# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Noke, James

​NOKE or NOKES, JAMES (d. 1692?), actor, belonged to a family whose name, according to Malone, was properly Noke. It is variously spelt Noke, Nokes, Noake, and Noakes. Thomas Noke was yeoman of the guard to Henry VIII, and Ashmole supplies a pedigree of Noke or Noake of Bray. James was, according to Thomas Brown (‘Letters from the Dead to the Living,’ Works, ii. 18, ed. 1707), in early life the keeper of a ‘Nicknackatory or toy-shop … over against the Exchange’ in Cornhill. He joined in 1659 the company assembled at the Cockpit by Rhodes, being one of six boy actors who commonly acted women's parts (Downes, Roscius Anglicanus). In the same company was Robert Nokes (d. 1673?), an elder brother. As Downes speaks of both simply as Nokes, it is at times impossible to tell which actor is meant. His first mention of Nokes is as Norfolk in ‘King Henry VIII.’ Pepys saw this at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1 Jan. 1663–4. It had possibly been played before. On account of the insignificance of the part, Davies (Dramatic Miscellanies), and after him Bellchambers, in his edition of Cibber's ‘Apology,’ assume this to have been Robert Nokes. Curll, in ‘The History of the English Stage,’ which he attributes to Betterton, assigns the part to James, and says that ‘King Charles the Second first discovered his excellencies as he was acting the Duke of Norfolk in Shakespeare's “Henry VIII.”’ The first part that can safely be assigned him is Florimel in the ‘Maid in the Mill’ of Beaumont and Fletcher, which he played, 1659, as a member of Rhodes's company at ​the Cockpit in Drury Lane (Downes) or elsewhere. When the company came, as the Duke's, under the control of Sir William D'Avenant [q. v.], Nokes was the original Puny in Cowley's ‘Cutter of Coleman Street,’ at Lincoln's Inn Fields (16 Dec. 1661). The part of Menanthe in Sir Robert Stapleton's ‘Slighted Maid,’ acted, not for the first time, 28 May 1663, is assigned to Nokes the younger. In the following year James was Sir Nicholas Cully in Etherege's ‘Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub,’ licensed for printing 6 July 1664, and, 13 Aug., Constable of France in Lord Orrery's ‘Henry V.’ On 16 Aug. 1667 he was Sir Martin Mar-all in Dryden's play of that name, based on a translation by the Duke of Newcastle of ‘L'Étourdi’ of Molière. Dryden purposely adapted the part to the manner of Nokes's acting, and it was his best rôle. With one or two exceptions the parts played by Nokes are all original. On 6 Feb. he was Sir Oliver Cockwood in Etherege's ‘She would if she could.’ Ninny in Shadwell's ‘Sullen Lovers, or the Impertinents,’ followed, 5 May. In 1669 he played Sir Arthur Addel in ‘Sir Solomon, or the Cautious Coxcomb,’ adapted by Caryll from ‘L'École des Femmes.’ In the piece played before the court at Dover, in May 1670, Nokes wore an exceedingly short laced coat, deriding the French fashion of dress. The Duke of Monmouth gave him from his side his own sword (which Nokes kept ‘to his dying day’), and himself buckled it on, that Nokes ‘might ape the French.’ At ‘his first entrance he put the king and court into an excessive laughter, and the French were much chagrined to see themselves aped by such a buffoon as Sir Arthur’ (Downes). In Betterton's ‘Amorous Widow, or Wanton Wife,’ adapted from Georges Dandin, Nokes was Sir Barnaby Brittle. In 1671 the company migrated to Dorset Garden. Here, in 1671, Nokes was Old Jorden in the ‘Citizen turn'd Gentleman, or Mamamouchi,’ adapted by Ravenscroft from ‘M. de Porceaugnac’ and ‘Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme’ of Molière. Nokes in this ‘pleased the king and court better than in any character except Sir Martin Marrall’ (Downes). He was also Mr. Anthony in the Earl of Orrery's play of that name. Genest assumes that in 1672 he was Monsieur de Paris in Wycherley's ‘Gentleman Dancing Master.’ His name appears to Bisket in Shadwell's ‘Epsom Wells,’ and to the Nurse in Nevil Payne's ‘Fatal Jealousy,’ licensed 22 Nov. 1672. So much laughter did he cause in the last-named part that he was thenceforth known as Nurse Nokes. It was doubtless due to the success of this impersonation that he played, eight years later, the Nurse in the ‘History and Fall of Caius Marius,’ Otway's adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ In the epilogue to this piece Mrs. Barry said:—
And now for you who here come wrapt in cloaks, Only for love of Underhill [Sulpitius] and Nurse Nokes.
Meanwhile Nokes had played, in 1673, Polonius, and originated, in 1676, Bubble, in Durfey's ‘Fond Husband, or the Plotting Sisters;’ Toby, in Durfey's ‘Madam Fickle, or The Witty False One;’ in 1677 Gripe in Otway's ‘Cheats of Scapin;’ in 1678 Sir Credulous Easy in Mrs. Behn's ‘Sir Patient Fancy;’ Squire Oldsapp in Durfey's piece of the same name; and, Genest holds, Limberham in Dryden's ‘Limberham, or the Kind Keeper;’ also, in 1679, Sir Signal Buffoon in Mrs. Behn's ‘Feigned Courtezans, or a Night's Intrigue.’ Another female character of little importance was played in 1680—viz. Lady Beardly in Durfey's ‘Virtuous Wife or Good Luck at Last.’ In 1681 Nokes's name appears to six characters, all original, consisting of Fetherfool in Mrs. Behn's ‘Rover, Pt. ii.;’ Vindicius in Lee's ‘Lucius Junius Brutus, the Father of his Country;’ Sir David Dunce in Otway's ‘Soldier's Fortune;’ Gomez in Dryden's ‘Spanish Friar;’ Sir Timothy Treatall in Mrs. Behn's ‘City Heiress;’ and Poltrot in Lee's ‘Princess of Cleves.’ In 1682 he was Doodle in Ravenscroft's ‘London Cuckolds’ and Francisco in Mrs. Behn's ‘False Count.’ After the union of the two companies (November 1682) Nokes acted at the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane) Cokes in a revival of Jonson's ‘Bartholomew Fair.’ In 1684 he was Cringe in the ‘Factious Citizen’ (anon.); in 1686 Megæra, ‘an old hag,’ in Durfey's ‘Banditti, or a Lady's Distress;’ in 1687 Sir Cautious Fulbank in Mrs. Behn's ‘Lucky Chance, or an Alderman's Bargain;’ in 1688 Cocklebrain in ‘Fool's Preferment, or the three Dukes of Dunstable,’ Durfey's alteration of Fletcher's ‘Noble Gentleman,’ and the Elder Telford, a part subsequently resigned, in Shadwell's ‘Squire of Alsatia;’ in 1689 Sir Humphrey Noddy in Shadwell's ‘Bury Fair’ and Spruce in Carlile's ‘Fortune Hunters, or two Fools well met;’ in 1690 Don Lopez in Mountfort's ‘Successful Strangers,’ and Sosia in Dryden's ‘Amphitryon;’ and in 1691 Serjeant Eitherside in ‘King Edward the Third, with the Fall of Mortimer,’ ascribed to Mountfort; Raison in Mountfort's ‘Greenwich Park,’ and Sir John in a revival of the ‘Merry Devil of Edmonton.’ These are all the characters that can be traced. Though he is stated to ​have spent much of his time at the ‘tables of dissipation’ (cf. Notes and Queries, i. xi. 365), Nokes retired from the stage with money enough to purchase an estate at Totteridge, near Barnet, worth 400l. a year, which he left to his nephew. Here he is supposed to have died. According to Colley Cibber, Nokes, Mountfort, and Leigh all died in the same year—1692.
Nokes was an excellent comedian, to whose merit Cibber bears ungrudging testimony. His person was of middle size, his voice clear and audible, his natural countenance grave and sober, but the moment he spoke ‘the settled seriousness of his features was utterly discharged, and a dry drollery, or laughing levity took … full possession of him. … In some of his low characters he had a shuffling shamble in his gait, with so contented an ignorance in his aspect, and an awkward absurdity in his gesture, that, had you not known him, you could not have believed that, naturally, he could have had a grain of commonsense’ (Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, i. 145). Cibber also says that the general conversation of Nokes conveyed the idea that he was rehearsing a play, and adds that, though he has in his memory the sound of every line Nokes spoke, he essayed in vain to mimic him. To tell how he acted parts such as Sir Martin Mar-all, Sir Nicholas Cully, Barnaby Brittle, Sir Davy Dunce, Sosia, &c., is beyond the reach of criticism. On his first entrance he produced general laughter. ‘Yet the louder the laugh the graver was his look. … In the ludicrous dulness which, by the laws of comedy, folly is often involved in, he sunk into such a mixture of piteous pusillanimity, and a consternation so ruefully ridiculous and inconsolable, that, when he had shook you to a fatigue of laughter, it became a moot point whether you ought not to have pitied him. When he debated any matter by himself, he would shut up his mouth with a dumb, studious powt, and roll his eyes into such a vacant amazement—such a palpable ignorance of what to think of it, that his silent perplexity (which would sometimes hold him several minutes) gave your imagination as full content as anything he could say upon it’ (ib. i. 141 et seq.). After a parallel with Leigh, Cibber gave Nokes the preference. Davies conjectures that Nokes, ‘whose face was a comedy,’ played the Fool to Betterton's Lear (Dram. Misc. ii. 267). Tom Brown also praises Nokes's comic gifts. In Lord Orrery's ‘Mr. Antony,’ Nokes, armed with a blunderbuss, fought a comic duel with Angel, armed with a bow and arrow. In his elegy on the death of Philips, Edmund Smith, quoted by Davies, bears tribute to Nokes's burlesque gifts. No portrait is known.
[Works cited; Genest's Account of the Stage; Betterton or Oldys's History of the English Stage.]
J. K.