Harriet Pye Esten

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Harriet Pye Esten died 1865.jpg

Harriet Pye Esten or Harriet Pye Scott-Waring (* 1760s? In Tooting, London ; † April 29, 1865 in Kensington , ibid) was an English actress and briefly director of a Scottish theater.

Life

Esten was born in the London borough of Tooting in the 1760s as the daughter of Admiral Sir Thomas Pye and Agnes Maria Bennett (a housekeeper and writer, † 1808). Her father did not enter into marriage with Agnes. It was more like an employee and love affair.

In 1784, presumably at the age of 19, she married Navy member James Esten . Estonians were not only instructed in the art of acting by their mother, she also accompanied her daughter throughout her career. Harriet Esten made her first appearances in Bath and Bristol before moving to the Theater Royal in Dublin . While there, she and her mother negotiated a formal divorce from James Esten in 1789. It helped that James Esten was heavily in debt and that Agnes Maria paid his debts and thus received his consent to divorce. James Esten then emigrated to the Caribbean (and recovered financially there).

The following year Harriet Esten performed for the first time in London. In Covent Garden , she appeared on 20 October as Rosalinde in the Shakespeare -Stück As You Like It . She already shone in York . She lived and played in London for a year at her own expense, but was then given a three-year contract that earned her £ 11 a week.

The Theater Royal in Edinburgh

In July 1792 she took over the lease of the Theater Royal in Edinburgh, Scotland, and thus also the theater management . The latter was previously held by Stephen Kemble , but was relieved of his duties willy-nilly by Estens friend Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton . However, due to her acting obligations at Covent Garden, Estonians did not run the business, but her mother (which was not appreciated by the press). In 1794 she had a child from the duke. She then returned theater management to Kemble in exchange for paying £ 200 a year. The Duke died on August 1, 1799, and Harriet received an annuity of £ 3,000 a year. She appeared again in Edinburgh from 1802 to 1803, but this also marked the end of her stage career.

On October 15, 1812, she married the former Member of Parliament John Scott-Waring . He was Warren Hastings ' political deputy and Estonians his third wife. They both had two children. He died in 1819.

In 1820 their daughter, Anne Douglas-Hamilton , married the politician Henry Westenra, 3rd Baron Rossmore .

Harriet Pye Esten died on April 29, 1865 at the age of allegedly 100 in her home in the London borough of Kensington (No 36, Queens Gate Terrace). Only on the basis of her death certificate could the date of her birth be roughly backdated.

Appearances (selection)

  • June 19, 1786, Bristol as Alicia in "The Tragedy of Jane Shore " (by Nicholas Rowe 1714), her stage debut.
  • June 26, 1786, Bristol as Letitia Hardy in "The Belle's Stratagem" (by Hannah Cowley, 1780)
  • October 14, 1786, Bath ... ditto
  • January 11, 1787, Bath as Widow Belmore in The Way to Keep Him (comedy by Arthur Murphy, 1760)
  • shortly thereafter, Bath as Miss Tittup in "Bon Ton or High Life Above Stairs" (Comedy by David Garrick , 1775)
  • March 3, 1787, Bath as Roxalana in "The Sultan or A Peep into the Seraglio" (by Isaac Bickerstaffe, 1775)
  • April 21, 1787, Bath as Beatrice in "Much adoe about Nothing" ( Much Ado About Nothing ) (by William Shakespeare, 1598)
  • May 1, 1787, Bath as Lady Morden in "Seduction" (by Thomas Holcroft, 1787)
  • July 2, 1787, Bristol as Roxalana (The Sultan) and the leading role in "Isabella, or The Fatal Marriage" (by Thomas Southerne, 1694)
  • Summer 1787, Bristol
  • August / September 1788, Cork , as Lady McBeth in Macbeth (by William Shakespeare, 1606)
  • August / September 1788, Cork as Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing" (by William Shakespeare, 1598)
  • Summer 1789, Waterford as Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Rosalind ( As You like it ), Desdemona ( Othello ) and Belvidera (Venice Preserv'd)
  • January 19, 1790, Edinburgh Appearance as Julia (which cemented her reputation)
  • March 13, 1790, Edinburgh as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (by William Shakespeare, 1598)
  • March 29, 1790, Edinburgh as Widow Belmore in The Way to Keep Him (comedy by Arthur Murphy, 1760)
  • May 19, 1790, York as Monimia in "The Orphan" (by Thomas Otway, 1680)
  • October 20, 1790, London ( Royal Opera House ) as Rosalind in As You Like It (by William Shakespeare, 1599)
  • October 29, 1790, London (Royal Opera House) as Indiana in "The Conscious Lovers" (by Richard Steele , 1722)
  • October 29, 1790, London (Royal Opera House) as Roxalana in "The Sultan or A Peep into the Seraglio" (by Isaac Bickerstaffe, 1775)
  • February 15, 1991, London (Royal Opera House) as Letitia Hardy in "The Belle's Stratagem" (by Hannah Cowley, 1780)
  • 14 April 1792, London (Royal Opera House) as Moggy McGilpin in "The Highland Reel" (comic opera by John O'Keefe, 1790)
  • 1792, London (Royal Opera House) as Biddy Tipkin in "The Tender Husband or Accomplished fools" (by Richard Steele, 1791)
  • 28 August 1792, London ( Theater Royal Haymarket ) as Roxalana in "The Sultan" (by Isaac Bickerstaffe, 1775)
  • 1792–1793 followed her third season at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden with all her well-known performances.

There was also the role as Betty Modish in "The Careless Husband" (Comedy by Colley Cibber , 1704); Nelti in the premiere of "Columbus, or A World Discovered" (by Thomas Norton, 1792); Violante in "The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret" (by Susanna Centlivre, 1714); Clarinda in "The Suspicious Husband" (comedy by Benjamin Hoadly, 1747) and that of Luciana in The Comedy of Errors (by William Shakespeare, 1594)

  • June 23, 1793, Edinburgh as Indiana in "The Conscious Lovers" (by Richard Steele, 1722) and as Roxalana in "The Sultan" (by Isaac Bickerstaffe, 1775), this marks her first appearance at the Theater Royal after taking over the business July 1792.
  • In July 1793 she played there in other Shakespeare plays.
  • October 11, 1793, London (Royal Opera House) as Fanny in "The Clandestine Marriage" (by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick, 1766)
  • then as Widow Belcour in "The way to keep him" (by Arthur Murphy, 1760); as Rosa in How to Grow Rich (by Frederick Reynolds, 1793); as Marianne in "The Dramatist" (by Frederick Reynolds, 1789); as Lady Harriet in The Funeral Or Grief A La Mode (by Richard Steele, 1701); as Lady Dainty in "The double gallant" (by Colley Cibber , 1707); as Luisa in the premiere of "The World in a Village" (by John O'Keeffe, 1794), with an epilogue written and performed by her ; as Miss Wooburn in the premiere of Everyone Has His Fault (by Elizabeth Inchbald , 1793); as Paulina in "Love's frailties" (by Thomas Holcroft, 1794) and as Cornelia in King Lear (by William Shakespeare, 1605)
  • April 29, 1794, London (Royal Opera House) as Indiana in "The Conscious Lovers" (by Richard Steele , 1722), her only appearance in her season at this theater
  • in the winter of 1802 to 1803 she took her leave of the stage at the Edinburgh Theater Royal

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Harriet Pye (1761? –1865), actress, Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyps doi: 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 39766 .
  2. ^ 'Bennett, Anna Maria (d.1808)', Jennett Humphreys, revised by Rebecca Mills. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography doi: 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 2117
  3. ↑ http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/svPeople?people_tab=3&formname=r&heading=h&person_id=bennan#HerDaughter , Anna Maria Bennett © Orlando Project
  4. ↑ a b A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 by Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans (SIU Press) in the Google Book search
  5. ^ The Annals of Edinburgh Stage, 1888
  6. ^ Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewes, 1805
  7. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography doi: 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 24893
  8. ^ The ... Volume of the Walpole Society , Volume 39.Walpole Society, 1964, p. 76.
  9. ↑ The performance contained a small uproar when Estonians, indignant about the small fee (45 pounds), turned to the audience and complained that their evening was scheduled by the theater management during a sailing competition of all things.
  10. ^ The World in a Village, Epilogue, written and spoken by Mr. Esten in the Google book search
personal data
SURNAME Estonians, Harriet Pye
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bennet, Harriet Pye (maiden name); Scott-Waring, Harriet Pye (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH between 1760 and 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1865
Place of death London