Richard Brinsley Peake

Richard Brinsley Peake (19 February 1792 – 4 October 1847) was a dramatist of the early nineteenth century best remembered today for his 1823 play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, a work based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Richard Brinsley Peake was born in Gerard Street in Soho, London, the son of Richard Peake, who for forty years worked in the Treasury Office of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. He was named after the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who was a friend of his father. From 1809 to 1817 Peake was an apprentice with the engraver James Heath. On leaving Heath's employ in 1817 Peake began to write for the theatre; his first play was The Bridge that Carries Us Safe Over, produced at the English Opera House in 1817, and which was quickly followed by a farce, Wanted, a Governess.

For the next forty years Peake wrote burlesques, farces, comedies, melodramatic and musical romances, and an "operatic romance". His play The Meltonians was described as "a perfectly illegitimate drama and extravaganza." His 1823 play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, was seen by Mary Shelley and her father William Godwin on 29 August 1823 at the English Opera House, shortly after her return to England. Shelley approved of the way the Creature, played by T.P. Cooke, was represented by a series of dashes in the advertising. To capitalise on the success of the play, Godwin arranged for his daughter's novel Frankenstein to be reprinted in two volumes with emendations by himself. In the play the character 'Fritz' was originated by Robert Keeley.

...
Wikipedia