John Baptista Verbruggen, d. 1708, was an English actor working in London. Verbruggen is first mentioned as a member of the United Company in a Lord Chamberlain's warrant in 1688. His name does not appear in any cast lists until October 1690. The Biographical Dictionary of Actors contains an inconclusive discussion of the statement in Thomas Davies's Dramatic Miscellanies (1784) that Verbruggen was identical to the actor referred to in 1680s and 90s cast lists as "Mr. Alexander", supposedly an alias based on the part of Alexander the Great in John Dryden's Rival Queens . The evidence is confusing, and there is no independent support for Davies's anecdote, written down a century later. Verbruggen had never played the part of Alexander the Great and was not to do so until January 1703.
One reason for Verbruggen to use a different name might have been that his own was often misspelled: Verbrugen, Verbrogell, Verkruggan, Verbrugger. As "John Verbuggin", he is recorded as marrying the well-known actress Susanna Mountfort, widow of the actor William Mountfort, on 31 January 1694. Adding another possibility for confusion, William Mountfort was famous for his Alexander the Great.
When many of the senior actors at the United Company, headed by Thomas Betterton, seceded from the monopoly company and formed an actors' cooperative in March 1695, John and Susanna Verbruggen remained with Christopher Rich at the Drury Lane Theatre, where they were important assets to the depleted company. Rich raised Verbruggen's salary from £2 to £4 weekly to sign a new contract to "with his best care and skill Sing Dance Act Rehearse and Represent", an arrangement which put him on a level with George Powell, the leading actor in the remaining Drury Lane troupe. After a quarrel about shares and benefits which led to a physical fight in September 1696, Verbruggen was discharged from acting, but ordered by the Lord Chamberlain to stay with the Drury Lane company until 1 January 1697, to give Rich time to find a replacement. This order made possible the endangered November première of John Vanbrugh's The Relapse , where Verbruggen played the part of Loveless.
Moving to Betterton's company in January 1697, Verbruggen began to receive some critical comment, chiefly positive. He was considered a natural actor, with "a negligent agreeable Wildness in his Action and his Mein, which became him well". He chiefly played "fine gentlemen", wits, and rakes, and was William Congreve's original Mirabell in The Way of the World (1700). Anthony Aston contrasted his wild, untaught talents with Betterton's artfulness, and he was especially appreciated in "natural" characters such as the unique title character in a stage adaptation of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko written by Thomas Southerne.
John and Susanna Verbruggen had a child as early as 1703, Lewis, who was baptized on 27 May. Susanna Verbruggen died between July and August 1703, and the infant was buried in October. John Baptista Verbruggen was buried on 12 March 1708, and on 26 April at Drury Lane, a benefit was held for "a Young Orphan-Child of the late Mr Verbruggen and Mrs Verbruggen", presumably the John George Verbruggen, son of John and Susanna, who was baptized on 23 November 1708.
Tamerlane by Nicholas Rowe (1701)
The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift, or, The Fool in Fashion.
Susanna Verbruggen, aka Susanna Mountfort, was an English actress working in London.
Anne Bracegirdle was an English actress.
Christopher Rich (1657–1714) was a lawyer and theatrical manager in London in the late 17th and early 18th century.
Susanna Mountfort (1690-1720) was a British stage actress.
Mary Kent was an English actress, whose career lasted from 1692 to 1718, and the wife of Drury Lane actor Thomas Kent. Her dates of birth and death are not known. Mary Kent appeared in many playbills from 1692 onwards in London, playing minor parts in the United Company until the company's tumultuous breakup in 1695. She and her husband remained with the depleted parent troupe when the senior actors walked out to set up their own cooperative company, and during the consequent brief actor shortage at Drury Lane, she played more important parts, notably Flareit in Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift and young Tom Fashion in John Vanbrugh's The Relapse in 1697. This role came at a time when it was common for boys to be portrayed by actresses and her casting was described as perhaps "an attempt to defuse the homosexual suggestions in his relationship with Coupler."
George Powell was a 17th-century London actor and playwright who was a member of the United Company. He was the son of the actor Martin Powell, a long-standing member of the King's Company.
Robert Wilks was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope and caricatured by William Hogarth as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition.
Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, the theatre was called Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse, also known as The Duke's Playhouse, The New Theatre or The Opera. The building was demolished and replaced by a purpose-built theatre for a third period, 1714–1728. The tennis court theatre was the first public playhouse in London to feature the moveable scenery that would become a standard feature of Restoration theatres.
The Squire of Alsatia is a 1688 comedy play by the English writer Thomas Shadwell. Alsatia was a nickname for the Whitefriars area of London, deriving from Alsace in northeastern France. A restoration comedy, it was performed at the Drury Lane Theatre by the United Company following on from John Crowne's Darius, King of Persia. One of the best-remembered roles, that of the shrewish Mrs. Termagant was first performed by Elizabeth Boutell. It was revived numerous times during the eighteenth century.
The Biter is a 1704 play by the English writer Nicholas Rowe. Rowe was better known for his tragedies but chose to try his hand at comedy. Performed at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, it was not a great success and lasted for about six performances. It was overshadowed by the more popular The Careless Husband by Colley Cibber, which appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre. It was Rowe's only play in a contemporary setting, and he rapidly turned back to historical tragedies beginning with Ulysses (1705). Some sources reported Rowe defiantly and loudly laughing at the jokes during a performance, even while nobody else did.
Joseph Williams was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
The Married Beau or The Curious Impertinent is a 1694 comedy play by the English writer John Crowne. It is inspired by a passage from Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote. Incidental music was composed by Henry Purcell.
Don Sebastian, King Of Portugal is a 1689 tragedy by the English writer John Dryden. It is based on the reign of Sebastian of Portugal leading up to his defeat and death at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578. An Elizabethan play The Battle of Alcazar also portrays the events.
The Wives Excuse also The Wives Excuse; Or, Cuckolds Make Themselves is a 1691 comedy play by the Anglo-Irish writer Thomas Southerne. The title is sometimes written more grammatically as The Wives' Excuse.
John Hodgson was an English stage actor of the late seventeenth century. He joined the United Company in 1688 and his first recorded appearance was in The Treacherous Brothers at Drury Lane in 1690. In 1695 he was one of several actors who broke away to join Thomas Betterton's new company at Lincoln's Inn Fields. His name is sometimes written as Hudson. He was married to the singer Mary Hodgson.
The Maid's Last Prayer: Or, Any Rather Than Fail is a 1693 comedy play by the Irish writer Thomas Southerne. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the United Company.
The Massacre of Paris is a 1689 tragedy by the English writer Nathaniel Lee. It was first staged by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It is based around the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre which led the killing of many Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion. The events had previously been portrayed in Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan play The Massacre at Paris.
Love Triumphant; Or, Nature Will Prevail is a 1694 tragicomedy by the English writer John Dryden. It was Dryden's final stage play.
Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero or Cleomenes, The Spartan Heroe: A Tragedy is a 1692 tragedy by the English writer John Dryden. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the United Company. It portrays the reign of Cleomenes, the King of Sparta, inspired by Plutarch's history of the period. Dryden's version is strongly Jacobite in drawing parallels from his overthrow to the recent Glorious Revolution in England. Because of this it was temporarily banned by the authority of Queen Mary.