Robert Wilks
Encyclopedia
Robert Wilks was a British
actor
and theatrical manager
who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber
and Thomas Doggett
, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope
and caricatured by William Hogarth
as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition.
The family was based for many generations in Bromsgrove
, Worcestershire
. His great-uncle, Judge Wilks, had served Charles I of England
during the English Civil War
, for whom he raised a troop at his own expense. After Oliver Cromwell
won the civil war, Wilks' father moved to Dublin, where Robert Wilks was born.
He was a clerk to Robert Southwell
until he joined the Williamite
army. As soon as he was discharged from the army, he worked in the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin from 1691—1693. According to Wilks's version of the story, he had first acted when his army company put on an amateur Othello
, and he was so successful that he took up acting as a career. In 1693, Christopher Rich
, manager of Drury Lane, hired him to work in London
. The same year, he married Elizabeth Knapton.
In 1698, he was back in Dublin to perform in George Etherege
plays, and he was so popular that he, according to his story, had to escape to London, and the next year he began his collaboration of George Farquhar
. Farquhar and Wilks were close friends, and the two traveled from Dublin to London together. In 1699, Wilks appeared in Farquhar's The Constant Couple as Harry Wildair. It was a role that became Wilks's signature, and it made him a heartthrob among the young ladies of London. For the rest of his life Harry Wildair would be Wilks's alter ego, and Wilks would appear in the starring roles in Farquhar plays.
At Drury Lane, Christopher Rich ruled the theater with a Machiavellian hand. In 1702, Rich had to choose between Wilks and George Powell, the director of rehearsals. The power struggle went Wilks's way, and Powell left for Lincoln's Inn Fields
while Wilks was promoted to director of rehearsals. This put Wilks in a powerful position within the theater, and when the actor's strike occurred in 1706, Wilks was well placed to win. Rich was accused of taking one third of all the actors' profits, and the leading actors walked out for the Queen's Theatre at the Haymarket (the Haymarket Theatre). Rich, and his son, John Rich
, responded by staging opera
and pantomime
.
At the Haymarket, Wilks was a star. He took the major roles in 1 Henry IV, Hamlet
, Julius Caesar
, and The Way of the World
. He also debuted Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem. In 1709, Wilks, with Cibber, Thomas Doggett, and Anne Oldfield
joined Owen Swiny
in managing the Haymarket. The next year, the group won their struggle and was brought back to Drury Lane, and in 1711 they became the actor-managers of Drury Lane. Thomas Doggett, according to Colley Cibber's somewhat unreliable memoir, forbade any woman being part of the group of managers, and Owen Swiny decided to return to the Haymarket, and so the remaining actor managers formed a "triumvirate." These three managers had profitable and difficult positions, and it is likely that from 1711 to 1714 the shares of the triumvirate never made less than the fantastic sum of £1,000 a year.
In 1713, Barton Booth
replaced Doggett as actor-manager, and in 1714 Richard Steele
joined them and got the theatre a royal patent. This patent allowed the company to present Charles Johnson's
The Country Lasses without a license in 1715, and from then on the patent itself was an extremely valuable commodity. Upon Steele's death in 1729, the three current members of the triumvirate got a one-third share in the patent.
The managers were very busy with the details of production, but they were as busy as actors. Wilks acted one hundred and forty performances in the 1721-2 season, for example, and Wilks rarely toured out of London (with the exception of a single trip to Dublin in 1711). Wilks was one of the mainstays of Drury Lane, both as a manager and, even more, as an attractive male lead. Colley Cibber, whose autobiography portrays himself as a voice of reason and calm, paints Wilks as a vain and tempestuous personality, and it is possible to believe Cibber's complaints about others without believing his praise of himself. Alexander Pope satirized Wilks, along with Cibber and Doggett, in The Dunciad
, both versions. William Hogarth depicted Wilks as a man busy making a pantomime play of a jail break while using scripts for Hamlet as toilet paper. The actor managers responded to the increasing move for "spectacle" plays (see Augustan drama
for context) and quick productions with low costs, and thus the triumvirate, in particular, was frequently satirized for cheapening the stage.
He died in 1732 in London and was buried in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden
. He had made an exceptional amount of money in his life, but, upon his death, he left his second wife virtually nothing except a share in the Drury Lane patent.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and theatrical manager
Actor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the company's business and financial arrangements, sometimes taking over the management of a theatre, to perform plays of their own choice and in which they will usually star...
who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
and Thomas Doggett
Thomas Doggett
Thomas Doggett was an Irish actor.Doggett was born in Dublin, and made his first stage appearance in London in 1691 as Nincompoop in Thomas D'Urfey's Love for Money. In this part, and as Solon in the same author's Marriage-Hater Matched, he became popular...
, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
and caricatured by William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition.
Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England. The town is about north east of Worcester and south west of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 with a small ethnic minority and is in Bromsgrove District.- History :Bromsgrove is first documented in the early 9th century...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
. His great-uncle, Judge Wilks, had served Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, for whom he raised a troop at his own expense. After Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
won the civil war, Wilks' father moved to Dublin, where Robert Wilks was born.
He was a clerk to Robert Southwell
Robert Southwell (diplomat)
Sir Robert Southwell was an English diplomat. He was Secretary of State for Ireland and President of the Royal Society from 1690.-Background and education:...
until he joined the Williamite
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
army. As soon as he was discharged from the army, he worked in the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin from 1691—1693. According to Wilks's version of the story, he had first acted when his army company put on an amateur Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, and he was so successful that he took up acting as a career. In 1693, Christopher Rich
Christopher Rich (theatre manager)
Christopher Rich was a lawyer and theatrical manager in London in the late 17th and early 18th century, and the father of the important impresario John Rich...
, manager of Drury Lane, hired him to work in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The same year, he married Elizabeth Knapton.
In 1698, he was back in Dublin to perform in George Etherege
George Etherege
Sir George Etherege was an English dramatist. He wrote the plays The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub in 1664, She Would if She Could in 1668, and The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter in 1676.-Early life:George Etherege was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, around 1635, to George Etherege and...
plays, and he was so popular that he, according to his story, had to escape to London, and the next year he began his collaboration of George Farquhar
George Farquhar
George Farquhar was an Irish dramatist. He is noted for his contributions to late Restoration comedy, particularly for his plays The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux' Stratagem .-Early life:...
. Farquhar and Wilks were close friends, and the two traveled from Dublin to London together. In 1699, Wilks appeared in Farquhar's The Constant Couple as Harry Wildair. It was a role that became Wilks's signature, and it made him a heartthrob among the young ladies of London. For the rest of his life Harry Wildair would be Wilks's alter ego, and Wilks would appear in the starring roles in Farquhar plays.
At Drury Lane, Christopher Rich ruled the theater with a Machiavellian hand. In 1702, Rich had to choose between Wilks and George Powell, the director of rehearsals. The power struggle went Wilks's way, and Powell left for Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, UK. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes...
while Wilks was promoted to director of rehearsals. This put Wilks in a powerful position within the theater, and when the actor's strike occurred in 1706, Wilks was well placed to win. Rich was accused of taking one third of all the actors' profits, and the leading actors walked out for the Queen's Theatre at the Haymarket (the Haymarket Theatre). Rich, and his son, John Rich
John Rich (producer)
John Rich was an important director and theatre manager in 18th century London. He opened the New Theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields and then the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and began putting on ever more lavish productions...
, responded by staging opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
.
At the Haymarket, Wilks was a star. He took the major roles in 1 Henry IV, Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
, and The Way of the World
The Way of the World
The Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. It premiered in 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London...
. He also debuted Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem. In 1709, Wilks, with Cibber, Thomas Doggett, and Anne Oldfield
Anne Oldfield
Anne Oldfield , English actress, was born in London, the daughter of a soldier.She worked for a time as apprentice to a seamstress, until she attracted George Farquhar's attention by reciting some lines from a play in his hearing...
joined Owen Swiny
Owen Swiny
Owen Swiny was an Irish theatre impressario and art dealer active in London.-Life:Having attended Trinity College, Dublin from 1694, he was working at the Drury Lane Theatre by spring 1703 with Christopher Rich. He also adapted Molière's L'amour médecin as The Quacks, putting it on at the Drury...
in managing the Haymarket. The next year, the group won their struggle and was brought back to Drury Lane, and in 1711 they became the actor-managers of Drury Lane. Thomas Doggett, according to Colley Cibber's somewhat unreliable memoir, forbade any woman being part of the group of managers, and Owen Swiny decided to return to the Haymarket, and so the remaining actor managers formed a "triumvirate." These three managers had profitable and difficult positions, and it is likely that from 1711 to 1714 the shares of the triumvirate never made less than the fantastic sum of £1,000 a year.
In 1713, Barton Booth
Barton Booth
Barton Booth was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century.Booth was from Lancashire and was educated at Westminster School, where his success in the Latin play Andria gave him an inclination for the stage...
replaced Doggett as actor-manager, and in 1714 Richard Steele
Richard Steele
Sir Richard Steele was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator....
joined them and got the theatre a royal patent. This patent allowed the company to present Charles Johnson's
Charles Johnson (writer)
Charles Johnson was an English playwright, tavern keeper, and enemy of Alexander Pope's. He was a dedicated Whig who allied himself with the Duke of Marlborough, Colley Cibber, and those who rose in opposition to Queen Anne's Tory ministry of 1710 - 1714.Johnson claimed to be trained in the law,...
The Country Lasses without a license in 1715, and from then on the patent itself was an extremely valuable commodity. Upon Steele's death in 1729, the three current members of the triumvirate got a one-third share in the patent.
The managers were very busy with the details of production, but they were as busy as actors. Wilks acted one hundred and forty performances in the 1721-2 season, for example, and Wilks rarely toured out of London (with the exception of a single trip to Dublin in 1711). Wilks was one of the mainstays of Drury Lane, both as a manager and, even more, as an attractive male lead. Colley Cibber, whose autobiography portrays himself as a voice of reason and calm, paints Wilks as a vain and tempestuous personality, and it is possible to believe Cibber's complaints about others without believing his praise of himself. Alexander Pope satirized Wilks, along with Cibber and Doggett, in The Dunciad
The Dunciad
The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version was published in 1728 anonymously. The second version, the Dunciad Variorum was published anonymously in 1729. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a...
, both versions. William Hogarth depicted Wilks as a man busy making a pantomime play of a jail break while using scripts for Hamlet as toilet paper. The actor managers responded to the increasing move for "spectacle" plays (see Augustan drama
Augustan drama
Augustan drama can refer to the dramas of Ancient Rome during the reign of Caesar Augustus, but it most commonly refers to the plays of Great Britain in the early 18th century, a subset of 18th-century Augustan literature...
for context) and quick productions with low costs, and thus the triumvirate, in particular, was frequently satirized for cheapening the stage.
He died in 1732 in London and was buried in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. He had made an exceptional amount of money in his life, but, upon his death, he left his second wife virtually nothing except a share in the Drury Lane patent.