George Powell

Who was George Powell?

George Powell was a 17th-century London actor and playwright who was a member of the United Company.

He wrote a misogynistic play called The Imposture Defeated; or, A Trick to Cheat the Devil, first performed in September 1697. This play portrayed the proper treatment of an adulteress as brutal confinement and isolation from others to punish her and prevent the spread of her attitude. It is thought that this play was rushed out as a result of Mr. Powell having seen an as yet unpublished copy of another playwright's manuscript, Mary Pix's The Deceiver Deceived. Powell's version was cited by theatre critic Charles Gildon as the inferior of the two.

George Powell also wrote plays named Alphonso: King of Naples first performed in December 1690, A Very Good Wife first performed in April 1693, Bonduca: or, The British Heroine in 1695, and The Treacherous Brothers first performed in January 1690 under his own name. Each of these plays premièred at London's Theatre Royale. In collaboration with John Verbruggen, he wrote A new opera called Brutus of Alba: or, Augusta's Triumph, first performed in 1696 at Dorset-Garden, London. All of the works he wrote or co-wrote were tragedies.