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Shakespeare's Theatre SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRE Shakespeare's Theatre examines the Globe in the spectacular decade from 1599 to 1608, during which Shakespeare's greatest tragedies were performed and the Lord Chamberlain's Men were recognised as the finest theatrical company in London, rising to prosperity as the King's Men. Primarily about performance, Shakespeare's Theatre reviews the commercial and artistic priorities of a brilliant and hard-headed group of players. It examines and interprets the known facts about the actors, explores the ways in which they balanced the books, considers the challenges and constraints of the Globe's stage, and gives a year by year review of the company's repertoire. In this fully revised edition, Peter Thomson presents new material on the Red Lion Theatre, on the Rose since its excavation, a new account of rehearsal procedures and also provides a fully up-dated bibliography. Peter Thomson is Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter. THEATRE PRODUCTION STUDIES General Editor: John Russell Brown JACOBEAN PUBLIC THEATRE Alexander Leggatt GREEK TRAGIC THEATRE Rush Rehm BROADWAY THEATRE Andrew Harris SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRE Second Edition Peter Thomson London and New York First published in 1983 by Routledge & Kegan Paul pIc First published in paperback by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1985 Second edition first published in 1992 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016 Reprinted 1994 1997 Transferred to Digital Printing 2005 © 1983, 1992 Peter Thomson Set in 10/12 pt Garamond by Intype, London All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Thomson, Peter Shakespeare's theatre. - 2nd ed. - (Theatre production studies) I. Title II. Series 792.0942164 Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Thomson, Peter Shakespeare's theatrelPeter Thomson, - 2nd ed. p. cm. - (Theatre production studies) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Stage history-To 1625. 2. Theaters-England-London-History-17th century. 3. Theater­ England-London-History-17th century. 4. Globe Theatre (Southwark, London, England) 5. Chamberlain's Men (Theater company) I. Title II. Series. PR3095.T48 1992 792' .09421 '2-dc20 91-33770 ISBN 0--415-07311-1 ISBN 0--415-05148-7 pbk This book is dedicated to my sister Jean and to the memory of our parents. CONTENTS List of illustrations IX Acknowledgements Xl h~~ct~ m Part I The company 1 THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S SERVANTS 3 2 BALANCING THE BOOKS 19 3 'THIS LUXURIOUS CIRCLE': THE GLOBE THEATRE 36 4 THE GLOBE PLAYS 58 Part II The plays 5 TWELFTH NIGHT AND PLAYHOUSE PRACTICE 91 6 HAMLET AND THE ACTOR IN SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRE 114 7 MACBETH FROM THE TIRING HOUSE 142 8 TWO PLAYHOUSES 167 APPENDIX A The inventory taken of all the properties for my Lord Admiral's Men the 10th of March 1598 (=1599) 175 APPENDIX B Extract from the contract for building the Fortune in 1599/1600 177 APPENDIX C Petition by the inhabitants of Blackfriars to the Privy Council, 1596 178 Notes 179 Select bibliography 187 Index of plays 193 General index 195 VB ILLUSTRATIONS (between pages 52 and 53) 1 The walled city of London and its theatres, from 1576 (the Theatre) to 1613 (the Hope). It is less than one mile and a half from the Tower to Ludgate, and three quarters of a mile from London Bridge to Bishopsgate (Drawing by Kate Thomson) 2 Southwark Bridge and the south bank of the Thames 3a Norden's 1600 revision of his Civitas Londini map. It gives a vivid impression of a busy waterfront, and some indication of the sprawl of Southwark 3b Section of the Norden Civitas Londini map 4 De Witt's drawing of the Swan (c. 1596) 5 Detail from a model of the Swan (after De Witt). 'If the groundlings gathered in front of the stage, would they not impede the view for some of the occupants of the bottom gallery?' (p. 42) (Model built by Jenny Bell and Tony Addicott at the University of Exeter) 6 View of the yard and stage from the same model. 'Timid acting has no chance in such a setting' (p. 43) 7 Air view of the same model, showing the Heavens, 'roomy enough to accommodate a throne and any actor who was required to "fly" down to the platform' (p. 44) 8 The height of this mountebank stage is typical. (The drawing dates from about 1600.) So is the simplicity of its construction. Volpone's would not have been so high, but well might have been as substantial 9 Detail from the Sir Henry Unton Memorial picture, showing a broken consort playing at his wedding masque. Unton was a friend of the Earl of Essex. The picture is an assembly of scenes from his life 10 The hall screen at the Middle Temple, in front of which Twelfth Night was played in February 1602. The demands and the possibilities of the stage doors are very clear 11 A scene from Titus Andronicus, probably drawn by Henry Peacham in 1594 or 1595. The drawing, and the lines of verse beneath it, has IX SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRE survived in a single folded sheet, and is in the library of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Wiltshire 12 Drawing illustrating the technique of changing rapiers, from Henri de Saint-Didier's treatise on sword-play (1573) 13 Woodcut from the pamphlet, The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witch­ crafts of Margaret and Philippa Flower, 1619. It is not so far from Banquo's description of the Witches in Macbeth x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For permission to reproduce illustrations, I am grateful to: Aerofilms Ltd (Plate 2), the Royal Library, Stockholm (Plate 3), the University Library, Utrecht (Plate 4), the Trustees of the British Museum (Plates 8, 12, and 13), the National Portrait Gallery (Plate 9), the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (Plate 10), and the Marquess of Bath (Plate 11). I am grateful, also, to my daughter Kate for the line drawing reproduced as Plate 1, and to Jenny Bell and Tony Addicott, who made the model photographed for Plates 5, 6, and 7. Copyright in each instance remains with the owners of the original. I would also like to thank the various people who helped in the writing of the book. Christopher Brown spotted a chink, but had the tact to keep quiet about any other blemishes. Professor Peter Wisemen advised me on a detail that would otherwise have confused me. Stewart Trotter boosted me with his interest in the theatrical usefulness of the early chapters. Michael Hattaway allowed me to read in typescript his own contribution to the present series, Elizabethan Popular Theatre. John Russell Brown made several important suggestions about ways of improving the book: I have tried to follow them. Finally, Eve Elwin and Sally Connely gave me a refuge and looked after me during a crucial period of writing. They, and my colleagues in the Drama Section at Exeter University who had to take on extra work during my term off, enabled me to complete the work. Xl INTRODUCTION Shakespeare belonged to a successful theatre company. This book is about that company during its ten best years. Part I looks at the planning and personnel, the financing, the repertoire, and the Globe Theatre itself. Part II sets three of Shakespeare's greatest plays in the theatrical context that has been explored in Part I. I have tried throughout to record my sense of the risks taken and the compromises made by a company which was, by any reckoning, adventurous and, sometimes by the skin of its teeth, prosperous. Theatre historians too often neglect the hand-to-mouth instan­ taneousness of much theatrical decision -making. We should not assume that a solution to a staging problem, once found, would be mechanically applied in every future situation. It is the resourcefulness of Shakespeare's company, its magnificent adaptability, that has most impressed itself on me during the writing of this book. Page references in Henslowe's Diary are to the readily available edition by R. A. Foakes and R. T. Rickert (Cambridge, 1961). Line references in A Yorkshire Tragedy are to the Malone Society Reprint (1973), in Ben Jonson to the Herford and Simpson text (Oxford, 1925-52), and in Shake­ speare to the one volume Oxford edition, edited by W. J. Craig (1919). For quotations from other dramatists, I have used available modern edi­ tions. The reader should not find it hard to trace them. The spelling of all quotations from plays has been modernised. Elsewhere I have retained the old spelling except where it seemed likely to obscure the meaning. I make no apology for this. The old spelling increases, for me, the 'present tense' of the writing. I hope it does so for others. xu Part I THE COMPANY 1 THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S SERVANTS 1597 was a bad year for the professional theatre in London. The Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city had been hostile to the professional companies since they began to engage public interest around the middle of the sixteenth century. Not only were plays liable to contain lewd or even inflammatory material, not only were the gatherings of people in theatres, gamehouses, inns or public halls a threat to public order and health, worst of all, these players were under aristocratic protection, and could hope to sidestep the law and cock a careful snook at the civic authorities.
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