John Bernard

Background

John Bernard was born in 1756 at the naval station at Portsmouth, England. He was the son of John Bernard, an Irish lieutenant in the British navy, and of Ann Bernard, the daughter of a post captain.

Education

As a boy of ten John began attending the local theatre, where London actors sometimes appeared. At the Latin Academy near Chichester, to which he was sent, he displayed great zeal for acting, and his success as Hamlet at the age of sixteen fired him with determination to make the stage his career. Accordingly he found employment with a strolling company until his mother broke up a performance and marched him back home. All efforts to direct him into the naval or the legal profession proving fruitless, his parents finally allowed him to follow his desire.

Career

Bernard was engaged as a light comedian by the able Norwich company. Subsequently he saw service in various provincial companies, including a season at the famous Bath Theatre, until in 1782 he and his wife made a professional visit to Ireland. Two years of Irish hospitality proving too much for his constitution, he accepted another engagement at Bath. Thence he was summoned in 1787 to Covent Garden, the Ultima Thule of his dreams, where he played second to Lee Lewis, one of the leading comedians of his day. Experiments with a summer theatre in the provinces led Bernard to form a theatrical circuit in 1791, with playhouses at Plymouth, Dover, and the Isle of Guernsey. This undertaking eventually entailed considerable financial loss, while membership in various convivial clubs, including the celebrated Beefsteak Club, further depleted his resources.

Consequently an offer from Wignell, the Philadelphia manager, to come to America at a salary of £1, 000 for the first year proved irresistible. Bernard arrived in the summer of 1797 accompanied by the second Mrs. Bernard, formerly Miss Fisher of the Guernsey company. After making his American debut in New York on August 25, as Goldfinch in The Road to Ruin, he established himself at Philadelphia, where he remained for six years, playing comedy parts and occasionally more serious roles, such as Shylock and Hotspur. In 1803 he signed for Boston, and in 1806 he became joint manager of the Federal Street Theatre there.

Bernard visited England in the latter year to secure additional players, and, being again a widower, married a Miss Wright as his third wife. After five seasons of unprofitable management at Boston, he withdrew in 1811. A tour of Canada was followed by some performances at the Thespian Hotel at Albany. In January 1813 Albany's first regular playhouse was opened under Bernard's management. Retiring from this position in 1816, he renewed his connection with the Boston theatre and there made his final American appearance, April 19, 1819, in The Soldier's Daughter. He then returned to England, where he died in poverty nine years later.

Achievements

• John Bernard was a well-known comedian. Socially he achieved a success in the United States largely because he honestly liked the Americans and showed no trace of condescension toward them. During his career Bernard played in the Bath Theatre, the Thespian Hotel, and Covent Garden, and was a travelling actor. Bernard was also the author of Retrospections of the Stage (1830) and Retrospections of America 1797-1811.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Retrospections of the Stage Volume 2

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Retrospections of the Stage Volume 1

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Retrospections of America, 1797-1811 (1887)

    (Originally published in 1887. This volume from the Cornel...)

Personality

The Prince of Wales (later George IV) said of him that Bernard could make one laugh heartily without feeling that one had got into low company. His figure, countenance, and manner were marked by a light neatness admirably adapted to the roles in which he specialized.

Connections

At the age of nineteen John Bernard married Mrs. Cooper, a fellow player six years his senior. His second wife was Miss Fisher of the Guernsey company. The third wife was Miss Wright.

Father:

John Bernard

soldier, military

Mother:

Ann Bernard

Son:

William Bayle Bernard

playwright, critic