John Crowne

Last updated

John Crowne (6 April 1641 – 1712) was a British dramatist.

Contents

His father "Colonel" William Crowne, accompanied the earl of Arundel on a diplomatic mission to Vienna in 1637, and wrote an account of his journey. He emigrated to Nova Scotia where he received a grant of land from Cromwell, but the French took possession of his property, and the home government did nothing to uphold his rights. [1]

Biography

He was born in London on 6 April 1641, [2] and emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1657 with his father, a joint proprietor of the colony, aboard the ship Satisfaction, and studied at Harvard College. [3] While studying at Harvard, Crowne lived with Puritan divine John Norton. Crowne left without graduating, however, and returned to England with his father in 1660.

When the son came to England his poverty compelled him to act as gentleman usher to an independent lady of quality, and his enemies asserted that his father had been an Independent minister. He began his literary career with a romance, Pandion and Amphigenia, or the History of the coy Lady of Thessalia (1665). In 1671 he produced a romantic play, Juliana, or the Princess of Poland , which has, in spite of its title, no pretensions to rank as a historical drama. [1]

The earl of Rochester procured for him, apparently with the sole object of annoying Dryden by infringing on his rights as poet-laureate, a commission to supply a masque for performance at court. Calisto gained him the favour of Charles II, but Rochester proved a fickle patron, and his favour was completely alienated by the success of Crowne's heroic play in two parts, The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian (1677). This piece contained a thinly disguised satire on the Puritan party in the description of the Pharisees, and about 1683 he produced a distinctly political play, City Politiques , satirizing the Whig party and containing characters which were readily recognized as portraits of Titus Oates and others. This made him many enemies, and he petitioned the king for a small place that would release him from the necessity of writing for the stage. [1]

The king exacted one more comedy, which should, he suggested, he based on the No puede ser guardar una mujer of Moreto. This had already been unsuccessfully adapted, as Crowne discovered later, by Sir Thomas St Serfe, but in Crowne's hands it developed into Sir Courtly Nice (1685), a comedy which kept its place as a stock piece for nearly a century. Unfortunately Charles II died before the play was completed, and Crowne was disappointed of his reward. [1] In 1698, Princess Anne attended a performance of his play Caligula during which Mary Lindsey sang a special composition by Richard Leveridge. [4] Crowne continued to write plays, and it is stated that he was still living in 1703. According to an article in the Gentleman's Magazine John was still alive in the first decade of the 18th century when the writer recalls drinking with him. Letters to the royal household indicates he relied on the charity of Queen Mary II and Queen Anne who remembered performing one of his plays for Charles II when they were young princesses.

Crowne was a fertile writer of plays with an historical setting, in which heroic love was, in the fashion of the French romances, made the leading motive. The prosaic level of his style saved him as a rule from the rant to be found in so many contemporary heroic plays, but these pieces are of no particular interest. He was much more successful in comedy of the kind that depicts "humours". [1]

Little is known of Crowne's later life although records show an Elias Crowne (birthplace listed as outside the county) marrying in Norfolk in the late 1680s, the son of a John and Sarah Crowne. There was also a John Crown born in 1667 in London. [2]

Crowne died around 1712 and was buried at St Giles in the Fields, London. [2]

Works

He also produced a version of Racine's Andromaque, and an unsuccessful comedy, Justice Busy. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dryden</span> English poet and playwright (1631–1700)

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Restoration comedy</span> Theatrical genre rooted in late 17th-century England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Otway</span> 17th-century English writer and dramatist

Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd (1682).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Galloway</span> Title in the Peerage of Scotland

Earl of Galloway is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1623 for Alexander Stewart, 1st Lord Garlies, with remainder to his heirs male bearing the name and arms of Stewart. He had already been created Lord Garlies in the Peerage of Scotland in 1607, with remainder to the heirs male of his body succeeding to the estates of Garlies. This branch of the Stewart family were distant relatives of the Stewart Kings of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas d'Urfey</span> English writer and playwright

Thomas d'Urfey was an English writer and playwright. He wrote plays, songs, jokes, and poems. He was an important innovator and contributor in the evolution of the ballad opera.

Sir George Etherege was an English dramatist. He wrote the plays The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub in 1664, She Would If She Could in 1668, and The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter in 1676.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Bracegirdle</span> British actress (1671-1748)

Anne Bracegirdle was an English actress and soprano. Most of the plays she performed in involved singing as well as acting. She often performed music written for her by the composer John Eccles, and also sung music written for her by Henry Purcell. She became particularly well known for the song "I burn" which Eccles originally wrote for Bracegirdle to perform in Thomas D'Urfey's play The Comical History of Don Quixote (1694). She also sang music by Eccles in the play The Richmond Heiress (1693) and in William Congreve opera The Judgment of Paris. In 1706 she starred in Giuseppe Fedeli's opera The Temple of Love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Restoration literature</span> Literature written during the English restoration

Restoration literature is the English literature written during the historical period commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660–1688), which corresponds to the last years of Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly homogenous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of Charles II. It is a literature that includes extremes, for it encompasses both Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high-spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of The Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's Treatises of Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments and holy meditations of Robert Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier, and the pioneering of literary criticism from John Dryden and John Dennis. The period witnessed news becoming a commodity, the essay developing into a periodical art form, and the beginnings of textual criticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Ravenscroft</span> English playwright

Edward Ravenscroft was an English dramatist who belonged to an ancient Flintshire family. He was entered at the Middle Temple, but devoted his attention mainly to literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Saunderson</span> 17th-century English actress and singer

Mary Saunderson (1637–1712), later known as Mary Saunderson Betterton after her marriage to Thomas Betterton, was an actress and singer in England during the 1660s and 1690s. She is considered one of the first English actresses.

William Crowne (1617–1682) had a varied career as an officer of arms, a member of parliament, a colonel during the English Civil War, and a joint proprietor of the English colony of Nova Scotia. He was also the father of the playwright John Crowne.

John Caryll (1625–1711), 1st Baron Caryll of Durford in the Jacobite Peerage, was a poet, dramatist, and diplomat; not to be confused with his nephew, John Caryll the younger, the dedicatee of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock.

The Playhouse to be Let is a Restoration stage play, a dramatic anthology of short pieces by Sir William Davenant that was acted in August 1663 at the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and first published in the 1673 collected edition of Davenant's works. The Playhouse to Be Let is noteworthy for providing the first English translation of a play by Molière.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave Underhill</span> English actor

Cave Underhill (1634–1710?) was an English actor in comedy roles.

Samuel Sandford was an English character actor, known for his roles as villains.

Joseph Williams was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.

<i>Sir Courtly Nice</i> 1685 play

Sir Courtly Nice: Or, It Cannot Be is a 1685 comedy play by the English writer John Crowne. Rehearsals by the United Company were underway when the death of Charles II in February led to the closure of all theatres as a mark of respect. The play was eventually staged on 9 May at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It is the tradition of the Restoration Comedy. A popular hit it became a stock part of the repertoire for more than a century, with Colley Cibber and Anne Oldfield appearing in a celebrated 1709 revival.

Thomas Gillow was an English stage actor of the Restoration era. His name was sometimes written Gilloe or Gillo.

Matthew Medbourne was an English stage actor and occasional playwright of the Restoration era. A long-standing member of the Duke's Theatre, Medbourne was a victim of the Popish Plot scare and died in Newgate Prison.

John Crosby was an English stage actor of the Restoration Period. He first recorded performance is in 1662 when he appeared in Ignoramus at Whitehall Palace, likely as a child actor. It was further eight years before he was solidly established in the Duke's Company in 1670 beginning with The Forc'd Marriage by Aphra Behn. He became a regular with the company over the following decade, often playing young lover roles. He retired from the stage in 1679 and later became a justice of the peace for Middlesex. He died on 8 April 1724 and was buried in St Sepulchre.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chisholm 1911.
  2. 1 2 3 FamilySearch.org - Search
  3. ↑ "nova+scotia" Reference indicates he was born in Nova Scotia
  4. 1 2 "Lindsey, Mary (fl. 1697–1713), singer" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/70111 . Retrieved 13 November 2020.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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.