|
The Wives Excuse
''The Wives Excuse'' also ''The Wives Excuse; Or, Cuckolds Make Themselves'' is a 1691 comedy play by the Anglo-Irish writer Thomas Southerne. The title is sometimes written more grammatically as ''The Wives' Excuse''. It was originally staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the United Company with a cast that included Thomas Betterton as Lovemore, Edward Kynaston as Wellvile, Joseph Williams as Wilding, John Bowman as Courtall, William Mountfort as Friendall, George Bright as Ruffle, Joseph Harris as Musick Master, Elizabeth Barry as Mrs Friendall, Anne Bracegirdle as Mrs Sightly, Susanna Mountfort as Mrs Wittwoud and Katherine Corey Katherine Corey ( fl. 1660 – 1692) was an English actress of the Restoration era, one of the first generation of female performers to appear on the public stage in Britain. Corey played with the King's Company and the United Company, and had one ... as Mrs Teazall.Van Lennep p.402-03 References Bibliography * Van Lennep, W. ''The Lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Southerne
Thomas Southerne (12 February 166026 May 1746) was an Irish dramatist. Biography Thomas Southerne, born on 12 February 1660, in Oxmantown, near Dublin, was an Irish dramatist. He was the son of Francis Southerne (a Dublin brewer) and Margaret Southerne. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, in 1676 for two years. In 1680, he began attending Middle Temple, London, to study law but was drawn away by his interest for theater. By 1682 he was greatly influenced by John Dryden and produced his first play, ''The Loyal Brother'', which was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the King's Company. Southerne bought his prologue and epilogue from Dryden, who made extra income from his ability to turn such pieces. Despite his friendship with the new playwright, Dryden raised his prices for Southerne".(Kaufman) In 1684, Southerne produced his second play,''The Disappointment (play), The Disappointment'', or, ''The Mother in Fashion'' (Kaufman). However, in 1685 Southerne enlisted a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bright (actor)
George Bright was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. He specialised in playing "comic dullards, fops and bouncy servants".Hughes p.197 After beginning his career in Dublin he joined the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in 1679 and then became part of the merged United Company in 1682. Selected roles * Ajax in ''Troilus and Cressida'' by John Dryden (1679) * Glisten in '' The Revenge'' by Aphra Behn (1680) * Baltazer in ''The False Count'' by Aphra Behn (1681) * Slouch in ''The Royalist'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1682) * Sheriff in '' The Duke of Guise'' by John Dryden (1682) * Farmer in ''Dame Dobson'' by Edward Ravenscroft (1683) * Martin in ''A Jovial Crew'' by Richard Brome (1683) * Howdee in ''The Northern Lass'' by Richard Brome (1684) * Captain Hackum in ''The Squire of Alsatia'' by Thomas Shadwell (1688) * Dullman in ''The Widow Ranter'' by Aphra Behn (1689) * Don Pedro in ''The Successful Strangers'' by William Mountfort (1690) * D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West End Plays
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages (''ouest'' in French, ''oest'' in Catalan, ''ovest'' in Italian, ''oeste'' in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from the Indo-European root ''*wes'' reduced from ''*wes-pero'' 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος hesperos 'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב maarav 'west' from עֶרֶב erev 'evening'. Navigation To go west using a compass for navigation (in a place where magnetic north is the same dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1691 Plays
Events January–March * January 6 – King William III of England, who rules Scotland and Ireland as well as being the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, departs from Margate to tend to the affairs of the Netherlands. * January 14 – A fleet of ships carrying 827 Spanish Navy sailors and marines arrives at Manzanillo Bay on the island of Hispaniola in what is now the Dominican Republic and joins 700 Spanish cavalry, then proceeds westward to invade the French side of the island in what is now Haiti. * January 15 – King Louis XIV of France issues an order specifically prohibiting play of games of chance, specifically naming basset and similar games, on penalty of 1,000 livres for the first offence. * January 23 – Spanish colonial administrator Domingo Terán de los Ríos, most recently the governor of Sonora y Sinaloa on the east side of the Gulf of California, is assigned by the Viceroy of New Spain to administer a new province that governs lands on both sides of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katherine Corey
Katherine Corey ( fl. 1660 – 1692) was an English actress of the Restoration era, one of the first generation of female performers to appear on the public stage in Britain. Corey played with the King's Company and the United Company, and had one of the longest careers of any actress in her generation. In "The humble petition of Katherine Corey" (see below), she stated that she "was the first and is the last of all the actresses that were constituted by King Charles the Second at His Restauration." Correy started her career under her maiden name, Mitchell, but was Mrs. Corey by 1663. "Mrs Corey was a big woman with a gift for comedy. She was popular in a variety of roles, but especially in old women parts: scolding wives, mothers, governesses, waiting women, and bawds." In his Diary, Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susanna Verbruggen
Susanna Verbruggen (née Percival) (c. 1667–1703), aka Susanna Mountfort, was an England, English actress working in London. Life She was the daughter of Thomas Percival (actor), 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 Thomas D'Urfey, 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 English Restoration, Restoration Rake (character), 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 and w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Harris (stage Actor)
Joseph Harris (c.1650–1715) was an English stage actor and playwright. His earliest known performance was in the United Company's '' The Bloody Brother'' in 1685. Earlier mentions an actor named Harris are likely to refer to an earlier lesser-known actor William Harris or even the celebrated Restoration performer Henry Harris. He remained with the United Company until 1695 when he joined Thomas Betterton's breakaway company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. He acted there until around 1705, although some reports have him still acting as late as 1715.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.132-33 He wrote three plays '' The Mistakes'' (1690), ''The City Bride'' (1696) and '' Love's a Lottery'' (1699). Selected roles * Bourcher in ''A Commonwealth of Women'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1685) * Downright in ''The Widow Ranter'' by Aphra Behn (1689) * Alberto Gondi in ''The Massacre of Paris'' by Nathaniel Lee (1689) * Guillamar in '' King Arthur'' by John Dryden (1691) * Lanoo in '' Bussy D' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Mountfort
William Mountfort (c. 1664 – 10 December 1692), England, English actor and dramatic writer, was the son of a Staffordshire gentleman. Biography His first stage appearance was with the Dorset Garden Theatre company about 1678, and by 1682 he was taking important parts, usually those of the fine gentleman. Mountfort wrote a number of plays, wholly or in part, and many prologues and epilogues. In 1686 he married the actress Susanna Verbruggen, Susanna Percival. Owing to jealousy of Mrs. Anne Bracegirdle, Anne Bracegirdle's supposed interest in Mountfort, Captain Richard Hill, an adventurer, who had annoyed her with persistent attentions, accompanied by Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, Charles Mohun, Baron Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun ambushed Mountfort in Howard Street, Strand, London, Strand, on 9 December 1692. During the struggle Mountfort was stabbed in the chest by Hill, and he died of his wounds the following day. Following the attack Hill fled to France. Lord Mohun was trie ... [...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] |
John Bowman (actor)
John Bowman (1651–1739) was a British stage actor.''The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama'' p.XXXVIII He began his career in the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre. In 1692 he married Elizabeth Watson, who acted under the name Elizabeth Bowman. He later switched to act at the Drury Lane Theatre. He is also referred to as John Boman. Selected roles * Peter Santloe in ''The Counterfeit Bridegroom'' by Aphra Behn (1677) * Saunter in '' Friendship in Fashion'' by Thomas Otway (1678) * Patroclus in '' The Destruction of Troy'' by John Banks (1678) * Pisander in '' The Loyal General'' by Nahum Tate (1679) * Crotchett '' The Virtuous Wife'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1679) * Patroclus in ''Troilus and Cressida'' by John Dryden (1679) * Mr Shatter in '' The Revenge'' by Aphra Behn (1680) * Duke of Clarence in ''The Misery of Civil War'' by John Crowne (1680) * Atticus in ''Theodosius'' by Nathaniel Lee (1680) * Dreswell in ''The City Heiress'' by Aphra Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
