Mary, Lady Slingsby, born Aldridge (perhaps died 1693), was an English actress. After a marriage lasting 1670 to 1680 to John Lee, an actor, during which she was on the stage as Mrs. Lee, she was widowed. She then married Sir Charles Slingsby, 2nd Baronet, a nephew of Sir Robert Slingsby, and performed as Lady Slingsby. Theatre historians have pointed out the difficulty in identifying her roles in the period when Elinor Leigh, wife of Anthony Leigh, was performing as Mrs. Leigh, because the homophones "Lee" and "Leigh" were not consistently spelled at the time.[1]
In 1671 Mrs Lee appeared at Lincoln's Inn Fields in the character of Daranthe in Edward Howard's tragi-comedy Woman's Conquest, and as Leticia in Town-Shifts, or the Suburb-Justice, attributed to Edward Revet, and licensed on 2 May 1672. Next, at Dorset Garden, where Mrs Lee remained for ten years, she played opposite Æmilia in Joseph Arrowsmith's Reformation (1672).[2][3]
In Henry VI, Part I, with the Murder of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, adapted by John Crowne from Shakespeare, and acted in 1681, the part of Queen Margaret was assigned to Lady Slingsby. In Henry VI, Part II, or the Misery of Civil War, from the same source, the same character went to Mrs Lee. As the second part was written first, and probably produced first, Mrs Lee's second marriage may have been in 1681. In Nahum Tate's adaptation of King Lear Lady Slingsby was Regan, in Nat Lee's Lucius Junius Brutus, the Father of his Country, Sempronia, and Marguerite in Lee's The Princess of Cleve.[2]
After the merger of the two major acting companies in 1682, Slingsby played, at the Theatre Royal, the Queen Mother in John Dryden and Nat Lee's Duke of Guise.[4] In Thomas D'Urfey's Commonwealth of Woman, an adaptation of John Fletcher's The Sea Voyage, produced in 1685, she was Clarinda. Her name then disappeared from the bills.[2]
Her name appears on the Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial in Old St. Pancras Churchyard, listing the names of important graves lost therein by the building of a railway line. Her date of death is given as 1693. She was probably buried on 1 March 1693, although there is some doubt as to whether the Mary Slingsby buried is this lady. It has been speculated that the name may have been withheld to prevent her husband's creditors from finding him via his wife.[5]
In fiction
Mrs Lee appears as a character in the 2015 play [exit Mrs Behn] or, The Leo Play by Christopher van der Ark.
↑ Mrs Lee also appeared as Olinda in Afra Behn's Forced Marriage, or the Jealous Bridegroom, Mariamne in Elkanah Settle's Empress of Morocco, and Amavanga in Settle's Conquest of China by the Tartars (1674). In the same year she was Salome in Herod and Mariamne, attributed to Samuel Pordage, but staged by Settle. She was in 1675 Deidamia, queen of Sparta, in Thomas Otway's Alcibiades, and Chlotilda, disguised as Nigrello, in Love and Revenge, a play by Settle, based on the Fatal Contract of William Heming. In Ibrahim, the Illustrious Bassa, taken by Settle from Madeleine de Scudery and licensed on 4 May 1676, she was Roxalana, the wife of Solyman; in Otway's Don Carlos, Prince of Spain, licensed 13 June, she was the Queen of Spain; in D'Urfey's Madame Fickle, or the Witty False One (licensed 20 November), Madame Fickle; and in Pastor Fido, or the Faithful Shepherd, translated from Giovanni Battista Guarini by Settle, she was Corisca. In Otway's Titus and Berenice, licensed 19 February 1677, the part of Berenice was assigned to Mrs Lee, as were Cleopatra in Charles Sedley's Antony and Cleopatra, licensed 24 April 1677, and Circe in William Davenant's Circe, licensed 18 June. In the Constant Nymph, or the Rambling Shepherd (by a "Person of Quality"), licensed 13 August, she was Astatius, the rambling shepherd. In Pordage's Siege of Babylon, licensed 2 November, she was Roxana, and in Abdelazer, or the Moor's Revenge, adapted by Behn from Lust's Dominion (unjustifiably ascribed to Marlowe), the Queen of Spain. In 1678 Mrs Lee was Cassandra in John Bankes's Destruction of Troy, licensed 29 January 1679, but played earlier; and Elvira in the Counterfeits (John Leanard), licensed 29 August 1678. Next year she was Eurydice in Dryden and Lee's Œdipus, Laura Lucretia in Behn's Feigned Courtezans, or a Night's Intrigue, and, as Mrs Mary Lee, Cressida in Dryden's adaptation of Troilus and Cressida; in 1680 she was Bellamira in Lee's Cæsar Borgia, and Arviola in Tate's Loyal General. Mrs Mary Lee was also Julia in L. Maidwell's Loving Enemies.
↑ In 1684 she was, at Dorset Garden, Lady Noble in Edward Ravenscroft's Dame Dobson, or the Cunning Woman, an adaptation of La Devineresse of Thomas Corneille and Jean Donneau de Visé, and at the Theatre Royal, Lucia in the Factious Citizen, or the Melancholy Visioner (Thomas Maddocks). In a revival of Julius Cæsar she was Calphurnia, the only non-original part in which she is mentioned.
↑ Deborah Payne Fisk, ‘Lee, Mary [other married name Mary Slingsby, Lady Slingsby] (fl. 1670–1685)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 17 June 2015(subscription required)
Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd (1682).
Samuel Pordage was a 17th-century English poet. He is best known by his Azaria and Hushai (1682), a reply to John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.
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.
Cave Underhill (1634–1710?) was an English actor in comedy roles.
Anne Shadwell was an English stage actor of the seventeenth century. She was one of the first English actresses to appear on stage following the Restoration She was one of six actors recruited in 1660 by William Davenant for the new Duke's Company, acting under her maiden name Anne Gibbs. Sometime between 1663 and 1667 she married the playwright Thomas Shadwell with whom she had four children. While some sources have her acting late into the century, it may be she effectively retired with the formation of the United Company in 1682. Her appearances had decreased since 1672. Following her husband's death in 1692 she was left the bulk of his estate. She had an investment in the Drury Lane Theatre in 1709, when she joined a petition to Queen Anne by the manager Christopher Rich, but nothing is known about her after this point.
Samuel Sandford was an English character actor, known for his roles as villains.
Anthony Leigh was a celebrated English comic actor.
John Bowman (1651–1739) was a British stage actor. He began his career in the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre. In 1692 he married Elizabeth Watson, who acted under the name Elizabeth Bowman. He later switched to act at the Drury Lane Theatre. He is also referred to as John Boman.
Joseph Williams was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
Elinor Leigh was a British stage actor of the seventeenth century.
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.
Elizabeth Currer was an Irish stage actress of the Restoration Era. She was a member of the Duke's Company during the 1670s and subsequently part of the merged United Company from 1682. Although she was likely acting in London several years earlier than this, her first known role was in The Conquest of China in 1675. Due to the irregular spelling of the time her surname is sometimes written as Carrier, Corer and Currier amongst other variants.
George Bright was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. He specialised in playing "comic dullards, fops and bouncy servants". After beginning his career in Dublin he joined the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in 1679 and then became part of the merged United Company in 1682.
John Richards was an English stage actor of the seventeenth century. An early member of the Duke's Company in London, he was lured away to the new Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin by John Ogilby. He was back with the Duke's at the Dorset Garden Theatre from the mid-1670s, but while in Ireland he was able to play major roles his English performances were generally supporting parts.
Thomas Percival or Percivall was an English stage actor of the seventeenth century. He was a member of the Duke's Company from 1671 to 1682 and then the merged United Company until 1686. Throughout his career he was confined to playing supporting roles, never graduating to major parts. He was the father of the actress Susanna Verbruggen. In 1693, following his retirement from the stage, he was arrested for coin clipping, a capital crime, for which he was sentenced to hang at Tyburn. The intercession of his daughter with Mary II saw his sentence commuted to transportation, but before he reached Portsmouth he died of natural causes.
Margaret Osborne or Osborn was an English stage actress of the seventeenth century She was a long-standing member of the Duke's Company from 1671, acting at Lincoln's Inn Fields and the Dorset Garden Theatre. She went to Dublin to work at the Smock Alley Theatre in 1677, but returned to the Duke's Company around two years later She subsequently joined the merged United Company in 1682 and was still acting in the 1690s.
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.
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.
Emily Price was an English stage actress of the seventeenth century. She was a member of the Duke's Company between 1676 and 1682, acting at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London and then joined the merged United Company. She was a friend of the playwright Aphra Behn and appeared in several of her plays. She was billed as Mrs Price.
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.
