Charles Shadwell (playwright)

Charles Shadwell (fl. 1710 - died 1726) was an English playwright of the 18th century, date of birth unknown. He was the son of Thomas Shadwell, the playwright and Poet Laureate.^[1]

He served in the army during the War of the Spanish Succession, before becoming the supervisor of the excise in Kent.^[2]

Shadwell was the author of the comedy The Fair Quaker of Deal staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1710 and The Humours of the Army (1713).^[2]

From 1715 to 1720 he was the resident playwright at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, the leading Irish theatre at the time.^[3] In 1719, his tragedy Rotherick O'Connor, King of Connaught was staged at Smock Alley, and with the comedy Irish Hospitality, and other plays, collected and published in 1720.^[4]

References

1. Aitken, George Atherton (1897). "Shadwell, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. pp. 340–343.
2. Crowther, Michelle (25 February 2023). "Charles Shadwell (1672-5?-1726)". Kent Maps Online. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
3. Edwards p.198
4. Shadwell, Charles (1720). The works of Mr. Charles Shadwell in four volumes. Dublin: printed for George Risk and Joseph Leathley, and Patrick Dugan.

Bibliography

• Edwards, Philip. Threshold of a Nation: A Study in English and Irish Drama. Cambridge University Press, 1979.