The Lord Chamberlain's Men was the playing company that William Shakespeare worked for as actor and playwright for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronized by James I.
It was founded during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1594, under the patronage of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, the then Lord Chamberlain, who was in charge of court entertainments. After its patron's death on July 23, 1596, the company came under the patronage of his son, George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, for whom it was briefly known as Lord Hunsdon's Men until he in turn became Lord Chamberlain on March 17, 1597, whereupon it reverted to its previous name. The company became the King's Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron.
Origins
Henry Carey, Lord Butt sponsored a troupe of players as early as the mid-1560s; Lord Hunsdon's Men were touring the provinces in 1564-7, with stops in Norwich, Malden, Plymouth, Canterbury, Bristol, and elsewhere. Another burst of activity—or a happy coincidence of preservation of the records—occurs in 1581-3, performances in Ludlow, Doncaster, Bristol; Lord Hunsdon's Men acted Beauty and Housewifery at Court on Dec. 27, 1582. James Burbage may have been with the company in 1584, which is consistent with his son Richard Burbage's later membership. Since Hunsdon became Lord salary Chamberlain on July 4, 1585, the company was the Lord Chamberlain's Men after that date; and it was touring again in the late 1580s, at Coventry, Maidstone, and Saffron Walden, and, most likely, various other places.
The early 1590s was a period of disorder in the theatre profession, with companies breaking up and re-forming. There was probably little or no connection between the Lord Chamberlain's company of the pre-1590 era and the new group that formed in 1594, with members from Strange's/Derby's addition to Shakespeare, the original members and sharers were most likely Richard Burbage, Thomas Pope, William Kempe, Augustine Phillips, George Bryan, and Richard Cowley.
On Oct. 8, 1594, Lord Hunsdon wrote to the Lord Mayor of London, requesting that his actors be allowed to conduct their activities in the city without hindrance. Given the difference in Elizabethan political clout between a Lord Chamber and a Lord Mayo, this was less a request than a politely-phrased instruction. It illustrates the advantages of having a powerful noble patron.[1] Hunsdon also assured the Lord Mayor that the players would begin their performances at two in the afternoon, not later as had sometimes been done previously, and would be finished between four and five.[2] Since the official duties of the Lord Chamberlain included responsibility over Court entertainments, it was logical that Hunsdon be more directly involved with his company's affairs than were most other noble patrons of acting troupes in this era.
Playhouses
The company, eventually the most successful in London, began playing in the comparatively humble circumstances of the Newington Butts theater and Cross Keys Inn. It eventually found a permanent home in the playhouse called The Theatre northeast of the city. By the end of the 1590s, however, the owner of that land had become firmly opposed to letting plays continue at the Theatre. James Burbage attempted to secure a new venue by leasing the old theater in Blackfriars. Even though that theatre had been the site of plays in the 1580s, and even though it lay in a liberty outside the Mayor's jurisdiction, this plan did not immediately benefit the company. The wealthy and influential residents of the neighborhood, including both the Lord Chamberlain and Baron Hunsdon, petitioned the Privy Council to forbid playing in Blackfriars.[3] Thus, the company entered the late 1590s without a regular playhouse; they appear to have performed at the Curtain Theatre from 1597 to 1599, while planning a permanent home.[4] They spent close to two years performing in rented spaces. This situation changed when the company leased land in Southwark and, taking the framing timbers from the Theater, constructed the new Globe Theatre. That same year, the company sublet its interest in the Blackfriars Theatre to Henry Evans, who used it for performances by his children's company. The Blackfriars residents do not have appeared to oppose this move, perhaps because of the difference perceived between "public" theater audiences and the more select clientele of the "private" playhouse. When the children's companies collapsed between 1606 and 1608, the adult company (by then patronized by the King) assumed the lease again, and used it for winter performances.
The economic organization of the Chamberlain's Men after the construction of the Globe was one of the fundamental causes for the stability of the company both under Elizabeth and after.[5] Presumably it was the cost associated with erecting the Globe that persuaded the company to make the key actors shareholders in that project.[6] Because it tied the fortunes of particular actors to those of a particular company and venue, this decision was one of the factors that allowed the Chamberlain's Men to avoid the instability that had plagued troupes of the 1580s and earlier 1590s. It began, like other companies of the day, as a group organized around a central group of players who "shared" in revenues and expenses. This central group was itself organized under an impresario (in this case, the elder Burbage) who provided loans, procured and controlled the playing space, and generally directed the organization. The purpose of the sharing system was to provide stability to the company; actors put up a bond upon beginning as sharers, and forfeited it if they left without the company's agreement. The extension of profit-sharing to include the "keeping" of the theater itself gave the sharers in the company an additional share in the profits (traditionally, receipts were split between the acting company and the venue's lease-holder). In addition to making the company more profitable for a core of actors, this arrangement freed the players from reliance on an impresario/manager—a relationship that the careers of Philip Henslowe and Christopher Beeston demonstrate could be fraught with tension. The sharing was extended to the Blackfriars in 1608; the stability this arrangement provided certainly contributed to the stability of the company throughout the early Stuart period. It was in this context of stability that Shakespeare and others wrote their most highly-regarded plays.
Personnel
The initial form of the Chamberlain's men arose largely from the departure of Edward Alleyn from Lord Strange's Men and the subsequent death of Lord Strange himself, in the spring of 1594. Yet the ultimate success of the company was largely determined by the Burbage family. James Burbage was the impresario who assembled the company and directed its activities until his death in 1597; his sons Richard and Cuthbert were members of the company, though Cuthbert did not act. This connection with the Burbages makes the Chamberlain's Men the central link in a chain that extends from the beginning of professional theater (in 1574, James Burbage led the first group of actors to be protected under the 1572 statute against rogues and vagabonds) in Renaissance London to its end. (In 1642, the King's Men were among the acting companies whose lives were ended by Parliament's prohibition of the stage.)
The Chamberlain's Men comprised a core of between six and eight "sharers," who split profits and debts; perhaps an equal number of hired men who acted minor and doubled parts; and a slightly smaller number of boy players, who were sometimes bound apprentices to an adult actor. The original sharers in the Chamberlain's were eight. Probably the most famous in the mid-1590s was William Kempe, who had been in the company of the Earl of Leicester in the 1580s, and had later joined Strange's Men. As the company's clown, he presumably took the broadest comic role in every play; 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 extemporizing clowns; whether this association is right or wrong, Kempe had left the company by 1601. Another two sharers from Strange's Men had a long-standing association with Kempe. George Bryan had been in Leicester's Men in the 1580s, and at Elsinore with Kempe in 1586; because he is not mentioned in later Chamberlain's or King's Men documents, it is assumed that Bryan retired from the stage in 1597 or 1598. (Bryan lived on for some years; in the reign of James, he is listed as a Groom of the Chamber, with household duties, as late as 1613.) Thomas Pope, another Leicester's veteran, retired in 1600 and died in 1603. Both Bryan and Pope came to the company from Lord Strange's Men. Augustine Phillips also came from Strange's Men. He remained with the troupe until his death in 1605.
Two younger actors who came from Strange's, Henry Condell and John Heminges, are most famous now for collecting and editing the plays of Shakespeare's First Folio (1623). Both were relatively young in 1594, and both remained with the company until after the death of King James; their presence provided an element of continuity across decades of changing taste and commercial uncertainty.
(Some scholars have theorized that the company maintained its original eight-sharer structure, and that as any man left, through retirement or death, his place as sharer was filled by someone else. So, Bryan was replaced by William Sly, ca. 1597; Kempe was replaced by Robert Armin, ca. 1599; Pope was replaced by Condell, ca. 1600.[7] But this schema, while possible, is not proven by the available evidence.)
The two sharers who would contribute the most to the Chamberlain's Men did not come from Strange's Men. Shakespeare's activities before 1594 have been a matter of considerable inquiry; he may have been with Pembroke's Men in the early 1590s. As a sharer, he 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. Though relatively little-known in 1594, he would become one of the most famous of Renaissance actors, achieving a fame and wealth exceeded only by Alleyn's.
Among the hired men were some who eventually became sharers. William Sly, who performed occasionally with the Admiral's Men during the 1590s, acted for the Chamberlain's by 1598, and perhaps before; he became a sharer after Phillips's death in 1605. Richard Cowley, identified as Verges by the quarto of Much Ado About Nothing, became a sharer in the King's Men. Nicholas Tooley, at one point apprenticed to Burbage, stayed with the company until his death in 1623. John Sincler (or Sincklo) may have specialized in playing thin characters; he seems to have remained a hired man. John Duke was a hired man who went to Worcester's Men early in James's reign.
At least two of the boys had distinguished careers. Alexander Cooke is associated with a number of Shakespeare's female characters, while Christopher Beeston went on to become a wealthy impresario in the seventeenth century.
Later sharers
The core members of the company changed in both major and minor ways before James's accession. The most famous change is that of Will Kempe, the circumstances of which remain unclear. Kempe was among the stakeholders in the Globe property, and he may have performed in that theater in its first year. His famous morris dance to Norwich took place during Lent, when the company lay idle; not until the hastily-added epilogue to Nine Days' Wonder (his account of the stunt) does he refer to his plan to return to individual performances. He may have had a hand in the bad quartos of Hamlet and The London Prodigal, in which the clown parts are unusually accurate.
Whatever the reason for his departure, Kempe was replaced by Robert Armin, formerly of Chandos's Men and an author in his own right. Small and fanciful, Armin offered significantly different options for Shakespeare, and the change is seen in the last Elizabethan and first Jacobean plays. Armin is generally credited with originating such characters as Feste in Twelfth Night, Touchstone in As You Like It, and the fool in King Lear.
George Bryan retired by 1598; his share may have gone to Samuel Crosse, who left the company early in James's reign. When Pope retired, around 1600, he bequeathed his share to a woman with no other connection to the company.
Thus, by 1603 the core of the troupe was in some respects younger than it had been in 1594. Bryan, Pope, and Kempe, veterans of the 1580s, had left, and the remaining sharers (with the probably exception of Phillips), were roughly within a decade of 40.
Repertory and performances
Shakespeare's work undoubtedly formed the great bulk of the company's repertory. In their first year of performance, they may have staged such of Shakespeare's older plays as remained in the author's possession, including Henry VI, part 2, Henry VI, part 3, as well as Titus Andronicus. A Midsummer Night's Dream may have been the first play Shakespeare wrote for the new company; it was followed over the next two years by a concentrated burst of creativity that resulted in Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labours Lost, The Merchant of Venice, and the plays in the so-called second tetralogy. The extent and nature of the non-Shakespearean repertory in the first is not known; plays such as Locrine, The Troublesome Reign of King John, and Christopher Marlowe's Edward II have somewhat cautiously been advanced as likely candidates. 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.
On the strength of these plays, the company quickly rivalled Alleyn's troupe for preeminence in London; already in 1595, they gave four performances at court, following that with six the next year and four in 1597. These years were, typically for an Elizabethan company, also fraught with uncertainty. The company suffered along with the others in the summer of 1597, when the uproar over The Isle of Dogs temporarily closed the theaters; records from Dover and Bristol indicate that at least some of the company toured that summer. The character of Falstaff, though immensely popular from the start, aroused the ire of Lord Cobham, who objected to the character's original name (Oldcastle), which derived from a member of Cobham's family.
In the last years of the century, the company continued to stage Shakespeare's new plays, including Julis Ceasar and Henry V, which may have opened the Globe, and Hamlet, which may well have appeared first at the Curtain. Among non-Shakespearean drama, A Warning for Fair Women was certainly performed, as was the Tudor history Thomas Lord Cromwell, sometimes seen as a salvo in a theatrical feud with the Admiral's Men, whose lost plays on Wolsey date from the same year.
In 1601, in addition to their tangential involvement with the Essex rebellion, the company played a role in a less serious conflict, the so-called War of the Theatres. They produced Thomas Dekker's Satiromastix, a satire on Ben Jonson which seems to have ended the dispute. Somewhat uncharacteristically, Jonson does not appear to have held a grudge against the company; in 1603, they staged his Sejanus, with dissatisfying results. They also performed The London Prodigal, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, and The Fair Maid of Bristow, the last a rarity in that it is a Chamberlain's play that has never been attributed in any part to Shakespeare.
Controversies
The Lord Chamberlain's Men, and its individual members, largely avoided the scandals and turbulence in which other companies and actors sometimes involved themselves. Their most serious difficulty with the government came about as a result of their tangental involvement in the February 1601 insurrection of the Earl of Essex. Some of Essex's supporters had commssioned a special performance of Shakespeare's Richard II, in the hope that the spectacle of that king's overthrow might make the public more amenable to the overthrow of Elizabeth (who once remarked, "I am Richard II, know ye not that?"). Augustine Phillips was deposed on the matter by the investigating authorities; he testified that the actors had been offered 40 shillings more than their usual fee, and for that reason alone had performed the play on Feb. 7, the day before Essex's farcical uprising. The explanation was accepted; the company and its members went unpunished, and even performed for Elizabeth at Whitehall on Feb. 24, the day before Essex's execution.
The following year, 1602, saw Christopher Beeston's rape charge. Probably some of the Lord Chamberlain's Men were among the actors who accompanied Beeston to his pretrial hearing at Bridewell and caused a disturbance there; but little can be said for certain.[8]
Modern namesake
In recent years, the name has been resurrected in the form of a British touring theatre company, fronted by artistic director Mark Puddle. Under his guidance, the contemporary Lord Chamberlain's Men company aims to revive the traditions of English Renaissance theatre, performing with an all-male cast and historically accurate costumes, props and make-up.
Notes
- ^ Cook, Privileged Playgoers of Shakespeare's London, p. 104.
- ^ Gurr, Shakespearean Stage, p. 178.
- ^ Gurr, p. 45.
- ^ Adams, p. 200.
- ^ Gurr, p. 56.
- ^ Chambers. Vol. 1, pp. 357ff.
- ^ Halliday, Shakespeare Companion, pp. 90-1.
- ^ Duncan Salkeld, "Literary Traces in Bridewell and Bethlem, 1602-1624," Review of English Studies, Vol. 56 No. 225, pp. 279-85.
References
- Adams, J. Q. Shakespearean Playhouses: A History of English Playhouses from the Beginnings to the Restoration. Boston, Mass.: Houghton-Mifflin, 1917.
- Baldwin, T.W. The Organization and Personnel of Shakespeare's Company. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1927.
- Chambers, E. K.. The Elizabethan Stage. Four Volumes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.
- Cook, Ann Jennalie. The Privileged Playgoers of Shakespeare's London, 1576–1642. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
- Greg, W. W. Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses. Two volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931.
- Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage, 1574–1642. 3rd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
- Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
- Nunzeger, Edwin. A Dictionary of Actors and of Other Persons Associated With the Public Presentation of Plays in England Before 1642. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929.