James Boaden's lifelong fascination with the theater found its outlet in theatrical criticism, the writing of plays, and in the biography of actors and actresses. His contemporaries valued him for his pamphlets on Shakespeare and for his popular dramas. Boaden's theatrical biographies, produced later in his life, are perhaps his most significant contribution for us today. His plays exploited the current vogue for Gothicism and melodrama, and several of them had a considerable success, in part because of the capable performances of John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons, and Dorothy Jordan. However, Boaden was sensitive to the necessities of dramatic presentation, and his manipulation of stage effects certainly contributed to the enthusiastic reception of his plays.

James Boaden was born at White Haven in Cumberland on 23 May 1762, son of William Boaden, a merchant in the Russian trade, but the family moved to London while he was still a child...