The Restoration theater saw the establishment of two patent theater companies, the Duke's Company and the King's Company, who built new theaters like the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. The theaters featured innovations like proscenium stages and movable scenery. Popular genres included Restoration comedy which featured witty dialogue, adaptations of Shakespeare, and spectacular "machine plays." Acting styles emphasized physicality and emotion over rhetoric. Leading actors like Betterton and Barry became stars, and women began performing professionally. Audiences were diverse but often arrived seeking entertainment and socializing over the plays themselves.
It is certainly possible to interpret "The Rover," a play by Aphra Behn, as a Restoration comedy. The play was first performed in 1677, during the Restoration period in English theater, which was characterized by its wit, bawdiness, and exploration of social norms and gender roles.
9 f2015 The English Coffee Houses, and otyher drinksRobert Ehrlich
The coffee house becomes a major London social institution. It becomes a center for information exchange and business. Coffee is promoted for its medicinal benefits and condemned for the exclusion of women from coffeehouses. Other drinks introduced are chocolate and tea for the middle and upper classes and rum for the seaman
It is certainly possible to interpret "The Rover," a play by Aphra Behn, as a Restoration comedy. The play was first performed in 1677, during the Restoration period in English theater, which was characterized by its wit, bawdiness, and exploration of social norms and gender roles.
9 f2015 The English Coffee Houses, and otyher drinksRobert Ehrlich
The coffee house becomes a major London social institution. It becomes a center for information exchange and business. Coffee is promoted for its medicinal benefits and condemned for the exclusion of women from coffeehouses. Other drinks introduced are chocolate and tea for the middle and upper classes and rum for the seaman
13 f2015 Science and Invention in Restoration EnglandRobert Ehrlich
A overview of scientific institutions that facilitated the advances, particularly the Royal Society. Some of teh major scientists and some of the less well known scientist who contributed to their work.
7 f2015 Mercantiism, the Commonwealth Navy, and WarRobert Ehrlich
The advance of mercantilism in England through the Commonwealth leads to the first Anglo-Dutch war, a naval war with France and a naval war with Spain. England develops a professional navy
6 f2015 English Civil War - Colonies, Army, WomenRobert Ehrlich
Aspect of the English Civil War. Conflict in the colonies and the economy of the West Indies. Women paly a part in the defense of their homes. Castles are deliberately destroyed after capture, process called slighting.
Programme for Taunton Thespians' production of The RivalsMike Gilbert
The Rivals was Thespians' Summer Tour in 2008, and sourcing period cartoons for the cover/posters and backgrounds was huge fun. As was playing with ligatures.
12 S2015 Age of Shakespeare -Jacobean drama and masques Robert Ehrlich
The succession of James VI of Scotland as James Iand ruling out of other claims for the throne held for so long by Elizabeth. The changes in drama favored by James and his wife Anne.
The Labour party has promised increased self-government for India without a definite timetable.The governments in Delhi and London are alarmed by the support for the Indian National Army. Leaders are put on trial but Congress leaders as whether as the public no longer view them as allies of an enemy, Japan, but as fighters for freedom from Britain. A wide scale mutiny in the Indian Navy adds doubts about the ability to use native troops to put down domestic violence. In addition Britain has large war debts including a debt to India for the use of troops outside India. Efforts to bring the Muslim League (Jinnah) and the Indian National Congress (Nehru) founder on the insistence, among other things, that the League represents all Muslims and Congress represents all Indians Britain under Viceroy Mountbatten proposes a plan that would allow for splitting India and existing provinces of India on Muslim or Hindu majority grounds. Votes lead to splitting Bengal and Punjab as well as some minor adjustments. India and Pakistan become independent.
12 The Raj -Burma campaign and Bengal famineRobert Ehrlich
The Burma campaign was almost entirely the work of the British Indian Army. The success in driving Japanese troops from Burma is attributed to the efforts of General William Slim. He used Dakota planes to support troop movements and proceeded even in the monsoon season. Different approaches to the campaign were conducted by US General 'Vinegar Joe' Stillwell and British General Orde Wingate.
9 The Raj Rowlatt, Amritsar and Non Cooperation Robert Ehrlich
The Raj continues wartime measure through the Rowlatt Act. Protests result. A peaceful gathering at Amritsar is massacred by General Dyer. Dyer is removed from his post. is treatment is brought to Parliament where he is praised by Lords but the dismissal is upheld by Commons after a speech by Churchill. Gandhi uses satyagraha in labor disputes but extends this to non-cooperation with the raj. He is arrested but soon released. Congress becomes a larger force among the Indian public.
The presentation begins with a look at the role of Indians in England. Many serve in the shipping industry as lascars and some remain in England, primarily in the Docklands section of London. Recently noted is Queen Victoria's munshi, Abdul This presentation then looks at the contribution of India to the Great War (World War I). The opinions of sepoys are known from letters transcribed by censors. The army served on the Western Front, in East Africa, Mesopotamia, the Suez and was a component at Gallipoli Some opposition to the war came from expatriates in Canada and the US. Others gave support but agitated for home rule. Gandhi supported the ambulance corps and recruiting. The war resulted in an increase in industrial produciton.
7 The Raj - Imperial Architecture -Art and NationalismRobert Ehrlich
This presentation looks at building built by the Raj and Raj-supported princes in the late 19th century. Havell makes a case for including Indian elements in public buildings while others advocate using architecture associated with imperial power in Europe. Indian painters evolve from artists who use the motifs of western art to those who look to traditional art
After a brief look at the jubilees celebrated in India the presentation looks at the proposed 1905 Bengal partition and its consequences. Partition is justified by administrative concerns but the partition map effects religious differences and a policy of divide and rule. Muslims in Bengal support the partition but the Indian National Congress opposes it.The reaction is to combine support of native industry with boycott of foreign goods. Opponents divide into moderates who support just these efforts . and extremists who advocate swaraj or self-rule. The Raj counters with the Minto-Morley reforms which give a small increase in local self-government. In 1911 the partition is repealed
6 The Raj - Indentured Indian Labor in South AfricaRobert Ehrlich
A look at the Indian diaspora in South Africa where indentured labor predominates but there are formeer indentured laborers who have small businesses and merchants or 'passenger' Indians' who have paid there own way. Gandhi goes to South Africa as lawyer for a merchant but encounters the plight of indentured labor. He develops the technique fo satyagraha to protest discrimination against Indians.
5 The Raj Political. Social and Religious Reform and WomenRobert Ehrlich
The Indian National Congress makes moderate demands for political reforms. The British make laws or attempt to make laws dealing with practices that some identify with religious traditions and others fee it is up to Indians to address. Some measures that are considered suppressive of free speech and participation in the system are. overturned. Particularly troublesome is the question whether Indians can sit on juries that try British citizens.
The rise of Indian nationalism in the late 19th century is a combination of rising Indian identity but also Hindu and Muslim identity. At Ayodha they come into conflict. A limited self-governance is offered through the 1892 Councils Act. Education is expanded particularly high education.
The use of caste by the British in terms of their remake of the army. Caste as a census. A look at caste from historic, linguistic and genetic point of view.
The changes that take place in India after the areas administered by the East India Company are assumed by the Crown. The army is restructured in an attempt to prevent future mutinies. A series of famines occurs and question arise about how to prevent or lessen their impact.
The Government of India Act of 1935 and discontent. The entrance of India into World War 2 and the resulting disaffection of the Indian National Congress, the opposition of the Indian Antional Army and the support of over 2 million volunteers. The Indian Army is crucial in East Africa and the Middle East and of great support in North Africa and Italy. A look at the summer capital of Simla.
The Indian Army after the Great War. The consequences of the swadeshi movement. Move of the capitol to New Delhi. Congress rejects the reformed government proposed by the Simon Commission. Round table conferences to try to reconcile differences. Salt Satyagraha led by Gandhi to try to obtain concessions.
3 England & India Before the Raj: New Products, New MilitarismRobert Ehrlich
The East India Company must accommodate to changing regimes in Britain. Its product create changing tastes: tea, cotton cloths and diamonds. A look at Company officials who get rich on diamonds.
5 England & India Before the Raj; Controlling Indian territoryRobert Ehrlich
The East India Company must now administer the territory where it has obtained revenue rights. The Company is under increased scrutiny and a hearing is held on Clive and his vast gains. Parliament attempts to have an influence in this administration.
A governor-general, Warren Hastings is sent to lead the three divisions of presidencies.
War continues in the south with conflicts between Mysore and its neighbors. After France enters on the side of revolting American colonists, the conflict again spills over into India. A technological advance is the sue fo improved rockets by Mysore
We also look at working conditions for civilian employees in India.
4 England and India Before the Raj: From Commercial to Military PowerRobert Ehrlich
This is the time of Clive.
The decline of the Mughal Empire leads to the development of regional powers.
In the Carnatic conflicts between these powers offer opportunities for expansion of East India Company influence. In this they come into conflict with the French and European and North American Wars (Austrian Succession, Seven Years) involve an Indian theater.
In Bengal rights granted by a weak Mughal Emperor are abused. A new leader, nawab, of Bengal attempts to check these abuses. He attacks Calcutta but a counterattack at the Battle of Plassey results in a puppet nawab. He too grows weary of abuses and demands and at Buxar is defeated. The Emperor then grants the Company revenue rights in Bengal and neighboring areas.
Financial difficulties result in a British bailout with restrictions. The Company is allowed to send tea to North America with a lower tariff but it is rejected. The American Revolution results.
The use of European trained native Indian troops (sepoys) begins
5 f2015 English civil wars - Bishops war, Ireland Robert Ehrlich
Some of the preliminary phases of the English Civil wars which lead to the fall of Charles I. The attempt to impose the Book of Common Prayer on Scotland leads to protests. In the north there is the Bishops' wars, in Ireland an uprising that is brutally suppressed. In England Parliaments protest the actions of Charles and are dismissed. Charles and Parliament raise militias
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxEduSkills OECD
Andreas Schleicher presents at the OECD webinar ‘Digital devices in schools: detrimental distraction or secret to success?’ on 27 May 2024. The presentation was based on findings from PISA 2022 results and the webinar helped launch the PISA in Focus ‘Managing screen time: How to protect and equip students against distraction’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/managing-screen-time_7c225af4-en and the OECD Education Policy Perspective ‘Students, digital devices and success’ can be found here - https://oe.cd/il/5yV
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
The Roman Empire A Historical Colossus.pdfkaushalkr1407
The Roman Empire, a vast and enduring power, stands as one of history's most remarkable civilizations, leaving an indelible imprint on the world. It emerged from the Roman Republic, transitioning into an imperial powerhouse under the leadership of Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE. This transformation marked the beginning of an era defined by unprecedented territorial expansion, architectural marvels, and profound cultural influence.
The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
Under Augustus, the empire experienced the Pax Romana, a 200-year period of relative peace and stability. Augustus reformed the military, established efficient administrative systems, and initiated grand construction projects. The empire's borders expanded, encompassing territories from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to the Euphrates. Roman legions, renowned for their discipline and engineering prowess, secured and maintained these vast territories, building roads, fortifications, and cities that facilitated control and integration.
The Roman Empire’s society was hierarchical, with a rigid class system. At the top were the patricians, wealthy elites who held significant political power. Below them were the plebeians, free citizens with limited political influence, and the vast numbers of slaves who formed the backbone of the economy. The family unit was central, governed by the paterfamilias, the male head who held absolute authority.
Culturally, the Romans were eclectic, absorbing and adapting elements from the civilizations they encountered, particularly the Greeks. Roman art, literature, and philosophy reflected this synthesis, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Latin, the Roman language, became the lingua franca of the Western world, influencing numerous modern languages.
Roman architecture and engineering achievements were monumental. They perfected the arch, vault, and dome, constructing enduring structures like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and aqueducts. These engineering marvels not only showcased Roman ingenuity but also served practical purposes, from public entertainment to water supply.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERPCeline George
The map views are useful for providing a geographical representation of data. They allow users to visualize and analyze the data in a more intuitive manner.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
2. Restoration Theatre
• New structures and new technology
• New or newly revised texts
• New approaches to acting
• New approaches to/from audiences
3. Theater Buildings
• Jacobean theatres, closed since 1642 were in
a state of disrepair
– Cockpit had been used in 1658 for "private"
staging of Davenant’s "musical entertainment" or
"opera,"
• Continental style required
– Stages with proscenium arches,
– Depth to support movable scenery and "flats”
5. Lincoln Inn Fields
to Dorset Gardens
1661 Temporary use of Lisle’s
Tennis Court
1671 Dorset Gardens Theatre
Duke’ Theatre,
The Empress of Morocco (1673)
6. Lincoln Inn Fields
1671 Dorset Gardens Theatre
1695 New company led by
Thomas Betterton & William
Congreve sets up a new
version of the Lincoln's Inn
Fields Theatre
Dorset Gardens Theatre, as it was pictured in the
libretto of The Empress of Morocco (1673)
7. Drury Lane
1663 Theatre Royal built for King’s Company
1674 Rebuilt after fire by Wren
1682 King’s and Duke’s companies combine at
Theatre Royal
10. Genres of Drama
• Tragedy
• Heroic drama
• Restoration Comedy
– Farce
– Aristocratic comedy (early)
• Wit & Comedy of Manners – Fletcher
• Humours – Jonson
• Restoration spectacular, or machine play
11. Restoration Tragedies
• Leave out comic interludes
• No discourse between upper class heroes and
commoners
• Often moral or political purpose
1677 Nathaniel Lee The Rival Queens
• Edit Shakespeare to new tastes
1677 Dryden All for Love
1681 Tate History of King Lear
12. Dryden All for Love or, the World Well Lost
• 1677 Tragedy
– Blank verse
– Based on Antony and Cleopatra
– Classical unities: minimal subplot, one locale,
single day
• Political subtext
– Dedicated to Danby
– Urges moderation and accord with King Charles
13. 1681 Nahum Tate History of King Lear
”I found the whole…a Heap of Jewels, unstrung
and unpolisht; yet so dazling in their Disorder,
that I soon perceiv’d I had seiz'd a Treasure.” The
solution was to"rectifie what was wanting in the
Regularity and Probability of the Tale,"
14. Rectification of Lear
• Love between Cordelia and
Edgar
• No fool
• Edmund plots to rape Cordelia
• Rescue by the English people
• Restored Lear gives the throne
to Edgar and Cordelia
15. Spectacular and Semi-opera
1667, 1674 Dryden and Davenant The
Enchanted Island (The Tempest) with music by
Matthew Locke and Henry Purcell
1674 Shadwell Psyche
1685 Dryden Albion and Albantus
1692 Dryden The Fairy-Queen, based on
Midsummer’s Night Dream
16. Other Adaptations
1662 Davenant The Law Against Lovers
Text from Measure for Measure with added
characters from Much Ado
1662 Davenant Romeo and Juliet
Added dialog between Juliet and dying Romeo
1682 Thomas Durfey The Injured Princess
Adaptation of Cymbeline
17. Wit
• Contemporary setting
• Double-entendres
• Revelation of hypocrisy
• Rakes, jealous husbands, clever servants,
abandoned lovers, etc.,
• Often a secondary plot with conventional lovers
“Methinks wit is more necessary than beauty and I think
no woman ugly has it and no handsome woman
agreeable without it”
Horner in The Country Wife
19. Humours
• Character types
Not personal defects “peculiar to all, or most of the
same Country, Trade, Profession or Education”
“Humour shews us as we are.
Habit shews us, as we appear, under a forcible
Impression.
Affectation shews what we would be, under a
voluntary Disguise.”
Thomas Benetton
20. Off color jokes
Belinda: I could never yet agree what Face I should
make, when they come blurt out with a nasty thing in
a Play : For all the Men presently look upon the
Women, that's certain ; so laugh we must not, tho'
our Stays burst for’t because that's telling Truth,
and owning we understand the Jest.
For my part I always take that occasion to blow my
Nose.
Lady Brute: You must blow your Nose half off then
at some Plays.
John Vanbrugh The Provok’d Wife, 1709
21. Aphra Behn “Astrea”
1670 The Forc’d Marriage
1677 The Rover
1688 Oroonoko, tale of an
enslaved African prince, a
work noted for exploration
of slavery, race, and gender
Royalist supporter
The stage how loosely does Astræa tread
Who fairly puts all characters to bed.
Pope
22. Behn The Feign’d Courtizans
The devil take this cursed plotting Age,
‘T has ruin’d all our Plots upon the Stage;
Suspicions, New Elections, Jealousies,
Fresh Informations, New discoveries,
Do so employ the busie fearful Town,
Our honest calling here is useless grown;
Each fool turns Politician now, and wears
A formal face, and talks of State-affairs…
Prologue
Play dedicated to Nell Gwynn
1679
23. Epilogues
• Often contrasted the personality of the
dramatic character with the reputation of the
performer
• Comic, poetic bids for the audience's good
opinion
• Often given by a leading actress
24. Acting
Action “Action is motion and motion is the
support of nature
– The audience is fixed by even irregular or fantastic
action and drowsy [even] when the best actor speaks
without action
Speaking
– Musical proportions of words to sentences; syllables
to words and word order
Thomas Betterton
25. Audience Expectations
• Actors typecast by audience (but not always
by director)
• Women to play women’s roles (ordered by
Charles II
• Women’s sexualized roles
– Tragic heroine
– Couch scenes
– Rape scenes
– Breeches roles
26. Actresses
Did not the Boys Act Women’s Parts Last Age?
Till we in pitty to the Barren Stage
Came to Reform your Eyes that went astray,
And taught you Passion the true English Way
Have not the Women of the Stage done this?
Nay took all shapes, and used most means to Please.
How many on's, you naughty Men, you know,
Have used you but too well? nay and some few,
(But not too much of that) been Constant too.
And if to damne us now is our Reward,
I say no more; but - Faith 'tis very hard.
Epilogue, Elkanah Settle The conquest of China by the Tartars 1676
28. Breeches roles
• Elizabeth Howe found that out of ~375 plays
produced in London between 1660 and 1700,
89, nearly a quarter, contained one or more
roles for actresses in male clothes
You'l' hear with Patience a dull Scene, to see,
In a contented lazy waggery,
The Female Mountford bare above the knee.
Thomas Southerne's Sir Anthony Love (1690), Epilogue
Howe, Elizabeth. The First English Actresses: Women and Drama, 1660-1700. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
29. Breeches Roles
Tis worth Money that such
Legs appear,
These are not to be seen so
cheap elsewhere.
Actress Elizabeth Boutell
Doublet and breeches
30. Warrior Actresses
And though these Martial Dresses are not common,
Well Arm'd, you'l find it hard to Foile a Woman.
Think not our Courage, for our Sex less bold;
Nor us so Brittle, but our Strength can hold.
For Fighting Gallants, when you led the Dance,
Some of our Sex went after You to France:
And Female Bully into Breeches got,
Some say, The Last Sea Fight stood Cannon Shot.
Why may not Women have as Generous Ends
In Conquering Enemies, as Obliging Friends?
Epilogue, Settle Conquest of China
31. Acting
Actions suit the words. Words and action suit
the person portrayed.
Continue to act even when not speaking.
Gestures are the common speech of all
mankind
Gildon, Charles. Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton.
Robert Gosling, 1710.
32. Leading Actors
Thomas Betterton (1635-1710)
Solyman in Davenant Siege of
Rhodes, 1663
Elizabeth Barry
(1656-1713)
Congreve Mourning Bride, 1703
34. John Lacy (1615-81) in:
Sauny the Scot
(adaptation of Taming of
the Shrew),
The Country Chaplain,
The Cheats
35. Attending the Theatre
• Cheap seats 1 s; pit 2s 6d
o Cheap meal 2 ½ d; coffee 1d; quart of beer 1d
o Wages – carpenter 2s 6d/day
But what Rabble was it to provoke? Are the Audience of a
PIayhouse (which are generally persons of Honour,
Noblemen and Ladies, or at worst, as one of your Authors
calls his Gallants, Men of Wit and Pleasure about the
Town) are these the Rabble of Mr. Hunt?
Dryden when accused of inciting the rabble.
36. Arriving
Let our gallant (having paid his half-
crown, and given the door-keeper
his ticket) presently advance himself
into the middle of the pit, where
having made his honour to the rest
of the company, but especially to the
vizard-masks, let him pull out his
comb, and manage his flaxen wig
with all the grace he can.
Mask for a doll c.
1690-1700 owned
descendants of Pepys
37. Arriving
Having so done, the next
step is to give a hum to
the China orange-wench,
and give her her own rate
for her oranges (for ’tis
below a gentleman to
stand haggling like a
citizen’s wife) and then to
present the fairest to the
next vizard-mask.
Laughing Audience from Hogarth
38. Mary Meggs or “Orange Moll”
Licensed to sell “oranges, lemons, fruit,
sweetmeats and all manners of fruiterer's and
confectioner's wares.”
Resuscitated a patron who choked on fruit.
Convey message from an actress to Pepys
Employed Nell Gwyn as orange girl
Price of oranges: 6d
39. The Audience
Hither come the country gentlemen to show their shapes,
and trouble the pit with irrelevances about hawking,
hunting, their handsome wives and their housewifery.
There sits a beau like a fool in a frame, that dares not stir
his head nor move his body for fear of incommoding his
wig, ruffling his cravat, or putting his eyes or mouth out
of the order his maitre de danse set it in;
whilst a bully beau comes drunk into the pit, screaming
out,
“Damn me, Jack, ’tis a confounded play, let’s to a whore,
and spend our time better.”
Henry Misson Memoirs, 1698
40. Leaving
SIR NOVELTY FASHION. Then you must know, my coach and
equipage are as well known as myself; and since the conveniency
of two playhouses, I have a better opportunity of showing them;
for between every act- whisk — I am gone from one to th’other:
— Oh! what pleasure ’tis, at a good play, to go out before half an
act's done!
NARCISSA. Why at a good play?
SIR NOVELTY FASHION. Oh madam, it looks particular, and gives
the whole audience an opportunity of turning upon me at once:
then do they conclude I have some extraordinary business, or a
fine woman to go to at least: and then again, it shows my
contempt of what the dull town think their chiefest diversion.
Colley Cibber Love’s Last Shift, 1696
Dorset Garden
The Dorset Garden Theatre was built by Thomas Betterton, the leading actor of the Duke's Company, in 1671. Betterton had assumed control over the company from Sir William Davenant's widow, and he wanted a new and magnificent building to replace the converted tennis court in Lincoln's Inn Fields that was his companies current home. The resulting building, which received its name by virtue of having been erected upon the former grounds of Dorset House, was magnificently ornate, and had been specifically designed for the staging of expensive and spectacular productions. Its acoustics, however, were not the best, and the new theatre was, despite its magnificence, thought by most to be an inferior venue to the Theatre Royal. For this reason, Dorset Garden was abandoned for the latter when, in 1682, the Duke's and King's companies combined. Dorset Garden was thereafter relegated to the staging of popular entertainments, wrestling contests, and musical competitions. It was finally demolished in 1720.
Dorset Garden Theatre, as it was pictured in the libretto of The Empress of Morocco (1673)
Dorset Garden
The Dorset Garden Theatre was built by Thomas Betterton, the leading actor of the Duke's Company, in 1671. Betterton had assumed control over the company from Sir William Davenant's widow, and he wanted a new and magnificent building to replace the converted tennis court in Lincoln's Inn Fields that was his companies current home. The resulting building, which received its name by virtue of having been erected upon the former grounds of Dorset House, was magnificently ornate, and had been specifically designed for the staging of expensive and spectacular productions. Its acoustics, however, were not the best, and the new theatre was, despite its magnificence, thought by most to be an inferior venue to the Theatre Royal. For this reason, Dorset Garden was abandoned for the latter when, in 1682, the Duke's and King's companies combined. Dorset Garden was thereafter relegated to the staging of popular entertainments, wrestling contests, and musical competitions. It was finally demolished in 1720.
Dorset Garden Theatre, as it was pictured in the libretto of The Empress of Morocco (1673)
First opened by Thomas Killigrew for the King's Company, in May of 1663, at a cost of l. 1,500, the Theatre Royal at Drury Land was widened in 1665, but gutted by fire in 1672 (fire being a perennial threat to indoor theatres in this period). A new theatre was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and opened in March 1674, at a cost of l. 4000. When, in 1682, the Duke's and King's Companies responded to shrinking audiences and financial hardship by amalgamating into the United Company, it was the Theatre Royal that they chose as their home
When the two companies had merged in the 1680s and Dryden had access to Dorset Garden, he wrote one of the most visual and special-effects-ridden machine plays of the entire Restoration period, Albion and Albanius (1684–85):
The Cave of PROTEUS rises out of the Sea; it consists of several arches of Rock-work adorned with mother-of-pearl, coral, and abundance of shells of various kinds. Through the arches is seen the Sea, and parts of Dover-pier; in the middle of the Cave is PROTEUS asleep on a rock adorned with shells, &c. like the Cave. ALBION and ACACIA seize on him; and while a symphony is playing, he sinks as they are bringing him forward, and changes himself into a Lion, a Crocodile, a Dragon, and then to his own shape again; he comes forward to the front of the stage, and sings."[9]
How were such effects produced, and how did they look? The crocodile etc. obviously used the floor trap, but was it an illusionistically painted figure worked with sticks, or a man in a crocodile suit? There are no extant drawings or descriptions of machinery and sets for the Restoration theatre, although some documentation exists for court masques from the first half of the 17th century, notably the work of Inigo Jones and his pupil John Webb. One reason for the lack of information for the public theatres is that stage effects, and particularly machines, were trade secrets. Inventors of theatrical effects took great pains to hold on to their secrets, and the playhouses guarded their machine workings as zealously as a magician guards her or his tricks.
Heroic dram
Plots are historical or mythical. The plays are
famous for verbal rants, frequent appearances by ghosts, and characters who
might be mistaken on first encounter for walking inventories of the Cartesian
passions. While rich in representations of religious ritual, Christian as well as
pagan, they tend to be strongly anti-clerical and often, either situationally or by
introducing ‘atheistical’ speeches, anti-Christian.With Puritanism discredited
as seditious and hypocritical, Romanism as an agent of secular tyranny and
Anglicanism for its reliance on state coercion, art turned to the magnification
of human capacities as a way of filling the spiritual void.
these remarkable dramaswere also a potent mythical
expression of ideological conflict, one that had to remain mythical because the
real message – a Hobbesean one in Dryden’s case and a Calvinist one in Lee’s –
could not be uttered openly. In Britain the birth-throes of the modern were
intensified by uncertaintywhether the path forwardwas to be that of a revived
Caesarism on the model of France or that of a consensual oligarchy within
which medieval notions of distributed power would be preserved through the
parliament and the common law. There was also the third way of an untrammelled
individualism, which found its theatrical personification in Dryden’s
Almanzor from The Conquest of Granada.
Genres of tragedy, heroic drama, romance, wit comedy, humours comedy, and farce
the chief effect of
women on dramatic literature was to push it in the direction of sex and sensuality.49
There was little attempt to create righteous, high-minded female roles at the beginning
of the Restoration period. Actresses really had very little to do with the development of
female roles at all – playwrights and theatre-owners largely manipulated the
development of female roles. The “sexual realism” of real women portraying onstage
females proved popular and immediately erupted into the generation of new types of
plays.50 Richard Steele, author of the daily publication The Spectator, commented on
the capability of women to improve a dull play:
I, who know nothing of women but from seeing plays, can give great guesses at the
whole structure of the fair sex, by being innocently placed in the pit, and insulted by the
petticoats of their dancers; the advantages of whose pretty persons are a great help to a
dull play. When a poet flags in writing lusciously, a pretty girl can move lasciviously, and
have the same good consequences for the author.” Richard Steele, quoted in Styan, Restoration Comedy in Performance, 91
Epilogue
If you like nothing you have seen this day
The play your judgment damns, not you the play
Sir William Davenant of the Duke's Company staged a 1662 adaptation in which Henry Harris played Romeo, Thomas Betterton Mercutio, and Betterton's wife Mary Saunderson Juliet: she was probably the first woman to play the role professionally.[98] Another version closely followed Davenant's adaptation and was also regularly performed by the Duke's Company. This was a tragicomedy by James Howard, in which the two lovers survive
A Humor is the Byas of the Mind,
By which with violence ’tis one way inclin'd:
It makes our Actions lean on one. side still,
And in all Changes that way bends the Will.
Shadwell
The stage how loosely does Astræea tread
Who fairly puts all characters to bed.
Pope
There’s a famous story told by Colley Cibber, about an actor called Samuel Sandford, who was renowned for acting villains. Cibber describes a performance he was in the 1690s, when the audience sat patiently through three of four acts, waiting for him to be revealed as a villain. But when it turned out at the end of the play that Sandford was really an honest man, they “Fairly damn’d it, as if the Author had impos’d upon them the most frontless or incredible Absurdity.”
Resistance by some male actors to the reduced roles available and the loss of an apprentice system in which boys started out in female roles.
Couch Scene
female characters were directed to lie at a distance, asleep on a couch, bed or grassy bank where, attractively defencless and probably enticingly déshabillie, their beauty unwittingly aroused
Plea to not damn the play.
Whatever the type of play, the actress’ most important quality was her beauty;
many actresses were required to do little more than pose on stage in order to be gazed
upon and desired by male characters and spectators.55 There was a very early
tendency to exploit the actress, and indeed it was a first consequence of her “visible
assets – her shoulders and breasts were a valuable commodity” in an age of full-length
dresses.
Comedy is also, however, characterized by its attention to the individual
actors and actresses – this was the age of performer’s theater, as opposed to that of the
dramatist or director.67 One of the indicators of the nature of Restoration comedy was
the development of personalized prologues and epilogues, spoken primarily by actresses, creating familiarity between player and spectator.68 These personalized
speeches gave actresses a large degree of independence in comedies – their
personalities were given a chance to shine for their audience, and in introducing and
concluding comedies, actresses had the opportunity to comment on the plays – as such,
they ruled the genre
Howe, Elizabeth. The First English Actresses: Women and Drama, 1660-1700. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Betterton
the authors of the Biographical Dictionary have said, Betterton is generally recognized as ‘the greatest English actor between Burbage and Garrick’,
Speaking of the qualities of the ideal actor, Johnson said, ‘Nature had indeed been very bountiful to Mr. Betterton, and yet Art and Labour had improv'd him wonderfully, and he confessed but lately, He was yet learning to be an Actor.’ Although productions did not change much once set, Betterton was always eager to try new things.
as manager Betterton implemented in English theatre the development of spectacle already accomplished in Italy and France. He exploited the potential of the new stage machinery, combined with music and dance as well as words, to offer productions of a kind not seen before by London audiences. The expense of this change of direction proved difficult to absorb in unsubsidized public theatres, but the policy of reinvesting profits in the company served to balance ‘the bad with the good’ nights, Credited with working with playwrights and did not take credit for his own plays which were adaptations.
Barry
Thomas Betterton said that her acting gave “success to plays that would disgust the most patient reader”,
Started poorly in minor roles. John Wilmot, earl of Rochester (1647–1680), and his friends noticed her from their seats in the pit, and he took a wager to make her ‘the finest Player on the Stage’ in under six months.
Barry, acknowledged in her time and this to have been the greatest actress of the Restoration, acted in repertory 142 named parts at the height of her career (1673–1708), and there may be more in cast lists that have not survived.
Her affairs, real or reputed, with George Etherege, the earl of Dorset, and Sir Henry St John contributed to the establishment of the belief that actresses were usually of loose sexual morality. In the season of 1680–81 she was, according to William Chetwood, the object of ‘a horse-laugh’ from the audience when she spoke the lines of Nahum Tate's Cordelia in his King Lear—‘Arm'd in my Virgin Innocence, I'll fly’
Barry's importance in the late seventeenth century's preference for pathetic and she-tragedies is recognized. Barry also became for her company the leading creator of witty, comic heroines, and in them she had the graceful, easy, genteel style
Lacy in three of his most celebrated roles: the lead from Sauny the Scot: or The Taming of The Shrew (his own adaptation from Shakespeare performed at the Theatre Royal in 1667); Monsieur Device from The Country Chaplain (by the Duke of Newcastle); and Scruple from The Cheats (by John Wilson). John Lacy was a comic actor and dramatist, and a particular favourite of Charles II. He became a star performer at the Theatre Royal in London. 1668-70
renowned for dialect-based performances. farce in the French style appears to have been the form Lacy most favoured in his own compositions. It has been argued that Lacy's adaptation of Molière influenced that by Henry Fielding in the eighteenth century . Contemporary satires alleged that Lacy had a relationship with the king's mistress Nell Gwyn. Certainly, he gave her acting and dancing lessons. He clearly kept up his dancing skills in later life, adding dances to the entr'actes
However, on the 1st June, 1704, a song was sung at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, called 'The Misses' Lamentation for want of their Vizard Masques at the Theatre',
Doll's mask of cardboard covered with black ribbed silk and lined with vellum, with openings for the eyes and nose. Inside is a mouthpiece of twisted thread bearing a glass bead which allows the mask to be held in place by gripping the bead between the teeth
