|
William Blanchard (comedian)
William Blanchard (1769–1835) was an English comedian. Early life Blanchard was born in York on 2 January 1769, and for a few years was educated at a private school in that city. Losing both his father, John Blanchard, and his mother, whose maiden name was Clapham, while he was still a child, he was left to the care of his uncle, William Blanchard, long well known as the proprietor of the '' York Chronicle'', by whom he was reared with a tenderness seldom displayed even by a parent. In 1782 he was placed in his uncle's office. Early theatrical career He took such delight in Shakespeare that in 1785 he resolved to become an actor. He joined Mr. Welsh's company of travelling comedians at Buxton. His first appearance was as Allan-a-Dale in M'Nally's' Robin Hood.' For four years he played under the name of Bentley, but from 1789 in his own name. He took the parts of Achmet, Douglas, and even Romeo. Asperne, of the ''European Magazine'', wrote of him at that period: 'I knew Jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a minster, castle, and city walls. It is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of the wider City of York district. The city was founded under the name of Eboracum in 71 AD. It then became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Deira, Northumbria, and Scandinavian York. In the Middle Ages, it became the northern England ecclesiastical province's centre, and grew as a wool-trading centre. In the 19th century, it became a major railway network hub and confectionery manufacturing centre. During the Second World War, part of the Baedeker Blitz bombed the city; it was less affected by the war than other northern cities, with several historic buildings being gutted and restore ... [...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 arable l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Sir Andrew Aguecheek is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will''. One of the supporting characters, Sir Andrew is a stereotypical fool, who is goaded into unwisely duelling with Cesario and who is slowly having his money pilfered by Sir Toby Belch. He is dim-witted, vain and clownish. His role in the play not only provides comedy through his pathetic situation and his long speech, but also by his distinct, long-faced appearance and garish dress sense. The role has been a favourite for actors and has been performed by Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer, Paul Scofield and Roger Rees. Background and character Sir Andrew first appears in the third scene of Act I, as the so-called friend of Sir Toby Belch. Sir Andrew is a guest at the home of Sir Toby's niece Lady Olivia, where Sir Toby, a drunkard and glutton, resides. Although we are not made aware of Sir Andrew's family or connections, it is said that his annual income is 3,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Luke's Church, Chelsea
The Parish Church of St Luke, Chelsea, is an Anglican church, on Sydney Street, Chelsea, London SW3, just off the King's Road. Ecclesiastically it is in the Deanery of Chelsea, part of the Diocese of London. It was designed by James Savage in 1819 and is of architectural significance as one of the earliest Gothic Revival churches in London, perhaps the earliest to be a complete new construction. St Luke's is one of the first group of Commissioners' churches, having received a grant of £8,333 towards its construction with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Act of 1818. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The gardens of St Luke's are Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. History In the early 19th century Chelsea was in the process of expanding from a village to an area of London. St Luke's was built as a new, more centrally located replacement for the ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nell Gwynne
Eleanor Gwyn (2 February 1650 – 14 November 1687; also spelled ''Gwynn'', ''Gwynne'') was a celebrity figure of the Restoration period. Praised by Samuel Pepys for her comic performances as one of the first actresses on the English stage, she became best known for being a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England. Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of Cinderella. Gwyn had two sons by King Charles: Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726) and James Beauclerk (1671–1680) (the surname is pronounced ''boh-clair''). Charles was created Earl of Burford and later Duke of St Albans. Early life The details of Gwyn's background are somewhat obscure. A horoscope in the Ashmolean manuscripts gives her date of birth as 2 February 1650. On the other hand, an account published in ''The New Monthly Magazine an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold (London 3 January 18038 June 1857 London) was an English dramatist and writer. Biography Jerrold's father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Douglas moved to Sheerness, where he spent his childhood. He occasionally took a child part on the stage, but his father's profession held little attraction for him. In December 1813 he joined the guardship ''Namur'', where he had Jane Austen's brother Charles Austen as captain, and served as a midshipman until the peace of 1815. He saw nothing of the war save a number of wounded soldiers from Waterloo, but he retained an affection for the sea. The peace of 1815 ruined Jerrold's father; on 1 January 1816 he took his family to London, where Douglas began work as a printer's apprentice, and in 1819 he became a compositor in the printing-office of the ''Sunday Monitor''. Several short papers and copies of verses by him had already appeared in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jealous Wife
''The Jealous Wife'' is a 1761 British play by George Colman the Elder. A comedy, it was first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre on 12 February 1761 and ran for 19 performances in its first season and 70 by the end of the century. It was translated into French and German. Colman was indebted to Henry Fielding's novel '' Tom Jones'' as an inspiration for several characters and incidents and is an early example of a dramatisation of a popular novel. An Advertisement preceding ''The Jealous Wife'' in Colman's Dramatick Works of 1777 reveals that he also developed ideas for the play from The Spectator, The Connoisseur and The Adelphi of Terrance. David Garrick helped Colman to work on the draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ... and cut down its length.Nettleton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Henry Leigh Hunt
James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centre of the Hampstead-based group that included William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb, known as the "Hunt circle". Hunt also introduced John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson to the public. Hunt's presence at Shelley's funeral on the beach near Viareggio was immortalised in the painting by Louis Édouard Fournier. Hunt inspired aspects of the Harold Skimpole character in Charles Dickens' novel ''Bleak House''. Early life James Henry Leigh Hunt was born 19 October 1784, at Southgate, London, where his parents had settled after leaving the United States. His father, Isaac, a lawyer from Philadelphia, and his mother, Mary Shewell, a merchant's daughter and a devout Quaker, had been forced to come to Britain becau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polonius
Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. He is chief counsellor of the play's ultimate villain, Claudius, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Generally regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of the play, Polonius is described by William Hazlitt as a "sincere" father, but also "a busy-body, hois accordingly officious, garrulous, and impertinent". In Act II, Hamlet refers to Polonius as a "tedious old fool" and taunts him as a latter day "Jephtha". Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius, provoking Ophelia's descent into madness, ultimately resulting in her (probable) suicide and the climax of the play: a duel between Laertes and Hamlet. Character Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and counsellor to King Claudius, he is described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others. It has also been suggested that he only acts like a "foolish prating knave" to keep his position and popul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menenius
The gens Menenia was a very ancient and illustrious patrician house at ancient Rome from the earliest days of the Roman Republic to the first half of the fourth century BC. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Agrippa Menenius Lanatus in 503 BC. The gens eventually drifted into obscurity, although its members were still living in the first century BC. Origin During the first secession of the plebs in 493 BC, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, the former consul, was despatched by the Senate as an emissary to the plebeians, who were gathered on the ''Mons Sacer''. He said that he was sprung from the plebs, although he and several generations of his descendants held the consulship at a time when it was open only to the patricians. This suggests that the Menenii must have been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, p. 716 (" Lanatus"). Praenomina The Menenii are known to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Hugh Evans
''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. Chara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fluellen
Fluellen is a fictional character in the play ''Henry V'' by William Shakespeare. Fluellen is a Welsh Captain, a leader of a contingent of troops in the small army of King Henry V of England while on campaign in France during the Hundred Years' War. He is a comic figure, whose characterisation draws on stereotypes of the Welsh at that time, but he is also portrayed as a loyal, brave and dedicated soldier. Name The name 'Fluellen' is an anglicised version of the Welsh language Llywelyn.Innes, Paul, ''Class and Society in Shakespeare'', Bloomsbury, 2007, p. 535. The Welsh sound does not exist in English, but is perceived by English speakers as similar to sequence ''fl''. A similar process of anglicisation can be seen with '' Floyd'' for ''Llwyd'' (''Lloyd'' being an alternative anglicisation retaining the double L, but changing the spelling of the vowel). Character Shakespeare adheres to his seemingly common principle of portraying Welsh characters in his plays as basically come ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Nell Gwynne")
