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Tamerlane (play)
''Tamerlane'' is a 1701 history play by the English writer Nicholas Rowe. A tragedy, it portrays the life of the Timur, the fourteenth century conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire. Rowe, a staunch Whig, used the historical story as an allegory for the life of William III who resembles his portrayal of Tamerlane while his opponent the Ottoman leader Bayezid I was equivalent to William's longstanding opponent Louis XIV of France. An earlier version of the story ''Tamburlaine'' was written by Christopher Marlowe during the Elizabethan era with a very different focus in the context of the English Renaissance. It was first performed in December 1701 at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London, one of the two patent theatres of the era, and was published the following year by Jacob Tonson. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Tamerlane, John Verbruggen as Bajazet, Barton Booth as Axalla, William Powell as Moneses, George Pack as Stratocles, William Fieldhous ...
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Nicholas Rowe (writer)
Nicholas Rowe (; 20 June 1674 – 6 December 1718), English dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer, was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715. His plays and poems were well-received during his lifetime, with one of his translations described as one of the greatest productions in English poetry. He was also considered the first editor of the works of William Shakespeare. Life Nicholas Rowe was born in Little Barford, Bedfordshire, England, son of John Rowe (d. 1692), barrister and sergeant-at-law, and Elizabeth, daughter of Jasper Edwards, on 20 June 1674. His family possessed a considerable estate at Lamerton in Devonshire. His father practised law and published Benlow's and Dallison's Reports during the reign of King James II. The future Poet Laureate was educated first at Highgate School, and then at Westminster School under the guidance of Richard Busby. In 1688, Rowe became a King's Scholar, which was followed by his entrance into Middle Temple in 1691. His entrance into Mid ...
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Elizabethan Era
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was first used in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain. This "golden age" represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when England was a sepa ...
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Benjamin Husband
Benjamin Husband was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century. His surname is sometimes written as Husbands. Reportedly born in Pembrokeshire in 1672, he was a member of the Lincolns Inn Fields and Drury Lane companies during the 1700s. He was later in Dublin as part of the Smock Alley Theatre organisation. When he had a benefit there in 1746, he was described as the oldest living actor.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.63 Selected roles * Tyranges in ''The Double Distress'' by Mary Pix (1701) * Zama in ''Tamerlane'' by Nicholas Rowe (1702) * Alphonso in ''All for the Better'' by Francis Manning (1702) * Richemore in '' The Twin Rivals'' by George Farquhar (1702) * Lorenzo in '' The Patriot'' by Charles Gildon (1702) * Don Philip in ''She Would and She Would Not'' by Colley Cibber (1702) * Albovade in ''The Faithful Bride of Granada'' by William Taverner (1704) * Viceroy in '' The Revolution of Sweden'' by Catharine Cockburn (1706) * Bellmour in '' Adventures in Madrid'' ...
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John Corey (actor)
John Corey was an English stage actor and playwright of the eighteenth century. His name is sometime written as John Cory. Born in Barnstaple in North Devon of a Cornish family, he first acted on the London stage in 1701 have originally studied law at the Inns of Chancery. He was therefore unlikely to have been the son of the Restoration actress Katherine Corey. Between 1701 and 1735 he was a mainstay of the Drury Lane, Haymarket and Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre companies, and also appeared at the Goodman's Fields Theatre run by Henry Giffard late in his career.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.492-93 He also wrote two plays which were performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields early in his career there. Selected roles * Seleuchus in ''Antiochus the Great'' by Jane Wiseman (1701) * Mirvan in ''Tamerlane'' by Nicholas Rowe (1701) * Colonel Many in ''The Beau's Duel'' by Susanna Centlivre (1702) * Careles in ''The Different Widows'' by Mary Pix (1703) * Dorante in ''The Gamester'' by Susanna ...
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John Freeman (actor)
John Freeman may refer to: Politicians *John Freeman (Australian politician) (1894–1970), Australian politician *John Freeman (British politician) (1915–2014), British politician, broadcaster and television presenter * John Freeman (Wyoming politician) (born 1954), member of the Wyoming House of Representatives *John Bailey Freeman (1835–1890), Canadian politician *John D. Freeman (1817–1886), U.S. Representative from Mississippi Sportspeople *John Freeman (cricketer) (1883–1958), English cricketer * John Freeman (baseball) (1901–1958), American baseball player *John Freeman (footballer) (born 2001), English footballer * John Freeman (rugby) (1934–2017), Welsh rugby union and professional rugby league footballer *John Childe-Freeman (born 1935), known as John Freeman, cricketer for Queensland *John Ripley Freeman (1855–1932), American civil engineer *Buck Freeman (John Frank Freeman, 1871–1949), American baseball player Writers and editors *John Freeman (poet) (18 ...
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William Fieldhouse
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Liam, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the German given name ''Wilhelm''. Both ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic ''*Wiljahelmaz'', with a direct cognate also in the Old Norse name ''Vilhjalmr'' and a West Germanic borrowing into Medieval Latin ''Willelmus''. The Proto-Germanic nam ...
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George Pack (actor)
George Pack (fl. 1700 – 1724) was a British stage actor, singer and theatre manager of the eighteenth century.Heard p.48 His first known performance on the West End theatre, London stage was as Westmoreland in Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, Part I, Henry IV'' at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre and he remained with the company until it transferred to the Her Majesty's Theatre, Queens's Theatre in the Haymarket, London, Haymarket in 1705. He played in a mixture of comedies and tragedies, originating roles in plays by many of the leading dramatists of the era including Nicholas Rowe (writer), Nicholas Rowe, Mary Pix, John Vanbrugh and Susanna Centlivre. In 1708 Pack joined the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Drury Lane company and remained with it until he left to join John Rich (producer), John Rich's new company at the revived Lincoln's Inn Fields Theare in 1715. His final original role was in ''The Chimera (play), The Chimera'' in 1721. The following year he announced his retirement but c ...
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William Powell (English Actor)
William Powell (1735–1769) was an English actor. Early life He was born in Hereford, and educated at Hereford grammar school and at Christ's Hospital in London. Sir Robert Ladbrooke, a distiller and then president of Christ's Hospital, took him on as apprentice in his counting-house. Powell, however, was interested in amateur theatricals: Ladbrooke suppressed a club in Doctors' Commons of which Powell had become a member. For a while Powell remained in Ladbrooke's office. Charles Holland however, introduced him to David Garrick, who wanted to travel and sought a substitute actor. At Drury Lane Carefully coached by Garrick, Powell made his first appearance on stage at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 October 1763 as Philaster (in an adaptation of Beaumont and Fletcher's play, by George Colman the Elder). Supported also by James Lacy, Powell made a success. The ticket receipts were up to the best Garrick days. Garrick reappeared in the season of 1765–6, and took over from Powell a ...
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Barton Booth
Barton Booth (168210 May 1733) was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century. Early life Booth was the son of The Hon and Very Revd Dr Robert Booth, Dean of Bristol, by his first wife and distant cousin Ann Booth, daughter of Sir Robert Booth, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and was educated at Westminster School, where his success in the Roman comedy ''Andria'' gave him a gave him an inclination for the stage. He was intended for the church, and to attend Trinity College, Cambridge; but in 1698 he ran away and obtained employment in a theatrical company in Dublin, where he made his first appearance as the title character in Aphra Behn's ''Oroonoko''. London success After two seasons in Ireland he returned to London, where Thomas Betterton, who had previously failed to help him, probably out of regard for Booth's family, now gave him all the assistance in his power. At the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre (1700–1704) he first appeared as Maxim ...
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John Verbruggen
John Baptista Verbruggen, d. 1708, was an English actor working in London. Verbruggen is first mentioned as a member of the United Company in a Lord Chamberlain's warrant in 1688. His name does not appear in any cast lists until October 1690. The ''Biographical Dictionary of Actors'' contains an inconclusive discussion of the statement in Thomas Davies's ''Dramatic Miscellanies'' (1784) that Verbruggen was identical to the actor referred to in 1680s and 90s cast lists as "Mr. Alexander", supposedly an alias based on the part of Alexander the Great in John Dryden's ''Rival Queens''. The evidence is confusing, and there is no independent support for Davies's anecdote, written down a century later. Verbruggen had never played the part of Alexander the Great and was not to do so until January 1703. One reason for Verbruggen to use a different name might have been that his own was often misspelled: Verbrugen, Verbrogell, Verkruggan, Verbrugger. As "John Verbuggin", he is recorded a ...
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Thomas Betterton
Thomas Patrick Betterton (August 1635 – 28 April 1710), the leading male actor and theatre manager during Restoration England, son of an under-cook to King Charles I, was born in London. Apprentice and actor Betterton was born in August 1635 in Tothill Street, Westminster.''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge'', Vol.III, London, Charles Knight, 1847, p.273 He was apprenticed to John Holden, Sir William Davenant's publisher, and possibly later to a bookseller named John Rhodes, who had been wardrobe-keeper at the Blackfriars Theatre. In 1659, Rhodes obtained a license to set up a company of players at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane; and on the reopening of this theatre in 1660, Betterton made his first appearance on the stage. Betterton's talents at once brought him into prominence, and he was given leading parts. On the opening of the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1661, Davenant, the patentee of the Duke's Company, engaged Betterton and all Rhodes's ...
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Jacob Tonson
Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the Elder (1655–1736), was an eighteenth-century English bookseller and publisher. Tonson published editions of John Dryden and John Milton, and is best known for having obtained a copyright on the plays of William Shakespeare by buying up the rights of the heirs of the publisher of the Fourth Folio after the Statute of Anne went into effect. He was also the founder of the famous Kit-Cat Club. His nephew, Jacob Tonson the Younger (1682–1735), was his business partner. The business was continued by the younger Tonson's son, Jacob Tonson (1714–1767). History Scholars have not always been sure of Tonson's birthdate, and it has in the past been listed as occurring in 1655 or 1656. But the register of christenings in the parish of St Andrew Holborn demonstrates that Tonson was born on 12 November 1655 and baptized 18 November 1655. The register lists Tonson as the "sonne of Jacob Tonson Shoemaker and of Elizabeth his wife near ...
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