The Discovery | |
---|---|
Written by | Frances Sheridan |
Date premiered | 5 February, 1763 |
Place premiered | Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London |
Original language | English |
Genre | Comedy |
Setting | England, present day |
The Discovery: A Comedy in Five Acts is a comedy by Frances Sheridan. The play premiered on 5 February, 1763, at the Drury Lane Theatre, London. The actors being David Garrick as Sir Anthony Branville, Frances' husband Thomas Sheridan as Lord Medway, William O'Brien as Sir Harry Flutter, Charles Holland as Colonel Medway, Mrs. Hannah Pritchard as Lady Medway, Mary Ann Yates as Mrs Knightly, and Jane Pope as Lady Flutter. Garrick agreed that Thomas Sheridan should play the lead role and be paid with two night's profits. [1]
Aldous Huxley controversially rewrote the play and provided a new ending, for a Chatto and Windus edition in 1924. [2]
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including novels and non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley was a British evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. He was secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund, the president of the British Eugenics Society (1959-1962), and the first President of the British Humanist Association.
Frances Sheridan was an Anglo-Irish novelist and playwright.
The School for Scandal is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777.
Hannah Cowley was an English playwright and poet. Although Cowley's plays and poetry did not enjoy wide popularity after the 19th century, critic Melinda Finberg rates her as "one of the foremost playwrights of the late eighteenth century" whose "skill in writing fluid, sparkling dialogue and creating sprightly, memorable comic characters compares favourably with her better-known contemporaries, Goldsmith and Sheridan." Cowley's plays were produced frequently in her lifetime. The major themes of her plays – including her first, The Runaway (1776), and her major success, which is being revived, The Belle's Stratagem (1780) – revolve around marriage and how women strive to overcome the injustices imposed by family life and social custom.
Hannah Pritchard was an English actress who regularly played opposite David Garrick. She performed many significant Shakespearean roles and created on stage many important female roles by contemporary playwrights.
Elizabeth Farren was an Irish actress of the late 18th century. Born in Cork in 1759, her father, George Farren was a surgeon. His drinking habits brought on early death and his widow returned to Liverpool. Her mother went on the stage to support herself and her children. Elizabeth first appeared on the London stage in 1777 as Miss Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer and the following year appeared at Drury Lane which, along with the Haymarket Theatre became her primary venues for the rest of her acting career. She had over 100 characters in her repertoire including Shakespeare and various contemporary comedies and dramas. She was often compared to Frances Abington, who was her only real rival. Her last appearance was in April 1797, two months before her marriage to Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby. They had a son and two daughters.
Crome Yellow is the first novel by British author Aldous Huxley, published by Chatto & Windus in 1921, followed by a U.S. edition by George H. Doran Company in 1922. Though a social satire of its time, it is still appreciated and has been adapted to different media.
Jane Pope was an English actress.
Anna Margaret Ross, known by her pen-name Amanda McKittrick Ros, was an Irish writer. She published her first novel Irene Iddesleigh at her own expense in 1897. She wrote poetry and a number of novels. Her works were not read widely, and her eccentric, over-written, "purple" circumlocutory writing is alleged by some critics to be some of the worst prose and poetry ever written.
After Many a Summer (1939) is a novel by Aldous Huxley that tells the story of a Hollywood millionaire who fears his impending death. It was published in the United States as After Many a Summer Dies the Swan. Written soon after Huxley left England and settled in California, the novel is Huxley's examination of American culture, particularly what he saw as its narcissism, superficiality, and obsession with youth. This satire also raises philosophical and social issues, some of which would later take the forefront in Huxley's final novel Island. The novel's title is taken from Tennyson's poem Tithonus, about a figure in Greek mythology to whom Aurora gave eternal life but not eternal youth. The book was awarded the 1939 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
John Bell (1745–1831) was an English publisher. Originally a bookseller and printer, he also innovated in typography, commissioning an influential font that omitted the long s. He drew the reading public to better literature by ordering attractive art to accompany the printed work.
Collected Short Stories is a collection of short fiction by Aldous Huxley, published in 1957. The book consists of twenty stories compiled from five of Huxley's earlier collections and one from his novel Crome Yellow. It was published by Harper & Row in the US and Chatto & Windus in the UK.
The Belle's Stratagem is a romantic comedy of manners, the most successful work of its playwright, Hannah Cowley. It received its premiere on 22 February 1780, filling the 2,000-seat Drury Lane theatre. The play became a major hit of the season, with Queen Charlotte enjoying it so much that she decreed it be performed for the royal family once a season for several years. Its title comes from George Farquhar's play The Beaux' Stratagem.
The Man of Mode, or, Sir Fopling Flutter is a Restoration comedy by George Etherege, written in 1676. The play is set in Restoration London and follows the womanizer Dorimant as he tries to win over the young heiress Harriet and to disengage himself from his affair with Mrs. Loveit. Despite the subtitle, the fop Sir Fopling is only one of several minor characters; the rake Dorimant is the protagonist.
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.
Thomas King (1730–1805) was an English actor, known also as a theatre manager and dramatist.
Edward Compton was an actor and actor-manager of the Victorian era who enjoyed considerable success in touring the English provinces with plays by Shakespeare, Sheridan and Goldsmith but who met with failure while trying to break into the West End theatre.
The following bibliography of Aldous Huxley provides a chronological list of the published works of English writer Aldous Huxley (1894–1963). It includes his fiction and non-fiction, both published during his lifetime and posthumously.
The Dupe is a 1763 comedy play by the Irish writer Frances Sheridan. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 10 December 1763. The original cast included Richard Yates as Sir John Woodall, William Havard as Friendly, John Hayman Packer as Wellford, Thomas King as Sharply and Hannah Pritchard as Mrs Etherdown, Kitty Clive as Mrs Friendly. It was one of only two new mainpieces debuting at Drury Lane that year along with a clutch of afterpieces. Sheridan, the mother of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was best known for her novel Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph but had enjoyed success with the play The Discovery earlier in the year.