''The Pilgrim'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

by John Fletcher that was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of

1647 Events January–March * January 2 – Chinese bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong, who has ruled the Sichuan province since 1644, is killed at Xichong by a Qing archer after having been betrayed one of his officers, Liu Jinzhong. ...

. The play was acted by the King's Men; they performed it at Court in

1621 Events January–March * January 12 – Şehzade Mehmed, the 15-year old half-brother of Ottoman Sultan Osman II, is put to death by hanging on Osman's orders. Before dying, Mehmed prays aloud that Osman's reign as Sultan be rui ...

Christmas season. Since Fletcher's source for his plot, ''El Peregrino en su Patria'' (

1604 Events January–June * January 1 – '' The Masque of Indian and China Knights'' is performed by courtiers of James VI and I at Hampton Court. * January 14 – The Hampton Court Conference is held between James I of England ...

), a prose romance by Lope de Vega, was first translated into English in 1621 (from the French translation, not the Spanish original), the play was likely composed and premiered on the stage in that year. The cast list added to the play in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 includes Joseph Taylor,

John Lowin John Lowin (baptized 9 December 1576 – buried – 24 August 1653) was an English actor. Early life Born in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, Lowin was the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. Whil ...

Nicholas Tooley Nicholas Tooley (c. 1583 – June 1623) was a Renaissance actor in the King's Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare. Recent research has shown that Tooley was born in late 1582 or early 1583; his birth name was not Tooley but Wilkin ...

, John Underwood,

Robert Benfield Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death. Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was mo ...

, George Birch, John Thompson, and

James Horn James Horn (5 February 1855 – 11 December 1932) was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament from Otago, New Zealand. Biography Early life Horn was born in Inverkethney, Banffshire, Scotland and came to Otago in 1879. He was a storekeeper at Ba ...

. ''The Pilgrim'' was both revived and adapted during the Restoration era, as were many of Fletcher's plays. Sir John Vanbrugh made a prose adaptation of Fletcher's verse original that premiered at

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 Dr ...

1700 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 19), where then Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 11 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 17 ...

, with a Prologue, Epilogue, and a "secular

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...

" written by

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

shortly before his death. The actress Anne Oldfield began her stage career in this production, in the role of Alinda. Vanbrugh's adaptation was also published in 1700, with subsequent editions in 1718 and 1753 (in London), and 1788 (in Dublin).Alfred Claghorn Potter, ''A Bibliography of Beaumont and Fletcher.'' Cambridge, MA, Library of Harvard University, 1895; p. 12. The play has attracted attention from critics for its portrayal of madmen and their keepers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilgrim, The English Renaissance plays 1621 plays Plays by John Fletcher (playwright)