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Peter Motteux
Peter Anthony Motteux (born Pierre Antoine Motteux ; 25 February 1663 – 18 February 1718) was a French-born English author, playwright, and translator. Motteux was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the publisher and editor of ''The Gentleman's Journal'', "the first English magazine," from 1692 to 1694. Life A native of Rouen, he was a French Huguenot who came to England in 1685 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. At first he lived with his godfather, Paul Dominique, and made his living as an auctioneer; by 1706 he maintained a shop in Leadenhall Street, selling imports from China, Japan, and India, and (in his own words) "silks, lace, linens, pictures, and other goods." He also held a position with the Post Office in the first decade of the 18th century. His death in a bawdy house was thought to be suspicious, and caused a good deal of legal disturbance. Five people were tried for his murder, but were acquitted. His death was u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their names, that vary between British English, British and American English. "Brackets", without further qualification, are in British English the ... marks and in American English the ... marks. Other symbols are repurposed as brackets in specialist contexts, such as International Phonetic Alphabet#Brackets and transcription delimiters, those used by linguists. Brackets are typically deployed in symmetric pairs, and an individual bracket may be identified as a "left" or "right" bracket or, alternatively, an "opening bracket" or "closing bracket", respectively, depending on the Writing system#Directionality, directionality of the context. In casual writing and in technical fields such as computing or linguistic analysis of grammar, brackets ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Purcell
Daniel Purcell (c. 1664 – buried 26 November 1717) was an English Baroque composer, the younger brother or cousin of Henry Purcell. Biography Like Henry Purcell before him, Daniel Purcell joined the choir of the Chapel Royal at about the age of 14. In his mid-twenties he was appointed organist of Magdalen College, Oxford where he began to compose. In 1695 he moved to London to compose for the theatre providing incidental music for more than 40 plays. One of his first engagements was to complete the concluding Masque for Act V of the semi-opera ''The Indian Queen'', the preceding music for which had been written by Henry Purcell during the early months of 1695. It is unclear whether Daniel Purcell had been engaged because of pressure to complete the score in time for the first performance or as a result of Henry Purcell's failing health and subsequent death. Robert King (1994). ''Henry Purcell: "A greater musical genius England never had"'', p.219. London: Thames and Hudson. Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Island Princess
''The Island Princess'' is a late Jacobean tragicomedy by John Fletcher, initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play The authorship and the stage premier of the play are generally thought to have occurred c. 1619–21; it was acted at Court during the latter year, by the King's Men. The second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679 offers a cast list for the play, a list that includes John Lowin, John Underwood, William Ecclestone, Richard Sharpe, Joseph Taylor, Robert Benfield, George Birch, and Thomas Pollard. Authorship Fletcher's solo authorship is generally recognized; his characteristic pattern of linguistic preferences is continuous throughout. The 1647 folio text is not especially short, though it does show some signs of cutting: several scenes have characters that appear but do not speak. Sources Fletcher's sources were two books on exploration, ''L'histoire de Ruis Dias, et de Quixaire, Princess des Moloques,'' a novella b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher (December 1579 – August 1625) was an English playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; during his lifetime and in the Stuart Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's. Fletcher collaborated in writing plays, chiefly with Francis Beaumont or Philip Massinger, but also with Shakespeare and others. Although his reputation has subsequently declined, he remains an important transitional figure between the Elizabethan popular tradition and the popular drama of the Restoration. Early life Fletcher was born in December 1579 (baptised 20 December) in Rye, Sussex, and died of the plague in August 1625 (buried 29 August in St. Saviour's, Southwark). His father Richard Fletcher was an ambitious and successful cleric who was in turn Dean of Peterborough, Bishop of Bristol, Bishop of Worcester and Bishop of London (shortly before his death), as well as ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Restoration
The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 1649 after the execution of Charles I, with his son Charles II of England, Charles II. The Commonwealth of England had been governed by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and then his son Richard Cromwell. The term is also used to describe the reign of Charles II (1660–1685), and sometimes that of his younger brother King James II, James II (1685–1688). The Protectorate After Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector from 1658 to 1659, ceded power to the Rump Parliament, Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert (general), John Lambert then dominated government for a year. On 20 October 1659, George Monck, the governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south with his army from Scotland to oppose Fleetwood and Lambert. Lambert's a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Christoph Pepusch
Johann Christoph Pepusch (; 1667 1752), also known as John Christopher Pepusch () and Dr Pepusch, was a German-born composer who spent most of his working life in England. He was born in Berlin, son of a vicar, and was married to Margherita de l'Epine who also performed in some of his theatrical productions. Early life Pepusch studied music theory under Martin Klingenberg, cantor of the Marienkirche in Berlin. At the age of 14, he was appointed to the Prussian court where he gave music lessons to the future Frederick William I of Prussia. He resigned this position in 1698 after witnessing the execution of an officer without trial. He then first went to Amsterdam. In 1704, he settled in England, but he continued to publish in Amsterdam until 1718. Career At first, Pepusch earned a living playing the viola, then as a theatre director, music theoretician, teacher and organist. In 1726, Pepusch founded The Academy of Vocal Music with others; in around 1730–1, it was ren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Clayton (composer)
Thomas Clayton (16731725) was an English violinist and composer, and a member of The King's Musick at the court of William III. His is said to be the first to acclimatise legitimate opera in England. Life His father was William Clayton. He studied in Italy, from about 1702 to about 1704, bringing with him (as was said at the time) a considerable quantity of Italian songs which he had collected abroad. These he set to an adaptation by Peter Anthony Motteux of a drama by Stonzani, which had been performed at Bologna in 1677, and at Venice in 1678. In association with Nicola Haym and Charles Dieupart, Clayton entered upon a series of opera performances at Drury Lane Theatre — the first venture of the kind in the annals of the English stage. The first season began on Tuesday, 16 Jan. 1705, with '' Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus'', the work which Clayton had vamped up from his Italian gleanings. It was announced as 'a new opera, after the Italian manner, all sung,' with recitatives ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Eccles (composer)
John Eccles (1668 – 12 January 1735) was an English composer. Born in London, eldest son of professional musician Solomon Eccles and brother of fellow composer Henry Eccles, John Eccles was appointed to the King's Private Music in 1694, and in 1700 became Master of the King's Musick. In the latter year he finished second in a competition to write music for William Congreve's masque '' The Judgement of Paris'' (the winner was John Weldon). Eccles was very active as a composer for the theatre, and from the 1690s wrote a large amount of incidental music including music for Congreve's ''Love for Love'', John Dryden's ''The Spanish Friar'' and William Shakespeare's ''Macbeth''. Jointly with Henry Purcell he wrote incidental music for Thomas d'Urfey's ''Don Quixote''. He became a composer to Drury Lane theatre in 1693 and when some of the actors broke off to form their own company at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1695, he composed music for them as well including for John Dennis's '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arsinoe, Queen Of Cyprus
''Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus'' by Thomas Clayton was the first Italian-style opera (in English) to be staged in England. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 16 January 1705. There were various historical women named Arsinoe, but from the mid seventeenth-century the name became popular for fictional characters who, like the title-role of this opera, bore no relation to any of them. Introduction of Italian opera to London Clayton visited Italy and on his return staged a number of Italian singing and dancing interludes for the public at his house in York Buildings in 1703. Encouraged by the success of these ventures he decided to stage a full Italian-style opera in English. The libretto was originally written for the theatre in Bologna by in 1667 and performed in Venice in 1668 with music by Petronio Franceschini. (Stanzani had in fact plagiarised from ''La regina Floridea'', an opera staged in Milan). It was translated into English by Peter Anthony Motteux, who made a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Farce
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical comedy, physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense; satire, parody, and mockery of real-life situations, people, events, and interactions; unlikely and humorous instances of miscommunication; ludicrous, improbable, and exaggerated characters; and broadly stylized performances. Genre Despite involving absurd situations and characters, the genre generally maintains at least a slight degree of realism and narrative continuity within the context of the irrational or ludicrous situations, often distinguishing it from completely absurdist or fantastical genres. Farces are often episodic or short in duration, often being set in one specific location where all events occur. Farces have historically been performed for the theatre, stage and film. Historical context T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 masque involved music, dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Masquers who did not speak or sing were often courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts. In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Development The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
