Elizabeth Knepp or Knipp (died 1681) was a British actress, singer, and dancer. The earliest theatrical reference to Knepp is from 1664, as being intended by Thomas Killigrew to play the part of Lusetta in his play Thomaso. This means that she was probably in his troupe, the King's Company, by that time. From 1666 onwards she is recorded as playing many parts, both tragic and comic, including Lady Fidget in William Wycherley's The Country Wife. In 1664, she became the first woman to perform the title role in Jonson'sEpicoene. She also occasionally spoke prologues and epilogues, and often danced and sang in or between acts.
Knepp's husband was reputedly "ill-natured" and treated her badly. Samuel Pepys was fascinated by Knepp, and his diary for 1666—68 is full of references to her, including mentions of amorous encounters, and descriptions of how much he enjoyed her flirtatiousness and especially her singing. In the late 1670s she became mistress to the actor Joseph Haines, and died in 1681 giving birth to his stillborn child.
Sources
Highfill, Philip Jr, Burnim, Kalman A., and Langhans, Edward (1973–93). Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800. 16 volumes. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.
This article about an English musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière".
"Restoration comedy" is English comedy written and performed in the Restoration period of 1660–1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym for this. After public stage performances were banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, reopening of the theatres in 1660 marked a renaissance of English drama. Sexually explicit language was encouraged by King Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish style of his court. Historian George Norman Clark argues:
The best-known fact about the Restoration drama is that it is immoral. The dramatists did not criticize the accepted morality about gambling, drink, love, and pleasure generally, or try, like the dramatists of our own time, to work out their own view of character and conduct. What they did was, according to their respective inclinations, to mock at all restraints. Some were gross, others delicately improper.... The dramatists did not merely say anything they liked: they also intended to glory in it and to shock those who did not like it.
Elizabeth Barry was an English actress of the Restoration period.
Ann Street Barry aka Ann Dancer later Ann Crawford, was a British singer, dancer and stage actress.
Cloris Leachman was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She won many accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, making her the most nominated and, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, most awarded performer in Emmy history. She won an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award.
Eleanor Gwyn was a celebrity figure of the Restoration period. Praised by Samuel Pepys for her comic performances as one of the first actresses on the English stage, she became best known for being a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England.
Elizabeth Boutell, was a British actress.
Margaret Hughes, also Peg Hughes or Margaret Hewes, was an English actress who is often credited as the first professional actress on the English stage, as a result of her appearance on 8 December 1660. Hughes was the mistress of the English Civil War general Prince Rupert of the Rhine.
Ezekiel Hopkins was an Anglican divine in the Church of Ireland, who was Bishop of Derry from 1681 to 1690.
Mary Knep, also Knepp, Nepp, Knip, or Knipp, was an English actress and one of the first generation of female performers to appear on the public stage during the Restoration era.
Catherine Leclerc du Rose, also known by her stage name Mademoiselle de Brie', was a French actress. She was a member of the pioneer troupe of both the Molière's company, and of the Comédie-Française. She belonged to the first Sociétaires of the Comédie-Française.
Sir Thomas Myddelton, 2nd Baronet was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1679 and 1681.
Sir John Evelyn, 1st Baronet was an English landowner in Surrey. Created a baronet at the English Restoration, he inherited the Godstone estate in 1664. He quarreled extensively with his family to obtain more money and impaired the estate with debts from a profligate lifestyle. The baronetcy became extinct upon his death and his entailed estates passed to his brother George.
Guillaume Marcoureau, better known as Brécourt, was a 17th-century French playwright and actor.
Hester Davenport was a leading actress with the Duke's Company under the management of Sir William Davenant. Among the earliest English actresses, she was best known as "that faire & famous Comoedian call'd Roxalana," as diarist John Evelyn put it after seeing her on 9 January 1661/2. Her career ended when she married Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford (1627-1703) in 1662 or 1663. The couple had a son in 1664. Oxford soon deserted Davenport and his son Aubrey, marrying a fellow nobleman's daughter in January 1672. In a 1686 church court case, Oxford admitted the marriage ceremony with Davenport had been a sham.
Ummu Salma [Sinhala]), popularly known by her stage name Devi Sakunthala, was an actress in Sri Lankan cinema, stage drama and television. She is most notable for the role 'Angu Hami' in the television serial Kopi Kade.
Henry Harris was an English stage actor and theatre manager. Initially a painter he was a founder member of the new Duke's Company in 1660 following the Restoration which established itself at the old Salisbury Court Theatre before moving to the new Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre shortly afterwards. Due to his background Harris may have been a set designer and painter during his early years with the company. However, by 1661 he was acting, and his first recorded role was in William Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes that summer. He quickly established himself as the second actor in the troupe after Thomas Betterton.
Mary Corbett was an English stage actress of the seventeenth century. She was a member of the King's Company, based at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She appears to have left the company around the time of the merger creating the new United Company. Her name is sometimes written as Mary Corbet.
Sarah Cooke was an English stage actress of the seventeenth century. She was a member of the King's Company, based at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She played a number of lead roles during the 1680s.
Frances Brett Hodgkinson (1771–1803) was an English-born American theater actress. She played major roles in high comedy and tragedy plays and was also a noted performer of opera. She was the second wife of John Hodgkinson, a famous American stage actor.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
