Dion Boucicault - A success in Europe and America
It’s now generally accepted that he was not the son of Dublin wine merchant Samuel Boursiquot, but rather the son of Dionysius Lardner, a lodger in the house of Boursiquot’s wife, Anne Darley. She — a sister to the mathematician George Darley — was some years younger than her husband and, if the young Dion’s name was any indication, she was openly involved with Lardner, a noted encyclopaedist.
When Lardner took a post in London, the young Dion, his mother Anne, and three of her other children followed. Dion did return to study in Dublin, and the affairs of Ireland would remain central to him, providing him with the context for many of his most successful plays. Boucicault grabbed the attention of the English theatre world in 1841 with his comedy London Assurance, the start of a career that saw him involved in almost 200 theatrical productions.
