George Colman

George Colman (1732-1794), English playwright and manager of the Covent Garden theater in London. Colman was born in Florence, Italy, where his father was an envoy to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Colman’s father died when Colman was a year old, and Colman's uncle, William Pulteney, later Earl of Bath, became his guardian. Colman was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church College at the University of Oxford. Because his guardian wanted him to study law, Colman concealed his growing interest in the theater for some time.

Eventually, Colman met English dramatist David Garrick, and on February 12, 1761, Colman's comedy, The Jealous Wife, was performed at Garrick's Drury Lane Theatre in London. The Jealous Wife was to become one of Colman’s best comedies. The Clandestine Marriage (1776), a comedy written in collaboration with Garrick, was also a great success. It later became the source of Domenico Cimarosa's opera Il atrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage, 1792). After a quarrel with Garrick, Colman and several partners purchased the Covent Garden theater. Disagreement among the partners involved them in litigation, but the difficulties were eventually resolved, and they produced a number of plays, including She Stoops to Conquer (1773), by Anglo-Irish playwright Oliver Goldsmith.

Colman wrote several more plays and revised many Elizabethan dramas (see Drama and Dramatic Arts: English Elizabethan and Restoration Drama), including a version of King Lear (1605), originally written by William Shakespeare. On May 26, 1774, Colman resigned his post as manager of Covent Garden. He acquired the Haymarket Theatre in 1776 and, after a reconciliation with Garrick, wrote for both the Drury Lane Theatre and for his own theater. In 1778 Colman edited plays by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (see Beaumont and Fletcher), and in 1783 he published a translation of Ars Poetica by ancient Roman lyric poet Horace. In 1784 Colman suffered a paralytic stroke, but he continued as manager of the Haymarket Theatre until 1789, when his son succeeded him.