Richard Perkins (17th-century actor)
Encyclopedia
Richard Perkins was a prominent early seventeenth-century actor, most famous for his performance in the role of Barabas in Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

's The Jew of Malta
The Jew of Malta
The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably written in 1589 or 1590. Its plot is an original story of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set against a backdrop of the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean that takes place on the...

. At the peak of his career in the 1630s, many contemporaries judged Perkins to be the premier tragedian
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 of his generation.

Nothing is known of Perkins's early life; his birth has been estimated at about 1585, reading backward from the known facts of his biography. His stage career had begun by 1602, when he was a member of Worcester's Men
Worcester's Men
The Earl of Worcester's Men was an acting company in Renaissance England. An early formation of the company, wearing the livery of William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester, is among the companies known to have toured the country in the mid-sixteenth century...

; he remained with that company throughout its next incarnation as Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. -Formation:...

, 1603–19. With the death of Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark was queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bore him three children who survived infancy, including the future Charles I...

 in 1619, the troupe lost its name and patron, but continued in its theatre, and was known as the Red Bull
Red Bull Theatre
The Red Bull was a playhouse in London during the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the northern suburbs, developing a reputation for rowdy, often disruptive audiences...

 company or the Revels company. After a relatively brief stint with the King's Men
King's Men (playing company)
The King's Men was the company of actors to which William Shakespeare belonged through most of his career. Formerly known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it became The King's Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron.The...

, 1623–25, Perkins became a founding member of the new Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.-Beginnings:...

 in 1625
1625 in literature
The year 1625 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The King's Men act Henry IV, Part 1 at Whitehall Palace....

. Perkins remained with that company until the theatres were closed at the start of the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 in 1642, and became their leading man and star.

Perkins achieved his greatest fame as Barabas in the company's 1633
1633 in literature
The year 1633 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*On May 21, Ben Jonson's masque The King's Entertainment at Welbeck is performed....

 revival of The Jew of Malta. He was also involved in most of the troupe's productions during its 1625–42 lifetime, including Heywood's
Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...

 The Fair Maid of the West
The Fair Maid of the West
The Fair Maid of the West, or a Girl Worth Gold, Parts 1 and 2 is a work of English Renaissance drama, a two-part play written by Thomas Heywood that was first published in 1631.-Date:...

(he played Mr. Goodlack), Shirley's
James Shirley
James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...

 The Wedding
The Wedding (1629 play)
The Wedding is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by James Shirley. Published in 1629, it was the first of Shirley's plays to appear in print. An early comedy of manners, it is set in the fashionable world of genteel London society in Shirley's day....

(playing Sir John Belfare) and The Lady of Pleasure
The Lady of Pleasure
The Lady of Pleasure is a Caroline era comedy of manners written by James Shirley, first published in 1637. It has often been cited as among the best, and sometimes as the single best, the "most brilliant," of the dramatist's comic works....

(Sir Thomas Bornwell), Davenport's
Robert Davenport
Robert Davenport was an English dramatist of the early seventeenth century. Nothing is known of his early life or education; the title pages of two of his plays identify him as a "Gentleman," though there is no record of him at either of the two universities or the Inns of Court. Scholars have...

 King John and Matilda
King John and Matilda
King John and Matilda is a Caroline era stage play, a historical tragedy written by Robert Davenport. It was initially published in 1655; the cast list included in the first edition is provides valuable information on some of the actors of English Renaissance theatre.-Performance and publication:No...

(Fitzwater), Nabbes's
Thomas Nabbes
Thomas Nabbes was an English dramatist.He was born in humble circumstances in Worcestershire, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1621...

 Hannibal and Scipio
Hannibal and Scipio
Hannibal and Scipio is a Caroline era stage play, a classical tragedy written by Thomas Nabbes. The play was first performed in 1635 by Queen Henrietta's Men, and was first published in 1637...

(Hanno), and Ford's
John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford was an English Jacobean and Caroline playwright and poet born in Ilsington in Devon in 1586.-Life and work:...

 Love's Sacrifice
Love's Sacrifice
Love's Sacrifice is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633. It is one of Ford's three surviving solo tragedies, the others being The Broken Heart and Tis Pity She's a Whore.-Date:...

(Duke Caraffa).

It was through such plays and roles that Perkins achieved his reputation as "a versatile, self-possessed and graceful actor whose skills would have been well-suited to a private theatre such as the Phoenix." His range of roles included "romantic villain, dignified father, honest plain-spoken old man."

Perkins had a noteworthy connection with the plays of John Webster
John Webster
John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...

. He was in the initial production of The White Devil
The White Devil
The White Devil is a revenge tragedy from 1612 by English playwright John Webster . A notorious failure when it premiered, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication and satire made it a poor fit with the...

in February 1612
1612 in literature
The year 1612 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 6 - Ben Jonson's masque Love Restored is performed.*January 12 - The King's Men and Queen Anne's Men unite for the first of two Court performances in January, with Thomas Heywood's The Silver Age*January 13 - The King's...

, probably in the role of Flamenio. Though the play's premier was a failure, Webster praised Perkins's performance in a note appended to the 1612 first edition of the play:
"...in particular I must remember the well-approved industry of my friend Master Perkins, and confess the worth of his action did crown both the beginning and the end."


Perkins was also in the successful revival production of the play c. 1630, in which he most likely took the role of Brachiano. Webster may have designed the role of Romelio in his The Devil's Law Case
The Devil's Law Case
The Devil's Law Case is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Webster, and first published in 1623.-Date:The play's date of authorship and early performance history is unknown. The events upon which the play is based occurred in 1610, so that the drama must post-date that year...

for Perkins, and may have written the play for the premier of Queen Anne's Men at their new Phoenix playhouse in 1617. (After the Cockpit Theatre
Cockpit Theatre
The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was christened The Phoenix....

 was damaged by rioting apprentices at Shrovetide in spring 1617, manager Christopher Beeston
Christopher Beeston
Christopher Beeston was a successful actor and a powerful theatrical impresario in early 17th century London. He was associated with a number of playwrights, particularly Thomas Heywood.-Early life:...

 had the theatre rebuilt and re-christened the Phoenix. It was for this re-opening that Webster's play may have been intended.)

As with most actors of his era, little in known of Perkins's personal life. His first wife died in 1621; he remarried the same year.

Naturally and inevitably, Perkins's career was severely curtailed by the 1642 closing of the theatres. He was buried on 20 April 1650, in the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

. According to James Wright's Historia Histrionica
Historia Histrionica
Historia Histrionica is a 1699 literary work by James Wright , on the subject of theatre in England in the seventeenth century. It is an essential resource for information on the actors and theatrical life of the period, providing data available nowhere else.The work's full title is Historia...

(1699
1699 in literature
The year 1699 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Jonathan Swift is out of work after the death of his employer, Sir William Temple.*Joseph Addison receives a pension of £300 to enable him to travel abroad.-New books:...

), Perkins and fellow Queen's Man John Sumner
John Sumner (17th-century actor)
John Sumner was an English theatre actor during the Caroline era .-Career:He was a long-time member of the Queen Henrietta's Men, one of the prime playing companies or acting troupes of the time and named for Henrietta Maria of France, the queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife...

were housemates: "Perkins and Sumner of the Cockpit, kept house together in Clerkenwell, and were there buried." (Sumner predeceased Perkins, and was buried on 24 May 1649.)
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