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The Coffee House (play)
''The Coffee House'' is a 1738 comedy play by the British writer James Miller, written as an afterpiece. After being performed at Drury Lane, it was published later that year with some alterations to the play's original text. The original Drury Lane cast included Benjamin Griffin as Harpie, Charles Macklin as Bays, John Harper as Booswell, William Havard as Hartly, Richard Winstone as Gaylove, Theophilus Cibber as Cibber, a Comedian and Kitty Clive Catherine Clive (née Raftor; 5 November 1711 – 6 December 1785) Catherine ‘Kitty’ Clive (1711-1785, active 1728-1769) was a first songster and star comedienne of British playhouse entertainment. Clive led and created new forms of English ... as Miss Kitty. The role of the poet played by Macklin was apparently intended as a caricature of Richard Savage.Baines & Ferarro References Bibliography * Baines, Paul & Ferarro, Julian & Rogers, Pat. ''The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Miller (playwright)
James Miller (1704–1744) was an English playwright, poet, librettist, and minister. Biography Miller was born in Bridport, Dorset on 11 August 1704, the son of a clergyman who possessed two considerable livings in the county. He studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and while there wrote part of his famous comedy, '' The Humours of Oxford'', which contained music by Richard Charke and was first performed on 9 January 1730, to great success. Miller's family was somewhat unsupportive of his theatrical endeavors. They had wanted him to pursue a career in business, but Miller showed a revulsion to such a path. He therefore was persuaded to follow in his father's profession as a minister, taking holy orders soon after he left Wadham. Miller became a lecturer at Trinity College, Conduit Street and a preacher at Roehampton Chapel. The livings for these positions however did not provide for the lifestyle that Miller was accustomed to, so he continued to write for the stage to supp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afterpiece
An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers,2003 This short comedy, farce, opera or pantomime was a popular theatrical form in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was presented to lighten the five-act tragedy that was commonly performed. A similar piece preceding the main attraction is a curtain raiser. An example is ''The Padlock'' by Charles Dibdin, first performed in London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ... in 1768. Notes Theatrical genres Opera genres {{Theat-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Griffin (actor)
Benjamin Griffin (1680–1740), was an English actor and dramatist. He was the son of the Rev. Benjamin Griffin, rector of Buxton and Oxnead in Norfolk, and chaplain to the Earl of Yarmouth. Early life Griffin was born in Yarmouth in 1680, and educated at the free school, North Walsham. He was apprenticed to a glazier at Norwich, where in 1712 he joined a strolling company. In 1714-15 he was one of the company with which Christopher Rich opened the rebuilt theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Acting career His name first appears in surviving records, 16 Feb. 1715, as Sterling in '' The Perplexed Couple''. On 2 June he was Ezekiel Prim, a presbyterian parson, in the ''A City Ramble ''A City Ramble: or, the humours of the compter'' (sometimes ''The City Ramble'') is a 1715 dramatic comedy play by the British writer Charles Knipe. It was first performed at Lincoln's-Inn Fields Theatre, London in 1715. It was performed as an a ...'', and on 14 June Sir Arthur Addlepate in his own ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Macklin
Charles Macklin (26 September 1699 – 11 July 1797), (Gaelic: Cathal MacLochlainn, English: Charles McLaughlin), was an Irish actor and dramatist who performed extensively at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Macklin revolutionised theatre in the 18th century by introducing a "natural style" of acting. He is also famous for accidentally killing a man during a fight over a wig at the same theatre. Macklin was born in County Donegal in the Irish region of Ulster in the north of Ireland. He was raised in Dublin, where he attended school in Islandbridge after his father's death and his mother's remarriage. Macklin became known for his many performances in the tragedy and comedy genre of plays. He gained his greatest fame in the role of Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice.'' Macklin enjoyed a long career which was often steeped in controversy before dying aged 97. Early life It is thought that Macklin was born near Culdaff, a village in Inishowen in the north of County Donegal in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Harper (actor)
John Harper (died 1742) was an English actor. He was known for comic parts. Life Harper originally performed at Bartholomew Fair and Southwark Fair; a performance for his benefit at William Bullock's booth in Birdcage Alley, consisting of '' The Jew of Venice'', songs and dances, and the drunken man by Harper, was announced in ''The Daily Courant'' of 24 September 1719. On 7 November 1719 at Lincoln's Inn Fields Harper was the original Montmorency in Charles Beckingham's ''Henry IV of France''. He remained at Lincoln's Inn Fields until 1721.Playing among other parts Dr. Caius in the ''Merry Wives of Windsor'', and Ajax in ''Troilus and Cressida''. On 27 October 1721 his name appears as Sir Epicure Mammon in ''The Alchemist'' at Drury Lane. Here he remained for eleven years, taking parts for a low comedian. For some years he was the Falstaff of Drury Lane, and was more popular in the part than his rival James Quin. He also played the king in '' King Henry VIII'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Havard (actor)
William Havard (1710?–1778), was a British actor and dramatist. Havard appeared at Goodman's Fields Theatre, 1730–1737, and then at the Drury Lane Theatre until retirement in 1769. He generally played secondary parts; depreciated in Rosciad. He also appeared in his own plays, '' King Charles I'' at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1737; ''Regulus'' Drury Lane, 1744; and ''The Elopement'' Drury Lane, 1763. Selected roles * Montesini in '' The Parricide'' (1736) * Rosebrand in ''The Independent Patriot'' (1737) * Talthybius in ''Agamemnon'' (1738) * Hartly in '' The Coffee House'' (1738) * Achmet in '' Mustapha'' (1739) * Young Freeman in '' Love the Cause and Cure of Grief'' (1743) * Decius in ''Regulus'' (1744) * Young Whimsey in '' The Astrologer'' (1744) * Rodolpho in '' Tancred and Sigismunda'' (1745) * Bellamy in ''The Suspicious Husband'' (1747) * Colonel Raymond in '' The Foundling'' (1748) * Abdalla, An Officer in '' Irene'' (1749) * Arnold in ''Edward the Black Prince'' (1750 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Winstone
Richard Winstone (1699-1787) was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century. In 1732 Winstone joined Henry Giffard's Goodman's Fields Theatre. After this he worked at several London theatres including Lincoln's Inn Fields, Haymarket Theate and Bartholomew Fair. From 1734 to 1753 he was an established part of the Drury Lane company working with David Garrick amongst others, making occasional appearances at other theatres. From 1743 he spent his summers working at the Jacobs Well Theatre in Bristol. After making his final London appearance in May 1753 he settled in Bristol and took an active role in the company there, which eventually gained a new home at the Theatre Royal, Bristol and also performed in Bath. He retired in 1784 and died in the city three years later.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.190 Selected roles * Selim in '' Scanderbeg'' (1733) * Silvus in '' Junius Brutus'' (1734) * Paulinus in '' The Christian Hero'' (1735) * Touchwood in ''The Double Dealer'' (1735 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophilus Cibber
Theophilus Cibber (25 or 26 November 1703 – October 1758) was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber. He began acting at an early age, and followed his father into theatrical management. In 1727, Alexander Pope satirized Theophilus Cibber in his ''Dunciad'' as a youth who "thrusts his person full into your face" (III 132). On the stage, he was famous for playing Pistol in '' Henry IV, Part 2'', and some of the comic roles his father had played when younger, but unsympathetic critics accused him of overemphasis.Barker, p. 166 His private life later led Theophilus into bad reputation and scandal. He died in a shipwreck while bound for Ireland and a season in Dublin. Early life and career Theophilus Cibber was born during the Great Storm of 1703 and began acting in the Drury Lane Theatre at the age of 16 in 1721.Barker, p. 165 As a young man, Cibber was a notorious rake, and associated with young men of a similar mind and reputation, such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kitty Clive
Catherine Clive (née Raftor; 5 November 1711 – 6 December 1785) Catherine ‘Kitty’ Clive (1711-1785, active 1728-1769) was a first songster and star comedienne of British playhouse entertainment. Clive led and created new forms of English musical theatre. She was celebrated both in high-style parts – singing, for instance, Handel’s music for her in ''Messiah'', ''Samson'', and ''The Way of the World'' – and in low-style ballad opera roles. Her likeness was printed and traded in unprecedented volume. She championed women’s rights throughout her career. An image crisis in the late 1740s forced Clive to quit serious song and instead lampoon herself on stage. Though this self-ridicule won Clive public favour back, and she reigned as first comedienne until her retirement in 1769, the strategy’s very success caused her musical legacy to be slighted and forgotten. A definitive biography of Clive by Berta Joncus appeared in 2019. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Savage (poet)
Richard Savage (c. 1697 – 1 August 1743) was an English poet. He is best known as the subject of Samuel Johnson's '' Life of Savage'', originally published anonymously in 1744, which is based on one of the most elaborate of Johnson's ''Lives of the English Poets''. Life Early life What is known about Savage's early life mostly comes from Johnson's ''Life of Savage''. However, such information is not entirely trustworthy, since Johnson did not feel the need to thoroughly investigate Savage's past. Johnson relied almost solely on books, papers and magazines that publisher Edward Cave retrieved for him from ''The Gentleman's Magazine''s archives. In 1698 Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, obtained a divorce from his wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Mason. Shortly afterwards she married Colonel Henry Brett. Lady Macclesfield had two children by Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, the second of whom was born at Fox Court, Holborn, on 16 January 1697, and christened two days ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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