The Old Batchelor
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The Old Batchelor
"The Old Bachelor" at Covent Garden in 1756 featuring Mrs Elmy... ''The Old Bachelor'' is the first play written by United Kingdom, British playwright William Congreve, produced in 1693 in literature, 1693. Henry Purcell set it to music. Originally staged by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane the cast included Thomas Betterton as Heartwell, George Powell as Bellmour, Joseph Williams as Vainlove, William Bowen as Sir Joseph, Joseph Haines as Bluff, Thomas Doggett as Fondlewife, Cave Underhill as Servant, Anne Bracegirdle as Araminta, Susanna Mountfort as Belinda, Elizabeth Barry as Laetitia, Elizabeth Bowman as Sylvia, Elinor Leigh as Lucy. Plot The 'Old Bachelor' is Heartwell, 'a surly old bachelor, pretending to slight women', who falls in love with Silvia, not knowing her to be the forsaken mistress of Vainlove, and is lured into marrying her, only discovering her true character afterwards, from the gibes of his acquaintances. The parson who has been b ...
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Bodleian Libraries, Playbill Of Covent Garden, Monday, 9th February 1756, Announcing The Old Batchelor &c
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms. In 2000, a number of libraries within the University of Oxford were brought together for administrative purposes under the aegis of what was initially known as Oxford University Library Services (OULS), and since 2010 as the Bodleian Libraries, of which the Bodleian Library is the largest compo ...
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Cave Underhill
Cave Underhill (1634–1710?) was an English actor in comedy roles. Underhill entertained three generations of London theatre-goers. For over 40 years, as a member of the Duke's Company, Underhill played the first Gravedigger in ''Hamlet''. He was also successful in playing Gregory in ''Romeo and Juliet'', the clown in ''Twelfth Night'', and Trinculo in '' The Tempest''. Early life The son of Nicholas Underhill, a clothworker, he was born in St. Andrew's parish, Holborn, London, on 17 March 1634, and was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School in January 1645. He became first a member of the acting company which was gathered by John Rhodes. around Thomas Betterton. He was then recruited for Sir William D'Avenant and the Duke of York's company at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1663 he was fined in an assault case, with Betterton and James Noke. Stage career The first character to which Underhill's name appears is Sir Morglay Thwack in D'Avenant's comedy ''The Wits'', re ...
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Plays By William Congreve
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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1693 Plays
Events January–March * January 11 – 1693 Sicily earthquake: Mount Etna erupts, causing a devastating earthquake that affects parts of Sicily and Malta. * January 22 – A total lunar eclipse is visible across North and South America. * February 8 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a Royal charter. * February 27 – The publication of the first women's magazine, titled ''The Ladies' Mercury'', takes place in London. It is published by the Athenian Society. * March 27 – Bozoklu Mustafa Pasha becomes the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, after Sultan Ahmed II appoints him as the successor of Çalık Ali Pasha. April–June * April 4 – Anne Palles becomes the last accused witch to be executed for witchcraft in Denmark, after having been convicted of using powers of sorcery. King Christian V accepts her plea not to be burned alive, and she is beheaded before her body is set afire. * April 5 – The Order of Saint L ...
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Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848. Macaulay's '' The History of England'', which expressed his contention of the superiority of the Western European culture and of the inevitability of its sociopolitical progress, is a seminal example of Whig history that remains commended for its prose style. Early life Macaulay was born at Rothley Temple in Leicestershire on 25 October 1800, the son of Zachary Macaulay, a Scottish Highlander, who became a colonial governor and abolitionist, and Selina Mills of Bristol, a former pupil of Hannah More. They named their first child after his uncle Thomas Babington, a Leicestershire landowner and politician, who had married Zachary's sister Jean. The young Macaulay was noted as a child prodigy; as a toddler, gazing out of the wind ...
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Parson
A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It is no longer a formal term denoting a specific position within Anglicanism, but has some continued historical and colloquial use. In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization. The term is similar to rector and is in contrast to a vicar, a cleric whose revenue is usually, at least partially, appropriated by a larger organisation. Today the term is normally used for some parish clergy of non-Roman Catholic churches, in particular in the Anglican tradition in which a parson is the incumbent of a parochial benefice: a parish priest or a rector; in this sense a parson can be compared with a vicar. The title ''parson'' can be applied to ...
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Elinor Leigh
Elinor Leigh was a British stage actor of the seventeenth century. Born Elinor Dixon, she was billed as Mrs Leigh or Mrs Lee after she married the actor Anthony Leigh in 1671. This has led to some difficulty distinguishing on playbills between her and the actress Mary Slingsby who also acted under her married name of Lee at the time. In addition another actress with the name Elizabeth Leigh was also active during the period. She was a member of the Duke's Company in the 1670s which was then merged into the United Company from 1682, acting mainly at Drury Lane. Her husband died in 1692, and in 1695 she joined those who left to form a new company under Thomas Betterton at the Lincoln's Inn Fields TheatreThe Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama p.lvi Selected roles * Melvissa in '' The Women's Conquest'' by Edward Howard (1670) * Petilla in ''The Six Days' Adventure'' by Edward Howard (1671) * Orinda in ''Cambyses, King Of Persia'' by Elkanah Settle (1 ...
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Elizabeth Bowman
Elizabeth Bowman (c. 1677 – 1707) was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.Caines p.149 The daughter of Sir Francis Watson, 1st Baronet she was adopted by the actor manager Thomas Betterton. In 1692 she married John Bowman and began acting at Drury Lane the following year as Mrs Bowman. She was a member of the United Company until 1695 then joined Betterton's breakaway at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. Selected roles * Sylvia in '' The Old Batchelor'' by William Congreve (1693) * Mrs Stockjobb in ''The Richmond Heiress'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1693) * Cecilia in ''The Married Beau'' by John Crowne (1694) * Mrs Foresight in ''Love For Love'' by William Congreve (1695) * Juliana in ''She Ventures and He Wins'' by Ariadne (1695) * Mrs Plant in ''The Lover's Luck'' by Thomas Dilke (1695) * Lucinda in ''The She-Gallants'' by George Granville (1695) * Arabella '' The City Bride'' by Joseph Harris (1696) * Selima in '' The Royal Mischief'' by Delariv ...
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Elizabeth Barry
Elizabeth Barry (1658 – 7 November 1713) was an English actress of the Restoration period. Elizabeth Barry's biggest influence on Restoration drama was her presentation of performing as the tragic actress. She worked in large, prestigious London theatre companies throughout her successful career: from 1675 in the Duke's Company, 1682 – 1695 in the monopoly United Company, and from 1695 onwards as a member of the actors' cooperative usually known as Betterton's Company, of which she was one of the original shareholders. Her stage career began 15 years after the first-ever professional actresses had replaced Shakespeare's boy heroines on the London stage. The actor Thomas Betterton said that her acting gave "success to plays that would disgust the most patient reader", and the critic and playwright John Dennis described her as "that incomparable Actress changing like Nature which she represents, from Passion to Passion, from Extream to Extream, with piercing Force ...
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Susanna Verbruggen
Susanna Verbruggen (née Percival) (c. 1667–1703), aka Susanna Mountfort, was an English actress working in London. Life She was the daughter of Thomas Percival, a member of the Duke's Company for more than a decade. Her first recorded stage appearance may have been as early as 1681 in D'Urfey's ''Sir Barnaby Whigg''. In 1686 she married the actor William Mountfort, and after Mountfort's infamous murder in 1692, she married the actor John Verbruggen. She was a successful and popular comedian, known especially for her breeches roles. Her greatest success was as the main character Lucia in Thomas Southerne's ''Sir Anthony Love'', where Lucia partakes of the freedom of the roistering Restoration rake by disguising herself as "Sir Anthony". Both men and women in the audience loved her performance in these types of roles. She was one of the leading actresses at the United Company, but when the company split in two in 1695 (see Restoration comedy) she was, however, not offered a ...
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Anne Bracegirdle
Anne Bracegirdle (possibly 167112 September 1748) was an English actress. Biography Bracegirdle was born to Justinian and Martha (born Furniss) Bracegirdle in Northamptonshire. She was baptised in Northampton on 15 November 1671, although her tombstone says that she died at the age of 85 (suggesting that she was born around 1663)."Anne was baptized, probably as an infant, at St Giles, Northampton, on 15 November 1671 and was about seventy-seven when she died in 1748, rather than eighty-five, as recorded on her tombstone in Westminster Abbey." J. Milling, "Bracegirdle, Anne (bap. 1671, d. 1748)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 201accessed 1 June 2012/ref> She was probably raised by actors Thomas and Mary Betterton from an early age,J. Milling, "Bracegirdle, Anne (bap. 1671, d. 1748)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 201accessed 1 June 2012/ref> and it is speculated tha ...
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