This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1796.
Richard Cumberland was an English dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived critical journal called The London Review (1809). His plays are often remembered for their sympathetic depiction of characters generally considered to be on the margins of society.
This article is a summary of the literary events and publications of 1631.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1611.
This article lists notable literary events and publications in 1599.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1598.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1594.
Edmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play The Playboy of the Western World was poorly received, due to its bleak ending, depiction of Irish peasants, and idealisation of parricide, leading to hostile audience reactions and riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre, which he had co-founded with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. His other major works include In the Shadow of the Glen (1903), Riders to the Sea (1904), The Well of the Saints (1905), and The Tinker's Wedding (1909).
Junius Brutus Booth was an English stage actor. He was the father of actor John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. His other children included Edwin Booth, the foremost tragedian of the mid-to-late 19th century, Junius Brutus Booth Jr., an actor and theatre manager, and Asia Booth Clarke, a poet and writer.
Locrine is an Elizabethan play depicting the legendary Trojan founders of the nation of England and of Troynovant (London). The play presents a cluster of complex and unresolved problems for scholars of English Renaissance theatre.
In Rome's early semi-legendary history, Tarquinia was the daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome,. Her father, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, gave her in marriage to Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. She was the mother of Lucius Junius Brutus, who overthrew the monarchy and became one of Rome's first consuls in 509 BC. She had another son, who was put to death by Superbus after he took the Roman rule from Servius.
The West Indian is a play by Richard Cumberland first staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1771. A comedy, it depicts Belcour, a West Indian plantation owner, travelling to Britain. Belcour tries to overcome his father's lingering disapproval of him and marry his sweetheart Louisa. Its hero, who probably owes much to the suggestion of David Garrick, is a young scapegrace fresh from the tropics, "with rum and sugar enough belonging to him to make all the water in the Thames into punch", a libertine with generous instincts, which prevail in the end. The early example of the modern drama was favorably received. Boden translated it into German, and Goethe acted in it at the Weimar court.
The Note of Hand, or Trip to Newmarket is a 1774 comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. A farce it was the final play performed by David Garrick at the Drury Lane Theatre in London before his retirement. The Irish premiere took place at the Capel Street Theatre in Dublin on 10 March 1774. The original London cast included John Palmer as Revell, Samuel Cautherley as Rivers, Thomas Jefferson as Elder Rivers, John Moody as O'Connor MacCormuck, William Palmer as Francis, James William Dodd as Sapling, James Wrighten as Putty and Susan Greville as Mrs Cheveley.
The Brothers is a 1769 comedy play by Richard Cumberland. The play was Cumberland's breakthrough work. Its complicated plot involved a villain with a virtuous young brother and was set partly in Cornwall. He dedicated the play to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the Duke of Grafton. Two years later Cumberland went on to write his most successful work The West Indian.
Don Pedro is a tragic play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 23 July 1796. The original cast included James Aickin as Count Valdesoto, Charles Kemble as Henrique, John Palmer as Pedro De Rascifiria, John Bannister as Basco de Robeldondo, Richard Suett as Nicolas Sassenigo, Thomas Caulfield as Tayo, George Wathen as Roca, Robert Palmer as Cerbero and Elizabeth Kemble as Celestina, Sarah Harlowe as Mariguita, Maria Kemble as Cattania and Elizabeth Hopkins as Benedicta. The epilogue was written by George Colman the Younger.
The Country Attorney is a 1787 comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first performed at the Haymarket Theatre on 7 July 1787. The Haymarket cast included Robert Bensley as Sterling, James Aickin as Wordly, Stephen Kemble as Sir Wilful Wayward, Robert Palmer as Lord Millamourm, John Bannister as Jack Volatile and Mary Bulkley as Mrs Worldly, Margaret Cuyler as Mrs Gayless and Elizabeth Farren as Lady Rustic. It was not published during Cumberland's lifetime. The play was reworked and much of it used again by Cumberland for the 1789 play The School for Widows.
The Wheel of Fortune: A Comedy is a comedy in five acts written by playwright Richard Cumberland and first presented at the Drury Lane Theatre in London on 28 February 1795, with a prologue and an epilogue. The original cast included John Philip Kemble as Penruddock, Robert Palmer as David Daw, Thomas King as Tempest, John Whitfield as Woodville, John Palmer as Sydenham, Charles Kemble as Henry Woodville, Richard Suett as Weazel, Francis Godolphin Waldron as Woodville's Servant, Walter Maddocks as Penruddock's Servant, John Phillimore as Attendant, Jane Powell as Mrs. Woodville, Elizabeth Farren as Emily Tempest and Charlotte Tidswell as Maid.
"Delphica" is a poem by the French writer Gérard de Nerval, first published in 1845 and later included in The Chimeras, a sequence of eight poems. Like the other Chimeras, it is a sonnet and was written during a period of mental health problems. The poem is addressed to the naiad Daphne, evokes the ancient cult of Apollo at Delphi and forecasts that the gods of classical mythology will return. It revolves around the view that paganism has been dormant or clandestine during the Christian epoch and will see a resurgence. It was published in the magazine L'Artiste and Nerval's book Petits châteaux de Bohème (1853) before the complete Chimeras were published in The Daughters of Fire (1854).
Joanna of Montfaucon is an 1800 historical play by the British playwright Richard Cumberland. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 16 January 1800 and was inspired by a work by German writer August von Kotzebue. The original cast included Maria Ann Pope as Joanna, Alexander Pope as Albert, Lord of Thurn, Joseph George Holman as Lazarra, Charles Incledon as Darbony, John Waddy as Wensel, Henry Erskine Johnston as Philip, John Emery as Guntram, Charles Murray as Hermit, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Wolf, Thomas King as Ulrick, William Claremont as Mountaineer, Charles Klanert as Soldier and Nannette Johnston as Eloisa.
Brutus; Or, the Fall of Tarquin is an 1818 historical tragedy by the British-based American writer John Howard Payne. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 3 December 1818. The original cast included Edmund Kean as Brutus, David Fisher as Titus, Henry Kemble as Sextus Tarquin, Charles Holland as Valerius, William Penley as Aruns, Julia Glover as Tullia and Sarah West as Tarquinia. It draws heavily on Richard Cumberland's The Sibyl, published in 1813. It depicts the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, with Lucius Junius Brutus leading a plot against Lucius Tarquinius Superbus to establish the Roman Republic.
