John Wilson


Life
1626-?1695 b. Derry, [Clark] c. 1635.] Several plays, including the comedy The Cheats (1671; and many eds. up to end of century), performed at Drury Lane, not Dublin; also Belphegor, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin prompt copy. MS. 827. 1, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., cited in Clarke, Early Irish Stage, p. 211. PI

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Works
Andronicus Commenius
, trag. [anon.] (1663); The Projectors, com. (London 1665); The Cheats, com. (1671; 1684; 4th ed., corr., 1693); To His Excellency richard, Earle of Arran, a poem, etc. (Dublin 1682), fol.; Belphegor, or the Marriage of the Devil, tragi-com. (Lonfon 1691); Dramatic Works of J. W. (8 vol., 1874),

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References
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), called Recorder of Londonderry; presumably English born; ed. Oxford; went to Ireland, 1677; d. ?1696.

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Commentary
John Smith Clark, Early Irish Stage OUP 1955), M. C. Nahm, ed., John Wilson’s ‘The Cheats’ (Oxford 1935), cites ‘In the following season [1678], the first original play, Belphegor, by an Englishman, John Wilson (1626-16?95), Recorder of Londonderry.

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