Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) was the son of an eminent and wealthy judge. His family included recusants on both sides. He was born in Leicestershire, and educated at Oxford, before moving on to the Inns of Court in 1600. He became associated with Ben Jonson and the Mermaid theatre, although Jonson is reported to have said “Beaumont loved too much himself and his own verses”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 15th, 2011 | Filed under: The Play | Tags: John Fletcher, The Play | No Comments »
Philip Massinger (1583-1640) was the son of an MP who was steward to the Earl of Pembroke. He was born at or near the Pembroke seat at Wilton near Salisbury, and educated at Oxford until 1606. It is not known when he began to write but in 1620 John Taylor noted him as a well-known playwright. He wrote with various playwrights, but he collaborated mainly with John Fletcher after Francis Beaumont ceased to write. After Fletcher’s death Massinger carried on as chief writer for the King’s Men, until his death in 1640 in Bankside. He is reputed to have been buried in the same grave is Fletcher. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 15th, 2011 | Filed under: The Play | Tags: John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, The Play | No Comments »
William Godwin (1756-1836) was at the centre of the radical intellectual and political life of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Godwin’s wife was Mary Wollstonecraft, their daughter Mary Shelley and his son-in-law Percy Shelley. He was also linked to most important figures in British cultural history feature, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge (another admirer of the play), Charles James Fox, William Hazlitt, Charles and Mary Lamb, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and William Wordsworth, Godwin’s diary runs from 6 April 1788 and until 26 March 1836 and includes several references to The Beggars Bush play, which Godwin read on several occasions, though there is no record that he saw it at the theatre. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 15th, 2011 | Filed under: The Play | Tags: The Play | No Comments »
This does not purport to be complete. All are in London except where stated. The list does not include Francis Kirkman‘s The Lame Commonwealth.
In addition a propmpt copy of the play survives, for which. see F. Bowers, ‘Beggars Bush: a reconstructed prompt-book and its copy’, Studies in Bibliography, 27 (1974) 113-136.
See also the Performance History. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 15th, 2011 | Filed under: The Play | Tags: The Play | No Comments »
The Beggars Bush play is important for the both the maintenance and the distribution of the phrase, and therefore its availability as a place name. The text was available not only as a printed source, for which see the Publication History and for example, William Godwin, but also in manuscript form. Although the play is now forgotten it was widely performed, both in London and the provinces. Records of early performances of plays are fragmentary and incomplete; they depend on the chance survival of ephemeral records. When playbills were published and then plays advertised in newspapers records become better for London. We know that plays were performed in the provinces, initially by the main London companies when on tour or when the theatres in London were closed, and then by provincial companies. Even when performed in new editions the play playbills still showed The Beggars Bush. I have compiled a Chronology of Performances, available below. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 15th, 2011 | Filed under: The Play | Tags: Francis Kirkman, The Lame Commonwealth, The Play | No Comments »
A restaurant at 48 Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, M21 9EG.
A review says that it is names after the owner/head chefs brother’s “little beach cafe” in Ubud, Bali.
This has since closed. I hope the proprietors did not find themselves at Beggars Bush.
Posted: May 12th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Chorlton cum Hardy, Lancashire, Manchester, Ubud | No Comments »
Beggars Bush is north west of the junction of the A329 and B383 at Sunninghill, formerly known as the Cannon Crossroads (also Silwood Crossways or Cannon Corner), home of The Cannon pub (currently the Piazza Italian restaurant). It is now beneath the Science Park on the eastern edge of the Silwood Park campus of Imperial College, London. Silwood is the same name as Selwood Forest, at the bounds of which were several Beggars Bush sites in Somerset. The location is consistent with the derogatory explanation for the name. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 8th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Ascot Heath, Berkshire | No Comments »
The only source I have this for is Field, J., English Field-Names; A Dictionary, Newton Abbott, 1993, p.17. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 8th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Ashchurch, Gloucestershire | No Comments »
Between A380 Ashcombe, and A38 Chudleigh, north of Newton Abbott, at the SW corner of Haldon Forest. Described at Geograph as “a notoriously dangerous bend on the northbound carriageway of the Newton-Exeter road, this is now a junction of country lanes at the end of Haldon Forest”. The photograph shows a wooded area. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 8th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Ashcombe, Devon, Toll | 1 Comment »
The Tithe Survey includes Plot Number 21 in the Parish of Baginton, Coventry.
Area : 9 Acres, 1 Rood, 20 Perches).
State of Cultivation : not given.
Landowner : Revd Walter Davenport Bromley.
Occupier : Thomas Newbold.
Source
Warwickshire Record Office CR0569/15
Posted: May 8th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Baginton, Warwickshire | No Comments »
