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1626 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1626. Events *February – The King's Men premiere Ben Jonson's satire on the new newsgathering enterprise ''The Staple of News'', his first new play in almost a decade, at the Blackfriars Theatre in London. *November – The deaths of Lancelot Andrewes and Nicholas Felton, Bishop of Ely, prompt John Milton, then a student at Cambridge, to write elegies in Latin for both. *December 27 – Izaak Walton marries Rachel Floud (died 1640). New books Prose *Francis Bacon – ''The New Atlantis'' *Nicholas Breton – '' Fantastickes'' *Alonso de Castillo Solórzano – ''Jornadas alegres'' *Robert Fludd – ''Philosophia Sacra'' *Marie de Gournay – ''Les Femmes et Grief des Dames'' (The Ladies' Grievance) *Francisco de Quevedo – ''El Buscón'' (first published edition – unauthorized) Drama *Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft – ''Baeto, oft oorsprong der Holanderen'' * John Fletcher and collaborators – ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King's Men (playing Company)
The King's Men is the acting company to which William Shakespeare (1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, they became the King's Men in 1603 when King James I ascended the throne and became the company's patron. The royal patent of 19 May 1603 which authorised the King's Men company named the following players, in this order: Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillips, John Heminges, Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armin, Richard Cowley, "and the rest of their associates...." The nine cited by name became Grooms of the Chamber. On 15 March 1604, each of the nine men named in the patent was supplied with four and a half yards of red cloth for the coronation procession. Chronologically typed To 1610 In their first winter season, between December 1603 and February 1604 the company performed eight times at Court and eleven times in their second, from N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
El Buscón
''El Buscón'' (full title ''Historia de la vida del Buscón, llamado Don Pablos, ejemplo de vagamundos y espejo de tacaños'' (literally: History of the life of the Swindler, called Don Pablos, model for hobos and mirror of misers); translated as ''Paul the Sharper or The Scavenger'' and ''The Swindler'') is a picaresque novel by Francisco de Quevedo. It was written around 1604 (the exact date of completion is not known) and published in 1626 by a press in Zaragoza (without Quevedo's permission), though it had circulated in manuscript form previous to that. Purpose of the work The only novel written by Quevedo, it is presented in the first person singular and chronicles the adventures of Don Pablos, a ''buscón'' or swindler. Pablos sets out in life with two aims: to learn virtue and to become a ''caballero'' (gentleman). He fails miserably in both. ''El Buscón'' has been considered a profound satire on Spanish life, but also as a literary exercise for Quevedo, in that he was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Maid's Revenge
''The Maid's Revenge'' is an early Caroline era stage the play, the earliest extant tragedy by James Shirley. It was first published in 1639. ''The Maid's Revenge'' was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 9 February 1626. It was the second of Shirley's plays to be produced (after ''Love Tricks'' in 1625). The play was acted by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre, as were most of Shirley's plays in this era. The 1639 quarto was issued by the bookseller William Cooke, and was dedicated by Shirley to Henry Osborne, esq. Shirley based his plot on the seventh story in the collection by John Reynolds called ''The Triumphs of God's Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable Sin of Murder.'' Critics have been divided on the merits of the play. Schelling, who judged it positively, described it as "a tragedy of much promise, full of swift action, capably plotted, and fluently and lucidly written."Schelling, Vol. 2, p. 322. The play was re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Shirley
James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of moral feelings and notions in common." His career of play writing extended from 1625 to the suppression of stage plays by Parliament in 1642. Biography Early life Shirley was born in London and was descended from the Shirleys of Warwick, the oldest knighted family in Warwickshire. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, St John's College, Oxford, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he took his BA degree in or before 1618. His first poem, ''Echo, or the Unfortunate Lovers'' was published in 1618; no copy of it is known, but it is probably the same as 1646's ''Narcissus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tirso De Molina
Gabriel Téllez ( 24 March 1583 20 February 1648), better known as Tirso de Molina, was a Spanish Baroque dramatist, poet and Roman Catholic monk. He is primarily known for writing ''The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest'', the play from which the popular character of Don Juan originates. His work is also of particular significance due to the abundance of female protagonists, as well as the exploration of sexual issues. Life and career He was born in Madrid. He studied at Alcalá de Henares, joined the mendicant Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy on 4 November 1600, and entered the Monastery of San Antolín at Guadalajara, Spain on 21 January 1601. He was ordained a priest by 1610. He had been writing plays for ten years when he was sent by his superiors on a mission to the West Indies in 1615; residing in Santo Domingo from 1616 to 1618 and returning to Europe in 1618, he resided at the Mercedarian monastery in Madrid, took part in the proceedings of the ''Academi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants. Life Middleton was born in London and baptised on 18 April 1580. He was the son of a bricklayer, who had raised himself to the status of a gentleman and owned property adjoining the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch. Middleton was five when his father died and his mother's subsequent remarriage dissolved into a 15-year battle over the inheritance of Thomas and his younger sister – an experience that informed him about the legal system and may have incited his repeated satire against the legal profession. Middleton attended The Queen's College, Oxford, matriculating in 1598, but he did not graduate. Before he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas May
Thomas May (1594/95 – 13 November 1650) was an English poet, dramatist and historian of the Renaissance era. Early life and career until 1630 May was born in Mayfield, Sussex, the son of Sir Thomas May, a minor courtier. He matriculated at Sidney Sussex, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1613. He wrote his first published poem while at Cambridge, an untitled three-stanza contribution to the University's memorial collection of poems on the death of Henry Prince of Wales in 1612.''Epicedium Cantabrigiense in obitum immaturum & semper deflendum, Henrici ...'' (Cambridge: 1612), p.103 Although the majority of this volume's poems are in Latin, May's (along with a few others) is in English. It uses the trope of Pythagorean transmigration, which he re-employs in later works. Acquaintance with Carew, Massinger and Jonson In 1615 May registered as a lawyer at Gray's Inn in London. There is no record of what he did for the next five years. During the 1620s May was associated with drama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A New Way To Pay Old Debts
''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'' (c. 1625, printed 1633) is an English Renaissance theatre, English Renaissance drama, the most popular play by Philip Massinger. Its central character, Sir Giles Over-reach, became one of the more popular villains on English and American stages through the 19th century. Performance Massinger probably wrote the play in 1625, though its debut on stage was delayed a year as the theatres were closed due to bubonic plague. In its own era it was staged by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane. It was continuously in the repertory there and at the Red Bull Theatre, under the managements of Christopher Beeston, William Beeston, and Sir William Davenant, down to the closing of the theatres at the start of the English Civil War in 1642. Though Massinger's play shows obvious debts to Thomas Middleton's ''A Trick to Catch the Old One'' (c. 1605), it transcends mere imitation to achieve a powerful dramatic effectiveness – verified by the ... [...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] |
Jean Mairet
Jean (de) Mairet (10 May 160431 January 1686) was a classical french dramatist who wrote both tragedies and comedies. Life He was born at Besançon, and went to Paris to study at the Collège des Grassins about 1625. In that year he produced his first piece ''Chryséide et Arimand''. In 1634 he produced his masterpiece, ''Sophonisbe'', which marks, in its observance of the rules, the first to be staged of the classical French tragedies. He also introduced to French drama the three classical unities of time, action and place, after a misreading of Aristotle's ''Poetics''. Mairet was one of the bitterest assailants of Corneille in the controversy over the violation of the classical unities in '' Le Cid''. He produced several pamphlets against Corneille, who responded more than once, most famously with his ''Advertissement au Besançonnois Mairet'' (1637). The personal intervention of Cardinal Richelieu was eventually required to calm the furore in the theatres. It was perh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jews' Tragedy
''The Jews' Tragedy'' is an early Caroline era stage play by William Heminges. Written in 1626 but apparently never acted in its own era, the drama was the most intensive and detailed attempt to portray Jews onstage in English Renaissance theatre. Earlier plays — '' The Three Ladies of London'', ''The Jew of Malta'', ''The Merchant of Venice'' and others — had depicted Jews with varying degrees of antipathy or sympathy, though they featured a single Jewish character, or a few at most. No dramatist before Heminges attempted to present a full cast of Jewish characters or to depict Jewish society. The prevailing anti-Semitism in England at the time makes it unsurprising that the work was not staged — and somewhat surprising that it was ever written. Though never produced before an audience, Heminges's drama was published in 1662, under the title ''The Jewes Tragedy, or their fatal and final overthrow by Vespasian and Titus his son, agreeable to the authentick and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Heminges
William Heminges (1602 – c. 1653?), also Hemminges, Heminge, and other variants, was a playwright and theatrical figure of the Caroline period. He was the ninth child and third son of John Heminges, the actor and colleague of William Shakespeare, and his wife Rebecca. William Heminges was christened on 3 October 1602 in the parish of St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, in London. He was educated at Winchester School and then at Christ Church, Oxford, where he attained his M.A. degree in 1628. Only two of his plays have survived, ''The Jews' Tragedy'' (1626; published 1662) and ''The Fatal Contract'' (c. 1639; published 1653). In these two tragedies, the dramatist was strongly influenced by the works of Shakespeare. A third play is lost: titled ''The Coursing of the Hare, or the Madcap'', it was staged at the Fortune Theatre in March 1633. Little is known of Heminges's life. The parish records of St. Giles in the Fields record the birth of a daughter in 1639, and the burials of two sons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
