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Robert Benfield
Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death. Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was most likely with the Lady Elizabeth's Men in 1613, and acted in their productions of Fletcher's ''The Coxcomb'' and the Fletcher/Massinger play ''The Honest Man's Fortune'' in that year. Benfield soon joined the King's Men, possibly to replace William Ostler, who died unexpectedly in December 1614. He acted in the company's production of John Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'' c. 1621. He was a shareholder in the company by 1619, when he is listed in the renewed patent for the King's Men issued in that year. Benfield also eventually became a sharer in both the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, but only after a conflict: in 1635 he was one of three King's Men (the others were Thomas Pollard and Eliard Swanston) who petitioned the Lord Chamber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King's Men (playing Company)
The King's Men is the acting company to which William Shakespeare (1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, they became the King's Men in 1603 when King James I ascended the throne and became the company's patron. The royal patent of 19 May 1603 which authorised the King's Men company named the following players, in this order: Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillips, John Heminges, Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armin, Richard Cowley, "and the rest of their associates...." The nine cited by name became Grooms of the Chamber. On 15 March 1604, each of the nine men named in the patent was supplied with four and a half yards of red cloth for the coronation procession. Chronologically typed To 1610 In their first winter season, between December 1603 and February 1604 the company performed eight times at Court and eleven times in their second, from N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl Of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery, (10 October 158423 January 1650) was an English courtier, nobleman, and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I. Philip and his older brother William were the 'incomparable pair of brethren' to whom the First Folio of Shakespeare's collected works was dedicated in 1623. Early life, 1584–1603 Born at Wilton House, he was the son of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and his third wife, Mary Sidney, sister of Sir Philip Sidney the poet, after whom he was named. In 1593, at age 9, Philip was sent to study at New College, Oxford, but left after a few months. Favourite of James I, 1603–1625 In 1600 the 16-year-old Philip made his first appearance at court. On the accession of James I in 1603 he soon caught the king's eye. According to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, and John Aubrey, Philip's major interests at the time were hunting and hawking and it was in these fields that he first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lovers' Progress
''The Lovers' Progress,'' also known as ''The Wandering Lovers,'' or ''Cleander,'' or ''Lisander and Calista,'' is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. As its multiple titles indicate, the play has a complex history and has been a focus of controversy among scholars and critics. Facts and conclusions The historical facts pertinent to the play, in chronological order, are these: * A play titled ''The Wandering Lovers'' was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 6 December 1623, as a work by John Fletcher. It was acted at Court on 1 January 1634. No play with that title has survived. * A play by Massinger titled ''The Tragedy of Cleander'' was similarly licensed on 7 May 1634, and performed soon after by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. Queen Henrietta Maria saw it there on 13 May that year. (''The Lovers' Progress'' could be called a tragedy from the point of view of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Little French Lawyer
''The Little French Lawyer'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Date Definite information on the play's date of authorship and early performance history is lacking. Scholars generally date the play to the 1619–23 period. The second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679 provides a cast list for the play, which includes Joseph Taylor, Nicholas Tooley, John Lowin, William Ecclestone, John Underwood, Richard Sharpe, Robert Benfield, and Thomas Holcombe. This is the same cast of actors from the King's Men that the folio gives for ''The Custom of the Country'' and ''Women Pleased ''Women Pleased'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy by John Fletcher that was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Date and performance The play's date is uncertain; it is usually assigned to t ...,'' plays that are thought ... [...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 Island Princess
''The Island Princess'' is a late Jacobean tragicomedy by John Fletcher, initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play The authorship and the stage premier of the play are generally thought to have occurred c. 1619–21; it was acted at Court during the latter year, by the King's Men. The second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679 offers a cast list for the play, a list that includes John Lowin, John Underwood, William Ecclestone, Richard Sharpe, Joseph Taylor, Robert Benfield, George Birch, and Thomas Pollard. Authorship Fletcher's solo authorship is generally recognized; his characteristic pattern of linguistic preferences is continuous throughout. The 1647 folio text is not especially short, though it does show some signs of cutting: several scenes have characters that appear but do not speak. Sources Fletcher's sources were two books on exploration, ''L'histoire de Ruis Dias, et de Quixaire, Princess des Moloques,'' a novella by Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Humorous Lieutenant
''The Humorous Lieutenant'', also known as ''The Noble Enemies'', ''Demetrius and Enanthe'', or ''Alexander's Successors'', is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher. Highly praised by critics, it has been called "Fletcher's best comedy." The drama was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Date and performance The second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679 provides a cast list for the original King's Men's production, which includes Henry Condell, Joseph Taylor, John Lowin, William Ecclestone, Richard Sharpe, John Underwood, Robert Benfield—and Thomas Pollard, the comic actor who filled the title role. This is the only cast list that includes both Taylor and Condell; Taylor joined the company in the spring of 1619, to replace Richard Burbage after his death in March of that year; and Condell is thought to have retired not long after—which appears to date the play fairly securely to 1619. Manuscript In addition to ... [...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] |
The Double Marriage
''The Double Marriage'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, and initially printed in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Date and performance Though firm evidence on the play's date of authorship and early stage history is lacking, scholars usually assign the play to the 1619–22 period. It was acted by the King's Men, with Joseph Taylor playing the lead – a production that must have occurred after Taylor joined that company in the spring of 1619. The play's absence from the fairly thorough Revels Office records of Sir Henry Herbert probably indicates a date prior to May 1622, when Herbert first occupied the office of Master of the Revels. The cast list added to the play in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 mentions, in addition to Taylor, John Lowin, Robert Benfield, Richard Robinson, John Underwood, Nicholas Tooley, George Birch, and Richard Sharpe. ''The Double Marriage,'' like many of the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Custom Of The Country (1647 Play)
''The Custom of the Country'' is a Jacobean stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, originally published in 1647 in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio. Date and sources The play is usually dated to c. 1619–23. It could not have been written earlier than 1619, when one of its primary sources, ''Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda'' by Cervantes, was translated into English. Cinthio's ''Hecatommithi'' also provided material for the play. Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, describes ''The Custom of the Country'' as an "old play" in an entry in his record book dated 22 November 1629. Performance The play was performed by the King's Men. The 1647 text provides this cast list: Joseph Taylor, John Lowin, John Underwood, Robert Benfield, Nicholas Tooley, William Ecclestone, Richard Sharpe, and Thomas Holcombe. (The folio provides the same cast list for two roughly contemporaneous plays in the canon, Fletcher's ''Women Pleased'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1679 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1679. Events *April 30 – John Locke, returning to England from France, moves into Thanet House in London. *June – Nathaniel Lee's play ''The Massacre at Paris'' (about the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, as was Christopher Marlowe's play of the same title) is suppressed by King Charles II of England as anti-French, the French being English allies at this time. *August – Thomas Otway returns to England from military service in the Netherlands. *October – Thomas Otway's ''The History and Fall of Caius Marius'', his adaptation of ''Romeo and Juliet'', is written. When performed the following year, it will drive Shakespeare's original off the stage for more than sixty years. *December 18 – Rose Alley ambuscade: John Dryden is set upon by three assailants in London, thought to have been instigated by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester in retaliation for an attack on "want of wit" in ... [...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] |
