Thomas Killigrew (7 February 1612 – 19 March 1683) was an
English dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just
reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...
and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King
Charles II of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.
Charles II was the eldest su ...
.
Life
Killigrew was one of twelve children of Sir
Robert Killigrew
Sir Robert Killigrew (1580–1633) was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1629. He served as Ambassador to the United Provinces.
Life
Killgrew was born at Lothbury, London, t ...
of Hanworth, a courtier to
James I, and his wife
Mary née Woodhouse; he became a page to King
Charles I at about the age of thirteen. According to
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 r ...
, the boy Killigrew used to volunteer as an extra, or "devil," at the
Red Bull Theatre
The Red Bull Theatre was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London, operating in the 17th century. For more than forty years, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the y ...
, so that he could see the plays for free. The young Killigrew had limited formal education; the Court and the playhouse were his schoolroom.
Killigrew was present at the exorcism of the possessed nuns of
Loudun. In 1635 he left a sceptical account of the proceedings.
Before the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
, Killigrew wrote several plays—
tragicomedies like ''Claracilla'' and ''The Prisoners'', as well as his most popular play, ''
The Parson's Wedding'' (1637). The latter play has been criticized for its coarse humour; but it also contains prose readings of
John Donne
John Donne ( ; 1571 or 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under Royal Patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's, D ...
's poetry to pique a literate audience.
A Royalist and
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, Killigrew followed Prince Charles (the future
Charles II) into exile in 1647. In the years 1649–51, he was in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, and
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, and in the later year was appointed Charles' representative in
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
. (It has been said that Killigrew wrote each of his plays in a different city; ''Thomaso, or the Wanderer'' was written in
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
)
At the
Restoration in 1660, Killigrew returned to England along with many other Royalist exiles. Charles rewarded his loyalty by making him
Groom of the Bedchamber
Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Royal Household, Household of the monarch in early modern Kingdom of England, England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In King ...
and Chamberlain to Queen
Catherine
Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...
. He had a reputation as a wit; in his famous Diary,
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 r ...
wrote that Killigrew had the office of the King's fool and jester, with privilege to mock and revile even the most prominent without penalty
Along with Sir
William Davenant
Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned bo ...
, he was given a royal warrant to form a
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...
company in 1660—which gave Killigrew a key role in the revival of English drama. Killigrew beat Davenant to a debut, at
Gibbon's Tennis Court in
Clare Market
Clare Market is a historic area in central London located within the parish of St Clement Danes to the west of Lincoln's Inn Fields, between the Strand and Drury Lane, with Vere Street adjoining its western side. It was named after the food m ...
, with the new
King's Company
The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London, after the London theatre closure 1642, London theatre closure had been lifted at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 166 ...
. Its original members were
Michael Mohun,
William Wintershall,
Robert Shatterell,
William Cartwright,
Walter Clun,
Charles Hart and
Nicholas Burt. They played for a time at the old
Red Bull Theatre
The Red Bull Theatre was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London, operating in the 17th century. For more than forty years, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the y ...
, but in 1663 the company moved to the new
Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. (Unfortunately, Killigrew gained a reputation as an incompetent manager; he was constantly in disputes with his actors and had to bribe his stars to keep working for him.) Killigrew staged plays by
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
William Wycherley
William Wycherley ( ; April 16411 January 1716) was an English Army officer and playwright best known for writing the plays '' The Country Wife'' and ''The Plain Dealer''.
Early life
Wycherley was born at Clive near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, ...
...and Thomas Killigrew, as well as revivals of
Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather t ...
. Having inherited the rights and repertory of the old
King's Men, the King's Company performed many of
Shakespeare's works, in the rewritten forms that were so popular at the time and so disparaged later. Two Killigrew productions of his own ''Parson's Wedding'', in 1664 and 1672-3, were cast entirely with women.
In 1673, Killigrew was appointed
Master of the Revels
The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberla ...
. He lost control of his theatre in a conflict with his son Charles in 1677. (Charles, in turn, went bust a year later.) Thomas Killigrew died at
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...
on 19 March 1683.
Works
Thomas Killigrew's dramas are:
*''
The Prisoners'' (written c. 1632-5 in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
; printed 1641)
*''
Claricilla'' (c. 1636,
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
; printed 1641)
*''
The Princess, or Love at First Sight'' (c. 1636;
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
)
*''
The Parson's Wedding'' (c. 1637;
Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
)
*''The Pilgrim'' (
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
)
*''Bellamira Her Dream, or Love of Shadows'' (two-part play;
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
)
*''
Cicilia and Clorinda, or Love in Arms'' (two-part play; ''Cicilia'', c. 1650,
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
; ''Clorinda'', 1651,
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
)
*''
Thomaso, or the Wanderer'' (two-part play;
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
).
In 1664,
Henry Herringman published a collected edition of Killigrew's dramas, titled ''Comedies and Tragedies'' (rather inaccurately, since the majority of the plays are
tragicomedies). Only his two earliest plays had been printed previously. The collected edition identifies the city in which Killigrew supposedly wrote each play.
''The Parson's Wedding'' and ''Claricilla'' were successful stage plays. Of his last three works, ''Thomaso'' is a broad comedy based on Killigrew's experiences in European exile, while ''Bellamira'' and ''Cicillia'' are heroic romances—but all three are
closet drama
A closet drama is a play (theatre), play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader. The earliest use of the term recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1813. The literary historian Henry Augustin Beers, H ...
s, ten-act double plays never intended for the stage. Yet oddly enough, Aphra Behn adapted ''Thomaso'' for her successful ''
The Rover'' (1677).
[Margaret Lindon Whedon, ''Rogues, Rakes, and Lovers,'' dissertation, 1993.] The tragedy ''The Pilgrim,'' apparently never performed, borrows its plot from
James Shirley
James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist.
He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb (writer), Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of ...
's ''
The Politician'' and reveals many allusions to Shakespeare.
Some critics have considered ''The Parson's Wedding'' to be a
Restoration play written before the Restoration, an anticipation of what was to come—and Killigrew himself as a central figure in the transition from
English Renaissance theatre
The English Renaissance theatre or Elizabethan theatre was the theatre of England from 1558 to 1642. Its most prominent playwrights were William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.
Background
The term ''English Renaissance theatr ...
to
Restoration drama.
Family
He married twice.
1
Cecilia Crofts (16?? –1638) in 1636, a maid of honour to
Queen Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France ( French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until his execution on 30 January 1649. She was ...
with a son:
* Henry Killigrew (bapt 16 April 1637 St Martin's-in-the-Fields)
2
Charlotte de Hesse (1629 –1716) in 1655; with children:
*
Charles Killigrew (29 December 1655 – 1725)
*
Thomas Killigrew (the younger) (1657 –1719), who had one successful play, called ''Chit-Chat'' (1719)
* Robert (Roger) Killigrew (born 17 September 1663)
* Elizabeth Killigrew (born 3 July 1666)
His second wife and their 3 sons were naturalised in an Act of Parliament in 1683.
The other Killigrews
Among his 8 siblings known to have survived to adulthood, Thomas had two brothers who also wrote plays:
*Sir
William Killigrew (1606–1695), was a Court official (vice chamberlain to the Queen) who wrote four plays: ''Selindra''; ''Pandora''; and ''Ormasdes, or Love and Friendship''—all printed in 1664; and ''The Siege of Urbin'' (1666), generally considered his best work.
*
Henry Killigrew (1613–1700), a clergyman, wrote only one play ... but he wrote it twice. His ''The Conspiracy'' was published in 1638, apparently pirated; he revised it into ''Pallantus and Eudora'' (1653). Henry was the father of the poet
Anne Killigrew.
For the other six, see
Robert Killigrew
Sir Robert Killigrew (1580–1633) was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1629. He served as Ambassador to the United Provinces.
Life
Killgrew was born at Lothbury, London, t ...
Notes
References
*
*
External links
Thomas Killigrew works online.Henry Killigrew's ''The Conspiracy'' online.William Killigrew's ''The Siege of Urbin'' online.William Killigrew's ''Selindra'' online.*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Killigrew, Thomas
1612 births
1683 deaths
17th-century English dramatists and playwrights
17th-century English male writers
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
English male dramatists and playwrights
Masters of the Revels