John Verbruggen
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John Baptista Verbruggen, d. 1708, was an English actor working in London. Verbruggen is first mentioned as a member of the
United Company The United Company was a London theatre company formed in 1682 with the merger of the King's Company and the Duke's Company. Both the Duke's and King's Companies suffered poor attendance during the turmoil of the Popish Plot period, 1678–8 ...
in a
Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Monarchy of the United Ki ...
'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 Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
in
John Dryden John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...
'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 as marrying the well-known actress
Susanna Mountfort Susanna Mountfort (1690-1720) was a British stage actress. She was the daughter of the actors William Mountfort and his wife Susanna Mountfort. In 1692 her father was killed in a duel and her mother remarried and became known as Susanna Verbrug ...
, widow of the actor
William Mountfort William Mountfort (c. 1664 – 10 December 1692), English actor and dramatic writer, was the son of a Staffordshire gentleman. He met his death at the hand of notorious brawler Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun of Okehampton, who had just take ...
, on 31 January 1694. Adding another possibility for confusion, William Mountfort ''was'' famous for his Alexander the Great. When many of the senior actors at the United Company, headed by
Thomas Betterton Thomas Betterton (August 1635 – 28 April 1710) was the leading male actor and theatre manager during Restoration England. He was the son of an under-cook to King Charles I and was born in London. Apprentice and actor Betterton was born in ...
, seceded from the monopoly company and formed an actors' cooperative in March 1695, John and Susanna Verbruggen remained with Christopher Rich at the
Drury Lane Theatre 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 Dru ...
, where they were important assets to the depleted company. Rich raised Verbruggen's salary from £2 to £4 weekly to sign a new contract to "with his best care and skill Sing Dance Act Rehearse and Represent", an arrangement which put him on a level with George Powell, the leading actor in the remaining Drury Lane troupe. After a quarrel about shares and benefits which led to a physical fight in September 1696, Verbruggen was discharged from acting, but ordered by the Lord Chamberlain to stay with the Drury Lane company until 1 January 1697, to give Rich time to find a replacement. This order made possible the endangered November première of
John Vanbrugh Sir John Vanbrugh (; 24 January 1664 (baptised) – 26 March 1726) was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restor ...
's ''
The Relapse ''The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger'' is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber's '' Love's Last Shift, or, The Fool in Fashion''. In Cibber's ''Love's Last Shift'', a free-living Re ...
'', where Verbruggen played the part of Loveless. Moving to Betterton's company in January 1697, Verbruggen began to receive some critical comment, chiefly positive. He was considered a natural actor, with "a negligent agreeable Wildness in his Action and his Mein, which became him well". He chiefly played "fine gentlemen", wits, and rakes, and was
William Congreve William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright, satirist, poet, and Whig politician. He spent most of his career between London and Dublin, and was noted for his highly polished style of writing, being regard ...
's original Mirabell in ''
The Way of the World ''The Way of the World'' is a play written by the English playwright William Congreve. It premiered in early March 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. It is widely regarded as one of the best works of Restoration comedy ev ...
'' (1700).
Anthony Aston Anthony Aston (died 1731) was an English actor and dramatist. Life He began to be known on the London stage in the early years of the 18th century. He had tried the law and other professions, which he finally abandoned for the theatre. He had so ...
contrasted his wild, untaught talents with Betterton's artfulness, and he was especially appreciated in "natural" characters such as the unique title character in a stage adaptation of
Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; baptism, bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration (England), Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writ ...
's '' Oroonoko'' written by
Thomas Southerne Thomas Southerne (12 February 166026 May 1746) was an Irish dramatist. Biography Thomas Southerne, born on 12 February 1660, in Oxmantown, near Dublin, was an Irish dramatist. He was the son of Francis Southerne (a Dublin brewer) and Margare ...
. John and Susanna Verbruggen had a child as early as 1703, Lewis, who was baptized on 27 May. Susanna Verbruggen died between July and August 1703, and the infant was buried in October. John Baptista Verbruggen was buried on 12 March 1708, and on 26 April at Drury Lane, a benefit was held for "a Young Orphan-Child of the late Mr Verbruggen and Mrs Verbruggen", presumably the John George Verbruggen, son of John and Susanna, who was baptized on 23 November 1708.


Selected appearances

''
Tamerlane Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timuri ...
'' by Nicholas Rowe (1701)


References

*All the information is taken from the "Verbruggen, John" article in Highfill, Philip Jr, Burnim, Kalman A., and Langhans, Edward (1973–93), ''Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800'' (16 volumes), Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Verbruggen, John 17th-century English male actors 1708 deaths 18th-century English male actors Year of birth unknown English male stage actors