Margaret Hughes
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Margaret Hughes (May 29, 1630 – February 6, 1685) is often credited as the first professional actress on the English stage.[1]
The occasion of her first performance was on December 8, 1660, in a production of Shakespeare's play Othello, when she played the role of Desdemona in a production by Thomas Killigrew's new King's Company at their Vere Street theatre.[2]
"First actress"
Hughes's status as the first professional actress in England is not beyond dispute; claims have been made for Anne Marshall, another early actress in Killigrew's King's Company. Margaret Hughes possesses the most substantial amount of evidence in her favor. Her name also appears in a cast list for Othello nine years later in 1669.
Gender and acting
Women were almost exclusively banned from appearing as actresses on the stage up until approximately 1660. Embarrassing incidents could occur for male actors in female roles. A famous incident occurred when a play which Charles II was watching suddenly stopped. When he sent servants to see what the problem was it was found that the male that was supposed to play one of the female parts was still shaving.
Once women began appearing professionally on the stage in the early 1660s, they won quick acceptance. Thomas Killigrew staged an all-female-cast production of his own play The Parson's Wedding in 1664, and again in 1672.
Hughes certainly played Desdemona in the performance of Othello seen by Samuel Pepys on 6 February 1669. She also played:
- St. Catherine in John Dryden's Tyrannick Love
- Panura in John Fletcher's The Island Princess.
She probably played:
- Theodocia in Dryden's An Evening's Love
- Angellina in James Shirley's The Sisters.
Hughes left the stage for Prince Rupert (see below) in 1669 or 1670. In 1676 she emerged from retirement for one busy year with the Duke's Company. For that company, she played:
- Octavia in Edward Ravenscroft's The Wrangling Lovers
- Gerana in Elkanah Settle's Pastor Fido
- Mirva in Settle's Ibrahim
- Mrs. Moneylove in Thomas Rawlins's Tom Essence
- Charmion in Sir Charles Sedley's Antony and Cleopatra
- Valeria in Aphra Behn's The Rover
- Leonora in Thomas Porter's The French Conjurer
- Cordelia in Thomas d'Urfey's A Fond Husband.[3]
Personal life
It was rumoured that she was a lover of Sir Charles Sedley (who has been characterized as a "famous fop") in the 1660s; she was reportedly also involved with Charles II himself, if only briefly. She later lived with Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland (sometimes known as "Rupert of the Rhine") as his morganatic wife; they had a daughter named Ruperta. Prince Rupert's older brother, Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine, once sounded out Rupert as to his willingness to return to the Rhineland and marry appropriately. Rupert chose to stay with Margaret and Ruperta. Margaret (known as 'Peg') continued to act even after Ruperta's birth, with the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre (near the Strand in London). After Rupert's death, Margaret sold a necklace he had given to her to Nell Gwyn, for 4000 guineas. She reportedly had a significant gambling habit — which was a common trait in her era.
In Literature and Drama
A one-act play about Margaret Hughes, titled The First Actress, was performed in 1911, at the Kingsway Theatre in London, by a group of suffragette actresses who called themselves the Pioneer Players. Ellen Terry played Nell Gwyn in this production.
Jeffrey Hatcher wrote a play about Edward Kynaston titled Compleat Female Stage Beauty (2000), and later adapted his play for the 2004 film Stage Beauty, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Claire Danes as Margaret.
Portrait
Notes
- ^ The national qualification is essential. The earliest kabuki performers in Japan in 1603 were women. An Italian actress was reported as early as 1565-6; see Rennert, Spanish Stage, p. 140. Thomas Coryate, in Coryate's Crudities, noted actresses in Venice in 1611; see Halliday, Shakespeare Companion, p. 22. For amateur precedents, see: Tempe Restored; The Shepherd's Paradise.
- ^ Halliday, Shakespeare Companion, p. 347.
- ^ Wilson, p. 149.
References
- Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
- Rennert, Hugo Albert. The Spanish Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega. Hispanic Society of America, 1909.
- Thomson, Peter, et al., eds. The Cambridge History of British Drama. 3 Volumes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- Wilson, John Harold. All the King's Ladies: Actress of the Restoration. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1958.
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