Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/360

 and rector of Fordingbridge, Hampshire (Munimenta Acad. ii. 575). In 1446 he once more became chancellor of Oxford, and on this occasion retained his office for seven years, resigning on 11 May 1453. In 1447 he was one of those who became sureties for the carrying out of Cardinal Beaufort's bequest for the building of the new schools at Oxford (ib. ii. 568). In 1451 he is described as of Coventry Hall in St. Martin's parish (, Hist. and Antiq. App. p. 53). On 16 June 1449 he was elected dean of Salisbury, and died in that city on 16 May 1463. He was buried in the cathedral, having made a bequest for the endowment of a chantry. There is an effigy of him, with a Latin inscription, in a window of the south transept.

Kymer was a physician of reputation, and in that capacity attached to the household of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, whom he probably induced to give his library to Oxford. In June 1455 he was called in to attend Henry VI at Windsor (Fœdera, ix. 366, orig. edit.) Kymer was author of a treatise which he addressed to Duke Humphrey, ‘Diætarium de Sanitatis Custodia.’ Two chapters of the work, together with the titles of the remainder, were published by Hearne in the appendix to his ‘Liber Niger Scaccarii,’ pp. 550–9. It exists in manuscript in Sloane MS. 4, ff. 63–98, in the British Museum. The treatise was written in 1424 in Hainault, whither Kymer had no doubt accompanied Duke Humphrey (Lib. Nig. Scacc. Pref. pp. xxxiv. and 559).

 KYNASTON, EDWARD (1640?–1706), actor, son of Edward Kynaston or Kinaston, was born in London about 1640, and was apparently related to the Kynastons of Oteley in Shropshire. According to Downes and Gildon, he was Betterton's under-apprentice at the sign of the Bible, a bookseller's shop in Charing Cross. The shop was kept by one Rhodes, who had been a wardrobe-keeper to the king's company of comedians before the civil wars, and who in the year before the Restoration set up a company in the Cockpit in Drury Lane, where Kynaston first appeared in women's parts in 1659 [see ]. Kynaston probably left Rhodes's company when it migrated from the Cockpit to Salisbury Court. It is not known precisely when this occurred, but it is certain that Kynaston was acting with the more distinguished company known as ‘Old Actors’ at the Cockpit on 18 Aug. 1660, when Pepys saw him play a female part in the ‘Loyal Subject,’ and says ‘he made the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life,’ adding, ‘after the play Kinaston and another by Captain Ferrars' means came and drank with us.’ Some of the female parts played by Kynaston at this time were Arthiope in the ‘Unfortunate Lovers,’ the Princess in the ‘Mad Lover,’ Aglaura in Suckling's play of that name, and Ismenia in the ‘Maid of the Mill.’ Shortly after this he was engaged with other of the ‘Old Actors’ in Thomas Killigrew's famous company of ‘his majesty's servants,’ who from 8 Nov. 1660 played in the theatre at Vere Street. Here on 7 Jan. 1661 Kynaston appeared as Epicœne in the ‘Silent Woman,’ and somewhat later as Evadne in the ‘Maid's Tragedy.’ Pepys saw him double a male and female part in the same month, and declares that he made successively the handsomest man and the prettiest woman in the house. It is often asserted that Kynaston was the queen on the occasion when, in reply to the king's inquiry why the actors were not ready, the master of the company ‘fairly told his majesty that the queen was not shaved’ (see, Le Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre, p. 33). This is, it would appear, only an inference, from the fact that Cibber relates the anecdote when speaking of Kynaston, but it is certain that Kynaston was, with James Nokes or Noke [q. v.], the last male actor of female parts, as he was not improbably the best. His forte consisted in moving compassion and pity, ‘in which,’ says Downes, ‘it has since been disputable among the judicious whether any woman that succeeded him so sensibly touched the audience as he.’ At the same time ‘he was,’ says Cibber, ‘so beautiful a youth that the Ladies of Quality prided themselves in taking him with them in their Coaches to Hyde Park in the theatrical Habit after the Play’ (Apology, ed. Lowe, i. 119–21).

Kynaston's first important male part was Peregrine in the ‘Fox,’ which he played with the king's company at their new theatre in Covent Garden on 14 Jan. 1665. Other important parts played by him at the Theatre Royal between this date and 1682 were: Harcourt in the ‘Country Wife,’ 1673; Freeman in the ‘Plain Dealer,’ 1674; Morat in ‘Aurenge-Zebe,’ 1675; Scipio in ‘Sophonisba,’ 1676; Cassander in the ‘Rival Queens,’ 1677; and Cassio in ‘Othello,’ 1682. Although his personal beauty and imperious mien made him a general favourite, his conceit could hardly fail to make him some enemies. He was particularly vain of his personal resemblance to one of the chief wits and beaux of the