Biography of James Robinson Planché

The Life and Work of the British Playwright J.R. Planché (1794-1880)

Oct 18, 2009

The British playwright James Robinson Planché wrote 176 works for the theatre and is remembered for his research on historical costume design.

James Robinson Planché was a British playwright who wrote 176 works for the theatre, including translations, plays, and operatic libretti. He wrote the libretto for Carl Maria von Weber's opera Oberon, and his play The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles influenced the development of early vampire fiction.

Childhood

Planché was born on February 27, 1794 in London. His parents were first cousins and had come to England from France. His mother died when he was nine years old and he was sent to boarding school, where (according to his autobiography) he was "untaught the French I spoke fluently as a child."

Personal Life

In April 1821, Planché married Elizabeth St. George, also a playwright. They had two children, Katherine and Matilda. Elizabeth died at fifty and both Katherine and her husband died young, leaving the widowed Planché to support his grandchildren. He died in his sleep in 1880 at the age of 83.

Early Career

In his late teens, Planché worked at a bookstore and became involved in amateur theatre. While his acting career was short and unsuccessful ("I murdered," he writes, "many principal personages of the acting drama"), he began to work as a playwright.

His first success was with the play Amoroso, King of Little Britain in 1818. First performed in amateur theatre, it rose to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it was well-received. Another early success was The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles (Lyceum, 1820), a translation and adaptation of Nodier's Le Vampire, which was based on John Polidori's "The Vampyre." Planché's translation was a major influence in Heinrich Marschner's 1828 opera Der Vampyr, whose libretto Planché later translated for English performances.

Works for the Theatre

Among Planché's 176 works for the theatre are historical plays, fairy extravaganzas, vaudevilles, comedies, and operas. Many of his comedies were translations from the French, which he adapted to suit the British tastes. His sucesses include Ali Pacha (Covent Garden, 1822), The Brigand (Drury Lane, 1829), The Irish Post (1846), and Puss in Boots (Olympic, 1837).

Legacy

One of Planché's lasting legacies is the reform of British copyright law to include plays. Planché, who spent most of his life in poverty despite his popular successes, helped found the Dramatic Authors' Society. Their work led to the establishment of copyright law for plays in the United Kingdom.

Planché is remembered today for his interest in historically accurate costume design, a novelty in his time. He complained about that the setting of The Vampire in the Scottish Highlands, "where the superstition never existed," and edited it in 1829 to be set in Hungary instead. He was appointed Somerset Herald in 1866 in honor of his study of costume design, and published several books on the subject, including A History of British Costume.

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