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King's Revels Children
The King's Revels Children or Children of the King's Revels were a troupe of actors, or playing company, in Jacobean era London, active in the 1607-9 period. They were part of a fashion for child actors that peaked in the first decade of the seventeenth century, with the Children of Paul's and the Children of the Chapel. The King's Revels Children are sometimes called the King's Revels Company, though this title leaves them liable to be confused with a similarly named troupe, primarily of adult actors, most active in the years around 1630. To avoid this confusion, some scholars prefer to identify the early company specifically as a company of children, and to call the later group the King's Revels Men.Gurr, p. 232. The King's Revels Children were founded in 1607 by a partnership between the poet and playwright Michael Drayton and Thomas Woodford, nephew of the playwright Thomas Lodge, who later sold shares in the enterprise and took on other partners. The boys acted at the White ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playing Company
Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functioning animals as well, most notably mammals and birds. Many prominent researchers in the field of psychology, including Melanie Klein, Jean Piaget, William James, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Lev Vygotsky have erroneously viewed play as confined to the human species, believing play was important for human development and using different research methods to prove their theories. Play is often interpreted as frivolous; yet the player can be intently focused on their objective, particularly when play is structured and goal-oriented, as in a game. Accordingly, play can range from relaxed, free-spirited and spontaneous through frivolous to planned or even compulsive. Play is not just a pastime activity; it has the potential to serve as an impor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Family Of Love (play)
''The Family of Love'' is an early Jacobean stage play, first published in 1608. The play is a satire on the ''Familia Caritatis'' or "Family of Love," the religious sect founded by Henry Nicholis in the 16th century. The play's date is uncertain; it is most commonly assigned to 1602–7. The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 12 Oct, 1607, as a play acted by the King's Revels Children, a company of boy actors founded around that time. It was published in quarto in 1608 by the bookseller John Helmes, with printing by Richard Braddock. Authorship Though the play was printed anonymously, many scholars have attributed it to Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker. The play's authorship is complex; one scholar, Gerald J. Eberle, argued that the comedy displays "several strata of composition," and is "a revision by Dekker and Middleton of an early play written by Middleton and Dekker." David Lake cites evidence for Middleton and also Dekker, though he suggests a third ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boy Players
Boy player refers to children who performed in Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the adult companies and performed the female roles as women did not perform on the English stage in this period. Others worked for children's companies in which all roles, not just the female ones, were played by boys. Children's companies In the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, troupes appeared that were composed entirely of boy players. They are famously mentioned in Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', in which a group of travelling actors has left the city due to rivalry with a troupe of "little eyases" (II, ii, 339); the term "eyas" means an unfledged hawk. The children's companies grew out of the choirs of boy singers that had been connected with cathedrals and similar institutions since the Middle Ages. (Similar boy choirs exist to this day.) Thus the choir attached to St. Paul's Cathedral in London since the 12th century was in the 16th century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew John Gurr
Andrew John Gurr (born 23 December 1936) is a contemporary literary scholar who specializes in William Shakespeare and English Renaissance theatre. Life and work Born in Leicester, Gurr was raised in New Zealand, and educated at the University of Auckland and at Cambridge University. He has taught at the Universities of Wellington, Leeds, and Nairobi (1969–73); at the latter institution he was also head of his department. From 1976 until his retirement in 2002 he was professor of English at the University of Reading (head of department, 1979–86), where he taught Shakespeare studies and where he is now Emeritus Professor. Gurr co-wrote a 1981 study of Katherine Mansfield (with Claire Hanson) and two books on African literature; but he is best known for his books on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and the theatre of that historical era—books that are recognized and utilized as essential references on English Renaissance drama. He has authored a wide range of articles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Kerchever Chambers
Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers, (16 March 1866 – 21 January 1954), usually known as E. K. Chambers, was an English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. His four-volume work on ''The Elizabethan Stage'', published in 1923, remains a standard resource. Life Chambers was born in West Ilsley, Berkshire. His father was a curate there and his mother the daughter of a Victorian theologian. He was educated at Marlborough College, before matriculating at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He won a number of prizes, including the chancellor's prize in English for an essay on literary forgery in 1891. He took a job with the national education department, and married Eleanor Bowman in 1893. In the newly created Board of Education, Chambers worked principally to oversee adult and continuing education. He rose to be second secretary, but the work for which he is remembered took place outside the office, at least before he retired from the Board in 1926. He was the first president of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Renaissance Theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Background The term ''English Renaissance theatre'' encompasses the period between 1562—following a performance of ''Gorboduc'', the first English play using blank verse, at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by the English Parliament in 1642. In a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603). ''English Renaissance theatre'' may be said to encompass ''Elizabethan theatre'' from 1562 to 1603, '' Jacobean theatre'' from 1603 to 1625, and '' Caroline theatre'' from 1625 to 1642. Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timon Of Athens
''Timon of Athens'' (''The Life of Tymon of Athens'') is a play written by William Shakespeare and probably also Thomas Middleton in about 1606. It was published in the ''First Folio'' in 1623. Timon lavishes his wealth on parasitic companions until he is poor and rejected by them. He rejects mankind and goes to live in a cave. The earliest-known production of the play was in 1674, when Thomas Shadwell wrote an adaptation under the title '' The History of Timon of Athens, The Man-hater''. Multiple other adaptations followed over the next century, by writers such as Thomas Hull, James Love and Richard Cumberland. The straight Shakespearean text was performed at Smock Alley in Dublin in 1761, but adaptations continued to dominate the stage until well into the 20th century. ''Timon of Athens'' was originally grouped with the tragedies, but some scholars name it one of the problem plays. Characters * Timon: a lord and, later a misanthrope, of Athens. * Alcibiades: captain o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Armin
Robert Armin (c. 1568 – 1615) was an English actor, and member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He became the leading comedy actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare following the departure of Will Kempe around 1600. Also a popular comic author, he wrote a comedy, ''The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke'', as well as ''Foole upon Foole'', ''A Nest of Ninnies'' (1608) and ''The Italian Taylor and his Boy''. Armin changed the part of the clown or fool from the rustic servingman turned comedian to that of a high-comedy domestic wit. Early life :"…the clown is wise because he plays the fool for money, while others have to pay for the same privilege." – Leslie Hotson in ''Shakespeare's Motley'' Armin was one of three children born to John Armyn II of King's Lynn, a successful tailor and friend to John Lonyson, a goldsmith also of King's Lynn. His brother, John Armyn III, was a merchant tailor in London. Armin did not take up his father's craft; instead, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gervase Markham
Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (ca. 1568 – 3 February 1637) was an English poet and writer. He was best known for his work '' The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman'', first published in London in 1615. Life Markham was the third son of Sir Robert Markham of Cotham, Nottinghamshire, and his wife, and was probably born in 1568. He was a soldier of fortune in the Low Countries, and later was a captain under the Earl of Essex's command in Ireland. He was acquainted with Latin and several modern languages, and had an exhaustive practical acquaintance with the arts of forestry and agriculture. He was a noted horse-breeder, and is said to have imported the first Arabian horse to England. Very little is known of the events of his life. The story of the murderous quarrel between Gervase Markham and Sir John Holles related in the ''Biographia'' (s.v. Holles) has been generally connected with him, but in the '' Dictionary of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dumb Knight
''The Dumb Knight'', ''The Dumbe Knight: A Historical Comedy'', or ''The Dumbe Knight: A Pleasant Comedy'', written by Lewis Machin and Gervase Markham in roughly 1601 was acted by the Children of the King's Revels likely in the Whitefriars Theatre, which was the acting group's primarily venue. The play was first published in 1608 by Nicholas Okes and were sold at John Bache's in Popes-head Palace near the Royal Exchange in London. The play takes place in Sicily and the main plot focus on the characters around the King of Cyprus, who has just conquered Sicily. A strange love between Philocles and Mariana form which nearly has Mariana executed. Out of revenge for the dishonour towards his sister Duke of Epire plans to remove Philocles and the King and make himself king promising that they “both shall tumble down”. While the subplot of Prate and Alphonso provide comic foolery and clash with the main plot at the end of the play. Although the title of the play is ''The Dumb Knigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Day (dramatist)
John Day (1574–1638?) was an English dramatist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Life He was born at Cawston, Norfolk, and educated at Ely. He became a sizar of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1592, but was expelled in the next year for stealing a book. He became one of Philip Henslowe's playwrights, collaborating with Henry Chettle, William Haughton, Thomas Dekker, Richard Hathwaye and Wentworth Smith. There are 22 plays to which he is linked. However his almost incessant activity does not seem to have paid, to judge by the small loans, of five shillings and even two shillings, that he obtained from Henslowe. Little is known of his life beyond these small details, and disparaging references by Ben Jonson in 1618/19, describing him, (with Dekker and Edward Sharpham) as a "rogue" and (with Thomas Middleton and Gervase Markham) as a "base fellow". It may be indicative of his abilities that of all the writers who did a substantial amount of work for Henslowe's companies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
