       |
Life
1803-1868; b. Birr, Co. Offaly [Queen’s Co.], son of an Army officer [var. port worker; Denis and Bridget Coyne]; ed. Royal Dungannon School; trained for the bar but turned to drama; contributed to The Comet; and wrote farces such as The Phrenologist (June 1835) for the Royal Theatre in Dublin, and later in London in 1837, arriving with William Carleton’s introduction to T. C. Croker; he wrote as many as 60 one-act farces, chiefly for the Haymarket and Adelphi Theatres - with particular appeal to working-class audiences and laden with puns; considered a link between French drama and the English comedies of Wilde and Shaw2; some translated into French; a co-founder of Punch with Mark Lemon and Henry Mayhew; issued The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland (London 1841) with Nathaniel Parker Willis [though not cited in the t.p.] and with ‘drawings’ [engrav. plates] by W. H. Bartlett; Coyne d. 18 July 1868; bur. Highgate Cem. CAB ODNB JMC PI RAF DIB DIW DIL IF2 DUB OCIL.
[ top ]
Works| Dramatic pieces [after Kavanagh - infra] | |||||||||
| Chief Pieces available on Internet | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
Note: the above listing includes citations in Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, 1980 [prev. in French 1972], Vol II: Bio-bibliographical Notes.Others cited there and not listed or corrected above are Cocknies of California, a new and orginal “Piece of Golden Opportunity” in one act, 26.2.1849, Adelphi; Separate Maintenance, a farce 12.3, Haymarket, Duncombe LXIV, 23pp.; Vicar of Wakefield, or the Pastor’s Fireside, 2 act drama, 11.4.1850, Haymarket, A.N.D. XVI, 36pp.; My Wife’s Daughter, 2 act com., 14.10.1850, Olympia, Lacy II, 34pp.; further works in collaboration with HC Coape, Francis Talford, and H. Hamilton |
|||||||||
| Non-dramatic | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
[ top ]
Criticism
See Revels History of Drama, Vol. ii, p.244; also Burton (The London Stage) - listing J. S. Coyne, Everybody’s Friend; The Hope of the Family; The Secret Agent; Binks the Bagman; What will They Say at Brompton?
[ top ]
References
D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); adds All for Love; Buckstone at Home; The Pets of the Parterre; A Scene in the Life of An Unprotected Female; This House to be Sold; Willikind and Dinah, an original pathetic and heart-rending tragedy in three sad scenes, verse; and Leo the Terrible. Biog. note, projector of Punch and early contrib.; Sec. of Dramatic Authors’ Society, 1856; b. Birr, King’s County. Ed. Dungannon and Dublin; d. London 1868.
| J. S. Coyne"s works and their various internet access points are listed at Hathi - online. |
[Dictionary of National Biography [ODNB; UK] notices 3 farces, 1835-6, and mentions 60 drama pieces.
Stephen Brown, A Guide To Books On Ireland (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1912); (lists Latest from New York (Royal 1857), Mephistopheles, the Yankee (Royal, 1857), Irish Assurance and Yankee Modesty (1857), Paddy the Piper (1857), Shandy Maguire (1857) [cf Peppergrass/Boyce title, and others Kavanagh, appendix, copied to DRAM_IRL] In and Out of Place (1857) and Bashful Irishman (1857), all comediettas and farces.
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919); ed. Punch, wrote 60 plays, and three farces[!]; lists Sam Spangles, or the History of a Harlequin, ill. by Phiz (1866), the Irish content being incidental, Jim Power tells how he acted as a pilot to the Flying Dutchman as she lay off the rocks at Passage, and the weird fate of an Irish emigrant ship is related. 156pp. IF2, b. Birr, co-founder of Punch; Sam Spangles, or History of a Harlequin (1866); set in England, one of the characters relates his weird adventurers in Ireland. Justin McCarthy, Irish Lit., gives ‘Tim Hogan’s Ghost’.
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. I; J. S. Coyne, Gavarni in London (1849), &c.’ BIO-BIBL., Rafroidi (1980), vol. 2, b. Birr, ed. Dungannon and Dublin; went to London in 1837 with mock-epic description of taverns and their priestesses, ‘A legion of kind familiar spirits obey her behests, hers are the refreshing waters of Soda, and hers the gently-flowing waters of Carrara ... introduction from Carleton; wrote for Bentley’s and Punch; author of more than 50 plays [sic]; d. paralytic, London, 18 July; among the later plays [post 1850] there is none of Irish interest ... unless one wishes to mention the stage Irishman Major Reilly of The Hope of the Family, 3 act com. (1853). Bibl. Gavarni in London, Sketches of Life and Character, with illustrative essays by popular writers, ed. Albert R. Smith (London: D. Bogue, 1849), contains Coyne, ‘The Barmaid’ (pp.87-90), and an observation of the customers of an Irish potato seller in the Strand.
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (1946), Joseph Stirling Coyne 1803-1838 [?sic err]; [ODNB], and note that Kavanagh claims his pieces had no merit, whereas they are covered standard introductions to Victorian drama; The Phrenologist, farce (Crow St Th. Royal, Dublin, 2 June 1835); The Honest Cheats, farce (Crow St. Theatre Royal Dublin 7 April1836); The Four Lovers, farce (CSt, Th. Royal, Dublin, 14 April1836) 1837 [The Queer Subject, farce (Adelphi 28.1836; Dicks 782, 9p.]; Valsha or The Slave Queen, 3 act burletta (Adelphi 30 Oct 1837) 1837 [from La Guerre des Servantes]; All For Love or The Lost Pleiad, rom. drama (Adelphi 16 Jan 1838), Lacy Collection, No. 61 [adapted from Une Fille de l’Air]; Arajoon or The Conquest of Mysore, grand oriental drama, 3 acts [burletta] (Adelphi 22 Oct. 1838), Dicks, 700; Helen Oakleigh, or the Wife’s Strategem, 3 act hist. drama (Eng. Op. Hs., 9 June 1840), Dicks 605; Satanas and the Spirit of Beauty, 2 act. rom. Leg. Spectacle [ballet] (Adelphi, 11 Feb. 1841), Lacy 39 [from J. H. Vernoy de St-George, Le Diable Amoureux]; The World of Dreams, spect. (Haymarket 27 Dec 1841); My Friend the Captain, farc. (Haymarket 20 July 1841), Dicks 740; [The Water Witches, orig. farce, 1 act, 7.6.1842; Lacy XVI, 23pp]; Dobson and Company or My Turn Next, farce (Adelphi 13 Oct 1842), Dicks, 624; The Merchant and His Clerks (Adelphi 12 Dec 1842), Dicks, 642; Binks the Bagman, farc (Adelphi 13 Feb. 1843), Dicks 624; The Trumpeter’s Daughter, farce (Haymarket 7 Dec. 1843); Richard III, burl. (Adelphi 8 Feb. 1844) 1844; The Signal (Olymp. 8 April1844), Lacy 110; Did You Ever Send your Wife to Camberwell? [note, Rafroidi, Cumberwell, err.],farce (Adelphi 16 Mar 1846), Dicks 955; How to Settle An Account With Your Laundress, farce (Adelphi 26 July 1847) 1849, translated into European languages; This House to Be Sold (the Property of the late William Shakespeare), Inquire Within, 1 act musical extrav. (Adelphi 9 Sept 1847), Acting Nat. Drama, no. 19; [The Tipperary Legacy, 1 act farce, 6.12.1847, Adel.; Acting National Drama, XIV, 19pp]; [Our National Defences, or The Cockshott Yeomanry, 1 act farce, Adel., 27.1.1848, A.N.D., 23pp.]; The Fountain of Zeal [Rafroidi, Zea, sic] or the Child of Air (Adelphi 24 April1848) [RAF, entertainment]; Lola Montes, or Countess for an House, 26.4.1848, Haymarket; on revival, 22.5., and in print called] The Pas de Fascination or Catching a Governor, farce (Haymarket 22 May 1848), Act. Nat. Drama, Vol. 19; Separate Maintenance, com. (Haymarket 12 Mar 1849), Duncombe, Vol. 64 [23pp]; [Mrs Bunbury’s Spoons, a slippery, tippery sketch, 1 act, 15.10., Adel., A.N.D., 20pp]; The Hope of the Family, com. (Haymarketmarket 3 Dec. 1853), Lacy 13; The Secret Agent, com. (Haymarket 1 Sept 1855), Lacy 23; Love Knot, com. (DL 8 mar 1858), Lacy 35; Black Sheep; Box and Cox Married and Settled, farce [1852]; Wanted 1,000 Young Milliners; The Little Rebel; The Woman in Red, drama in a Prologue and Three Acts, adapted and altered from ‘La Tireuse des Cartes’ (St. James 13 April 1868), Lacy 92; Everybody’s Friend (Haymarket 2 April1859).
NOTE, above includes citations in Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, 1980 [prev. in French 1972], Vol II: Bio-bibliographical Notes; Others cited there and not listed or corrected above are Cocknies of California, a new and orginal “Piece of Golden Opportunity” in one act, 26.2.1849, Adelphi; Separate Maintenance, a farce 12.3, Haymarket, Duncombe LXIV, 23pp.; Vicar of Wakefield, or the Pastor’s Fireside, 2 act drama, 11.4.1850, Haymarket, A.N.D. XVI, 36pp.; My Wife’s Daughter, 2 act com., 14.10.1850, Olympia, Lacy II, 34pp.; further works in collaboration with HC Coape, Francis Talford, and H. Hamilton. [Kavanagh’s list has been substantially copied in the Works section of this page.]
Hyland Books (Dec. 1996) lists Coyne with W. H. Bartlett & N. P. Willis, The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland (Belfast: Erskine Mayne n.d.), 118 plates, 2 vignette t.pp, map.
University of Ulster Library holds The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland (Virtue Press 1842), N. P. Willis and J. S. Coyne; 2nd vol.
[ top ]
Quotations
Laundress, ‘There’s a savage hymeneal look in her eye that makes me shiver to my Alberts’. Twidgett’s Irish assistant Barney O’Toole is called ‘Twill’ by his employer as being ‘genteeler’. The play was translated into French.
[ top ]
Notes
Judith Harrington, ‘Box and Cox & Cox and Box in Finnegans Wake’, in James Joyce Supplement, Spring 2000, p.22, deals with John Maddison Morton’s Box and Cox: A Romance of real life (c.1847), as first performed at Olympic Theatre, London, 1847. Author does not cite J. S. Coyne.
W. H. Bartlett was the illustrator and maker of steel plates for The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland (London 1841); see “Antique Maps and Prints. Historical and antiquarian Books & Atlases” - website [online].
[ top ]