Scripted Improvisation in the Antipodes
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Bringing Richard Brome Online
This is a repository copy of Bringing Richard Brome Online. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/105805/ Version: Published Version Article: Hirsch, BD orcid.org/0000-0002-6231-2080 (2010) Bringing Richard Brome Online. Early Theatre, 13 (1). pp. 137-153. ISSN 1206-9078 10.12745/et.13.1.837 This article is protected by copyright. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Early Theatre Volume 13, Issue 1 2010 Article 7 Bringing Richard Brome Online Brett D. Hirsch∗ ∗University of Western Australia, [email protected] Copyright c 2010 by Early Theatre. Early Theatre is produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress). http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/earlytheatre Bringing Richard Brome Online Brett D. Hirsch Abstract This review essay assesses Richard Brome Online, an online edition of the collected works of Richard Brome, in terms of the design, functionality, and usability of its features. -
Hornpipes and Disordered Dancing in the Late Lancashire Witches: a Reel Crux?
Early Theatre 16.1 (2013), 139–49 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12745/et.16.1.8 Note Brett D. Hirsch Hornpipes and Disordered Dancing in The Late Lancashire Witches: A Reel Crux? A memorable scene in act 3 of Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome’s The Late Lancashire Witches (first performed and published 1634) plays out the bewitching of a wedding party and the comedy that ensues. As the party- goers ‘beginne to daunce’ to ‘Selengers round’, the musicians instead ‘play another tune’ and ‘then fall into many’ (F4r).1 With both diabolical interven- tion (‘the Divell ride o’ your Fiddlestickes’) and alcoholic excess (‘drunken rogues’) suspected as causes of the confusion, Doughty instructs the musi- cians to ‘begin againe soberly’ with another tune, ‘The Beginning of the World’, but the result is more chaos, with ‘Every one [playing] a seuerall tune’ at once (F4r). The music then suddenly ceases altogether, despite the fiddlers claiming that they play ‘as loud as [they] can possibly’, before smashing their instruments in frustration (F4v). With neither fiddles nor any doubt left that witchcraft is to blame, Whet- stone calls in a piper as a substitute since it is well known that ‘no Witchcraft can take hold of a Lancashire Bag-pipe, for itselfe is able to charme the Divell’ (F4v). Instructed to play ‘a lusty Horne-pipe’, the piper plays with ‘all [join- ing] into the daunce’, both ‘young and old’ (G1r). The stage directions call for the bride and bridegroom, Lawrence and Parnell, to ‘reele in the daunce’ (G1r). At the end of the dance, which concludes the scene, the piper vanishes ‘no bodie knowes how’ along with Moll Spencer, one of the dancers who, unbeknownst to the rest of the party, is the witch responsible (G1r). -
Volume 4 2014
2101 EAST COLISEUM BOULEVARD FORT WAYNE, IN 46805-1499 Volume 4 2014 Volume Volume 4 2014 Volume 4 2014 EDITORS at Indiana University– at Mount St. Mary’s University Purdue University Fort Wayne Emmitsburg, Maryland M. L. Stapleton, Editor Sarah K. Scott, Associate Editor Cathleen M. Carosella, Managing Editor Jessica Neuenschwander, Pub. Assistant BOARD OF ADVISORS Hardin Aasand, Indiana University–Purdue University, Fort Wayne; David Bevington, University of Chicago; Douglas Bruster, University of Texas, Austin; Dympna Callaghan, Syracuse University; Patrick Cheney, Pennsylvania State University; Sara Deats, University of South Florida; J. A. Downie, Goldsmiths College, University of London; Lisa M. Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University; Heather James, University of Southern California; Roslyn L. Knutson, University of Arkansas, Little Rock; Robert A. Logan, University of Hartford; Ruth Lunney, University of Newcastle (Australia); Laurie Maguire, Magdalen College, Oxford University; Lawrence Manley, Yale University; Kirk Melnikoff, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Paul Menzer, Mary Baldwin College; John Parker, University of Virginia; Eric Rasmussen, University of Nevada, Reno; David Riggs, Stanford University; John P. Rumrich, University of Texas, Austin; Carol Chillington Rutter, University of Warwick; Paul Werstine, King's College, University of Western Ontario; Charles Whitney, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Marlowe Studies: An Annual is a journal devoted to studying Christopher Marlowe and his role in the literary culture of his time, including but not limited to studies of his plays and poetry; their sources; relations to genre; lines of influence; classical, medieval, and continental contexts; performance and theater history; textual studies; the author’s professional milieu and place in early modern English poetry, drama, and culture. -
Capaok Cortes.Indd
Tiff any Stern, ‘Repatching the Play’ 1 Tiff any Stern Oxford University Theatre histories often explore the context surrounding the creation of the play. Was there one author or many? Did the physical make up of the theatre or the company shape the production of the work? Each of these topics importantly helps defi ne the world that brought about the text. But despite the huge interest in what shaped the play, the nature of the play itself is less often questioned. The unity of a play is often taken as a given; articles on the revising of play texts tend to assume that one whole and complete text was equally revised over by its author. Why, it is then asked, did playwrights bother to write long plays that would then have to be cut and rewritten in the playhouse itself? By exploring the fragmentary nature of the text, an answer to that question can be suggested. The designation ‘playwright’ seems to have come into being in the 1610s.2 With its implications of writing plays as a trade – playwright obviously relating to such jobs as cartwright and wheelwright – ‘playwright’ was probably, as a title, originally pejorative. There were other more common and neutral words to describe the profession. One – the most usual – was ‘poet’, telling in itself with its implication that all plays are or should be in verse. Another less hierarchical term was ‘play- maker’, a simple description of the task of writing plays. A fourth title has not been critically noticed, or at least not for what it implies. -
An A2 Timeline of the London Stage Between 1660 and 1737
1660-61 1659-60 1661-62 1662-63 1663-64 1664-65 1665-66 1666-67 William Beeston The United Company The Duke’s Company The Duke’s Company The Duke’s Company @ Salisbury Court Sir William Davenant Sir William Davenant Sir William Davenant Sir William Davenant The Duke’s Company The Duke’s Company & Thomas Killigrew @ Salisbury Court @Lincoln’s Inn Fields @ Lincoln’s Inn Fields Sir William Davenant Sir William Davenant Rhodes’s Company @ The Cockpit, Drury Lane @ Red Bull Theatre @ Lincoln’s Inn Fields @ Lincoln’s Inn Fields George Jolly John Rhodes @ Salisbury Court @ The Cockpit, Drury Lane @ The Cockpit, Drury Lane The King’s Company The King’s Company PLAGUE The King’s Company The King’s Company The King’s Company Thomas Killigrew Thomas Killigrew June 1665-October 1666 Anthony Turner Thomas Killigrew Thomas Killigrew Thomas Killigrew @ Vere Street Theatre @ Vere Street Theatre & Edward Shatterell @ Red Bull Theatre @ Bridges Street Theatre @ Bridges Street Theatre @ The Cockpit, Drury Lane @ Bridges Street Theatre, GREAT FIRE @ Red Bull Theatre Drury Lane (from 7/5/1663) The Red Bull Players The Nursery @ The Cockpit, Drury Lane September 1666 @ Red Bull Theatre George Jolly @ Hatton Garden 1676-77 1675-76 1674-75 1673-74 1672-73 1671-72 1670-71 1669-70 1668-69 1667-68 The Duke’s Company The Duke’s Company The Duke’s Company The Duke’s Company Thomas Betterton & William Henry Harrison and Thomas Henry Harrison & Thomas Sir William Davenant Smith for the Davenant Betterton for the Davenant Betterton for the Davenant @ Lincoln’s Inn Fields -
'Tis Pity She's a Whore
From Womb to Tomb: John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore1 John Ford’s controversial Caroline tragedy wrestles with incest, adultery, murderous revenge, and the corruption of religious power. Set in the Italian city-state of Parma, the story opens on Giovanni, a young intellectual, debating with his mentor and spiritual counselor on the virtues of incestuous romance. Meanwhile, a seemingly never-ending line of suitors stalks Annabella’s balcony, seeking attention from the wealthy merchant’s daughter. Despite the number of eligible bachelors vying for her hand in marriage, the titular character turns her sights on the one man she cannot marry: her ruminating, cerebral brother, Giovanni. In spite of religious and moral counsel, Annabella and Giovanni pursue their mutually found romantic love, throwing their family and community into upheaval. Written in the early 1630s for the Queen’s Men, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore was first performed at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane. Also known as the Phoenix, the Cockpit was one of London’s leading indoor playhouses, designed by famed architect and theatrical visionary, Inigo Jones. Although a contemporary of popular Jacobean playwrights such as Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Ford’s work belongs to a later era. As a second-generation playwright in London’s professional theatre scene, well versed in the work of Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists, Ford’s playwrighting recycles theatrical conventions established by his predecessors. As many scholars have noted, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’s Annabella and Giovanni echo another ill-fated romance: that of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. -
The Future Francis Beaumont
3340 Early Theatre 20.2 (2017), 201–222 http://dx.doi.org/10.12745/et.20.2.3340 Eoin Price The Future Francis Beaumont This essay attends to Beaumont’s recent performance and reception history, docu- menting a range of academic and popular responses to demonstrate the challenges and affordances of engaging with Beaumont’s plays. The first section examines sev- eral twenty-first century performances of Beaumont plays, focusing especially on the Globe’s stimulating production of The Knight of the Burning Pestle. The second sec- tion considers how Beaumont was both acknowledged and ignored in 2016, the year of his 400th anniversary. The final section suggests some avenues for further research into the performance of Beaumont’s plays. In 1613, illness caused one of the greatest writers of the age to retire from play- wrighting, paving the way for his principal collaborator, John Fletcher, to become the main dramatist for the King’s Men, the company for whom he had writ- ten some of his most popular plays. Three years later, the London literary scene mourned his death. Tributes continued for decades and he was ultimately hon- oured with the posthumous publication of a handsome folio of his works. This is the familiar story of William Shakespeare. It is also the unfamiliar story of Francis Beaumont. The comparison of the two authors’ deaths I have just offered entails a degree of contrivance. Beaumont seemingly retired because he was incapacitated by a stroke, but Shakespeare’s reasons for retiring, and indeed, the nature of his retire- ment, are much less clear. -
Christopher Beeston and the Caroline Office of Theatrical ‘Governor’
Early Theatre 11.2 (2008) Christopher Matusiak Christopher Beeston and the Caroline Office of Theatrical ‘Governor’ The decision in February 1637 to appoint Christopher Beeston (alias Hut- chinson) ‘Gouuernor of the new Company of the Kings & Queenes boyes’ crowned one of the busiest and most innovative careers in seventeenth-cen- tury commercial theatre.1 Beeston had emerged in the 1590s as a young per- former in the Chamberlain’s Men, notably acting with Richard Burbage, Wil- liam Kempe, and William Shakespeare in the first production of Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour. For the better part of the next two decades, he managed the financial affairs of Queen Anne’s Men at the Red Bull and with that company’s assets at his disposal, particularly its valuable wardrobe, he oversaw the building of west London’s first playhouse in 1616 — the Cock- pit (or Phoenix) in Drury Lane. By 1636, Beeston had established himself as London’s pre-eminent theatrical entrepreneur, having led Queen Henri- etta Maria’s fashionable company for ten years and amassed an unpreced- ented personal treasury of playbooks, acting apparel, and other tiring house materials. However, in May of that year the worst outbreak of plague in three decades closed the theatres and suppressed business until the following October 1637. Under the stress of eighteenth months of enforced idleness, acting companies buckled, setting patents and personnel adrift. Among the casualties was Beeston’s relationship with the Queen’s Men. From his van- tage point at the competing Salisbury -
The Protectorate Playhouse: William Davenant's Cockpit in the 1650S
The protectorate playhouse: William Davenant's cockpit in the 1650s Item Type Article Authors Watkins, Stephen Citation Watkins, S. (2019) 'The protectorate playhouse: William Davenant's cockpit in the 1650s', Shakespeare Bulletin, 37(1), pp.89-109. DOI: 10.1353/shb.2019.0004. DOI 10.1353/shb.2019.0004 Publisher John Hopkins University Press Journal Shakespeare Bulletin Download date 30/09/2021 15:44:41 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10545/624483 1 The Protectorate Playhouse: William Davenant’s Cockpit in the 1650s STEPHEN WATKINS University of Southampton Recent work on the history of the theater during the decade of republican experiment in England (1649–59) has revealed a modest but sophisticated performance culture, centering on the entrepreneurial and politically wily figure of Sir William Davenant. Despite the ban on stage plays enforced in various forms from 1642, by the mid-1650s Davenant, poet laureate to Charles I and Royalist aid during the civil wars, succeeded in gaining the Protectorate’s approval to produce a series of “Heroick Representations” (Davenant, Proposition 2) for public audiences, first at his private residence of Rutland House and later at the Cockpit theater in Drury Lane. These “Representations” embody a unique corpus in the history of English theater. They were radically innovative productions, introducing the proscenium arch, painted, perspectival scenery, and recitative music to London audiences. The Siege of Rhodes even boasted the first English female performer to appear on a professional public stage. Davenant’s 1650s works were not strictly plays in the usual sense—what John Dryden would later term “just drama” (sig. -
The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, 1623-1673
ill "iil! !!;i;i;i; K tftkrmiti THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/dramaticrecordsoOOgreaiala CORNELL STUDIES IN ENGLISH EDITED BY JOSEPH QUINCY ADAMS LANE COOPER CLARK SUTHERLAND NORTHUP THE DRAMATIC RECORDS OF SIR HENRY HERBERT MASTER OF THE REVELS, 1623-1673 EDITED BY JOSEPH QUINCY ADAMS CORNELL UNIVERSITY NEW HAVEN: VALE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILKORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS MDCCCCXVII 7 7 Copyright, 191 By Yale University Press First published, October, 191 PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER, PA. College Library TO CLARK SUTHERLAND NORTHUP AS A TOKEN OF ESTEEM 1092850 PREFACE The dramatic records of the Office of the Revels during the reigns of Edward VI, Mar>', and Elizabeth have been admirably edited with full indexes and notes by Professor Albert Feuillerat; but the records of the Office during the reigns of James I, Charles I, and Charles TI remain either unedited or scattered in mis- cellaneous volumes, none of which is indexed. Every scholar working in the field of the Tudor-Stuart drama must have felt the desirability of having these later records printed in a more accessible form. In the present volume I have attempted to bring together the dramatic records of Sir Henry Herbert, during whose long administration the Office of the Revels attained the height of its power and importance. These records, most of them preserved through Herbert's own care, consist of his office-book, covering the period of 1 622-1 642, a few documents relating to the same period, and miscellaneous documents relating to the management of the Office after the Restoration. -
The Beestons and the Art of Theatrical Management in Seventeenth-Century London
THE BEESTONS AND THE ART OF THEATRICAL MANAGEMENT IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON by Christopher M. Matusiak A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of English University of Toronto © Copyright by Christopher M. Matusiak (2009) Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-61029-9 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-61029-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L’auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l’Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. -
Christopher Beeston and the Caroline Office of Theatrical •Ÿgovernor╎
Early Theatre 11.2 (2008) Christopher Matusiak Christopher Beeston and the Caroline Office of Theatrical ‘Governor’ The decision in February 1637 to appoint Christopher Beeston (alias Hut- chinson) ‘Gouuernor of the new Company of the Kings & Queenes boyes’ crowned one of the busiest and most innovative careers in seventeenth-cen- tury commercial theatre.1 Beeston had emerged in the 1590s as a young per- former in the Chamberlain’s Men, notably acting with Richard Burbage, Wil- liam Kempe, and William Shakespeare in the first production of Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour. For the better part of the next two decades, he managed the financial affairs of Queen Anne’s Men at the Red Bull and with that company’s assets at his disposal, particularly its valuable wardrobe, he oversaw the building of west London’s first playhouse in 1616 — the Cock- pit (or Phoenix) in Drury Lane. By 1636, Beeston had established himself as London’s pre-eminent theatrical entrepreneur, having led Queen Henri- etta Maria’s fashionable company for ten years and amassed an unpreced- ented personal treasury of playbooks, acting apparel, and other tiring house materials. However, in May of that year the worst outbreak of plague in three decades closed the theatres and suppressed business until the following October 1637. Under the stress of eighteenth months of enforced idleness, acting companies buckled, setting patents and personnel adrift. Among the casualties was Beeston’s relationship with the Queen’s Men. From his van- tage point at the competing Salisbury