George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was born Georg Friedrich Handel in Germany. He moved from Hanover, Germany and settled in London, England in 1712. There he served as composer for King George I (who also was German, and had been the Elector of Hanover before the death of his distant relative, Queen Anne of Britain, whereupon he succeeded to the English throne). Handel's well-known orchestral suite, Water Music, was first performed in 1717, the year in which this drama is set.
Complete Suite Home Introduction Play Bill Historical notes Cast Biographies Full Text of Play Download Video Pollard & Fletcher
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was born in Woolsthorpe, England and studied at Trinity College of Cambridge University where he graduated in 1665. Later he lectured at Trinity and became Professor of Mathematics in 1669. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published in 1687. He moved to London in 1701 and accepted the Presidency of Royal Society after Hooke's death in 1703. His Optics was published in 1704 and he was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705. Newton's lifelong acrimonious relationship with Robert Hooke is very much a historical fact.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was born in the town of Freshwater on the Isle of Wight and studied at Oxford University. He moved to London in 1658 where he became Professor of Geometry at Gresham College. He was a founding member of Royal Society (1662) and Curator of Experiments. After the great fire of London (1666) he helped Sir Christopher Wren survey and plan the new town. De Potentia Restitutiva ["Ut tensio sic uis."], his treatise on elasticity, was published in 1679. In his Micrographia and lectures to the Royal Society he contributed to the foundations of Paleontology by advocating that fossils are records of earth history, not simple curiosities of nature.
William Hopkins (1793-1866) was a Cambridge Professor of Mathematics who was much more interested in geology. His Researches in Physical Geology, published in 1835, established him as a founder of Structural Geology. His effort to "bring the power and prestige of mathematical analysis and mechanical principles to bear on geological phenomena" provided a prescription for the practice of structural geology and tectonics that is nearly identical to the one advocated in this drama.
No likeness of Robert Hooke exists.