Life
?1740-1815; of Inchiquin family, m. dg of Earl of Ilchester, Receiver
Gen. of Dorsetshire; plays inc. Cross-Purposes (1772); The Duel
(1773); songs were published as O’Brien’s Lusorium (1782),
and often reprinted; comic writings were bawdy, shocking. PI RR
DNB PI DIW
Criticism
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, p.453.
Notes
Dictionary of National Biography; d.1815; actor and dramatist;
engaged by Garrick to replace Woodward, 1758; m. Lady Susan Fox-Strangeways,
1764; lived in America, became receiver general of Dorset; Cross-Purposes
and the Duel (dates as above).
Peter Kavanagh, Irish Theatre (1946), William O’Brien, ?1736-1815; Appeared as Captain Brazen in Farquhar’s Recruiting Officer, 3 Oct. 1758; m. Susan Sara Strangways, eldest dg. of Stephen Fox, Earl of Ilchester. Cross Purposes, farce (CG 5 Dec. 1772) 1772, a success, based on La Font’s Le[s] Trois Frères Rivaux; The Duel (DL 8 Dec. 1772); based on Sedaine’s Le Philosophe sans le Savoir.
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (Amsterdam 1986), William O’Brien, The Duel (1772) featured trigger-happy Sir Dermot O’Leinster and his son. [Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael, 1986, p.161]
Belfast Public Library holds Duel (1772).
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Notes
‘William O’Brien ... made his first appearance at Drury lane
Theatre in the year 1758 in the part of Captain Brazen [Farquhar’s
Recruiting Officer] and in characters of that class he arrived at
a high degree of reputation. After continuing on the stage about 6 years,
he withdrew altogether from theatrical life. O’Brien was well-descended,
and married into a noble family. Of his two dramas, the farce Cross
Purposes, reduced to one Act, remained for many years as a stock piece;
his comedy, entitled The Duel, was unsuccessful.’ A long letter
from O’Brien to George Colman, introducing Cross Purposes
and discussing its production, [apparently following cuts, and urging
no further cutting] is printed in Memoirs of the Colman Family,
ed. R. P. Peake, vol. 1, 1841, pp. 266.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)