|
Charles Johnson (writer)
Charles Johnson (1679 – 11 March 1748) was an English playwright, tavern keeper, and enemy of Alexander Pope's. He was a dedicated Whig who allied himself with the Duke of Marlborough, Colley Cibber, and those who rose in opposition to Queen Anne's Tory ministry of 1710–1714. Johnson claimed to be trained in the law, but there is no evidence of his membership in any of the inns of court. At the same time, it is possible that he was a lawyer, as his first two published works, in 1704 and 1705 (''Marlborough; on the Late Glorious Victory Near Hochstet in Germany'' and '' The Queen; a Pindaric Ode'') had him living in Gray's Inn, and he married a Mary Bradbury in Gray's Inn chapel in 1709, the year of his first play, '' Love and Liberty'' (unproduced). Some time around 1710, he became friends with the actor-manager of Drury Lane Theatre, Robert Wilks, and Wilks ensured that Johnson's plays received consideration. In 1711, ''The Wife's Relief'' was a great success. The play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Oldfield
Anne Oldfield (168323 October 1730) was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time. Early life and discovery She was born in London in 1683. Her father was a soldier, James Oldfield. Her mother was either Anne or Elizabeth Blanchard. Her grandfather owned a tavern and left her father several properties, he however mortgaged these which resulted in Anne and her mother being placed in financial difficulty when he died young. It appears that Oldfield received some education because her biographers state that she read widely in her youth. Oldfield and her mother went to live with her aunt, Mrs Voss, in the Mitre tavern, St James. In 1699, she attracted George Farquhar's attention when he overheard her reciting lines from Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's play ''The Scornful Lady'' (1616) in a back room of her tavern. Soon after, she was hired by Christopher Rich to join the cast of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Career A year later she was cast in he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Arbuthnot
John Arbuthnot FRS (''baptised'' 29 April 1667 – 27 February 1735), often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club (where he inspired both Jonathan Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'' book III and Alexander Pope's ''Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry'', ''Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus,'' and possibly ''The Dunciad''), and for inventing the figure of John Bull. Biography In his mid-life, Arbuthnot, complaining of the work of Edmund Curll, among others, who commissioned and invented a biography as soon as an author died, said, "Biography is one of the new terrors of death," and so a biography of Arbuthnot is made difficult by his own reluctance to leave records. Alexander Pope noted to Joseph Spence that Arbuthnot allowed his infant children to play with, and even burn, his writings. Throughout his professional life, Arbu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gay
John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names.. Early life Gay was born in Barnstaple, England, last of five children of William Gay (died 1695) and Katherine (died 1694), daughter of Jonathan Hanmer, "the leading Nonconformist divine of the town" as founder of the Independent Dissenting congregation in Barnstaple. The Gay family- "fairly comfortable... though far from rich"- lived in "a large house, called the Red Cross, on the corner of Joy Street". The Gay family was "of respectable antiquity" in North Devon, associated with the manor of Goldsworthy at Parkham and with the parish of Frithelstock (where the senior line remained, resident at the priory Cloister Hall with its lands, until 1823) and became "powerful and numerous" in the town, "established a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Hours After Marriage
''Three Hours After Marriage'' was a restoration comedy, written in 1717 as a collaboration between John Gay, Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot, though Gay was the principal author. The play is best described as a satirical farce, and among its satirical targets was Richard Blackmore. ''Three Hours After Marriage'' tells the story of Doctor Fossil, a pompous ageing scientist, who has just married a much younger woman, Mrs Townley who is then immediately beset by two rival suitors who try to win her affections. The wife and suitors then go to comical lengths to hide their intentions from Dr Fossil. The plot is complicated by the presence of a female poet Phoebe Clinket and Sir Tremendous, a literary critic. It premiered on 16 January 1717 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The cast included Benjamin Johnson as Doctor Fossil, Anne Oldfield as Mrs Townley, Margaret Bicknell as Phoebe Clinket, Colley Cibber as Plotwell, William Penkethman as Underplot, Henry Norris as Possum, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sultaness
''The Sultaness'' is a 1717 tragedy by the British writer Charles Johnson. It is a reworking of the 1672 French play '' Bajazet'' by Jean Racine set in the Ottoman Empire. In common with early eighteenth century plays it places much greater emphasis on the emotional anguish of its female characters than Racine's original. Like other plays set in Ottoman courts there may have been subtle parallels with contemporary British politics, particularly the divisions between George I and his son George, Prince of Wales. More strongly the play references the ongoing Austro-Turkish War and the role of Prince Eugene of Savoy who later that year won a major victory at the Siege of Belgrade. The original cast included Barton Booth as Bajazet, Mary Porter as Roxana, Anne Oldfield as Atalida, John Mills as Acomat and Lacy Ryan as Osmyn. Johnson used the preface of the play to attack the recent comedy '' Three Hours After Marriage'' by John Gay and Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacobite Rising Of 1715
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fi .... At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, local landowner the John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732), Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard on 27 August. Aiming to capture Stirling Castle, he was checked by the much-outnumbered Hanoverians, commanded by the John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Duke of Argyll, at Sheriffmuir on 13 November. There was no clear result, but the Earl appeared to believe, mistakenly, that he had won the battle, and left the field. After the Jacobite surrender at Battle of Preston (1715), Preston (14 Novem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cobler Of Preston
''The Cobbler of Preston'' (first published as ''The Cobler of Preston'') is a 1716 comedy play by Christopher Bullock (actor), Christopher Bullock, although a separate play of the same title was written by Charles Johnson (writer), Charles Johnson the same year. A one-act afterpiece is the origin of the phrase "Death and taxes (idiom), Tis impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes". In the preface to the published version Bullock suggested that he had begun writing the play just four days before its premiere. It takes inspiration from ''The Taming of the Shrew'' by William Shakespeare and is set in Preston, Lancashire. The town had recently been scene of fighting during the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion at the Battle of Preston (1715), Battle of Preston. Bullock's play does not overtly reference the rebellion, but has undertones supportive of the House of Hanover, Hanoverian Dynasty. It first appeared at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre as the afterpiece to a revival of ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Country Lasses
''The Country Lasses: or, The Custom of the Manor'' is a 1715 comedy play by the British writer Charles Johnson (writer), Charles Johnson. The original Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as Modely, Barton Booth as Heartwell, John Mills (stage actor), John Mills as Freehold, Benjamin Johnson (actor), Benjamin Johnson as Sir John English, Joe Miller (actor), Joe Miller as Sneak, Richard Cross (actor), Richard Cross as Carbuncle, Henry Norris (actor), Henry Norris as Tim Shacklefigure, James Quin as Vulture, Susanna Mountfort as Flora, Hester Santlow as Aura. The play was dedicated to Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Thomas Pelham, Earl of Clare, a Whig (British political party), Whig politician and patron of the arts. It was a popular success and remained in the repertoire for the next century.Orr p.207 References Bibliography * Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanoverian Succession
The Act of Settlement is an Act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, became disqualified to inherit the throne. This had the effect of deposing the descendants of Charles I, other than his Protestant granddaughter Anne, as the next Protestant in line to the throne was Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI and I from his most junior surviving line, with the crowns descending only to her non-Catholic heirs. Sophia died shortly before the death of Queen Anne, and Sophia's son succeeded to the throne as King George I, starting the Hanoverian dynasty in Britain. The Act of Supremacy 1558 had confirmed the independence of the Church of England from Roman Catholicism under the English monarch. One of the principal factors which contributed to the Glorious Revolution was the perceived assaults made on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Every
Henry Every, also known as Henry Avery (20 August 1659after 1696), sometimes erroneously given as Jack Avery or John Avery, was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid-1690s. He probably used several aliases throughout his career, including Benjamin Bridgeman, and was known as Long Ben to his crewmen and associates. Dubbed "The Arch Pirate" and "The King of Pirates" by contemporaries, Every was infamous for being one of very few major pirate captains to escape with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and for being the perpetrator of what has been called the most profitable act of piracy in history. Although Every's career as a pirate lasted only two years, his exploits captured the public's imagination, inspired others to take up piracy, and spawned works of literature. Every began his pirate career while he was first mate aboard the warship ''Charles II''. As the ship lay anchored in the northern Spanish harbour of Corunna, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Master Of The Revels
The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain. Originally he was responsible for overseeing royal festivities, known as ''revels'', and he later also became responsible for stage censorship, until this function was transferred to the Lord Chamberlain in 1624. However, Henry Herbert, the deputy Master of the Revels and later the Master, continued to perform the function on behalf of the Lord Chamberlain until the English Civil War in 1642, when stage plays were prohibited. The office continued almost until the end of the 18th century, although with rather reduced status. History The Revels Office has an influential role in the history of the English stage. Among the expenses of the royal Wardrobe we find provision made for ''tunicae'' and ''viseres'' ( shirts and hats) in 1347 for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
