Cave Underhill (1634-1710)
was born in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, on March 17, 1634,[i]
the only son of Nicholas Underhill, a London clothworker.[ii]
He was admitted to Merchant Taylor's School in January 1644-45.[iii]
Records of the Drapers’ Company show “Nicholas Underhill of Cow Lane musitian”
was apprenticed to his father John Underhill and admitted to freedom on
February 22, 1631.[iv]
Cave Undehrill was among a company
established by Rhodes in June 1660, and which was later taken over by Sir
William Davenant.[v] Later he was a leading member of the Duke of
York’s company in 1661, being a principal player of comedic parts. Sir William
D’Avenant is recalled as having “judged Underhill the truest comedian in the
company.”[vi]
There is some speculation that Cave Underhill may have had a hand in the
composition of Win Her and Take Her
also attributed to D’Avenant.[vii]
William D’Avenant and Dryden are remembered as having altered The Tempest, and Cave Underhill is
recorded as playing Trinculo in the first performance.[viii]
Later he married Elizabeth
Robinson of St. James, Clerkenwell, November 17, 1664. Robinson was widow of
Thomas Robinson, a vintner in Cheapside. She died October 1673, at which time
Cave Underhill appears to have been living in Salisbury Court (Smyth Obituary
Camden Soc. P. 100).
A portrait is reputed to
have been done of him by Robert Bing and placed in the Garrick Club.[ix],[x],[xi]
A June 3, 1709, performance
of Hamlet was given at Drury Lane, “for the benefit of Cave Underhill, the old
comedian.” He played the role of first Grave-digger once more, and again
repeated this role on February 23, 1710.[xii]
He was last seen on August 26, 1710, at Pinkethmans booth at Greenwich. This
was his last appearance, and he died soon thereafter.
Editor's Note: Whether Cave Underhill was the actual given and legal name or an assumed name is unknown. There are no known direct relations between "Cave Underhill" and other known members of the Underhill family from this time.
Editor's Note: Whether Cave Underhill was the actual given and legal name or an assumed name is unknown. There are no known direct relations between "Cave Underhill" and other known members of the Underhill family from this time.
[iii]
Register of Merchant Taylor's School School ed Rev CJ Rohinson 1882
[vi]
The dramatic works of Sir William D'Avenant: with prefatory memoir and notes,
W. Paterson ,
1874, http://books.google.com/books?id=Hl8JAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PA5&ots=ikzDwotWR1&dq=%22cave%20underhill%22%20d'avenant&pg=PA6#v=onepage&q=%22cave%20underhill%22%20d'avenant&f=false
[vii]
Audience Deception and Farce in John Lacy’s Sir Hercules Buffon by Juan Antonio
Prieto Pablos, Atlantis, June 2005. http://www.atlantisjournal.org/Papers/27_1/065-078%20Prieto.pdf
[viii]
The works of William Shakespeare, Volume 7, by Frank Albert Marshall, Scribner
and Welford, 1890 http://books.google.com/books?id=A-JDAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA179&ots=4nAxcImUGb&dq=%22cave%20underhill%22%20d'avenant&pg=PA179#v=onepage&q=%22cave%20underhill%22%20d'avenant&f=false
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