Arthur Murphy, also known by the pseudonym Charles Ranger, was an Irish writer.
Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, also known as Epicene, is a comedy by Renaissance playwright Ben Jonson. The play is about a man named Dauphine, who creates a scheme to get his inheritance from his uncle Morose. The plan involves setting Morose up to marry Epicoene, a boy disguised as a woman. It was originally performed by the Blackfriars Children, or Children of the Queen's Revels, a group of boy players, in 1609. Excluding its two prologues, the play is written entirely in prose.
Anything for a Quiet Life is a Jacobean stage play, a city comedy written by Thomas Middleton and John Webster. Topical allusions suggest the play was written most likely in 1621.
The Wedding is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by James Shirley. Published in 1629, it was the first of Shirley's plays to appear in print. An early comedy of manners, it is set in the fashionable world of genteel London society in Shirley's day.
Richard Yates was an English comic actor, who worked at the Haymarket Theatre and Drury Lane among others, appearing in David Garrick's King Lear. He also worked in theatre management, and set up the New Theatre in Birmingham in 1773. Both his first wife, Elizabeth Mary and Mary Anne Graham were actresses.
Money is a comic play by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, premièred at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket on 8 December 1840.
Love for Love is a Restoration comedy written by English playwright William Congreve. It premiered on 30 April 1695 at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. Staged by Thomas Betterton's company the original cast included Betterton as Valentine, William Smith as Scandal, John Bowman as Tattle, Thomas Doggett as Ben, Samuel Sandford as Foresight, William Bowen as Jeremy, John Freeman as Buckram, Anne Bracegirdle as Angelica, Elizabeth Bowman as Mrs Foresight, Elizabeth Barry as Mrs Frail, Elinor Leigh as Nurse and Abigail Lawson as Jenny.
Ourselves is an 1811 comedy play by the British writer Marianne Chambers. It premiered at the Lyceum Theatre in London on 2 March 1811. The Lyceum was at the time hosting the company of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane while it was rebuilt following damage by an 1809 fire. It was Chambers' second staged work following the successful The School for Friends in 1805. The cast included William Dowton as Sir John Rainsford, Benjamin Wrench as Sir Sydney Beaufort, Charles Holland as Fitzaubin, John Henry Johnstone as O'Shanauhan, Vincent De Camp as Darlington, William Penley as Cuff, Maria Rebecca Davison as Miss Beaufort, Julia Glover as the Unknown Lady and Sarah Harlowe as Mrs O'Shanauhan. It was performed sixteen times on its original run.
The Younger Brother, or, The Amorous Jilt is a comedy written by Aphra Behn. The play was first performed and published posthumously in 1696, but was probably written in the late 1680s.
Henry Woodward was an English actor, among the most famous in his day for comedy roles.
The Grecian Daughter is a 1772 tragedy by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. It was widely performed for nearly sixty years, through the 1830s. For many British actresses in the eighteenth century, playing the role of the central heroine, Euphrasia, was an important part of gaining fame.
The Innocent Mistress is a comedy written by Mary Pix, first performed in 1697.
The Cobbler of Preston is a 1716 comedy play by Christopher Bullock, although a separate play of the same title was written by Charles Johnson the same year. A one-act afterpiece is the origin of the phrase "Tis impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes". In the preface to the published version Bullock suggested that he had begun writing the play just four days before its premiere. It takes inspiration from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare and is set in Preston, Lancashire. The town had recently been scene of fighting during the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion at the Battle of Preston. Bullock's play does not overtly reference the rebellion, but has undertones supportive of the Hanoverian Dynasty.
Three Weeks after Marriage is a comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. An afterpiece, it premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 30 March 1776. It was a reworking of an earlier play What We Must All Come To which was staged in 1764, which had a poor reception. The cast included William Thomas Lewis as Sir Charles Racket, John Quick as Drugget, Isabella Mattocks as Lady Racket, Ann Pitt as Mrs Drugget and Jane Green as Dimity. The entire play takes place at a country house about four miles outside London.
Don Pedro, King of Castile is an 1828 historical tragedy by the British writer Lord Porchester. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 10 March 1828. The cast included William Macready as Henry, John Cooper as Don Pedro, James William Wallack as Raban, George Yarnold as Constable of France, Sarah West as Maria De Padilla and Ellen Tree as Blanche of Bourbon. It is based on the rule of the fourteenth century King of Castile Peter the Cruel.
The Rival Sisters is a 1793 tragedy by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. His final play, it premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 18 March 1793. It had been first written in 1783 and then published in 1786. It was staged by the company of the Drury Lane company under Richard Brinsley Sheridan who were at the Haymarket while their own theatre was rebuilt. The London cast included Sarah Siddons as Ariadne, Jane Powell as Phaedra, John Philip Kemble as Perithous, Richard Wroughton as Periander, King of Naxos, Robert Palmer as Theseus, John Hayman Packer as Archon and Thomas Caulfield as Aletes. It ran for around nine performances.
Know Your Own Mind is a 1777 comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 22 February 1777. The original Covent Garden cast included William Thomas Lewis as Millamour, Charles Lee Lewes as Dashwould, Richard Wroughton as Malvil, Francis Aickin as Bygrove, Cockran Joseph Booth as Captain Bygrave, James Fearon as Sir John Millamour, John Whitfield as Sir Harry Lovewith, Ralph Wewitzer as Charles, Servant of Millamour, Isabella Mattocks as Lady Bell, Mary Dayes as Lady Jane and Elizabeth Hartley as Miss Neville. The Irish premiere was at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 13 August 1778. It was acted nineteen times at Covent Garden and in 1789 was revived at Drury Lane, with Dorothea Jordan in the cast, and remained a standard work well into the nineteenth century.
Alzuma is a 1773 historical tragedy by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. It premiered in London at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 23 February 1773. The original cast included William 'Gentleman' Smith as Alzuma, Thomas Hull as Pizarro, Robert Bensley as Don Carlos and Elizabeth Hartley as Orellana. The music was composed for the production by Thomas Arne. It is based on the Conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro in the sixteenth century. Murphy suggested that the British victory at Havana in 1762 influenced his sympathetic depiction of the Peruvians and hostility to Spain. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's later play Pizarro dealt with the same subject and themes.
The School for Guardians is a 1767 comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 10 January 1767. The original cast included John Walker as Sir Theodore Brumpton, Henry Woodward as Young Brumpton, William Smith as Bellford, Edward Shuter as Oldcastle, John Dunstall as Lovibond, Mary Wilford as Harriet and Ann Elliot as Mary Ann. In 1777 Thomas Hull adapted it into a comic opera Love finds the Way with music composed for the production by Thomas Arne.
All in the Wrong is a 1761 comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, the under the management of David Garrick, on 15 June 1761. The original cast included Richard Yates as Sir John Restless, William O'Brien as Beverley, John Hayman Packer as Young Bellmont, Thomas Weston as Brush, Servant to Beverley, Astley Bransby as Blandford, Charles Blakes as Robert, Hannah Haughton as Lady Restless, Mary Ann Yates as Belinda, Mary Bradshaw as Tattle, Servant to Lady Restless and Jane Hippesley as Tippet, Servant to Belinda.
