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Ralph Crane
Ralph Crane ('' fl.'' 1615 – 1630) was a professional scrivener or scribe in early seventeenth-century London. His close connection with some of the First Folio texts of the plays of William Shakespeare has led to his being called "Shakespeare's first editor." Life What little is known of Crane's life comes from his own writings. In 1621 he published a small collection of his own poems titled ''The Works of Mercy, Both Corporeal and Spiritual,'' which he dedicated to John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater. In the prefatory "Proem" to that volume, Crane indicated that he was a native Londoner, and the son of a successful member of the Merchant Taylors Company (a ' Freeman.'). A possibly relevant reference to a John Crane being in breach of Company ordinances in January 1568 appears in Clode's Memorials. The current ODNB states there is no record of a Ralph Crane among attendees of the Merchant Taylors School, a benefit for Freemen's sons. Ralph Crane spent seven years as th ... [...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] |
Measure For Measure
''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604, according to available records. It was published in the ''First Folio'' of 1623. The play's plot features its protagonist, Duke Vincentio of Vienna, stepping out from public life to observe the affairs of the city under the governance of his deputy, Angelo. Angelo's harsh and ascetic public image is compared to his abhorrent personal conduct once in office, in which he exploits his power to procure a sexual favour from Isabella, whom he considers enigmatically beautiful. The tension in the play is eventually resolved through Duke Vincentio's intervention, which is considered an early use of the deus ex machina in English literature. ''Measure for Measure'' was printed as a comedy in the First Folio and continues to be classified as one. Though it shares features with other Shakespearean comedies, such as the use of wordplay and irony, and the emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Prophetess (play)
''The Prophetess'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Date and performance The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 14 May 1622. It was acted by the King's Men; the cast included John Lowin, Joseph Taylor, Robert Benfield, Nicholas Tooley, John Shank, George Birch, Richard Sharpe, and Thomas Holcombe. Authorship Due to Fletcher's distinctive stylistic profile, the division of authorship in the play is largely clear and unambiguous. Cyrus Hoy gave this breakdown of the two writers' relative shares: :Fletcher – Act I; Act III, Act V, scene 3; :Massinger – Act II; Act IV; Act V, scenes 1 and 2. E. H. C. Oliphant provided the same scheme, except for an assignment of V,2 to Fletcher. Massinger may have revised the original play in 1629, for a revival in July of that year. One source of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Knight Of Malta
''The Knight of Malta'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Date and source No firm information is available on the play's date of authorship or earliest stage production. The cast list for the original King's Men's production, added in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679, cites Richard Burbage, Henry Condell, Nathan Field, Robert Benfield, John Underwood, John Lowin, Richard Sharpe, and Thomas Holcombe, indicating that the play was performed in the 1616–1619 period – after Field joined the troupe in 1616 but before Burbage's death in March 1619. The authors depended upon the ''Filocolo'' of Giovanni Boccaccio as their source, specifically the section of that work called "The Thirteen Questions of Love." Authorship Scholars, from F. G. Fleay to Cyrus Hoy and after, have attributed the authorship of the play to Fletcher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The False One
''The False One'' is a late Jacobean stage play by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, though formerly placed in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon. It was first published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. This classical history tells of the meeting and romance of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, and the betrayal and death of Pompey the Great at the hands of one of his own officers, the "false one" of the title. Date Scholars date the play to the 1619–20 period, partly because of parallels with the political situation in Jacobean era England at the time. It was originally staged by the King's Men; the cast list provided in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 names John Lowin, Joseph Taylor, John Underwood, Nicholas Tooley, Robert Benfield, John Rice, Richard Sharpe, and George Birch. The presence of Taylor, who replaced Richard Burbage after Burbage's death in the spring of 1619, indicates a date after that time. Authorship Given Fletcher's highly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1647 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1647. Events *Summer – Thomas Hobbes gives up his work as mathematics tutor to the future Charles II of England because of a serious illness. *October 6 – London authorities raid the Salisbury Court Theatre, breaking up an illicit performance of Beaumont and Fletcher's ''A King and No King''. *''unknown date'' – Plagiarist Robert Baron publishes his ''Deorum Dona'', a masque, and ''Gripus and Hegio'', a pastoral, which draws heavily on the poems of Edmund Waller and John Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi''. The masque claims to have been performed before "Flaminius and Clorinda, King and Queen of Cyprus, at their regal palace in Nicosia," a fantasy with no relation to the actual history of Cyprus. New books Prose *René Descartes – ''Les Principes de la philosophie'' (French version of original Latin) * Antonio Enríquez Gómez – ''El siglo pitagórico. La vida de don Gregorio Guadaña'' *B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beaumont And Fletcher Folios
The Beaumont and Fletcher folios are two large folio collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama. The first folio, 1647 The 1647 folio was published by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley and Humphrey Robinson. It was modelled on the precedents of the first two folio collections of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623 and 1632, and the first two folios of the works of Ben Jonson of 1616 and 1640–1. The title of the book was given as ''Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Gentlemen,'' though the prefatory matter in the folio recognised that Philip Massinger, rather than Francis Beaumont, collaborated with Fletcher on some of the plays included in the volume. (In fact, the 1647 volume "contained almost nothing of Beaumont's" work.) Seventeen works in Fletcher's canon that had al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, ''Macbeth'' most clearly reflects his relationship with King James, patron of Shakespeare's acting company. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants. Life Middleton was born in London and baptised on 18 April 1580. He was the son of a bricklayer, who had raised himself to the status of a gentleman and owned property adjoining the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch. Middleton was five when his father died and his mother's subsequent remarriage dissolved into a 15-year battle over the inheritance of Thomas and his younger sister – an experience that informed him about the legal system and may have incited his repeated satire against the legal profession. Middleton attended The Queen's College, Oxford, matriculating in 1598, but he did not graduate. Before he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Witch (play)
''The Witch'' is a Jacobean play, a tragicomedy written by Thomas Middleton. The play was acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. It is thought to have been written between 1613 and 1616; it was not printed in its own era, and existed only in manuscript until it was published by Isaac Reed in 1778. The manuscript The still-extant manuscript (since 1821, ''MS. Malone 12'' in the collection of the Bodleian Library), a small quarto-sized bundle of 48 leaves, is in the hand of Ralph Crane, the professional scribe who worked for the King's Men in this era, and who prepared several texts for the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, as well as two of the surviving manuscripts of Middleton's ''A Game at Chess'', plus other King's Men's works. Since Middleton wrote for the King's Men in this period, the Crane connection is unsurprising. The manuscript bears Middleton's dedication to Thomas Holmes, Esq. There, Middleton refers to the play as "ignorantly ill-fated." This was lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage (c. 1567 – 13 March 1619) was an English stage actor, widely considered to have been one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre and of his time. In addition to being a stage actor, he was also a theatre owner, entrepreneur, and painter. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama. Burbage was a business associate and friend to William Shakespeare. The son of James Burbage, a joiner who became a theatrical impresario and entrepreneur, also founded the first theatre. Burbage was a popular actor by his early 20s. He excelled in plays with the theme of tragedies. His early acting career is poorly documented. As many young actors of his time, he may have played the part of women in productions before taking any of the roles he is known for. As James Burbage acted for the Earl of Leicester's company, it has been suggested that his son, Richard, likely got his start with the company as well. Burbage was described as be ... [...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] |
