Richard Robinson (17th-century actor)

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Richard Robinson (d. March 1648) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre and a member of Shakespeare's company the King's Men.

Robinson started out as a boy player with the company; in 1611 he played the Lady in their production of The Second Maiden's Tragedy. He was cast in their production of Ben Jonson's Catiline in the same year, and in their Bonduca, c. 1613. He became a sharer in the King's Men in 1619, and he was cast in their revival of Webster's The Duchess of Malfi c. 1621. Robinson reportedly played the part of Wittipol in Jonson's The Devil is an Ass in 1616. In the printed text of that play (1631), Jonson praises Robinson's acting of female roles and calls him an "ingenious youth." Robinson played the role of Aesopus in the company's 1626 production of Massinger's The Roman Actor.

According to the last will and testament of Nicholas Tooley, Robinson owed Tooley £29 13s. in 1623; Tooley forgave the debt in his will. Robinson most likely married the widow of Richard Burbage, who was "Mrs. Robinson" in 1635. He was also one of the King's Men who signed the dedication of the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio in 1647.

He was buried at St. Anne's Church, in Blackfriars, on March 23, 1648.

[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.