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Thomas Pollard
Thomas Pollard (1597 – 1649×1655) was an actor in the King's Men – a prominent comedian in the acting troupe of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage. Thomas Pollard was christened on 11 December 1597 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. His date of death is not known. Career Pollard starting as a boy player specializing in women's roles. He was trained by John Shank, a noted comic actor; and after he matured and left female roles behind, Pollard acquired his own reputation as a gifted comic performer. His most notable part was the title role in Fletcher's ''The Humorous Lieutenant''. He had the comical role of Timentes the cowardly general in Arthur Wilson's '' The Swisser''. He played Silvio in Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'', in the productions of c. 1614 and c. 1621. He appeared in Shakespeare's '' Henry VIII'', probably in the 1628 revival at the Globe Theatre. Pollard played the role of Pinac in ''The Wild Goose Chase'' in the 1632 revival, and was in a numb ... [...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] |
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 Cardinal (play)
''The Cardinal'' is a tragedy by James Shirley, written in the Caroline era. It was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 25 November 1641, and first published in 1653. The play belongs to the final phase of Shirley's career as a London playwright, when he was no longer serving as the house dramatist of Queen Henrietta's Men. ''The Cardinal'' was acted instead by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. The play was published in ''Six New Plays'', an octavo collection of Shirley's works issued by the stationers Humphrey Moseley and Humphrey Robinson in 1653 – one of a series of Shirley collections from this era. Nineteenth-century and twentieth-century critics, including Edmund Gosse and Fredson Bowers, considered it among his finest works. Bowers called Shirley's play a "coherent Kydian revenge tragedy, polished and simplified in his best manner." It was considered to be "the first among Shirley's tragedies." The play was revived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Shirley
James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of moral feelings and notions in common." His career of play writing extended from 1625 to the suppression of stage plays by Parliament in 1642. Biography Early life Shirley was born in London and was descended from the Shirleys of Warwick, the oldest knighted family in Warwickshire. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, St John's College, Oxford, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he took his BA degree in or before 1618. His first poem, ''Echo, or the Unfortunate Lovers'' was published in 1618; no copy of it is known, but it is probably the same as 1646's ''Narcissus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lover's Melancholy
''The Lover's Melancholy'' is an early Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Ford. While the dating of the works in Ford's canon is very uncertain, this play has sometimes been regarded as "Ford's first unaided drama," an anticipation of what would follow through the remainder of his playwriting career. It is certainly the earliest of his works to appear in print. Performance and publication The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 24 November 1628. It was acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars and Globe theatres. The play was first published in 1629 by the bookseller Henry Seile. The quarto bears a dedication from Ford to four friends at Gray's Inn, one of whom is a cousin, also named John Ford. This second John Ford contributed commendatory verse to a couple of the dramatist's plays, including ''The Lover's Melancholy''. The first edition also supplies an unusually full cast list, specifying the 17 King's Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Laws Of Candy
''The Laws of Candy'' is a Jacobean stage play, a tragicomedy that is significant principally because of the question of its authorship. Date The play received its initial publication in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Scholars judge it to have been written most likely in the 1619–23 period. The play was clearly performed by the King's Men; the cast list for the original production, added to the play in the second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679, includes Joseph Taylor, John Lowin, William Ecclestone, John Underwood, Nicholas Tooley, George Birch, Richard Sharpe, and Thomas Pollard, all members of that company. With that roster of personnel, the play could have premiered anytime between the spring of 1619, when Taylor joined the troupe, and June 1623, when Tooley died. Authorship Early scholars were frustrated at their inability to find any evidence of the styles of John Fletcher, or Philip Massinger, or Fletcher's other usual collaborators, in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford (1586c. 1639) was an English playwright and poet of the Jacobean and Caroline eras born in Ilsington in Devon, England. His plays deal mainly with the conflict between passion and conscience. Although remembered primarily as a playwright, he also wrote a number of poems on themes of love and morality. Origins John Ford was baptised 17 April 1586 at Ilsington Church, Devon. He was the second son of Thomas Ford (1556–1610) of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, and his wife Elizabeth Popham (died 1629) of the Popham family of Huntworth in Somerset. Her monument exists in Ilsington Church. Thomas Ford's grandfather was John Ford (died 1538) of Ashburton (the son and heir of William Ford of Chagford) who purchased the estate of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, which his male heirs successively made their seat. The Elizabethan mansion of the Fords survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700. Life and work Ford left home to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Picture (Massinger Play)
''The Picture'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger, and first published in 1630. The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 8 June 1629; it was acted by the King's Men at both of their theatres, the Globe and the Blackfriars. The play was published in quarto the following year; Massinger dedicated the work to the members of the Inner Temple. The play was popular and highly regarded in its own era; in 1650 Richard Washington wrote an elegy on Massinger in his own copy of the quarto of ''The Picture.'' Massinger's sources for his plot were the 28th novel in Volume 2 of ''The Palace of Pleasure'' (1567) by William Painter, and an anonymous English translation of ''The Theatre of Honour and Knighthood'' (1623) by André Favyn. Cast The 1630 quarto contains an unusually full cast list of the original King's Men's production of the play: The list is informative on the state of the King's Men co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Believe As You List
''Believe as You List'' is a Caroline era tragedy by Philip Massinger, famous as a case of theatrical censorship. Censorship The play originally dealt with the legend that Sebastian of Portugal had survived the battle of Alcácer Quibir, and the efforts of Philip II of Spain to suppress the "false Sebastians." On 11 January 1631, Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, noted in his records that he refused to license the play because "it did contain dangerous matter, as the deposing of Sebastian, king of Portugal, by Philip the Second, and there being a peace sworn between the kings of England and Spain." To avoid the censor, Massinger was obliged to move the setting of his play to the ancient world, substituting ancient Rome for Spain and a Seleucid King Antiochus for Sebastian. The revised play was licensed by the Master of the Revels on 6 May 1631, and was premiered the next day, 7 May, by the King's Men. (If the play was intended for the winter season, it was meant for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Roman Actor
''The Roman Actor'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger. It was first performed in 1626, and first published in 1629. A number of critics have agreed with its author, and judged it one of Massinger's best plays. Performance The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 11 October 1626, and performed later that year by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. Joseph Taylor, then the company's leading man, played the role of Paris, the title character. There is no record of another production of the play till 1692, when Thomas Betterton played Paris in a production by the United Company. The play was performed again in 1722 at Lincoln's Inn Fields. After that date the complete play fell out of fashion, though many actors, starting with John Philip Kemble in 1781, performed Paris's defense of the acting profession in Act I, scene 3 "as a short dramatic show-piece". Kemble also cut Massinger's text down t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including ''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes. Early life The son of Arthur Massinger or Messanger, he was baptised at St. Thomas's Salisbury on 24 November 1583. He apparently belonged to an old Salisbury family, for the name occurs in the city records as early as 1415. He is described in his matriculation entry at St. Alban Hall, Oxford (1602), as the son of a gentleman. His father, who had also been educated at St. Alban Hall, was a member of parliament, and was attached to the household of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Herbert recommended Arthur in 1587 for the office of examiner in the Court of the Marches. William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, who would come to oversee the London Stage and the royal company as King James's Lord Chamberlain, succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Spanish Curate
''The Spanish Curate'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It premiered on the stage in 1622, and was first published in 1647. Date and source The play was licensed for production by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 24 October 1622. The dramatists' source for their plot, the Spanish novel ''Gerardo, the Unfortunate Spaniard'' by Gonzalo de Céspedes y Meneses, was first published in English, in a translation by Leonard Digges, earlier in the same year. Performance and publication ''The Spanish Curate'' was acted by the King's Men, and was performed by that troupe at Court on St. Stephen's Day, 26 December 1622. The partial cast list of the premiere production, published in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679, includes Joseph Taylor, William Ecclestone, John Lowin, Thomas Pollard, Nicholas Tooley, and Robert Benfield. The play received its initial publication in the first Beaumont and Fletc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
