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A Very Good Wife
''A Very Good Wife'' is a 1693 comedy play by the English writer George Powell. It was first performed by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with a cast that included Powell as Courtwitt, John Hodgson as Wellborn, William Bowen as Squeezwit, George Bright as Venture, Joseph Haines as Sneaksby, Colley Cibber as Aminadab, Susanna Mountfort as Annabella, Frances Maria Knight as Widow Lacy, Elinor Leigh Elinor Leigh was a British stage actor of the seventeenth century. Born Elinor Dixon, she was billed as Mrs Leigh or Mrs Lee after she married the actor Anthony Leigh in 1671. This has led to some difficulty distinguishing on playbills between h ... as Mrs Sneaksby.Van Lennep p.420 References Bibliography * Van Lennep, W. ''The London Stage, 1660-1800: Volume One, 1660-1700''. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960. 1693 plays West End plays Comedy plays Plays by George Powell {{17thC-play-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Powell (playwright)
George Powell (1668? – 1714) was a 17th-century London actor and playwright who was a member of the United Company. He was the son of the actor Martin Powell, a long-standing member of the King's Company. Plays In his playwrighting Powell has been called 'an unscrupulous and opportunistic appropriator, gleaning materials from a variety of sources'. He was embroiled in a plagiarism scandal after writing a misogynistic play called ''The Imposture Defeated; or, A Trick to Cheat the Devil'', first performed in September 1697. This play portrayed the proper treatment of an adulteress as brutal confinement and isolation from others to punish her and prevent the spread of her attitude. It is widely accepted that Powell had plagiarised from the then unpublished manuscript of Mary Pix's ''The Deceiver Deceived''. Theatre critic Charles Gildon called Powell's version the inferior of the two. Powell also wrote the plays '' Alphonso, King of Naples'' (first performed in December 1690 ... [...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] |
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as '' Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority.The Greater London Authority consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The London Mayor is distinguished fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Play
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, the ''Divine Comedy'' (Italian: ''Divina Commedia''). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. The predominating characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play insti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Company
The United Company was a London theatre company formed in 1682 with the merger of the King's Company and the Duke's Company. Both the Duke's and King's Companies suffered poor attendance during the turmoil of the Popish Plot period, 1678–81. When the King's Company fell into difficulties due to mismanagement, the Duke's Company joined with them to form the United Company in 1682, managed by the Duke's Company leaders. The United Company began performances in November 1682. The King's Company theatre, the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, was used mainly for plays, while the Duke's Dorset Garden Theatre was devoted to operas and spectaculars. The company began performing in November 1682 at Drury Lane. In February 1685 the theatre was closed by the death of Charles II, and reopened in January 1688 under the patronage of James II. The succession of William III and Mary II in 1689 brought no Royal patronage and a decline in interest in theatre.''The Cambridge History of Briti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hodgson (actor)
John Hodgson was an English stage actor of the late seventeenth century. He joined the United Company in 1688 and his first recorded appearance was in '' The Treacherous Brothers'' at Drury Lane in 1690. In 1695 he was one of several actors who broke away to join Thomas Betterton's new company at Lincoln's Inn Fields. His name is sometimes written as Hudson. He was married to the singer Mary Hodgson.Lowerre p.127 Selected roles * Orgillus in '' The Treacherous Brothers'' by George Powell (1690) * Audas in '' Distressed Innocence'' by Elkanah Settle (1690) * Don Juan de Mendoza in ''The Mistakes'' by Joseph Harris (1690) * Tachmas in '' Alphonso, King of Naples'' by George Powell (1690) * Count Canail in ''Sir Anthony Love'' by Thomas Southerne (1690) * Sir Robert Holland in '' Edward III'' by William Mountfort (1690) * Lord Worthy in ''Greenwich Park'' by William Mountfort (1691) * Will Merriton in '' Love for Money'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1691) * Conon in '' King Arthur'' by Joh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Bowen (actor)
William Bowen (1666–1718) was a British stage actor. He was part of the United Company from 1689. For a time, he became known for his comic roles. He was fatally wounded in a duel with fellow actor James Quin in 1718.''The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama'' p.XXXIX Selected roles * Valet in ''Bury Fair'' by Thomas Shadwell (1689) * Whiff in ''The Widow Ranter'' by Aphra Behn (1689) * Lignoreles in ''The Massacre of Paris'' by Nathaniel Lee (1689) * Sancho in ''The Successful Strangers'' by William Mountfort (1690) * Sir Gentle Golding in ''Sir Anthony Love'' by Thomas Southerne (1690) * Coachman in '' The English Friar'' by John Crowne (1690) * Tranio in ''Amphitryon'' by John Dryden (1690) * Lopez in ''The Mistakes'' by Joseph Harris (1690) * Fabion in ''Alphonso, King of Naples'' by George Powell (1690) * Albanact in ''King Arthur'' by John Dryden (1691) * Monsieur Le Prate in '' Love for Money'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1691) * Monsieur Lassoil in ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bright (actor)
George Bright was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. He specialised in playing "comic dullards, fops and bouncy servants".Hughes p.197 After beginning his career in Dublin he joined the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in 1679 and then became part of the merged United Company in 1682. Selected roles * Ajax in ''Troilus and Cressida'' by John Dryden (1679) * Glisten in '' The Revenge'' by Aphra Behn (1680) * Baltazer in ''The False Count'' by Aphra Behn (1681) * Slouch in ''The Royalist'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1682) * Sheriff in '' The Duke of Guise'' by John Dryden (1682) * Farmer in ''Dame Dobson'' by Edward Ravenscroft (1683) * Martin in ''A Jovial Crew'' by Richard Brome (1683) * Howdee in ''The Northern Lass'' by Richard Brome (1684) * Captain Hackum in ''The Squire of Alsatia'' by Thomas Shadwell (1688) * Dullman in ''The Widow Ranter'' by Aphra Behn (1689) * Don Pedro in ''The Successful Strangers'' by William Mountfort (1690) * D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Haines
Joseph Haines (died 4 April 1701), also known as Jo Haines, was a 17th-century actor, singer, dancer, guitar player, fortune teller, and author. ''The Life of the Late Famous Comedian, Jo. Hayns'', possibly written by fellow player Tobias Thomas, "must contain some grains of truth, but is so riddled with fancy that one can scarcely sort them out", according to the ''Biographical Dictionary of Actors'' (Highfill, et al. 1973–93). Nothing certain is known of Haines' early life. He joined a troupe of strolling players in Cambridge in 1667, joined a company of young performers at the Hatton Garden "nursery" in London in 1668, and there caught the eye of Thomas Killigrew and was invited to join Killigrew's patent company, the King's Company. Haines soon became well known as a song-and-dance man, comedian, and eccentric. He was persistently dogged by debt and money problems, and was several times fired from the company for "ill & scandalous language & insolent carriage" by leadi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style. He wrote 25 plays for his own company at Drury Lane, half of which were adapted from various sources, which led Robert Lowe and Alexander Pope, among others, to criticise his "miserable mutilation" of "crucified Molière ndhapless Shakespeare". He regarded himself as first and foremost an actor and had great popular success in comical fop parts, while as a tragic actor he was persistent but much ridiculed. Cibber's brash, extroverted personality did not sit well with his contemporaries, and he was frequently accused of tasteless theatrical productions, shady business methods, and a social and political opportunism that was thought to have gained him the laureateship over far better poets. He rose to ignominious fame when he became t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susanna Verbruggen
Susanna Verbruggen (née Percival) (c. 1667–1703), aka Susanna Mountfort, was an England, English actress working in London. Life She was the daughter of Thomas Percival (actor), Thomas Percival, a member of the Duke's Company for more than a decade. Her first recorded stage appearance may have been as early as 1681 in Thomas D'Urfey, D'Urfey's ''Sir Barnaby Whigg''. In 1686 she married the actor William Mountfort, and after Mountfort's infamous murder in 1692, she married the actor John Verbruggen. She was a successful and popular comedian, known especially for her breeches roles. Her greatest success was as the main character Lucia in Thomas Southerne's ''Sir Anthony Love'', where Lucia partakes of the freedom of the roistering English Restoration, Restoration Rake (character), rake by disguising herself as "Sir Anthony". Both men and women in the audience loved her performance in these types of roles. She was one of the leading actresses at the United Company, but when the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Maria Knight
Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the Franks who were named for the francisca, the axe they used in battle. https://nameberry.com/babyname/frances Notable people and characters with the name include: People * Frances, Countess of Périgord (died 1481) * Frances (musician) (born 1993), British singer and songwriter * Frances Estill Beauchamp (1860-1923), American temperance activist, social reformer, lecturer * Frances Burke, Countess of Clanricarde (1567–1633), English noblewoman and Irish countess * Frances E. Burns (1866-1937), American social leader and business executive * Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset (1590–1632), central figure in a famous scandal and murder * Frances Lewis Brackett Damon (1857–1939), American poet, writer * Frances Davidson, Viscountess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
