Rebecca Marshall

Rebecca Marshall (fl. 1663 – 1677) was a noted English actress of the Restoration era, one of the first generation of women performers on the public stage in Britain. She was the younger sister of Anne Marshall, another prominent actress of the period. The younger Marshall sister began acting with the King's Company, under the management of Thomas Killigrew, around 1663; she remained with that troupe for her full career, except for a final year with the rival Duke's Company in 1677. She acted with her sister Anne at least once, in John Dryden's The Maiden Queen in 1664; Anne played Candiope, and Rebecca played the Queen. When her older sister retired from the stage (temporarily) in 1668, Rebecca inherited several of her roles, as Aurelia in Dryden's An Evening's Love and Nourmahal in Aureng-zebe; she may also have inherited the part of Evadne in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy. Rebecca Marshall's other roles were: Calpurnia in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Spaconia in Beaumont and Fletcher's A King and No King Quisara in Fletcher's The Island Princess Dorothea in Massinger and Dekker's The Virgin Martyr Berenice in Dryden's Tyrannick Love Lyndaraxa in The Conquest of Granada Lucretia in The Assignation Ysabinda in Amboyna Doralice in Marriage à la mode Plantagenet in Boyle's The Black Prince Roxana in Lee's The Rival Queens Olivia in Wycherly's The Plain Dealer — among other parts, including spoken prologues and epilogues for various dramas. She participated in two of Killigrew's famous all-female productions, of his own The Parson's Wedding and Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, both in 1672.