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The Fashionable Lady
''The Fashionable Lady'' is a 1730 comedy play by James Ralph. It premiered at the Goodman's Fields Theatre in Whitechapel with a cast that included William Giffard as Meanwell, James Lacy as Drama, Thomas Smith as Whim and Anna Marcella Giffard as Mrs Sprightly. The play has been described as "a hyperbolic take-off on ''The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satiri ...''." It was a moderate success and poked fun at the sorry state of English drama, uncritical acceptance of Italian opera, and the stupidity of theater managers. References Bibliography * Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992. * Nicoll, Allardyce. ''A History of Early Eighteenth Century Dram ...
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James Ralph
James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (other), various kings named James * Saint James (other) * James (musician) * James, brother of Jesus Places Canada * James Bay, a large body of water * James, Ontario United Kingdom * James College, a college of the University of York United States * James, Georgia, an unincorporated community * James, Iowa, an unincorporated community * James City, North Carolina * James City County, Virginia ** James City (Virginia Company) ** James City Shire * James City, Pennsylvania * St. James City, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * ''James'' (2005 film), a Bollywood film * ''James'' (2008 film), an Irish short film * ''James'' (2022 film), an Indian Kannada-language film * James the Red Engine, a character in ''Thomas the Tank En ...
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Goodman's Fields Theatre
Two 18th century theatres bearing the name Goodman's Fields Theatre were located on Alie Street, Whitechapel, London. The first opened on 31 October 1727 in a small shop by Thomas Odell, deputy Licenser of Plays. The first play performed was George Farquhar's ''The Recruiting Officer''. Henry Fielding's second play ''The Temple Beau'' premièred here on 26 January 1730. Upon retirement, Odell passed the management on to Henry Giffard, after a sermon was preached against the theatre at St Botolph's, Aldgate.''Whitechapel'' from ''Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People and Its Places by Walter Thornbury'' (1881)
accessed 6 March 2007
Giffard operated the theatre until 1732. After he left, the t ...
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Comedy Play
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, the ''Divine Comedy'' (Italian: ''Divina Commedia''). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. The predominating characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play insti ...
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Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed a civil and ecclesiastical parish after splitting from the ancient parish of Stepney in the 14th century. It became part of the County of London in 1889 and Greater London in 1965. Because the area is close to the London Docklands and east of the City of London, it has been a popular place for immigrants and the working class. The area was the centre of the London Jewish community in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Whitechapel, along with the neighbouring district of Spitalfields, were the location of the infamous 11 Whitechapel murders (1888–91), some of which were attributed to the mysterious serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. In the latter half of the 20th century, Whitechapel became a significant settlement for the British ...
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William Giffard (actor)
William Giffard (died 23 January 1129), was the Lord Chancellor of England of William II and Henry I, from 1093 to 1101, and Bishop of Winchester (1100–1129). Family and early life Giffard was the son of Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville and Ermengarde, daughter of Gerard Flaitel. He also held the office of Dean of Rouen prior to his election as bishop. Bishop of Winchester On 3 August 1100 he became bishop of Winchester by nomination of Henry I. Henry nominated him probably in an attempt to win the support of the clergy in Henry's bid to claim the throne directly after the death of William Rufus. He was one of the bishops elect whom Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury refused to consecrate in 1101 as having been nominated and invested by the lay power. During the investitures dispute Giffard was on friendly terms with Anselm and was banished for declining to accept consecration from Gerard Archbishop of York in 1103. He was, however, one of the bishops who pressed ...
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James Lacy (actor)
James Lacy (1696-1774) was a British stage actor and theatre manager. He joined John Rich's company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in 1724. His wife acted alongside him, and together they appeared in the premiere of John Gay's ''The Beggar's Opera'' as Robin of Bagshot and Dolly Trull respectively. During the 1730s he collaborated with Henry Fielding, appearing as Witmore in his ''The Author's Farce'' and working with him at Bartholomew Fair. He got in trouble for producing plays illegally following the passage of a new Licensing Act in 1737. By 1744 Lacy was manager of the Drury Lane Theatre where he clashed with actor David Garrick leading Garrick to leave the company for several years. In 1747 they reconciled and became co-managers of Drury Lane.The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama p.LV In later years he owned a mansion called Lacy House, located close to the Thames in Isleworth Isleworth ( ) is a town located within the London Boroug ...
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Thomas Smith (actor)
Thomas Smith (died 1766) was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century. He first joined the Drury Lane company in the late seventeenth century. He spent time at the Queen's Theatre in Haymarket and in 1715 joined John Rich's company at Lincoln's Inn Fields. He remained with the company, although acting elsewhere such as Dublin's Smock Alley Theatre, until 1728. There another Smith, named Charles, at the company in his latter years and their roles are sometimes confused. After leaving Lincoln's Inn, Thomas Smith moved to the Haymarket Theatre and then to Goodman's Fields where he acted in Henry Giffard's company until 1733. His daughter, was also an actress, making her debut at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1716.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.162 Selected roles * Cyaxeres in '' Cyrus the Great'' by John Banks (1695) * Peter in '' Imposture Defeated'' by George Powell (1697) * Brisson in ''The Unhappy Penitent'' by Catherine Trotter (1701) * Phorbas in ''The Virgin Prophetess' ...
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Anna Marcella Giffard
Anna Marcella Giffard (1707-1777) was an Irish stage actress. She was a member of the Lyddal acting family of Dublin, and began appearing herself at the Smock Alley Theatre under the name of Nancy Lyddal in the 1720s. In around 1728 she married the English actor Henry Giffard who had been acting at Smock Alley for some years. He had previously been married to Mary Lyddal, probably Anna Marcella's sister, with whom he had two children including William Giffard. After the marriage she was generally styled Mrs Giffard on playbills. She accompanied her husband to London in 1729 and frequently appeared alongside him over the coming years. She made her British debut at the Goodman's Fields Theatre, and this became a base for the couple after Henry took over management of the company and attempted to turn it into the third major London theatre, despite operation without a patent. The Licensing Act 1737 largely ended this attempt, and in subsequent years they played in many theatres aro ...
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The Beggar's Opera
''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of opera, but without recitative. The lyrics of the airs in the piece are set to popular broadsheet ballads, opera arias, church hymns and folk tunes of the time. ''The Beggar's Opera'' premiered at the Lisle's Tennis Court, Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre on 29 January 1728 and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the second-longest run in theatre history up to that time (after 146 performances of Robert Cambert's ''Pomone (opera), Pomone'' in Paris in 1671). The work became Gay's greatest success and has been played ever since; it has been called "the most popular play of the eighteenth century". In 1920, ''The Beggar's Opera ...
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1730 Plays
Year 173 ( CLXXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Pompeianus (or, less frequently, year 926 '' Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 173 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Gnaeus Claudius Severus and Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus become Roman Consuls. * Given control of the Eastern Empire, Avidius Cassius, the governor of Syria, crushes an insurrection of shepherds known as the Boukoloi. Births * Maximinus Thrax ("the Thracian"), Roman emperor (d. 238) * Mi Heng, Chinese writer and musician (d. 198) Deaths * Donatus of Muenstereifel, Roman soldier and martyr (b. AD 140 Year 140 ( CXL) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julia ...
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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 ...
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