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Gil Blas (play)
''Gil Blas'' is a 1751 comedy play by the British writer Edward Moore.Watson p.557 It is based on the novel ''Gil Blas'' by French writer Alain-René Lesage. The original Drury Lane cast included David Garrick as Gil Blas, Henry Woodward as Don Lewis, John Palmer as Don Felix, John Sowdon as Don Gabriel, Richard Yates as Melchior, 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. Lif ... as Aurora, Frances Cross as Beatrice and Ann Pitt as Bernarda. References Bibliography * Baines, Paul & Ferarro, Julian & Rogers, Pat. ''The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing, 1660-1789''. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. * Watson, George. ''The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: Volume 2, 1660-1800''. Cambridge University Press, 1971. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Moore (dramatist)
Edward Moore (22 March 17121 March 1757), English dramatist and miscellaneous writer, the son of a dissenting minister, was born at Abingdon, Berkshire. He was the author of ''Fables for the Female Sex'' (1744), ''The Trial of Selim the Persian'' (1748), ''The Foundling'' (1748) and ''Gil Blas'' (1751). He wrote the domestic tragedy of ''The Gamester'', originally produced in 1753 with David Garrick in the leading character of Beverley the gambler. It is upon ''The Gamester'' that Moore's literary reputation rests; the play was much-produced in England and the United States in the century after Moore's death. The oft-quoted phrase "rich beyond the dreams of avarice" is spoken by Mrs. Beverley in the play's second act. As a poet he produced clever imitations of John Gay and Thomas Gray, and with the assistance of Lord Lyttelton, Lord Chesterfield and Horace Walpole, conducted ''The World'' (1753–1757), a weekly periodical on the model of the ''Rambler''. He collected his p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sowdon
John Sowdon (died 1789) was an Irish stage actor, singer and theater manager in the eighteenth century. His origins are a matter of dispute with one source claiming he was the brother of the owner of Castle Otway while George Anne Bellamy claimed he was the son of a horse milliner.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.200 He is likely to have made his London stage debut at Covent Garden as Pierce in ''Venice Preserved'' on 4 December 1747. A year later, he played part in Othello and Richard III. He was a member of the Drury Lane company between 1748 and 1752. Sowdon was then employed at the Smock Alley Theatre, Ireland's leading playhouse, in Dublin. An stated that Sowdon accepted this contract with hopes that he would become joint manager of the theater. He briefly co-managed the theatre with Benjamin Victor after Thomas Sheridan left for England, and was primarily known for playing Othello at the time. In 1758 he sold his share in Smock Alley to Spranger Barry and appeared at the Crow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Plays
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1751 Plays
In Britain and its colonies (except Scotland), 1751 only had 282 days due to the British Calendar Act of 1751, which ended the year on 31 December (rather than nearly three months later according to its previous rule). Events January–March * January 1 – As the American colony in Georgia prepares the transition from a trustee-operated territory to a British colonial province, the prohibition against slavery is lifted by the Board of Trustees. At the time, the African-American population of Georgia is about 400 people who have been kept as slaves in violation of the law. By 1790, the slave population increases to over 29,000 and by 1860 to 462,000. * January 7 – The University of Pennsylvania, conceived 12 years earlier by Benjamin Franklin and its other trustees to provide non-denominational higher education "to train young people for leadership in business, government and public service". rather than for the ministry, holds its first classes as "Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Pitt
Ann Pitt (1718 – 18 December 1799) was a British actress. Life Pitt was born in 1718 to Elizabeth. Her father, John, was a warden for London Bridge and he sold fish. Her brother, Cecil, became rich dealing in dry goods whereas Ann's career led her to acting comic parts. She is first advertised as being in the cast in 1745 for a Drury Lane production. In 1752 she joined the Covent Garden Theatre company. left, Mrs Pitt as Lady Wishfort Harriet Pitt was born to Ann Pitt in about 1748 whilst her mother was acting in Richmond in Surrey. The father's name is recorded as "Henry" but this is thought to be a convenient fiction. A second child Mary Ann (Pitt) Ritchards was born in 1759 and whilst still illegitimate the father was known as the scene painter John Inigo Richards. Mary Ann's father later married someone else but Richards acknowledged her as his daughter in his will and left her a snuff box decorated with Ann Pitt's portrait. In 1776 an engraving was published of Mrs Pitt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Cross
Frances Cross (1707-1781) was a British stage actress. From 1727 as Frances Shireburn she appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre. During her early years she established herself in a number of roles that she played repeatedly throughout her career including in Lady Darling in ''The Constant Couple'', Mademoiselle D'Epingle in '' The Funeral'', Mademoiselle in ''The Provoked Wife'' and Regan in ''King Lear'', Lady Bountiful in ''The Beaux' Stratagem'' and Mrs Motherly in The Provoked Husband. She also appeared at Bartholomew Fair during the summer months.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.71-72 From 1735 she became involved in with fellow actor Richard Cross and began styling herself as Mrs Cross, although she did not formally marry him until 1751.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.67 She was widowed in 1760, and had a son also named Richard Cross who appeared alongside her at Drury Lane. Apart from during the Actor Rebellion of 1733 when she briefly moved to the Haymarket Theatre and two seaso ... [...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] |
Richard Yates (actor)
Richard Yates (c. 1706–1796) was an English comic actor, who worked at the Haymarket Theatre and Drury Lane among others, appearing in David Garrick's ''King Lear''. He also worked in theatre management, and set up the New Theatre in Birmingham in 1773. Both his first wife, Elizabeth Mary (maiden name unknown, died in 1753) and Mary Anne Graham (1728–1787 - married in 1756) were actresses. Life Born about 1706, he played in Henry Fielding's ''Pasquin'' at the Haymarket when it was first performed. In 1737–9, at Covent Garden, he was seen in a number of parts. On 4 September 1739 he appeared at Drury Lane as Jeremy in ''Love for Love'', and played other comic parts. At Goodman's Fields he appeared on 18 October 1740 as Antonio in '' Venice Preserved'', playing further parts during the season. For his benefit and that of Mrs. Elizabeth Yates, his first wife (about whom little is known) who played at this time small parts such as Emilia in ''The Winter's Tale'', and wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Palmer (actor)
John Palmer (c. 1742–1798) was an actor on the English stage in the eighteenth century. There was also another John Palmer (1728–1768) who was known as Gentleman Palmer. Richard Brinsley Sheridan nicknamed him Plausible Jack. Birth and youth He was born in the parish of St Luke's, Old Street, London, about 1742, was son of a private soldier. In 1759 the father served under the Marquis of Granby, and subsequently, on the marquis's recommendation, became a bill-sticker and doorkeeper at Drury Lane Theatre in London. When about eighteen John recited the parts of George Barnwell and Mercutio to David Garrick, but Garrick found no promise in him, and joined his father in urging him to enter the army. Garrick even got a small military appointment for him; but Palmer refused to follow his counsel, and entered the shop of a print-seller on Ludgate Hill. On 20 May 1762, for the benefit of his father and three others, he made his first appearance on any stage, playing Buck in the ''En ... [...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] |
Henry Woodward (English Actor)
Henry Woodward (2 October 1714 – 17 April 1777) was an English actor, among the most famous in his day for comedy roles. Early life and career Woodward was the eldest son of a tallow chandler in the borough of Southwark, London, and intended for his father's occupation. He attended Merchant Taylors' school from 1724 to 1728. After his father's failure in business, Woodward joined the troupe of John Rich, whose stage name was "Lun", at Lincoln's Inn Fields, playing in January 1729 in ''The Beggar's Opera'' as the Beggar and Ben Budge. During the season the performance was repeated fifteen times, and Woodward, thoroughly stage-struck, remained with Rich, who instructed him in harlequin and other characters. From October 1730 he appeared at Goodman's Fields Theatre, where he remained until 1736. After the company moved to Lincoln's Inn Fields, Woodward appeared in January 1737 as Harlequin Macheath in ''The Beggars' Pantomime, or the Contending Columbines''. The authorship of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Garrick
David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Samuel Johnson. He appeared in a number of amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's '' Richard III'', audiences and managers began to take notice. Impressed by his portrayals of Richard III and a number of other roles, Charles Fleetwood engaged Garrick for a season at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the West End. He remained with the Drury Lane company for the next five years and purchased a share of the theatre with James Lacy. This purchase inaugurated 29 years of Garrick's management of the Drury Lane, during which time it rose to prominence as one of the leading theatres in Europe. At his death, three years after his retirement from Drury Lane and the stage, he was given a lavish public funeral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
