shylock – Shakespeare and the Players at Emory University Tue, 11 Aug 2015 19:01:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 124205043 James Young /james-young/ Tue, 11 Aug 2015 19:01:34 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=2021 Read more]]> (1878?-1948)

Young was an American actor who was famous for his Shakespeare roles and lecture on Shakespeare’s works and characters. He appeared in over 30 films from 1909 onward. The NYPL indicates that he was an avid collector of theatrical photographs and perhaps postcards. If you have anymore leads, contact us and let us know!

Here is some valuable information from the New York Public Library. Thanks, Laura Pokalsky, for finding this!

Here is a video clip of Young in an early silent film of Twelfth Night.

James Young as Hamlet, Shylock, and Marc Antony ]]>
2021
Francis G. Peddie /francis-g-peddie/ Mon, 10 Aug 2015 19:22:27 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=1956 Read more]]> Francis G. Peddie as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" ]]> 1956 Arthur Bourchier /arthur-bourchier/ Fri, 31 Jul 2015 18:22:40 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=1657 Read more]]> (1863-1927)

Arthur Bourchier was born in 1863; he attended Oxford University, where through the Oxford University Drama Society he first became interested in the theatre and Shakespeare. His first professional performance in 1889 was in Wolverhampton as Jaques in As You Like It; at the time he was performing with the company of Lillie Langtry.

Bourchier acted in dozens of plays besides his regular roles in Shakespeare, and he played every season; he was still acting as late as 1924, just three years before his death at the age of 63.

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Cardinal Wolsey, Arthur Bourchier as King Henry VIII, and Violet Vanbrugh as Queen Katherine in "Henry VIII" Arthur Bourchier as Macduff in "Macbeth" Laura Cowie as Anne Bullen and Arthur Bourchier as King Henry in "Henry VIII" Arthur Bourchier as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" ]]>
1657
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree /sir-herbert-beerbohm-tree/ Wed, 22 Jul 2015 17:45:19 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=918 Read more]]> (1853-1917)

Born in 1853, Tree’s real name was Herbert Draper Beerbohm. He assumed his famous stage name in the 1870s. After a string of performances, he joined Frank Benson’s company in 1886, where he played Iago before going on to London and the Haymarket Theatre where he eventually became the manager. “He elevated the Haymarket’s status as a Shakespearian playhouse, and his productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor (1889), Hamlet (1892), and Henry IV, Part 1 (1896) earned him recognition not only as an accomplished actor–manager capable of producing a wide range of genres but also as a solid competitor to Henry Irving and the Lyceum Theatre.

“While Tree built Her Majesty’s Theatre’s (opened in 1897) solid reputation on the successful productions of a variety of dramas, he earned his theater the international reputation as the premier playhouse for Shakespeare in Britain during the Edwardian era, and it is for this dedication to the production of Shakespeare that his career was most celebrated. During his twenty-year tenure at Her Majesty’s, he worked indefatigably to popularize Shakespeare with the general theater-going public, and his success is evinced by an impressive production record unmatched by any West End manager: he put on sixteen Shakespeare plays which averaged initial three-month runs, many of them successful enough for periodic revivals during subsequent seasons, and he instituted an annual Shakespeare festival which featured more than two hundred performances by Her Majesty’s Theatre company and other acting corps during its nine-year existence (1905–13). At a time when most theater managers believed that Shakespeare’s plays lacked commercial viability and spelt financial ruin, Tree proved that Shakespeare could be made accessible and appealing to large numbers of patrons.

“Fittingly, his initial Shakespearian production, Julius Caesar, was his first commercial success at Her Majesty’s, and during its six-month run (January 22 to June 10, 1898) it enjoyed 165 consecutive performances and attracted 242,000 spectators.” His next revivals, King John (1899 -1900), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1900), and Henry VIII (1910-11) were also record breakers in their own right. “Most of the Shakespeare revivals at Her Majesty’s enjoyed equally unprecedented runs. Tree succeeded in popularizing Shakespeare with his audiences because he staged the plays in ways that appealed to spectators’ taste for elaborate spectacle and realistic scenery and scenic effects. Working in the tradition of pictorial realism which dominated the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theater, Tree brought this scenographic method to its apogee, staging the most spectacular Shakespearian revivals in British stage history. […]” Tree’s work with Shakespeare also involved four film projects that spanned his career at Her Majesty’s: the opening shipwreck from his 1904-5 revival of The Tempest; a five-scene version of Henry VIII, based on his 1910-11 production featuring himself as Cardinal Wolsey; a 1916 Macbeth, bearing no direct resemblance to his 1911 stage version; and, though not as extensive as the others but certainly the most important historically, three brief segments from his King John revival filmed in 1899—Tree’s initial cinematographic venture and the very first record of Shakespeare on film. His eldest daughter, Viola Tree, was born in 1884.

“Tree excelled in character roles, and was considered by many to be the best character actor of his day. He possessed an exceptional mimetic genius that enabled him to enact a wide range of roles in which he gave each a unique and differing individuality, and he excelled especially in those characters with idiosyncratic and eccentric natures on which he could build strong, vivid parts.” He died in London in 1917 (Oxford Dictionary of National Bibliography).

Here are some audio and video clips of Sir Beerbohm Tree performing Shakespeare.

Beerbohm Tree Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra" Lyn Harding as Domitius Enorbarbus, H.B. Tree as Antony, Norman Forbes as Lepidus, Basil Gill as Octavius Caesar, Julian L'estrange as Sextus Pompeius, and Herbert Grimwood as Menas in "Antony and Cleopatra" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Richard II in "Richard II" Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Cardinal Wolsey in "Henry VIII" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as King John in "King John" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Cardinal Wolsey, Arthur Bourchier as King Henry VIII, and Violet Vanbrugh as Queen Katherine in "Henry VIII" Lily Brayton as The Queen, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Richard II, William Haviland as the Duke of Norfolk, and Oscar Asche as Henry Bolingbroke in "Richard II" Alice Crawford as Charmain, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Mark Antony, and Constance Collier as Cleopatra in "Antony and Cleopatra" Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Macbeth in "Macbeth" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Falstaff in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" Constance Collier as Cleopatra, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Antony, Hugh C. Buckler as Eros, and Alice Crawford as Charmian in "Antony and Cleopatra" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Richard II in "Richard II" Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Cardinal Wolsey in "Henry VIII" Constance Collier and Herbert Beerbohm Tree in "Nero" ]]>
918
Shylock /shylock/ Wed, 22 Jul 2015 17:18:47 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=888 Read more]]> Shylock is a major character in The Merchant of Venice.

Arthur Bourchier as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Robert B. Mantell as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Francis G. Peddie as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Sir Henry Irving as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Charles Doran as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Sir Henry Irving as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Robert B. Mantell as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Sir Henry Irving as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Robert B. Mantell as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" ]]>
888
Robert B. Mantell /robert-b-mantell/ Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:16:35 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=619 Read more]]> (1854-1928)

Mantell was born in Scotland and first appeared on stage in Belfast, Northern Ireland; for a time he used the stage name Robert Hudson, but he reassumed his name Mantell after he joined the company of Helena Modjeska in 1878 and came to the United States. His first professional appearance was at the Theatre Royal in Rockdale in 1876. His first role with Dame Modjeska was as Tybalt in Hamlet at the Leyland Opera House in Albany, New York.

He returned to the UK, but met with little success and went back to the US permanently, where for years he toured with his own company. He was not particularly popular in New York City, so he toured other cities in the country. He was an indefatigable worker—something of a war horse—and he was constantly on the road with this troupe. One way for him to keep a leading actress with this kind of workload was to marry her, which he did four times. He married his last wife, actress Genevieve Hamper, thirty-four years his junior, until his death.

Over the years, Mantell played in Hamlet, Othello (as both Iago and Othello, alongside Hamper’s Desdemona), Romeo & Juliet (alongside Hamper), Richard III, King Lear (a role he especially enjoyed), Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and King John. Despite his failure to excite the critics and public in London and New York, he was a well-respected Shakespearean actor on the road. He also played in eight films between 1896 and 1923. Clarence J. Bulliet wrote his biography, Robert B. Mantell’s Romance, in 1918.

Robert B. Mantell as Lear in "King Lear" Robert B. Mantell as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Robert B. Mantell as Othello and Genevieve Hamper as Desdemona in "Othello" Robert B. Mantell as Richard III in "Richard III" Robert B. Mantell as Brutus in "Julius Caesar" Robert B. Mantell as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Robert B. Mantell as Romeo and Genevieve Hamper as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" Robert B. Mantell as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Robert B. Mantell as Macbeth in "Macbeth" Robert B. Mantell as Macbeth in "Macbeth" Robert B. Mantell as Macbeth in "Macbeth" Robert B. Mantell as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Robert B. Mantell as King Lear in "King Lear" Robert B. Mantell as Brutus in "Julius Caesar" Robert B. Mantell as Brutus in "Julius Caesar" Robert B. Mantell as Lear in "King Lear" Robert B. Mantell as Lear in "King Lear" Robert B. Mantell as Macbeth in "Macbeth" Robert B. Mantell as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" ]]>
619
Sir Henry Irving /henry-irving/ Sun, 19 Apr 2015 19:02:05 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=388 Read more]]> (1838-1905)

Sir Henry Irving was the stage name of John Henry Brodribb, who was born in 1838 and raised in a working-class family. He was one of the most famous British actor-managers and dominated the late Victorian Stage (along with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree). He was born in Somerset but lived in London from the age of ten. It was seeing Samuel Phelps (also a mentor to Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson) playing Hamlet that inspired Irving to take to the stage, and he joined the Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland, in 1856. Irving serves as somewhat of a common ancestor of the majority of the players in our collection and on the site, having mentored Forbes-Robertson and Sir Frank Benson, who himself mentored Beerbohm Tree.

Irving’s breakthrough came with the success of The Bells in 1871, produced at the Lyceum in London. From then on, his personal life took second place to his professional life. On opening night of The Bells, November 25, 1871, Irving’s wife, Florence criticized his profession: “Are you going on making a fool of yourself like this all your life?” Irving got out from their carriage at Hyde Park Corner, walked off into the night and chose never to see her again. Though they never formally divorced, he never married again after this. Their two children were Henry Brodribb, born in 1870, and Laurence, born in 1871. Henry “H. B.” Irving became an accomplished actor-manager in his own right and later a lawyer and writer.

It was after this that Irving took over the lease for this theater, the Lyceum, from Hezekiah Bateman, and Ellen Terry became his leading lady. She was the Ophelia to his Hamlet, the Juliet to his Romeo, the Beatrice to his Benedick, the Portia to his Shylock, the Lady Macbeth to his Macbeth. Together, they were an international sensation, the gold standard of Shakespeare-in-performance, a tour de force. Their air-tight performing relationship reportedly made Bernard Shaw, then a theater critic, jealous. They went into joint management of the Lyceum in 1878. During this period, Irving’s Shylock (shown here) became as renowned as his Hamlet and became the new standard for the Jew’s stage portrayal. He also famously played Iago opposite Edwin Booth’s Othello. In 1892, he memorably played Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII. With the Lyceum company, he and Terry made several hugely successful tours in the US and Canada. As Terry aged, she moved on to solo performances and eventually left the company.

In 1898, he was appointed Rede Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, a position previously held by the likes of Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, J. J. Thompson, and others. His lecturer was called, “The Theater in Relation to the State.”

Irving was the first actor ever to be appointed to knighthood, which he received in 1895. His final Shakespeare performance in London was of Coriolanus, in 1901. He died in Bradford after having a stroke during his final provincial tour in 1905 where he played crowd favorite, Tennyson’s Becket. The chair in which he sat when he died is now on display at the Garrick Club, of which he was a member. He enjoys the distinction of being the first person to ever be cremated prior to internment at Westminster Abbey.

Irving produced his own critical edition of Shakespeare’s works, from a performer’s lens, published as The Henry Irving Shakespeare by Cambridge University Press in 1906. He wrote, in an 1893 issue of The English Illustrated Magazine, that his four favorite parts were Hamlet, Richard III, Iago, and Lear. That same year, Bram Stoker, Irving’s manager and friend, published a two-volume biography titled, Personal Reminisces of Henry Irving. William Archer published a study (1885) of Irving during his lifetime, but the rest came posthumously. There have been many books published about the monumental Sir Irving and his work, even to this day.

Sir Henry Irving as a character in "The Bells" Portrait of Sir Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Statue of Sir Henry Irving as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Sir Henry Irving as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Ellen Terry as Volumnia and Sir Henry Irving as Coriolanus in "Coriolanus" Sir Henry Irving as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Henry Irving as Cardinal Wolsey in "Henry VIII" Sir Henry Irving as Cardinal Wolsey in "Henry VIII" Sir Henry Irving as a character in "Faust" Portrait of Sir Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving as Dante Sir Henry Irving as Dante Sir Henry Irving ]]>
388
Charles Doran /charles-doran/ Sun, 19 Apr 2015 18:20:56 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=378 Read more]]> (1877-1964)

Like so many actors who played Shakespeare, Irish-born Doran made his stage debut with Frank Benson in Belfast’s Theatre Royale in 1899; he had a part in Julius Caesar. The next year, 1900, again with Benson’s company, he first appeared in London at the Lyceum as MacMorris in Henry V. He played with Benson, doing mainly Shakespeare, until he left in 1903 to perform with several different companies. In 1906, he made his first trip to the US with H.B. Irving, and a year later to South Africa with Cora Brown Potter‘s company. In 1908, he toured with Mrs. Patrick Campbell’s company and in 1909-1910, he toured England and Australia with the company of fellow Bensonians Oscar Asche and Lily Brayon. In 1919, Doran performed back in Stratford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo & Juliet, and The Tempest.

With seventeen years experience with various directors and actors, Doran struck out on his own in 1920 and became actor-manager of his own company; he then appeared as practically every major character in most of Shakespeare’s plays.

In 1931, he embarked on yet another path when he went to India to become first the director of Shakespeare’s plays at the State Theatre in Jhalawar and then on to Bombay where he performed primarily in Shakespeare on the radio. He returned to England in 1937, still acting in Shakespeare. His last part was in 1951 as Time in The Winter’s Tale. But he was still active on the stage in other parts until 1954; he even went on to film, where he played one part in 1956.

On stage in one role or another, Doran’s fifty-seven years in the theater made him a major force in the profession, particularly in his productions of Shakespeare. Such was his energy and enthusiasm that he kept alive for a few more years the actor-manager system when the major talents, men like Tree, Benson, and Irving, had dissolved their companies. Doran was indeed the last of his theatrical breed.

Charles Doran as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" Charles Doran as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Charles Doran as Othello in "Othello" Charles Doran as Brutus in "Julius Caesar" Charles Doran as Brutus in "Julius Caesar" ]]>
378