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Thomas Betterton
Thomas Betterton (August 1635 – 28 April 1710) was the leading male actor and theatre manager during Restoration England. He was the son of an under-cook to King Charles I and was born in London. Apprentice and actor Betterton was born in August 1635 in Tothill Street, Westminster. He was apprenticed to John Holden, Sir William Davenant's publisher, and possibly later to a bookseller named John Rhodes, who had been wardrobe-keeper at the Blackfriars Theatre. In 1659, Rhodes obtained a license to set up a company of players at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane; and on the reopening of this theatre in 1660, Betterton made his first appearance on the stage. Betterton's talents at once brought him into prominence, and he was given leading parts. On the opening of the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1661, Davenant, the patentee of the Duke's Company, engaged Betterton and all Rhodes's company to play in his '' The Siege of Rhodes''. Also in 1661 he played Prince Alva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Betterton By Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt
Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (other) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Apostle * Thomas (bishop of the East Angles) (fl. 640s–650s), medieval Bishop of the East Angles * Thomas (Archdeacon of Barnstaple) (fl. 1203), Archdeacon of Barnstaple * Thomas, Count of Perche (1195–1217), Count of Perche * Thomas (bishop of Finland) (1248), first known Bishop of Finland * Thomas, Earl of Mar (1330–1377), 14th-century Earl, Aberdeen, Scotland Geography Places in the United States * Thomas, Idaho * Thomas, Illinois * Thomas, Oklahoma * Thomas, Oregon * Thomas, South Dakota * Thomas, Virginia * Thomas, Washington * Thomas, West Virginia * Thomas County (other) * Thomas Township (other) Elsewhere * Thomas Glacier (Greenland) Arts and entertainment * ''Thomas'' (Burton novel), a 1969 novel by He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including ''The Rape of the Lock'', ''The Dunciad'', and ''An Essay on Criticism,'' and for his translations of Homer. Pope is often quoted in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations'', some of his verses having entered common parlance (e.g. "damning with faint praise" or "An Essay on Criticism, to err is human; to forgive, divine"). Life Alexander Pope was born in London on 21 May 1688 during the year of the Glorious Revolution. His father (Alexander Pope, 1646–1717) was a successful linen merchant in the Strand, London. His mother, Edith (née Turner, 1643–1733), was the daughter of William Turner, Esquire, of York. Both pare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Congreve (playwright)
William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright, satirist, poet, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He spent most of his career between London and Dublin, and was noted for his highly polished style of writing, being regarded by critics as one of the most important dramatists of the early Georgian era. He wrote some of the most popular poems of the 17th century, and is credited with developing the satirical comedy of manners genre. His plays and poems, which formed a major part of Restoration literature, were favorably viewed for their use of satire and comedy. Congreve is remembered for his play ''The Way of the World'' (1700), which is considered by literary commentators to be one of the centerpieces of Restoration comedy literature. Congreve also wrote several other notable plays, including ''The Old Bachelor'' (1693), ''The Double Dealer'' (1693), ''Love for Love'' (1695), and ''The Mourning Bride'' (1697), all of which he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Restoration Spectacular
The Restoration spectacular was a type of theatre production of the late 17th-century Restoration period, defined by the amount of money, time, sets, and performers it required to be produced. Productions attracted audiences with elaborate action, acrobatics, dance, costume, scenery, illusionistic painting, trapdoors, and fireworks. Although they were popular with contemporary audiences, spectaculars have earned a reputation from theatre historians as vulgar in contrast to the witty Restoration drama. The spectacular has roots in early 17th-century court masque, though it borrowed ideas and technology from French opera. Sometimes called "English opera", spectaculars were so varied as to give reluctance to theatre historians to define them as a genre. Spectaculars became increasingly expensive for their theatre companies; a flop could leave a company deeply in debt, while a success could leave a sizeable profit. Definition The distinction between "legitimate" Restoration dra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The History Of King Lear
''The History of King Lear'' is an adaptation by Nahum Tate of William Shakespeare's ''King Lear''. It first appeared in 1681, some seventy-five years after Shakespeare's version, and is believed to have replaced Shakespeare's version on the English stage in whole or in part until 1838.Stanley Wells, "Introduction" from ''King Lear'', Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 63; Stanley Wells and Michael Dobson, eds., ''The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare'' Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 247; Grace Ioppolo, ed., ''King Lear'', New York, Norton Critical Edition, 2008, Introduction, p. xii. While Tate's version proved extremely popular on the stage and received critical acclaim, the response of literary critics has generally been negative. Unlike Shakespeare's tragedy, Tate's play has a happy ending, with Lear regaining his throne, Cordelia marrying Edgar, and Edgar joyfully declaring that "truth and virtue shall at last succeed." Regarded as a tragicomedy, the play has five acts, as ... [...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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pericles, Prince Of Tyre
''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'' is a Jacobean play written at least in part by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected works despite questions over its authorship, as it was not included in the First Folio. It was published in 1609 as a quarto, was not included in Shakespeare's collections of works until the third folio, and the main inspiration for the play was Gower's '' Confessio Amantis''. Various arguments support the theory that Shakespeare was the sole author of the play, notably in DelVecchio and Hammond's Cambridge edition of the play, but modern editors generally agree that Shakespeare was responsible for almost exactly half the play — 827 lines — the main portion after scene 9 that follows the story of Pericles and Marina. Modern textual studies suggest that the first two acts, 835 lines detailing the many voyages of Pericles, were written by a collaborator, who may well have been the victualler, panderer, dramatist and pamphleteer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Taylor (scholar)
Gary Taylor (born 1953) is an American academic, Robert Lawton Distinguished University Professor of English at Florida State University, author of numerous books and articles, and joint editor of '' The Oxford Shakespeare'', '' The Oxford Middleton'', and " The New Oxford Shakespeare." Life The first member of his family to graduate from high school, Taylor won scholarships that led to bachelor's degrees in English and Classics from the University of Kansas (1975) and to a doctorate in English from the University of Cambridge (1988). With Stanley Wells, he worked for eight years as the "enfant terrible" of the Oxford Shakespeare (1978–86), a project that generated much controversy through editorial decisions such as printing two separate texts of ''King Lear'' and accepting and publicizing a manuscript attribution to Shakespeare of a poem commonly known as "Shall I die?" (an attribution that has since been almost universally rejected). He has taught at Oxford University, Cath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate ( ; 1652 – 30 July 1715) was an Anglo-Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who became Poet Laureate in 1692. Tate is best known for '' The History of King Lear'', his 1681 adaptation of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', and for his libretto for Henry Purcell's opera, ''Dido and Aeneas''. He also wrote the lyrics to a Christmas carol, " While shepherds watched their flocks". Life Nahum Tate was born in Dublin and came from a family of Puritan clerics. He was the son of Faithful Teate, an Irish cleric whose father, also Faithful, had been rector of Castleterra, Ballyhaise, until his house was burnt and his family attacked during the Irish Rebellion of 1641. After living at the provost's lodgings in Trinity College Dublin, Faithful Teate moved to England. He was the incumbent at East Greenwich around 1650, and "preacher of the gospel" at Sudbury from 1654 to 1658. He had returned to Dublin by 1660. He published a poem on the Trinity entitled ''Ter Tria'', as well as s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shadwell ( – 19 November 1692) was an English poet and playwright who was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate in 1689. Life Shadwell was born at either Bromehill Farm, Weeting-with-Broomhill or Santon House, Lynford, Norfolk, and educated at Bury St Edmunds School, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1656. He left the university without a degree and joined the Middle Temple. At the Glorious Revolution, Whig triumph in 1688, he superseded John Dryden as poet laureate and historiographer royal. He died at Chelsea on 19 November 1692.Thomas Shadwell He was buried in Chelsea Old Church, but his tomb was destroyed by wartime bombing. A memorial to him with a bust by Francis Bird survives in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. He wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dryden
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (England), Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romantic era, Romantic writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John". Early life Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was the rector of All Saints Church, Aldwincle, All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st BaroneSir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, t (1553–1632), and wife Frances Wilkes, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. He was a second cousin once removed of Jonath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
