' (13 Dec 1856). His next piece was A Husband for an Hour, produced at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

 in June 1857.

Writing and theatre management

The year 1858 saw Falconer translate Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

's Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8, 1838. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, the play initially met with only average success....

, which was performed at the Princess Theatre
Princess Theatre
The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers , producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn...

 in late 1858. During that same year, he began a profitable collaboration with Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, best-remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl.After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed 38 operas, almost 250 songs and other works...

 by writing the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 for his much-loved opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, The Rose of Castille. He was later to write librettos for several of Balfe's most successful productions, including Satanella, which was produced at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

 on 20 December 1858, and the popular song Killarney, which remained a concert hall favourite well into the 20th century.

Falconer, who was said to have had boundless energy, also turned his attention to theatre managing. It was on 26 August 1858, that he took over the Lyceum Theatre in London, sharing the manager's role with Ben Webster. Falconer was not above using his position to stage his own plays. The first was Extremes, a comedy of manners, which was performed on his opening night of 26 August.

A reporter for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

reviewed the show and said: "The characters are sharply defined and exactly of a kind to be perfectly intelligible to a large audience." Several more of Falconer's own pieces soon followed, including Francesca in March 1859.

Falconer gave up his management of the Lyceum after just a couple of years, although he resumed the role once more in 1861. Yet more of his own plays soon followed, including Woman, Love Against The World in August 1861 and Peep 0' Day in November 1861. It is for Peep 0' Day, a stage-version of John Banim
John Banim
John Banim , was an Irish novelist, short story writer, dramatist, poet and essayist, sometimes called the "Scott of Ireland." He also studied art, working as a painter of minatures and portraits, and as a drawing teacher, before dedicating himself to literature.-Early life:John Banim was born in...

’s novels John Doe
John Doe
The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name in a legal action, case or discussion for a male party, whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown...

 and The Nowlans, that Falconer is probably best remembered. It contained a scene in which the heroine is saved from live burial and ran until December 1862. Meanwhile, he contributed two comedies to the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

 too, Family Wills, and Does He Love Me?, both starring Amy Sedgwick.

Acting success

It was not until 1860 that Falconer managed to dominate the London stage with his acting skills, rather than his writing. In the first production of Boucicault
Dion Boucicault
Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot , commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the...

's The Colleen Bawn
The Colleen Bawn
The Colleen Bawn, or The Brides of Garryowen is a melodramatic play written by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault. It was first performed at Miss Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, on 27 March 1860 with Laura Keene playing Anne Chute and Boucicault playing Myles na Coppaleen. It was most recently...

he played the part of Danny Mann, the villain of the piece. The melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

, staged at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...

 in July 1860, proved hugely popular and ran for 231 nights. Indeed, the show has recently enjoyed revived critical attention amongst academics of that period.

Falconer made £13,000 in profit during his time as manager at the Lyceum, which he used in 1862 to buy a joint lease for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

, London, with Frederick Balsir Chatterton. Between 1863 and 1865 he wrote and produced Bonnie Dundee, Nature's above Art, Night and Morning, and Love's Ordeal. He also wrote The O'Flahertys and Galway-go-bragh, a dramatization of Lever's Charles O'Malley, in which he took the part of Mickey Free.

Falconer's attempts, however, to popularise Shakespeare at the theatre proved a dreadful failure. Gambling on the Bard to turn a profit, he directed productions of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

, As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...

, Henry IV
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...

and Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

. Despite hiring good actors, audiences were small and, by February 1866, he had lost his money. Falconer was arrested for failing to pay his mounting debts later that month and, on April 26, 1866, he was declared bankrupt and sent to prison. He remained in custody for several weeks, with his debts thought to total around 7,000 guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...

.

Falconer attempted to revive his fortunes by penning a five-act drama, Oonagh, following his release, which was staged at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...

, London, in November 1866. It was such a failure, however, that it closed ten days later. By now desperately short of money, he decided to travel to America, where his play Peep o' Day had made him famous.

Final years

Falconer spent three successful years in America, where he acted on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 and continued with his writing, creating three new dramas. One of his greatest fans was Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...

, author of Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer
Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Tom Sawyer Abroad , and Tom Sawyer, Detective .Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom...

, as can be witnessed in letters written by Twain. Such was his US success, that publications of his plays went through several editions. He also married an American woman, who was his third wife.

Falconer eventually returned to London in 1871, following the success of another of his plays, A Wife Well Won, which was staged at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

, London, in his absence. A successful production of Eileen Oge at the Princess Theatre
Princess Theatre
The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers , producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn...

, London, followed later in 1871, which featured his song Killarney. Falconer retired from the stage and writing soon after. He died at his home at 28 Keppel Street, Russell Square
Russell Square
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. To the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row...

, London, on 29 September 1879 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...

.

In a report on his death, the Manchester Guardian newspaper revealed that although Falconer "had made what could be called a colossal fortune" out of Peep O' Day, the dramatist "died penniless." Members of his gentlemen's club
Gentlemen's club
A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...

, the Savage Club
Savage Club
The Savage Club, founded in 1857 is a gentlemen's club in London.-History:Many and varied are the stories that have been told about the first meeting of the Savage Club, of the precise purposes for which it was formed, and of its christening...

, opened a subscription to pay for his funeral and help out his young widow.

Falconer's works

  • 1852: Man’s Mission: A Pilgrimage to Glory’s Goal (poem)
  • 1855-1860: The Power of Love (ballad) Words-Falconer/music by M.W. Balfe.
  • 1856: The Cagot or Heart for Heart (play)
  • 1857: The Rose of Castille
    The Rose of Castille
    The Rose of Castille is an opera in three acts, with music by Michael William Balfe to an English-language libretto by Augustus Glossop Harris and Edmund Falconer, after the libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery and Clairville for Adolphe Adam's Le muletier de Tolède...

    (libretto)
  • 1857: Killarney (song) Later recorded by John McCormack in early 20th century.
  • 1862: Peep o'Day - otherwise known as Savoureen Deelish (play)
  • 1863: The Bequest of My Boyhood (poem
  • 1865: O’Ruark’s Bride: The Blood Speck in the Emerald (poem)
  • 1866: Dramatised Lever’s Charles O’Malley as Galway Go Bragh (play)
  • 1871: Eileen Oge - or Dark the Hour Before Dawn (melodrama)


The International Broadway Database gives the following information for Falconer's performances in America:
  • Heartsease: Original play written by Edmund Falconer - 12 Sep 1870
  • Innisfallen: Original play written by Edmund Falconer- 21 Feb 1870
  • The Firefly: Original play written by Edmund Falconer - 22 Nov 1869 (Mark Twain was a huge fan)
  • Charles O'Malley: Original play written and performed by Falconer - 18 Oct 1869
  • Fire Fly: Original musical written by Edmund Falconer - 10 Aug 1868 - 5 Sep, 1868
  • The Rose of Castille: Revival of libretto by Falconer - 28 Jan 1867 - 31 Jan, 1867
  • Satanella: Original musical libretto by Edmund Falconer - 23 Feb 1863 - 14 Mar, 1863

James Joyce links

The opera The Rose of Castille, for which Falconer wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

, was very popular for several decades after his death. Indeed, it was a favourite of Leopold Bloom
Leopold Bloom
Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's Ulysses. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in The Odyssey....

, the hero of James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...

(1922) In the novel, Bloom thinks quite a lot about the opera, and it features as one of the motifs of the Siren
Siren
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...

s episode (Chapter 11). Joyce even thinks up a dreadful pun on the title; one of the characters asks which opera has the same name as a train's tracks, and the answer is 'Rows of Cast Steel'. The pun crops up at various points throughout the novel.

External links

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