William Burnaby (1673-1706) was an English writer, primarily known for authoring several plays in the early

eighteenth century The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave tradi ...

. Three of his works were late entries into the Restoration Comedy tradition. The son of a London

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer ...

also named William Burnaby, he attended Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1691 and then the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

. Following this he turned to playwriting, having plays produced by the major London theatres at Drury Lane and the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. His works include ''

The Ladies Visiting Day ''The Ladies Visiting Day'' is a 1701 comedy play by the English writer William Burnaby.Nicoll p.98 The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included Thomas Betterton as Courtine, John Verbruggen as Polidore, Thomas Doggett as Sir Testy Dolt, Ge ...

''. '' The Modish Husband'' (1702) and '' Love Betrayed'' (1703). He died at the age of thirty three, and is buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

. In 1931 the complete ''The Dramatic Works of William Burnaby'' was published.

References

Bibliography

* Burnett, Mark Thornton. ''Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts''. Edinburgh University Press, 2011. * Dugas, Don-John. ''Marketing the Bard: Shakespeare in Performance and Print, 1660-1740''. University of Missouri Press, 2006. * Lowerre, Kathryn. ''Music and Musicians on the London Stage, 1695-1705''. Routledge, 2017. * Nicoll, Allardyce. ''History of English Drama, 1660-1900, Volume 2''. Cambridge University Press, 2009. 18th-century English people English dramatists and playwrights 1673 births 1706 deaths {{England-writer-stub