Chapter 1: the Seventeenth Century Actresses
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Notes CHAPTER 1: THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ACTRESSES 1. John Genest, Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration to 1830, vol. I (Bath, 1832), p. 37. 2. Dr John Doran, Their Majesties' Servants: Annals of the English Stage, vol. I (London: William H. Allen & Co., 1864), p. 60. 3. E. K. Chambers, Modern Language Review, XI (October 1916) 466. Also, see Chambers's book The Medieval Stage, vol. II (London, 1948), p. 409. 4. As quoted in Genest, vol. I, p. 37 from Richard Brome's The Court Beggar (1632) and James Shirley's The Ball (1639) in which Freshwater, speaking of the plays in Paris, says, 'Yet the women are the best actors, they Play their own parts, a thing much desir'd in England.' 5. Thornton Shirley Graves, 'Women of the Pre-Restoration Stage,' Studies in Philology, XXII, No.2 (1925) 189, 192-3. The record on which Graves draws is Reyher's Les Masques Anglais, p. 25. 6. Robert Latham and William Matthews (eds), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, vol. I (London, 1970), p. 224. 7. John Downes, Roscius Anglicanus (London, 1708), p. 19. 8. Pepys, vol. II, p. 7. 9. Colley Cibber, An Apology for His Life (London, 1740), p. 55. 10. Pepys, vol. IX, p. 425. 11. Downes, p. 19. 12. She was introduced to the world by means of a hilarious prologue especially written by Thomas Jordan to show what a ridiculous figure the boy- actor had been cutting: Henry Wisham Lanier, The First English Actresses: 1660-1700 (New York, 1930), p. 31. First printed in G. Malone (ed.), Works of Shakespeare, vol. III (1821 edn), p. 128. Our women are defective and so siz'd You'd think they were some of the guard disguis'd, For, to speak truth men act, that are between Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen; With bones so large and nerve so incompliant, When you call Desdemona, enter Giant ... The woman plays today: mistake me not No man in gown, or page in petticoat. 13. Allardyce Nicoll, A History of English Drama: 1660-1900, vol. I (Cambridge University Press, 1955), p. 334. 14. Pepys, vol. II, p. 5. 15. Cibber, Apology, p. 54. 16. Pepys, vol. II, p. 203; vol. v, p. 289. The editors note that the play was written in 1640 and that Mrs Marshall spoke the prologue in men's clothes. 17. George Scott Saintsbury (ed.), The Works of John Dryden, vol. II (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 510. The occasion took place in June 1672 at the King's Company's temporary playhouse in Lincoln's Inn Fields. See also Philip Henry Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim and Edward A. Langhans (eds), Biographical Dictionary of 261 262 Notes to Chapter 1 Actors, Actresses, Musicians and Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel; 1660-1800 vol. XII (Southern Illinois University Press, 1973- ), p. 299. The epilogue first appeared in Covent Garden Drolery (1672), is included in Montague Summers's more recent (1927) edition of the work on pp. 1-2, and was first attributed to John Dryden by Sir Walter Scott in the Saintsbury edition, pp. 509-11. William Bradford Gardner, The Prologues and Epilogues of John Dryden (Columbia University Press, 1950), p. 197 notes, however, that the evidence for Dryden's authorship of the epilogue remains inconclusive. 18. Lanier, pp. 57-8, 98. Lady Slingsby acted under the name of Mrs Lee from 1670 to 1680 and as Lady Slingsby from 1681 to 1685. 19. Doran, vol. I, pp. 244-5. Eventually, 'a royal decree was issued, which prohibited gentlemen from entering the 'tiring rooms of the ladies of the King's theatre'. See also Biographical Dictionary, vol. X, p. 107. Unless other- wise indicated, I have used this reference work as a primary source for biographical and salary data on Restoration and eighteenth century ac- tresses. 20. Pepys, vol. VIII, p. 463. 21. Judith Milhous, 'Elizabeth Bowtell and Elizabeth Davenport: Some Puzzles Solved', Theatre Notebook, XXXIX (1985) 124-31. 22. Thomas Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies, vol. III (London, 1785), p. 207. Also recorded in T. Betterton (alias Edmund Curl}), A History of the English Stage (London, 1741), pp. 156-7. 23. Antony Aston, A Brief Supplement to Cibber's Apology (London, 1747), p. 8. 24. J. H. Wilson, 'Biographical Notes on Some Restoration Actresses', Theatre Notebook, XVIII (1963/4) 43-7. 25. Doran, vol. I, pp. 138-49. 26. William Egerton (alias T. Curl}), Memoirs of Anne Oldfield (London, 1731), p.14. 27. Cibber, Apology, p. 97. 28. Ibid., p. 95. Aston's Supplement gives us this picture of Mrs Barry's appear- ance and style: Mrs. Barry was middle-fiz'd, and had darkish Hair, light Eyes, dark Eye- brows and was inifferently [sic] plump: - Her face somewhat preceded her Action, as the latter did her words, her Face ever expressing the Passions; not like the Actresses of late Times, who are afraid of putting their Faces out of the Form of Non-meaning, lest they should crack the Cerum white-wash, or other cosmetic, trowel'd on. 29. Cibber, Apology, pp. 96, 99, 101-2. Playwrights like Davenant, Dryden, Shadwell, Tate and Crowne expanded women's roles in Shakespeare and added female parts if not already there. See William Van Lennep (ed.), The London Stage, vol. I (Southern Illinois University Press, 1965), p. cxxx. Nicoll notes that while Mrs Verbruggen specialized in hoydens, most notably in D'Urfey's plays, another comedienne of the first order, Mrs Leigh, impersonated antiquated and obnoxious old-maids such as Lady Wishfort in Congreve's Way of the World. See Nicoll, vol. I, p. 73. 30. Van Lennep, The London Stage, vol. I, p. xxv. 31. Cibber, Apology, pp. 97-8. 32. Details of actresses' wages are derived from the Petition of Players, c. Decem- ber 1694, from Lord Chamberlain's order for governing the theatres, L. C. 7/3, now in Public Records Office, as reprinted in Nicoll, vol. I, p. 378. Mrs Corey, Mrs Bowman and Mrs Leigh earned 30s. per week. Mrs Leigh's Notes to Chapter 1 263 wages were raised by lOs. per week on her husband's death. 33. Cibber, Apology, pp. 95-6. 34. The proportion of actors to actresses at this time was usually two to one, in line with the disproportionate number of male to female roles. See Van Lennep, The London Stage vol. I, p. xxv. 35. Pepys, vol. VIII, p. 101 and vol. III, p. 295. 36. Betterton, History, pp. 19-20. Dr Doran, vol. I, p. 146 notes that Mrs Barry declared she was carried away by the illusion and excitement of the scene, which was repeated 'with similar stage effects' by Mrs Woffington and Mrs Bellamy in the eighteenth century. 37. Cibber, Apology, p. 110. 38. Genest, vol. I, p. 88. 39. Bishop Gilbert Burnet, A History of My Own Time, vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1823), p. 468. 40. Grammont's Memoirs (London, 1714) as reprinted in Lanier, pp. 54-5. 41. Pepys, vol. IX, p. 189. 42. Doran, vol. I, p. 86. 43. Cibber, Apology, p. 96. 44. Biographical Dictionary, vol. I, pp. 317-18. The Biographical Dictionary at- tributes the story to Curll, whose accounts are frequently found to be inac- curate. In this case, Van Lennep, pp. 352-3 indicates there was a production of Mustapha in October of 1686 but the cast list is not documented. The story may be true but has not yet been proven conclusively. 45. Pepys, vol. IX, p. 415. The editors note that 'Doll common' was the name given to Mrs Corey of the King's Company, from the character in Jonson's The Alchemist and that Sempronia, from Jonson's Cataline was an aging courtesan posing as a stateswoman when examined on her performance by the Lord Chamberlain, who was Lady Harvey's second cousin. Mrs Corey was said to be 'bold and Sawcye'. 46. Judith Milhous, Theatre Notebook, XXXIX, No.3 (1985) p. 127. The incident was first recorded in Narcissus Luttrell's A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, vol. IV (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1857), p. 169. 47. Cibber, Apology, p. 101. 48. See Thomas Macaulay, History of England, vol. III (London: J. M. Dent, 1906; repro 1953), p. 380, and Biographical Dictionary, vol. II, p. 278. 49. The Biographical Dictionary, vol. II, pp. 271-2 gives an account of the events from trial testimony. Narcissus Luttrell's record in A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, vol. II (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1857), p. 637 carries some errors. The story also appears in Lanier, p. 77. 50. Biographical Dictionary, vol. II, p. 315. 51. Cibber, Apology, p. 101. One of Mrs Bracegirdle's most famous songs was 'I burn, I burn' in Thomas D'Urfey's Don Quixote (Dorset Gardens, 1694). She created the part of Venus in Congreve's Judgment of Paris (Dorset Gardens, 1701), Lavinia in Nicholas Rowe's The Fair Penitent (Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1703) and Semanthe in Ulysses (Queen's, 1705). 52. Montague Summers (ed.), The Complete Works of William Congreve (The Non- such Press: London, 1923), p. 78. The entire 'Song' contains two verses: Pious Selinda goes to Pray'rs, If I but ask the Favour; And yet the tender Fool's in Tears, When she believes ... I'll leave her. 264 Notes to Chapter 1 II Wou'd I were free from this Restraint, Or else had Hopes to win her; Wou'd she cou'd make of me a Saint, Or I of her a Sinner. 53. Roswell Gray Ham, Otway and Lee: Biographies from a Baroque Age (Yale University Press, 1931), pp.