Who was George Barnwell?

Who was George Barnwell?

George Barnwell, the lead character in the play The London Merchant by George Lillo. George W. Barnwell (1888–1958), American electrical engineer.

What drama did George Lillo adopt?

Lillo revived the genre of play referred to as domestic tragedy (or bourgeois tragedy). Even though the Jacobean stage had flirted with merchant and artisan plays in the past (with, for example, Thomas Dekker and Thomas Heywood), The London Merchant was a significant change in theatre, and in tragedy in particular.

When was The London Merchant written?

1731
“The London Merchant,” written by George Lillo and first performed in 1731, was a hit in the 18th century and has mostly vanished since.

What does Barnwell do for a living in the London merchant?

George Lillo based The London Merchant on a seventeenth-century ballad about a murder in Shropshire. The ballad follows the adventures of George Barnwell, who engages in an affair with the prostitute Sarah Millwood. After stealing money from his employer to fund his relationship, Barnwell robs and murders his uncle.

Who was the author of the London merchant?

George Lillo was born in London on 4 February 1693. By 1730, he began writing plays such as The Fatal Curiosity: George Barnwell (also known as The London Merchant), Silvia, and The Country Burial.

Why was the London merchant important to Lillo?

In the dedication to “The London Merchant”, Lillo argues that “Plays founded on moral tales in private life may be of admirable use by carrying conviction to the mind with such irresistible force as to engage all the faculties and powers of the soul in the cause of virtue, by stifling vice in its first principles.”

When was the first performance of the London merchant?

First performed at the Drury Lane Theatre on 21 June 1731, The London Merchant became one of the most popular plays of the century. George Lillo was born in London on 4 February 1693.

Who is George Barnwell in the London merchant?

She realizes that he works for the wealthy merchant Thorowgood (who is known throughout London for his wealth and success). She decides to seduce George Barnwell at supper with irresistible flattery, and he succumbs to her wiles in a way that will give her access to Thorowgood’s money, and she manipulates Barnwell to steal from his boss.