The Natural Son
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The Natural Son
''The Natural Son'' is a comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in December 1784. The play is notable for the return of the popular character Major O'Flaherty from Cumberland's 1771 play ''The West Indian''. The original Drury Lane cast included Thomas King as Jack Hustings, William Parsons as Dumps, Robert Bensley as Ruefull, John Moody as Major O'Flaherty, Sophia Baddeley as Sir Jeffrey Latimer, James Wrighten as David, John Palmer as Blushenly, Jane Pope as Miss Phoebe Latimer, Charlotte Tidswell as Penelope and Elizabeth Farren Elizabeth Farren (c. 175923 April 1829) was an Irish actress of the late 18th century. Born in Cork in 1759 her father, George Farren was a surgeon. His drinking habits brought on early death and his widow returned to Liverpool. Her mother went ... as Lady Paragon.Hogan p.760 References Bibliography * Baines, Paul & Ferraro, Julian & Rogers, Pat. ''The Wiley-Blackwell Enc ...
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Richard Cumberland (dramatist)
Richard Cumberland (19 February 1731/2 – 7 May 1811) was an English dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play '' The West Indian'' was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived critical journal called ''The London Review'' (1809). His plays are often remembered for their sympathetic depiction of characters generally considered to be on the margins of society. Early life and education Richard Cumberland was born in the master's lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge on 19 February 1731/2. His father was a clergyman, Doctor Denison Cumberland, who became successively Bishop of Clonfert and Bishop of Kilmore, and through him his great-grandfather was Richard Cumberland, the philosopher and bishop of Peterborough. His mother was Johanna Bentley, youngest daughter of Joanna Bernard and the classical scholar Richard Bentley, l ...
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James Wrighten
James Wrighten (b. 1745 - d. 1793) was an English actor. He trained to work as a copperplate printer, but left that occupation for the stage. He moved from Birmingham to London and made his debut at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 21 February 1779. He afterwards acted in numerous roles at the theatre until 1793, beginning work as a prompter in 1786. Wrighten married prominent actress and singer Mary Ann Wrighten née Matthews in Birmingham in about 1769 and the couple moved to London to work in theatre. They had two daughters, Mary and Charlotte, maintaining a stormy relationship. They divorced in a public scandal that was widely covered in the press, after which Mary Ann Wrighten took her daughters and moved to the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ... to ...
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1784 Plays
Events January–March * January 6 – Treaty of Constantinople: The Ottoman Empire agrees to Russia's annexation of the Crimea. * January 14 – The Congress of the United States ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain to end the American Revolution, with the signature of President of Congress Thomas Mifflin.''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p167 * January 15 – Henry Cavendish's paper to the Royal Society of London, ''Experiments on Air'', reveals the composition of water. * February 24 – The Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam begins. * February 28 – John Wesley ordains ministers for the Methodist Church in the United States. * March 1 – The Confederation Congress accepts Virginia's cession of all rights to the Northwest Territory and to Kentucky. * March 22 – The Emerald Buddha is installed ...
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Plays By Richard Cumberland
Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Play Mobile, a Polish internet provider * Xperia Play, an Android phone * Rakuten.co.uk (formerly Play.com), an online retailer * Backlash (engineering), or ''play'', non-reversible part of movement * Petroleum play, oil fields with same geological circumstances * Play symbol, in media control devices Film * ''Play'' (2005 film), Chilean film directed by Alicia Scherson * ''Play'', a 2009 short film directed by David Kaplan * ''Play'' (2011 film), a Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund * ''Rush'' (2012 film), an Indian film earlier titled ''Play'' and also known as ''Raftaar 24 x 7'' * ''The Play'' (film), a 2013 Bengali film Literature and publications * ''Play'' (play), written by Samuel Beckett * ''Play'' (''The New York Times'' ...
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Elizabeth Farren
Elizabeth Farren (c. 175923 April 1829) was an Irish actress of the late 18th century. Born in Cork in 1759 her father, George Farren was a surgeon. His drinking habits brought on early death and his widow returned to Liverpool. Her mother went on the stage to support herself and her children. Elizabeth first appeared on the London stage in 1777 as Miss Hardcastle in ''She Stoops to Conquer'' and the following year appeared at Drury Lane which, along with the Haymarket Theatre became her primary venues for the rest of her acting career. She had over 100 characters in her repertoire including Shakespeare and various contemporary comedies and dramas. She was often compared to Frances Abington, who was her only real rival. Her last appearance was in April 1797, two months before her marriage to Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby. They had a son and two daughters. Early life Elizabeth (sometimes Eliza) Farren was the daughter of George Farren of Cork, Ireland, a surgeon and ...
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Charlotte Tidswell
Charlotte Tidswell (c. 1760 – 3 September 1846) was an English actress. Life Tidswell was born in 1759 or 1760 and her father may have been a soldier. She may have been acting for five years when her name was first mentioned when she appeared with the company creating "The Busy Body" at Drury Lane. This would end up being her main theatre. She had been the mistress of Charles Howard who was a Duke of Norfolk and it was conjectured that this was the reason she started at Drury Lane. In 1787 Edmund Kean was born. The identify of his mother is unknown and many suspected that Tidswell who was known to have as "Aunt Tid" was his mother. She certainly mothered him and took an interest in him as he developed into an acting prodigy and she steered his career. His father figure was Moses Kean who was a solo performer, but it is not certain who Edmund's father was. One source says that it was Moses younger brother. Moses died in 1792. Tidswell would act during the winter at Drury Lane ...
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Jane Pope
Jane Pope (1744 – 30 July 1818) was an English actress. Life Pope was the daughter William and Susanna Pope. Her father was a London theatrical wig-maker for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. (There has been confusion over her date of birth with different authorities giving 1742 and 1744, but in a letter from Jane Pope of 1808 she states her age as 64.) Pope had three brothers and she spent her life living with her sister who was named after their mother. Neither of them married. As a child Pope and her brother were recruited as child extras for a Lilliputian production for Garrick in 1756. From this she speedily developed into soubrette roles. Pope had a dispute with Garrick over whether she was worth eight or ten pounds a week. She left his company but returned when he offered to reemploy her and Pope agreed to eight pounds. She was Mrs Candour in ''The School for Scandal'' at its first presentation (1777). There is a painting of Jane Pope by James Roberts in the role of Mrs P ...
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John Palmer (actor)
John Palmer (c. 1742–1798) was an actor on the English stage in the eighteenth century. There was also another John Palmer (1728–1768) who was known as Gentleman Palmer. Richard Brinsley Sheridan nicknamed him Plausible Jack. Birth and youth He was born in the parish of St Luke's, Old Street, London, about 1742, was son of a private soldier. In 1759 the father served under the Marquis of Granby, and subsequently, on the marquis's recommendation, became a bill-sticker and doorkeeper at Drury Lane Theatre in London. When about eighteen John recited the parts of George Barnwell and Mercutio to David Garrick, but Garrick found no promise in him, and joined his father in urging him to enter the army. Garrick even got a small military appointment for him; but Palmer refused to follow his counsel, and entered the shop of a print-seller on Ludgate Hill. On 20 May 1762, for the benefit of his father and three others, he made his first appearance on any stage, playing Buck in the ''En ...
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Sophia Baddeley
Sophia Baddeley born Sophia Snow (1745 – July 1786) was an English actress, singer and courtesan. Early life, musical career She was born in London, the daughter of Mary and Valentine Snow, who was the sergeant-trumpeter to George II. As a child, she was trained by her father for a future musical career. left, Mrs Baddeley in the role of Joan of Arc At the age of eighteen she eloped with the actor Robert Baddeley, then on the stage at Drury Lane. She made her first appearance on 27 April 1765, as Ophelia in ''Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ....'' She also played Cordelia in ''King Lear'', Imogen in ''Cymbeline'' and later Olivia in ''Twelfth Night''. In 1769, she joined David Garrick's theatre company when he staged the Shakespeare Jubilee, Str ...
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Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drury Lane. The building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music). The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially ...
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John Moody (actor)
John Moody (1727?–1812), original name John Cochran, was an Irish actor. Life The son of a hairdresser named Cochran, he was born in Cork (city), Cork, and followed his father's occupation; his own account was that he was born in Stanhope Street, Clare Market, London. To the end of his life he claimed to be a Londoner. Perhaps to avoid being a forced recruit at the time of the Jacobite rising of 1745, he went to Jamaica. Returning to England as Moody, with some property and acting experience, he went on the Norwich circuit. He took the lead in both tragedy and comedy. Tate Wilkinson claimed to have been, 20 June 1759, at Portsmouth, Lord Townly in ''The Provoked Husband'' (John Vanburgh and Colley Cibber) to Moody's Manly, with Moody having just arrived from Jamaica. The London stage Hired by David Garrick for Drury Lane, on 31 October 1759 Moody was the original Kingston in ''High Life Below Stairs'', and on 12 February 1760 created his major character of Sir Callaghan O'Bral ...
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Robert Bensley
Robert Bensley (c. 1740 – 1817) was an 18th-century English actor, of whom Charles Lamb in the ''Essays of Elia'' speaks with special praise. Life His early life is obscure, but his family was not poor: an uncle, Sir William Bensley, was among the directors of the British East India Company. Robert may have attended Westminster School. He is said to have served in America as a lieutenant of marines, attaining his commission through the influence of another relative; in this capacity, he may have participated in theatrical entertainments for soldiers; one early biography mentions a role on Thomas Otway's '' The Orphan''. He appears to have acted with troupes of strolling players, including those of Roger Kemble and another in Staffordshire. In 1768 Johan Zoffany created a painting of Charles Macklin in the role of Shylock. Macklin's daughter Maria Macklin was included as Portia and Bensley as Bassiano in the painting and Jane Lessingham is at the foot of the dias. The pai ...
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