John Lacy

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This text was copied from Wikipedia on 19 March 2023 at 5:10AM.

Triple portrait of John Lacy by John Michael Wright, 1668-70. Lacy is in three of his most celebrated roles. From left to right: the lead from Sauny the Scot: or The Taming of The Shrew (Lacy's own adaptation from Shakespeare performed at the Theatre Royal in 1667); Monsieur Device from The Country Chaplain (by the Duke of Newcastle); and Parson Scruple from The Cheats (by John Wilson).

John Lacy (c. 1615? – 17 September 1681) was an English comic actor and playwright during the Restoration era. In his own time he gained a reputation as "the greatest comedian of his day"[1] and was the favourite comic of King Charles II.

Life

Lacy was born in or near Doncaster; in 1631 he became an apprentice of John Ogilby, when Ogilby was functioning as what was then called a "dancing master"—roughly the equivalent of a modern dance teacher and choreographer. Lacy's stage career began by 1639, when he was a member of Beeston's Boys.

Lacy joined the royalist forces in the English Civil War, and was commissioned an officer (lieutenant and quartermaster). After the English Interregnum period, once Charles II returned to the throne and the London theatres re-opened, Lacy became an actor with the newly formed King's Company.[2]

Lacy quickly evolved into a popular comedian; Samuel Pepys admired and enjoyed his work, as he recorded in his Diary. On 21 May 1662, Pepys saw Lacy in as the title character in a play called The French Dancing-Mistress; on the next day he saw Lacy as Johnny Thump in James Shirley's Love in a Maze. On 12 June 1663 Pepys saw Lacy in Sir Robert Howard's The Committee, and praised Lacy's acting in the role of the Irish footman Teague as "beyond imagination;" on 13 August 1667, Pepys saw the same play, and called Lacy's part "so well performed that it would set off anything." Pepys saw Lacy in his own Sauny the Scot on 9 April 1667.[3]

Lacy was also known for the role of Galliard in the Duke of Newcastle's play The Variety, and Scruple in John Wilson's The Cheats. He played roles in Ben Jonson's comedies: Ananias in The Alchemist, Captain Otter in Epicene, and Sir Politic Would-Be in Volpone. According to Sir George Etheredge, Lacy was the lover of Nell Gwyn along with the King's Company star Charles Hart.[4] After a serious illness in 1668, Lacy recovered and returned to the stage, though he performed less often than before.

Plays

Lacy is credited with the authorship of four plays:

  • Sauny the Scot (acted 1667; printed 1698)
  • The Dumb Lady, or The Farrier Made Physician (printed 1672)
  • The Old Troop, or Monsier Ragou (printed 1672)
  • Sir Hercules Buffoon, or The Poetical Squire (printed 1684).

Lacy was more of an adapter than an original artist, however (a not-unusual trait among Restoration dramatists). Sauny the Scot is a prose version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. In Lacy's version, Grumio becomes Sauny, a clown who dominates the play, and a role played by Lacy himself.[5] Sir Hercules Buffoon draws upon Philip Massinger's The City Madam and A New Way to Pay Old Debts. The Dumb Lady derives from Molière's Le Médecin malgré lui.

Trouble

His popularity with Charles II did not prevent Lacy from getting into significant trouble at one point in his career. On 15 April 1667 Pepys saw Lacy play in The Change of Crowns, by Edward Howard. The King and Queen were in the audience, along with the Duke of York and his Duchess, and "all the Court". During the performance, Lacy improvised some lines about corruption at Court and the selling of offices. The King was so angry that he had the company banned from performing; and Lacy was incarcerated. Lacy was released on 20 April and had a confrontation with "Ned" Howard; Lacy unreasonably blamed Howard for the trouble he had got himself into with the King. The two theatre men came to blows: Howard hit Lacy in his face with a glove, and Lacy responded by striking Howard over the head with his cane.[6]

The actors prevailed upon the King to allow them to return to the stage, and Lacy was soon forgiven.

Notes

  1. ^ Fox, p. 105.
  2. ^ See Maidment and Logan's edition of Lacy's Works, Prefatory Memoir, p. xi.
  3. ^ Maidment and Logan, pp. xi-xii.
  4. ^ Maidment and Logan, p. xvii.
  5. ^ Halliday, pp. 270, 484.
  6. ^ Maidment and Logan, pp. xii-xiii.

References

  • Fox, Adam. Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500–1700. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
  • Lacy, John. The Dramatic Works of John Lacy. edited by James Maidment and W. H. Logan; Edinburgh, William Paterson, 1875.

External links

5 Annotations

First Reading

Wim van der Meij  •  Link

Warrington has this: "Lacy had been brought up a dancingmaster. He afterwards procured a lieutenant's commission in the army, which he soon quitted for the stage, and was the author of four plays. He died 1681 and was buried in the churchyard of St. Martin-in-the-fields.

JWB  •  Link

John Lacy, The Restoration Drama
Dramatic Works:

"The Dumb Lady, or the Farrier Made Physician. A comedy. 1672.

The Old Troop, or Monsieur Ragout. A comedy acted at the Theatre Royal, 1672, 1698.

Sir Hercules Buffoon, or the Poetical Squire. A comedy acted at the Duke

in Aqua scripto  •  Link

According to L&M an Actor who specialised in Accents, played Teague in yesterdays [12 june] play

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

LACY, JOHN (d. 1681), dramatist and comedian; attached to Charles II's (Killigrew's) company of actors; his acting commended by Pepys and Evelyn; his best play 'The Old Troop, or Monsieur Raggou,' written before 1665 (printed, 1672); the original Bayes of the 'Rehearsal,' 1671.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1662

1663

1666

1667

1668

1669