George Powell

George Powell (1668? - 1714) was a 17th century London actor and playwright who was a member of the United Company.

He wrote a misogynistic play called "The Imposture Defeated; or, A Trick to Cheat the Devil", first performed in September, 1697. This play portrayed the proper treatment of an adulteress as brutal confinement and isolation from others to punish her and prevent the spread of her attitude. It is thought that this play was rushed out as a result of Mr. Powell having seen an as of yet unpublished copy of another playwright's manuscript; Mary Pix's "The Deceiver Deceived". Powell's version was cited by theatre critic Charles Gildon as the inferior version.

George Powell also wrote plays named "Alphonso: King of Naples" first performed December, 1690, "A Very Good Wife" first performed April, 1693, "Bonduca: or, The British Heroine", 1695 , and "The Treacherous Brothers" first performed January, 1690 under his own name. Each of these plays was premièred at London's Theatre Royale. In collaboration with John Verbruggen, he wrote "A new opera called Brutus of Alba: or, Augusta's Triumph", first performed in 1696 at Dorset-Garden, London. All of the works he wrote or co-wrote were tragedies.

When the United Company broke in two in 1694, with the walkout of the senior actors including Thomas Betterton, Elizabeth Barry, and Anne Bracegirdle, it is unlikely that Powell was invited to join them. While he was skilled and experienced, he was also notorious for his bad temper and alcoholism, and the rebel actors probably left him behind with some relief (Milhous). He demonstrated his drinking problem at the première of Vanbrugh's "Relapse" in November 1696, being according to Vanbrugh so drunk as the seducer Worthy that he molested Amanda, the object of his attentions, in a much more physical way than the script provided for. See "The Relapse".

References

*Milhous, Judith (1979). "Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695–1708". Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.
* [http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/english/research/Archive/index.htm Restoration Theatre Song Archive at Monash University, Australia, retrieved July 15, 2005]
* [http://www.unipr.it/arpa/dipling/DL/ECWP_preface.PDF Eighteenth Century Women Playwrights -- Past Masters, retrieved July 15, 2005]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5048 The Literary Encyclopedia, by The Literary Dictionary Company Limited; page for Pix, Mary, retrieved July 15, 2005]
* [http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/EVD/EVD.bib.html English Verse Drama: Bibliography at the University of Chicago, retrieved July 17, 2005]

External links

*Paula R. Backscheider, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22647 ‘Powell, George (1668?–1714)’] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 4 June 2007