Elizabeth Yates (actress)
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Yates (1799–1860) was an English actress. She appeared on the stage under the names Miss Brunton, Elizabeth Brunton, Elizabeth Yates, Mrs. Yates, and Mrs. Yates late Miss Brunton.
in 1774; her father, also John Brunton, went on the stage in 1795, and later appeared at Covent Garden in 1800 as Frederick in Louisa's Vows. Additionally, Brunton managed theaters, including those in Brighton, Birmingham, and Lynn. Elizabeth's aunt, Anne Brunton, appeared at Bath in 1785 as Euphrasia in Grecian Daughter, as the original Amanthis in Child of Nature at Covent Garden and a complete round of parts in comedy and tragedy. Brunton was also niece of Louisa Brunton (Louisa, Countess of Craven).
Brunton married Frederick Henry Yates
, a fellow actor with whom she worked at Drury Lane
, in November 1823.
as Othello
. Her father thought her talents more suited to comedy, and she therefore next played Letitia Hardy in the Belle's Stratagem, opposite Robert William Elliston
as Doricourt. Elliston hired Brunton for his theatre at Birmingham; she also played in Worcester, Shrewsbury, and Leicester.
Brunton made her London debut at Covent Garden
in 1817 in the role of Letitia Hardy; she also played Rosalind in As You Like It
. The Theatrical Inquisitor gave some praise to her Letitia, but pronounced her Rosalind a failure. Her first season included roles as Violante in the Wonder
, Miss Hardcastle in She stoops to conquer
, Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing
(a role in which she was praised), Viola in Twelfth Night, Imogen, Cora in Pizarro, Lady Elizabeth Freelove in the Day after the Wedding, and Myrtillo in the Broken Sword
. She played the original Rosalia in Frederick Reynolds
's Duke of Savoy.
In the 1818-1819 season, Brunton reprised her role as Letitia Hardy, in Edinburgh and, at Covent Garden, played Lady Teazle, Fanny in The Clandestine Marriage
, Widow Bellmour in The Way to keep him, Lydia Languish, Rosara in She would and she would not, Miss Tittup in Bon Ton, and Miss Wooburn in Every one has his Fault. She had an original part in A Word for the Ladies, and was the first Jeanie Deans in Daniel Terry
's adaptation of Walter Scott
's The Heart of Midlothian
.
In her final season at Covent Garden (engagements at the patent theatres generally lasted three years) Brunton played Miss Prue in Love for Love, Sophia in the Road to Ruin
, Dorinda in Dryden's Tempest
, Elvira in Love makes a Man, and was the first Clotilde de Biron in Thomas Morton
's Henri Quatre.
, and other pieces.
In the 1823-4 season, Brunton appeared in Bath as Albina Mandeville in The Will
; as Belinda in All in the Wrong, Clarinda in the Suspicious Husband, The Peasant Boy, Helen Worrett in Man and Wife, Aladdin, Widow Cheerly in The Soldier's Daughter, Miss Dorillon in Wives as they were, Cynthia in Oberon and Cynthia, Biddy Tipkin in The Tender Husband, Dolly Bull in Fontainebleau, Clara in Matrimony, Olivia in Bold Stroke for a Husband, Lydia Languish and Actress of All Work and Harriet in Is he jealous?.
Brunton played with her now-husband at Cheltenham, and made her first appearance at Drury Lane as Violante in 1824. In the 1825-1826 season, Yates played the first Guido in Massaniello, the first Agnes in Knowles
's William Tell, Mrs. Frail in Love for Love, Clarissa in The Confederacy, Aurora in The Panel, Isabinda in The Busy Body, Constantia (an original part) in Joseph Lunn's White Lies, Countess Wintersen in The Stranger, among other parts; her husband did not share this engagement.
After 1828, Yates played primarily at Drury Lane. Throughout the 1830s, she played leading roles in plays by Buckstone
, including in Wreck Ashore, Victorine, Henriette the Forsaken and Isabelle. Additionally, she played Orynthe in Fitzball
's Earthquake, Mona in Charles Mathews
's Truth, Elizabeth Stanton in Fitzball's Tom Cringle, Valsha in Stirling Coyne's
's Valsha, Grace Darling in Stirling Coyne's Grace Darling, and Miss Aubrey in Richard Brinsley Peake
's Ten Thousand a Year.
Yates played in Surrey in 1839, as Margaret Mammon in Thomas Herbert Reynoldson's Curse of Mammon.
with Gladstane, but found the task too much for her. She played one season at the Lyceum in 1848-9, where she played Tilburina in the Critic, among other parts.
Yates then withdrew from the stage, and, after a long and painful illness, died on 30 August 1860. A miniature by Samuel John Stump of Cork Street was in the possession of her son. A portrait of her as Eugenia in Sweethearts and Wives accompanied a memoir in the Theatrical Times (i. 209), 28 November 1846.
Eary life and family
Elizabeth Brunton was born at Norwich on 21 January, 1799 to a theatrical family. Her grandfather, John Brunton, acted at Covent GardenCovent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
in 1774; her father, also John Brunton, went on the stage in 1795, and later appeared at Covent Garden in 1800 as Frederick in Louisa's Vows. Additionally, Brunton managed theaters, including those in Brighton, Birmingham, and Lynn. Elizabeth's aunt, Anne Brunton, appeared at Bath in 1785 as Euphrasia in Grecian Daughter, as the original Amanthis in Child of Nature at Covent Garden and a complete round of parts in comedy and tragedy. Brunton was also niece of Louisa Brunton (Louisa, Countess of Craven).
Brunton married Frederick Henry Yates
Frederick Henry Yates
Frederick Henry Yates was an English actor and theatre manager-Life:As the youngest son of Thomas Yates, a tobacco manufacturer, of Thames Street and Russell Square, Frederick was educated at a preparatory school at Winchmore Hill and at Charterhouse School...
, a fellow actor with whom she worked at Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, in November 1823.
Early stage career
Elizabeth Brunton made her theatrical debut in 1815, in her father's theater at Lynn, playing Desdemona opposite Charles KembleCharles Kemble
Charles Kemble was a British actor.-Life:The youngest son of Roger Kemble, and younger brother of John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons, he was born at Brecon, South Wales. Like John Philip, he was educated at Douai...
as Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
. Her father thought her talents more suited to comedy, and she therefore next played Letitia Hardy in the Belle's Stratagem, opposite Robert William Elliston
Robert William Elliston
Robert William Elliston was an English actor and theatre manager.He was born in London, the son of a watchmaker. He was educated at St Paul's School, but ran away from home and made his first appearance on the stage as Tressel in Richard III at Bath in 1791...
as Doricourt. Elliston hired Brunton for his theatre at Birmingham; she also played in Worcester, Shrewsbury, and Leicester.
Brunton made her London debut at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
in 1817 in the role of Letitia Hardy; she also played Rosalind in As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
. The Theatrical Inquisitor gave some praise to her Letitia, but pronounced her Rosalind a failure. Her first season included roles as Violante in the Wonder
Wonder
Wonder most commonly refers to:* Wonder , an emotion comparable to surprise that people feel when perceiving something rare or unexpected.Wonder may also refer to:In fiction* Wonder Boys, a 1995 novel by Michael Chabon...
, Miss Hardcastle in She stoops to conquer
She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
, Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
(a role in which she was praised), Viola in Twelfth Night, Imogen, Cora in Pizarro, Lady Elizabeth Freelove in the Day after the Wedding, and Myrtillo in the Broken Sword
Broken Sword
Broken Sword is a video game series created by game designer Charles Cecil of Revolution Software. The game series revolves around the adventures of Idaho-born George Stobbart and the French Nico Collard in several fictitious stories based on history and mythology. The first two games in the series...
. She played the original Rosalia in Frederick Reynolds
Frederick Reynolds
Frederic Reynolds was a British dramatist. During his literary career composed nearly one hundred tragedies and comedies, many of which were printed, and about twenty of them obtained temporary popularity...
's Duke of Savoy.
In the 1818-1819 season, Brunton reprised her role as Letitia Hardy, in Edinburgh and, at Covent Garden, played Lady Teazle, Fanny in The Clandestine Marriage
The Clandestine Marriage
The Clandestine Marriage is a comedy by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick, first performed in 1766 at Drury Lane. The idea came from one of William Hogarth's engravings.-Plot summary:...
, Widow Bellmour in The Way to keep him, Lydia Languish, Rosara in She would and she would not, Miss Tittup in Bon Ton, and Miss Wooburn in Every one has his Fault. She had an original part in A Word for the Ladies, and was the first Jeanie Deans in Daniel Terry
Daniel Terry
Daniel Terry was an English actor and playwright, known also as a close associate of Sir Walter Scott.-Life:He was born in Bath about 1780, and was educated at the Bath grammar school and subsequently at a private school at Wingfield , Wiltshire, under the Rev. Edward Spencer...
's adaptation of Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
's The Heart of Midlothian
The Heart of Midlothian
The Heart of Midlothian is the seventh of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley Novels. It was originally published in four volumes on 25 July 1818, under the title of Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series, and the author was given as "Jedediah Cleishbotham, Schoolmaster and Parish-clerk of Gandercleugh"...
.
In her final season at Covent Garden (engagements at the patent theatres generally lasted three years) Brunton played Miss Prue in Love for Love, Sophia in the Road to Ruin
Road to Ruin
Road to Ruin is the fourth studio album by the American punk rock band The Ramones. It was released on September 22, 1978 through Sire Records...
, Dorinda in Dryden's Tempest
The Tempest (Dryden)
The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island is a comedy adapted by John Dryden and William D'Avenant from Shakespeare's comedy The Tempest. The musical setting, previously attributed to Henry Purcell, and probably for the London revival of 1712, was very probably by John Weldon.The Dryden/Davenant...
, Elvira in Love makes a Man, and was the first Clotilde de Biron in Thomas Morton
Thomas Morton (playwright)
Thomas Morton was an English playwright.-Life:Morton was born in the city of Durham. He was the son of John and Grace Morton of Whickham, County Durham. He went to London to study law at Lincoln's Inn, but abandoned his studies for playwriting. For much of his life, Thomas lived in Pangbourne in...
's Henri Quatre.
Later years
Following her departure from London, Brunton joined her father at the West London Theatre in Tottenham Street, where she played in Rochester, Three Weeks after Marriage, She stoops to conquerShe Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
, and other pieces.
In the 1823-4 season, Brunton appeared in Bath as Albina Mandeville in The Will
The Will
The Will is an American reality television series on CBS that lasted only one episode, shown on Saturday, January 8, 2005. It centered on the "Benefactor", a multi-millionaire from Arizona named Bill Long...
; as Belinda in All in the Wrong, Clarinda in the Suspicious Husband, The Peasant Boy, Helen Worrett in Man and Wife, Aladdin, Widow Cheerly in The Soldier's Daughter, Miss Dorillon in Wives as they were, Cynthia in Oberon and Cynthia, Biddy Tipkin in The Tender Husband, Dolly Bull in Fontainebleau, Clara in Matrimony, Olivia in Bold Stroke for a Husband, Lydia Languish and Actress of All Work and Harriet in Is he jealous?.
Brunton played with her now-husband at Cheltenham, and made her first appearance at Drury Lane as Violante in 1824. In the 1825-1826 season, Yates played the first Guido in Massaniello, the first Agnes in Knowles
James Sheridan Knowles
James Sheridan Knowles , Irish dramatist and actor, was born in Cork.-Biography:His father was the lexicographer James Knowles , cousin of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The family removed to London in 1793, and at the age of fourteen Knowles published a ballad entitled The Welsh Harper, which, set to...
's William Tell, Mrs. Frail in Love for Love, Clarissa in The Confederacy, Aurora in The Panel, Isabinda in The Busy Body, Constantia (an original part) in Joseph Lunn's White Lies, Countess Wintersen in The Stranger, among other parts; her husband did not share this engagement.
After 1828, Yates played primarily at Drury Lane. Throughout the 1830s, she played leading roles in plays by Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826....
, including in Wreck Ashore, Victorine, Henriette the Forsaken and Isabelle. Additionally, she played Orynthe in Fitzball
Edward Fitzball
Edward Fitzball was a popular English playwright, who specialised in melodrama. His real surname was Ball, and he was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire.Fitzball was educated in Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Norwich printer in 1809...
's Earthquake, Mona in Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well-known during his time for his gift of impersonation and skill at table entertainment...
's Truth, Elizabeth Stanton in Fitzball's Tom Cringle, Valsha in Stirling Coyne's
Joseph Stirling Coyne
Joseph Stirling Coyne was a humorist and satirist in the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. One of the most prolific British playwrights of the mid-nineteenth century, he wrote more than sixty plays; his twenty-seven farces are surpassed in number only by John Maddison Morton's...
's Valsha, Grace Darling in Stirling Coyne's Grace Darling, and Miss Aubrey in Richard Brinsley Peake
Richard Brinsley Peake
Richard Brinsley Peake was a dramatist of the early nineteenth century best remembered today for his 1823 play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, a work based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley....
's Ten Thousand a Year.
Yates played in Surrey in 1839, as Margaret Mammon in Thomas Herbert Reynoldson's Curse of Mammon.
Decline and death
After the death of her husband, in June 1842, Yates tried a year's management at the Adelphi TheatreAdelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
with Gladstane, but found the task too much for her. She played one season at the Lyceum in 1848-9, where she played Tilburina in the Critic, among other parts.
Yates then withdrew from the stage, and, after a long and painful illness, died on 30 August 1860. A miniature by Samuel John Stump of Cork Street was in the possession of her son. A portrait of her as Eugenia in Sweethearts and Wives accompanied a memoir in the Theatrical Times (i. 209), 28 November 1846.