Frances "Fanny" Abington was an English actress who was also known for her sense of fashion. Writer and politician Horace Walpole described her as one of the finest actors of their time, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan was said to have written the part of Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal for her to perform.
Frances Burney, also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, George III's queen. In 1793, aged 41, she married a French exile, General Alexandre d'Arblay. After a long writing career and wartime travels that stranded her in France for over a decade, she settled in Bath, England, where she died on 6 January 1840. The first of her four novels, Evelina (1778), was the most successful and remains her most highly regarded. Most of her plays were not performed in her lifetime. She wrote a memoir of her father (1832) and many letters and journals that have been gradually published since 1889.
Charles Burney was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist and book donor to the British Museum. He was a close friend and supporter of Joseph Haydn.
Sarah Siddons was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified".
Charles Kemble was a Welsh-born English actor of a prominent theatre family.
George Stephen Kemble was a successful English theatre manager, actor, and writer, and a member of the famous Kemble family. He was described as "the best Sir John Falstaff which the British stage ever saw" though he also played title roles in Hamlet and King Lear among others. He published plays, poetry and non-fiction.
John Philip Kemble was a British actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. His other siblings, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton, and Elizabeth Whitlock, also enjoyed success on the stage.
Jane Pope was an English actress.
James Aickin, was an Irish stage actor who worked at the Edinburgh Theatre in Scotland and in theatres in the West End of London.
John Till Allingham was an English dramatist.
Maria Theresa Kemble (1774–1838), née Marie Thérèse Du Camp, was an Austrian-born English actress, singer, dancer and comic playwright on the stage. She was the wife of actor Charles Kemble.
Edmund John Eyre (1767–1816), was an English actor and dramatist.
Thomas Sedgwick Whalley (1746–1828) was an English cleric, poet and traveller.
Priscilla Kemble was an English actress. The English actor John Philip Kemble was her third and last husband.
Jane Powell or Mrs Powell was a British actress. She was also known as Mrs Renaud and Mrs Farmer.
Seduction is a 1787 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft.
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.
The Fortune Hunters; Or, Two Fools Well Met is 1689 comedy play by James Carlile. It was originally staged by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.
The Castle of Montval is a tragedy by the British writer Thomas Sedgwick Whalley. It was first published in 1781, but wasn't staged in London's West End until 23 April 1799 when it appeared at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane where it succeeded The East Indian by Matthew Lewis. The Drury Lane cast included Sarah Siddons as Countess of Montval, John Philip Kemble as the Old Count, James Aickin as Count of Colmar, Charles Holland as Count of Montval, Charles Kemble as Marquis of Vaublane, William Barrymore as Lapont, John Hayman Packer as Blaise, Jane Powell as Matilda and Elizabeth Heard as Teresa. It was part of the tend of Gothic plays popular during the era.
Pizarro is a 1799 historical tragedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was inspired by August von Kotzebue's play Die Spanier in Peru, based on the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 by Francisco Pizarro. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 24 May 1799. The cast included John Philip Kemble as Rolla, William Barrymore as Pizarro, Sarah Siddons as Elvira, Dorothea Jordan as Cora, Charles Kemble as Alonzo, John Powell as Ataliba, Thomas Caulfield as Almagro, Robert Palmer as Valverde, James Aickin as Las Casas, Richard Suett as Diego, William Dowton as Grozembo, William Chatterley as Boy and Charles Holland as Centinel. The music was composed by Michael Kelly. The epilogue was written by William Lamb, the future Prime Minister. It was popular success, running for 31 consecutive nights and being revived on a number of occasions. Sheridan's version was produced during the war with France, at a time when an invasion was feared.
