Frederick Pilon

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Frederick Pilon (1750–1788) was an Irish actor and dramatist.

Life

Born in

Edinburgh University to study medicine. He appeared at the Edinburgh Theatre as Oroonoko, in Thomas Southerne's play of that name; and then joined a minor repertory company, for some years.[1]

Pilon drifted to London, where William Griffin the bookseller employed him on

Thomas Carter composed music for his Fair American libretto: Pilon would not pay, Carter sued, and Pilon lay low.[2]

Pilon died at Lambeth on 17 January 1788.[1]

Works

Pilon as a playwright has been thought a follower of

Anthony Pasquin.[4] He wrote the following dramas, mostly ephemeral, all of which were published, besides the pantomime:[1]

An unpublished adaptation of

Haymarket Theatre.[6]

Pilon published in 1785 an expanded edition of George Alexander Stevens's Essay on Heads, which Lee Lewis had been performing from 1780.[9] The Lecture was a popular one-man show, a two-hour performance piece that Stevens had acted as a monologue, with a range of papier-mâché busts and wigs, from 1764.[10] Lewis had purchased the Lecture from Stevens, and this edition had a prologue by Pilon, and An Essay on Satire of his own.[11] Pilon also adapted The French Flogged (1755) by Stevens (a droll for Edward Shuter) for performance at Cork in 1780.[12]

Pilon published also:[1]

  • The Drama, an anonymous poem, 1775.
  • An Essay on the Character of Hamlet as performed by Mr. Henderson (anonymous), London, 1777. On John Henderson.[13]

Family

In 1787 Pilon married a Miss Drury of

Kingston, Surrey.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Pilon, Frederick" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4800. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ISBN 978-90-247-0198-8
    .
  4. ^ George Lillie Craik (1871). A compendious history of English literature, and of the English language: from the Norman conquest. With numerous specimens. C. Scribner. p. 405.
  5. ISBN 978-0-87413-967-9
    .
  6. ^ a b Philological Society (Great Britain) (1788). The European magazine, and London review. Philological Society of London. p. 59.
  7. ISBN 978-0-313-32891-6
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-19-811735-3
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-8203-3264-2
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0-8203-3264-2
    .
  11. ISBN 978-0-8203-3264-2
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-8203-3264-2
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-415-13409-5
    .

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Pilon, Frederick". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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