Anthony Aston, Stroller and Adventurer; To Which Is Appended Aston's Brief Supplement to Colley Cribber's Lives and a Sketch of the Life of Anthony Aston, Written by Himself by Watson Nicholson (Paperback / softback, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1920 Excerpt: ... ANTHONY ASTON: STROLLER AND ADVENTURER The name of Tony Aston has been familiar to all men of letters, particularly to students of the Stage, for two centuries; and yet, so few real facts have been discovered, hitherto, concerning the man's life that we may assert without fear of contradiction, that practically thing has been kwn about him, save that he was a strolling player for many years, the author of an unsuccessful play and the much more important Brief Supplement to Colley Cibber's Apology. Chetwood's General History of the Stage (1749) has been, until w, the sole source of our kwledge about Anthony Aston. This is the only reference mentioned by Baker in his sketch of Aston in Biographia Dramatica, and it is the only work appended to his life in the Dictionary of National Biography. A mere glance at Chetwood's three-page gossipy account will suffice to show how really meager our kwledge of Tony Aston has been, up to this time. Even w, many essential details are wanting for a wholly satisfactory biography of the man. This paucity of information about Aston is the more surprising, inasmuch as during his own lifetime, he was so universally kwn in England and Ireland that his name was a mere byword that wanted explaining. Not only had he played in all the Theatres in London, but he was as well kwn in every town as the posthorse that carries the mail. Probably actor of his time, with the possible exception of Dogget, was kwn to so many people. Nearly every one who could raise a shilling for the purpose had been convulsed at Tony's grimaces. He was so familiar to all that his name grew into a figure of speech. After his own generation, however, until w, all that attached to the name of Tony Aston, making it a living personality...