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Thomas Knight (actor)
Thomas Knight (died 1820), actor and dramatist, was born in Dorset of a family of no great wealth. Early career He was intended for the legal profession, and received from Charles Macklin, the actor, lessons in elocution. A favourite with Macklin, he accompanied him to the theatre, acquiring in his visits tastes which led him to adopt the stage as a profession. At an unrecorded date he appeared at the Richmond Theatre in '' Charles Surface'', and failed conspicuously. He then joined Austin's company at Lancaster. Before leaving London he tried vainly to force upon Macklin a remuneration for his services as a teacher. Tate Wilkinson saw Knight, it is said, in Edinburgh, and engaged him for the York circuit. His first appearance was made in York in 1782 as Lothario to the Calista of Mrs Jordan. Wilkinson, who was greatly disappointed with him, advised him to quit the stage, but Knight struggled on, playing Charles Oakley, Spatterdash in the '' Young Quaker'', Carbine in the ''Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Farren
Margaret Farren or Peggy Farren later Mrs Knight (died 1804) was a British actress, sister of Elizabeth Farren, the Countess of Derby. Life Margaret (sometimes Peggy) Farren was the daughter of George Farren of Cork (city), Cork, Ireland, a surgeon and apothecary, later an actor, and his wife (née Wright) of Liverpool, the daughter of a publican or brewer. Her father died in 1770 leaving her mother to care for four daughters. In 1774 she was acting with her mother and sisters at Wakefield under Tate Wilkinson's opponent, Whiteley. Margaret had been seen at an early age in London, having played at the Haymarket, as Miss Peggy Farren, Titania in the ''Fairy Tale'', a two-act adaptation of the ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', 18 June 1777. She joined Wilkinson in 1782; left him to act in Scotland and Ireland; and rejoined him in 1786. file:Bodleian Libraries, Playbill of Covent Garden, Thursday, Dec. 1, 1796, announcing Abroad and at home &c..jpg, Playbill of Covent Garden, Thursd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The area was fields until briefly settled in the 7th century when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic, then abandoned at the end of the 9th century after which it returned to fields. By 1200 part of it had been walled off by the Abbot of Westminster Abbey for use as arabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Poor Gentleman
''The Poor Gentleman'' is an 1801 comedy play by the British writer George Colman the Younger. It premiered at London's Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 11 February 1801.Nicoll p.282 The original cast included Charles Murray as Lieutenant Worthington, Thomas Knight as Corporal Foss, Henry Erskine Johnston as Sir Charles Cropland, George Davenport as Warner, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Sir Robert Bramble, William Thomas Lewis as Frederick Bramble, John Waddy as Humphrey Dobbins, John Emery as Stephen Harrowby, John Fawcett as Doctor Ollapod, Maria Gibbs as Emily Worthington and Isabella Mattocks as Lucretia MacTab. It was revived in 1829 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In 1845 it appeared at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Colman The Younger
George Colman (21 October 1762 – 17 October 1836), known as "the Younger", was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. He was the son of George Colman the Elder. Life He passed from Westminster School to Christ Church, Oxford, and King's College, University of Aberdeen, and was finally entered as a student of law at Lincoln's Inn, London. While in Aberdeen, he published a poem satirizing Charles James Fox, called ''The Man of the People.'' In 1782 he produced his first play, ''The Female Dramatist'',at his father's playhouse in the Haymarket. The failing health of the elder Colman obliged him to relinquish the management of the Haymarket theatre in 1789, when the younger George succeeded him, at a yearly salary of £600. On the death of the father the patent was continued to the son; however, difficulties arose, as he was involved in litigation with Thomas Harris and was unable to pay the expenses of the performances at the Haymarket. He was forced to take sanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speed The Plough
''Speed the Plough'' is a five-act comedy by Thomas Morton, first performed in 1798 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden to great acclaim. It is mostly remembered today for the sake of the unseen character, Mrs Grundy Mrs Grundy is a figurative name for an extremely Convention (norm), conventional or priggish person, a personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety. A tendency to be overly fearful of what others might think is sometimes referred to a .... The play may have been inspired by August Kotzebue's ''Graf von Burgund'' ("Count of Burgundy"), which had recently failed at the same theatre. Kotzebue's more serious play also concerns a young man named Henry who is ignorant of his own origins. Plot summary Act 1 Mrs Ashfield is at the market when she is approached by a handsome young nobleman who gives her a letter to deliver to her husband. When Mr Ashfield reads it, he finds that it is from his daughter Susan, and he is astonished to learn that their former ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Morton (playwright)
Thomas Morton (1764 – 28 March 1838) was an English playwright. Life Morton was born in the city of Durham. He was the youngest son of John and Grace Morton of Whickham, County Durham. 26 January 1935, p. 69. After the death of his father he was educated at Soho Square school at the charge of his uncle Maddison, a stockbroker. Here amateur acting was in vogue, and Morton, who played with , acquired a taste for the theatre. He entered at , 2 July 1784, but was not called to the bar. His first drama, ''Colu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas John Dibdin
Thomas John Dibdin (21 March 1771 – 16 September 1841) was an English dramatist and songwriter. Life Dibdin was the son of Charles Dibdin, a songwriter and theatre manager, and of "Mrs Davenet", an actress whose real name was Harriett Pitt. He was introduced to the stage at five years old, in his godfather David Garrick’s pageant of ‘’Jubilee of Shakespeare’’. Mrs Siddons was The Venus and the Young Tom Cupid. He was apprenticed to his maternal uncle, a London upholsterer, and later to William Rawlins, afterwards sheriff of London. He summoned his second master unsuccessfully for rough treatment; and after a few years of service he ran away to join a company of country players. From 1789 to 1795 he played all sorts of parts; he worked as a scene painter at Liverpool in 1791; and during this period he composed more than 1,000 songs. His first work as a dramatist was ''Something New'', followed by ''The Mad Guardian'' in 1795. He returned to London in 1795, having ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovers' Vows
''Lovers' Vows'' (1798), a play by Elizabeth Inchbald arguably best known now for having been featured in Jane Austen's novel ''Mansfield Park'' (1814), is one of at least four adaptations of August von Kotzebue's ''Das Kind der Liebe'' (1780; literally "Love Child," or "Natural Son," as it is often translated), all of which were published between 1798 and 1800. Inchbald's version is the only one to have been performed. Dealing as it does with sex outside marriage and illegitimate birth, Inchbald in the Preface to the published version declares herself to have been highly sensitive to the task of adapting the original German text for "an English audience." Even so, she left the setting as Germany. First production The play was first performed at Covent Garden on Thursday, 11 October 1798, and was an immediate success: it ran for forty-two nights, "making it by some distance Covent Garden's most successful venture of that season," and went on to be performed in Bristol, Newcastle, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald (née Simpson, 15 October 1753 – 1 August 1821) was an English novelist, actress, dramatist, and translator. Her two novels, '' A Simple Story'' and '' Nature and Art'', have received particular critical attention. Life Born on 15 October 1753 at Stanningfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson (died 1761), a farmer, and his wife Mary, ''née'' Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the neighbourhood, was Roman Catholic. Her brother was sent to school, but Elizabeth and her sisters were educated at home. Inchbald had a speech impediment. Focused on acting from a young age, she worked hard to manage her stammer, but her family discouraged an attempt in early 1770 to gain a position at the Norwich Theatre. That same year her brother George became an actor. Still determined, Inchbald went to London to become an actress in April 1772 at the age of 18. It was a difficult beginning: some observe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph George Holman
Joseph George Holman (1764–1817) was an English actor, dramatist and actor-manager. Early life Born in August 1764, he was son of John Major Holman of St. Giles's, Middlesex, an ensign and adjutant in the British service, who died when his son was two years of age. He was placed by an uncle at Barwis's school in Soho Square, where amateur acting was in vogue. With a view to the church as a career, he matriculated 7 February 1783 at The Queen's College, Oxford, but took no degree. At Covent Garden On 25 October 1784, at Covent Garden, as Romeo, Holman made his first appearance on the stage. An address was spoken by Thomas Hull, who played Friar Lawrence. Holman's performances were attended by fashionable audiences, and he remained at Covent Garden until 1800. His original characters include Harry Thunder in John O'Keeffe's ''Wild Oats'', 16 April 1791, Harry Dornton in Thomas Holcroft's '' The Road to Ruin'', 18 February 1792, and many parts in plays by Frederic Reynolds, Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Recruiting Officer
''The Recruiting Officer'' is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury (the town where Farquhar himself was posted in this capacity) to recruit soldiers. The characters of the play are generally stock, in keeping with the genre of Restoration comedy. Characters Plot The play opens with the recruiter, Captain Plume's Sergeant Kite, recruiting in the town of Shrewsbury. Plume arrives, in love with Sylvia, closely followed by Worthy, a local gentleman who is in love with Sylvia's cousin Melinda. Worthy asked Melinda to become his mistress a year previously, as he believed her to be of inadequate fortune to marry. But he changes his mind after she comes into an inheritance of £20,000. Melinda accepts an invitation from Captain Brazen, another recruiter, to annoy Worthy, as she was offended by Worthy's previous offer. However, her maid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Merry Wives Of Windsor
''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a reference to the town of Windsor, also the location of Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. Though nominally set in the reign of Henry IV or early in the reign of Henry V, the play makes no pretence to exist outside contemporary Elizabethan-era English middle-class life. It features the character Sir John Falstaff, the fat knight who had previously been featured in ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2''. It has been adapted for the opera at least ten times. The play is one of Shakespeare's lesser-regarded works among literary critics. Tradition has it that ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I. After watching '' Henry IV Part I'', she asked Shakespeare to write a play depicting Falstaff in love. Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
