James Robinson Planché (27 February 1796 – 30 May 1880) was a British dramatist, antiquary and officer of arms. Over a period of approximately 60 years he wrote, adapted, or collaborated on 176 plays in a wide range of genres including extravaganza, farce, comedy, burletta, melodrama and opera. Planché was responsible for introducing historically accurate costume into nineteenth century British theatre, and subsequently became an acknowledged expert on historical costume, publishing a number of works on the topic.
Planché's interest in historical costume led to other antiquarian research, including heraldry and genealogy. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1829, and was influential in the foundation of the British Archaeological Association in 1843. Appointed Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1854 and promoted to Somerset Herald in 1866, Planché undertook heraldic and ceremonial duties as a member of the College of Arms. These included proclaiming peace at the end of the Crimean War and investing foreign monarchs with the Order of the Garter.
Early and personal life James Robinson Planché was born in Old Burlington St, Piccadilly, London in 1796 to Jacques Planché and Catherine Emily Planché. His parents were first cousins and descendants of Huguenot refugees who had fled to England in 1685 following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.Roy, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Jacques Planché was a moderately prosperous watchmaker, a trade he had learned in Geneva, and was personally known to King George III.Planché, Recollections and Reflections, I. 9–10. His name was pronounced "plank" or "planky" for the beginning of his life, but he added, or rather re-added, the accent to his name, restoring the French pronunciation. However, after doing this, editors would sometimes jab at Planché writing "that a particular work of 'Mr. Plank' was 'wooden.
Planché was educated at home until the age of eight by his mother (who had written a treatise on education). He did not continue his home education, as his mother took ill and died when Planché was nine years old.Obituary, The Illustrated London News, 5 June 1880, p. 557. He was then sent to boarding school where, in his words: "I was imperfected, and untaught the French I spoke fluently as a child."Planché, Recollections and Reflections, I. 2. In 1808 he was apprenticed to a French landscape painter, Monsieur de Court, where he studied perspective and geometry, which would later help him in his theatre endeavours. However this apprenticeship was curtailed by de Court's death two years later. Planché was then articled as an apprentice to a bookseller, with the hope that this would also give him the opportunity to sell some of his own writings.Planché, Recollections and Reflections, I. 3. This is where Planché considered his "theatrical propensities" began to develop.
During this period Planché joined an amateur theatre company, in which he acted and wrote plays. The manuscript of one of these early plays, Amoroso, King of Little Britain, was by chance seen by the comic actor John Pritt Harley, who, recognising its potential, brought about (and acted in)Planché, Recollections and Reflections, I. 4 its performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Its favourable reception launched Planché on his theatrical career.
Marriage and family On 26 April 1821, Planché married Elizabeth St George, a playwright. She wrote The Welsh Girl for the Olympic Theatre shortly after its opening in 1831 and, emboldened by its successful reception, continued to write for the stage. Among her more successful plays were A Handsome Husband and A Pleasant Neighbour, both at the Olympic, and The Sledge Driver and The Ransom, both produced at the Haymarket Theatre. From viewing their plays, it's thought that they collaborated, as he excelled in "playful dialog", and she excelled in "sentimental and melodramatic scenes". Elizabeth Planché died in 1846 after a long illness.Obituary, The Literary Gazette, 3 October 1846, p. 859. The couple had two daughters, Katherine Frances, born in 1823, and Matilda Anne, born in 1825. Katherine married William Curteis Whelan of Heronden Hall, Tenterden, Kent in 1851.George Clement Boase, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Matilda achieved success as an author of children's books (using the pen name Susie Sunbeam), beginning in 1849 with A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam, which subsequently went through 42 editions. She married the Rev. Henry Mackarness in 1852, and with him had eleven children, four of whom did not survive infancy. Taking after her father in terms of writing output, Matilda Mackarness produced an average of one book a year until her death, most of them under her married name. Her husband's death in 1868 left her with little means of supporting her family, as the books did not produce much income. She and her children moved in with her father.Elizabeth Lee, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Finances and social life Despite his large number of successful plays, Planché was never particularly wealthy, and he felt pressure from needing to support his grandchildren. Circumstances improved when in 1871 he was awarded a civil list pension of £100 per annum 'in recognition of his literary services'. Planché died at his home in Chelsea on 30 May 1880 at the age of 84. His wealth at the time of his death was under £1000.
Planché "greatly enjoyed moving in society and meeting the well-known".Colin Lee, "James Robinson Planché", p. 28. He was a regular attender at conversaziones, breakfasts and soireés where he "met and was introduced to most of the notabilities then living in London".Planché, Recollections and Reflections, I. 130. In 1831 he was a founding member of the Garrick Club. His autobiography contains many anecdotes of his acquaintances in theatrical and literary circles. Planché was also much esteemed in private life.
Theatrical career
Early career and libretti
Planché's career as a playwright began, as already mentioned, in 1818 when Amoroso, King of Little Britain, a play he had written for an amateur performance at a private theatre, was seen by John Pritt Harley and subsequently performed at Drury Lane. The play was a success and Harley, along with Stephen Kemble and Robert William Elliston, encouraged Planché to take up play-writing full-time. Planché did so; his next play to be performed was a pantomime at Christmas of that same year. A further six of his plays were performed in 1819, the same number in 1820, and eleven in 1821, most of these at the Adelphi Theatre, but also including some at the Lyceum, the Olympic and Sadler's Wells.Planché, Extravaganzas, Vol. 5, pp. 316–331. Planché's early works were "generally unremarkable", one exception in this period being The Vampire, or, The Bride of the Isles, produced at the Lyceum in August 1820, an adaptation of Charles Nodier's Le Vampire (this was a dramatisation of John Polidori's novel The Vampyre). The play featured the innovative "vampire trap", a trapdoor in the stage which allowed an actor to disappear (or appear) almost instantly.Summers, Montague Summers' Guide to Vampires. Kenilworth Castle, or, the Days of Queen Bess, produced 8 February 1821, was also very successful. Planché wrote a total of 176 plays.
Planché held the position of stock author (in-house writer) at the Adelphi for a short period in 1821, before moving to a similar positionPlanché says only "to that theatre I voluntarily attached myself for six seasons". Recollections and Reflections I. 45. at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. In 1822 he wrote the libretto (and some of the music)Colin Lee, "James Robinson Planché", pp. 23–4. for his first full-scale opera, Maid Marian; or, the Huntress of Arlingford. In 1826 he wrote the libretto for another opera, Oberon, or the Elf-King's Oath, the final work of composer Carl Maria von Weber, who died a few months after its completion. While this opera was a commercial success and received a favourable critical response at the time, subsequent critics have not appreciated Planché's libretto.
In 1838 Planché was to collaborate on an opera with another notable composer, Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn originally approved of Planché's choice of topic, Edward III's siege of Calais in the Hundred Years War, and responded positively to the first two acts of the libretto. But, after Mendelssohn received the final act, he expressed doubts about the subject, asked Planché to start work on a completely new libretto, and eventually stopped replying to Planché's letters. The opera never came to production.Fischler, "Oberon and odium", pp. 19–20.
Historical costume, dramatic copyright, tableaux vivants
In August 1823, in an issue of The Album, Planché published an article saying that more attention should be paid to the time period of Shakespeare's plays, especially when it comes to costumes. In the same year, a casual conversation led to one of Planché's more lasting effects on British theatre. He observed to Charles Kemble, the manager of Covent Garden, that "while a thousand pounds were frequently lavished upon a Christmas pantomime or an Easter spectacle, the plays of Shakespeare were put upon the stage with makeshift scenery, and, at the best, a new dress or two for the principal characters".Obituary, The New York Times, 15 June 1880, p. 3.Reinhardt, "The Costume Designs of James Robinson Planché", argues that a letter published in The Album, August 1823, pp. 298–304, signed only 'P', which called for more attention to be paid to the costuming of Shakespeare's plays, and proposed a wardrobe system whereby all locations and periods could be accommodated, was in fact written by Planché. Kemble "saw the possible advantage of correct appliances catching the taste of the town", and agreed to give Planché control of the costuming for the upcoming production of King John, if he would carry out the research, design the costumes and superintend the production.Obituary, The New York Times. The playbill for King John states that if the play meets with "approbation and patronage" more of Shakespeare's plays will be performed "Dressed in the same splendid, novel, and interesting style". Planché had little experience in this area and sought the help of antiquaries such as Francis Douce and Sir Samuel Meyrick. The research involved sparked Planché's latent antiquarian interests; these came to occupy an increasing amount of his time later in life.Reinhardt, "The Costume Designs of James Robinson Planché", pp. 526–7.
Despite the actors' reservations, King John was a success and led to a number of similarly costumed Shakespeare productions by Kemble and Planché (Henry IV, Part I, As You Like It, Othello, Cymbeline, Julius Caesar). The designs and renderings of King John, Henry IV, As You Like It, Othello, Hamlet and Merchant of Venice were published, though there is no evidence that Hamlet and Merchant of Venice were ever produced with Planché's historically accurate costume designs. Planché also wrote a number of plays or adaptations which were staged with historically accurate costumes (Cortez, The Woman Never Vext, The Merchant's Wedding, Charles XII, The Partisans, The Brigand Chief, and Hofer). After 1830, although he still used period costume, he no longer claimed historical accuracy for his work in plays. His work in King John had brought about a "revolution in nineteenth-century stage practice", which lasted for almost a century.Granville-Barker, "Exit Planché—Enter Gilbert", p. 107.