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The Masquerade (play)
''The Masquerade'' is a 1719 comedy play by the British writer Charles Johnson. The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as Sir George Jealous, Thomas Elrington as Ombre, Joe Miller as Smart, Colley Cibber as Masquerader, Henry Norris as Whisper, Anne Oldfield as Sophronia, Sarah Thurmond as Lady Frances Ombre and Christiana Horton Christiana Horton (c. 1696 – c. 1756) was an English actress. She first appeared in London as Melinda in ''The Recruiting Officer'' in 1714 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Here she remained twenty years, followed by fifteen at the ... as Caelia. 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. ''History of English Drama, 1660-1900, Volume 2''. Cambridge University Press, 2009. 1719 plays West End plays Plays by Charles Johnson Comedy plays {{play-stub ...
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Charles Johnson (writer)
Charles Johnson (1679 – 11 March 1748) was an English playwright, tavern keeper, and enemy of Alexander Pope's. He was a dedicated Whig who allied himself with the Duke of Marlborough, Colley Cibber, and those who rose in opposition to Queen Anne's Tory ministry of 1710–1714. Johnson claimed to be trained in the law, but there is no evidence of his membership in any of the inns of court. At the same time, it is possible that he was a lawyer, as his first two published works, in 1704 and 1705 (''Marlborough; on the Late Glorious Victory Near Hochstet in Germany'' and '' The Queen; a Pindaric Ode'') had him living in Gray's Inn, and he married a Mary Bradbury in Gray's Inn chapel in 1709, the year of his first play, '' Love and Liberty'' (unproduced). Some time around 1710, he became friends with the actor-manager of Drury Lane Theatre, Robert Wilks, and Wilks ensured that Johnson's plays received consideration. In 1711, ''The Wife's Relief'' was a great success. The play ...
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Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drury Lane. The building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music). The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially ...
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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 ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, the ''Divine Comedy'' (Italian: ''Divina Commedia''). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. The predominating characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play insti ...
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Robert Wilks
Robert Wilks (''c.'' 1665 – 27 September 1732) was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope and caricatured by William Hogarth as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition. The family was based for many generations in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. His great-uncle, Judge Wilks, had served Charles I of England during the English Civil War, for whom he raised a troop at his own expense. After Oliver Cromwell won the civil war, Wilks' father moved to Dublin, where Robert Wilks was born. He was a clerk to Robert Southwell until he joined the Williamite army. As soon as he was discharged from the army, he worked in the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin from 1691 to 1693. According to Wilks's version of the story ...
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Thomas Elrington (actor)
Thomas Elrington (1688–1732), was an English actor. Biography Elrington was born in 1688 in London, near Golden Square, was apprenticed by his father, who 'had the honour to serve the late Duke of Montagu', to a French upholsterer in Covent Garden. His associate, William Chetwood, tells many stories of the difficulties that beset them in their joint attempts at amateur performances. Through the introduction of Theophilus Keene, an actor of reputation, Elrington seems to have made his way on to the stage. His first appearance took place 2 December 1709 at Drury Lane, as Oroonoko. He subsequently acted Captain Plume in the ''Recruiting Officer'' the ghost in ''Œdipus,'' Cribbage in the ''Fair Quaker'', etc. In the summer he played with William Penkethman at Greenwich, taking characters of importance. During 1710–12 he remained at Drury Lane. In 1712 Elrington was engaged by Joseph Ashbury, the manager of the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, at which house he appeared, taking fro ...
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Joe Miller (actor)
Joseph Miller (1684 – 15 August 1738) was an English actor, who first appeared in the cast of Sir Robert Howard's ''Committee'' at Drury Lane in 1709 as Teague. Trinculo in '' The Tempest'', the First Grave-digger in ''Hamlet'' and Marplot in Susanna Centlivre's ''The Busybody'', were among his many favourite parts. He is said to have been a friend of Hogarth. In 1715 he appeared on bills promoting a performance on the last day of April, where he played Young Clincher in Farquhar's comedy, ''The Constant Couple''. On 25 April 1717 he played Sir Joseph Whittol in William Congreve's "Old Batchelor". Tickets for this performance were adorned by a design by William Hogarth showing the scene where Whittol's friend Captain Bluffe is kicked by Sharper whilst his friend Bellmour tries to pull him away. This is described as a "very valuable engraving" in 1868. This ticket design was used for Joe Millers benefit performance on 13 April 1738. In "vacation periods" between working at ...
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Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style. He wrote 25 plays for his own company at Drury Lane, half of which were adapted from various sources, which led Robert Lowe and Alexander Pope, among others, to criticise his "miserable mutilation" of "crucified Molière ndhapless Shakespeare". He regarded himself as first and foremost an actor and had great popular success in comical fop parts, while as a tragic actor he was persistent but much ridiculed. Cibber's brash, extroverted personality did not sit well with his contemporaries, and he was frequently accused of tasteless theatrical productions, shady business methods, and a social and political opportunism that was thought to have gained him the laureateship over far better poets. He rose to ignominious fame when he became t ...
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Henry Norris (actor)
Henry Norris may refer to: *Sir Henry Norris (courtier) (c. 1482–1536), Groom of the Stool to Henry VIII, alleged lover of Anne Boleyn *Sir Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys (1525–1601), Elizabethan courtier *Henry Norreys (colonel-general) (1554–1599), English soldier and son of Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys *Henry Handley Norris (1771–1850), English High Church clergyman *Sir Henry Norris (businessman) (1865–1934), British businessman, football chairman and politician *Henry Norris (engineer) (1816–1878), British civil engineer See also *Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957), US astronomer *Norris (other) *Norreys Norreys (also spelt Norris) may refer to various members of, or estates belonging to, a landed family chiefly seated in the English counties of Berkshire and Lancashire and the Irish county of Cork. Famous family members * Baron Norreys of Rycote ...
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Anne Oldfield
Anne Oldfield (168323 October 1730) was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time. Early life and discovery She was born in London in 1683. Her father was a soldier, James Oldfield. Her mother was either Anne or Elizabeth Blanchard. Her grandfather owned a tavern and left her father several properties, he however mortgaged these which resulted in Anne and her mother being placed in financial difficulty when he died young. It appears that Oldfield received some education because her biographers state that she read widely in her youth. Oldfield and her mother went to live with her aunt, Mrs Voss, in the Mitre tavern, St James. In 1699, she attracted George Farquhar's attention when he overheard her reciting lines from Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's play ''The Scornful Lady'' (1616) in a back room of her tavern. Soon after, she was hired by Christopher Rich to join the cast of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Career A year later she was cast in he ...
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Sarah Thurmond
Sarah Thurmond or Sarah Lewis ( – 1762) was a British actress. Life Sarah Lewis was born in Epsom although the date is unknown. Her first appearances were at Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields at the end of 1711 in Greenwich where she met John Thurmond, son of the actor John Thurmond the Elder. They were married and Sarah went to Dublin where her in-laws John and Winifred Thurmond were acting and she appeared at the Smock Alley Theatre. In 1718 they were at the Drury Lane Theatre where she took leading roles and her husband was the dancing master. In 1723 her husband's play ''Harlequin Doctor Faustus'' which has been noted as England's first pantomime, was performed at Drury Lane. In 1732, they both moved to the Goodman's Fields Theatre Two 18th century theatres bearing the name Goodman's Fields Theatre were located on Alie Street, Whitechapel, London. The first opened on 31 October 1727 in a small shop by Thomas Odell, deputy Licenser of Plays. The first play performed ...
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Christiana Horton
Christiana Horton (c. 1696 – c. 1756) was an English actress. She first appeared in London as Melinda in ''The Recruiting Officer'' in 1714 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Here she remained twenty years, followed by fifteen at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. At both houses during this long career she played all the leading tragedy and comedy parts, and Barton Booth (who discovered her) said she was the best successor of Anne Oldfield. She was the original Mariana in Fielding's ''The Miser'' (1733). Selected roles * Melinda in ''The Recruiting Officer'' by George Farquhar (1714) * Emmelin in ''Lucius'' by Delarivier Manley (1717) * Caelia in '' The Masquerade'' by Charles Johnson (1719) * Isabella in '' The Revenge'' by Edward Young (1721) * Olivia in '' The Artifice'' by Susanna Centlivre (1722) * Clary in '' The Rival Modes'' by James Moore Smythe (1727) * Ethra in ''Medea'' by Charles Johnson (1730) * Mariana in ''The Miser'' by Henry Fielding (1733) * E ...
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1719 Plays
Events January–March * January 8 – Carolean Death March begins: A catastrophic retreat by a largely-Finnish Swedish- Carolean army under the command of Carl Gustaf Armfeldt across the Tydal mountains in a blizzard kills around 3,700 men and cripples a further 600 for life. * January 23 – The Principality of Liechtenstein is created, within the Holy Roman Empire. * February 3 (January 23 Old Style) – The Riksdag of the Estates recognizes Ulrika Eleonora's claim to the Swedish throne, after she has agreed to sign a new Swedish constitution. Thus, she is recognized as queen regnant of Sweden. * February 20 – The first Treaty of Stockholm is signed. * February 28 – Farrukhsiyar, the Mughal Emperor of India since 1713, is deposed by the Sayyid brothers, who install Rafi ud-Darajat in his place. In prison, Farrukhsiyar is strangled by assassins on April 19. * March 6 – A serious earthquake (estimated magnitude >7) in El Salvador results in large fractures, lique ...
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