Journal ArticleDOI
A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800.
TLDR
A major project begun in 1973 reaches its conclusion with the publication of volumes 15 and 16 of the "Biographical Dictionary, "a series considered "a reference work of the first order" by "Theatre and Performing Arts Collections" as mentioned in this paper.Abstract:
A major project begun in 1973 reaches its conclusion with the publication of volumes 15 and 16 of the "Biographical Dictionary, "a series considered "a reference work of the first order" by "Theatre and Performing Arts Collections."Among performers highlighted in these last volumes is Catherine Tofts, a gifted singer whose popular acclaim was captured in lines by Samuel Phillips: "How are we pleas d when beauteous Tofts appears, / To steal our Souls through our attentive Ears? / Ravish d we listen to th inchanting Song, / And catch the falling Accents from her Tongue." The first singer of English birth to master the form of Italian opera, Tofts frequently won leading roles over native Italian singers. Her salary 400to 500 a seasonwas one of the highest in the theatre. Her popularity declined, however, as her demands for payment increaseda situation captured in an epigram Alexander Pope may have penned: "So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song, / As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along;/" "But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride, / That the beasts must have starved, and the poets have died."John Vanbrugh, whose play "The Relapse "is ranked as one of the best comedies of the Restoration period, became a subordinate crown architect under Sir Christopher Wren in 1702. In 1703, Vanbrugh began plans for the Queen s Theatre in the Haymarket, an enterprise endorsed by the Kit Cat Club (of which Vanbrugh was a member). Even though his lavish design was acoustically defective, restructuring helped correct the problem and the theatre eventually became the exclusive center for opera in London."read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Grocers, Goldsmiths, and Drapers: Freemen and Apprentices in the Elizabethan Theater
TL;DR: Kathman as discussed by the authors presents data on more than fifty actors and playwrights who were also freemen of livery companies such as the Grocers, Goldsmiths, Drapers, Vintners, Bricklayers, Mercers, Apothecaries, and Barber-Surgeons.
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The Players' Advice to Hamlet: The Rhetorical Acting Method from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment
TL;DR: In this article, Wiles argues that Roman rhetoric provided the bones of both a resilient theatrical system and a physical art that retains its relevance for the post-Stanislavskian actor.
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Harlequin Britain: Eighteenth-Century Pantomime and the Cultural Location of Entertainment(s)
TL;DR: For instance, entertainment is a synonym for maintenance or sustenance ("the entertainment of the regiment"), as a show of hospitality such as a meal for guests, or, most frequently in twentieth-century usage, as a general term for diver sions, often those produced by an element of the culture industry as discussed by the authors.
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Handel the Investor
TL;DR: Handel kept both cash and stock accounts at the Bank of England as discussed by the authors and these illustrate in their deliberate interlocking Handel's close control over his finances, from early in his first years in London through to and including his will and the posthumous payment of his bequests, as well as his ability to deal conservatively in the speculative investment environment of his time.
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Women, Work, and Clothes in the Eighteenth-Century Novel
TL;DR: Chloe Wigston Smith as mentioned in this paper examines the vexed and unstable relations between the eighteenth-century novel and the material world and explores how fiction exploited women's work with clothing - through stealing, sex work, service, stitching, and the stage - in order to revise and reshape material culture within its pages.