The Wives' Excuse

Southerne, Thomas; Jordan, Robert F; Love, Harold

doi:10.1093/oseo/instance.00024757

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Damn me, cries one, had I been Betterton "For without Vanity, I'm better known" And struts, and cocks, I know what I had done: She should not ha' got clear of me so soon. 74 Southerne creates the audience member who is imaginatively entering into the character of the lover in order to complete the adulterous activity of the plot and, more significantly, entering into the actorly persona of Betterton, who "struts and cocks" and whose success in rakish roles would have cued the expectation of adultery. Here is a commentary on Betterton, although admittedly in a rather clichéd form, as a performer who struts and swaggers on stage.…”

Section: "Grunting Like Betterton": Style and The Individualmentioning

confidence: 99%

“For Without Vanity, I'm Better Known”: Restoration Actors and Metatheatre on the London Stage

Milling¹

2011

Theat Surv

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When Samuel Pepys heard Nell Gwyn and Elizabeth Knipp deliver the prologue to Robert Howard'sThe Duke of Lerma, he recorded the experience in his diary: “Knepp and Nell spoke the prologue most excellently, especially Knepp, who spoke beyond any creature I ever heard.” By 20 February 1668, when Pepys noted his thoughts, he had known Knipp personally for two years, much to the chagrin of his wife. He had met Knipp backstage and in the audience of the two playhouses. He knew her family and they shared a social circle; he had sung with her in domestic and social settings. Pepys had had much experience of Elizabeth Knipp's quotidian language and conversational mode of speech. The prologue, which offered the not-yet-in-role Nell Gwyn and the costumed Mrs. Knipp preparing for the play, begins in prose before breaking into bouncing rhyme to end more conventionally. Mrs. Knipp might seem to appear here as herself, yet Pepys eulogizes Knipp's speaking of the prologue as a theatrical experience. He does not compare her onstage performance of apparently natural speech to quotidian conversation nor does he talk of her acting. Rather, he judges it as an oratorical performance against other stage performances: she “spoke beyond any creature I ever heard.” This article explores what theperformanceof the prologues and epilogues in the newly established duopoly of Restoration London theatres can reveal about how performers were known and represented, and what they tell us about the increasing individuation of those performers and the implications of this for acting and acting style.

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Section: "Grunting Like Betterton": Style and The Individualmentioning

confidence: 99%