Thomas James Serle

Between the ages of 16 and 18, he wrote four five-act plays, which were presented to Drury Lane Theatre by Peter Moore, then on its committee, without result.

Serle next played a season at the old Royalty Theatre, opening in Hamlet, at the time when Clarkson Frederick Stanfield painted the scenery there.

He translated and adapted Dominique, Victim of St. Vincent, and The Man in the Iron Mask, playing the principal characters.

[2] Serle's next production was The Yeoman's Daughter, a domestic drama, in two acts, in which, with the Lyceum Company, at the Adelphi Theatre, he played the principal character.

[1] Serle became in 1834 stage-manager at the English Opera, Lyceum Theatre, and opened it with an address written and spoken by himself, The Yeoman's Daughter being the first piece.

[3] In 1836, Serle spoke the Prologue to the tragedy of Ion, on its first representation at Covent Garden, for Macready's benefit, and wrote The Witch's Son, two acts.

[1] The title role in Joan of Arc was played by Mary Huddart (later Warner);[4] Henry Crabb Robinson thought well of the plot.

[1] Serle's theatrical friends included Thomas James Thackeray, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Douglas Jerrold.

[1] Serle adapted Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, and Double Marriage, for Mary Warner's management at the Marylebone Theatre.

[1] In 1852 Serle's Annie Tyrrell, or Attree Copse, with theme the execution of a poacher, was put on at the Surrey Theatre.

He wrote The Players: or the Stage of Life (1847), a novel and Joan of Arc, a romance, published by Henry Colburn.

[21] Attribution This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: The Era Almanack and Annual 1869