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1624 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1624. Events *January 18 – The King's Men perform William Shakespeare's ''The Winter's Tale'' at Whitehall Palace. *August 5– 14 – The King's Men perform Thomas Middleton's satire ''A Game at Chess'' at the Globe Theatre, London, until it is suppressed in view of its allusions to the Spanish Match. *August 26 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, requires the legal deposit of new books to the ''Hof-Bibliothek ("Imperial Library") in Vienna, the modern-day Austrian National Library. *December – The King's Men get into further trouble for performing Philip Massinger's ''The Spanish Viceroy'' without a licence from the Master of the Revels. *December 20 – The King's Men provide Sir Henry Herbert (Master of the Revels) with a "submission," a written apology, signed by each actor who had taken part in ''The Spanish Viceroy'' earlier in the month. The signatories include Robert Benfield, George ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
January 18
Events Pre-1600 * 474 – Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later. * 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople fail. * 1126 – Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong. * 1486 – King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York. *1562 – Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session. * 1586 – The magnitude 7.9 Tenshō earthquake strikes Honshu, Japan, killing 8,000 people and triggering a tsunami. 1601–1900 *1670 – Henry Morgan captures Panama. *1701 – Frederick I crowns himself King of Prussia in Königsberg. *1778 – James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands". *1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including ''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes. Early life The son of Arthur Massinger or Messanger, he was baptised at St. Thomas's Salisbury on 24 November 1583. He apparently belonged to an old Salisbury family, for the name occurs in the city records as early as 1415. He is described in his matriculation entry at St. Alban Hall, Oxford (1602), as the son of a gentleman. His father, who had also been educated at St. Alban Hall, was a member of parliament, and was attached to the household of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Herbert recommended Arthur in 1587 for the office of examiner in the Court of the Marches. William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, who would come to oversee the London Stage and the royal company as King James's Lord Chamberlain, succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eliard Swanston
Eliard Swanston (died 1651), alternatively spelled Heliard, Hilliard, Elyard, Ellyardt, Ellyaerdt, and Eyloerdt, was an English actor in the Caroline era. He became a leading man in the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, in the final phase of its existence. Career Swanston started his acting career with Prince Charles's Men around 1620. In 1622 he moved to the Lady Elizabeth's Men, and two years later transferred to the King's Men. He may have been brought into that company to replace the veteran John Underwood, who died in 1624. By 1631 he had acquired a role in the management of the company, along with Joseph Taylor and John Lowin; the three men received the company's payments for their performances at Court. In some cases, Swanston was the sole payee for the King's Men's Court performances; he received sums of £120 (February 1632), £270 (March 1633), and £220 (April 1634), and other amounts, in trust for the company. Being a leader was not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Sharpe (actor)
Richard Sharpe (c. 1602 – January 1632) was an actor with the King's Men, the leading theatre troupe of its time and the company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage. Sharpe began his career as a boy player acting female roles, then switched to male roles in his young adulthood. ''The Duchess of Malfi'' Sharpe's earliest known role was, arguably, both his most significant and his most controversial. The first edition of John Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'', printed in 1623, contains the earliest cast list in English Renaissance drama. The list states that Sharpe originated the title role of the Duchess. The 1623 cast list actually covers two separate productions, the premiere staging and a later revival. * The original starred Richard Burbage and is usually dated to c. 1614. It must have occurred prior to William Ostler's death in December 1614, since Ostler played the role of Antonio. * The revival production starred Burbage's replacement Joseph Taylor, and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Shank
John Shank (also spelled Shanke or Shanks) (died January 1636) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a leading comedian in the King's Men during the 1620s and 1630s. Early career By his own testimony, Shank began his stage career with Pembroke's Men and Queen Elizabeth's Men. "Presumably the Pembroke's company in question was that of 1597–1600, and the Queen Elizabeth's Men the travelling company of the latter years of the reign" – that is to say, the later years of Elizabeth I. Shank was with Prince Henry's Men by 1610, and was a sharer in the company (that is, a partner who shared in the profits rather than a hired man) by 1613. Shank seems to have fulfilled the function that clowns had filled at least since the time of Richard Tarleton: he was a "jigging clown" who sang and danced the jig that concluded each performance. In the controversy surrounding the Prince's Men's production of '' The Roaring Girl'' in 1611, Shank seems to have temporarily lost his jig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Rowley
William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in the graveyard of St James's, Clerkenwell in north London. (An unambiguous record of Rowley's death was discovered in 1928, but some authorities persist in listing his year of death as 1642.) Life and work Rowley was an actor-playwright who specialised in playing clown characters (that is, characters whose function is to provide low comedy). He must also have been a large man, since his forte lay specifically in fat-clown roles. He played the Fat Bishop in Thomas Middleton's ''A Game at Chess'', and Plumporridge in the same author's ''Inner Temple Masque''. He also wrote fat-clown parts for himself to play: Jaques in ''All's Lost by Lust'' (a role "personated by the Poet", the 1633 quarto states), and Bustopha in ''The Maid in the Mill'', h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Robinson (17th-century Actor)
Richard Robinson (died March 1648) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre and a member of Shakespeare's company the King's Men. Biography Robinson started out as a boy player with the company; in 1611 he played the Lady in their production of ''The Second Maiden's Tragedy.'' He was cast in their production of Ben Jonson's ''Catiline'' in the same year, and in their '' Bonduca,'' c. 1613. He became a sharer in the King's Men in 1619, perhaps succeeding Richard Cowley; and he was cast in their revival of Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'' c. 1621. Robinson reportedly played the part of Wittipol in Jonson's '' The Devil is an Ass'' in 1616. In the printed text of that play (1631), Jonson praises Robinson's acting of female roles and calls him an "ingenious youth." Robinson played the role of Aesopus in the company's 1626 production of Massinger's '' The Roman Actor,'' and Count Orsinio in Lodowick Carlell's '' The Deserving Favourite'' (1629). Robinson is included in the ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Pollard
Thomas Pollard (1597 – 1649×1655) was an actor in the King's Men – a prominent comedian in the acting troupe of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage. Thomas Pollard was christened on 11 December 1597 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. His date of death is not known. Career Pollard starting as a boy player specializing in women's roles. He was trained by John Shank, a noted comic actor; and after he matured and left female roles behind, Pollard acquired his own reputation as a gifted comic performer. His most notable part was the title role in Fletcher's ''The Humorous Lieutenant''. He had the comical role of Timentes the cowardly general in Arthur Wilson's '' The Swisser''. He played Silvio in Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'', in the productions of c. 1614 and c. 1621. He appeared in Shakespeare's '' Henry VIII'', probably in the 1628 revival at the Globe Theatre. Pollard played the role of Pinac in ''The Wild Goose Chase'' in the 1632 revival, and was in a numb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lowin
John Lowin (baptized 9 December 1576 – buried – 24 August 1653) was an English actor. Early life Born in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, Lowin was the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. While he is not recorded as a free citizen of this company, he did perform as a goldsmith, Leofstane, in a 1611 city pageant written by Anthony Munday. This pageant was commissioned by the Goldsmiths' Company in honor of the election of one of their company as mayor; in the document employing him, Lowin is described as a "brother" of the company, suggesting some form of ongoing relationship with that community. He lived in Southwark, where parish registers record two marriages involving a man of his name (in 1607 and 1620); the latter definitely involved the actor. Career Lowin was definitely associated with the theatrical world by 1602. His name frequently occurs in the account books of Philip Henslowe in 1602, when he was playing with Worces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King's Men Personnel
King's Men personnel were the people who worked with and for the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men (for all practical purposes a single continuous theatrical enterprise) from 1594 to 1642 (and after). The company was the major theatrical enterprise of its era and featured some of the leading actors of their generation – Richard Burbage, John Lowin, and Joseph Taylor among other – and some leading clowns and comedians, like Will Kempe and Robert Armin. The company benefitted from the services of William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, and Philip Massinger as regular dramatists. The actors who performed the plays have left the most evidence of their lives and activities; but they were supported by musicians and other functionaries, and were enabled by managers and financial backers like Cuthbert Burbage. For more information on specific individuals, see individual entries: Robert Armin, Christopher Beeston, Robert Benfield, etc. Terms * "Sharer" – an actor who was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Benfield
Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death. Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was most likely with the Lady Elizabeth's Men in 1613, and acted in their productions of Fletcher's ''The Coxcomb'' and the Fletcher/Massinger play ''The Honest Man's Fortune'' in that year. Benfield soon joined the King's Men, possibly to replace William Ostler, who died unexpectedly in December 1614. He acted in the company's production of John Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'' c. 1621. He was a shareholder in the company by 1619, when he is listed in the renewed patent for the King's Men issued in that year. Benfield also eventually became a sharer in both the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, but only after a conflict: in 1635 he was one of three King's Men (the others were Thomas Pollard and Eliard Swanston) who petitioned the Lord Chamber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Herbert (Master Of The Revels)
Sir Henry Herbert (baptized 7 July 1594 – 27 April 1673) was Master of the Revels to both King Charles I and King Charles II, as well as a politician during both reigns. Biography Baptised in July 1594, Herbert was the sixth son of Magdelen Herbert and Richard Herbert of Montgomery Castle. Richard was a younger brother of Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury and the poet George Herbert, both former members of the Parliament of England, and older brother of naval officer Thomas Herbert. Their family was related to the Herbert Earls of Pembroke, prominent figures in English government and society throughout the Jacobean and Caroline era. Edward Herbert was ambassador in Paris, and Henry joined him in 1619 and became involved in the case of Piero Hugon and the jewels of Anne of Denmark. Herbert's role as Master of the Revels involved reading and licensing plays and supervising all kinds of public entertainment. Officially, Herbert became Master of the Revels in 16 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
