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Walter Clun
Walter Clun (died 2 August 1664) was an English actor of the 17th century. His career spanned the difficult period when the theatres were closed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum, from 1642 to 1660. According to James Wright's ''Historia Histrionica'' (1699), Clun and Charles Hart were boy players together with the King's Men in the years prior to the theatre closure. Clun was a member of a group of English actors who performed on the Continent, mainly in The Hague and Paris, between 1644 and 1646; he was also one of the former King's Men who tried to restart the company in December 1648, despite the parliamentarian regime's hostility to theatre. (The effort was not successful.) In the Restoration era, Clun gained particular notice as the Iago to Nicholas Burt's Othello in the earliest Restoration production of Shakespeare's play in 1660. Clun was among the thirteen actors who were initial sharers in the newly organized King's Company in 1661. In addition to I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Theatre Closure 1642
On 2 September 1642, just after the First English Civil War had begun, the Long Parliament ordered the closure of all London theatres. The order cited the current "times of humiliation" and "sad and pious solemnity", a zeitgeist incompatible with "public stage-plays", which were representative of "lascivious Mirth and Levity". The closure was the culmination of the rising anti-theatrical sentiment among Puritans, and along with William Prynne's '' Histriomastix'' (1633), its text was the most notorious attack on theatre in English history. On 24 January 1643, the actors responded to the suppression of the theatre by writing a pamphlet to Parliament titled "The Actors remonstrance or complaint for the silencing of their profession, and banishment from their severall play-houses", in which they also state, "wee have purged our stages of all obscene and scurrilous jests". It was unclear to contemporary audiences whether the intent of the Act was a permanent ban or a temporary res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Merry Devil Of Edmonton
''The Merry Devil of Edmonton'' is an Elizabethan-era stage play; a comedy about a magician, Peter Fabell, nicknamed the Merry Devil. It was at one point attributed to William Shakespeare, but is now considered part of the Shakespeare Apocrypha. Date and text Scholars have conjectured dates of authorship for the play as early as 1592, though most favor a date in the 1600–4 period. ''The Merry Devil'' enters the historical record in 1604, when it is mentioned in a contemporary work called the ''Black Booke''. The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 22 October 1607, and published the next year, in a quarto printed by Henry Ballard for the bookseller Arthur Johnson (Q1 – 1608). Five more quartos appeared through the remainder of the century: Q2 – 1612; Q3 – 1617; Q4 – 1626; Q5 – 1631; and Q6 – 1655. All of these quartos were anonymous. Shakespearean authorship Publisher Humphrey Moseley obtained the rights to the play and re-registered it on 9 Septemb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brief Lives
''Brief Lives'' is a collection of short biographies written by John Aubrey (1626–1697) in the last decades of the 17th century. Writing Aubrey initially began collecting biographical material to assist the Oxford scholar Anthony Wood, who was working on his own collection of biographies. With time, Aubrey's biographical researches went beyond mere assistance to Wood and became a project in its own right. Aubrey was careful, wherever possible, to seek out and talk with those who had been acquainted with his subjects. His sociable nature and his wide circle of friends helped him in this pursuit. At his death, Aubrey left his biographical writings in a state of chaos. It has been the task of later editors to organise the manuscripts (held at the Bodleian Library) into readable form. Afterlife Aubrey's ''Brief Lives'' has been loved for generations for its colourful gossipy tone and for the glimpses it provides of the unofficial sides of its subjects. Aubrey's use of informan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England, and who is particularly noted for his systematic examination of the Avebury henge monument. The Aubrey holes at Stonehenge are named after him, although there is considerable doubt as to whether the holes that he observed are those that currently bear the name. He was also a pioneer folklorist, collecting together a miscellany of material on customs, traditions and beliefs under the title "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme". He set out to compile county histories of both Wiltshire and Surrey, although both projects remained unfinished. His "Interpretation of Villare Anglicanum" (also unfinished) was the first attempt to compile a full-length study of English place-names. He had wider interests in applied mathematics and astronomy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Mohun
Michael Mohun (1616? – buried 11 October 1684) was a leading English actor both before and after the 1642–60 closing of the theatres. Mohun began his stage career as a boy player filling female roles; he was part of Christopher Beeston's theatrical establishment at the Cockpit Theatre, "eventually becoming a key member of Queen Henrietta's Men." For the period from 1642 to 1659, Mohun was an officer in military units loyal to the House of Stuart; he served in England, Ireland, and the Low Countries, and rose to the rank of major. He was seriously wounded at Dublin, and was a prisoner of war for two extended periods. At the end of the English Interregnum, Mohun was one of the men — George Jolly and John Rhodes (17th century), John Rhodes were others — who attempted to restart dramatic performance. In 1659 Mohun performed with other pre-Commonwealth of England, Commonwealth actors in an unlicensed troupe at the Red Bull Theatre. As the manager of the troupe, Mohun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most remembered today for the diary he kept for almost a decade. Though he had no Maritime pilot, maritime experience, Pepys rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both Charles II of England, Charles II and James II of England, James II through patronage, diligence, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty (United Kingdom), English Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources of the Stuart Restoration. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterway." The area was initially a small settlement on the River Fleet, first recorded in 1207 during John, King of England, King John's reign. The early 19th century brought modernization to the area, and it became a popular resort due to its accessibility from London. Notably, Karl Marx resided at 46 Grafton Terrace in Kentish Town from 1856. The area saw further development after World War II and has a rich history of political representation, with the Holborn and St Pancras seat held by Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer as of July 2024. Kentish Town has also been a popular filming location for various movies and television shows. It is home to numerous independently owned shops, music venues, and cultural establish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1663 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1663. Events *February **The Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (Academy of the Humanities) is founded in Paris. ** Katherine Philips' translation of Pierre Corneille's '' Pompée'' is produced successfully at the Theatre Royal, Dublin (Smock Alley Theatre) in Ireland, as the first rhymed version of a French tragedy in English and the first English play written by a woman to be performed on a professional stage. It is published in Dublin and London later in the year. **London printer John Twyn is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn for producing the anonymous ''A Treatise of the Execution of Justice'', justifying civil rebellion. *February 24 – John Milton marries his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, 31 years his junior, at St Mary Aldermary in the City of London. * May 7 – The King's Company inaugurates its new theatre, the first Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Drury Lane is part of London's West End of London, West End West End Theatre, Theatreland. Notable landmarks The street originated as an early medieval lane referred to in Latin as the ''Via de Aldwych'', which probably connected St. Giles Leper Hospital with the fields of Aldwych Close, owned by the hospital but traditionally said to have been granted to the Danes as part of a peace treaty with King Alfred the Great in Saxon times. It acquired its name from the Suffolk barrister Sir Robert Drury (speaker), Robert Drury, who built a mansion called Drury House on the lane around 1500. After the death in 1615 of his great-great-grandson, another Robert Drury, the property passed out of the family. It became the London house ... [...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 listed building, 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 present building, opened in 1812, is the most recent of four theatres that stood at the location since 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 theater, "legitimate" drama English 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 Stuart Rest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Humorous Lieutenant
''The Humorous Lieutenant'', also known as ''The Noble Enemies'', ''Demetrius and Enanthe'', or ''Alexander's Successors'', is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher. Highly praised by critics, it has been called "Fletcher's best comedy." The drama was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Date and performance The second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679 provides a cast list for the original King's Men's production, which includes Henry Condell, Joseph Taylor, John Lowin, William Ecclestone, Richard Sharpe, John Underwood, Robert Benfield—and Thomas Pollard, the comic actor who filled the title role. This is the only cast list that includes both Taylor and Condell; Taylor joined the company in the spring of 1619, to replace Richard Burbage after his death in March of that year; and Condell is thought to have retired not long after—which appears to date the play fairly securely to 1619. Manuscript In addit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rule A Wife And Have A Wife
''Rule a Wife and Have a Wife'' is a late Jacobean stage comedy written by John Fletcher. It was first performed in 1624 and first published in 1640. It is a comedy with intrigue that tells the story of two couples that get married with false pretenses. The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 19 October 1624. It was performed by the King's Men, who performed it at Court twice in that season. The 1640 quarto was printed at Oxford by Leonard Lichfield, the printer to the University of Oxford. It was later reprinted in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679. It was revived in the Restoration era in an adaptation, like many of Fletcher's plays; the revised version was printed in 1697 and repeatedly thereafter, and proved to be among the dramatist's most popular works. External evidence, including Herbert's entry in his records and the 1640 quarto, assigns the play to Fletcher alone. The play's internal evidence of style ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
