Walter Clun (died 2 August 1664) was a noted English actor of the 17th century. His career spanned the difficult period when the theatres were closed during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

and the Interregnum, from 1642 to 1660. According to James Wright's '' Historia Histrionica'' (

1699 Events January–March * January 5 – A violent Java earthquake damages the city of Batavia on the Indonesian island of Java, killing at least 28 people * January 20 – The Parliament of England (under Tory dominance) limits the size ...

), Clun and Charles Hart were

boy players Boy player refers to children who performed in Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the adult companies and performed the female roles as women did not perform on the English stage in this period. Others ...

together with the King's Men in the years prior to the theatre closure. Clun was a member of a group of English actors who performed on the Continent, mainly in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, between 1644 and 1646; he was also one of the former King's Men who tried to restart the company in December 1648, despite the parliamentarian regime's hostility to theatre. (The effort was not successful.) In the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

era, Clun gained particular notice as the

Iago Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago ha ...

to Nicholas Burt's Othello in the earliest Restoration production of Shakespeare's play in 1660. Clun was among the thirteen actors who were initial sharers in the newly organized

King's Company The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London, after the London theatre closure had been lifted at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 1660 to 1682, when it merged wit ...

in 1661. In addition to Iago, Clun was strongly associated with the roles of

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

, Bessus in

Beaumont and Fletcher Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I (1603–25). They became known as a team early in their association, so much so that their joi ...

's ''

A King and No King ''A King and No King'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and first published in 1619. It has traditionally been among the most highly praised and popular works in the canon of Fletcher ...

'', Smug in ''

The Merry Devil of Edmonton ''The Merry Devil of Edmonton'' is an Elizabethan-era stage play; a comedy about a magician, Peter Fabell, nicknamed the Merry Devil. It was at one point attributed to William Shakespeare, but is now considered part of the Shakespeare Apocrypha ...

'', and Subtle in Jonson's ''

The Alchemist An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist or Alchemyst may also refer to: Books and stories * ''The Alchemist'' (novel), the translated title of a 1988 allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho * ''The Alchemist'' (play), a play by Be ...

''. He also played Cacafogo in Fletcher's '' Rule a Wife and Have a Wife''. Clun may have reached the peak of his career in the title role in Fletcher's ''

The Humorous Lieutenant ''The Humorous Lieutenant'', also known as ''The Noble Enemies'', ''Demetrius and Enanthe'', or ''Alexander's Successors'', is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher. Highly praised by critics, it has been called "Fl ...

''; the King's Company played that drama for twelve days straight when they opened the lavish new Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in

1663 Events January–March * January 10 – The Royal African Company is granted a Royal Charter by Charles II of England. * January 23 – The Treaty of Ghilajharighat is signed in India between representatives of the Mugha ...

. If so, his peak did not last for long: Clun was killed during a robbery near

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the open ...

on the night of 2 August 1664. He was wounded in the arm by the thieves, bound hand and foot, and left in a ditch to bleed to death. Samuel Pepys, who had a strong admiration for Clun's acting, visited the spot of the murder three days after it occurred. He also reminisced in his Diary about Clun's skill onstage. (Pepys criticized

Michael Mohun Michael Mohun (1616? – buried 11 October 1684) was a leading English actor both before and after the 1642–60 closing of the theatres. Mohun began his stage career as a boy player filling female roles; he was part of Christopher Beeston's the ...

, the actor who took over the role of Iago, for not being as good in it as Clun had been.) After Clun's death, an anonymous verse elegy was published in his memory. The poet reminds his readers that Clun's performances in female roles a quarter-century earlier had "made us weep, at seeming sorrow swell, / To see and hear like truth a fiction fell."

John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the '' Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist ...

mentioned Clun in his famous ''

Brief Lives ''Brief Lives'' is a collection of short biographies written by John Aubrey (1626–1697) in the last decades of the 17th century. Writing Aubrey initially began collecting biographical material to assist the Oxford scholar Anthony Wood, who ...

''. Aubrey wrote that "Ben Jonson had one eye lower than the other, and bigger, like Clun, the player; perhaps he begot Clun."Quoted in: Edwin Nunzeger, ''A Dictionary of Actors and of Others Associated with the Representation of Plays in England Before 1642'', New Haven, Yale University Press, 1929; p. 95 (spelling and punctuation modernized).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clun, Walter English male stage actors 17th-century English male actors 1664 deaths Year of birth unknown King's Men (playing company) English murder victims People murdered in London