Bickerstaff, Isaac John (1733–c.1808), dramatist and soldier, was born 26 September 1733 in Dublin, the son of John Bickerstaff (d. 1751), an officeholder in the viceregal household, and Jane Brereton (d. 1744). Bickerstaff spent his early years in Dublin, where his musical tastes (particularly his preference for Italian music) were shaped by the city's vibrant musical culture. In 1745 his father's position – deputy to the groom porter – was abolished, and Isaac was made a page to Lord Chesterfield (qv), the lord lieutenant of Ireland. Through Chesterfield's influence he obtained a commission as ensign in the Northumberland Fusiliers and in 1746 was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. The regiment remained in Kinsale, until 1755, when it transferred to England. Thereupon Bickerstaff, who had inherited some £200 from a family fund, resigned his commission on 23 August and moved to London, determined to become a writer. His first publication, a tragic opera entitled Leucathoë (1756), was not produced, and financial straits soon forced him to reenlist; in 1758 he joined the Plymouth Marine Corps.
In the early 1760s Bickerstaff served at Chaillot, where his first-hand experience of French comic opera may have influenced his own burgeoning collaboration with the English composer Thomas Arne. Arne composed the music for Bickerstaff's libretto ‘Thomas and Sally’ (1760), an all-sung afterpiece which enjoyed a successful run at Covent Garden, and the acclaimed oratorio ‘Judith’, performed at Drury Lane in 1761. Their next project was the full-length pasticcio ‘Love in a village’, which opened at Covent Garden in 1762 and exemplified Bickerstaff's innovative predilection for coupling English lyrics with Italianate music. One of the most successful and influential comic operas of the century, ‘Love in a village’ is now acknowledged as the first English example of that genre. Though it was derivative and even plagiaristic (indebted, as many reviewers criticised, to plays by Charles Johnson, William Wycherley, and Pierre de Marivaux), the opera was hugely popular and was performed thirty-seven times during its first season. Bickerstaff was a prolific songwriter of unusual ability, and ‘Love in a village’ also contains his best-remembered song, ‘The miller of Dee’. The opera was equally successful in Dublin, where it was produced at Crow Street in July 1763. Such was its enduring popularity that in 1789 it was used as the model for a political satire, associated with Henry Grattan (qv), directed against the Irish government.
On 1 May 1763 Bickerstaff resigned his commission, probably as part of the military retrenchment effected after the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War. It was certainly an honorable discharge, as he retained his army pension for the next forty-five years. Financially solvent from the success of ‘Love in a village’, he could now devote all his time and energy to writing. For reasons that remain unclear, he did not continue to collaborate with Arne despite their considerable success. Samuel Arnold composed the music for Bickerstaff's next libretto, ‘The maid of the mill’ (based on Samuel Richardson's Pamela), which was successfully produced at Covent Garden in 1765. ‘The maid of the mill’, along with ‘Love in a village’, remained popular in theatres throughout the English-speaking world for over a century after they were first produced. Bickerstaff now began working for David Garrick, who in 1765 commissioned adaptations of Saint-Foix's play ‘L'Oracle’ (produced as ‘Daphne and Amintor’) and Wycherley's ‘The plain dealer’, both of which were successfully staged at Drury Lane. In his next original opera, Bickerstaff again experimented with the conventions of musical theatre; contrary to the pastoral, sentimental plots of plays of the time, ‘Love in the city’ was an ambitiously conceived urban satire of the very audience for whom he was writing. The score was composed by Charles Dibdin, inaugurating a successful professional partnership that would last for the rest of Bickerstaff's career. ‘Love in the city’ was unsuccessfully produced at Covent Garden in 1767, the satire proving too apt for its audience, though it is now considered to contain some of his best work. He later wrote a revised abridgement entitled ‘The romp’ – based upon Priscilla Tomboy, the opera's most popular character – which became a success in its own right and a favourite vehicle for female theatrical stars, notably the renowned English actress Mrs Jordan. Meanwhile Bickerstaff, discouraged from further innovation by the failure of ‘Love in the city’, returned to more conventional subject matter in his next opera, ‘Lionel and Clarissa’, a gentle satire on the eccentricities of the landed gentry. It was successfully produced at Covent Garden in 1768 and proved increasingly popular, later being adapted as ‘The school for fathers’ (1770). In 1787 the singer and composer Michael Kelly (qv) made his London debut in the role of Lionel.
By now an established figure in literary London, Bickerstaff socialised with Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith (qv), Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and Joshua Reynolds, as well as with fellow Irish dramatists in London, including Hugh Kelly (qv), Paul Hiffernan (qv), and Arthur Murphy (qv). In 1768 he transferred to Drury Lane, where he continued his productive collaboration with Dibdin. In 1768 they produced the two-act farce ‘The absent man’ and the internationally successful opera ‘The padlock’, which featured the first blackface role in British theatre, the enormously popular character of the comic servant Mungo (played by Dibdin). Over the next three years Bickerstaff continued to produce work for Drury Lane: shorter musical pieces such as the libretto for ‘The royal garland’ (1768, music by Arnold; written for the state visit of the young king of Denmark), the cantata ‘Queen Mab’ (1768, music by Dibdin), and the plays ‘The captive’ (1769), ‘The Ephesian matron’ (1769), ‘The hypocrite’ (1769), ‘Tis well it's no worse’ (1770, from a play by Calderón), a version of Farquhar's ‘The recruiting officer’ (1770) (published as The recruiting serjeant, a musical entertainment, 1770), and ‘The maid the mistress’ (1770, from a play by G. A. Federico).
Bickerstaff's twelve-year dominance of London theatre was abruptly ended in May 1772; a homosexual, he unsuccessfully approached a soldier who then attempted to blackmail the playwright. The incident was salaciously reported in the London papers and Bickerstaff, fearing prosecution for what was then a capital offence, fled to the continent. Following his departure a vicious smear campaign, spearheaded by Dr William Kenrick's libellous satire ‘Love in suds; a town eclogue. Being the lamentation of Roscius for the loss of his Nyky’ in A letter to David Garrick, Esq. (London 1772), effectively ended his career. In June 1772 he wrote from St Malo to Garrick, pleading for assistance; the letter went unanswered, but Garrick did later stage his farce ‘The sultan: or, A peep into the seraglio’ (1775). However, as Frances Abington (the lead actress in the play) owned the copyright, the playwright would not have profited by the production. There was much public speculation that he continued to write for Charles Dibdin, and it has been suggested that Garrick did send him money for later work that was staged under a different name: ‘The spoiled child’ (1790) has been attributed to him. He died in poverty and exile, though the exact date and place of his death remain unknown: rumours of his death were regularly countered by reports of his appearance in France and Italy, often under an assumed name. According to military records, 1808 was the last year in which the playwright received his army pension; it seems likely therefore that his death occurred around this time.
The most successful librettist and dramatist of his day, Bickerstaff pioneered the comic opera form that came to dominate English musical theatre. His remarkable contribution to popular culture, though overshadowed by scandal, remained influential long after his death: ‘Love in a village’ and ‘The maid of the mill’, it has been suggested, ‘betrayed us into a taste for Italian melody which has been the model of most of our vocal composers in and out of the theatre ever since’ (Burney, 1016).