William Bayle Bernard

William Bayle Bernard (1807–1875) [cite book
last = Lee
first = Sidney
authorlink = Sidney Lee
title = Dictionary of National Biography
publisher = Smith, Elder & Co.
date = 1903
url = http://www.archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati00leesuoft
location = London
isbn = ] was a well known American-born London playwright and drama critic. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of English comic actor John Bernard,cite book
last = Bordman
first = Gerald
coauthors = Hischak, Thomas S.
title = The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
publisher = Oxford University Press
edition = 3rd
date = 2004
url = http://www.answers.com/topic/john-bernard
isbn = 0195169867] he came to Britain with his family in 1820, where he first worked as a clerk in an army accounts office. His plays include "Casco Bay" (1832), "The Kentuckian" (1833), "The Nervous Man" (1833), "The Mummy" (1833), "Marie Ducange" (1837), "The Round of Wrong" (1846), "The Doge of Venice" (1867), "The Passing Cloud" (1850) and "A Storm in a Teacup" (1854), as well as adaptations of Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" (1834) and Wilkie Collins's "No Name" (1863).cite encyclopedia
editor = Ward, A. W; Waller, A. R.
encyclopedia = The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
title = The Victorian Age: Part I
url = http://www.bartleby.com/223/0808.html
accessdate = 2008-02-01
date = 1907–21
publisher = Cambridge University Press
volume = XIII
location = Cambridge, England] He also wrote the five-volume historical romance "The Freebooter's Bride" (1829). [cite web
title = Title details for Freebooter's Bride, The
work = British Fiction 1800–1829
publisher = Cardiff University
url = http://www.british-fiction.cf.ac.uk/titleDetails.asp?title=1829A019
accessdate = 2008-02-01]

His play "The Mummy", a popular success on its debut at the Theatre Royal, Adelphi, [cite web
last = Nelson
first = Alfred L.
coauthors = Cross, Gilbert B.
title = Seasonal Summary for Summer 1833
work = The Adelphi Theatre 1806–1900: A Calendar of Performances
publisher = Eastern Michigan University
date = 1988
url = http://www.emich.edu/public/english/adelphi_calendar/m33eohs.htm
accessdate = 2008-02-01] influenced Edgar Allan Poe's "Some Words with a Mummy". [cite journal
last = Benton
first = Richard P.
title = Edgar Allan Poe: Current Bibliography
journal = Poe Studies
volume = IV
issue = 2
pages = pp. 38–44
publisher = Washington State University Press
date = December 1971
url = http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/PS1970/p1971209.htm
accessdate = 2008-02-01]

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