Thomas Betterton

English actor

• Born: c. 1635
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: April 28, 1710
• Place of death: London, England

Betterton was the leading actor of the English Restoration period, as well as the manager of the most important acting company of the late seventeenth century. He was also instrumental in introducing women actors to the English stage and responsible for continuing the English tradition of presenting the major works of Shakespeare on stage frequently.

Early Life

Little is known of the early life of Thomas Betterton, and there is some question as to the year of his birth, which was most likely 1635. His father was the under-cook for King Charles I. Betterton therefore had some contact as a child with the life of the court. At an early age, he was apprenticed to John Rhodes, a bookseller and theater enthusiast and manager. Apprenticeship to Rhodes doubtless introduced Betterton to literature, but more important, it laid the groundwork for a career in the theater. Rhodes, who had been the wardrobe master for the Blackfriars Theater under Charles I, trained the young actor to play serious roles.

When English theaters, after being closed by the Puritan Commonwealth , were allowed to reopen in 1660, John Rhodes had a head start on the competition, having been given special permission to stage a performance of his The History of Sir Francis Drake (1659) the year before. Rhodes organized a company of young actors, headed by Thomas Betterton, to play at the Cockpit theater (also known as the Phoenix after 1618). Betterton almost immediately attracted the attention of Sir William Davenant, who had been the poet laureate and producer of court plays before the Puritan Commonwealth.

Before the year was out, Betterton had been hired by Davenant, who headed the Duke’s Company, and trained to be the lead actor at Davenant’s new theater, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre opened in 1662 with a production of Davenant’s opera-like work, The Siege of Rhodes, Part I (1656) and The Siege of Rhodes, Part II (pr. 1659, pb. 1663), which introduced to the London stage the new Italian techniques in scene design and stage machinery. Betterton was featured in The Siege of Rhodes as Solyman (Süleyman) the Magnificent, and thus his career as a star actor commenced in his early twenties.

Life’s Work

Beginning in 1662, Betterton quickly established himself as a serious actor in roles such as Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (pr. c. 1600-1601). Since Davenant had worked with actors who had also worked directly with Shakespeare, it has been assumed that Davenant passed on to Betterton some of the approaches to the Hamlet character originated by Shakespeare himself. Whatever may have been the case, Betterton quickly won a reputation as a great performer of Shakespeare, as well as of the various “heroic tragedies” such as Love and Honour (pr. 1634, pb. 1649) that were written by Davenant and other Restoration playwrights.

By the 1670’s, Betterton was considered the greatest living actor of the English stage. Interestingly, though he won high praise for his comic performances in roles such as Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: Or, What You Will (pr. c. 1600-1602) and Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I (pr. c. 1597-1598), Betterton never seemed to excel in the French-influenced comedies that became the high fashion of the Restoration period. This did not keep him—in his later position as theatrical manager—from aiding other actors, both men and women, in the presentation of Restoration comedies.

It was during the height of Betterton’s career that women were first allowed, by order of the king himself, to perform upon the English stage. Betterton married one of the most talented of these new actresses, Mary Saunderson, and the two became an important team on stage, where, for instance, Mrs. Betterton played Ophelia to her husband’s Hamlet and a much praised Lady Macbeth to Betterton’s Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (pr. 1606). In addition to teaming with his wife, Betterton also frequently played opposite Mrs. Anne Bracegirdle, considered the greatest actress of the Restoration.

In 1668, William Davenant died and, while the Davenant family retained financial control of the Duke’s Company, Thomas Betterton took up the troupe’s artistic management. His management was so successful that his primary competitors, the King’s Company headed by Thomas Killigrew, could not maintain financial health. In 1682, the two companies joined together and continued under the control of the Davenant family and the artistic direction of Betterton as the United Company, which occupied the Drury Lane Theatre . This was the high period of Betterton’s fame and success. Both Samuel Pepys , the famous diarist, and the great writer Alexander Pope were moved to describe him as the greatest actor of their times.

Betterton was not especially well endowed physically, being short and somewhat stocky, but he was gifted with a strong, rich voice. He did not, however, rant and rage as did most performers in the popular and fashionable “heroic tragedies” such as John Dryden’s The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards (part 1 pr. 1670, part 2 pr. 1671, both pb. 1672). Instead, Betterton was greatly admired for his ability to bring a quiet and intense restraint to his acting and to hold audiences enraptured with his subdued power.

The king of England became so enamored of him as an actor and manager that he sent Betterton to France to study French theatrical techniques, and upon his return from France, Betterton introduced new scene-painting techniques and theatrical machinery that became the standard of the English stage for many years. He also wrote and circulated a book on acting techniques. Despite all this success, however, Betterton earned very little money. Even in his period of greatest achievement, his annual salary was equivalent to approximately $100,000 in present-day currency.

In 1695, the United Company came under the financial control of Christopher Rich, with whom Betterton did not get along. In order to escape Rich, Betterton and his wife set up a new company in the remodeled Tennis Court theater at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Other members of the new company included the playwright William Congreve and such important actresses as Anne Bracegirdle and Elizabeth Barry. The new company achieved great success and moved to the Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket, built for them in 1705 by the architect and playwright Sir John Vanbrugh . In a short time, however, Betterton was apparently forced by severe gout to retire from theatrical management. He did, though, continue to perform until his death in 1710. By that time he had created 130 new roles, as well as starring many times as such important Shakespearean characters as Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello. He was so admired and respected that he received the great honor of being buried at Westminster Abbey.

Significance

Betterton was both the star actor and the artistic manager of the most important English acting company of the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Perhaps Betterton’s most important contribution to theatrical history was his establishment of the tradition of regular revivals on the English stage of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson , and other major Elizabethan dramatists. He also produced the works of the major playwrights of his own time, including William Congreve, John Dryden, John Lacy, Sir George Etherege, Thomas Otway, and William Wycherley.

In addition to plays, Betterton, following the lead of his mentor Davenant, continued to develop the production of French and Italianate opera in England. He also gave crucial support to the actresses in his company. Because women were not allowed on the English stage before 1660, there were no female mentors for Restoration actresses. Betterton and his wife, Mary Saunderson, provided teaching and general emotional support to these women. Finally, because of support directly from the king, Betterton was able to visit France and study the European tradition of staging both plays and operas. He returned to England and introduced new scenic practices and new elaborate and more efficient stage machinery for both plays and operas.

Bibliography

Brockett, Oscar G., and Franklin J. Hildy. History of the Theatre. 9th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002. The basic resource book in theater history; contains good general entries on the Restoration theater.

Cole, Toby, and Helen Krich Chinoy, eds. Actors on Acting. New York: Crown, 1970. A collection of works on acting by great actors from Greece to the present day. Betterton’s theories on acting are collected herein.

Duerr, Edwin. The Length and Depth of Acting. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1963. The best reference on the history of actors, their accomplishments, and their theories of the art. Includes good material on Betterton.

Fisk, Deborah Payne, ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Collection of essays by noted scholars on Restoration theatrical history. Includes overview articles on each of the major genres, as well as topical essays on sexuality, profanity, politics, and other key issues in Restoration studies.

McCollum, John I., Jr. The Restoration Stage. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1961. A collection of documents relating to the Restoration theater, including excerpts from the “Life of Thomas Betterton” by Colly Cibber.

Milhous, Judith. Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln’s Inn Fields: 1695-1708. Carbondale: University of Illinois Press, 1979. An informative and well-documented study of the practices of theatrical management by Thomas Betterton.

Murray, Barbara A. Restoration Shakespeare: Viewing the Voice. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001. A book-length study of Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare’s works and their place in theater history. Discusses the distinctive acting styles prevalent during the period, and the major actors employing them.