Benjamin Plim Bellamy (1782–1847) was an English actor.

Early life

He was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene,

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the United Kingd ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

on 27 September 1782, son of William and Ann Bellamy. He married Elizabeth Walker at

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...

on 12 October 1806.

Acting career

For some 30 years was a favourite actor on the Norwich Theatre Circuit.

Controversy in Ipswich

In 1810 the ''

Suffolk Chronicle The ''Suffolk Chronicle'', was a weekly newspaper published in Ipswich by J. King from 5 May 1810 until 28 December, 1872. The ''Chronicle'' was a radical newspaper with the motto "Open to all parties, influenced by none". It was a rival to the T ...

'' hired a corrosive new

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

, up to which time the Norwich Company had been used to receiving a favourable press. For the summer season 1810 the 'Ipswich Theatre' was showing ''

She Stoops to Conquer ''She Stoops to Conquer'' is a comedy by Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in the English-speaking world. It is one of the few plays ...

'' and the ''Chronicle'' reported 'The performance possessed all the worst defects of a provincial exhibition' and actor Frederick Vining was rapped for his 'schoolboy recitation' with the managers accused of having dredged up a miserable

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

. Worse followed when the Chronicle sent the reporter to every following show and the reviews became more critical. After an uneasy truce Bellamy, who was playing

Polonius Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. He is the chief counsellor of the play's ultimate villain, Claudius, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Generally regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the cou ...

in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' in 1813, when the ''Chronicle'' reported 'We never saw a viler Polonius than Bellamy's' to which he replied with a pamphlet ''A Plain Letter to the Dramatic Censor of The Suffolk Chronicle'' (Ipswich 1814). By this time relations between the company and the newspaper had further deteriorated. The critic was identified as Thomas Harral and after an uproar at the play ''The Maid of the Mill'', Harral, on leaving the theatre, was attacked in Tankard acketStreet,

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

by Vining and his friends, when his coat was ripped from his back and he narrowly escaped a ducking. His critical spleen unsettled some of the actors and in May 1815 Vining left for

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 ...

and Bellamy followed shortly afterwards but returned as manager of the Norwich circuit three years later.

Later activity

In 1819 Bellamy took over the editorship of the ''Bury Herald'' but in 1823 he resumed his original career at

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

where in 1827 he became manager of the Theatre but he resigned soon afterwards on becoming lessee of the

Bath Assembly Rooms The Bath Assembly Rooms, designed by John Wood, the Younger in 1769, are a set of assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage Site, World Heritage City of Bath, Somerset, Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visito ...

. He lived on Beacon Hill, Walcot. He died at Bath on 30 September 1847, aged 65. He is buried in Bath Abbey Cemetery, where the monument to him has Grade II listed status. The epitaph describes him as "Distinguished for tenderness of heart variety of talents extensive attainments and perfect probity as a companion he was generally welcome while his firmness of character rendered him inestimable as a friend".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Benjamin Plim 1782 births 1847 deaths 19th-century English male actors English male stage actors