Thomas Betterton : the greatest actor of the Restoration stage / David Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, David, 1960-

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Betterton, Thomas, 1635?-1710.

Betterton, Thomas.

Actors--Great Britain--Biography.

Actors.

Great Britain.

English drama--Restoration, 1660-1700.

English drama.

English drama--Restoration.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 258 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Summary:

"Restoration London's leading actor and theatre manager Thomas Betterton has not been the subject of a biography since 1891. He worked with all the best-known playwrights of his age and with the first generation of English actresses; he was intimately involved in the theatre's responses to politics, and became a friend of leading literary men such as Pope and Steele. His innovations in scenery and company management, and his association with the dramatic inheritance of Shakespeare, helped to change the culture of English theatre. David Roberts's entertaining study unearths new documents and draws fresh conclusions about this major but shadowy figure. It contextualizes key performances and examines Betterton's relationship to patrons, colleagues and family, as well as to significant historical moments and artefacts. The most substantial study available of any seventeenth-century actor, Thomas Betterton gives one of England's greatest performing artists his due on the tercentenary of his death"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Look my lord, it comes: Betterton's Hamlet

An obstinately shadowy Titan: Betterton in biography

An actor of London: early years, 1635-1659

A walk in the park: Betterton and the scene of comedy

In the Duke's Company, 1660-1663

Equal with the highest: Thomas Betterton and Henry Harris, 1663-1668

Actor management: running the Duke's Company

In the company of the Duke: Betterton and Catholic politics in the 1670s

Union: Betterton and theatrical monopoly, 1682-1695

Back to the future: breakaway to semi-retirement

Books and pictures: Betterton and the Chandos portrait.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780521195843

0521195845

OCLC:

544474656

Online:

Cover image