Joseph Taylor (17th-century actor)

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Joseph Taylor (died November 4, 1652) was a 17th-century actor. As the successor of Richard Burbage with the King's Men, he was arguably the most important actor in the later Jacobean and the Caroline eras.

Taylor started as a child actor with the Children of the Chapel in the first decade of the centuy; as he matured he remained in the profession, with Prince Charles' Men and the Lady Elizabeth's Men. With them, he developed into an important leading man.

Richard Burbage died in March 1619; Taylor joined the King's Men the next month, and over the coming years he acted all the major roles of the Shakespearean canon. He was also famous for the roles of Paris in The Roman Actor by Philip Massinger, Ferdinand in The Duchess of Malfi (John Webster), and Mosca in Volpone, Face in The Alchemist, and Truewit in The Silent Woman (all by Ben Jonson). Taylor also played Paris, the title character in Philip Massinger's The Roman Actor (1626).

Taylor and John Lowin became leaders of the King's Men after the deaths of Henry Condell (1627) and John Heminges (1630). At the same time (1630), Taylor gained a share in the Blackfriars Theatre, and two shares in the Globe. And he was one of the King's Men who signed the dedication of the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher Folio.

In 1652 a special publication of John Fletcher's The Wild Goose Chase was issued, the proceeds of which went to Taylor and John Lowin to relieve their financial need. Taylor and Lowin had played the roles of Belleur and Mirabel in the King's Men's production of the play, ca, 1621-4. The Wild Goose Chase had been lost and was left out of the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio in 1647, then rediscovered and published.

[edit] References

• Dodsley, Robert, et al. A Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays: In Four Volumes. London, The Shakespeare Society, 1853.
• Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.