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The Rival Modes
''The Rival Modes'' is a 1727 comedy play by the British writer James Moore Smythe.Nicoll p.19 The original Drury Lane cast included Colley Cibber as the Earl of Late Airs, Theophilus Cibber as Lord Toupet, John Harper (actor), John Harper as Sir Oliver Bruin, Robert Wilks as Ballamine, John Mills (stage actor), John Mills as Sagely, Henry Norris (actor), Henry Norris as Henry, Joe Miller (actor), Joe Miller as George, Anne Oldfield as Amoret, Mary Porter (actress), Mary Porter as Melissa and Christiana Horton as Clary. References Bibliography * Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992. * Nicoll, Allardyce. ''History of English Drama, 1660-1900, Volume 2''. Cambridge University Press, 2009. 1727 plays British plays West End plays Comedy plays {{1720s-play-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Moore Smythe
James Moore Smythe (; 1702 – 18 October 1734) was an English playwright and fop. Biography Smythe was appointed by the King to the Office of, Co- Paymaster of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms. He was born James Moore. He was the son of Arthur Moore ( – 4 May 1730), MP for Great Grimsby, and his 2nd wife Theophila Smythe, dau. of William Smythe Esq., Paymaster of the Band of Pensioners, now known as The Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, and Lady Elizabeth Berkeley. His mother's maternal grandfather was George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley and his mother carried the last name Smythe. Moore graduated from All Souls College, Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in 1722. During his college years, he had a reputation for wittiness and a great attention to fashion. He was referred to by the informal name "Jemmy." When his grandfather (William Smythe) died in 1720, he left estates to Moore on condition that he change his name to Smythe. Moore Smythe was profliga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and 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 building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 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" 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 English Restoration. Initial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Play
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, the ''Divine Comedy'' ( Italian: ''Divina Commedia''). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. The predominating characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play insti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style. He wrote 25 plays for his own company at Drury Lane, half of which were adapted from various sources, which led Robert Lowe and Alexander Pope, among others, to criticise his "miserable mutilation" of "crucified Molière ndhapless Shakespeare". He regarded himself as first and foremost an actor and had great popular success in comical fop parts, while as a tragic actor he was persistent but much ridiculed. Cibber's brash, extroverted personality did not sit well with his contemporaries, and he was frequently accused of tasteless theatrical productions, shady business methods, and a social and political opportunism that was thought to have gained him the laureateship over far better poets. He rose to ignominious fame when he became t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophilus Cibber
Theophilus Cibber (25 or 26 November 1703 – October 1758) was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber. He began acting at an early age, and followed his father into theatrical management. In 1727, Alexander Pope satirized Theophilus Cibber in his '' Dunciad'' as a youth who "thrusts his person full into your face" (III 132). On the stage, he was famous for playing Pistol in '' Henry IV, Part 2'', and some of the comic roles his father had played when younger, but unsympathetic critics accused him of overemphasis.Barker, p. 166 His private life later led Theophilus into bad reputation and scandal. He died in a shipwreck while bound for Ireland and a season in Dublin. Early life and career Theophilus Cibber was born during the Great Storm of 1703 and began acting in the Drury Lane Theatre at the age of 16 in 1721.Barker, p. 165 As a young man, Cibber was a notorious rake, and associated with young men of a similar mind and reputation, suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Harper (actor)
John Harper (died 1742) was an English actor. He was known for comic parts. Life Harper originally performed at Bartholomew Fair and Southwark Fair; a performance for his benefit at William Bullock's booth in Birdcage Alley, consisting of ''The Jew of Venice'', songs and dances, and the drunken man by Harper, was announced in '' The Daily Courant'' of 24 September 1719. On 7 November 1719 at Lincoln's Inn Fields Harper was the original Montmorency in Charles Beckingham's ''Henry IV of France''. He remained at Lincoln's Inn Fields until 1721.Playing among other parts Dr. Caius in the '' Merry Wives of Windsor'', and Ajax in '' Troilus and Cressida''. On 27 October 1721 his name appears as Sir Epicure Mammon in '' The Alchemist'' at Drury Lane. Here he remained for eleven years, taking parts for a low comedian. For some years he was the Falstaff of Drury Lane, and was more popular in the part than his rival James Quin. He also played the king in ''King Henry VIII'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Wilks
Robert Wilks (''c.'' 1665 – 27 September 1732) was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope and caricatured by William Hogarth as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition. The family was based for many generations in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. His great-uncle, Judge Wilks, had served Charles I of England during the English Civil War, for whom he raised a troop at his own expense. After Oliver Cromwell won the civil war, Wilks' father moved to Dublin, where Robert Wilks was born. He was a clerk to Robert Southwell until he joined the Williamite army. As soon as he was discharged from the army, he worked in the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin from 1691 to 1693. According to Wilks's version of the story, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Mills (stage Actor)
John Mills (c.1670–1736) was a British stage actor. A long-standing part of the Drury Lane company from 1695 until his death, he appeared in both comedies and tragedies. His wife Margaret Mills was an actress, and his son William Mills also became an actor at Drury Lane. He was a friend of the playwright Richard Steele and Robert Wilks the lead actor and manager at Drury Lane with whom he frequently appeared on stage. He died on 17 December 1736, thirteen days after performing in his final role as the King in '' Henry IV, Part 2''.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.249 Selected roles * Pedro in '' Agnes de Castro'' by Catherine Trotter (1695) * Castillio in '' Neglected Virtue'' by Charles Hopkins (1696) * Pisano in '' The Unhappy Kindness'' by Thomas Scott (1696) * Lovewell in '' Love and a Bottle'' by George Farquhar (1698) * Colonel Darange in ''The Campaigners'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1698) * Vizard in '' The Constant Couple'' by George Farquhar (1699) * Don Duart in '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Norris (actor)
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Henry Norris may refer to: *Sir Henry Norris (courtier) (c. 1482–1536), Groom of the Stool to Henry VIII, alleged lover of Anne Boleyn *Sir Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys (1525–1601), Elizabethan courtier * Henry Norreys (colonel-general) (1554–1599), English soldier and son of Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys * Henry Handley Norris (1771–1850), English High Church clergyman *Sir Henry Norris (businessman) (1865–1934), British businessman, football chairman and politician * Henry Norris (engineer) (1816–1878), British civil engineer See also *Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957), US astronomer * Norris (other) *Norreys Norreys (also spelt Norris) may refer to various members of, or estates belonging to, a landed family chiefly seated in the English counties of Berkshire and Lancashire and the Irish county of Cork. Famous family members * Baron Norreys of Rycote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Miller (actor)
Joseph Miller (1684 – 15 August 1738) was an English actor, who first appeared in the cast of Sir Robert Howard's ''Committee'' at Drury Lane in 1709 as Teague. Trinculo in '' The Tempest'', the First Grave-digger in ''Hamlet'' and Marplot in Susanna Centlivre's ''The Busybody'', were among his many favourite parts. He is said to have been a friend of Hogarth. In 1715 he appeared on bills promoting a performance on the last day of April, where he played Young Clincher in Farquhar's comedy, '' The Constant Couple''. On 25 April 1717 he played Sir Joseph Whittol in William Congreve's "Old Batchelor". Tickets for this performance were adorned by a design by William Hogarth showing the scene where Whittol's friend Captain Bluffe is kicked by Sharper whilst his friend Bellmour tries to pull him away. This is described as a "very valuable engraving" in 1868. This ticket design was used for Joe Millers benefit performance on 13 April 1738. In "vacation periods" between working a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Oldfield
Anne Oldfield (168323 October 1730) was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time. Early life and discovery She was born in London in 1683. Her father was a soldier, James Oldfield. Her mother was either Anne or Elizabeth Blanchard. Her grandfather owned a tavern and left her father several properties, he however mortgaged these which resulted in Anne and her mother being placed in financial difficulty when he died young. It appears that Oldfield received some education because her biographers state that she read widely in her youth. Oldfield and her mother went to live with her aunt, Mrs Voss, in the Mitre tavern, St James. In 1699, she attracted George Farquhar's attention when he overheard her reciting lines from Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's play '' The Scornful Lady'' (1616) in a back room of her tavern. Soon after, she was hired by Christopher Rich to join the cast of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Career A year later she was cast in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Porter (actress)
Mary Porter (died 24 February 1765) was an English actress. Life She was brought to the attention of Betterton by Elizabeth Barry, who had seen her play the Fairy Queen at Bartholomew Fair. In his company she made her first appearance in 1699, in tragedy, in which she was at her best, although she also played a long list of comedy parts. When her friends, Mrs Barry, Mrs Bracegirdle and Mrs Oldfield, had retired from the stage, she was left its undisputed queen. In 1713 she appeared in John Gay's comedy ''The Wife of Bath'' at Drury Lane. In 1724 she featured in his tragedy '' The Captives'' as Astarbe, Queen of Media. Selected roles * Mirabel in '' The Rival Fools'' by Colley Cibber (1709) * Alicia in '' Jane Shore'' by Nicholas Rowe (1714) * Lady Woodvill in ''The Non-Juror'' by Colley Cibber (1717) * Eudocia in '' The Siege of Damascus'' by John Hughes (1720) * Astarbe in '' The Captives'' by John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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