Michael Bowyer (1599–1645) was an actor in
English Renaissance theatre in the
Jacobean and
Caroline
Caroline may refer to:
People
* Caroline (given name), a feminine given name
* J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player
* Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player
Places Antarctica
* ...
eras. He spent most of his maturity with
Queen Henrietta's Men, but finished his career with the
King's Men. With the former company, he was one of "those of principal note," according to James Wright's ''
Historia Histrionica
''Historia Histrionica'' is a 1699 literary work by James Wright (1643-1713), on the subject of theatre in England in the seventeenth century. It is an essential resource for information on the actors and theatrical life of the period, providing d ...
'' (
1699
Events
January–March
* January 5 – A violent Java earthquake damages the city of Batavia on the Indonesian island of Java, killing at least 28 people
* January 20 – The Parliament of England (under Tory dominance) limits the size ...
), one of the troupe's "eminent actors."
Bowyer, the son of a John Bowyer, was christened on 20 September 1599 in
Kidderminster,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
. He played a series of important roles through his career, including:
* Beaufort in
James Shirley's ''
The Wedding'';
* King John in
Robert Davenport Robert Davenport may refer to:
* Robert Davenport (dramatist) (fl. 1623–1639), English dramatist
* Robert Davenport (Australian politician) (1816–1896), pioneer and politician in the Colony of South Australia
* Robert Davenport (cricketer) (185 ...
's ''
King John and Matilda
''King John and Matilda'' is a Caroline era stage play, a historical tragedy written by Robert Davenport. It was initially published in 1655; the cast list included in the first edition provides valuable information on some of the actors of Eng ...
'';
* Vitelli in
Philip Massinger's ''
The Renegado'';
* Mr. Spencer in
Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'', a ...
's ''
The Fair Maid of the West'';
* Scipio in
Thomas Nabbes
Thomas Nabbes (1605 – buried 6 April 1641) was an English dramatist.
He was born in humble circumstances in Worcestershire, was educated at as a King's scholar at the King's School, Worcester (1616–1620), and entered Exeter College, Oxfo ...
's ''
Hannibal and Scipio''.
Robert Davenport dedicated his poem ''Too Late to Call Back Yesterday'' to Bowyer and
Richard Robinson.
The Queen's Men were disrupted by a long theatre closure due to
bubonic plague
Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well a ...
, which lasted from May 1636 to October 1637. Bowyer, along with three other veterans of that troupe, may have been with
James Shirley at the
Werburgh Street Theatre
The Werburgh Street Theatre, also the Saint Werbrugh Street Theatre or the New Theatre, was a seventeenth-century theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Scholars and historians of the subject generally identify it as the "first custom-built theatre in the c ...
in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
from 1637 to 1640.
Bowyer was a member of the King's Men by January 1640. He was one of the six members of that company who were named
Grooms of the Chamber on 22 January 1641, indicating that he was a sharer in the troupe by that time.
As with many actors, his fortunes passed into eclipse after
the London theatres were closed in September 1642 at the start of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. According to a 1655 lawsuit filed by fellow Queen Henrietta's and King's Man
Theophilus Bird, Bowyer, along with
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. H ...
and other members of the King's Men, sold off the company's play scripts and costumes sometime after the theatres closed. By the time of Bird's suit, Bowyer was a decade dead.
Little is known of Bowyer's personal life. He and his wife christened and then buried a son named William in 1621; and they christened and buried another son of the same name the following year, 1622.
[Emma Marshall Denkinger, "Actors' Names in the Registers of St. Bodolph Aldgate," ''Papers of the Modern Language Association'' Vol. 41 No. 1 (March 1926), pp. 91-109; see pp. 98-9.]
References
External links
''Theatre Notebook''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowyer, Michael
English male stage actors
17th-century English male actors
1599 births
1645 deaths
King's Men (playing company)