The Spanish Tragedie: or, Hieronimo is mad againe. Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio, and Bel-Imperia with the pittifull death of olde… [311771]
INTRODUCTION
The English society during the reign of Elizabeth I
[anonimizat], defeated Richard III of York in 1485 in the battle of Bosworth which put an end to the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), turning the former into the seventh king of England to bear the name of Henry. The end of this war also represented the dawn of a [anonimizat]. [anonimizat], [anonimizat], Mary I and, finally, Elizabeth I. [anonimizat] I in particular is regarded as “the Golden Age.”
[anonimizat]. [anonimizat], obviously, the monarch, i.e. Queen Elizabeth I. Afterwards, [anonimizat], [anonimizat], respectively, the Baron. [anonimizat], the esquire and the gentleman. [anonimizat]’s correspondent was the Archbishop. The Bishop was on the same level as the Earl and the Archdeacon as the Knight. [anonimizat], [anonimizat], [anonimizat].
[anonimizat]. [anonimizat]’s and the clergy’s representatives, [anonimizat]. [anonimizat], [anonimizat], [anonimizat], [anonimizat], the servant. There was also a [anonimizat], physicians, [anonimizat]. However, [anonimizat], [anonimizat], [anonimizat]. The last category comprised about 70% of the entire English population. A yeoman was the wealthiest of this group of people and this gave him the right to vote in the county elections for the Parliament. [anonimizat], who were entirely dependent on what they earned during their daily labour. However, [anonimizat].
[anonimizat]. Therefore, [anonimizat], [anonimizat], [anonimizat]-quality amusement. While animal sports and dancing were enjoyed by all classes (Queen Elizabeth is known to have loved dancing very much), [anonimizat], preferred hunting. [anonimizat], since they improved military skills.
[anonimizat] “amusement.” A common feature to these pastimes was placing bets, i.e. the audience crowded around the arena and shouted cheers or curses at the animal they had placed their money on. Another thing animal sports had in common was the reaction of the Puritans towards them, who condemned them not only for their immense cruelty, but also for distracting the parishioners from the weekly sermon held on Sundays, at the same time with these events.
Three animal sports were more widespread.
Cockfighting
For this particular type of pastime, two specially bred fighting roosters were made to fight one another, while the spectators who surrounded them cheered the rooster on which they had bet. Even though there were no purpose-built arenas where cockfighting took place, some permanent cockpits did exist, for instance the one constructed at Whitehall.
Bear-baiting
The protagonists of this kind of entertainment were a bear and a number of mastiffs. The procedure was simple: a chained bear was placed in a circular arena where some mastiffs were also released. The audience encouraged the dogs to attack, bite and hurt the bear, actions which caused the onlookers a great deal of laughter. Even if it was chained, the bear had to fight back and this sometimes resulted in the killing of some of the attackers. Some extra variations were added occasionally, such as mastiffs chasing a running horse ridden by a monkey.
Bull-baiting
This animal sport resembled bear-baiting very well, only the main “character” was a bull. Nevertheless, it underwent the same torture, much to the amusement of the crowd around him. This third type of violent pastime was more widely encountered, since, if the bull died, the beef could be eaten and was even considered more flavourful, whereas bear meat did not represent an interest for anyone. Thus, while bulls were killed, bears survived in order to fight again.
Towards the end of the 16th century, one encountered bull- and bear-baiting arenas on the southern bank of the river Thames, close to the venue of the Globe Theatre. Philip Henslowe, a theatre manager, and his son-in-law, actor Edward Alleyn, purchased one such bear garden in 1594. Ten years later, they were made “masters of the royal game of bears, bulls and mastiff dogs,” earning thus an amount of money which gave them the possibility to demolish the bear garden and to turn it into the Hope Theatre, a place which was used for animal sports as well as staging plays.
Outdoor activities
Outdoor activities included, as was previously mentioned, hunting, fencing, archery and other various sports. Football was most widely spread, but it used to be more violent than it is known today. Another ball game that was played in those times somewhat resembled what is nowadays referred to as bowling. Besides these, several blind games can be recalled, in which a blind-fold person tried to guess who touched or hit him/her. The upper-classes also liked tennis, a game that had been introduced ever since the Middle Ages.
Indoor activities
This type of activities can be subdivided into card games and board games. The former category comprised old versions of 21, whist, cribbage and poker. The card decks were similar to the ones nowadays, with only a few differences, for instance, although they still employed the 4 suits (hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs), the deck had one joker less and the pictures on the King, Queen and Knave were full size, instead of the mirror image known at present. The latter group included draughts (an old form of checkers), chess and dice. The upper-classes also enjoyed a newly introduced game, an ancestor of billiards.
Masque
A more refined indoor pastime was the masque. It appeared initially in Italy and France, but it was soon adopted in England as well. The masque had been popular at court ever since Henry VIII ruled the country, him being very keen on taking part in this kind of activities. By the reign of his daughter, the masque turned into a more elaborate show, with a mythological or allegorical theme put into songs and verses, with lavish and colourful costumes and with spectacular scenery that also made use of machinery in order to produce various special effects, such as lower gods or ascend devils. Elizabethan masques very frequently praised the monarch, the Virgin Queen, and illustrated several glorious events of her reign.
Still, the masque became even more popular due to Ben Jonson during the Jacobean period, when the collaboration between this author and Iñigo Jones, the latter being very well known for his spectacular scenery and ingenious machinery, gave birth to extraordinary performances. This type of entertainment disappeared around the 1640s, came back during the Restoration period, without, however, reaching the same artistic heights as in Elizabethan and Jacobean times. Some say the masque still survives in other types of performing acts, for instance, opera, ballet and pantomime.
The Theatre
Another form of entertainment during this period was literature. However, not all literature suited the tastes of all social classes. Thus, poetry and prose were preferred by the “élite readership with a formal education,” whereas drama became the most popular way of entertaining the majority of the society, especially the lower classes.
There are several elements that turned drama into the “truly national manifestation of the time”. One such feature is that the theatres were open to everybody, regardless of the social status, and the admission fees were rather low, making it affordable even for the people with a small budget. Moreover, unlike the prose and poetry, which required their readers to have some education, plays could be easily understood by the uneducated masses, who most of the times did not even know to read and write, due to its accessible language. In addition to that, the habit of going to the theatre was common ever since the interludes, the mystery and the morality plays were introduced. Besides, in those times, there were a great number of talented writers who provided the texts for the stage and who had the ability to make it attractive for the audience. Furthermore, the structure of the stage itself was very functional, as it offered the audience the possibility to interact directly with the players. Finally, perhaps the people liked theatre so much because it reflected very well the society they lived in, i.e. it “mirrored the divine order of the universe (macrocosm) in which man (the microcosm) had to respect a precise hierarchy or ladder, at the top of which was God, followed, in descending order, by angels, men, animals and, at the bottom, inanimate objects. This model was reproduced in every ‘kingdom’ of life; in each of which there was a ‘god’: the king among men, the sun among celestial bodies, the lion among animals, the rose among flowers, gold among metals, etc.”
Nevertheless, drama and theatres were not to everyone’s taste. The theatres were constantly harassed by the City authorities, who condemned them as “hotbeds of vice and plague, as rendez-vous for the idle and the licentious, for evil men excited by boys dressed up as women, and for all those who would rather answer the call of the trumpet to a play than the tolling of the bell to a sermon.” Moreover, to the Privy Council the theatre meant a constant source of trouble, though they had to accept it since it was a legitimate source of amusement for the Court. The Lord Mayor and the Aldermen considered it an “unmitigated nuisance.” Nevertheless, due to the companies’ influential patrons, they had to tolerate them. Thus the only things the former could do were to establish the places, hours and seasons for performances, and to issue prohibitions whenever the threat of a disease occurred. Furthermore, they also decided that the playhouses be situated outside the City limits and that performances could take place only on weekdays, being thus banned on weekends and during the Lent period.
Yet, the Puritan community was one of the worst enemies this form of entertainment had, besides the authorities of the City of London. The Puritans continuously blamed the people during the sermons for abandoning the religious service in order to go to the playhouse and see what new play was on. They argued that the plagues were signals from God, warning the people to stop dedicating their time to “lewd delights, of which the stage was the first and the worst”. This religious group considered the theatres “haunts of immorality”, accusing them of stirring sinful emotions in young people due to their display of murder, debauchery and treason. In order to put an end to this habit, the Puritans asked for the help of their allies, the authorities of the City of London. Their attempts were thwarted, though, by the Privy Council and by the acting companies’ patrons, who were very influent people, holding important positions on the social ladder.
Taking all these into consideration, it appears that the only person who rejoiced the existence of the theatre was the Master of the Revels, for whom the theatre meant a source of income (since acting companies had to pay a fee in order to get the official’s approval), as well as a “test of his perspicacity.” Although the plays were subjected to such a fearful critic, his remarks did not intend to mar the text, but only to make sure it did not contain any moral, religious or political irregularities.
GREAT DRAMATISTS
In the Elizabethan period there have been written some of the most famous texts in English literature that have quickly become known worldwide. These pieces of writing illustrate very well the transition from the medieval way of perceiving literature and entertainment to the one of the new era – the Renaissance. Some texts still preserve some features of the mystery and morality plays, but the accent falls especially on elements of farce, moving away from the predominantly religious tone that was characteristic of the former.
This period in the history of England takes great pride in affirming that the country’s greatest playwright was part of it, along with other famous names, such as Christopher Marlowe, John Lyly, Thomas Kyd and so on, that have provided the backbone of the English literature. Furthermore, Elizabethan drama was a popular entertainment industry since it dealt with ordinary people in everyday life on the streets and with the experiences one lived at the end of the 16th century.
William Shakespeare
There have been written so many books about the life and work of this playwright that I consider it is pointless to start with biographical data. Therefore, I will focus on the relationship between him and the world of the theatre, putting aside his sonnets and poems.
To begin with, I will say that when he was only a child, William’s parents took him to Coventry to see the mystery plays that were staged there. They told the great stories of the Bible, for example the Creation, the Flood, the Fall of Man etc. Later on, the Coventry mystery plays were banned as they were considered childish superstitions. But William never forgot them, because their “raw power and their rude humour” had had a great impact on him.
Some years later, although his father became an alderman, when William was 12 years old the family’s economy collapsed and his parents started selling the family property. One of the unfortunate consequences of this fact was that William was, thus, denied the possibility to pursue his higher studies, i.e. go to university. This fact turned into a great shortcoming that haunted him for the rest of his life and even beyond his death, as there have been several critics who claimed that his pieces of writing did not actually belong to him, but that they have been written by fellow colleagues of his (who did go to university, being known as “the University Wits”) or even by Queen Elizabeth herself.
The person who spotted Shakespeare’s talent was Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, Lord Strange, who owned what is said to be the best acting company that ever existed in the history of the theatre.
In the summer of 1587 the Queen’s Men, the best acting company, came to Stratford on a tour. The Queen’s Men were actually a sort of propaganda tool, as their mission was to prepare the nation for a war that was to follow the very next year. That moment William decided that it was time for him to leave his family and pursue his calling as a man of the entertainment. Thus, he joined this acting company, but soon realised that his burning desire was not to be an actor, but a writer. Therefore, he summoned his friend Richard Burbage, some carpenters, goldsmiths, leatherworkers and grocers and founded an acting company.
Initially for Shakespeare the playwright’s duty was to earn a living, i.e. to provide financial support for his family in Stratford. But in the summer of 1593 the theatres were closed due to the plague and he had to find another way of earning money. Therefore, he wrote a poem, Venus and Adonis, his first published work, and dedicated it to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, hoping to gain his patronage, which resulted in a successful attempt.
Afterwards, there came a period of great artistic prosperity for the playwright, as he set to writing several of his famous plays, whose main characters delighted the audience. But, as usual, there were also the people who felt the need to criticise the recently successful writer. The most famous and quoted example is Robert Greene’s critique regarding Shakespeare, whom he enviously called “an upstart crow,” “tyger hart” [sic!] and “Shake-scene.” Nevertheless, by the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Shakespeare had become the greatest artist of his age, because he did not tell people what to think, but he always drew on the life in the streets around him.
It is believed that John Fletcher succeeded him as the King’s Men playwright after his death.
Christopher Marlowe
He is probably the second most well known author of the age, but his writing career began before William Shakespeare’s. In fact, the latter is said to have drawn some inspiration from the former’s literary work. Marlowe and Shakespeare were close friends. He was 2 months older than his rival, but he had the advantage of being one of the University Wits. Marlowe’s flaw was his very rebellious nature. He loved to tread on people’s toes – the more offence he caused the better.
Marlowe is the author of such plays as The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage, The Jew of Malta (considered a source of inspiration for Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice), Tamburlaine the Great, The Massacre at Paris and Doctor Faustus (based on a German story). Most of the main characters in these plays were performed by Edward Alleyn, one of the popular leading actors of the age. Regarding poetry, he is the author of Hero and Leander (unfinished by the time of his death and “possibly written in competition with Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis for the patronage of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton”) and The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. His last play is Edward III.
Christopher Marlowe died young, in 1593 due to a fight in a tavern brawl. He was stabbed above the right eye and died instantly. Some say that his death was premeditated, as he was recruited as a spy at Cambridge and, therefore, many people wanted him dead. One will never know the truth, but what one does know is that the English literature would have been richer, had he had more time to write.
John Lyly
This playwright is also one of the names that are regularly associated with the English Renaissance. At the age of sixteen, he became a student at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he proceeded to his bachelor’s and master’s degrees (1573 and 1575). Therefore, he belonged to the group of the “University Wits.” The novel that brought him fame was Euphues, a novel in two parts, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit (1579) and Euphues and His England (1580). The style of these books was elaborate, artificial and marked by much alliteration. Besides it had numerous historical, philosophical and mythological allusions. These pieces of work made him very famous during the 1580s and the style of his work influenced many of the authors of the following decade, especially Thomas Lodge, who wrote using the “euphuistic” style.
In 1579 he was incorporated M.A. at the University of Cambridge, and possibly saw his hopes of court advancement dashed by the appointment in July of Edmund Tilney to the office of Master of the Revels, a post which he had desired for a long time. After the publication of Euphues, Lyly seems to have entirely deserted the novel form and dedicated himself to writing plays, possibly in hopes of obtaining the wished-for job as a Master of the Revels. His plays were written especially for the Children of the Chapel and for the Children of Paul’s, two famous companies of boy actors which performed his texts at Court in front of Queen Elizabeth I herself. Their brisk, lively dialogue, classical colour and frequent allusions to persons and events of the day maintained that popularity with the court which Euphues had won.
After 1590 his works steadily declined in influence and reputation. He died poor and neglected in the early part of James I’s reign. The proverb “All is fair in love and war” has been attributed to Lyly’s Euphues.
Thomas Kyd
He is known as one of the best writers of the English Renaissance, especially due to his tragic play, The Spanish Tragedy. He was the son of a scrivener, thus one may say that writing was in his genes from the very beginning. In October 1565 the young Kyd was enrolled in the newly-founded Merchant Taylors' School, and among his colleagues there were Edmund Spenser and Thomas Lodge. However, there is no extant proof that he continued his studies in a university.
As was previously stated, his most important work is The Spanish Tragedy (original title: The Spanish Tragedie: or, Hieronimo is mad againe. Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio, and Bel-Imperia; with the pittifull death of olde Hieronimo), written most likely in mid 1580s. This play was initially acted by Lord Strange’s Men, and afterwards by Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Besides this major work, some other literary texts from that period are being attributed to him, plays such as Soliman and Perseda, King Leir and Arden of Feversham. Moreover, he is thought to be the author of a previous Hamlet (known as Ur-Hamlet) that might have inspired Shakespeare to write his monumental work bearing the same name. Also, it is believed that Kyd is the author of some poems, which nowadays are either lost or unidentified.
At a certain point, he and Christopher Marlowe became friends and even shared lodgings. But this friendship was jeopardised in 1593, when Kyd was accused of treason and heresy. His lodgings were searched and an Arianist tract there was found, described by an investigator as “vile heretical conceits denying the eternal deity of Jesus Christ our LORD and Saviour found amongst the papers of Thos. Kydd [sic], prisoner … which he affirmeth he had from C. Marley [sic]”. That is, Kyd accused Marlowe in order to save himself from the death penalty. It is believed that Kyd was tortured brutally to obtain this information. Marlowe was summoned by the Privy Council and, while waiting for a decision on his case, was killed in a tavern fight. Kyd was released, but things were never the same again for him. His last play was Cornelia, which he dedicated to the Countess of Sussex. He died in 1594, at the age of 35.
Thomas Lodge
He was the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge, who was Lord Mayor of the City of London in 1562–1563. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Trinity College, Oxford, being thus part of the “University Wits.”
Having been to sea with Captain Clarke in his expedition to Terceira and the Canaries, during the latter expedition, he composed his prose tale of Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie, which, printed in 1590, afterwards furnished the story of Shakespeare's As You Like It. The novel is written in the euphuistic manner, but decidedly attractive both by its plot and by the situations arising from it. Another romance in the manner of Lyly, Euphues Shadow, the Battaile of the Sences (1592), appeared while Lodge was still on his travels.
Lodge's known dramatic work is small in quantity. In conjunction with Robert Greene he, probably in 1590, produced in a popular vein the odd but far from feeble play, A Looking Glass for London and England (published in 1594). Some say that he contributed to Robert Greene’s George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield, and to Shakespeare's 2nd part of Henry VI. He is also regarded as at least part-author of The True Chronicle of King Leir and his three Daughters (1594) and The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England (c. 1588).
Thomas Nashe
He was known especially as an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret. Around 1581 Thomas went to St John's College, Cambridge, gaining his bachelor's degree in 1586. However, it seems that he did not continue his studies in order to obtain a Master of Arts degree there or elsewhere.
He dropped out of college and came to London with his one exercise in euphuism, The Anatomy of Absurdity. His first appearance in print was, however, his preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon, which offers a brief definition of art and overview of contemporary literature. In 1590, he contributed a preface to an unlicensed edition of Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, but the edition was called in, and the authorized second edition removed Nashe's work. At some time in the early 1590s Nashe produced a pornographic poem, The Choice of Valentines, possibly for the private circle of Lord Strange. This circulated only in manuscript.
He is also the author of Summer's Last Will and Testament, a play which resembles a masque. In 1593 he published Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, dedicated to Lady Elizabeth Carey, wife of George Carey, Lord Hunsdon. In 1597, following the suppression of The Isle of Dogs (co-written with Ben Jonson), Jonson was jailed, but Nashe was able to escape to the country. He is also credited with the erotic poem The Choice of Valentines and his name appears on the title page of Christopher Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage, though there is uncertainty as to what Nashe's contribution was. Some editions of this play, still extant in the 18th century but now unfortunately lost, contained memorial verses on Marlowe by Nashe, who was his friend.
Thomas Dekker
This writer was an Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, a versatile and prolific writer whose career spanned several decades and brought him into contact with many of the period's most famous dramatists. Dekker began his career as a theatre writer in the middle 1590s. His handwriting is found in the manuscript of Sir Thomas More. More certain is his work as a playwright for the Admiral's Men of Philip Henslowe, in whose account book he is first mentioned in early 1598. While there are plays connected with his name performed as early as 1594, it is not clear that he was the original author. Between 1598 and 1602, he was involved in about forty plays for Henslowe, usually in collaboration. On the occasion of King James I’s coronation, Dekker wrote the festival book The Magnificent Entertainment.
He is known especially for his collaboration with various writers, such as Robert Wilson, Henry Chettle, and Michael Drayton with whom he wrote The Triplicity of Cuckolds, The Mad Man's Morris, and Hannibal and Hermes. He and Middleton wrote The Honest Whore for the Fortune in 1604, and Dekker wrote a sequel himself the following year. The Middleton/Dekker collaboration The Family of Love also dates from this general era. Dekker and Webster wrote Westward Ho and Northward Ho for Paul's Boys.
Like most dramatists of the period he adapted as well as he could to changing tastes. Yet, even his work in the fashionable Jacobean genres of satire and tragicomedy bears the marks of his Elizabethan training: its humour is genial, its action romantic. The majority of his surviving plays are comedies or tragicomedies.
During 1599 he produced his most famous work, The Shoemaker's Holiday, or the Gentle Craft, categorised by modern critics as citizen comedy. This play reflects his concerns with the daily lives of ordinary Londoners and it exemplifies his intermingling of everyday subjects with the fantastical, embodied in this case by the rise of a craftsman to Mayor and the involvement of an unnamed but idealised king in the concluding banquet. After 1602, Dekker split his attention between pamphlets and plays and, thus, his dramatic output decreased considerably.
ACTING COMPANIES
A. Boy actors
Two such companies were particularly famous, i.e. the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul’s. This kind of acting company was very popular back in the Elizabethan era. Besides memorising texts in Latin, it had become a tradition for the children at grammar schools to stage plays also. Their absolute favourite was Ralph Roister Doister. On the occasion of Christmas and Shrovetide, these boy companies staged their plays at Court, a custom that had been kept ever since Henry VII was king. In the early years of Elizabeth I’s reign, plays put on by choir-boys were more popular and more frequent than those acted by adult companies. However, the situation reversed after 1576, when the latter gained more importance and even established their own playhouses.
The boy actors were much more academic in their style of acting. Thus, they were trained in the art of rhetoric, which taught them to recite their lines in a certain manner. Furthermore, they were trained in the art of pronunciation, in order for their style to be much more pure, though not as realistic as that of male actors. Despite their skills, they probably were less convincing in the roles of older men. Nevertheless, precisely because they were trained in school companies, the companies of boy actors were regarded as far more respectable than the adult male companies.
Children of Paul’s
Regarding Paul’s boys, one must say that their name came from St. Paul’s Cathedral, where they performed when not at Court. After their initial Master, Sebastian Westcott, the children were led by Thomas Giles, appointed in 1584. From then on, this boy company was continuously associated with John Lyly’s texts, which he had written especially for them. Examples of such plays acted by Paul’s Children include Lyly’s Gallathea, Endymion, Midas, Mother Bombie and Love’s Metamorphosis, as well as morality plays and classical pastorals such as George Peele’s The Arraignment of Paris.
In the 1580, Paul’s Children joined the Children of the Chapel in their performances at the Blackfriars Theatre. Ten years later, they were banned from performing, due to the Marprelate Controversy, a war of pamphlets waged in England and Wales in 1588 and 1589, between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym Martin Marprelate, and defenders of the Established Church, a war in which John Lyly was involved. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 17th century, this company of boy actors resumed its activity on the stage, under the guidance of Edward Pearce, using the texts provided by writers such as John Marston, George Chapman, and Thomas Middleton.
The Children of Paul's ceased playing around 1606, for unclear reasons. Some scholars have believed that the King's Revels Children, another company that formed c. 1606, might have been, to some significant degree, the Children of Paul's under another name; but this is uncertain.
Children of the Chapel
William Hunnis was Master of this company of boy actors from 1566 to 1597 and under his stewardship the boys played repeatedly at Court until 1584. In 1576 (the same year James Burbage built The Theatre and began the era of popular Elizabethan drama), Hunnis's deputy Richard Farrant rented space in the old Blackfriars priory, and began public performances by the boys. For unknown reasons, the troupe did not act at Court after 1584 (though they did give some performances outside of London). When the Children of Paul's were banned from performing in 1590, due to their playwright John Lyly's role in the Marprelate controversy, the fashion for troupes of child actors lost its importance – inevitably affecting the Children of the Chapel.
In 1600 the Children of the Chapel returned to the public stage. Nathaniel Giles, their Master from 1597 to 1634, became one of the lessees of the Blackfriars Theatre that James Burbage built in 1596, and brought the Children to play there. Their performance of Ben Jonson’s Poetaster was a big success and he became the main writer to provide plays for the Children of the Chapel (Poetaster, Epicene etc.), alongside George Chapman (The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron), John Marston, and Thomas Middleton. The last play they are known to have acted was Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady. The company apparently collapsed around 1616.
Most of the boys who acted in such companies, when growing up, joined adult companies. This is the case with Nathan Field, John Underwood, and William Ostler, who joined the King’s Men. Also, one can mention Richard Sharpe, the first one who gave life to John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, and Stephen Hammerton, who “was at first a most noted and beautiful Woman Actor, but afterwards he acted with equal Grace and Applause, a Young Lover’s Part,” according to James Wright in Historia Histrionica.
B. Adult male actors
Adult male companies started as vagrant performers, improvising a scene in inn courts or wherever they considered an audience could be gathered. Most of them were ex-servants for rich people, who had been fired by gentlemen. Others, on the other hand, were somewhat professionals, including apprentices that have acted before, within guilds, interludes, mystery and morality plays on the occasion of traditional festivals. But the Elizabethan law was very cruel with respect to vagrant actors. Thus, if one such actor was caught by the authorities, he was whipped and marked with a heated iron on the left ear, and should he be caught again, he was to be hanged. But this law made an exception in the case of people who had served before in noblemen’s houses, but not “inferior to baronage”. It was then that the actors sought the patronage of some wealthy personalities, i.e. required them the honour of calling themselves their servants and wearing on the shoulder, according to the custom, the master’s coat of arms sown on their cloak. In exchange, they had to entertain their patron at his household at his will and whim, whenever he pleased. Thus, the professional adult companies came into being, as they took their patron’s name and called themselves his men. Therefore, there appeared Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later on King’s Men), Lord Admiral’s Men, Lady Elizabeth’s Men, and Queen’s Men etc.
The composition of the company was extremely important, particularly for the playwright, who had to design characters, taking into consideration the types of people he had at his disposal. Shakespeare, for instance, did not create characters whose interpretation could not be insured. On the contrary, he paid attention to the actors in his company and to the way that acted. Furthermore, when one of his characters was appreciated by the public, he featured him again, in another play, even though there was not a logical connection between the actions of the two texts, as is the case with Falstaff both in Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Initially, the administration of the acting company was insured by an outside person, e.g. James (and later Cuthbert) Burbage for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and Philip Henslowe for the Admiral’s Men. However, after some years, the more important actors of the company also became involved in the management of the company, people such as Edward Alleyn for the Admiral’s Men and John Heminges for thenery ocHenry Condell
King’s Men. The latter was in charge with negotiating performances at Court and dealing with the Master of the Revels in the matter of licensing plays before they were performed.
Lord Chamberlain’s Men
This was one of the most popular and famous acting companies, besides the Lord Admiral’s Men. It was founded in 1594 by Queen Elizabeth I, under the patronage of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain, the person who was responsible for the entertainment at Court. The second Lord Chamberlain to give his patronage to the company of actors was George, his eldest son, once his father died.
It owned its success basically to the Burbage family, i.e. initially to James Burbage who was what nowadays would be called manager of the company until his death in 1597. Furthermore, his sons, Richard and Cuthbert were also part of the group’s management team (the sharers), let alone the fact that Richard was the leading actor of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
The basic cast was made up of the actors who remained from the former Lord Strange’s Men (e.g., after Edward Alleyn’s departure), who acted under the patronage of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, the company which is said to have been the best acting company that ever existed in the history of the theatre. It was for this previous company that Shakespeare himself deserted his family in order to pursue a career in the world of entertainment. He remained a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men until the end of his career, acting and writing about two plays per year until 1608. By the time of his death, the now King’s Men had 26 permanent actors, which represented a large number for those times and also an indication of the level of popularity this acting company had reached.
Unlike the previous arrangement with Philip Henslowe, whereby he paid and, thus, controlled the actors, this company was a partnership, i.e. as a result of their performances the main actors (including William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage and William Kempe) gained some income according to the amount of their investment in the company. This type of partnership was a way of insuring stability to the company. The Chamberlain's Men comprised between six and eight sharers, who split profits and debts, a somewhat equal number of hired men who acted minor and double parts, and a slightly smaller number of boy players, who were sometimes bound apprentices to an adult actor and who played the female roles until their voices changed.
The two sharers who would contribute the most to the Chamberlain’s Men were Williams Shakespeare and Richard Burbage. As a sharer, the former was at first equally important as actor and playwright. At an uncertain but probably early date, his writing became more important, although he continued to act at least until 1603, when he performed in Ben Jonson’s Sejanus. No less important was Richard Burbage. He was the lead actor of the Chamberlain's Men, who played Hamlet and Othello, and would go on to play King Lear and Macbeth in the new reign of King James, among many other roles. Although in the beginning of the last decade of the 16th century people hardly knew who he was, he would become one of the most famous of Renaissance actors, achieving fame and wealth exceeded only by Edward Alleyn’s, the leading actor of the rival company.
Regarding the playhouses, their initial one was The Theatre, raised by James Burbage, the man who assembled the company and who erected the first purpose-built theatre in London in 1576. Afterwards, between 1597 and 1599 they appear to have performed at the Curtain Theatre, while planning a permanent home. They spent close to two years performing in rented spaces. Nevertheless, in the last year of the 16th century, the Chamberlain’s Men changed their headquarters to the Globe Theatre in Southwark, in which the company’s main actors were also shareholders. Their investment was used in order to acquire costumes and props, while a part of the profit gained from the spectators was used to insure the other costs and upkeep of the theatre, like hiring actors for minor roles, paying the watchmen, wardrobe keepers, copyists and musicians. Lord Chamberlain’s Men acted very frequently at Court, in front of the monarch herself, who enjoyed greatly their performances. After her death, the company changed its patron and, consequently, its name (for the third time) into the King’s Men.
With respect to the repertory, Shakespeare’s work obviously formed the great bulk of the company's repertory. A Midsummer Night's Dream may have been the first play Shakespeare wrote for the new company. It was followed by a very productive period of two years in which Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labours Lost, The Merchant of Venice, and the second tetralogy plays were written. The earliest non-Shakespearean play known to have been performed by the company is Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour, which was onstage in the middle of 1598. They also staged the thematic sequel, Every Man Out of His Humour, the next year. In the last years of the century, the company continued to stage Shakespeare’s new plays, including Julius Caesar and Henry V, which may have opened the Globe, and Hamlet, which may well have appeared first at the Curtain.
Lord Admiral’s Men
Apart from being one of the two most exceptional acting companies in Elizabethan England, it was also the rival of the previously mentioned group of actors. Just like Shakespeare’s company, the Admiral’s Men were initially known under the name of Lord Howard’s Men, due to the name of their patron, Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham. When Howard became England’s Lord High Admiral in 1585, the group’s name was changed accordingly. Later on, once the new dynasty acceded to the throne, this company was also taken under the protection of a new patron, namely Prince Henry, who was to become Prince of Wales.
The leading figure of the company was Edward Alleyn, who was the main actor as well. Whereas Burbage of the Chamberlain’s Men acted most of Shakespeare’s heroes, Alleyn was the one who sided more with Christopher Marlowe, giving life to characters such as Tamburlaine, Barabas, and Faustus. Other members included Edward Juby, Martin Slater, and Thomas Towne. The company’s repertory, besides Christopher Marlowe, included plays by George Chapman, William Haughton, and Anthony Munday, among many other poets.
The manager of the group was Philip Henslowe, just like James Burbage was for the Chamberlain’s. The former owned the Rose Theatre, which was to become the Admiral’s headquarters. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Admiral’s Men moved to a new playhouse, the Fortune, also owned by Henslowe, ignoring the Rose altogether, especially once its lease expired in 1605.
Henslowe is a man of particular importance due to the diary (actually it is more of an account book) he kept in which he put down all sort of information connected with his playhouse and his company, all the acquisitions that were made, and so on. His Diary provides the researchers with more accurate pieces of information than there is available about any contemporaneous group of actors. Among other points, the Diary illustrates the enormous demands the Elizabethan repertory system placed upon the actors. In the 1594-1595 season, the Admiral's Men generally performed six days a week, and staged a total of 38 plays out of which 21 were new plays. The next season, 1595-1596, demanded 37 plays, including 19 new ones; and the following year, 1596-1597, 34 plays, and 14 new. Taken altogether, the most popular play over this period between 1594 and 1597 was the anonymous The Wise Man of Westchester, which was acted 32 times over the three years. The company consistently played the works of Marlowe throughout this era. Tamburlaine Part 1 was acted 14 times in the 1594-1595 season, followed by Doctor Faustus (12 performances), The Massacre at Paris (10), The Jew of Malta (9), and Tamburlaine Part 2 (6).
The company suffered a major set disaster when the Fortune Theatre burned down on 9th December 1621, destroying their stocks of scripts and costumes. The new owner, Edward Alleyn, rebuilt it in 1623, in brick, at a cost of £1000. The actors moved back in, though recovery was difficult. They persisted for years, but endured a long term decline in reputation. The company finally collapsed in 1631.
FAMOUS ACTORS
The representatives of the company
Richard Burbage
As previously stated, he was the son of James Burbage, one of the first actors in England and the one who erected the first purpose-built theatre. Also, he was Cuthbert Burbage’s brother, the man who acted as the company’s manager after his father’s death. Both Richard and Cuthbert were among the shareholders of the company and of the Globe playhouse. The only difference between the Burbage brothers was that Richard also acted, being the leading actor of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
Although he began his acting career without being noticed too much, his popularity grew once theatre became “the” pastime in Elizabethan England. In addition to that, at the Globe, his fame as an actor grew and many writers required him to play the leading part in their plays. One clear example is him being the “first actor to play the roles of Richard III, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Romeo in the plays of Shakespeare.” Out of all these, Richard III was probably the most popular and most praised by the public. Nevertheless, he is known to have performed the title roles in plays by Ben Jonson (Volpone and The Alchemist), John Webster (The Duchess of Malfi), John Marston and Beaumont and Fletcher.
Since he was the one who held the majority of the shares at the Globe Theatre, his wealth increased and this gave him the possibility to purchase the Blackfriars Theatre and install the now King’s Men there, using it as an indoor playhouse, especially in winter. Like in the case of the Globe, he divided the shares with the other main actors. He never retired, but continued to act for the Chamberlain’s Men until he died in 1619.
Edward Alleyn
He was one of the most famous actors to appear in front of Elizabethan audiences. Still, perhaps he is best known for his rivalry with Richard Burbage, the former being the leading actor of the Admiral’s Men. Alleyn began his acting career in the 1580’s, as a member of the Earl of Worcester’s Company and in 1589, he entered the Admiral’s Men. After a short while, his popularity increased and he became the leading figure of Philip Henslowe’s Rose Theatre. In addition to that, he went constantly on tours with his acting company around the shires during the London Plague in 1593. Some of his most famous roles include Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Faustus and Barabas, Robert Greene’s Orlando in Orlando Furioso, and Hieronimo in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.
Besides joining Henslowe in the management of the Rose Theatre and several bear gardens, there was something else that connected Alleyn and the impresario of the Admiral’s Men, namely that the former married Henslowe’s stepdaughter, turning everything into (literally) a family business.
Towards the end of the 16th century, he decided to retire from the limelight, but in 1600 he changed his mind and returned in order to act on the stage of the Fortune Theatre that he and his father-in-law had built in London. Nevertheless, in 1604 he did retire from the company with which he had worked for so long. It appears that his last public appearance was at Court on the occasion of the coronation of the new king. Although he no longer was an actor, he remained an “active and generous patron of the English drama until his death in 1626.”
The comic actors
Richard Tarlton
This is one of the pictures which illustrate Richard Tarlton (or Tarleton), the most popular comic actor of the Elizabethan era. Very little is known about his early life. He is thought to have started either as a London apprentice, or as a swineherd in Shropshire, the place where he was born. Anyway, in 1583 he is mentioned as one of the Queen Elizabeth’s Men, and by that time he is considered to have been an experienced actor already.
He was the absolute favourite of the audiences and of Queen Elizabeth herself, who loved his jokes, his jigs and his wit (jigs were short comical afterpieces, consisting of rhymed verses often dealing with affairs of the day, which were sung and danced by a group of three or four actors, including a clown. It represented a common feature of the repertory of the English comedians. Unfortunately, this tradition died out by the Restoration period). Tarlton was the first to study natural fools and simpletons and to add knowledge to his characters. His manner of performance combined the styles of the medieval Vice, the professional minstrel, and the amateur Lord of Misrule. He would spend some time after the play in a battle of wits with the audience. He could speak about virtually any subject, delivering an impromptu speech on the spot. It is said that it was enough for him to stick his head out of the curtain to have the audience rolling with laughter. Since he was the Queen’s favourite, he performed at Court very frequently, until the monarch “judged some of his jokes at the expense of royal favourites, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Sir Walter Raleigh to have gone too far.”
Besides acting, Tarlton was also a writer of comedies, although many of his works, such as Tarlton’s Toys (1576), Tarlton’s Tragical Treaties (1578) and Tarlton’s Devise upon This Unlooked for Great Snow (1579) are now lost and known only from their listing in the Stationers’ Register (a record book that constituted an early form of copyright law). His most famous piece of writing is Seven Deadly Sins, written for the Queen’s Men in 1585. Though it was immensely popular in those times, not a single copy has survived to the present.
He died in 1588. His epitaph reads, “He of clowns to learn still sought/ But now they learn of him they taught,” a rhyme which illustrates perfectly the great influence he had on Elizabethan clowns and on entertainment in general. He is thought to be the one who inspired Shakespeare for the character of the clown Yorick in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
William Kempe
Just like his predecessor, Tarlton, he was a comic actor whose mission was to entertain the audience by means of jokes and jigs. He had been in the company of the Earl of Leicester in the 1580s, and had later joined Strange’s Men, but finally became part of the Chamberlain’s Men. As the company's clown, he presumably took the broadest comic role in every play. Thus, he is identified with Peter in the quarto of Romeo and Juliet, and probably also originated Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Kempe has traditionally been viewed as the object of Hamlet’s complaint about improvising clowns. By 1590 he was already acknowledged as “the most comical actor in London.” In 1599 he became one of the sharers of the Globe Theatre, besides Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, William Shakespeare etc. Nevertheless, Kempe left the company by 1601.
Another thing that contributed to William Kempe’s fame was his one month morris dance he performed from London to Norwich in 1600. Although he left London on 11th February and arrived in Norwich on 11th March, only nine days were spent actually dancing, whereas the others were taken up with recovery and promotion. Kempe was accompanied by an overseer “to ensure that he actually danced every one of the roughly 100 miles.” This attempt constituted also a source of income for Kempe the dancer, as there have been placed several bets on the outcome and he also received many gifts from the people and from the Mayor of Norwich. A further sum of money was obtained when the book entitled Kempe’s Nine Days Wonder was actually published.
Other famous actors
John Heminges
Though his name may be spelt in several ways, i.e. Heminges, Hemming or Hemmings, they all refer to the same person, namely one of the most important actors of the Chamberlain’s Men. Heminges was married to the widow of William Knell, one of the members of Queen’s Men.
He was initially one of the members of the Lord Strange’s Men, at the beginning of his career in 1593. A year later he joined the Chamberlain’s and stayed with them until his death in 1630. Some say that he played Falstaff in Shakespeare’s plays, whereas others argue that he was a tragic actor. Either way, there is no proof to support any of these two hypotheses. Nevertheless, he was one of the first five actors to appear in the cast when a play was put on.
John Heminges is best known for his collaboration with Henry Condell in gathering 36 of Shakespeare’s plays in the First Folio in 1623, under the original title Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. The Folio includes all of the plays generally accepted to be Shakespeare's, with the exception of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and the two “Lost Plays,” Cardenio and Love’s Labour’s Won. It also leaves his poems aside. They offered an explanation for printing this book, which stated that they did it “onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a Friend, & Fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare, by humble offer of his playes.” This collection of works also includes a list of the actors that were part of the Chamberlain’s Men.
Henry Condell
As is the case with many Elizabethan actors, there is little information about his early life. It is assumed that he too started his acting career with Lord Strange’s Men, next to John Heminges and Augustine Phillips. Then, he joined the Chamberlain’s in 1598. Traditionally, he is associated with the “Harry” who appears in the cast list for Richard Tarlton's Seven Deadly Sins, but again there is no solid proof for this assumption.
His status within the Lord Chamberlain’s and King’s companies appears to have been high, since, in official communications, he is generally listed shortly after Burbage and Heminges, e.g. the cast list for Ben Jonson's Sejanus, performed in 1603, includes “Ric. Burbadge, Aug. Philips, Will. Sly, Will. Shake-Speare, Ioh. Hemings, Hen. Condel, Ioh. Lowin, and Alex. Cooke.” Besides acting in Shakespeare’s plays, he gave life to characters in other playwrights’ works. Thus, regarding Ben Jonson, he acted in Every Man in His Humour (1598), Every Man Out of His Humour (1599), Sejanus (1603), Volpone (1605), The Alchemist (1610), and Catiline (1611). Furthermore, he was the original Cardinal in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi (c. 1613).
As was previously mentioned, he and John Heminges were the ones who gathered together, in the First Folio in 1623, all of the plays that are normally attributed to William Shakespeare, being interested in “preventing others from laying claim to Shakespeare’s works and in presenting a good printed text for each play.”
Condell appears to have ended his stage career around 1619, but he died in 1627. He left a great estate behind him, including shares in the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres.
Augustine Phillips
He started acting, as did most of the Elizabethan actors, with Lord Strange’s company. After it disbanded, he joined the Chamberlain’s Men. Though not much is known about him, one can say that he appeared very frequently in Ben Jonson’s plays, as a member of the cast. Besides, he is said to have acted in Tarlton’s Seven Deadly Sins. Moreover, it is believed that he is one of the few actors who were not required to play a double role, unlike his other colleagues, a measure which was imposed by the shortage of staff. He continued to act with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men until his death in 1605.
Furthermore, he was one of the six sharers in the Globe Theatre in 1598-1599. As a result, he became quite wealthy, as opposed to many of the actors in that era. This is proved by his will, in which he left various sums of money to his former colleagues and friends. In addition to that, also from his will, one can draw the conclusion that he was a musician, given the fact that he bequeathed some musical instruments to his apprentices. The assumption that he was a musician makes one think that he was part of the people who were in charge with the music used in order to stage productions of several plays.
William Sly
He was another Chamberlain’s Man. He is also thought to have been one of the members of the cast for Seven Deadly Sins, as this play was put on by Lord Strange’s Men, a combination of the future members of Lord Admiral’s and Lord Chamberlain’s.
Though his initial status within the company is not known, it is given for a fact that in 1603, when Lord Chamberlain’s Men became King’s Men, he was one of the sharers. Moreover, two years later he became a shareholder in the Globe playhouse and, in 1608, he also held a share in the Blackfriars Theatre.
Unfortunately, he died the very same year. As it was customary, in his will he bequeathed sums of money and objects to friends, e.g. he left his sword and his hat to Cuthbert Burbage.
William Shakespeare
This subchapter focuses on William Shakespeare as an actor exclusively. Therefore, with respect to his acting career, it is assumed that Shakespeare abandoned his family in order to become part of Lord Strange’s company, which is considered the best acting company that ever existed in the history of theatre.
It is not known exactly how many roles Shakespeare played himself but it is certain that Shakespeare began his career on stage by 1592, because there is reference to this in Robert Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit. However, he is normally associated with minor roles, even if they belonged to major works, roles such as the ghost of Hamlet’s father, Adam in As You Like It, the Chorus in Henry V, King Duncan in Macbeth and King Henry in Henry IV, though these pieces of information are probably only speculations. It is probable that Shakespeare also played the title role in Edward I, a play by Edward Peele, in 1593. Shakespeare’s first biographer, Nicholas Rowe, referred to a role by William Shakespeare as “the Ghost in his own Hamlet” and that it was “the top of his performance.”
Nevertheless, Shakespeare never became famous for the parts that he interpreted, but mainly for his pieces of writing, that actually brought the fame of his acting companies. William Shakespeare the actor soon moved on to becoming William Shakespeare the playwright and theatre owner. Still, he had a very good relationship with his fellow actors. It is widely known that in his will, he left a bequest “to my ffellowes John Hemynge Richard Burbage & Henry Cundell a peece to buy them Ringes.”
Heminges and Condell Memorial
PATRONS
The people who are included in this category were wealthy members of the peerage. In most of the cases, they had literary preoccupations themselves, i.e. they wrote poems, sonnets, prose or even plays. But as writing was considered dishonourable, particularly writing for the stage, they did not publish their work and, thus, as the time passed, it was lost.
Writers’ patrons
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
He was born in a wealthy Catholic family. Unfortunately, at the age of 5 he lost his father and so became a ward of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. During his studies at the University of Cambridge, he discovered he was interested in the theatre, due to the frequent visits he made to several playhouses, which was a popular pastime for the young gentlemen.
The first writer who sought the earl’s patronage was none other than William Shakespeare, whom the latter dedicated two poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Furthermore, it is assumed that many of the Shakespearean sonnets were written especially for the patron and, hence, there are several speculations on the playwright’s sexuality.
Southampton participated in the Islands Voyage of 1597 and won favourable critiques for capturing a Spanish fregate. One year later he was imprisoned for secretly marrying one of the Queen’s maids of honour. By the end of the century he got involved in the Essex rebellion, a riot led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex who intended to fill the place of William and Robert Cecil, Elizabeth’s most trusted advisors, and dominate the Court. Wriothesley was arrested after the failure of the rebellion and was sentenced to death. But due to the intervention of Sir Robert Cecil, his punishment was life imprisonment in the Tower of London.
Once James I came to the throne, the Earl of Southampton was pardoned and released, becoming thus again one of the most sought after literary patrons, until his death in 1624 in the Netherlands.
Thomas Walsingham
Thomas Walsingham was the nephew of Sir Francis Walsingham, one of the two most important men of the Privy Council (besides Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley). He was mainly known as a patron of literature. He offered his house Chislehurst to the playwright Christopher Marlowe as an asylum from the plague. At the moment when the latter was called at Privy Council and trialled under the accusation of atheism, he worked at Walsingham’s house as a servant.
Besides Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Walsingham also offered his patronage to writers such as George Chapman, who dedicated two of his plays to his patron in order to show his affection. This writer is also known to have finished Marlowe’s narrative poem “Hero and Lender,” which he dedicated to their patron’s wife, Audrey. Towards the end of the 16th century, Thomas became a Kent justice of peace, and until 1626 he represented Rochester in the Parliament.
Thomas Walsingham died in August 1630 and was succeeded by his son, who also bore the name Thomas.
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
He is known as an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, poet, sportsman and patron of numerous writers, as well as the sponsor of two acting companies, Oxford’s Men and Oxford’s Boys.
After his father’s death, at the age of only 12 he became the 17th Earl of Oxford and Lord Great Chamberlain of England. He was still a minor when he became a royal ward, under the stewardship of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, a member of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council and one of her most trusted men (besides Sir Francis Walsingham). With Burghley as a tutor, the Earl of Oxford learnt French, Latin, writing and drawing, music, dancing, horsemanship, and hunting, in short all that was required from a true member of the peerage. Later on, Sir Edward obtained a bachelor’s degree at the University of Cambridge, a master’s degree at the University of Oxford and a legal training at Gray’s Inn.
In 1571 he married Lord Burghley’s 15-year old daughter, Anne. All throughout his life he was involved in political affairs, but the lack of information about his later years can be justified by his immersion in literary and dramatic activities. He offered his patronage to writers such as Edmund Spenser, Robert Greene, Thomas Watson and John Lyly, whom used to work for him as secretaries.
As concerns his own writing, the Earl of Oxford is known to have had a taste for poetry and drama, though few of the former and none of the latter survived, at least not under his name. There is only a small number a songs and poems that are suspected to belong to him, given the fact that they are signed “Earle of Oxenforde” or simply “E.O.”
Due to his passion for writing, Sir Edward the Vere is the most serious candidate to whom William Shakespeare’s literary works are attributed in the famous conflict between Stratfordians (the people who believe Shakespeare actually existed and provided the world with a large number of plays) and anti-Stratfordians (or Oxfordians, i.e. those who believe the real author is the Earl of Oxford, who used a pseudonym, since writing for the stage was considered a shame for the peerage). The latter assumption is promoted due to several reasons, such as the earl’s superior studies, his knowledge of the aristocratic life, the military and the law, his background in the world of the theatre, his appraised poems and songs and, finally, due to the similarities that have been spotted between de Vere’s life and plays. Other authors to whom the Shakespearean works are attributed are Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and even Queen Elizabeth I herself.
He died in 1604 due to unknown causes.
Acting companies’ patrons
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain was the chief officer of the royal household, being in charge of the entertainment for the Court. He also supervised a large staff which included grooms, pages, carvers, cupbearers, physicians, chaplains, and yeoman of the guard, to name only a few. This position was offered twice by the Queen to the sons of former Lord Chamberlains, which gave it a “quasi-hereditary nature.” One of the Chamberlain’s subordinates was the Master of the Revels.
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain was the cousin of Queen Elizabeth I. He was the son of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn and also mistress to Henry VIII. Historians differ as to whether he was the biological child of Henry VIII, or of Boleyn's husband, Sir William Carey, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII of England.
Entering politics at the young age of 21, Henry Carey served twice as Member of Parliament, representing Buckingham during 1547–1552, 1554–1555. He was knighted in November 1558 and created Baron by his first cousin Elizabeth I of England in January 1559. His sister, Catherine, was one of Elizabeth's favourite ladies-in-waiting. In April 1561, Henry also became a Knight of the Garter. Henry seems to have gained some favour with his cousin as she appointed him Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners in 1564; a position making him effectively her personal bodyguard. He seems to have served for four years. He was appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household in July, 1585 and would hold this position until his death. Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, as Lord Chamberlain became the first patron of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, William Shakespeare's company, in 1594.
Henry Carey died at Somerset House, Strand on 23 July and was buried in August 1596 at Westminster Abbey. On his deathbed his cousin Elizabeth I offered to create him Earl of Wiltshire. Nevertheless, he refused, saying: “Madam, as you did not count me worthy of this honour in life, then I shall account myself not worthy of it in death.” Two of his sons, George, and John, successively followed him as Baron Hunsdon.
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, 2nd Lord Chamberlain
The 2nd Lord Chamberlain to give his patronage to the company of actors was George Carey, Henry Carey’s eldest son.
During the Northern Rebellion of 1569, George was knighted in the field by the Earl of Sussex for bravery. In July 1596, when his father died, George became the second Baron Hunsdon, and some time later he also took over the office of Lord Chamberlain. He was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1597, and in order to celebrate this moment, Shakespeare and his company put on the first performance of a new play, entitled The Merry Wives of Windsor.
George married Elizabeth Spencer (related to poet/author Edmund Spenser), and they had one daughter, named after her mother. He died on 9 September 1603 (from venereal disease and mercury poisoning), and his brother John (the next eldest) became the third Lord Hunsdon.
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Lord Admiral
This title was given to the chief naval officer of England, who was responsible with naval administration and with commanding the English fleet at sea.
Charles Howard was an English statesman and admiral. In June 1563 he married Katherine Carey, the eldest daughter of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, and later Lord Chamberlain. Howard received the title of Earl in October 1596. Like his father-in-law, he too was a cousin of the monarch and, therefore, he occupied several important positions during her reign, such as Ambassador to France, representative of Surrey in the Parliament, and General of the Horse. Also he suppressed a Catholic rebellion in northern England. He became a knight in 1572 and, a year later, after his father’s death, he received the title of Lord Howard of Effingham. He was at Elizabeth’s deathbed in 1603 and later enjoyed the favours of her successor, James I. He even served as a commissioner at the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.
From 1576 to 1603 he was the patron of an acting company, Nottingham’s Men. Once he was named Lord High Admiral in 1585, the company of actors changed its name as well, becoming thus Lord Admiral’s Men.
He died in 1624, at the age of 88.
Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, Lord Strange
This member of the peerage was the son of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, and Lady Margaret Clifford, granddaughter of Mary Tudor (the sister of Henry VIII) and her second husband, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
He attended the University of Oxford. In 1573, at the age of 14, he was called to Court by the Queen Elizabeth herself, in order to receive a better education. Afterwards, he was summoned to the Parliament of England in his father’s Barony of Strange as Lord Strange.
The earl was a patron of the arts, enjoying music, dance, poetry, and singing, but the theatre was his favourite by far. He offered his patronage to such writers as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, and Robert Greene. Furthermore, he is the one who spotted Shakespeare’s gift for the world of entertainment. Consequently, it is believed that Lord Strange employed Shakespeare as an actor and playwright in the early years of the former’s company, when his troupe of acrobats and tumblers was reorganised in 1592, with a clear emphasis on acting. By the last decade of the 16th century, Strange’s Men and Admiral’s Men allied and performed together at The Theatre (raised by James Burbage). After his father’s death in 1593, Stanley was made the 5th Earl of Derby. Thus, Lord Strange’s Men changed their name to Derby’s Men.
According to Henry VIII’s will, Ferdinando was second-in-line heir to Elizabeth, following after his mother but, unfortunately, he died mysteriously in 1594.
THE WORLD OF THE THEATRE
This subchapter focuses precisely on the things that gave me the idea to write a diploma paper on this subject, namely what happens “behind the scene.” It will provide several pieces of general information about theatres before moving on to writing about particular playhouses.
The playhouse
Appearance
The public theatre was usually either a round, octagonal or (less often) square wooden structure. Its basic design, as shown by most of the sketches depicting the interior of a playhouse, was an unroofed central pit surrounded by three levels of roofed galleries containing seats. The platform stage projected into the courtyard so that it was surrounded by the central arena and by the galleries on three sides. The building could accommodate approximately 2,000-3,000 people. Besides, the entire surface of the yard seems to have been covered with hazelnut shells, which indicates that these were the ancestors of present day popcorn. Moreover, this covering was very useful, as it absorbed the moisture when it rained, so that people would not get their feet wet.
Because this open-air structure depended on natural lighting, all performances took place in the afternoon at three o’clock in the summer and two o’clock in the winter. In addition to that, when a play was to be held, a flag was raised on top of the playhouse as a signal that announced the event.
Seating
This aspect was determined by one’s social status. Normally, each person paid a penny for admission. Still, for some extra pennies, one would sit in the galleries, being thus protected from the London rain. One extra penny was required if one wanted to sit on a cushion in one of the galleries. The wealthier patrons of the theatre were the most likely to fill those seats. The poorer spectators, also known as the “groundlings,” simply stood in the courtyard that surrounded the stage.
A modern audience at the Globe Theatre
Despite these common features, there were also some differences between outdoor and indoor theatres regarding this aspect. Namely, in the former the poorest members of the audience sat closest to the stage, whereas the richest sat behind them in the galleries. In the indoor theatres, the situation was reversed, i.e. the cheapest places were in the upper galleries, while the most expensive seats were those in front of the stage. In the arena that surrounded the stage there were benches which cost up to three times more than the seats in the galleries. Private theatres also featured boxes on each side of the stage, and those were the most expensive seats of all, often reserved for the royalty. In addition to that, there was the possibility to sit on the stage itself, in case one desired to be seen by the other members of the audience. In outdoor theatres, the fee for best seats was 3 pence, whereas indoor playhouses required a 6 pence entrance fee.
Dialogue
Without an elaborate stage setting on which to focus their attention, Elizabethan audiences were forced to listen more closely to the actors’ dialogue, in order to understand the action and the meaning of a play. Thus, the playwright made a great effort to se poetic dialogue that would illustrate a picture of the scene that he wished his audience to visualise (for example, Shakespeare wrote in blank verse). Consequently, playwrights relied on their audience’s imagination.
The dialogue of the characters would not only sound pleasing but it included all the information that was needed for the audience to know the time and place of the action, as well as the characters’ identities and even physical appearance. Consequently, when presented with a young male actor portraying characters such as Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona, or Bel-Imperia, the audience was expected to look beyond the actor’s appearance and concentrate instead on the lovely, graceful lady described by the lines uttered. Soliloquies, too, were employed to reveal the texts’ characters and plot to the spectators. For the same purpose, actors also made use of asides, in which he character “thinks aloud” without the notice of the other characters on stage.
Costumes, properties and scenery
Elizabethan actors used costumes to help their audience understand the action of a play. The actors wore elaborate and colourful costumes that often identified a character as a member of a certain social class, profession, or meaningful group in the play. For instance, a crown and purple robe (purple being the royal colour) would immediately make the audience think of a king. Thus, in order to exchange places with another character (especially when one played two parts in the same play) or conceal his identity, all an actor had to do was change his costume.
According to Henslowe’s Diary, costumes required large sums of money, given the fact that they were made of expensive materials like silk, damask, satin and velvet, which, even though they were sometimes not of the finest quality, were still very costly. It appears that, whereas for a new text a playwright received £ 5-6, a single costume could cost even four times a much. “Henslowe, for instance, spent £ 21, a huge sum then, on velvet, satin and taffeta for a single play on Cardinal Wolsey (…) in 1601.” Therefore, the costumes had to be very well taken care of, given that the company’s finances were not unlimited. In Philip Henslowe’s Diary, there are mentioned materials such as satin, taffeta and cloth of gold and in the very same inventory are included cloaks, jerkins, breeches and so forth.
With respect to the scenery, one should say that it referred to the various flats, cloths and other scenic pieces used to suggest a particular location or context on stage. It must be added that it was very scarce and therefore the audience’s imagination was the playwrights’ essential ally. As the stage was rather small, there was little space for scenery and, thus, the acting company resorted to simple objects that could give the spectators an idea about what they represent, e.g. a tree meant a forest, two chairs illustrated the interior of a room, a table with bottles and glasses indicated a tavern, “a table stood for a room, (…) and a crown for a king.” In addition to that, some pieces of information about the scenery could be inferred from the lines of the text performed, e.g.
When Burbage played, the stage was bare
Of fount and temple, tower and stair;
Two backswords eked a battle out;
Two suppers made a rabble rout;
The throne of Denmark was a chair.
As usual, Henslowe’s Diary provides some information regarding this aspect. Thus, in it he mentions that the Admiral’s Men, while acting at the Rose, owned “a pair (i.e. flight) of stairs, two steeples, a beacon, an assortment of ‘dead limbs,’ a bay tree, two mossy banks, a snake, a tree of golden apples, a rainbow, two coffins, [and] a dragon.” To this, one could add “tombs, a chariot, a bedstead, and other properties fairly often used, but also two steeples, several trees, two moss-banks, a hell-mouth, and the city of Rome.”
Elements of the theatre
The “Tiring House”
To put it in plain words, this feature of the Elizabethan theatre represented more or less what is nowadays known as “behind the scenes.” Namely, it was situated at the back of the stage, hidden by a curtain. This was the place where actors changed their outfits (their attire, hence the name) and from where they made their entrances during the play. Nevertheless, it was more than just backstage, “it was the stage itself,” that is to say it was used for scenes that implied a hidden place, such as Juliet’s tomb, the witches’ cave in Macbeth or the scene in which Ferdinand and Miranda are revealed all of a sudden playing chess. On either side of the curtain there were two doors, where the characters entered or disappeared during the play. The “Tiring House” could fulfil many functions, as it could be employed in order to represent a castle, a forest, a sea shore, or houses and shops in a street. Also these two doors could represent two different countries, for instance England and France. In short, the “Tiring House” and the stage on the whole represented whatever the playwright said it did, since the majority of the props were “provided” by the audience’s imagination.
Above the “Tiring House” there was a smaller stage, called simply “upper stage,” and it was used by musicians. In addition to that, the upper stage was also used during performances, e.g. it stood for Juliet’s balcony or the walls of a town. Behind the upper stage there were the Lords’ Rooms, from where wealthy patrons saw the play and in return, they were seen by the other members of the audience.
The ”Heavens” and the “Hell”
These were two features of the Elizabethan theatre and could be included in the category of means of obtaining special effects. The “Heaven” reminds one of the ancient Greek “dues ex machina” (“the god in the machine”), namely a character that was lowered on the stage and whose intervention changed the events of the play in a positive way. Something similar happened in the case of “Heavens,” as it was a feature which allowed gods, fairies and properties to appear on stage in a more particular way than just entering through the doors of the “Tiring House.” The side which faced the stage was painted in such a way that bit would depict the sun, the moon, the stars, and the zodiac (hence the name “Heavens”).
The “Heavens” of the new Globe Theatre
If there was a heaven, obviously a “Hell” was required. It was represented by a trap door in the stage and this allowed ghosts, witches, demons and other evil characters to make their appearance in the performance. In his play All Fools (1605), George Chapman wrote a few lines in the prologue that refer to the nature of the stage effects made possible by the use of these two features:
The fortune of a Stage (like Fortune’s self)
Amazeth greatest judgements; and none knows
The hidden causes of those strange effects
That rise from this Hell, or fall from this Heaven.
Music and special effects
Even though in that era theatre performances were still a novelty, it does not mean that they were backward. Music was very important in creating the atmosphere of a scene and, therefore, a group of musicians/singers was always present, situated most often on the upper stage. Sound effects were produced with the help of musical instruments. Henslowe’s Diary mentions that the Admiral’s men had 3 trumpets, a drum, a treble and bass viol, a bandare, sackbut, timbrels, and a chime of bells. Hautboys, lutes, citerns and pipes were also to be fond in the inventory of an acting company.
Besides, although their finances were rather limited, the acting companies did their best in creating various special effects that would make their texts ever more interesting and catchy for the audience. Thus, when it came to gory scenes, blood was released from bladders and sponges concealed under the actors costume. When natural elements were required by the texts, these could be provided too, for instance fog was created by releasing smoke from under the stage, lightening was represented by fireworks and thunder either by drums or by rolling a bullet over a sheet of metal. Night scenes were suggested by actors carrying torches and battle scenes.
The audience
The theatre was a new experience for the people. Consequently, it was no wonder that they crowded into those spaces to enjoy the charge of a live performance. They liked it precisely because they were shown every kind of human experience and emotion.
Due to the fact that the entrance fee at the public theatres was merely one penny (a worker gained 12 pence per week), everybody could get in and watch a play. Crowds were more and more numerous with every performance. Yet, it appears that on 3rd March 1592, Shakespeare reached number one in “box office,” with Henry VI Part 1, when there were approximately 2,000 people in the crowd. Among the spectators, one could always find sailors, butchers, bakers, tanners, tailors, blacksmiths and chandlers, who also brought with them their families and apprentices.
The audience’s reaction was spontaneous and noisy, since they always either encouraged the characters they liked or they booed, hissed and cursed at the villains presented on the stage. During the performances, the audience drank beer or ale, some people ate nuts, pies or fruit. Sometimes, the food they had brought with them was thrown at the characters they disliked. Occasionally, they even walked on stage and started fighting the evil characters, a behaviour explained either by their inability to make the distinction between reality and imagination or by their (perhaps too) deep involvement in the action of the play.
Whenever it rained, the spectators continued to stand with their feet in the puddles and goggle at the stage, provided they liked the play. And, in order to make sure they liked the play, the playwright interrupted the tragedy and sent the clown on stage to sing, dance and say all sorts of jokes that would entertain the audience.
The interaction between the actors and the audience was much more intense in those days than it is nowadays. In modern times, the stage is lit by numerous spotlights that cast a powerful light on the performers, while the audience sits in a darkened room. In the Elizabethan times, however, the sun cast the same amount of light on both actors and spectators, and this enhanced the communion between the two. Besides, the actors were free to get close to the audience and, by means of soliloquies and asides, they addressed the crowd (seemingly) directly, involving thus the audience in the play.
With regard to their interests, one must say that the Elizabethan public loved a good stage fight and bloody scenes. “They delighted in a good skilful display of target-fighting, fencing, or broadsword; they marvelled at stage thunder and lightning and at the rumble of a storm counterfeited by drums behind the scenes, and naturally the dramatists gave these to them in good measure. As soon as audiences began to develop other tastes, the dramatists altered their methods.” This naturally led to the development of a gory literature and to the appearance of the so-called “blood and thunder” tragedy specific to the Elizabethan period illustrated by such works as Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Macbeth, Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and so forth.
Censorship and the Master of the Revels
Regardless of how much the audience liked one play or another, before it was actually performed in front of them, the play was supposed to pass a test, namely to get the approval of the Master of the Revels. He worked for the Lord Chamberlain, the person who was in charge with the entertainment at Court. The Master of the Revels was “the key figure in the licensing and censorship of professional drama in the time of Shakespeare and down to the closing of the theatres in 1642.”
His main attribution was to watch the play before it reached the public stage and, afterwards, give his consent that the text did not offend the royalty or people’s morals and beliefs. He also had to make sure the play did not hide any understatement that would encourage the people to rebel against the Queen and, furthermore, against the system. In order to give his consent to a play, the acting company had to pay a fee (initially seven shillings). In addition to that, the Master of the Revels decided when a theatre should be closed (because of an irregularity or because of the plague) and when it should be re-opened.
In 1579, Edmund Tilney was appointed Master of the Revels, a position he would hold until his death in 1610. Besides being born in a wealthy family, he was a distant relative of the Lord Admiral’s too. Before being given this position, he was a Member of Parliament for the town of Gatton, Surrey, a seat controlled by the Howards.
In 1581, the monarch gave Tilney a special assignment, which entitled him
“to warne commaunde and appointe in all places within this our Realm of England, as well within francheses and liberties as without, all and every plaier or plaiers with their playmakers, either belonging to any noble man or otherwise, bearinge the name or names of using the facultie of playmakers or plaiers of Comedies, Tragedies, Enterludes or whatever other showes soever, from tyme to tyme and at all tymes to appeare before him with such plaies, Tragedies, Comedies or showes as they shall in readiness or meane to sett forth, and them to recite before our said Servant or his sufficient deputie, whom we ordeyne appointe and aucthorise by these presentes of all suche showes, plaies, plaiers and playmakers, together with their playing scenes, to order and reforme, aucthorise and put downe, as shalbe thought meete or unmeete unto himself or his said deputie in that behalf.”
In 1583, as Master of the Revels, he organised an acting company under the Queen’s patronage (whose name was, obviously, the Queen’s Men). Among its members there was the famous comedian Richard Tarlton, who after a brief while became the Queen’s absolute favourite. During the second part of his career (towards the end of the century), Tilney received more attributions, i.e. he decided which play could be staged and which could not. Moreover, in 1589, he advised the Mayor of London to close the theatres, because he suspected that some of the playwrights were involved in the Martin Marprelate scandal. After Queen Elizabeth’s death, he gave up his position, but continued to be involved in the management of the Office of the Revels.
Before his becoming Master of the Revels, this institution was very badly organised and the money allotted to it were mainly wasted on bad investments. Therefore, Edmund Tilney is remembered as the one who turned the Office of the Revels in a prosperous institution, an institution that enjoyed a great authority in London for many years to follow.
THEATRES
Although acting was an old and popular pastime, playhouses as such did not exist. The acting companies had to tour the country in search of an audience. The inn courts were the venues where performances took place most often. “Unlike the free space of a town market, where the stage was open to all, the inn courts could prevent access to the performance until the customer had paid his or her cash for it.”
There were two types of theatres, namely outdoor, or “public,” and indoor, or “private.” Both were open to anyone who could pay, but the private ones cost more, were smaller and had a more select audience.
General features of outdoor/public theatres
Though they appeared at a different time, there were several features that these theatres had in common. To begin with, one must say that they varied in size, the largest one seating about 2-3,000 people. Moreover, they had various shapes (round, rectangular, octagonal) in order to distinguish themselves from one another. Also, all public theatres had a “pit” or a “yard” in the centre – where the “groundlings” were (poor people who still afforded to pay the entrance fee). This was an unroofed space, surrounding the stage on three sides, enclosed by three tiers of roofed galleries. The general admission for the yard cost less, whereas a seat in the gallery obviously was more expensive. There were probably also some private galleries. With respect to the stage, it was raised 1-1, 50 metres from the ground and it extended to the centre of the yard. In addition to that, there were a “Heavens” and a “Hell” and both were used for special effects, such as flying, in the case of the former, or fire, smoke and devils in the case of the latter.
At the back of the stage, there was something specific to that age, namely a “Tiring House,” a place where actors would change their clothes and wait for their turn in the performance. There were two doors in the “Tiring House,” which represented two different locations, e.g. France and England. Above the “Tiring House” there was a hut, in which equipment and machinery were stored. On top of the hut there was a flag which signalled the day in which a performance would take place. Below the hut, on the third level, there was the musicians’ gallery. Perhaps there were also two playing levels, an upper and a lower one, and the audience may have sat at the second level.
First generation of playhouses
The Theatre
Before 1576 there did not exist a place that served only for putting on plays. Vagrant actors simply travelled the country and stopped every once in a while and set up a small stage in the courts of inns, where they were sure that an audience would come to watch their performance. Hence the accusations of the Puritans’ and of the City’s authorities that actors were rogues and that everywhere they went they gathered large numbers of people which later led to outbursts of plague.
In order to put an end to this mentality, one man came up with the idea of erecting a building specific for this type of entertainment. That man was James Burbage, who in 1576 raised the first purpose-built playhouse, which he called simply “The Theatre.” “He chose the name at a time when ‘theatre’ was the word not for a playhouse but for an atlas, a book of maps. Burbage chose the name as a reminder of Rome’s theatres and amphitheatres, and as a reminder of the classical grandeur that was Rome which he was now trying to recreate in London.”
The Theatre opened in the autumn of 1576, most likely as a “residence” for Leicester's Men, the acting company of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester of which James Burbage was a member. Later on, in the 1580s the Admiral's Men, of which James Burbage's son, Richard, was a member, took up residence. After a disagreement between the company and young Burbage, most of the company left for the Rose Theatre which was under the management of Philip Henslowe.
With respect to its appearance, it must be said that the Theatre’s shape was polygonal, namely it had 20 sides, and its outside diameter was approximately 35 metres. Moreover, it had three levels of galleries, a couple of stairs that facilitated the access to the galleries and a roofed stage. The stage was surrounded by the galleries on three sides, enhancing thus the interaction between the actors and the members of the audience, known as the “groundlings,” due to the fact that they were standing in the yard in front of the stage.
The Theatre initially housed several acting companies of the time. But, after a number of years, i.e. in 1594, it became the headquarters of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, given that its owner, James Burbage, was the father of the company’s leading actor, Richard Burbage. A large number of plays were staged here, taking into consideration the fact that a different play was performed every afternoon, in order to keep the audiences interested. As it is to be expected, Shakespeare was the main provider of plays. Nevertheless, the actors staged texts written by other authors also, such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd etc.
When James Burbage found the perfect spot where to build the Theatre, he did not own the sufficient amount of money in order to purchase it, but rather he leased it from its owner, for a period of 21 years. Initially it seemed a good business, but as the expiry date approached, it started to become a problem, especially since the owner, Giles Allen, did not accept to renew the contract. Therefore, Burbage had to find a solution to this issue. In the end, he decided to pull down the building and move its timbers on the southern bank of the river Thames, where he, his sons and other men built a new playhouse, called the Globe.
This first attempt to provide the travelling companies of actors with a stable place for their performances later gave birth to a trend. Thus, another eight playhouses were erected between 1576 and 1642. These theatres resembled more or less the original Theatre.
The Rose
It was built in 1587, on the southern bank of the river Thames, a place with an ill reputation, as all the taverns and brothels were situated there. However, as was previously stated, theatres did not enjoy a favourable opinion from the City authorities and thus the managers were forced to erect their playhouses as far as possible from the City limits. Its manager was Philip Henslowe, who was the father-in-law of Edward Alleyn, the leading actor of the Lord Admiral’s Men. These two men were in charge of the Rose theatre, turning it into one of the most famous playhouses in London and the main rival of Burbage’s Theatre.
The Rose was a fourteen-sided polygon and resembled the bear-baiting arenas rather than the amphitheatres. One explanation for this might be that previous to owning the Rose, Henslowe and Alleyn were the owners of a bear garden. Another justification for its appearance is perhaps the owners’ wish that their theatre would not to look like its rival, but that is merely personal speculation. Furthermore, the Rose seems to have been much smaller than the Theatre, namely, it was about two thirds its size.
On the whole, it shared the features of all the playhouses of the times, i.e. it had three levels of galleries, a “Tiring House,” a yard in front of the stage, surrounding it on three sides and it also lacked a roof above the yard. All these facts, in addition to other pieces of information, are provided by Philip Henslowe’s Diary, actually more of an account book, in which he recorded every purchase and every detail connected to his playhouse (e.g. “the companies that performed there, the titles of their plays, and the takings from their performances”), a “diary” that proves very useful nowadays for the people interested in finding out more about life in the Elizabethan era, with a focus on the world of the theatre and all it involved.
A picture of the Rose theatre, as provided by C. Walter Hodges
In 1594, only two of the playhouses that existed in London received permission to be used by professional acting companies, namely the Theatre and the Rose, which were assigned to the two rival companies, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men and Lord Admiral’s Men respectively. This happened due to the influence these two patrons had in the Privy Council, that is to say the Lord Chamberlain was in charge with licensing the plays, whereas his son-in-law, the Lord Admiral, was the commander of the English fleet. Therefore, permission was granted to their “servants” to have a stable headquarters where to put on their plays.
After a while, Alley and Henslowe built another playhouse, the Fortune, thus deserting the Rose. It appears that it was used by Worcester’s Men in 1602-1603 and it may have been pulled down in 1606.
The Curtain
The Curtain was raised in 1577, one year after the Theatre, within about 200 yards south of the former and it looked very much like its neighbour. Its owner was Henry Lanman, but this playhouse is very often associated with James Burbage and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, as they rented it in order to perform there after the lease for the Theatre had expired, namely in 1597. However, they deserted it in 1599 when their new “residence,” the Globe Theatre, was finished and ready for use.
After Queen Elizabeth I’s death, it housed Queen Anne’s Men (formerly known as the Worcester’s Men). Though it never became extremely famous, the Curtain was the longest standing playhouse in London, being used until late 1620s.
2. Second generation of playhouses
The Swan
The Swan was, chronologically, the first of the second generation of playhouses and the fourth purpose-built theatre in London, as it was erected in 1595 on Bankside and its owner was Francis Langley. Its design is known to theatre historians and Elizabethan scholars due to a sketch of its interior made by a Dutch visitor to England, Johannes de Witt. It must be added that this sketch is the only actual picture of the interior of a playhouse, as a consequence of firs-hand experience, whereas all the other images of the interiors of theatres are merely reconstructions, based on several pieces of information inferred from diverse sources.
The sketch of the interior of the Swan Theatre, as drawn by Johannes de Witt
The main acting company that the Swan housed was Pembroke’s Men, but their production of the satirical play The Isle of Dogs (1597) caused the suspension of dramatic performances there for some months. Various sporting contests and exhibitions also took place in the late 1590, while Lady Elizabeth’s Men, led by Philip Henslowe, performed two years there before moving to the Hope Theatre in 1614. After 1621 it seems to have been used only for prize fights and by 1632 it was no longer in use.
The Fortune
The Fortune theatre was raised in about the same period as the Globe and the Swan, to name only the most famous. Its owners were Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn. It was erected in order to house the Lord Admiral’s Men after the Rose was beginning to show its age. The Fortune was situated in Shoreditch, some kilometres east from Burbage’s Globe. Furthermore, the Fortune’s managers hired the very same man who built the rival theatre one year before (i.e. in 1599) in order to make another one for them as well, a sign that indicates that their competition was still strong.
With regard to its physical appearance, the Fortune resembled the Globe very much, taking into consideration that the same man designed them both. However, there was one thing that distinguished it among the theatres of the age, namely its rectangular shape, as can be seen in the picture above. In addition to that, “the columns of the main frame and stage were to be carved so as to present the appearance of one of the classical orders, and to be decorated with figures, half-man, half-goat, drawn from classical mythology.” But concerning all the other features, it was exactly like all the other playhouses. It also had three levels of galleries, as well as a central pit, a “Tiring House” and attracted a large audience whenever a play was put on.
After Henslowe’s death in 1616, Alleyn took over. Unluckily, in December 1621 the Fortune was not so fortunate and burned to the ground, destroying also all the plays and the properties. Nevertheless, the Fortune was reconstructed in 1623, but it did not enjoy much popularity once Alleyn died in 1626.
The Globe
The traditional picture of the first Globe Theatre, 1599
How it appeared
A piece of writing on the Elizabethan theatre and its features is incomplete, if one does not mention at least a few general things about the most famous theatre in that period, that is The Globe Theatre. Built by carpenter Peter Smith and his workers, The Globe was the most magnificent theatre that London had ever seen. It was built between 1597 and 1598. It was situated on the southern bank of the river Thames, in Southwark, “London’s dark side,” full of inns, brothels, bull- and bear-baiting gardens, as well as bowling alleys. Maps of London clearly show the architecture of the Globe Theatre, and these have enabled an approximate picture of the old Globe Theatre to be drawn. However, there does not exist a single inside picture of this magnificent playhouse.
According to Andrew Gurr, “[t]he Globe’s name was a logical extension of its predecessor, the Theatre. In its three-dimensional form, an atlas or ‘theatre’ of the world was indeed a globe, and just as the stage was said to mirror the world, so the theatre of the world could become a globe.” This type of correspondences and metaphorical meanings were a common feature of Elizabethan decoration. Another such example is the Globe’s crest that shows Hercules carrying a huge globe on his shoulders. Furthermore, the playhouse’s motto is “Totus mundus agit histrionem,” meaning “the whole world is a playhouse,” a phrase which Shakespeare slightly rephrased in his As You Like It, turning it into the famous “All the world’s a stage.” The Globe opened its gates to the public in the afternoon of 12th June 1599. It appears that the first play ever to be performed there was Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Features
The Globe was literally “born” out of the Theatre’s timbers. When the latter’s lease expired in 1596, the landlord, Giles Allen, refused utterly to renew the lease for James Burbage provided the former’s hatred towards acting and all it involved. Therefore, Burbage gathered a crew of men and demolished the Theatre, moving all its components on the other side of the river Thames, where he had obtained a 35-year lease, thus founding what was to become the Globe.
The new theatre’s architecture was based on the great structures of classic antiquity. The design was based on a structure similar to the Coliseum in Ancient Rome. Classic Greek and Roman architecture was admired by the Elizabethans and sometimes great columns framed the entrances of many great Elizabethan houses. Two great columns were included in the architecture of the Elizabethan theatres which were called “Herculean” columns or pillars – these were elaborately painted to resemble marble. The architecture of the Globe theatre was deliberately designed to reflect easily recognisable elements of Roman or Greek architecture thus elevating the bad reputation of plays and actors to the much admired Greek or Roman classical plays. Initially, it had been assumed that the Globe Theatre had been an octagonal shaped building. But recent archaeological evidence and other documents (such as the Hollar map) indicate that it was actually a 20-sided building.
The Hollar map of London, including the Globe Theatre in the centre
The building materials used to be timber, nails, plaster and thatch for the roof. The fashionable and practical black and white half timbered style of architecture was used. The Globe Theatre was framed with vertical timbers, supported by other diagonal ones. The wattle walls were daubed with mortar and whitewash was then applied. This process resulted in the highly distinctive black and white half-timbered Elizabethan style of architecture. The Globe Theatre, as indeed all Elizabethan theatres, had a thatched roof. The material used to make a thatched roof was either straw or reeds.
Since it was such a magnificent amphitheatre, the Globe could hold several thousand people. It had an open arena design and structure, so actors would also get wet if it rained. The stage structure projected halfway into the “yard” where the commoners (“groundlings”) paid one penny to stand to watch the play. They would have crowded around the 3 sides of the stage structure.
With respect to the overall design and structure of the Globe, the open air arena, had a raised stage at one end and was surrounded by three tiers of roofed galleries with balconies overlooking the back of the stage. The stage was supported by large pillars and it projected halfway into the yard. There was something else about the stage at the Globe, namely, it was set in a particular way, not without reason. It was positioned with its back to the sun, for the simple (and clever) reason that the ultra-violet light of the sun harmed the costumes made of expensive materials as much as did the rain. Therefore, the actors were forced to perform in shadow. Nevertheless, this did not have a negative effect upon the audience, as its number increased with every play.
Immediately above stage wall was the stage gallery that was used by actors (e.g. as Juliet's balcony) and by the members of the nobility – these were known as “Lord's rooms.” They were considered the best seats in the “house” despite the poor view of the back of the actors. The audience would have a good view of the Lords. And the Lords were able to hear the actors clearly. There were additional balconies on the left and right of the “Lord's rooms” which were called the “Gentlemen's rooms.” These were used by the rich patrons of the Globe Theatre. Above the “Tiring House” there was a small house-like structure called the “hut,” completed with a roof. This was used as covered storage space for the troupe.
The Lords’ and the Gentlemen’s rooms
Regarding the access to the galleries, there were two sets of stairs. The stairways could also be external to the main structure to give maximum seating space. The seats in each of the three levels of galleries were tiered with three rows of wooden benches, increasing in size towards the back, following the shape of the building and structure. The galleries were covered affording some shelter from the elements of nature.
The galleries
The fire and the re-building
The Globe was only in use until 1613, when on 29th June a fire broke out at the Globe Theatre. The cannon used for special effects, such as heralding great entrances, was loaded with gunpowder and wadding. The thatched roof caught on fire and the Globe Theatre burned to the ground. It is not known whether there were any casualties but there must have been some panic. In 1614 the Globe Theatre was rebuilt (referred to as the second Globe).
The second Globe. This engraving is by Wenceslaus Hollar, and probably dates from the 1630's.
The reconstruction of the Globe
The second Globe Theatre was demolished by the Puritans in 1644. Afterwards, in 1647 even stricter rules were passed regarding stage plays and theatres. This culminated in 1648 when all playhouses were ordered to be pulled down. All players were to be seized and whipped, and anyone caught attending a play to be fined five shillings. Nevertheless, with the Restoration of the English monarchy and the demise in the power of the Puritans in 1660 the theatres finally opened again. But the Globe was never re-built, until the site of the old Globe theatre was rediscovered in the 20th century.
The new Globe Theatre was opened in 1997, about two hundred yards from the original site. It has lime plastered walls and a thatched roof, imitating the original in every possible detail. The two pillars that support the stage were painted to look as if they were made of marble. The Globe Theatre is a faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599. However, it is important to remember that the present-day Globe does not resemble its namesake entirely, at least concerning its seating capacity (the new Globe can accommodate 1,500 people, whereas the old one could seat twice as much).
The theatre season runs from May to September with productions of the work of Shakespeare, his contemporaries and modern authors. The Globe Theatre Company rediscovers each year the dynamic relationship between the audience and the actor in this unique building. The acting company that performs mostly at the new Globe is the Royal Shakespeare Company, “a British theatre company, founded in 1960 when the company at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon was reorganized.” Despite their name, they do not perform only plays written by the Bard, but also texts written by other authors, as well as modern plays. This company of actors included at a certain point famous actors such as Kenneth Branagh (known for his several roles in filmic adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, e.g. Othello [Iago], Hamlet [Hamlet], Henry V [Henry V], Much Ado About Nothing [Benedick], Love Labour’s Lost [Berowne]) and Joseph Fiennes (who starred in The Merchant of Venice as Bassanio and in other films whose action takes place in the Elizabethan era, e.g. Elizabeth (1998) and Shakespeare in Love). In an interview with one of the directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Gregory Doran, he draws a comparison between his company and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, saying that “This season they [the members of his crew] are doing 151 performances. They [Lord Chamberlain’s Men] would do 150 performances over the same period. But whereas we are doing 5 plays, they did 38 plays, 21 of which were new.”
Nevertheless, The Globe also welcomes international theatre companies to share the impact Shakespeare’s plays have had worldwide. Today, the audiences of this “wooden O” sit in a gallery or stand informally in the yard as a “groundling,” just as they would have done 400 years ago.
A play performed at the 1997 Globe Theatre, with people either standing or sitting in the galleries
B. General features of indoor/private theatres
Less information can be found about Elizabethan indoor playhouses as compared to the public ones, given the fact that the former were fewer during this historical period. However, using the little available information concerning them, one can get an idea about how they looked and how they were different from the public theatres. Indoor playhouses appeared as a solution for the acting companies who wanted to put on plays not only in summer, but also in winter, when it was too cold to be outside. By the time of Shakespeare, the actors had achieved a rather satisfactory level of social and financial stability. Therefore, they could afford to buy the land on which the building was situated, as well as the theatre itself. Those who indeed owned the theatre building were known as “householders.”
To begin with, one of the main characteristics of indoor venues is that they were smaller and roofed, i.e. everyone was protected from the bad weather, not only the people who sat in the galleries. Moreover, their size was between a quarter and a half of the seating capacity of the outdoor playhouses. The spectators sat in the galleries or in private boxes, as well as in the central arena. The stage was similar to the one in the public theatres. Speaking of stage, one must add that it was occasionally lined with candles, and thus the indoor venues no longer depended on natural daylight.
The stage of an indoor playhouse (Stage Beauty, 2004)
The private theatre developed more during the Stuart dynasty. Consequently, their popularity grew more between 1610 and 1642. By 1642 there were already six private playhouses in London alone.
The Blackfriars
The first playhouse to belong to this category was actually a former monastery, called the Blackfriars. Initially it housed companies of boy actors, but it was closed by 1584. Yet, the new Blackfriars theatre was opened by James Burbage, who purchased it in 1596, as a venue for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, who were on the verge of losing the Theatre, because its lease was about to expire. Even after building the Globe and after the new dynasty came to throne (thus changing their name into the King’s Men), this acting company did not give up the Blackfriars. On the contrary, they used it for their performances during the cold months, whereas the Globe served them during the five warm months of the year.
There were several reasons why this theatre was tolerated by the authorities within the City walls. First of all, it was an old monastic venue, which made it somehow more respectable in the eyes of the Mayor and of the Aldermen. Secondly, the old Blackfriars was situated in the best neighbourhood in London, in the vicinity of the Master of the Revels’ office to be more precise. Thirdly, due to James Burbage who modelled the building after his Theatre, the Blackfriars was ready to welcome a much more select audience than all the other theatres in Southwark.
With respect to its appearance, one must state from the very beginning that, as all indoor theatres to follow, it had a roof above the central yard. Otherwise, it resembled the public amphitheatres very much, since it also had a “Tiring House,” an upper stage used usually by the musicians and occasionally during performances and a large audience most often. The differences consisted in the size of the stage and the lack of the two pillars which supported the stage encountered in the outdoor playhouses.
Seating in an indoor playhouse (Stage Beauty, 2004)
Another novelty (besides the roof) was that the central arena was filled with benches on which richer members of the audience would sit, while the poorer would occupy the seats in the galleries. This was simply a matter of finance, since the price of the ticket rose as one desired a seat nearest to the stage (as it has been ever since). Given the fact that the rich wanted to be as close to the actors as possible and enjoy the interaction between actor and spectator, no wonder they were ready to pay. In addition to that, a feature that was specific to the indoor theatres was represented by the two boxes which flanked the stage. Those were the most expensive seats of all.
A sketch of the interior of the old Blackfriars playhouse
After Queen Elizabeth I’s death, it remained a fashionable theatre and it was used more and more often by the King’s Men. Unfortunately, it was demolished in 1638. Nevertheless, a present-day replica was erected in Staunton, Virginia in 2001, which appears to be the only replica of this playhouse in the entire world. The new Blackfriars houses the American Shakespeare Centre, a theatre company that stages The Bard’s plays in front of a large audience. The actors who perform there use a simple stage, without elaborate sets, and with the audience sharing the same light as the actors, wishing to recreate the conditions that existed in the period of Elizabeth and, later, the Stuarts.
VIII. A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE OLD THEATRES AND THE NEW ONES – which features are left and which have disappeared?
All throughout this diploma paper there have been mentioned several features specific to the Elizabethan theatre, which nowadays have either been transformed or disappeared altogether.
To begin with, one must say that features such as male actors performing female roles, patrons of acting companies and lack of scenery have vanished in modern times. Female actors have been introduced ever since the Restoration period (Edward Kynaston was the last male actor to give life to a woman in a play and Margaret Hughes was the first woman to perform on a public stage). Moreover, the quality of acting has improved and the fake, stagy interpretations are long gone, precisely due to the presence of women on stage, whose interaction with men makes the action more believable. With respect to the scenery, although nowadays it is not very complex either, it is definitely richer than the one on the Elizabethan stage, which was very minimal, as was mentioned above.
However, many of the characteristics that make up the theatre have been preserved and updated to the tastes and requirements of modern audiences. Thus, the “Tiring House” can still be encountered in the present-day theatres, only under a different name – the “backstage.” Also, the “Heavens” and the “Hell” are still present in a theatre, though they might not have the same name. Music is still employed during plays, only it is heard in the background, instead of being performed by musicians situated above the stage.
Regarding the audience, probably this is one of the biggest differences between then and now. Namely, people no longer stand in front of the stage, they no longer eat during plays, let alone encourage, shout, or curse at the actors they like or dislike respectively. On the contrary, going to the theatre nowadays represents a special occasion, which requires elegant clothing and a certain cultural background. Besides, usually a theatre ticket is more expensive than a cinema one. Taking all these into consideration, the theatre proves to be a more refined pastime than it used to be over four centuries ago.
Although theatres now resemble more the indoor playhouses that appeared towards the beginning of the 17th century and thrived during the Stuart dynasty, one must not forget that theatre as an institution and as one knows it today was founded in the Elizabethan era, the “Golden Age.”
FILM ANALYSIS – Shakespeare in Love (1998)
To my mind, this 1998 production directed by John Madden illustrates best the historical period under discussion, focusing particularly on the world of the theatre and all it involves. Moreover, this film brought me into contact with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare, as well as with several other important people in those times.
The setting
From the very beginning one must say that the action is set in 1593 London. Apart from dealing with William Shakespeare facing writer’s block, it also presents the coming into being of Shakespeare’s famous piece of writing, Romeo and Juliet. The film begins by providing the viewers with some background information about the era,
In the glory days of the Elizabethan theatre two playhouses were fighting it out for writers and audiences. North of the city was the Curtain Theatre, home to England’s most famous actor, Richard Burbage. Across the river was the competition, built by Philip Henslowe (…) …The Rose…
Afterwards, the camera moves from top to bottom, revealing a building, with an open, thatch roof, three levels of galleries. Then the camera moves on to the props on the stage, behind which there is the three-door “Tiring House” and finally stops in the central pit. This brief virtual tour gets the viewers acquainted with the traditional image of an Elizabethan playhouse.
The houses, the Whitehall Palace, the Rose and the Curtain are very well rendered, and this represents a quality of the director, who paid very much attention to even the smallest details, like the boats or the carriages. However, the film does not hesitate to show the darker side of London represented by brothels and taverns, in an attempt to render as faithfully as possible the atmosphere of the time. Furthermore, the costumes are very faithful to various records about Elizabethan fashion, i.e. they are very lavish, elegant and colourful (namely those of Queen Elizabeth and other rich members of the society), but the director also paid attention to the way he portrayed the poorer people of London.
Geoffrey Rush as Philip Henslowe Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I Tom Wilkinson as Hugh Fennyman
In conclusion, as concerns the setting, I can say (somewhat unprofessionally) that this film recreates the Elizabethan era very well, giving the viewers a rather clear idea about how people in those times lived and even about what they looked like.
Acting companies
There are several cultural aspects that this film depicts, for instance, it shows the rivalry between the two major acting companies in those times, the Lord Chamberlain’s and the Lord Admiral’s Men, each of them with its representatives, Richard Burbage and Edward Alleyn respectively, a rivalry that can be easily inferred from lines such as
Philip Henslowe: Burbage, I’ll see you hanged!
Richard Burbage: The Master of the Revels favours us…
or from the scene in which Shakespeare asks Henslowe to lend him £50, that would enable him to become a member of the Lord Admiral’s Men, to which Henslowe replies,
Henslowe: Oh sure, cut out my heart! Throw my liver to the dogs…
Also included in the category of pieces of information about acting companies is the scene in which the Chamberlain’s Men get ready to perform Two Gentlemen of Verona at Whitehall Palace, a scene which gives the viewers an insight into the excitement with which actors were faced when they appeared in front of the Queen in order to entertain her. Rather similar is the scene in which the Admiral’s Men are getting ready in order to perform Romeo and Juliet for the first time in front of a large, anxious crowd. There is another scene involving the Admiral’s Men, which shows them during a rehearsal of the play, i.e. while some of them are on stage uttering their lines, others are either watching them or rehearsing their parts in the “Tiring House” (e.g. a sword fight).
During a rehearsal
Speaking of insights to the world of the acting companies, there is a scene in which Thomas Kent, the actor who gives life to Romeo, interprets his lines about Rosaline with too much passion, and Shakespeare feels the need to tone him down telling him,
Shakespeare: What will you do in Act 2, when he meets the love of his life?
Thomas Kent: I’m very sorry, sir, I have not seen Act 2.
Shakespeare: ‘Course you have not. I have not written it.
This very last line suggests that actors in those times started rehearsing a play before they had the complete text at their disposal, as it is customary nowadays, when actors first read the entire script to gather some information about a particular character and only afterwards do they begin rehearsing the play.
The film also presents a custom that was employed before putting on a new play, namely the author holds a speech in front of the actors, in which he tells them a few things about the text itself, what roles they will get, and encourages them to give their best for the respective play.
Writers
What I also liked about this film is that it does not focus only on the clichés of the English Renaissance. Namely, it does not just mention Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth, but also brings forth authors like Christopher Marlowe and John Webster, as well as actors, e.g. Richard Burbage and Edward Alleyn.
Christopher Marlowe is, to my mind, very well portrayed by Rupert Everett, who embodies a Marlowe very sure of himself, with a talent that allows him to invent a story on the spot, as is the case in the scene where he gives Shakespeare an idea about the plot of the play the latter was supposed to write,
Marlowe: What’s the story?
Shakespeare: Well, there’s this pirate… Truth is I haven’t written a word…
Marlowe: Romeo… Romeo is Italian… always in and out of love…
Shakespeare: Yes, that’s good… until he meets…
Marlowe: Ethel… [the name of the heroine in the initial version of the play]
Shakespeare: D’you think?
Marlowe: The daughter of his enemy!
Shakespeare (already picturing the lines of the play): The daughter of his enemy…
Marlowe: His best friend is killed in a duel by Ethel’s brother… or something… His name is Mercutio!
Shakespeare (more and more enthusiastic): Mercutio! Good name!
Rupert Everett as Christopher Marlowe
John Webster is shown in his early years, when he auditioned for the part of Ethel. At a certain point, Shakespeare talks to him and his reply is,
I was in a play. They cut my head off in Titus Andronicus. When I write plays, they’ll all be like Titus. (…) Plenty of blood… that’s the only writing…
Indeed, John Webster is known for his gory plays, out of which the most famous one is The Duchess of Malfi.
Actors
With respect to the Elizabethan actors, the film presents figures such as Richard Burbage (played by Martin Clunes) and Edward Alleyn (Ben Affleck), two actors who pictured these characters to be very sure of themselves and somewhat cocky, i.e. they only perform the main characters in a play, e.g.
Hugh Fennyman (the “producer” of the play): Who is this?
Edward Alleyn: Silence, you dog! I am Hieronimo. I am Tamburlaine. I am Faustus. I am Barabas, the Jew of Malta… Oh, yes, Master Shakespeare, I am Henry VI. (towards the crowd) What is the play and what is my part?
Fennyman: One moment, sir…
Alleyn: Who are you?
Fennyman: I’m… I’m the money…
Alleyn: Then you may remain, so long as you remain silent. Pay attention! You will see how genius creates a legend.
Shakespeare: We are in desperate need of a Mercutio, Ned, a young nobleman of Verona.
Alleyn: And the title of this piece?
Shakespeare: Mercutio.
Henslowe: Is it?
Shakespeare: Shhh!
Alleyn: I will play him!
Martin Clunes as Richard Burbage Ben Affleck as Edward Alleyn
However, other actors are also mentioned, e.g. Will Kempe (Queen Elizabeth’s favourite jester), Augustine Philips and Henry Pope. The film also introduces to the modern audience other important people of the age, like Edmund Tilney, the Master of the Revels (played by Simon Callow) and Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), two actors who turn these two characters into rather comical figures that delight the public.
Patrick Barlow as Will Kempe Simon Callow as the Master of the Revels
Shakespeare – his life and his rivalry with Marlowe
In addition to what was said above, Shakespeare in Love mentions some information about the playwright’s life. These are delivered to the public either directly (e.g. when Shakespeare visits his “psychologist,” he talks about Anne Hathaway, about her being eight years older than him, about their twins etc.) or more subtly (e.g. in his room, Shakespeare has a mug which reads “A present from Stratford upon Avon,” Shakespeare’s birthplace). Besides, there is a scene in which the viewers see a ritual that Shakespeare supposedly performed before starting to write, namely he spins once, rubs his quill between his palms, spits once at his right, draws his chair and sits at the table ready to write. It is difficult to say whether this routine was actually performed by the Bard but I, for one, incline to believe that it is merely the product of the scriptwriter’s and director’s imagination. Furthermore, in the beginning of the film, Shakespeare is shown practising his signature, a hint to some people’s comment that the playwright might have actually been illiterate and that his works do not, in fact, belong to him, but they are attributed to several people, especially Christopher Marlowe.
Although Marlowe is shown few times in the actual film, his presence is felt all throughout the film. One sees him first in a tavern when he guides Shakespeare in writing his play, Romeo. Afterwards, Hugh Fennyman, the producer of the play, tells Shakespeare to his face,
Fennyman: Mighty writing! There’s no one like Marlowe…
when the former was obviously doing his best in order to write a play which would bring him recognition. Afterwards, during the audition Henslowe gives in order to get actors for Shakespeare’s future play, all the auditioneers quote the famous lines from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus,
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Given that the action takes place in 1593, the issue of Marlowe’s death could not be overlooked. Thus, when a member of the cast tells all the other actors of the Admiral’s Men that he was killed, a thundering silence spoils the crew’s party and it is interrupted only by Alleyn’s words,
Ned Alleyn: He was the first man among us. A great light has gone out.
Nevertheless, they must put behind this sad moment and move on with their play, which in the end proves to be a huge success.
Putting on plays
The entire film revolves around the matter of putting on plays, namely staging Romeo and Juliet, a play which (at least in the film) had several names, starting from Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter and moving on to Romeo and Rosaline, simply Romeo and, finally, Romeo and Juliet.
First of all, although the play tells the story of a couple, the film stresses the idea that women were not allowed to perform on a stage. Nevertheless, Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), the main female character of the film, who is deeply in love with theatre and especially with Shakespeare’s plays (when everybody else prefers Marlowe), is willing to risk her freedom in order to become part of a company of actors. Therefore, she dresses up as a boy, enters Shakespeare’s troupe and even gets the role of Romeo.
Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola de Lesseps and Thomas Kent
However, precisely because of her, the Admiral’s Men get in trouble with the Master of the Revels, who closes down the Rose Theatre because they broke the law which prohibits women to perform on a public stage. Nevertheless, because their love for the theatre and their contempt for their enemies is above everything else, the Admiral’s and the Chamberlain’s Men, though rivals, make a truce,
The Master of the Revels despises us for vagrants, tinkers, and peddlers of bombast. But my father, James Burbage, had the first licence to make a company of players from Her Majesty, and he drew from poets the literature of the age. We must prove them all that we are men of parts. Will Shakespeare has a play. I have a theatre. The Curtain is yours.
Due to this agreement between the two acting companies, the Admiral’s Men managed to stage their new play, Romeo and Juliet, and moreover, it was a real success, taking into consideration the cheers and applauses of the public.
Actors bowing at the end of the performance
Audience
This film renders the audience very well, both regarding their way of dressing and their behaviour. For instance, there is a scene which portrays the mob crowding to see the new play that was being put on at the Curtain Theatre. Afterwards, the people take their seats, according to the fees they have paid,
Fennyman: … five hundred groundlings at tuppence each, in addition four hundred backsides at three pence – a penny extra for a cushion, call it two hundred cushions, say two performances for safety… How much is that, Mr. Frees [Fennyman’s bookkeeper]?
Frees: Twenty pounds to the penny, Mr. Fennyman.
Next, the viewers can see the groundlings gathering around the stage, some of them even leaning on it, and goggling at the actors, trying to capture every word they say. Furthermore, they are very focused on what is being acted on stage and respond emotionally to the various events of the play, i.e. they cry when Juliet stabs herself next to Romeo’s dead body or they laugh their hearts out when William Kempe and his dog, Crab, appear on stage, performing their humorous act.
The audience
Concerning the Elizabethan audience’s tastes, Philip Henslowe expresses it best, when he remarks the crowd’s reaction to the comical scene performed by William Kempe, who interpreted the clown in Two Gentlemen of Verona,
Henslowe: You see? Comedy… Love and a bit with a dog… That’s what they want…
In addition to that, the public in those times also enjoyed a good stage fight, like the one between the Capulet and the Montague boys, in which Mercutio and Tybalt are killed.
A stage fight
All in all, the diverse tastes of the audience can be easily inferred from the rich literature of the Elizabethan age, since writers like Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd and many more wrote in order to greet their public.
Humour
Although the film presents a love story, it is filled with comical remarks, gestures and situations, as well as with many tongue-in-cheek elements.
To begin with, the film abounds in comical remarks, out of which Henslowe’s are by far the funniest. It is difficult to say whether the real Philip Henslowe was actually a funny man, but the scriptwriters (Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard) and probably the actor who interpreted him (Geoffrey Rush) pictured him as a truly hilarious, if a bit silly, character. Almost every line of his brings a smile on the viewers’ face, e.g. when Shakespeare asks him to lend him £50, Henslowe replies,
Henslowe: Cut out my heart! Throw my liver to the dogs!
Similarly, when Henslowe asks Shakespeare whether he has begun writing the play he owes him, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter, Shakespeare starts speaking in verse, but Henslowe spoils his daydream by saying,
Henslowe: We haven’t got the time! Talk prose!
Another such moment occurs when Shakespeare tells the crew how the play is going to end, a finale that saddens them all, since they were all expecting it to be a comedy and, thus, have a happy end. When the playwright ends his summary, Henslowe breaks the silence with one of his usual ironic remarks,
Henslowe: Well, that will have them rolling [with laughter] in the aisle…
One scene in which Henslowe is the protagonist and which I consider particularly funny, even though it is brief, is the audition scene. In order to find actors for the new play, (given that the Admiral’s Men were on tour), Henslowe organises an audition. Therefore, every aspiring actor is supposed to recite a few lines. Since Marlowe was the most popular author at the time, everybody quotes the three typical verses of Doctor Faustus,
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
When one of the auditioneers wants to show that he is formal, educated and very serious about this and says,
Auditioneer: I would like to give you something from Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe…
Henslowe replies serenely, though he is deeply ironic,
Henslowe: How refreshing!
However, his most hilarious line is repeated several times during the film, being uttered particularly when a situation is quite desperate, and it reads,
Henslowe: (Strangely enough) In the end, it all turns out well…
and when the exasperated interlocutor ask the natural question “How?,” he serenely replies,
Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery.
What is even funnier for the film viewers is that, unbeknownst to him, in the end it all does turn out well and a solution appears, even if it sometimes comes out of the blue. For instance, at a certain point, Hugh Fennyman, the moneylender, threatens to torture Henslowe for not paying his debt, money that could only be gathered by putting on a new play. Unfortunately, the theatres had been closed down due to the plague. Nevertheless, in the nick of time, a yeoman appears shouting around the town that the playhouses have been reopened by the order of the Master of the Revels.
Besides Henslowe’s funny lines, there are a number of hilarious situations that make one think of similar present-day situations. To be more specific, in the beginning of the film, Shakespeare goes to see his shrink, to whom he confesses that he is no longer able to write plays. This scene is an obvious example of tongue-in-cheek, since it is very unlikely that people in those times had a psychologist.
Moreover, at a certain moment, the film makes use of two lines that one hears normally in contemporary American films, only they are adjusted to the Elizabethan period. The first one is uttered when Shakespeare follows Thomas Kent (actually Viola de Lesseps dressed up as a boy), when the former jumps in a boat and tells the oarsman,
Shakespeare: Follow that boat!
This in a present-day American film has the word “cab/taxi” instead of “boat.” The second modified line is spoken in the very same scene, only this time it belong to the oarsman, who says,
Oarsman: I had that Christopher Marlowe in my boat once.
much in the same way as taxi drivers brag about some famous people who sat on their backseat.
These are only a few instances of the humour that is sprinkled all over the film, which delights that audience, and which maintains a lively atmosphere even in the most crucial moments.
References to Romeo and Juliet
Given the fact that the film revolves around the coming into being of Romeo and Juliet, it is only natural that there be several references to the original text. All throughout the film, this “unborn” play suffers several changes, starting from the title (Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter turns into Romeo and Juliet), continuing with the plot, and ending with the genre (it was supposed to be a comedy, but it ended up its complete opposite).
With regard to the title, the initial version, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter, though ridiculous for modern viewers, it represented a good title for the audience in that era, since it gave them an insight into the plot of the play. Besides, it told them that one of the characters was a pirate, a kind of character they enjoyed very much. Afterwards, the author changes the title to Romeo and Rosaline, the latter being (at least in the film) Richard Burbage’s seamstress (and mistress, as is shown a bit later in the film), whom Shakespeare feels attracted to. Unfortunately, he discovers that she is a rather easy woman and therefore turns the Rosaline in the play into a flighty girl that simply plays with the hero’s feelings. Lastly, the playwright reaches a final version of the plot, but it is Ned Alleyn (again, at least in the film) who suggests the current name of the main female character. It is difficult to say whether this is the way things really happened more that four centuries ago, but this minor example about changing the title proves that being a writer is not an easy job, but it requires inspiration and plenty of hard work.
Concerning the plot, the viewers find out its initial version from one of the letters the playwright sends to Viola,
Viola: A comedy of quarrelling families reconciled in the discovery of Romeo to be the very same Capulet cousin stolen from the cradle and fostered to manhood by his Montague mother that was robbed of her own child by the Pirate King!
One immediately realises that this plot is very complex and intricate, if a bit ridiculous, let alone the fact that it has basically nothing in common with the final version.
Since the film revolves around this play, any viewer with some knowledge of Shakespeare notices that some lines from the original play are taken out of context and inserted in the film script. Firstly, when Shakespeare and Henslowe head for the Whitehall Palace, where the former’s Two Gentlemen of Verona is to be performed by the Chamberlain’s Men, a Puritan priest is shown preaching in the street about how lewd and vicious theatres are. There is a line in his speech which refers to the Rose playhouse, but which obviously contains a pun that modern viewers observe immediately. Thus, the priest says,
Priest: The Rose smells thusly rank by any name…
This line has been modified from the original which says
Juliet: What's in a name? that which we call a “rose”
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Afterwards the priest continues,
Priest: I say a plague on both their houses.
This second line represents a part of Mercutio’s final words, though they have been slightly modified. The pun included here is easily noticeable. Thus, in the initial text, the “houses” refers to the Montague and Capulet families. However, here, “both their houses” clearly alludes to the two (both) playhouses in London at that time, the Rose and the Curtain.
The Puritan priest denigrating the theatres
Another verse from Romeo and Juliet is used in the film when the balcony scene of the play is recreated. Thus, she, Viola, the rich girl, stands at the balcony thinking of him, while he, Shakespeare, the poor actor and playwright, is in the garden, trying to find a way of seeing his beloved lady again. Realising that he is liable to be punished for daring to simply dream about loving a woman whose social status is above his, he whispers to the sky,
Shakespeare: Oh, I’m fortune’s fool!
This line is the perfect example of a verse taken out of its context, since it was uttered by Romeo after killing Tybalt, but here there is no murder involved. After saying this, Will climbs up the balcony in hopes of finding his beloved, but instead he comes face to face with the nurse, who starts shouting, thus jeopardising the hero’s freedom. Needless to say, their encounter is extremely hilarious.
As was previously mentioned, in the beginning of the film, Shakespeare was said to be attracted by Burbage’s seamstress and mistress. Consequently, when the latter finds out about the former’s treachery, he demands revenge. Thus, he interrupts the rehearsal of the Admiral’s Men by shouting towards Shakespeare,
Burbage: Draw if you be a man!
a line that belongs to Sampson of the Capulet family, who utters it when he and his men provoke the Montagues to a fight. These two contexts are rather similar since they both involve a fight between two rivals. Apparently, only the number of the characters in each context is different.
In conclusion, the play Romeo and Juliet did not turn out what it was supposed to be. It should have been a comedy, but it ended up as a tragedy. It should have been a story of mistaken identities (one of the things the Elizabethan audience enjoyed), but in the end the plot followed a different path. However, all these features that cannot be encountered in this play have been transferred to Shakespeare’s (in the film) next play, The Twelfth Night.
References to other Shakespearean texts
Despite the fact that the piece de resistance of the film is Romeo and Juliet, there are made several references to other Shakespearean texts, as well as plays belonging to other authors, e.g. Marlowe (in the audition scene).
From the very beginning, when the public first meets Shakespeare, he is struggling to coin a signature that will please him. Whole pages of dissatisfying signatures are crumpled and thrown in various parts of the room. One of them lands next to a skull – a reference to the Hamlet stereotype (i.e. Hamlet uttering the To be or not to be speech, holding a skull in his hand, an instance that never occurs in the actual pay, since the To be or not to be speech is in Act3, whereas the skull scene is in Act 5). Another paper ball lands in a chest – alluding to The Merchant of Venice. Finally, the third one lands next to a mug on which is written “A present from Stratford-upon-Avon.”
Shakespeare’s signatures
A while later, there is a scene whose protagonists are Shakespeare and Henslowe. The latter asks the former whether the new play is ready (or whether he has even begun it), to which Shakespeare replies,
Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move…
two lines taken out of Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia in which he pretends to be mad (Act 2, scene 2). In the original play, they are followed by another two lines,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt, I love.
Another reference to a Shakespearean text that I could notice is made in Shakespeare’s letter for lady Viola, a letter which contains a sonnet, a sonnet which begins,
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May…
Any viewer with a minimum of knowledge about Shakespeare realises that that is Sonnet 18, the Bard’s most famous and loved sonnet by far.
Finally, the very last scene of the film blends perfectly fiction (the film’s action) and reality (the beginning and the action of The Twelfth Night), a mixture illustrated by William’s final words, which summarise the unfortunate destiny of the two lovers in the film – William Shakespeare and Viola de Lesseps,
Shakespeare: My story starts at sea…a perilous voyage to an unknown land…a shipwreck… the wild waters roar and heave…the brave vessel is dashed all to pieces, and all the helpless souls within her drowned… all save one… a lady… whose soul is greater than the ocean… and her spirit stronger than the sea's embrace… not for her watery end, but a new life beginning on a stranger shore. It will be a love story… for she will be my heroine for all time… and her name… will be Viola…
The end of the film
Now, in the end, the viewers realise that the entire film was a mixture between Romeo and Juliet and The Twelfth Night (the former being predominant though). This mixture proves that nothing in this film was accidental but, on the contrary, everything was very well thought of in advance, in order to obtain an original story, a story which brought the film crew 13 Oscar nominations, out of which 7 awarded them the golden statuette.
Inaccuracies
Although I admit that Shakespeare in Love is one of my favourite films, I could not help but notice that there are some inaccuracies with respect to the historical age. Therefore, it surprises me that while, on the one hand, great attention was paid to the smallest details that one hardly even notices (e.g. how a peasant in the crowd was dressed), some things were misplaced and some events did not even take place.
To be more specific, I shall start with an error that occurs in the very beginning of the film. Namely, as the camera moves from the sky to the open roof to the galleries to the central pit, on one of the galleries there is a wooden board that reads “Totus mundus agit histrionem” (“All the world is a playhouse”), which was later reshaped by Shakespeare into “All the world is a stage” in As You Like It. This Latin expression represents the motto of the Globe Theatre, who was not erected until 1599, while the action of the film takes place in 1593. Still, perhaps it was introduced as a sort of foreboding device that warns the audience that the events narrated did actually happen and, based on them, two plays, Romeo and Juliet and The Twelfth Night, were written afterwards.
Totus mundus agit histrionem.
Another mistake that occurs is that there is no hint of the patrons of the acting companies. Indeed, the companies are called the Lord Chamberlain’s and the Lord Admiral’s Men respectively but these two persons should have been shown at least in the scenes that take place at the royal palaces (Whitehall and Greenwich). Nevertheless, maybe they were not mentioned in order not to overcrowd the film with characters.
In addition to that, the negative character of the film, Lord Wessex, says he owns some tobacco plantations in Virginia. Yet, according to historical documents, there were neither tobacco plantations nor English colonies in America in the 1590s. The Roanoke colony failed in 1587, and tobacco monoculture did not begin in Virginia until the 1610s.
One final inaccuracy I could notice is that Shakespeare never played Romeo. As was mentioned in Chapter IV, Shakespeare is known to have acted only minor roles in his plays and in those of other playwrights (e.g. Ben Jonson’s Sejanus) as he was more preoccupied with writing the actual plays.
Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare → William Shakespeare as Romeo
All in all, despite these inaccuracies, the film still represents a faithful reconstruction of the world of the theatre during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Besides, although the Queen says,
Queen Elizabeth: Playwrights teach us nothing about love. They make it pretty, they make it comical, or they make it lust. They cannot make it true.
this film proves once more that William Shakespeare is the “writer who commands the heart of every player” and of every fan of the Elizabethan era.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper I intended to make a synthesis of all the pieces of information I had gathered from various sources. Moreover, I tried to organise it in such a way that it would start from something general and continue with something more and more particular, in order for it to be clear and easy to follow for anyone who reads this piece of writing.
In addition to that, I was very surprised, but also very pleased whenever I could find something new about a subject I thought I knew very well. Sadly, this proved to me every time that it is impossible for one to know exactly how things unfolded in those times, due to the lack of full and accurate records. However, this is valid for any other historical era, since it is impossible to recreate perfectly any given period in time.
Nevertheless, at the end of these almost four months of work, I can say that I consider myself satisfied with what I have written here. Furthermore, I was fortunate to write a paper on a subject I really liked and, therefore, I was continuously motivated to search for more information about this period, though I never forgot to focus on one particular aspect.
I can now say that I know, precisely like Shakespeare in the film I have just analysed, what it feels like to be an author who has to meet a deadline for I, too, have considered various titles for this piece of writing, I, too, have written and rewritten my draft plan, I, too, have written and then modified and then rewritten and even deleted paragraphs or chapters, until I reached the goal that has guided me all this time, namely to write as accurate a paper on Elizabethan theatre as possible.
Looking back, I consider that I have fulfilled my purpose, i.e. to speak about what lies beyond the texts themselves that have been analysed, reanalysed and analysed some more throughout the years. I realise that I am not the first person who was interested in the Elizabethan stage (my bibliography can prove this), but I do believe that I will not be the last one, since this subject is a very beautiful and attractive one, rich in cultural aspects, and, to my mind, the best period in English history, despite its shortcomings.
Copyright Notice
© Licențiada.org respectă drepturile de proprietate intelectuală și așteaptă ca toți utilizatorii să facă același lucru. Dacă consideri că un conținut de pe site încalcă drepturile tale de autor, te rugăm să trimiți o notificare DMCA.
Acest articol: The Spanish Tragedie: or, Hieronimo is mad againe. Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio, and Bel-Imperia with the pittifull death of olde… [311771] (ID: 311771)
Dacă considerați că acest conținut vă încalcă drepturile de autor, vă rugăm să depuneți o cerere pe pagina noastră Copyright Takedown.