Works
Taverner is known for the plays he wrote, particularly The Artful Husband , produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 11 February 1717: it ran for 15 nights. It was acted again in May 1721, and was later adapted by George Colman the elder as The Female Chevalier (1778) and William Macready the elder as The Bank Note (1795). Taverner himself borrowed from The Lady of Pleasure by James Shirley, and from The Counterfeit Bridegroom (1677), an adaptation of Thomas Middleton's No Wit, No Help, like a Woman's sometimes attributed to Thomas Betterton. It was reported, too, that he was assisted by Joseph Browne. The play as printed ran through three editions; in the preface Taverner complained of the injustice of John Rich, the patentee of the theatre, towards authors. [1] [2]
A companion comedy, The Artful Wife, appeared at Lincoln's Inn Fields 3 December 1717. It was printed with the date 1718 on the title-page. [1]
Other works were: [1]
- Presumptuous Love, printed without date, in 1716. This was a masque, with music by William Turner. [2]
- Everybody Mistaken , brought out at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 10 March 1716, and acted three times.
- 'Tis Well if it Takes , presented 28 February 1719 at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and ran for five nights.
David Mallet was a Scottish poet and dramatist.
Thomas Nabbes was an English dramatist.
Anne Oldfield was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time.
Lacy Ryan, English actor, appeared at the Haymarket Theatre about 1709.
Joseph Miller was an English actor, who first appeared in the cast of Sir Robert Howard's Committee at Drury Lane in 1709 as Teague.
Charlotte Charke was an English actress, playwright, novelist, and autobiographer. She began acting at the age of seventeen in breeches roles, and took to wearing male clothing off stage as well, performing and being publicly known as "Charles Brown" from 1741. Her later career and her writings were conducted under her own name, "Mrs. Charlotte Charke", and identified her as the daughter of Colley Cibber. After being unsuccessful in a series of jobs associated with men at the time, such as valet, sausage maker, farmer, and tavern owner, she succeeded in her career as a writer and continued her work as a novelist and memoirist until her death in 1760.
Charles Johnson was an English playwright, tavern keeper, and enemy of Alexander Pope's. He was a dedicated Whig who allied himself with the Duke of Marlborough, Colley Cibber, and those who rose in opposition to Queen Anne's Tory ministry of 1710–1714.
Robert Wilks was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope and caricatured by William Hogarth as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition.
Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, the theatre was called Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse, also known as The Duke's Playhouse, The New Theatre or The Opera. The building was rebuilt in 1714, and used again as a theatre for a third period, 1714–1732. The tennis court theatre was the first public playhouse in London to feature the moveable scenery that would become a standard feature of Restoration theatres.
William Bullock was an English actor, "of great glee and much comic vivacity." He played at all the London theatres of his time, and in the summer at a booth at Bartholomew Fair.
William Taverner was an English judge and amateur landscape artist.
Benjamin Griffin (1680–1740), was an English actor and dramatist. He was the son of the Rev. Benjamin Griffin, rector of Buxton and Oxnead in Norfolk, and chaplain to the Earl of Yarmouth.
Thomas Walker (1698–1744) was an English actor and dramatist.
John Harper was an English actor. He was known for comic parts.
Joseph Smith (1670–1756) was an English churchman and academic, Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford, from 1730.
Christopher Bullock (1690–1722) was a British stage actor and dramatist.
Theophilus Keene (1680–1718) was an Anglo-Irish stage actor and theatre manager.
John Mills (c.1670–1736) was a British stage actor. A long-standing part of the Drury Lane company from 1695 until his death, he appeared in both comedies and tragedies. His wife Margaret Mills was an actress, and his son William Mills also became an actor at Drury Lane.
Sir John Darnall was an English lawyer.
Everybody Mistaken is a 1716 comedy play by the British writer William Taverner. The title is also written as Every Body Mistaken. A farce, it is a reworking of The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Taverner, William". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.