Magazine article by Lucy Worsley; History Today, Vol. 54, September 2004
Excerpt See below...
Reining Cavaliers: Lucy Worsley Discusses the Importance of the Art and Discipline of Horsemanship to the Men Who Became Known as the Cavaliers..........by Lucy Worsley
EVERYBODY HAS A MENTAL picture of the Cavaliers, the gorgeously-dressed supporters of Charles I. We see them through the eyes of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, as his portraits of the aristocrats of the Stuart court suggest a coherent group linked by their clothes, behaviour and ideology. However, the technical art of horsemanship from which they take their popular name is not widely understood. Manege, or the art of teaching horses to dance, was a spec tator sport requiring high expenditure and enormous specially-built riding houses, some of which survive to this day. Manege had a political significance that goes beyond its image as courtly pastime. Horsemanship was seen as a metaphor for the self-control of passion necessary for a courtier to make a graceful appearance in a life where an audience was never absent.
The popular impression of a Cavalier has as much to do with his clothes, courtesy and King Charles spaniels as it does with his politics. Macaulay described the 'courtesy, generosity, veracity, tenderness and respect for women' of the courtiers of Charles I. The group we call today the Cavalier poets--Richard Lovelace, Andrew Marvell and John Suckling--were a literary set writing about love and loyalty. They took an enthusiastic but informal. "cavalier' attitude towards life. combining sensitivity and versatility with a love of beauty. 'To Amarantha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair' is a title by Richard Lovelace, while Andrew Marvell pondered on 'The Definition of Love'. The careless, stylish arrogance of courtly Cavaliers such as the dashing Prince Rupert of the Rhine, seems all the more romantic if their later losses and sufferings are considered: many died on the battlefields of the first Civil War or in continental exile.
The term 'Cavalier' was originally one of abuse. It began to appear in the late 1630s, and came into common currency in about 1641 as the Civil War became imminent. It was widely used in Parliamentarian propaganda, along with the term 'Royalist' which was coined in 1643. Both sides sought to simplify the complicated conflicts of the Civil War by calling each other rude names. However, it has been many years since historians have seen the English Civil Wars as struggles between well-delineated parties of courtly Cavaliers versus Roundheads, opposing each other across a clearly defined ideological divide. Politically speaking, the Cavalier party did not exist, and the term is just a shorthand for a set of shared social attitudes.
Yet the horsemanship from which the Cavaliers take their soubriquet was more than a useful skill on the battlefield or an enjoyable one for the hunting field. It also included the more specialised art of manage (or 'mannage' as it was known in England), ancestor of the modern sport of dressage. After daily arduous training, the true seventeenth-century Cavalier's great horse could perform the astounding manoeuvres of an ariel ballet, the 'airs above the ground' (still practised by the white stallions of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna).
The greatest Cavalier of all was William Cavendish (1593-1676), Marquess (and from 1665, 1st Duke) of Newcastle. He perfectly matches the Cavalier's popular image: courageous, cultured, generous and doomed to failure in battle, He loved both the arts and women so much that his enemies criticised him for 'fornicating with the Nine Muses, or the Dean of York's daughters' when he should have been lighting during the Civil War. He impressed the Stuart court with his horsemanship, taught the future Charles II to ride and was general of the King's army in the north when war broke out. Famously defeated at the battle of Marston Moor in 1644, he spent the next fifteen years in continental exile. Here he married the remarkable Margaret Lucas, better known as the writer Margaret Cavendish. Samuel Pepys summed her up by saying 'the whole story of this lady is a romance, and all she doth is romantic'. He described 'her footmen in velvet coats, and herself in an antique dress' while John Evelyn, less sympathetically, found her dress so extravagant that 'She looked so like a Cavalier, But that she had no beard'.
In 1660, William and Margaret Cavendish returned to England in triumph at the restoration of William's former pupil, now Charles II, to the throne. Read this entire Magazine Article and more with a FREE trial.
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From Stage Magazine, link below : Spooks star Armitage plans return to stage
Published Thursday 22 April 2010 at 11:52 by Matthew Hemley
Spooks actor Richard Armitage is set to return to the theatre after a hiatus of almost a decade, with plans for the performer to appear in a new production of Restoration comedy The Rover.
Armitage, who started his career in theatre, made his last major appearance on stage in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2000/1 production of The Duchess of Malfi at the Barbican.
He subsequently took part in a rehearsed reading of a new play presented by the Operating Theatre Company in 2002, but has spent the last eight years focused on television.
Armitage is now hoping to make a return to the theatre and he told The Stage he was particularly keen to do some comedy, because his most recent roles have seen him appear in action-based TV dramas, such as Spooks and Robin Hood. His latest is the Sky One series Strike Back, which is based on Chris Ryan’s book.
The LAMDA-trained actor said he wanted to have a “bit more of a laugh” and revealed that one of the options he is considering is a new production of Aphra Behn’s The Rover.
He said: “I did it at drama school and it’s something that has come back on the horizon for me. It would be a great big bawdy romp through a carnival, with lots of sex and naughtiness. It would be very different for me.”
The actor revealed that the production is in the “early stages of development” and added he was looking to take a theatre role when the ninth series of Spooks finishes recording in July.
However, he ruled out an imminent return to musical theatre, where he started before his professional training at LAMDA. He said: “Things do come up occasionally, but I have not quite explored enough of classical theatre. And there are so many things I would like to do before I go back to it [musical theatre].”
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/27965/exclusive-spooks-star-armitage-plans-return
3 comments:
From a personal point of view I hope Richard gives "The Rover" a miss. It seems far from being a barrel of laughs and not my thing at all. I like a good belly-laugh but I doubt if I'd find this very funny. Let's hope Richard gets a role better suited to his acting talents. Although I suppose if he wants a break from the norm this would definitely be the one to do.
Any chance of the odd bum shot do you think? (I know I'm back in the gutter again, I't quite comfortable really once you get used to it!)
From a personal point of view I hope Richard gives "The Rover" a miss. It seems far from being a barrel of laughs and not my thing at all. I like a good belly-laugh but I doubt if I'd find this very funny. Let's hope Richard gets a role better suited to his acting talents. Although I suppose if he wants a break from the norm this would definitely be the one to do.
Any chance of the odd bum shot do you think? (I know I'm back in the gutter again, I't quite comfortable really once you get used to it!)
Hi Sue, RA said in the interview that he'd already played in 'The Rover' while in school. Maybe he's seen enough of the updated dialogue to consider it a naughty funfest. That's what his remarks seemed to imply. No doubt he's trying to balance his personal choices w/those his fans appear to enjoy. You never know what might happen on a modern stage - especially in a play considered risque in the 17thC - he just might flash those plump peaches for the appreciative audience;) If so, you know you'll do handstands in one of those front row seats...be sure to smuggle in a camera phone;)
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