A Book of the Play: Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and CharacterCook, Dutton
History
A Book of the Play: Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character
Cook, Dutton
Theater -- Great Britain -- History
The authors were deprived of occupation so far as concerned the stage;
they sought other employment for their pens; printing a play, however,
now and then, by way of keeping their hands in as dramatists. The
managers, left with nothing to manage, perhaps turned to trade in
quest of outlet for their energies--the manager has been always
something of the trader. But for the actors, forbidden to act, what
were they to do? They had been constituted Malignants or Royalists
almost by Act of Parliament. The younger players promptly joined the
army of King Charles. Mohun acquired the rank of captain, and at the
close of the war, served in Flanders, receiving the pay of a major.
Hart became a lieutenant of horse, under Sir Thomas Dallison, in the
regiment of Prince Rupert. In the same troop served Burt as cornet,
and Shatterel as quartermaster. Allen, of the Cockpit, was a major and
quartermaster-general at Oxford. Robinson, serving on the side of the
King, was long reputed to have lost his life at the taking of Basing
House. The story went that the Cromwellian General Harrison had, with
his own hands, slain the actor, crying, as he struck him down: "Cursed
is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently." Chalmers
maintains, however, that an entry in the parish register of St.
Anne's, Blackfriars, of the death and burial of "Richard Robinson, a
player," in March, 1647, negatives this account of the actor's fate.
Possibly there were two actors bearing the not uncommon name of
Robinson. These were all players of note, who had acquitted themselves
with applause in the best plays of the time. Of certain older actors,
unable to bear arms for the king, Lowin turned innkeeper, and died, at
an advanced age, landlord of the Three Pigeons at Brentford. He had
been an actor of eminence in the reign of James I.; "and his poverty
was as great as his age," says one account of him. Taylor, who was
reputed to have been taught by Shakespeare himself the correct method
of interpreting the part of Hamlet, died and was buried at Richmond.
These two actors, as did others probably, sought to pick up a little
money by publishing copies of plays that had obtained favour in
performance, but had not before been printed. Thus, in 1652, Beaumont
and Fletcher's "Wild Goose Chase" was printed in folio, "for the
public use of all the ingenious, and the private benefit of John Lowin
and Joseph Taylor, servants to his late Majesty, and by them dedicated
to the honoured few lovers of dramatic poesy: wherein they modestly
intimate their wants, and that with sufficient cause, for whatever
they were before the wars, they were afterwards reduced to a
necessitous condition." Pollard, possessed of some means, withdrew to
his relatives in the country, and there ended his days peacefully.
Perkins and Sumner lodged humbly together in Clerkenwell, and were
interred in that parish. None of these unfortunate old actors lived to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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