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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] |
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] |
Comus
In Greek mythology, Comus (; grc, Κῶμος, ''Kōmos'') is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Dionysus. He was represented as a winged youth or a child-like satyr and represents anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He was depicted as a young man on the point of unconsciousness from drink. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Dionysos, Comus was a god of excess. Comus in art A description of Comus as he appeared in painting is found in '' Imagines'' (Greek Εἰκόνες, translit. Eikones) by Philostratus the Elder, a Greek writer and sophist of the 3rd century AD. Comus appears at the start of the masque ''Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue'' by Ben Jonson and in ''Les fêtes de Paphos'' (''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Shadwell (playwright)
Charles Shadwell was an English playwright of the 18th century, date of birth unknown, dead in 1726. He was the son of Thomas Shadwell, the playwright and Poet Laureate. He served in the army during the War of the Spanish Succession, before becoming the supervisor of the excise in Kent. Shadwell was the author of the comedy ''The Fair Quaker of Deal'' staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1710 and ''The Humours of the Army'' (1713). From 1715 to 1720 he was the resident playwright at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ..., the leading Irish theatre at the time. In 1719 his tragedy '' Rotherick O'Connor, King of Connaught'' was staged at Smock Alley, and with the comedy '' Irish Hospitality'', and other plays, collected and p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Delap
John Delap (1725–1812) was an English churchman and academic, known as a poet and dramatist. Life The son of John Delap, of Spilsby in Lincolnshire, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, but migrated to Magdalene College, and was admitted pensioner on 15 March 1743. He took the degrees of B.A. in 1747, M.A. in 1750, and D.D. in 1762, and was described on the last occasion as of Trinity College. On 30 December 1748 he was elected to a fellowship at Magdalene. Delap was ordained in the Church of England, and was once curate to William Mason. The united livings of Iford and Kingston near Lewes in Sussex were conferred on him in 1765, and he became rector of Woollavington in 1774. But he lived at South Street, Lewes, where he died in 1812, aged 87. Delap used to visit Henry and Hester Thrale in Brighton or Tunbridge Wells, so knew Samuel Johnson and Fanny Burney, who found his conversation onerous- Johnson for Delap's obsession with his health, and Burney for the manner in which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Murphy (writer)
Arthur Murphy (27 December 1727 – 18 June 1805), also known by the pseudonym Charles Ranger, was an Irish writer. Biography Murphy was born at Cloonyquin, County Roscommon, Ireland, the son of Richard Murphy and Jane French. He studied at the Jesuit-run College of Saint-Omer, France, and was a gifted student of the Latin and Greek classics. He worked as an actor in the theatre, became a barrister, a journalist and finally a (not very original) playwright. He edited '' Gray's Inn Journal'' between 1752 and 1754. As Henry Thrale's oldest and dearest friend, he introduced Samuel Johnson to the Thrales in January 1765. He was appointed Commissioner of Bankruptcy in 1803. Murphy is known for his translations of Tacitus in 1753. They were still published in 1922. He wrote also three biographies: his 1792 '' An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson'', his 1762 '' Fielding's Works'' and his 1801 ''Life of David Garrick''. Murphy is thought to have coined the legal ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All For Love (play)
''All for Love; or, the World Well Lost'', is a 1677 heroic drama by John Dryden which is now his best-known and most performed play.It is dedicated to Earl of Danby. It is a tragedy written in blank verse and is an attempt on Dryden's part to reinvigorate serious drama. It is an acknowledged imitation of Shakespeare’s ''Antony and Cleopatra'', and focuses on the last hours of the lives of its hero and heroine. Background Although it ostensibly deals with the same topic as Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Dryden confines the action to Alexandria and focuses on the end of their doomed relationship. It first appeared in 1677, was revived in 1704 and performed 123 times between 1700 and 1800, becoming the preferred version of the story; Shakespeare's play did not reappear on the London stage until 1813. The original 1677 production by the King's Company starred Charles Hart as Marc Antony and Elizabeth Boutell as Cleopatra, with Michael Mohun as Ventidius and Katherine Corey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A New Way To Pay Old Debts
''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'' (c. 1625, printed 1633) is an English Renaissance theatre, English Renaissance drama, the most popular play by Philip Massinger. Its central character, Sir Giles Over-reach, became one of the more popular villains on English and American stages through the 19th century. Performance Massinger probably wrote the play in 1625, though its debut on stage was delayed a year as the theatres were closed due to bubonic plague. In its own era it was staged by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane. It was continuously in the repertory there and at the Red Bull Theatre, under the managements of Christopher Beeston, William Beeston, and Sir William Davenant, down to the closing of the theatres at the start of the English Civil War in 1642. Though Massinger's play shows obvious debts to Thomas Middleton's ''A Trick to Catch the Old One'' (c. 1605), it transcends mere imitation to achieve a powerful dramatic effectiveness – verified by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gil Blas
''Gil Blas'' (french: L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane ) is a picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage published between 1715 and 1735. It was highly popular, and was translated several times into English, most notably as The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, by Tobias Smollett in 1748. Plot summary Gil Blas is born in misery to a stablehand and a chambermaid of Santillana in Cantabria, and is educated by his uncle. He leaves Oviedo at the age of seventeen to attend the University of Salamanca. His bright future is suddenly interrupted when he is forced to help robbers along the route and is faced with jail. He becomes a valet and, over the course of several years, is able to observe many different classes of society, both lay and clerical. Because of his occupation, he meets many disreputable people and is able to adjust to many situations, thanks to his adaptability and quick wit. He finally finds himself at the royal court as a favorite of the king and secretary to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, who was trying to promote classical tragedy along formal lines, but later quarrelled with him, especially over his best-known play, ''Le Cid'', about a medieval Spanish warrior, which was denounced by the newly formed ''Académie française'' for breaching the unities. He continued to write well-received tragedies for nearly forty years. Biography Early years Corneille was born in Rouen, Normandy, France, to Marthe Le Pesant and Pierre Corneille, a distinguished lawyer. His younger brother, Thomas Corneille, also became a noted playwright. He was given a rigorous Jesuit education at the ''Collège de Bourbon'' (Lycée Pierre-Corneille since 1873), where acting on the stage was part of the training. At 18 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, he attended Pembroke College, Oxford until lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing for ''The Gentleman's Magazine''. Early works include ''Life of Mr Richard Savage'', the poems ''London'' and ''The Vanity of Human Wishes'' and the play ''Irene''. After nine years' effort, Johnson's '' A Dictionary of the English Language'' appeared in 1755, and was acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". Later work included essays, an annotated ''The Plays of William Shakespeare'', and the apologue ''The History of R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford (1586c. 1639) was an English playwright and poet of the Jacobean and Caroline eras born in Ilsington in Devon, England. His plays deal mainly with the conflict between passion and conscience. Although remembered primarily as a playwright, he also wrote a number of poems on themes of love and morality. Origins John Ford was baptised 17 April 1586 at Ilsington Church, Devon. He was the second son of Thomas Ford (1556–1610) of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, and his wife Elizabeth Popham (died 1629) of the Popham family of Huntworth in Somerset. Her monument exists in Ilsington Church. Thomas Ford's grandfather was John Ford (died 1538) of Ashburton (the son and heir of William Ford of Chagford) who purchased the estate of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, which his male heirs successively made their seat. The Elizabethan mansion of the Fords survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700. Life and work Ford left home to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Constant Couple
''The Constant Couple'' is a 1699 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar. It is part of the Restoration comedy tradition, and is often described as a sentimental comedy. It marked the first major success of Farquhar's career. A series of comic misunderstandings are triggered when three rivals vie for the hand of the wealthy heiress Lady Lurewell. It was staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. The original cast included Robert Wilks as Sir Harry Wildair, George Powell as Standard, John Mills as Vizard, Benjamin Johnson as Smugler, William Pinkethman as Clincher Senior, William Bullock as Clincher Junior, Henry Norris as Dicky, Joseph Haines as Tom Errand, Susanna Verbruggen as Lurewell, Jane Rogers as Angelica, Mary Powell as Lady Darling and Henrietta Moore as Parly. The hero and most popular character, the rakish Sir Harry Wildair was revived for a sequel ''Sir Harry Wildair'' in 1701. For several decades the part of Sir Harry was strongly identified with the actor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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