Yates, Richard

1706?

1796

Richard Yates, who became an important actor at Drury Lane and also was active at the late summer fairs in London, may have been born about 1706. Identifying his activities in the 1730s is sometimes difficult, because Yeates the elder and younger (no relation) were active at the fairs about the same time. Our subject may have been the Yates who acted in “The Rival Milliner” at the Haymarket Theatre on 19 January 1736 and went on to play at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, at Covent Garden in 1737-38, and at Drury Lane in 1739-40. If so, some of his more important roles were Brazen in “The Recruiting Officer”, Mrs Fardingale in “The Funeral”, Roderigo in “Othello”, Jeremy in “Love for Love”, Pantaloon in “Harlequin Shipwrecked” and Dapper in “The Alchemist”. That Yates also turned up at Bartholomew Fair in 1739 and 1740 and at Goodman’s Fields Theatre in 1740-41 and 1741-42 playing somewhat larger roles. To confuse matters further, the Richard Yates we have been following paraded under the name of David ap Shinken at Goodman’s Fields. Playgoers of the time, of course, knew who was who at the theatres. In any case, Richard Yates built up a sizeable repertoire of secondary roles, making himself one of those ‘useful’ actor-dancer-singers of the period. From 1742-43 until 1766-67 Yates acted primarily at Drury Lane (under David Garrick’s management from 1747-48), adding to his list of important characters such new ones as Jeremy and Ben in “Love for Love”, Foigard in “The Stratagem”, a Witch in “Macbeth”, Harlequin in “Harlequin Grand Volgi”, Sparkish in “The Country Wife”, Malviolio in “Twelfth Night” (G0864), Pistol and Fluellen in “Henry V”, The Drunken Man in “Lethe”, Dogberry in “Much Ado about Nothing”, and Jerry Blackacre in “The Plain Dealer” (which he learned at the age of about 50). He moved to Covent Garden in 1767 for a few years, then journeyed to Edinburgh and back to Drury Lane. He finally settled at Covent Garden in the autumn of 1782. Throughout his career he made appearances at fairs and sometimes managed booth theatres. Though Yates usually acted small parts in comedies, he became a favourite, saved his money and augmented his income by marrying twice, both times to actresses. He and his successful second wife had enough money to buy into the King’s Theatre (opera house) in London in November 1773. There he became noted for his stinginess, according to W. T. Parke in his “Musical Memoir”s, and was described as a ‘dwarflike manager, who had an eye to every thing …’ Yates sold his share in the opera house in 1778 and returned to acting in Edinburgh and Norwich. He died on 21 April 1796 at the age of 79, 83, 89, 90 or 97, depending on which source one uses; his ending was thus just as obscure as his beginning. Better known and more talented than Dicky Yates was his second wife, Mary Ann, who was one of London’s leading actresses (q.v.). (BDA) [EAL]