Charlotte: Being a True Account of an Actress's Flamboyant Adventures in Eighteenth-Century London's Wild and Wicked Theatrical WorldThe life of actress Charlotte Charke transports us through the splendors and scandals of eighteenth-century London and its wicked theatrical world Her father, Colley Cibber, was one of the eighteenth century's great actor/playwrights-the toast of the British aristocracy, a favorite of the king. When his high-spirited, often rebellious daughter, Charlotte, revealed a fondness for things theatrical, it was thought that the young actress would follow in his footsteps at the legendary Drury Lane, creating a brilliant career on the London stage. But this was not to be. And it was not that Charlotte lacked talent-she was gifted, particularly at comedy. Troublesome, however, was her habit of dressing in men's clothes-a preference first revealed onstage but adopted elsewhere after her disastrous marriage to an actor, who became the last man she ever loved. Kathryn Shevelow, an expert on the sophisticated world of eighteenth-century London (the setting for classics such as Tom Jones and Moll Flanders), re-creates Charlotte's downfall from the heights of London's theatrical world to its lascivious lows (the domain of fire-eaters, puppeteers, wastrels, gender-bending cross-dressers, wenches, and scandalous sorts of every variety) and her comeback as the author of one of the first autobiographies ever written by a woman. Beyond the appealingly unorthodox Charlotte, Shevelow masterfully recalls for us a historical era of extraordinary stylishness, artifice, character, interest, and intrigue. |
Contents
List of Illustrations xi | 1 |
Dress Rehearsal | 9 |
Cibbers 16601712 | 23 |
The Impertinent Intruder 171213 | 44 |
A Passionate Fondness for a Periwig 171720 | 51 |
Educating Charlotte 172027 | 63 |
Laureate 172030 | 78 |
The Provoked Wife 172930 | 95 |
Cordelia or The Art of Management 173536 | 198 |
On the Edge 1736 | 215 |
Bad Acts 1737 | 232 |
Punchs Theatre 173738 | 251 |
Hard Times 173841 | 268 |
Down and Out in London 174144 | 285 |
A Mind to Get Money 174246 | 303 |
A Little Dirty Kind of War 174653 | 319 |
Chambermaids and Pretty Men 173132 | 113 |
Show show show show 1732 | 126 |
Stormy Weather 173233 | 140 |
Mutiny 1733 | 156 |
Wearing the Breeches 173334 | 167 |
Mad Company 173435 | 181 |
The Female Husband 175254 | 333 |
The Prodigal Daughter 175556 | 347 |
Curtain Calls 175760 | 365 |
Note to the Reader | 383 |
407 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actors actress afterpiece Anne Anne Oldfield audience autobiography Bartholomew Fair Barton Booth began Beggar's Opera benefit Booth breeches Brown Caius Gabriel Cibber career cast character Charles Charlotte Charke Charlotte played Charlotte's clothes Colley Cibber Colley's comedy comic court Covent Garden cross-dressing Daily Advertiser Daily Post dancing daughter death despite eighteenth-century Elizabeth farce father female Fielding's Fleetwood Henry Henry Fielding Highmore husband Jane John Katherine King Kitty Kitty Clive Koon Lady Lane's later laureate Licensing Act Lincoln's Inn Fields Little Haymarket lived London Stage Lord lord chamberlain Macklin male manager marriage married Mary mother night onstage pantomime patent performance perhaps players playhouse playwright prison probably prostitutes puppets Richard Robert Wilks role royal satire scene season seems sexual spectators story Street strolling summer Susannah theater theatrical Theo Theo's Theophilus Theophilus Cibber Theophilus's took town tragedy troupe Walpole wife Wilks William woman women wrote young