The Cutter of Coleman Street

1661 play

The Cutter of Coleman Street
Abraham Cowley around the time the play premiered.
Written by	Abraham Cowley
Date premiered	16 December 1661
Place premiered	Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London
Original language	English
Genre	Restoration Comedy
Setting	London, present day

The Cutter of Coleman Street is a comedy play by the English writer Abraham Cowley. It premiered at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre on 16 December 1661, performed by the Duke's Company. Cowley had originally written it in 1658 during the English Commonwealth era. The title refers to Coleman Street in the City of London. The Royalist Cowley inserted lines mocking the recent republican government of England, including Thomas Harrison who had been executed for regicide the previous year.^[1] Although it was released during the Restoration period, along with The Committee its debt to earlier traditions mean that it not a full Restoration comedy in the style that would flourish after George Etherege's The Comical Revenge in 1664.^[2]

The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Colonel Jolly, Henry Harris as Young Trueman, Thomas Lovell as Old Trueman, Cave Underhill as Cutter, Samuel Sandford as Captain Worme, James Nokes as Puny, Mary Betterton as Aurelia, Anne Gibbs as Lucia and Jane Long as Laughing Jane.^[3]

References

^ Farr p.49
^ Fisk & Canfield p.145
^ Van Lennep p.44

Bibliography

Canfield, J. Douglas. Tricksters and Estates: On the Ideology of Restoration Comedy. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
Farr, David. Major-General Thomas Harrison: Millenarianism, Fifth Monarchism and the English Revolution 1616-1660. Routledge, 2016.
Fisk, Deborah Payne & Canfield, J. Douglas Cultural Readings of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century English Theater. University of Georgia Press, 2010.
Van Lennep, W. The London Stage, 1660-1800: Volume One, 1660-1700. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960.