"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 1 of 3) — John Shaqi
"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 1 of 3)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 1 of 3)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Actors -- Great Britain; Theater -- Great Britain -- History
Burt, after he left off the women's gear, acted Cicero, with rare
ability, in "Catiline," for the getting up of which piece Charles II.
contributed £500 for robes. Of Clun, in or out of petticoats, the
record is brief. His Iago was superior to Mohun's, but Lacy excelled
him in the "Humourous Lieutenant;" but as Subtle, in the "Alchymist,"
he was the admiration of all playgoers. After acting this comic part,
Clun made a tragic end on the night of the 3d of August 1664. With
a lady hanging on his arm, and some liquor lying under his belt, he
was gaily passing on his way to his country lodgings in Kentish Town,
when he was assailed, murdered, and flung into a ditch, by rogues,
one of whom was captured, "an Irish fellow, most cruelly butchered
and bound." "The house will have a great miss of him," is the epitaph
of Pepys upon versatile Clun.
Of the boys belonging to Davenant's Company, who at first appeared
in woman's boddice, but soon found their occupation gone, some
were of greater fame than others. One of these, Angel, turned from
waiting-maids to low comedy, caricatured Frenchmen and foolish lords.
We hear nothing of him after 1673. The younger Betterton, as I have
said, was drowned at Wallingford. Mosely and Floid represented a
vulgar class of women, and both died before the year 1674; but
Kynaston and James Nokes long survived to occupy prominent positions
on the stage.
Kynaston made "the loveliest lady," for a boy, ever beheld by Pepys.
This was in 1660, when Kynaston played Olympia, the Duke's sister,
in the "Loyal Subject;" and went with a young fellow-actor to
carouse, after the play, with Pepys and Captain Ferrers. Kynaston
was a handsome fellow under every guise. On the 7th of January 1661,
says Pepys, "Tom and I, and my wife, to the theatre, and there saw
'The Silent Woman.' Among other things here, Kynaston, the boy, had
the good turn to appear in three shapes. First, as a poor woman,
in ordinary clothes, to please Morose; then, in fine clothes, as a
gallant--and in them was clearly the prettiest woman in the whole
house; and lastly, as a man--and then likewise did appear the
handsomest man in the house." When the play was concluded, and it was
not the lad's humour to carouse with the men, the ladies would seize
on him, in his theatrical dress, and, carrying him to Hyde Park in
their coaches, be foolishly proud of the precious freight which they
bore with them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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