Timothy Read

Last updated

Timothy Read (fl. 1626–1647) was a comic actor of the Caroline era, and one of the most famous and popular performers of his generation. [1]

Floruit, abbreviated fl., Latin for "he/she flourished", denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the word may also be used as a noun indicating the time when someone "flourished".

Caroline era

The Caroline or Carolean era refers to the era in English and Scottish history during the Stuart period (1603–1714) that coincided with the reign of Charles I (1625–1642), Carolus being Latin for Charles. The Caroline era followed the Jacobean era, the reign of Charles's father James I & VI (1603–1625); it was followed by the Wars of the three Kingdoms (1642–1651) and the English Interregnum (1651–1660).

Biography

As with many other performers of his historical era, nothing is known of Read's early life. The first evidence of his career comes in 1626, when he played Cardona, a woman's role, in James Shirley's The Wedding with Queen Henrietta's Men. Read appears to have spent the early 1630s with the King's Revels Men, but returned to the Queen Henrietta's company after the bubonic plague epidemic of 1636–37, when personnel of the two troupes combined. With the Queen's company, Read played Buzzard in Richard Brome's The English Moor , [2] perhaps in 1637.

James Shirley 17th-century English poet and playwright

James Shirley was an English dramatist.

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.

Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era in London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.

He won his fame as a dancer. Performances in English Renaissance theatre, even tragedies, ended with a clown dancing a jig, and Read was one of a long line of comics, reaching from Richard Tarlton through John Shank, who earned a large and welcoming audience through this practice.

English Renaissance theatre theatre of England between 1562 and 1642

English Renaissance theatre—also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre—refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642.

Richard Tarlton British actor and clown of the Elizabethan era

Richard Tarlton or Tarleton, was an English actor of the Elizabethan era. He was the most famous clown of his era, known for his extempore comic doggerel verse, which came to be known as "Tarltons". He helped to turn Elizabethan theatre into a form of mass entertainment paving the way for the Shakespearean stage. After his death many witticisms and pranks were attributed to him and were published as Tarlton's Jests.

John Shank was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a leading comedian in the King's Men during the 1620s and 1630s.

One of the best indices of Read's fame occurs in The Stage Player's Complaint, a pamphlet printed in 1641. The pamphlet presents the two leading comic actors of the day, Andrew Cane and Timothy Read, in a dialogue about the difficulties of the clowning life. (The summer of 1641 saw another theatre closure due to plague.) In the pamphlet, Cane, renowned for his clever repartee, is called Quick; Read, famous for his fast feet, is called Light. The text of the Complaint seems to indicate that Read was then a member of the King's Men, though scholars have disputed the point. [3]

Andrew Cane — also Kayne, Kene, Keine, and other variants — was a comic actor in late Jacobean and Caroline era London. In his own generation he was a leading comedian and dancer, and one of the famous and popular performers of his time.

The King's Men was the acting company to which William Shakespeare (1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, they became The King's Men in 1603 when King James I ascended the throne and became the company's patron.

The Puritan authorities of London closed the theatres in 1642, at the start of the English Civil War; but the actors continued to perform, when and where they could. Read was among the players arrested on 6 October 1647, during a performance of Beaumont and Fletcher's A King and No King at the Salisbury Court Theatre.

In September 1642 the Long Parliament ordered a closure of the London theatres. The order cited the current "times of humiliation" and their incompatibility with "public stage-plays", representative of "lascivious Mirth and Levity". The ban, which was not completely effective, was reinforced by an Act of 11 February 1648. It provided for the treatment of actors as rogues, the demolition of theatre seating, and fines for spectators.

English Civil War series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists

The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") over, principally, the manner of England's governance. The first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.

Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I of England.

Read's end is mysterious; but his continuing fame is demonstrated by allusions to him, in works from his own and the next generation. In the Praeludium of The Careless Shepherdess (published 1656), one speaker says,

The Careless Shepherdess is a Jacobean era stage play, a pastoral tragicomedy generally attributed to Thomas Goffe. Its 1656 publication is noteworthy for the introduction of the first general catalogue of the dramas of English Renaissance theatre ever attempted.

I never saw Reade peeping through the curtain,
But ravishing joy entered my heart. [4]

The burials of two Read children, a son and daughter, are recorded in the parish records of St. Giles, Cripplegate, in 1645 and 1646. [5]

Related Research Articles

William Rowley was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in the graveyard of St James's, Clerkenwell in north London.

Richard Brome 17th-century English dramatist

Richard Brome ; was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.

William Beeston was a 17th-century actor and theatre manager, the son and successor to the more famous Christopher Beeston.

Beeston's Boys was the popular and colloquial name of The King and Queen's Young Company, a troupe of boy actors of the Caroline period, active mainly in the years 1637–1642.

Prince Charles's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England.

The King's Revels Men or King's Revels Company was a playing company or troupe of actors in seventeenth-century England. In the confusing theatre nomenclature of that era, it is sometimes called the second King's Revels Company, to distinguish it from an earlier troupe with the same title that was active in the 1607-9 period. Since the earlier group was a company of boy actors, they are alternatively referred to as the King's Revels Children, while the later troupe is termed the King's Revels Men.

Andrew Pennycuicke was a mid-seventeenth-century actor and publisher; he was responsible for publishing a number of plays of English Renaissance drama.

John Honyman, also Honeyman, Honiman, Honnyman, or other variants, was an English actor of the Caroline era. He was a member of the King's Men, the most prominent playing company of its era, best known as the company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage.

John Thompson was a noted boy player acting women's roles in English Renaissance theatre. He served in the King's Men, the acting troupe formerly of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage.

Michael Bowyer (1599–1645) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He spent most of his maturity with Queen Henrietta's Men, but finished his career with the King's Men. With the former company, he was one of "those of principal note," according to James Wright's Historia Histrionica (1699), one of the troupe's "eminent actors."

Richard Gunnell was an actor, playwright, and theatre manager in Jacobean and Caroline era London. He is best remembered for his role in the founding of the Salisbury Court Theatre.

William Robbins, also Robins, Robinson, or Robson, was a prominent comic actor in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. During the English Civil War he was a captain in the Royalist army and was killed during the Siege of Basing House.

Hugh Clark was a prominent English actor of the Caroline era. He worked in both of the main theatre companies of his time, Queen Henrietta's Men and the King's Men.

William Allen was a prominent English actor in the Caroline era. He belonged to both of the most important theatre companies of his generation, Queen Henrietta's Men and the King's Men.

Anthony Turner was a noted English actor in the Caroline era. For most of his career he worked with Queen Henrietta's Men, one of the leading theatre companies of the time.

William Wintershall, also Wintersall or Wintersell, was a noted seventeenth-century English actor. His career spanned the difficult years of mid-century, when English theatres were closed from 1642 to 1660, during the English Civil War and the Interregnum.

Ellis Worth, or Woorth, was a noted English actor in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He was a leading member of two important companies, Queen Anne's Men and Prince Charles's Men.

Alexander Gough, also Goughe or Goffe, was an English actor in the Caroline era. He started out as a boy player filling female roles; during the period of the English Civil War and the Interregnum (1642–1660) when the theatres were closed and actors out of work, Gough became involved in the publication of plays.

References

  1. ↑ Edwin Nunzeger, A Dictionary of Actors and of Others Associated with the Representation of Plays in England before 1642, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1929; pp. 291-2.
  2. ↑ Matthew Steggle, Richard Brome: Place and Politics on the Caroline Stage, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2004; p. 121.
  3. ↑ G. E. Bentley, "Records of Players in the Parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate," Papers of the Modern Language Association, Vol. 44 No. 3 (September 1929), pp. 789-826; see p. 817.
  4. ↑ R. A. Foakes, "Playhouses and players," in The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama, A. R. Braunmiller and Michael Hattaway, eds., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003: p. 45.
  5. ↑ Bentley, p. 816.
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.