Life
?1760-?1820; b. Dublin; many very popular ballettas, operas and musical plays, including The Haunted Castle (1784); and a long poem, The Death of Abel (1814). PI, Musical pieces and comic operas, pantos and Poems, Chiefly Comic and Hudibrastic (1809). NOTE, ODNB has b. 1770, while RAF [see infra] says his birth date must be given as at least ten years earlier. Settled London 1786. Collaborated with Sheridan on Pizzarro, and was interested in German literature; d. England c.1820. ODNB PI DIW RAF OCIL
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Commentary
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986) notes: W. C. Oulton’s farce Botheration (1798) ends with the trusty Irish servant pointing out that ‘[his] tongue may blunder, but [his] heart ne’er can’. [p.144]; and further quotes: ‘And Thady O’Blarney’s ambition shall be, to serve faithfully and honestly those kind Masters and Mistresses before whome he has now the honour to stand.’ Leerssen comments: ‘The character steps back and the actor re-emerges, the servant of play characters becomes the servant of the theatre-going public. [p.145] His ideological role - expresses in a show-stopping song - is to promote the doctrine of ‘sweet sisters, Ireland and England’ in the face of Napoleonic threat, ‘And teach invaders, should they come, their rafts are all in vain’ See also fnt. 121: In Oulton’s Botheration a switch of identities between a frank Irish footman and a grouch physician is used to make the doctor see that he treats his servants with less courtesy than is their due [Ibid., p.465].
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References
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. 2; ?1760-1882 [chk]; The Haunted Castle, music T. Giordani (1783); The Happy Disguise, or Love in a Meadow, unpublished (1784); The Mad House (1784); Poor Maria (1785); A New Way to Keep a Wife at Home (1785); The Recruiting Manager, unpubl. (1785); Curiosity, or A Peep through the Keyhole (1786); Hobson’s Choice, or Thespis in Distress, unpub. (1787); Perseverances, upub., MS (1789); As It Should Be, 1 act (1789); What’s the Matter? 1789); All in Good Humour (1792); The Irish Tar, unpub. Larpent (1797); Botheration, or a Ten Years’ Blunder, 2 act farce (1798); Pyramus and Thisbe, The Two Apprentices (1798); The 63rd Letter (1802); The Middle Dish, or the Irishman in Turkey, unpub. (1804); The Farthing Rushlight, unpub. (1810); The Fortunate Tars (1810); The Sleep Walker, or Which is the Lady (1812); My Landlady’s Gown (1816); Frightened to Death (1817). Other works are, The Busy Body ... periodical essays (1787-89); History of the Theatres of London 1771-1795 (1796); An Occasional Address, spoken by Mr. Macready ... Birmingham Theatre (1800); The Beauties of Kotzebue ... the most interesting scenes ... freely translated (1800); The Death of Abel, 5 cantos (1811); [History of the Theatres of London from 1795 to 1817 (1818)]. See G. C. Duggan, Peter Kavanagh, Allardyce Nicoll (History of British Drama), and D. J. O’Donoghue, all cited ODNB. SEE ALSO Rafroidi (1980), Vol. 1, Rafroidi cites WC Oulton’s Botheration end-speech [recte epilogue], ‘They [audience] will, he hopes, take pleasure in their man whose tongue may blunder but whose heart ne’er can.’ (Act 2.3, p.46) Rafroidi, what a bpity literary criticism prescribes certain exclamations! [32-33]; also, W. C. Oulton, author of The Beauties of Kotzebue (1800), translated The Death of Abel, by S. Gessner, in 1811. [43]; ALSO, WC Oultan, The Haunted Castle, one act, 1783, music T Giordani [text now lost].
Peter Kavanagh, Irish Theatre (Tralee 1946): Walley Oulton ?1770[sic]-1820; 19 dramatic pieces, i.e., 18 farces and one comedy; The Haunted House, interlude (Capel St. 18 Dec 1783, 36 nights) 1784, mus. by T. Giordani; The Happy Disguise diguise or Love in a Meadow, com. op. (Capel St. 7 Jan 1784) 1784; The New Wonder - A Woman Holds her Tongue, farce(Capel St. 14 Jan 1784), not printed; The Mad House (Capel St. 5 May 1784) 1785, entertainment with mus. by T. Giordani; Poor Maria, interlude (Crow St. 1785), not printed; A New Way to Keep A Wife at Home, farce (Smock Alley, 20 Jan 1785), altered from Fielding’s The Letter Writers; The Recruiting Manager, prelude (Fishamble, 1785), not printed; Curiosity or A Peep Through the Keyhole, com. (Smock Alley 27 Mar 1786), not printed; Hobson’s Choice or Thespis Distress, burl. (Royalty, 3 July 1787), not printed; It Should Be; d Dramatic entertainment (Hay 2 JUne 1789), presented to Colman as being written by a lady, a success; Perseverance or The Third Time the Best, interlude (Crow St., 12 March 1789), mus. Giordani, not printed; What’s the Matter?, burl. printed in 1789; All in Good Humour, interlude (Hay 7 July 1797), not printed; The Irish Tar or Which is the Girl?, interlude (Hay 24 August 1797), not printed; Botheration or a Ten Years’ Blunder, farce (CG 8 May 1798) 1798; Pyramus and Thisbe (Birmingham 1798) 1798, and The Two Apprentices or Industry and Idleness Rewarded (Birmingham 1798) are pantomines, not printed; Sixty Third Letter, farce (Hay 28 July 1802) 1803; The Middle Dish or The Irishman in Turkey, farce (DL 16 Apr 1804), in which an Irish footman and his wife are waited on by their former master and mistress at the behest of a Grand Signior who mistakes[?] their identity, mixed reception. NOTE, Irish classical plays, as listed by WB Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), include WC Oulton, Pyramus and Thisbe (1798) [110].
G. C. Duggan, The Stage Irishman: A History of the Irish Play and Stage Characters from the Earliest Times (1937; NY: Benjamin Blom; reiss. 1969): Wally Chamberlain Oulton, Botheration or a Ten Years’s Blunder, concerns a mistake made by Jack Hopeful, answering a ten year-old matrimonial advertisement, who hears a conversation about a dog, Flora (”fine hair, etc.”) and thinks it Lady Apes being described. Her servant Thady O’B[l]arney is a character of wit and aptitude and not much brogue. The play, which appeared in 1798, is pro-Union, the end-words being, “and Thady O’Blarney’s [sic] ambition shall be to serve faithfully and honestly those kind masters and mistresses before whomhe has now thehonour to stand. / They will, he hopes, take pleasure in their man/Whose tongue may blunder but whose heart ne’er can.”
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