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Anthony Leigh
Anthony Leigh (died 1692) was a celebrated English comic actor. Life He was from a Northamptonshire family, and was not closely related to the actor John Leigh (c.1689–1726?). He joined the Duke of York's company about 1672, and appeared in that year at the recently opened theatre in Dorset Garden, as the original Pacheco in ''The Reformation'' (1673), a comedy ascribed by Gerard Langbaine to one Arrowsmith, a Cambridge M.A. graduate. At Dorset Garden, Leigh played many original parts. After the merger of the duke's company with the king's in 1682, Leigh did not immediately go to the Theatre Royal. He was in 1683, however, at that theatre the original Bartoline in John Crowne's ''City Politics'', and played Bessus in a revival of ''A King and No King''. Here he remained until his death, creating many characters.They included: Beaugard's Father in Otway's ''The Atheist'', Rogero in Thomas Southerne's ''The Disappointment'', Sir Paul Squelch in Richard Brome's ''Northern Lass'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Leigh Kneller
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, a son of Heracles. Anthony is an English name that is in use in many countries. It has been among the top 100 most popular male baby names in the United States since the late 19th century and has been among the top 100 male baby names between 1998 and 2018 in many countries including Canada, Australia, England, Ireland and Scotland. Equivalents include '' Antonio'' in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Maltese; ''Αντώνιος'' in Greek; ''António'' or ''Antônio'' in Portuguese; '' Antoni'' in Catalan, Polish, and Slovene; ''Anton'' in Dutch, Galician, German, Icelandic, Romanian, Russian, and Scandinavian languages; '' Antoine'' in French; '' Antal'' in Hungarian; and '' Antun'' or '' Ante'' in Croatian. The usual abbreviated form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afra Behn
Aphra Behn (; baptism, bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration (England), Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II of England, Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. Behn wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astraea (mythology), Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her into legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Brome
Richard Brome ; (c. 1590? – 24 September 1652) was an English dramatist of the Caroline era. Life Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's ''Bartholomew Fair'', indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity. Scholars have interpreted the allusions to mean that Brome may have begun as a menial servant but later became a sort of secretary and general assistant to the older playwright. A single brief mention of his family's need seems to show that he had a wife and children and struggled to support them. He may have had some experience as a professional actor: a 1628 warrant lists him as a member of the Queen of Bohemia's Men. Yet he had already started writing for the stage by this date. An early collaboration, ''A Fault in Friendship'' (now lost) was licensed in 1623 for Prince Charles's Men; a 1629 solo Brome effort, ''The Lovesick Maid'' (also lost), was a success for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Southerne
Thomas Southerne (12 February 166026 May 1746) was an Irish dramatist. Biography Thomas Southerne, born on 12 February 1660, in Oxmantown, near Dublin, was an Irish dramatist. He was the son of Francis Southerne (a Dublin brewer) and Margaret Southerne. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, in 1676 for two years. In 1680, he began attending Middle Temple, London, to study law but was drawn away by his interest for theater. By 1682 he was greatly influenced by John Dryden and produced his first play, ''The Loyal Brother'', which was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the King's Company. Southerne bought his prologue and epilogue from Dryden, who made extra income from his ability to turn such pieces. Despite his friendship with the new playwright, Dryden raised his prices for Southerne".(Kaufman) In 1684, Southerne produced his second play,''The Disappointment (play), The Disappointment'', or, ''The Mother in Fashion'' (Kaufman). However, in 1685 Southerne enlisted a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A King And No King
''A King and No King'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and first published in 1619. It has traditionally been among the most highly praised and popular works in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators. The play's title became almost proverbial by the middle of the 17th century, and was used repeatedly in the polemical literature of the mid-century political crisis to refer to the problem and predicament of King Charles I. Date and performance Unlike some of the problematic Beaumont and Fletcher works (see, for example, ''Love's Cure,'' or ''Thierry and Theodoret''), there is little doubt about the date and authorship of ''A King and No King.'' The records of Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels during much of the 17th century, assert that the play was licensed in 1611 by Herbert's predecessor Sir George Buck. The drama was acted at Court by the King's Men on 26 December 1611, again in the following Christm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Crowne
John Crowne (6 April 1641 – 1712) was a British dramatist. His father "Colonel" William Crowne, accompanied the earl of Arundel on a diplomatic mission to Vienna in 1637, and wrote an account of his journey. He emigrated to Nova Scotia where he received a grant of land from Cromwell, but the French took possession of his property, and the home government did nothing to uphold his rights. Biography He was born in London on 6 April 1641, and emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1657 with his father, a joint proprietor of the colony, aboard the ship ''Satisfaction'', and studied at Harvard College. While studying at Harvard, Crowne lived with Puritan divine John Norton. Crowne left without graduating, however, and returned to England with his father in 1660. When the son came to England his poverty compelled him to act as gentleman usher to an independent lady of quality, and his enemies asserted that his father had been an Independent minister. He began his literary career with a roman ... [...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] |
Thomas Randolph (poet)
Thomas Randolph (15 June 1605March 1635) was an English poet and dramatist, recognised by his mentor Ben Jonson as being a promising writer of comedy, and amongst his contemporaries had a reputation as a wit. Early life and family Thomas was born at Newnham, Northamptonshire, near Daventry, England, eldest son of William Randolph (1572–1660) and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Smith, of Newnham. He was baptized on 18 June 1605. William and Elizabeth had two other sons and a daughter. Around 1613 his mother died, shortly after giving birth to Randolph's sister. His father remarried about 1615 to Dorothy, the widow of Thomas West, of Cotton End, and daughter of gentleman Richard Lane, of Curteenhall. Her brother was the barrister Richard Lane. William and Dorothy were married two years after the family moved to a house in Little Houghton where his father was steward to Lord Zouche. They had three daughters and four sons. Thomas's half-brother Henry (1623-1673) emigrated to Colon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venice Preserved
''Venice Preserv'd'' is an English Restoration play written by Thomas Otway, and the most significant tragedy of the English stage in the 1680s. It was first staged in 1682, with Thomas Betterton as Jaffeir and Elizabeth Barry as Belvidera. The play was soon printed and enjoyed many revivals through to the 1830s. In 2019, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged a modern adaptation, ''Venice Preserved'', at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. Plot Jaffeir, a noble but impoverished Venetian, has secretly married Belvidera, the daughter of a proud senator named Priuli, who has cut off her inheritance. Jaffeir's friend Pierre, a foreign soldier, stokes Jaffeir's resentment and entices him into a plot against the Senate of Venice. Pierre's own reasons for plotting against the Senate revolve around another senator (the corrupt, foolish Antonio) paying for relations with Pierre's mistress, Aquilina. Despite Pierre's complaints, the Senate does nothing about it, explaining that Antoni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Marston (playwright)
John Marston (baptised 7 October 1576 – 25 June 1634) was an English playwright, poet and satirist during the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods. His career as a writer lasted only a decade. His work is remembered for its energetic and often obscure style, its contributions to the development of a distinctively Jacobean style in poetry, and its idiosyncratic vocabulary. Life Marston was born to John and Maria Marston ''née'' Guarsi, and baptised 7 October 1576, at Wardington, Oxfordshire. His father was an eminent lawyer of the Middle Temple who first argued in London and then became the counsel to Coventry and ultimately its steward. John Marston entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1592 and received his BA in 1594. By 1595, he was in London, living in the Middle Temple, where he had been admitted a member three years previously. He had an interest in poetry and play writing, although his father's will of 1599 expresses the hope that he would give up such vanitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nat Lee
Nathaniel Lee (c. 1653 – 6 May 1692) was an English dramatist. He was the son of Dr Richard Lee, a Presbyterian clergyman who was rector of Hatfield and held many preferments under the Commonwealth; Dr Lee was chaplain to George Monck, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, but after the Restoration he conformed to the Church of England, and withdrew his approval for Charles I's execution. Lee was educated at Westminster School (though some sources say Charterhouse School), and at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. degree in 1668. Coming to London, perhaps under the patronage of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, he tried to earn his living as an actor, but acute stage fright made this impossible. His earliest play, ''Nero, Emperor of Rome'', was acted in 1675 at Drury Lane. Two tragedies written in rhymed heroic couplets, in imitation of John Dryden, followed in 1676: '' Sophonisba, or Hannibal's Overthrow'' and '' Gloriana, or the Court of Augustus Caesar''. Both are ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Troilus And Cressida (Dryden Play)
''Troilus And Cressida; Or, Truth Found Too Late'' is a 1679 tragedy by the English writer John Dryden. It was first staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. It was a reworking of William Shakespeare's 1602 play ''Troilus and Cressida'', set during the Trojan Wars. In acknowledgement of this Dryden has the prologue spoken by Shakespeare's ghost, defending the alterations made to the play. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Troilus, William Smith (stage actor), William Smith as Hector, Thomas Percival (actor), Thomas Percival as Priam, Joseph Williams (actor), Joseph Williams as Aeneas, Anthony Leigh as Pandarus, Thomas Gillow as Agamemnon, Henry Harris (actor), Henry Harris as Ulysses, George Bright (actor), George Bright as Ajax, Henry Norris (actor), Henry Norris as Nestor, John Crosby (actor), John Crosby as Diomedes, John Bowman (actor), John Bowman as Patroclus, John Richards (actor), John Richards as Anthenor, Cave Underhill as Thers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
