''The Half-Pay Officers'' is a 1720

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 endin ...

by the Irish writer Charles Molloy. The play included popular scenes from ''

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...

'', ''

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

'' and '' Love and Honour''.Nicoll p.142 It proved popular with audiences and was revived on a number of occasions. It premiered with the farce ''

Hob's Wedding ''Hob's Wedding'' is a 1720 farce by the Irish writer John Leigh. An afterpiece, it premiered at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in support of the comedy '' The Half Pay Officers'' by Charles Molloy. The original cast included William Bulloc ...

'' as an

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, o ...

. The original cast at

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...

included

Lacy Ryan Lacy Ryan (c. 1694–1760), English actor, appeared at the Haymarket Theatre about 1709. Life By 1718 he had joined the company at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he shared the lead with his friend James Quin. He took leading roles in ''Richard ...

as Bellayr, Benjamin Griffin as Fluellin,

Christopher Bullock Sir Christopher Llewellyn Bullock, KCB, CBE (10 November 1891 – 16 May 1972), a prominent member of the Bullock family, was Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Air Ministry from 1931 to 1936. Appointed at the age of 38, he remains one o ...

as Meagre,

Anthony Boheme Anthony Boheme (died 1731) was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century. His year of birth is unknown. From 1720 he was a long-standing part of John Rich's company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre until his death. He was married to the ...

as Jaspar and John Harper as Loadham. The premiere was attended by George Prince of Wales.

References

Bibliography

* Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992. * Nicoll, Allardyce. ''A History of Early Eighteenth Century Drama: 1700-1750''. CUP Archive, 1927. 1720 plays British plays Irish plays West End plays Comedy plays {{18thC-play-stub