"Recordings and was nominated in 2010 for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Volpone Volpone (Italian for ""sly fox"") is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is ranked among the finest Jacobean era comedies. Volpone ""(The Fox)"" is a Venetian gentleman who pretends to be on his deathbed after a long illness in order to dupe Voltore ""(The Vulture)"", Corbaccio ""(The Raven)"" and Corvino ""(The Crow)"", three men who aspire"
"18th century. Richard Steele mentions a performance in a 1709 edition of ""Tatler"". Famous eighteenth-century Volpones included James Quin; famous Moscas included Charles Macklin. Colley Cibber played Corvino in his productions; his wife Katherine Shore played Celia, as later did Elizabeth Inchbald. As with many other Jacobean plays, Volpone had lost its appeal before the end of the 18th century. Earlier in the century, critics had complained about the improbability of the fifth act, frequently likened to farce, and to Jonson's highly Latinate language. An updated version by George Colman the Elder failed at Drury Lane in 1771. By the"
"contemporary medical theory, though the stock types of Latin literature were an equal influence. Jonson's major plays include ""Volpone"" (1605 or 1606) and ""Bartholomew Fair"" (1614). A popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play, which had been popularised earlier in the Elizabethan era by Thomas Kyd (1558–94), and then subsequently developed by John Webster (1578–1632) in the 17th century. Webster's most famous plays are ""The White Devil"" (1612) and ""The Duchess of Malfi"" (1613). Other revenge tragedies include ""The Changeling"" written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnet, which made significant"
"English drama include the Jewish moneylender Shylock in William Shakespeare's ""The Merchant of Venice"" (1598) and the title character of Ben Jonson's ""Volpone"" (1606). In Aubrey Beardsley's title page for the latter, Volpone is shown worshiping his possessions, in illustration of the lines from the play, ""Dear Saint, / Riches, the dumb god that giv'st all men tongues."" A similar scene takes place in the second act of Alexander Pushkin's short tragedy ""Skupoi rytsar"" (1836). This concerns a son, Albert, kept short of funds by his father, the Baron. Under the title The Miserly Knight, it was made an opera"
"Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson (""c"". 11 June 1572 – ""c"". 16 August 1637) was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays ""Every Man in His Humour"" (1598), ""Volpone, or The Fox"" (c. 1606), ""The Alchemist"" (1610) and ""Bartholomew Fair"" (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry; he is generally regarded as the second most important English playwright during the reign of James VI and I after William Shakespeare. Jonson was a classically"
"the event, Voltore, Corbaccio, Corvino, Mosca and Volpone himself finally are punished. The play appeared in quarto in early 1607, printed by George Eld for publisher Thomas Thorpe. The quarto contains Jonson's dedication to Oxford and Cambridge, as well as a great number of commendatory verses, in English and Latin, by fellow-poets such as Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Its next appearance was in the folio of 1616, and the latter, presumably having been subject to Jonson's careful review, forms the basis of most modern editions. The play premiered at the Globe Theatre in Spring 1606. It was performed by"
"people. William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the ""Bard of Avon"". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon,"
"known for his satirical plays, particularly ""Volpone"", ""The Alchemist"", and """". He was also often engaged to write courtly masques, ornate plays where the actors wore masks. Ben Jonson's aesthetics have roots in the Middle Ages as his characters are based on the theory of humours. However, the stock types of Latin literature were an equal influence. Jonson therefore tends to create types or caricatures. However, in his best work, characters are ""so vitally rendered as to take on a being that transcends the type"". He is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. Jonson's famous comedy ""Volpone"" (1605"
"include ""Volpone"" (1605 or 1606)) and ""Bartholomew Fair"" (1614). Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the popular comedy, ""The Knight of the Burning Pestle"" (probably 1607–08), a satire of the rising middle class. Another popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play, which was popularized in the Elizabethan era by Thomas Kyd (1558–1594), and then further developed later by John Webster (?1578–?1632), ""The White Devil"" (1612) and ""The Duchess of Malfi"" (1613). Other revenge tragedies include ""The Changeling"" written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. George Chapman (c. 1559 – c. 1634)"
"William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the ""Bard of Avon"". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire."
"Mérope "" Mérope "" (full title "" La Mérope Française "") is a tragedy in five acts by Voltaire. The text is a reworking by Voltaire of the Italian tragedy ""Merope"" (1713) by Scipione Maffei, dating from 1736/1737. The play premiered in 1743 and first appeared in print in 1744. Scipione Maffei worked the classical story into his tragedy (it) """" in 1713. Voltaire met Maffei in Paris in 1733 and secured his agreement that it should be adapted into a French tragedy. Voltaire decided to premiere it only after the staging of his tragedy Mahomet, although he had completed"
"Robert Davenport (dramatist) Robert Davenport (fl. 16231639) was an English dramatist of the early seventeenth century. Nothing is known of his early life or education; the title pages of two of his plays identify him as a ""Gentleman,"" though there is no record of him at either of the two universities or the Inns of Court. Scholars have guessed that he was born c. 1590; if, as some scholars think, he wrote the Address ""To the knowing Reader"" in the first quarto of ""King John and Matilda,"" he was still alive in 1655. He enters the historical record in 1624,"
"Oedipus (Voltaire play) Oedipus () is a tragedy by the French dramatist and philosopher Voltaire that was first performed in 1718. It was his first play and the first literary work for which he used the pen-name Voltaire (his real name was François-Marie Arouet). Voltaire completed the play in 1717 during his 11-month imprisonment. In a letter of 1731 Voltaire wrote that when he wrote the play he was ""full of my readings of the ancient authors [...] I knew very little of the theater in Paris."" In adapting Sophocles' Athenian tragedy ""Oedipus Rex"", Voltaire attempted to rationalise the plot"
"Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty. His plays offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values, and conflicts of the emerging middle classes. Though he wrote in French and Italian, his plays make rich use of the Venetian language, regional vernacular, and colloquialisms. Goldoni also wrote under the pen name and title ""Polisseno"
"was ""a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and scorner of others"". On returning to England, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Oxford University. The period between 1605 and 1620 may be viewed as Jonson's heyday. By 1616 he had produced all the plays on which his present reputation as a dramatist is based, including the tragedy ""Catiline"" (acted and printed 1611), which achieved limited success and the comedies ""Volpone"" (acted 1605 and printed in 1607), ""Epicoene, or the Silent Woman"" (1609), ""The Alchemist"" (1610), """" (1614) and ""The Devil is an Ass"" (1616)."
"Le Couvreur and Quinault-Dufresne and remained in the répertoire of Comédie-Française until 1852. Oedipus (Voltaire play) Oedipus () is a tragedy by the French dramatist and philosopher Voltaire that was first performed in 1718. It was his first play and the first literary work for which he used the pen-name Voltaire (his real name was François-Marie Arouet). Voltaire completed the play in 1717 during his 11-month imprisonment. In a letter of 1731 Voltaire wrote that when he wrote the play he was ""full of my readings of the ancient authors [...] I knew very little of the theater in Paris."""
"quella / del Philosopho Inglese dell' istesso autore."" (This symphony serves as a companion to the ""English Philosopher"" by the same author."") The English Philosopher or ""II filosofo inglese,"" was a play written in 1754 by Carlo Goldoni. It was performed at Vienna's Karntnerthortheater in December 1764 in German translation under the title ""Die Philosophinnen, oder Hannswurst, der Cavalier in London zu seinen Unglücke,"" and featured two mock-Quakers as characters. The provenance of Symphony no. 49 is likely also to have originated as a theatrical piece for a German translation of Nicolas Chamfort's popular play ""La jeune indienne"" which also"
"of Edmonton"", ""Captain Thomas Stukeley"" and ""A Warning For Fair Women"". William Haughton William Haughton (died 1605) was an English playwright in the age of English Renaissance theatre. During the years 1597 to 1602 he collaborated in many plays with Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, John Day, Richard Hathwaye and Wentworth Smith. Most of what little biographical information there is about him is derived from the papers of Philip Henslowe, proprietor of the Rose Theatre. Henslowe's earliest reference to him refers to him as ""young"" Haughton. He wrote all his known dramatic work for Henslowe, for production by the Admiral's Men"
"inspired and describing it as a new kind of spectacle. Dorothea Celesia produced an adaptation of ""Tancrède"" in English under the title ""Almida"" which was staged at Drury Lane in 1771. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published a German translation in 1802 and Gioacchino Rossini made his great international breakthrough with his opera ""Tancredi"" in 1813, inspired by Voltaire's tragedy. The play was printed by Prault in 1760, together with a dedication by Voltaire to Madame de Pompadour, an admirer of Tasso. This dedication secured the assistance of Madame de Pompadour in ensuring that first minister Étienne-François de Choiseul allowed the"
"William Haughton William Haughton (died 1605) was an English playwright in the age of English Renaissance theatre. During the years 1597 to 1602 he collaborated in many plays with Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, John Day, Richard Hathwaye and Wentworth Smith. Most of what little biographical information there is about him is derived from the papers of Philip Henslowe, proprietor of the Rose Theatre. Henslowe's earliest reference to him refers to him as ""young"" Haughton. He wrote all his known dramatic work for Henslowe, for production by the Admiral's Men and Worcester's Men. (Henslowe's papers refer to Haughton as Hawton, Hauton,"
"Proserpine (play) Proserpine is a verse drama written for children by the English Romantic writers Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary wrote the blank verse drama and Percy contributed two lyric poems. Composed in 1820 while the Shelleys were living in Italy, it is often considered a partner to the Shelleys' play ""Midas"". ""Proserpine"" was first published in the London periodical ""The Winter's Wreath"" in 1832. Whether the drama was ever intended to be staged is a point of debate among scholars. The drama is based on Ovid's tale of the abduction of Proserpine by Pluto, which"
"Fletcher appears to be the majority contributor, Beaumont the minority. Francis Beaumont Francis Beaumont (1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thringstone in Leicestershire, a justice of the common pleas. His mother was Anne, the daughter of Sir George Pierrepont (d. 1564), of Holme Pierrepont, and his wife Winnifred Twaits. Beaumont was born at the family seat and was educated at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford) at age thirteen. Following the death of"
"Richardson's ""Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded"" (1740), Oliver Goldsmith's ""Vicar of Wakefield"" (1766), Laurence Sterne's ""Tristram Shandy"" (1759–67), and Henry Mackenzie's ""The Man of Feeling"" (1771). Significant foreign influences were the Germans Goethe, Schiller and August Wilhelm Schlegel and French philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Edmund Burke's ""A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"" (1757) is another important influence. The changing landscape, brought about by the industrial and agricultural revolutions, was another influence on the growth of the Romantic movement in Britain. In the late 18th century, Horace Walpole's 1764 novel ""The Castle"
"Renaissance. It was adapted by John Dryden in his very successful heroic drama ""Oedipus"", licensed in 1678. The 1718 ""Oedipus"" was also the first play written by Voltaire. A version of Oedipus by Frank McGuinness was performed at the National Theatre in late 2008, starring Ralph Fiennes and Claire Higgins. In 1960, Immanuel Velikovsky (1895–1979) published a book called ""Oedipus and Akhnaton"" which made a comparison between the stories of the legendary Greek figure, Oedipus, and the historic Egyptian King of Thebes, Akhnaton. The book is presented as a thesis that combines with Velikovsky's series Ages in Chaos, concluding through"
"on Walpole would have been clear, but its long run occurred after it moved to Covent Garden, which had a much greater capacity for staging. Part of its satire of opera was that it had all of the words sung, including the recitatives and da capo arias (Gillespie 128). The play itself is very brief on the page, as it relied extensively on absurd theatrics, dances, and other non-textual entertainments. ""The Musical Entertainer"" from 1739 contains engravings showing how the staging was performed (Gillespie 128). From 1737 to 1740, he wrote ""The Musical Century in one Hundred English Ballads"" in"
"widow received a pension from George I in 1719 in recognition of her husband's translation of Lucan. This verse translation, or rather paraphrase of the ""Pharsalia"", was called by Samuel Johnson one of the greatest productions in English poetry, and was widely read, running through eight editions between 1718 and 1807. ""The Ambitious Stepmother"", Rowe's first play, produced in 1700 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields by Thomas Betterton and set in Persepolis, was well received. This was followed in 1701 by ""Tamerlane"". In this play the conqueror Timur represented William III, and Louis XIV is denounced as Bajazet. It was for"
"romanticism and praise of chivalric ideals. Walpole himself was one of the first in England to renovate his mansion into a mock-Gothic castle, Strawberry Hill (1749–1777). Medieval culture was widely admired as an antidote to the modern enlightenment and industrial age. Plays and theatrical works (such as ""Ivanhoe"", which in 1820 was playing in six different productions in London alone) perpetuated the romanticism of knights, castles, feasts and tournaments. Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) of Germany painted magnificent Gothic ruins and spiritual allegories. Jane Austen (1775–1815) wrote her novel ""Northanger Abbey"" (written 1798, published 1817) as a satire on romantic affectation."
"of the great flowerings of drama in England occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of these plays were written in verse, particularly iambic pentameter. In addition to Shakespeare, such authors as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton, and Ben Jonson were prominent playwrights during this period. As in the medieval period, historical plays celebrated the lives of past kings, enhancing the image of the Tudor monarchy. Authors of this period drew some of their storylines from Greek mythology and Roman mythology or from the plays of eminent Roman playwrights such as Plautus and Terence. Restoration comedy refers to English comedies"
"star of William Shakespeare's theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men which became the King's Men on the ascension of James I in 1603. He played the title role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including ""Hamlet"", ""Othello"", ""Richard III"", and ""King Lear"". But he was in great demand and also appeared in the plays of many of the great contemporary writers, such as Ben Jonson (the title role in ""Volpone"", and Subtle in ""The Alchemist""), John Marston (""The Malcontent""), John Webster (""The Duchess of Malfi"") and Beaumont and Fletcher (""The Maid's Tragedy""). Burbage was described as being"
"The Tempest The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–1611, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skillful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to cause his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to believe they are shipwrecked and marooned on the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of"
"through ""Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion"" (1624) and ""The Staple of News"" (1626). Jonson further satirised Jones as ""Colonel Iniquo Vitruvius"" in his 1634 masque ""Love's Welcome at Bolsover."" In addition to the Medlay character, the play features Diogenes Scriben, a bad poet and a pretended descendant of the Classical Diogenes. Commentators have speculated on intended real-life identities for this satirical figure, though no consensus has been achieved. The play is largely written in dialect; scholars have disputed the accuracy of Jonson's efforts in this regard. The plot, which unfolds on St. Valentine's Day, concerns the inept attempts"
"Thomas Jordan (poet) Thomas Jordan (c. 1612–1685) was an English poet, playwright and actor, born possibly in London or Eynsham in Oxfordshire about 1612 or 1614. Jordan was a boy actor in the King's Revels Company, which played at the Salisbury Court and Fortune theatres, and continued with the company as an adult. He is known to have performed the part of Lepida, the mother of Messalina, in Thomas Rawlins's ""Messalina"" (published in 1640) some time between 1634 and 1636. In 1637, Jordan published his earliest known work, ""Poeticall Varieties, or Variety of Fancies"", which shows his theatrical background. It"
"Thomas Jordan (poet) Thomas Jordan (c. 1612–1685) was an English poet, playwright and actor, born possibly in London or Eynsham in Oxfordshire about 1612 or 1614. Jordan was a boy actor in the King's Revels Company, which played at the Salisbury Court and Fortune theatres, and continued with the company as an adult. He is known to have performed the part of Lepida, the mother of Messalina, in Thomas Rawlins's ""Messalina"" (published in 1640) some time between 1634 and 1636. In 1637, Jordan published his earliest known work, ""Poeticall Varieties, or Variety of Fancies"", which shows his theatrical background. It"