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The Successful Strangers
''The Successful Strangers'' is a 1690 tragicomedy by the English writer William Mountfort. The original Drury Lane cast included Joseph Williams as Don Carlos, George Powell as Antonio, William Mountfort as Silvio, James Nokes as Don Lopez, Anthony Leigh as Don Francisco, George Bright as Don Pedro, Cave Underhill as Guzman, William Bowen as Sancho, Frances Maria Knight as Dorothea, Susanna Mountfort as Feliciana and Anne Bracegirdle Anne Bracegirdle (possibly 167112 September 1748) was an English actress. Biography Bracegirdle was born to Justinian and Martha (born Furniss) Bracegirdle in Northamptonshire. She was baptised in Northampton on 15 November 1671, although her t ... as Biancha.Van Lennep p.379 References Bibliography * Van Lennep, W. ''The London Stage, 1660-1800: Volume One, 1660-1700''. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960 . * Watson, George. ''The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: Volume 2, 1660-1800''. Cambridge University Press, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Mountfort
William Mountfort (c. 1664 – 10 December 1692), English actor and dramatic writer, was the son of a Staffordshire gentleman. Biography His first stage appearance was with the Dorset Garden Theatre company about 1678, and by 1682 he was taking important parts, usually those of the fine gentleman. Mountfort wrote a number of plays, wholly or in part, and many prologues and epilogues. In 1686 he married the actress Susanna Percival. Owing to jealousy of Mrs. Anne Bracegirdle's supposed interest in Mountfort, Captain Richard Hill, an adventurer, who had annoyed her with persistent attentions, accompanied by Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun ambushed Mountfort in Howard Street, Strand, on 9 December 1692. During the struggle Mountfort was stabbed in the chest by Hill, and he died of his wounds the following day. Following the attack Hill fled to France. Lord Mohun was tried by his peers and acquitted by a vote of 69 to 14. The bell of St Clement's Church is reputed to ha ... [...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] |
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans as ''Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city#National capitals, Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national Government of the United Kingdom, government and Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the Counties of England, counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy ending. Tragicomedy, as its name implies, invokes the intended response of both the tragedy and the comedy in the audience, the former being a genre based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis and the latter being a genre intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter. In theatre Classical precedent There is no concise formal definition of tragicomedy from the classical age. It appears that the Greek philosopher Aristotle had something like the Renaissance meaning of the term (that is, a serious action with a happy ending) in mind when, in ''Poetics'', he discusses tragedy with a dual ending. In this respect, a number of Greek and Roman plays, for instance ''Alcestis'', may be called tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Williams (actor)
Joseph Williams was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Williams initially joined the Duke's Company and was apprenticed to the senior actor Henry Harris In 1682 he moved to the merged United Company, appearing at Drury Lane and the Dorset Gardens Theatre. In 1695 when the company split, Williams initially planned to join Thomas Betterton and the breakaways at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, but ended up remaining at Drury Lane.The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama p.lxvi One of his contemporaries at the United Company was an actor named David Williams, and occasionally it is hard to distinguish their roles listed on playbills. Selected roles * Moses in '' The Town Shifts'' by Edward Revet (1671) * Hadland in '' The Counterfeit Bridegroom'' by Aphra Behn (1677) * Pylades in ''Circe'' by Charles Davenant (1677) * Troilus in '' The Destruction of Troy'' by John Banks (1678) * Cispin in '' The Counterfeits'' by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Powell (playwright)
George Powell (1668? – 1714) was a 17th-century London actor and playwright who was a member of the United Company. He was the son of the actor Martin Powell, a long-standing member of the King's Company. Plays In his playwrighting Powell has been called 'an unscrupulous and opportunistic appropriator, gleaning materials from a variety of sources'. He was embroiled in a plagiarism scandal after writing a misogynistic play called ''The Imposture Defeated; or, A Trick to Cheat the Devil'', first performed in September 1697. This play portrayed the proper treatment of an adulteress as brutal confinement and isolation from others to punish her and prevent the spread of her attitude. It is widely accepted that Powell had plagiarised from the then unpublished manuscript of Mary Pix's '' The Deceiver Deceived''. Theatre critic Charles Gildon called Powell's version the inferior of the two. Powell also wrote the plays '' Alphonso, King of Naples'' (first performed in December ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Nokes
James Nokes (Noke, Noak, Noakes) (died c.1692) was an English actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), l ..., whose laughter-arousing genius was attested by Cibber and other contemporaries. Life Nokes was one of the male actors who played female roles in the newly reopened playhouses shortly after the Restoration of Charles II. This practice didn't last long, as Thomas Killigrew's King's Company put the first English actress on the stage on December 1660, and from then on they appeared more and more frequently, until in 1662 Charles II ordered that only women should play female roles. There was a brief period in late 1660 and early 1661 when both men and women were playing female roles. On 29 January 1661, the diarist Samuel Pepys went to the Duke’s playhouse, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Leigh
Anthony Leigh (died 1692) was a celebrated English comic actor. Life He was from a Northamptonshire family, and was not closely related to the actor John Leigh (c.1689–1726?). He joined the Duke of York's company about 1672, and appeared in that year at the recently opened theatre in Dorset Garden, as the original Pacheco in ''The Reformation'' (1673), a comedy ascribed by Gerard Langbaine to one Arrowsmith, a Cambridge M.A. graduate. At Dorset Garden, Leigh played many original parts. After the merger of the duke's company with the king's in 1682, Leigh did not immediately go to the Theatre Royal. He was in 1683, however, at that theatre the original Bartoline in John Crowne's ''City Politics'', and played Bessus in a revival of ''A King and No King''. Here he remained until his death, creating many characters.They included: Beaugard's Father in Otway's ''The Atheist'', Rogero in Thomas Southerne's ''The Disappointment'', Sir Paul Squelch in Richard Brome's ''Northern Lass'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bright (actor)
George Bright was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. He specialised in playing "comic dullards, fops and bouncy servants".Hughes p.197 After beginning his career in Dublin he joined the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in 1679 and then became part of the merged United Company in 1682. Selected roles * Ajax in ''Troilus and Cressida'' by John Dryden (1679) * Glisten in '' The Revenge'' by Aphra Behn (1680) * Baltazer in '' The False Count'' by Aphra Behn (1681) * Slouch in '' The Royalist'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1682) * Sheriff in '' The Duke of Guise'' by John Dryden (1682) * Farmer in ''Dame Dobson'' by Edward Ravenscroft (1683) * Martin in '' A Jovial Crew'' by Richard Brome (1683) * Howdee in '' The Northern Lass'' by Richard Brome (1684) * Captain Hackum in ''The Squire of Alsatia'' by Thomas Shadwell (1688) * Dullman in '' The Widow Ranter'' by Aphra Behn (1689) * Don Pedro in ''The Successful Strangers'' by William Mountfort (169 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cave Underhill
Cave Underhill (1634–1710?) was an English actor in comedy roles. Underhill entertained three generations of London theatre-goers. For over 40 years, as a member of the Duke's Company, Underhill played the first Gravedigger in ''Hamlet''. He was also successful in playing Gregory in ''Romeo and Juliet'', the clown in ''Twelfth Night'', and Trinculo in '' The Tempest''. Early life The son of Nicholas Underhill, a clothworker, he was born in St. Andrew's parish, Holborn, London, on 17 March 1634, and was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School in January 1645. He became first a member of the acting company which was gathered by John Rhodes. around Thomas Betterton. He was then recruited for Sir William D'Avenant and the Duke of York's company at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1663 he was fined in an assault case, with Betterton and James Noke. Stage career The first character to which Underhill's name appears is Sir Morglay Thwack in D'Avenant's comedy ''The Wits'', rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Bowen (actor)
William Bowen (1666–1718) was a British stage actor. He was part of the United Company from 1689. For a time, he became known for his comic roles. He was fatally wounded in a duel with fellow actor James Quin in 1718.''The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama'' p.XXXIX Selected roles * Valet in '' Bury Fair'' by Thomas Shadwell (1689) * Whiff in '' The Widow Ranter'' by Aphra Behn (1689) * Lignoreles in '' The Massacre of Paris'' by Nathaniel Lee (1689) * Sancho in '' The Successful Strangers'' by William Mountfort (1690) * Sir Gentle Golding in '' Sir Anthony Love'' by Thomas Southerne (1690) * Coachman in ''The English Friar'' by John Crowne (1690) * Tranio in '' Amphitryon'' by John Dryden (1690) * Lopez in '' The Mistakes'' by Joseph Harris (1690) * Fabion in '' Alphonso, King of Naples'' by George Powell (1690) * Albanact in '' King Arthur'' by John Dryden (1691) * Monsieur Le Prate in ''Love for Money'' by Thomas D'Urfey (1691) * Monsieu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susanna Verbruggen
Susanna Verbruggen (née Percival) (c. 1667–1703), aka Susanna Mountfort, was an English actress working in London. Life She was the daughter of Thomas Percival, a member of the Duke's Company for more than a decade. Her first recorded stage appearance may have been as early as 1681 in D'Urfey's '' Sir Barnaby Whigg''. In 1686 she married the actor William Mountfort, and after Mountfort's infamous murder in 1692, she married the actor John Verbruggen. She was a successful and popular comedian, known especially for her breeches roles. Her greatest success was as the main character Lucia in Thomas Southerne's ''Sir Anthony Love'', where Lucia partakes of the freedom of the roistering Restoration rake by disguising herself as "Sir Anthony". Both men and women in the audience loved her performance in these types of roles. She was one of the leading actresses at the United Company, but when the company split in two in 1695 (see Restoration comedy) she was, however, not offered a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
