Charles Johnson

Robert G Dryden (University of Hartford)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

Born 1679
Died 1748
Activity 1710-1733

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Johnson's Works

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History has not been kind to Charles Johnson, a curious and sympathetic figure about whom relatively little is known. Even though he wrote seventeen plays and produced sixteen of them on the London stage between 1710 and 1733, he became an object of ridicule in Alexander Pope's

The Dunciad

. We know he had some legal training, although there is no evidence to support that he ever practiced law. He had a longstanding feud with Pope, one that Johnson argued ruined his career. Much of his opportunity in the theater came from his alliance with John Wilks, co-manager of the Drury Lane Theater; two of his plays were reproduced into the nineteenth century; when he retired from the theater he married a young, wealthy widow, and he opened a tavern on Bow Street, Covent Garden. When his wife died,…

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1292 words

Citation: Dryden, Robert G. "Charles Johnson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2377, accessed 23 November 2024.]