Joseph Stirling Coyne

Joseph Stirling Coyne (1803–1868) was a humorist and satirist in the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. One of the most prolific British playwrights[1] of the mid-nineteenth century, he wrote more than sixty plays; his twenty-seven farces are surpassed in number only by John Maddison Morton's ninety-one and T. J. Williams's thirty. Coyne brought to the stage accomplished comedic interchanges, puns, irony, exaggerated character traits, ludicrous plot situations, and surprising outcomes. His plays reveal a deft ear for dialogue and an ability to create characters suited to the talents of specific actors. As a journalist Coyne contributed humorous pieces to many widely circulated journals and newspapers.

Childhood

Coyne was born in 1803 to Denis Coyne, a port worker, and Bridget Coyne, née Cosgrave, in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. After attending the Royal School Dungannon, he began studying law but decided to pursue a literary career after some of his articles appeared in local publications. His first farce, The Phrenologist, appeared at The Theatre Royal in Dublin in June 1835 and was revived two years later at what later became The Abbey Theatre.

Remembrance

Joseph Stirling Coyne's everyday characters and realistic situations and language appealed to working-class theatergoers, and his plays enjoyed long runs during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, when stage. Coyne is remembered for his humor and puns and for his satire of Victorian social and artistic conventions. His work is a significant link between the stylized French and English comedies of the eighteenth century and the witty, intellectual plays of Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.

gollark: Why would a god choose to communicate in such a ridiculous way and not write "HI, GOD HERE" in giant letters of fire in the sky?
gollark: Again, random noise? There are a lot of places you can read out information and a lot of different things you can compare against.
gollark: Oh yes, light speed is annoying too. Also how even the planets are mostly really boring.
gollark: The remaining volume is mostly stars, in which you will very very rapidly die.
gollark: Not climate change and whatever, it isn't *that* bad compared to the fact that the vast, vast majority of volume in the universe is basically useless empty space in which you will very rapidly die.

References
  1. Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Coyne, Joseph Stirling" . Dictionary of National Biography. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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