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LILLO, GEORGE (1693-1739)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 686 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LILLO, See also:GEORGE (1693-1739) , See also:English dramatist, son of a Dutch jeweller, was See also:born in See also:London on the 4th of See also:February 1693. He was brought up to his See also:father's See also:trade and was for many years a partner in the business. His first piece, Silvia, or the See also:Country See also:Burial, was a ballad See also:opera produced at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn See also:Fields in See also:November 1730. On the 22nd of See also:June 1731 his domestic tragedy, The See also:Merchant, renamed later The London Merchant, or the See also:History of George Barnwell, was produced by See also:Theophilus See also:Cibber and his See also:company at See also:Drury See also:Lane. The piece is written in See also:prose, which is not See also:free from passages which are really See also:blank See also:verse, and is founded on " An excellent ballad of George Barnwell, an apprentice of London who ... thrice robbed his See also:master, and murdered his See also:uncle in See also:Ludlow." In breaking through the tradition that the characters of every tragedy must necessarily be See also:drawn from See also:people of high See also:rank and See also:fortune he went back to the Elizabethan domestic See also:drama of See also:passion of which the See also:Yorkshire Tragedy is a type. The obtrusively moral purpose of this See also:play places it in the same See also:literary See also:category as the novels of See also:Richardson. Scoffing critics called it, with See also:reason, a " Newgate tragedy," but it proved extremely popular on the See also:stage. It was regularly acted for many years at See also:holiday seasons for the moral benefit of the apprentices. The last See also:act contained a See also:scene, generally omitted on the London stage, in which the gallows actually figured. In 1734 Lillo celebrated the See also:marriage of the Princess See also:Anne with See also:William IV. of See also:Orange in Britannia and See also:Batavia, a masque. A second tragedy, The See also:Christian See also:Hero, was produced at Drury Lane on the 13th of See also:January 1735. It is based on the See also:story of See also:Scanderbeg, the Albanian chieftain, a See also:life of whom is printed with the play.

See also:

Thomas Whincop (d. 1730) wrote a piece on the same subject, printed posthumously in 1747. Both Lillo and William Havard, who also wrote a dramatic version of the story, were accused of plagiarizing Whin cop's Scanderbeg. Another See also:murder-drama, Fatal Curiosity, in which an old couple murder an unknown See also:guest, who proves to be their own son, was based on a tragedy at Bohelland See also:Farm near See also:Penryn in 1618. It was produced by See also:Henry See also:Fielding at the Little See also:Theatre in the Haymarket in 1736. but with small success. In the next See also:year Fielding tacked it on to his own See also:Historical See also:Register for 1736, and it was received more kindly. It was revised by George See also:Colman the See also:elder in 1782, by Henry See also:Mackenzie in 1784, &c. Lillo also wrote an See also:adaptation of the Shakespearean play of See also:Pericles, See also:Prince of See also:Tyre, with the See also:title Marina (Covent See also:Garden, See also:August 1st, 1738); and a tragedy, Elmerick, or See also:Justice Triumphant (produced posthumously, Drury Lane, February 23rd, 1740). The statement made in the See also:prologue to this play that Lillo died in poverty seems unfounded. His See also:death took See also:place on the 3rd of See also:September 1739. He See also:left an unfinished version of See also:Arden of Feversham, which was completed by Dr See also:John See also:Hoadly and produced in 1759. Lillo's reputation proved See also:short-lived.

He has nevertheless a certain See also:

cosmopolitan importance, for the See also:influence of George Barnwell can be traced in the sentimental drama of both See also:France and See also:Germany. See Lillo's Dramatic See also:Works with See also:Memoirs of the Author by Thomas See also:Davies (reprint by See also:Lowndes, 181o); Cibber's Lives of the Poets, v.; Genest, Some See also:Account of the English Stage; Alois Brandt, " Zu Lillo's See also:Kaufmann in London," in Vierteljahrschrift See also:fur Literaturgeschichte (See also:Weimar, 189o, vol. iii.); See also:Leopold See also:Hoffmann, George Lillo (See also:Marburg, 1888) ; See also:Paul von See also:Hofmann-Wellenhof, Shakspere's Pericles and George Lillo's Marina (See also:Vienna, 1885). There is a novel founded on Lillo's play, Barnwell (1807), by T. S. Surr, and in " George de Barnwell " (Novels by Eminent Hands) See also:Thackeray parodies Buiwer-See also:Lytton's See also:Eugene See also:Aram.

End of Article: LILLO, GEORGE (1693-1739)

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