Nicholas Burt

Who is Nicholas Burt?

Nicholas Burt, or Birt or Burght among other variants, was a prominent English actor of the seventeenth century. In a long career, he was perhaps best known as the first actor to play the role of Othello in the Restoration era.

A "Nicholas Bert" was christened on 27 May 1621, in Norwich; the record may refer to the actor, though this is not certain. According to James Wright's Historia Histrionica, Burt began as a boy player with the King's Men, an apprentice of John Shank. He was with the celebrated young company Beeston's Boys in the 1638–42 period. As a young actor filling female roles, Burt gained particular notice for playing Clariana in Shirley's Love's Cruelty.

After the theatres closed in 1642 at the start of the English Civil War, Burt, like some other actors, joined the Royalist army supporting the cause of King Charles I. Like fellow actors Charles Hart and Robert Shatterell, Burt served as an officer in the regiment of Prince Rupert in the early and mid-1640s. He most likely saw combat in the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby, and perhaps at Edgehill as well.

Once the Civil War had ended, Burt returned to acting and to the King's Men: he was one of the performers arrested on 5 February 1648, during an illegal performance of Rollo Duke of Normandy. He was also one of the ten men who tried to restart the King's Men in December 1648, despite the Commonwealth regime's opposition to playacting.