ABSTRACT
Thomas Egerton Wilks wrote almost 200 plays, including burlettas, comedies, dramas, farces, and melodramas. Wilks also wrote a biography of the famous actor and clown Joseph Grimaldi, revised and published by Charles Dickens as The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi in 1838. Set during the war with France, the plot revolves around two pairs of lovers, penniless foundling Edwin Gage and Rose Somerton, daughter of a wealthy landowner, and navy boatswain Ben Bowling and impoverished Margery Oatfield. Ben, who drives the play’s action, exemplifies the “Honest Tar,” brave in battle, especially against the odds, faithful in love, loyal in friendship, and militant against injustice. Although T. P. Cooke portrayed Ben in the premier of Ben the Boatswain, other actors, particularly James Elphinstone and John Douglass, also became famous for the role.
