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Connie Gilchrist, Countess Of Orkney
Constance FitzMaurice, Countess of Orkney (23 January 1865 – 9 May 1946), also known as Connie Gilchrist, was a British child artist's model, actress, dancer and singer who, at a very early age, attracted the attention of the painters Frederic Leighton, Frank Holl, William Powell Frith and James McNeill Whistler, the writer and photographer Lewis Carroll and aristocrats, St George Lowther, 4th Earl of Lonsdale, Lord Lonsdale and the Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort, Duke of Beaufort. She became a popular attraction on stage at the age of 12 in a skipping rope dance routine at London's Gaiety Theatre, London, Gaiety Theatre, where she was then engaged in Victorian burlesque and vaudeville throughout her formative years. Gilchrist, who became known as the "original Gaiety Girl",Lady Orkney, Once a Stage Actress. ''The New York Times'', 10 May 1946, p. 19 had abandoned the stage by the time of her marriage in 1892 to Earl of Orkney, Edmond Walter FitzMaurice, 7th Earl of Orkn ...
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Agar Town
Agar Town (also known as Ague Town, Hagar Town, Agar-Town and Agar-town) was a small, historically poor neighbourhood of St Pancras, London, St Pancras in central London. Most of the area was demolished making way for St Pancras railway station. History The area was named after William Agar, a wealthy lawyer who lived at Elm Lodge, a villa in large grounds near to the Regent's Canal roughly where Barker Drive stands. Key streets were Canterbury Place, Durham Street, and one of the city's Oxford Crescents. The area contained low-quality housing for the poor and labourers building the houses, made of the lowest quality materials on 21-year leases, with no street lighting, cleaning or sewerage. Consequently, Agar Town was generally considered a slum. This designation has been questioned. The neighbourhood was started in 1841 with Agar's widow leasing out small plots on the north side of the canal. Ownership passed to the Church Commissioners, who sold it to the Midland Railway. Th ...
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Daphnephoria
Daphnephoria was a festival held every ninth year at Thebes in Boeotia in honour of Apollo Ismenius or Galaxius. History The Daphnephoria consisted of a procession in which the chief figure was a boy of good family and noble appearance, whose father and mother must be alive. With young participants, the procession was able to combine components together, which signified an important stage or rite of passage. Immediately in front of this boy, who was called the Daphnephoros ('laurel bearer'), walked one of his nearest relatives, carrying an olive branch hung with laurel and flowers and having on the upper end a bronze ball from which hung several smaller balls. Another smaller ball was placed on the middle of the branch or pole (which was called a κώπω), which was then twined round with purple ribbons, and at the lower end with saffron ribbons. These balls were said to indicate the sun, stars and moon, while the ribbons referred to the days of the year, being 365 in number. ...
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Benjamin Edward Woolf
Benjamin E. Woolf (February 16, 1836 – February 7, 1901) was a British-born American violinist, composer, playwright, and journalist. His best-known works were the comic operas ''The Mighty Dollar'' and ''Westward Ho''. Biography Benjamin Wolf was born on February 16, 1836, in London, England, the first of ten children raised by Edward and Sarah Woolf. In the late 1830s Woolf's family immigrated to America where his father, a former orchestra conductor at London's Pavilion Theatre, would lead orchestras in Mobile, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; St. Louis, Missouri; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1841 Woolf's family had settled in New York, where his father would become a noted orchestra leader, artist, novelist and humorist. Woolf was trained on the violin by his father and received his early practical experience performing in theater orchestras.
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Charles Lecocq
Alexandre Charles Lecocq (; 3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his opérettes and opéra comique, opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to Jacques Offenbach in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870s and early 1880s, before the changing musical fashions of the late 19th century made his style of composition less popular. His few serious works include the opera ''Plutus (opera), Plutus'' (1886), which was not a success, and the ballet ''Le Cygne (ballet), Le cygne'' (1899). His only piece to survive in the regular modern operatic repertory is his 1872 opéra comique ''La fille de Madame Angot'' (Mme Angot's Daughter). Others of his more than forty stage works receive occasional revivals. After study at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire, Lecocq shared the first prize with Georges Bizet in an operetta-writing contest organised in 1856 by Offenbach. Lecocq's next successful composition was an opéra-bouffe, ...
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Goody Two-Shoes
''The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes'' is a children's story published by John Newbery in London in 1765. The author of the book remains unclear, but Oliver Goldsmith is generally considered the most likely. The story popularized the phrase "Wiktionary:goody two shoes, goody two-shoes" as a descriptor for an excessively virtuous person or do-gooder. Historian V. M. Braganza refers to it as one of the first works of children's literature, perhaps the earliest children's novel in English. It was highly influential to subsequent authors, revolutionary in the development of its literary genre, and popular, noted for its female heroine in a realist setting. Plot The fable tells of goodwife, Goody Two-Shoes, the nickname of a poor orphan girl named Margery Meanwell, who goes through life with only one shoe. When a rich gentleman gives her a complete pair, she is so happy that she tells everyone that she has "two shoes". Later, Margery becomes a teacher and marries a rich widow ...
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Harlequin
Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan Ganassa in the late 16th century, was definitively popularized by the Italian actor Tristano Martinelli in Paris in 1584–1585, and became a stock character after Martinelli's death in 1630. The Harlequin is characterised by his checkered costume. His role is that of a light-hearted, nimble, and Tricky slave, astute servant, often acting to thwart the plans of his master, and pursuing his own love interest, Columbina, Columbine, with wit and resourcefulness, often competing with the sterner and melancholic Pierrot. He later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero. Harlequin inherits his physical agility and his trickster qualities, as well as his name, from a mischievous "Devil in Christianity#Early Middle Ages, devil" character ...
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Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals. The theatre was Grade II listed for historical preservation on 1 December 1987. History 19th century It was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil ("Without Compare"), by merchant John Scott, and his daughter Jane (1770–1839). Jane was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright. Together, they gathered a theatrical company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments, pantomime, and burletta. She wrote more than fifty stage pieces in an array of genres: melodramas, pantomimes, farces, comic operettas, historical dramas, and adaptations, as well as translations. Jane Scott retired to Surrey in 1819, marrying John Davies Middleton (1790–1867). ...
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Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradition, folktales, popularizing stories such as "Cinderella" ("), "The Frog Prince (story), The Frog Prince" (""), "Hansel and Gretel" ("), "Town Musicians of Bremen" (""), "Little Red Riding Hood" (""), "Rapunzel", "Rumpelstiltskin" (""), "Sleeping Beauty" (""), and "Snow White" (""). Their first collection of folktales, ''Grimms' Fairy Tales, Children's and Household Tales'' (), was first published in 1812. The Brothers Grimm spent their formative years in the town of Hanau in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel. Their father's death in 1796 (when Jacob was 11 and Wilhelm 10) caused great poverty for the family and affected the brothers many years after. Both brothers attended the University of Marburg, where they developed a curiosity about ...
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Babes In The Wood
Babes in the Wood is a traditional English children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The expression has passed into common language, referring to inexperienced innocents entering unawares into any potentially dangerous or hostile situation. Traditional tale The traditional children's tale is of two children Child abandonment#In literature, abandoned in a wood, who die and are covered with leaves by European robin, robins. It was first published as an anonymous Broadside (music), broadside ballad by Thomas Millington (publisher), Thomas Millington in Norwich in 1595 with the title ''"The Norfolk gent his will and Testament and howe he Commytted the keepinge of his Children to his own brother whoe delte most wickedly with them and howe God plagued him for it"''. The tale has been reworked in many forms; it frequently appears attributed as a Mother Goose rhyme. Around 1840, Richard Barham included a spoof o ...
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Pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folk tale.Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline. "Pantomime", ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature'', Jack Zipes (ed.), Oxford University Press (2006), Pantomime is a participatory form of theatre developed in England in the 18th century, in which the audience is encouraged and expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers. The origins of pantomime reach back to ancient Greek classical theatre. It developed partly from the 16th century commedia dell'arte tradition of Italy and partly from other European and British stage traditions, such as 17th-century masques and music hall. An important part of the pantomime, until the late 19th century, was the harlequinade. Modern pantomime is perfor ...
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Harlequin
Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan Ganassa in the late 16th century, was definitively popularized by the Italian actor Tristano Martinelli in Paris in 1584–1585, and became a stock character after Martinelli's death in 1630. The Harlequin is characterised by his checkered costume. His role is that of a light-hearted, nimble, and Tricky slave, astute servant, often acting to thwart the plans of his master, and pursuing his own love interest, Columbina, Columbine, with wit and resourcefulness, often competing with the sterner and melancholic Pierrot. He later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero. Harlequin inherits his physical agility and his trickster qualities, as well as his name, from a mischievous "Devil in Christianity#Early Middle Ages, devil" character ...
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Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and listed building, 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 present building, opened in 1812, is the most recent of four theatres that stood at the location since 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 theater, "legitimate" drama English 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 Stuart Rest ...
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