Cast
Only five cast lists survive for the whole history of Queen Henrietta's Men. (The others are for Hannibal and Scipio, King John and Matilda, The Renegado, and The Wedding.) The 1631 quarto is unusual in that it provides cast lists for the productions of both parts by Queen Henrietta's Men. The actors and the parts they played were:
| Actor | Role, Pt. 1 | Role, Pt. 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Hugh Clark | Bess Bridges | Bess Bridges |
| Michael Bowyer | Mr. Spencer | Mr. Spencer |
| Richard Perkins | Mr. Goodlack | Mr. Goodlack |
| William Allen | Mullisheg | Mullisheg |
| William Robbins | Clem | Clem |
| William Shearlock | Roughman | Roughman |
| Robert Axell | English Merchant | Duke of Mantua |
| Anthony Turner | Kitchenmaid | Bashaw Alcade |
| Christopher Goad | Forset; Spanish Captain | Forset; Duke of Ferrara |
| Theophilus Bird | ... | Tota |
| John Sumner | ... | Duke of Florence |
| William Wilbraham | Bashaw Alcade | ... |
Hugh Clark, the actor who played the title character, specialized in female roles as a youth — he played the female lead in the company's production of James Shirley's The Wedding c. 1626 — before graduating to adult male roles, a transition common for boy actors of the period. His age at the time he played Bess Bridges is unknown, though apparently he had already been married for several years by that point in his career.
Read more about this topic: The Fair Maid Of The West
Famous quotes containing the word cast:
“Nothing is so foolish, they say, as for a man to stand for office and woo the crowd to win its vote, buy its support with presents, court the applause of all those fools and feel self-satisfied when they cry their approval, and then in his hour of triumph to be carried round like an effigy for the public to stare at, and end up cast in bronze to stand in the market place.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“For those who are base in judgement do not know the good they hold in their hands until they cast it off.”
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)