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George Colman the Younger
 
 
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George Colman (October 21, 1762–October 17, 1836), known as "the Younger," English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 dramatist
Playwright

A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance....
 and miscellaneous writer, was the son of George Colman "the Elder"
George Colman the Elder

George Colman was an England dramatist and essayist, usually called "the Elder", and sometimes "George the First", to distinguish him from his son, George Colman the Younger....
.

He passed from Westminster School
Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college....
 to Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church , is one of the largest Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford....
, and King's College
King's College, Aberdeen

King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen ....
, University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen is an ancient university founded in 1495, in Old Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the fifth oldest university in what is now the United Kingdom, and in the wider English-speaking world....
, and was finally entered as a student of law
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
 at Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are Call to the bar....
, London. While in Aberdeen he published a poem satirizing Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox was a prominent Kingdom of Great Britain British Whig Party statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger....
, called The Man of the People; and in 1782 he produced, at his father's playhouse in the Haymarket
The Haymarket

Haymarket is a street in the St. James's of the City of Westminster, a London Borough. It runs from Piccadilly Circus at the north to Pall Mall, London at the south....
, his first play, The Female Dramatist, for which Smollett
Tobias Smollett

Tobias George Smollett was a Scotland poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens....
's Roderick Random supplied the materials.






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George Colman (October 21, 1762–October 17, 1836), known as "the Younger," English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 dramatist
Playwright

A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance....
 and miscellaneous writer, was the son of George Colman "the Elder"
George Colman the Elder

George Colman was an England dramatist and essayist, usually called "the Elder", and sometimes "George the First", to distinguish him from his son, George Colman the Younger....
.

He passed from Westminster School
Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college....
 to Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church , is one of the largest Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford....
, and King's College
King's College, Aberdeen

King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen ....
, University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen is an ancient university founded in 1495, in Old Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the fifth oldest university in what is now the United Kingdom, and in the wider English-speaking world....
, and was finally entered as a student of law
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
 at Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are Call to the bar....
, London. While in Aberdeen he published a poem satirizing Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox was a prominent Kingdom of Great Britain British Whig Party statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger....
, called The Man of the People; and in 1782 he produced, at his father's playhouse in the Haymarket
The Haymarket

Haymarket is a street in the St. James's of the City of Westminster, a London Borough. It runs from Piccadilly Circus at the north to Pall Mall, London at the south....
, his first play, The Female Dramatist, for which Smollett
Tobias Smollett

Tobias George Smollett was a Scotland poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens....
's Roderick Random supplied the materials. It was unanimously condemned, but Two to One (1784) was entirely successful. It was followed by Turk and no Turk (1785), a musical comedy; Inkle and Yarico
Inkle and Yarico

Inkle and Yarico is a comic opera first staged in London, England in August 1787, with music by Samuel Arnold and a libretto by George Colman the Younger....
 (1787), an opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
; Ways and Means (1788); The Iron Chest (1796), taken from William Godwin
William Godwin

William Godwin was an English journalist, political philosophy and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and one of the first modern proponents of philosophical anarchism....
's Adventures of Caleb Williams; The Poor Gentleman (1802); John Bull, or an Englishman's Fireside (1803), his most successful piece; The Heir at Law (1808), which enriched the stage with one immortal character, "Dr Pangloss," and numerous other pieces, many of them adapted from the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
.

The failing health of the elder Colman obliged him to relinquish the management of the Haymarket theatre in 1789, when the younger George succeeded him, at a yearly salary of £600. On the death of the father the patent was continued to the son; but difficulties arose in his way, he was involved in litigation with Thomas Harris, and was unable to pay the expenses of the performances at the Haymarket. He was forced to take sanctuary within the Rules of the King's Bench. Here he resided for many years continuing to direct the affairs of his theatre. Released at last through the kindness of George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom

George IV was the king of Kingdom of Hanover and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the death of his father, George III of the United Kingdom, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later....
, who had appointed him exon. of the Yeomen of the Guard, a dignity disposed of by Colman to the highest bidder, he was made examiner of plays by the duke of Montrose, then lord chamberlain. This office, to the disgust of all contemporary dramatists, to whose manuscripts he was as illiberal as he was severe, he held till his death. Although his own productions were open to charges of indecency and profanity, he was so severe a censor of others that he would not pass even such words as "heaven," "providence" or "angel." His comedies are a curious mixture of genuine comic force and sentimentality. A collection of them was published (1827) in Paris, with a life of the author, by JW Lake.

Colman, whose witty conversation made him a favourite, was also the author of a great deal of so-called humorous poetry (mostly coarse, though much of it was popular)--My Night Gown and Slippers (1797), reprinted under the name of Broad Grins, in 1802; and Poetical Vagaries (1812). Some of his writings were published under the assumed name of Arthur Griffinhood of Turnham Green. He died in Brompton, London. He had, as early as 1784, contracted a runaway marriage with an actress, Clara Morris, to whose brother David Morris, he eventually disposed of his share in the Haymarket theatre. Many of the leading parts in his plays were written especially for Mrs Gibbs (née Logan), whom he was said to have secretly married after the death of his first wife.

See the second George Colman's memoirs of his early life, entitled Random Records (1830), and RB Peake, Memoirs of the Colman Family (1842).

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