Henry Robert Addison (1805-76)


Life
b. in Calcutta of Irish parents; he wrote for Dublin University Magazine and held the army rank of captain; believed to be the model for Charles Lever’s Captain Bubbleton in Tom Burke of “Ours” (1844); his successful dramatic output included Lo Zingara (1830), an opera; Jessie the Flower of Dumblaine (1833); Tam O’Shanter (1834), a musical farce; Sigismond Augustus (1836); Maria: A Tale of Pont Neuf (1836); Abraham Parker (1846); British Beauty, or the Seraglio in an Uproar (1846); A Pretty Couple; Did You Ever (1848);
 
he settled in Belgium and issued A Handbook for Residents and Tourist in Belgium (1838); also The Rhine (1839), and Belgium as She Is (1843); he compiled Who’s Who, 1851-64 [var. 1849-50]; he wrote Traits and Stories of Anglo-Indian Life (1858), implying a period spent in that country; also wrote Recollections of an Irish Police Magistrate and Other Reminiscences of the South of Ireland (1862), based on the career of Thomas Phillips Vokes, who died in 1852. PI RAF

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Works
Drama
  • Lo Zingaro: A Petite Opera in Two Acts (London: J. Duncombe [1833]).
  • Jessie, The Flower of Dumblaine, or, Weel May the Keel Row!: A Petite Opera in One Act (London: J. Duncombe [1833?]).
  • The Butterfly’s Ball, or The Loves of the Plants: An Operatic Extravaganza (London: J. Miller 1834).
  • The King’s Word (London: J. Miller 1835).
  • Locked in with A Lady: A Sketch from Life (London: Samuel French 1863; Lacy 1863; Chicago: Drama Publ. Co. [n.d.]).
  • Marie: A Tale of the Pont Neuf: An Original Comedietta in One Act (London: J. Duncombe [1836]).
  • Sophia’s Supper: A Farce in One Act (London: J. Lacy [1849]; Boston: W. V. Spencer 1855).
  • Tam O’Shanter: A Comic Drama in Two Acts (London: Dicks [1834]; London [n. pub.] 1884).
  • 117 Arundel Street, Strand: A Farce in One Act (London: Lacy [n.d.]).
Qry: George Alexander Lee [“Bells Upon the Wind”, ballad].
Prose
  • Traits and Stories of Anglo-Indian Life (London: Smith, Elder 1858), viii, 284pp.
  • Recollections of an Irish Police Magistrate (London: J. & R. Maxwell 1883), 305pp.

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Notes
Kith & Kin? Joseph Addison (1672-1719); son of Dean of Lichfield; ed. Charterhouse, Oxon.; appt. chief sec. to Lord Wharton when the latter was Lord Lieutenant in Ireland and made frineds everywhere through diligence and integrity; elected MP for Cavan (‘overc[a]me shyness’); keeper of records, Bermingham’s Tower [sic]; reaarranged public records; lost post with fall of Whig Ministry, 1710; reappointed to Earl of Sunderland, moving to Board of Trade, 1715; sec. of state, 1717; d. 17 une 1719. (See Blackwell Companion to Irish Culture, ed. W. J. McCormack.)

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