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Agis (play)
''Agis, A Tragedy'' is a blank verse tragedy by the Scottish dramatist John Home. It was his first play, but has been greatly overshadowed, by his second (and once famous) play ''Douglas''. It is a classical drama, based on the life of Agis, King of Sparta and is founded on Plutarch's narrative."HOME, John", in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica After writing the play in Scotland in 1747, Home took it to London, and submitted it to David Garrick for representation at Drury Lane, but it was rejected as unsuitable for the stage. The play was produced later at Drury Lane on 21 February 1758 by Garrick. It was interpreted by good actors, the play was performed for eleven days but considered inferior to Douglas, another Home's play. The Drury Lane cast featured David Garrick as Lysander, Henry Mossop as Agis, William Havard as Amphares, Thomas Davies as Euxus, Charles Holland as Reusus, Hannah Pritchard as Ageistrata, Mary Ann Yates as Sandane and Susannah Cibber Susannah Maria Cibbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Home
Rev John Home FRSE (13 September 1722 – 4 September 1808) was a Scottish minister, soldier and author. His play ''Douglas'' was a standard Scottish school text until the Second World War, but his work is now largely neglected. In 1783 he was one of the joint founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Biography He was born on 13 September 1722 at Ancrum in Roxburghshire, but moved to Leith, near Edinburgh, in early childhood when his father, Alexander Home, a distant relation of the earls of Home, became town clerk. His mother was Christian Hay, the daughter of an Edinburgh lawyer. He was christened on 22 September 1722 John was educated at the Leith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MA in 1742. Though interested in being a soldier, he studied divinity, and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1745. In the same year he joined as a volunteer against Bonnie Prince Charlie, and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Falkir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Holland (actor)
Charles Holland (12 March 1733 – 7 December 1769) was an English actor, born in Chiswick, the son of a baker. Life Holland made his first appearance on the stage in the title role of Oroonoko at Drury Lane in 1755, John Palmer, Richard Yates and Susanna Cibber being in the cast. He played under David Garrick, and was the original Florizel in the latter's adaptation of Shakespeare's ''The Winter's Tale''. Holland died from smallpox at the age of 36. He was engaged to the actress Jane Pope, but she broke off the engagement when she found him boating at Richmond with the actress Sophia Baddeley. He was known for having affairs; the one with Mrs K. Earle led her husband, William Earle, to prosecute Holland successfully. Garrick thought highly of him, and wrote a eulogistic epitaph for his monument in St Nicholas Church, Chiswick. His tomb was sculpted by William Tyler RA.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p.404 His nephew, Charles Holland (1768 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tragedy Plays
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain hatawakens pleasure", for the audience. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term ''tragedy'' often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it. From its origins in the theatre of ancient Greece 2500 years ago, from which there survives only a fraction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West End Plays
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages (''ouest'' in French, ''oest'' in Catalan, ''ovest'' in Italian, ''oeste'' in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from the Indo-European root ''*wes'' reduced from ''*wes-pero'' 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος hesperos 'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב maarav 'west' from עֶרֶב erev 'evening'. Navigation To go west using a compass for navigation (in a place where magnetic north is the same dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1747 In Scotland
Events from the year 1747 in Scotland. Incumbents Law officers * Lord Advocate – William Grant of Prestongrange * Solicitor General for Scotland – Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles, jointly with Alexander Hume Judiciary * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Culloden * Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Milton Events * 8 May – ''Veteran'' sails from Liverpool with 149 Jacobite prisoners (including 15 women) on board to be settled as indentured slaves in the West Indies. On 28 June, the French privateer ''Diamant'' captures the ship and frees the slaves. * May – abolition of Hereditable Jurisdictions Act breaks the power of the clans. * 17 June – Vesting Act authorizes Scottish Court of Exchequer to inquire into the value of estates forfeited from participants in the Jacobite rising of 1745, most forfeitures being upheld, although the Indemnity Act lifts some legal penalties from the participants. * 29 December – ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1747 Plays
Events January–March * January 31 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. * February 11 – King George's War: A combined French and Indian force, commanded by Captain Nicolas Antoine II Coulon de Villiers, attacks and defeats British troops at Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia. * March 7 – Juan de Arechederra the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, combines his forces with those of Sultan Azim ud-Din I of Sulu to suppress the rebellion of the Moros in the Visayas. * March 19 – Simon Fraser, the 79-year old Scottish Lord Loyat, is convicted of high treason for being one of the leaders of the Jacobite rising of 1745 against King George II of Great Britain and attempting to place the pretender Charles Edward Stuart on the throne. After a seven day trial of impeachment in the House of Lords and the verdict of guilt, Fraser is sentenced on the same day to be hanged, drawn and quartered; King George alters Frase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susannah Cibber
Susannah Maria Cibber (née Arne; February 1714 – 30 January 1766) was a celebrated English singing, singer and actress. She was the sister of the composer Thomas Arne. Although she began her career as a soprano, her voice lowered in the early part of her career to that of a true contralto. She was universally admired for her ability to move her audiences emotionally both as an actress and vocalist. Possessing a sweet, expressive, and agile singing voice with a wide vocal range, Cibber was an immensely popular singer, even if at times her voice was criticized for a lack of polished technique. Charles Burney wrote of her singing that "by a natural pathos, and perfect conception of the words, she often penetrated the heart, when others, with infinitely greater voice and skill, could only reach the ear." Cibber was particularly admired by George Frideric Handel, Handel, who wrote numerous parts especially for her including the contralto arias in his 1741 oratorio ''Messiah (Handel) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Ann Yates
Mary Ann Yates (1728–1787) was an English tragic actress. The daughter of William Graham, a ship's steward and his wife, Mary, she married Richard Yates (c. 1706-1796), a well-known comedian of the time. In 1754, aged 25, she appeared at Drury Lane as Marcia in Samuel Crisp's ''Virginia''. David Garrick played the part of Virginius. Yates was gradually entrusted with all the leading parts and succeeded the then famous actress Mrs Cibber as the leading tragedienne of the English stage. She was in turn succeeded and eclipsed by the famous Sarah Siddons. There were benefit performances for Yates in 1797 at The Haymarket which included an appearance by Harriett Litchfield.K. A. Crouch, ‘Litchfield , Harriett (1777–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200accessed 1 Feb 2015/ref> Selected roles * Marcia in ''Virginia'' by Samuel Crisp (1754) * Sandane in ''Agis'' by John Home (1758) * Mandane in '' The Orphan of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hannah Pritchard
Hannah Pritchard (née Vaughan, 1711–1768) was an English actress who regularly played opposite David Garrick. She performed many significant Shakespearean roles and created on stage many important female roles by contemporary playwrights. Life She was born in 1711, and married in early life a poor actor named Pritchard. As Mrs. Pritchard she acted in 1733, at Fielding and Hippisley's booth, ''Bartholomew Fair'', the part of Loveit in an opera called ''A Cure for Covetousness, or the Cheats of Scapin''. She sang with great effect "Sweet, if you love me, smiling, turn". A duet between her and an actor called Salway was very popular, and she was berhymed by a writer in the ''Daily Post'', who spoke of this as her first essay, and predicted for her "a transportation to a brighter stage". This was soon accomplished, since she appeared at the Haymarket Theatre on 26 Sept. 1733 as Nell in ''The Devil to Pay'' of Coffey. She was one of the company known as the "Comedians of his Majest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Davies (bookseller)
Thomas Davies (c. 1713 – 1785) was a Scottish bookseller and author. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and was for some years on the stage; but having been ridiculed by Churchill in ''The Rosciad'' he gave up acting and opened a bookshop in Covent Garden. It was here that in 1763 he introduced Boswell to Dr. Johnson, who was his close friend and to whom he dedicated his edition of the works of Massinger. He wrote a successful ''Life of Garrick'' (1780), which passed through four editions, and ''Dramatic Miscellanies'' (three volumes, 1783–4). Life He was born about 1713, and was educated at the University of Edinburgh (1728 and 1729). In 1736 he appeared in George Lillo's '' Fatal Curiosity'' at the Haymarket, then under Henry Fielding's management. He then tried bookselling, but failed and returned to the stage. On 24 January 1746 he attempted the part of Pierre in '' Venice Preserved'', which was performed for his benefit at Covent Garden. He next became a tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drury Lane. The building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music). The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Havard (actor)
William Havard (1710?–1778), was a British actor and dramatist. Havard appeared at Goodman's Fields Theatre, 1730–1737, and then at the Drury Lane Theatre until retirement in 1769. He generally played secondary parts; depreciated in Rosciad. He also appeared in his own plays, '' King Charles I'' at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1737; ''Regulus'' Drury Lane, 1744; and ''The Elopement'' Drury Lane, 1763. Selected roles * Montesini in '' The Parricide'' (1736) * Rosebrand in ''The Independent Patriot'' (1737) * Talthybius in ''Agamemnon'' (1738) * Hartly in '' The Coffee House'' (1738) * Achmet in '' Mustapha'' (1739) * Young Freeman in '' Love the Cause and Cure of Grief'' (1743) * Decius in ''Regulus'' (1744) * Young Whimsey in '' The Astrologer'' (1744) * Rodolpho in '' Tancred and Sigismunda'' (1745) * Bellamy in ''The Suspicious Husband'' (1747) * Colonel Raymond in '' The Foundling'' (1748) * Abdalla, An Officer in '' Irene'' (1749) * Arnold in ''Edward the Black Prince'' (1750 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
