121:, Beeston tried to re-establish the Beeston's Boys troupe, despite the official prohibition on theatrical activity. In 1650 he paid £200 for repairs to the Cockpit Theatre and then gathered a group of "prentices and covenant servants to instruct them in the quality of acting and fitting for the stage," as he would testify in a lawsuit a year later. His attempt was not successful, largely due to the continued opposition to professional theatre by the
109:, the London parish where the Cockpit was located, record Beeston's marriages, one under the "Hutchinson" name. Beeston married Margaret Howson on 28 October 1633; "William Hutchinson alias Beeston" married Alice Bowen on 15 July 1642. The parish records also note the christenings and burials of eight Beeston infants from 1637 to 1647.
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to
Beeston in 1652. In the dedication, Kirkman praises Beeston's "instruction, judgment, and fancy" and calls him "the happiest interpreter & judge of our English stage plays...." Of course, Kirkman, just starting his career, wanted things from Beeston – he nominates Beeston "for my patron &
96:
has also been suggested as the offending play). Control of
Beeston's theatres and actors was given to Davenant (in a royal warrant dated 27 June 1640). Davenant, though, was busy with other matters – politics and the coming revolution; Beeston was able to resume his position, sometime in the latter
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Perhaps because of such difficulties, or his responses to them, William
Beeston gained a reputation (justly or not) for unscrupulousness and shady dealing. His use of the alias "Hutchinson" is verified by several sources. (His father had used the Hutchinson name too; perhaps Hutchinson was the
204:, and so helped to pass on traditions about the poet that were current in the theatrical world of his generation – i.e. that Shakespeare "understood Latin pretty well: for he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country", etc.
56:
Upon his father's death in 1638, William
Beeston inherited their theatrical enterprise – though he managed it with much less success than his father had. On 5 May 1640 he was thrown into the
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As for
William Beeston's legacy: he may have been the first manager in the public theatre of his era to use scenery. He was also a source of information for the antiquarian and biographer
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41:
William was brought up in the theatrical world of his father; he became an actor, and also his father's assistant in managing the
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in 1652, and rebuilt it in April 1660; the theatre returned to service when dramatic performances resumed at the start of the
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protector" — and so his praise may be suspect; though his choice of
Beeston as a potential patron is curious, at the least.
134:
61:
341:
336:
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Michael
Shapiro, "The Introduction of Actresses in England: Delay or Defensivess?," in Comensoli and Russell, p. 184.
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era; but the company lasted only for a few years; it was squeezed out of existence by the reigning "duopoly" of the
141:, and his troupe played in the summer of 1660. It did not last, though, and many of its members were absorbed into
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theatres and their associated companies of actors, including the company of younger players colloquially known as
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29:(1606? – 1682) was an English actor and theatre manager, the son and successor to the more famous
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part of 1641 (only to face the closing of the theatres the next year, at the outbreak of the
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133:. William Beeston was able to re-form Beeston's Boys for a time; he received a warrant from
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Martin Butler, "The condition of the theatres in 1642," in
Milling and Thomson, p. 450.
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authorities. Beeston was persistent, however; he gained title to the remains of the
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Prison for a
Beeston's Boys' play, acted the day before, that gave offence to Sir
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Beeston was able to organise a new version of
Beeston's Boys at the start of the
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original family name, and Beeston a pseudonym, a stage name.) The records of
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145:'s new company. Thereafter, Beeston himself resumed acting.
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Third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
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Champaigne, Illinois, University of Illinois Press, 1998.
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That is, excluding the special case of the Stuart court
276:. "Players in the Parish of St. Giles in the Fields."
285:Enacting Gender on the English Renaissance Stage.
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148:(Regarding Beeston's shady reputation, see the
313:Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
280:Vol. 6 No. 22 (April 1930), pp. 149–66.
170:The Loves and Adventures of Clerio and Lozia
19:For other people named William Beeston, see
78:, which satirized several members of Queen
283:Comensoli, Vivana, and Anne Russell, eds.
311:The Cambridge History of British Theatre.
200:. William Beeston was Aubrey's source on
309:Milling, Jane, and Peter Thomson, eds.
82:'s circle of favourites, including Sir
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16:British actor and director (1606–1682)
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304:A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964.
295:The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642.
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347:17th-century English male actors
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21:William Beeston (disambiguation)
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168:dedicated his translation of
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150:1653 suppressed performance
68:. The play was most likely
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342:English theatre directors
337:English male stage actors
306:Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
278:Review of English Studies
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127:Salisbury Court Theatre
107:St. Giles in the Fields
93:The Queen and Concubine
274:Bentley, Gerald Eades
139:Master of the Revels
66:Master of the Revels
229:Bentley, pp. 152–3.
31:Christopher Beeston
135:Sir Henry Herbert
99:English Civil War
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37:Early phase
321:Categories
268:References
159:Claricilla
58:Marshalsea
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47:Red Bull
249:masques
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43:Cockpit
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