Kynaston, Edward

Kynaston, Edward (c. 1640-1706), English actor, was born in London and first appeared in Rhodes’s company, having been, like Betterton, a clerk in Rhodes’s book-shop before he set up a company in the Cockpit in Drury Lane. Kynaston was probably the last and certainly the best of the male actors of female parts, for which his personal beauty admirably fitted him. His last female part was Evadne in The Maid’s Tragedy in 1661 with Killigrew’s company. In 1665 he was playing important male parts at Covent Garden. He joined Betterton at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1695, after which he received less important rôles, retiring in 1699. He died in 1706, and was buried on the 18th of January.