Philip Astley

Philip Astley (born January 8, 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme , England , † January 27, 1814 in Paris ) is the founder of the modern circus . Circus emerged from horse training, which is why circus people were often called "English riders" in the 19th century.

Astley's Royal Ampitheatre in London around 1808.

Life

Astley's father was a carpenter and wanted to pass the craft on to his son, but Philip preferred to work with horses. At the age of 17 he therefore went to the Dragoons ( Colonel Eliott's Fifteenth Light Dragoon Regiment ), where he was a non-commissioned officer and served in the French and Indian War in North America. He was a brilliant rider and enjoyed inventing and practicing tricks.

From riding school to circus

In 1768 Philip Astley opened a riding school in London, south of Westminster Bridge , where he taught in the morning and gave demonstrations in the afternoon. He named his arena after the model of the Roman Circus Maximus "Circus". He chose the round shape because it was the best way for the audience to see what was going on and because it allowed the riders to ride in circles and thus use the centrifugal forces for their tricks, for example when they were standing on their horses while vaulting . After a few years he added a platform, seats and a roof to his “ring”. Astley's Circus was originally about 19 meters in diameter, but later changed it to about 13 meters, which has remained a standard for the circus ring to this day.

Programming

Thanks to his good reputation and economic dexterity, he soon managed to expand. After a few seasons he hired more dressage riders, an orchestra, a clown , jugglers and other artists. So he founded a circus company as we know it to this day. Presenting predators in the circus only became customary after Astley's death.

What is no longer common today, but was often the focus of Astley's programs and lasted through the 19th century, are the so-called hippodramas with mostly historical events. Battle paintings were common. The scenarios were written by the popular playwright Charles Dibdin . They had a huge impact on 19th century melodrama .

Expansion on the continent

In 1772 Astley was won by the French King Louis XV. invited to a performance in Versailles . He opened his theater building, Astley's Amphitheater , in London in 1773 . After a fire in September 1794 it was replaced by Astley's Royal Amphitheater , in which a stage was added to the ring . Astley also founded the first circus in Paris in 1782 , which he named Amphitheater Anglais . In the following years he opened 18 more circuses in other European cities.

literature

• Philip Astley: Astley's system of equestrian education, Lambeth, Creed 1801, reprinted by Huber and Herpel, Offenbach am Main 1971.
• The great Astley Circus in London . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 36 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig March 2, 1844, p. 156–157 ( books.google.de ).
• Don Stacey: The English Circus from Astley to Chipperfield . In: Ernst Günther, Heinz P. Hofmann, Walter Rösler (eds.): Cassette. An almanac for the stage, podium and ring (=  cassette ). No. 3 . Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1979, p. 240-249 .

Web links

• Archive copy of the website of the London Theater Museum ( closed in 2007) ( Memento of November 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )