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Sarah Ward (theatre Manager)
Sarah Ward (1726-1771), was a Scottish stage actor and theatre manager. She was the first woman to have been active as a theatre manager in Edinburgh.Elizabeth Ewan, Sue Innes & Sian Reynolds: The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women: From the Earliest Times to 2004 She was born to the English actor Thomas Achurch and married actor and playwright Henry Ward. the couple was active in Thomas Este's Taylor Halls Company in Edinburgh in 1745. When the company split in two theater companies, one was led by Sara Ward, and opened at the Canongate Theatre in Edinburgh in 1747. In 1748, she debuted in London, and then toured England and Scotland in various companies, often returning to Edinburgh. Between 1755 and 1758, she was permanently active in Edinburgh Theatre with her lover West Digges, and was a celebrated artist in Scotland: her most popular role was reportedly that of Lady Barnet in John Home's ''Douglas''. In 1758, she left Scotland, and after one season in Dublin, she was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canongate Theatre
The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began when David I of Scotland, by the Great Charter of Holyrood Abbey c.1143, authorised the Abbey to found a burgh separate from Edinburgh between the Abbey and Edinburgh. The burgh of Canongate that developed was controlled by the Abbey until the Scottish Reformation when it came under secular control. In 1636 the adjacent city of Edinburgh bought the feudal superiority of the Canongate but it remained a semi-autonomous burgh under its own administration of bailies chosen by Edinburgh magistrates, until its formal incorporation into the city in 1856. The burgh gained its name from the route that the canons of Holyrood Abbey took to Edinburgh—the canons' way or the canons' gait, from the Scots word ''gait'' meaning "way". In more modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edinburgh Theatre
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh is Scotland's second-most populous city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous city in the United Kingdom. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and the highest courts in Scotland. The city's Palace of Holyroodhouse is the official residence of the British monarchy in Scotland. The city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scottish law, literature, philosophy, the sciences, and engineering. It is the second-largest financial centre in the United Kingdom, and the city's historical and cultural attractions have made it the UK's second-most visited t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Digges
West Digges (1720–1786) was an English actor who made his first stage appearance in Dublin in 1749 as Jaffier in ''Venice Preserv'd''; and both there and in Edinburgh until 1764 he acted in many tragic roles with success. He was the original "young Norval" in John Home's ''Douglas'' (1756). His first London appearance was as Cato at the Haymarket Theatre in 1777, and he afterwards played King Lear, Macbeth, Shylock and Wolsey. He was a friend and associate of James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer S ... who much admired him. In 1781 he returned to Dublin and retired in 1784. The actress Fanny Fleming was said to be a granddaughter. Notes English male stage actors 1720 births 1786 deaths 18th-century English male actors {{England-actor-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Home
Rev John Home FRSE (13 September 1722 – 4 September 1808) was a Scottish minister, soldier and author. His play '' Douglas'' was a standard Scottish school text until the Second World War, but his work is now largely neglected. In 1783 he was one of the joint founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Biography He was born on 13 September 1722 at Ancrum in Roxburghshire, but moved to Leith, near Edinburgh, in early childhood when his father, Alexander Home, a distant relation of the earls of Home, became town clerk. His mother was Christian Hay, the daughter of an Edinburgh lawyer. He was christened on 22 September 1722 John was educated at the Leith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MA in 1742. Though interested in being a soldier, he studied divinity, and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1745. In the same year he joined as a volunteer against Bonnie Prince Charlie, and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas (play)
''Douglas'' is a blank verse tragedy by John Home. It was first performed in 1756 in Edinburgh. The play was a big success in both Scotland and England for decades, attracting many notable actors of the period, such as Edmund Kean, who made his debut in it. Peg Woffington played Lady Randolph, a part which found a later exponent in Sarah Siddons. The opening lines of the second act are probably the best known: Plot Lady Randolph opens the play mourning for her brother. Shortly thereafter, she discloses to her maid that she was married to the son of her father's enemy. She was not able to acknowledge the marriage or the son that she bore. She sent her maid away with her son to the maid's sister's house. They were lost in a storm and never heard from again. Young Norval, the hero is left outside shortly after birth to die of exposure. However, the baby is saved by a shepherd — Old Norval Drabble, Margaret (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (fifth edition) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Roman Father
''The Roman Father'' is a 1750 tragedy by the British writer William Whitehead. It is set during the reign of Tullus Hostilius, the legendary third King of Rome and his war with the neighbouring city of Alba Longa. The original Drury Lane cast featured David Garrick as Horatius, Spranger Barry as Publius Horatius, John Sowdon as Tullius Hostilius, Thomas King as Valerius, Sarah Ward as Valeria and Hannah Pritchard as Horatia. Incidental music was composed by William Boyce. It was met with "extravagant applause" and ran for twelve performances that season. It was revived frequently at both Drury Lane and Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ....Bartlett & Bruce p.71 References Bibliography * Baines, Paul & Ferarro, Julian & Rogers, Pat. ''The Wiley-Bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Whitehead (poet)
William Whitehead (baptized 12 February 1715 – 14 April 1785) was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in December 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position. Life The son of a baker, Whitehead was born in Cambridge and through the patronage of Henry Bromley, afterwards Baron Montfort, was admitted to Winchester College aged fourteen. He entered Clare College, Cambridge on a Pyke scholarship in 1735, and became a fellow in 1742 (resigning this in 1746), and admitted Master of Arts in 1743. At Cambridge, Whitehead published an epistle ''On the Danger of writing Verse'' and some other poems, notably an heroic epistle, ''Ann Boleyn to Henry the Eighth'' (1743), and a didactic ''Essay on Ridicule'', also (1743). In 1745 Whitehead became the tutor of George Villiers, Viscount Villiers, son of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey, and took up his residence in London. There he produced two tragedies: ''The Roman Father'' and ''Creusa, Queen of Athens''. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sister (play)
''The Sister'' is a 1769 comedy play by the British writer Charlotte Lennox. Premiering at the Covent Garden Theatre, it was based on Lennox's own 1758 novel ''Henrietta''.Carlile p.229 The original Covent Garden cast included William Powell as Courtney, William Smith as Lord Clairville, Mary Bulkley Mary Bulkley, née Wilford (1747/8 – 1792), known professionally as Mrs Bulkley, Miss Bulkley, and later Mrs Barresford, was an English eighteenth-century dancer and comedy stage actress. She performed at various theatres, especially Royal Op ... as Miss Autumn, Sarah Ward as Lady Autumn and John Cushing as Will. However the play was received by a hostile, organised element of the crowd and was withdrawn after one night. References Bibliography * Baines, Paul & Ferarro, Julian & Rogers, Pat. ''The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing, 1660-1789''. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. * Carlile, Susan. ''Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind''. University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlotte Lennox
Charlotte Lennox, ''née'' Ramsay (c. 1729 – 4 January 1804), was a Scottish novelist, playwright, poet, translator, essayist, and magazine editor, who has primarily been remembered as the author of '' The Female Quixote'', and for her association with Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds and Samuel Richardson. However, she had a long, productive career in her own right. Life Charlotte Lennox was born in Gibraltar. Her father, James Ramsay of Dalhousie, was a Scottish captain in the British Army, and her mother Catherine, née Tisdall (died 1765), was Scottish and Irish. She was baptised Barbara Charlotte Ramsay. Very little direct information on her pre-public life is available, and biographers have extrapolated from her first novel such elements as seem semi-autobiographical. Charlotte lived for the first ten years her life in England before her father, who was a lieutenant in the guards, moved the family to Albany, New York in 1738, where he was lieutenant-governor. He died ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1771 Deaths
Events January– March * January 5 – The Great Kalmyk (Torghut) Migration is led by Ubashi Khan, from the east bank of the Lower Volga River back to the homeland of Dzungaria, at this time under Qing Dynasty rule. * January 9 – Emperor Go-Momozono accedes to the throne of Japan, following his aunt's abdication. * February 12 – Upon the death of Adolf Frederick, he is succeeded as King of Sweden by his son Gustav III. At the time, however, Gustav is unaware of this, since he is abroad in Paris. The news of his father's death reaches him about a month later. * March – War of the Regulation: North Carolina Governor William Tryon raises a militia, to put down the long-running uprising of backcountry militias against North Carolina's colonial government. * March 12 – The North Carolina General Assembly establishes Wake County (named for Margaret Wake, the wife of North Carolina Royal Governor William Tryon) from portions of Cumberlan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18th-century British Actresses
The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia, China, and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events. To historians who expan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
