The Globe Theatre 1599-1608
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE GLOBE THEATRE 1599-1608 THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY WAYNE CLINTON HAYvVARD UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM MARCH 1951 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME ONE The Plays - Selection and Use 1 The Theatre and Stage 2? The Stage Entrances Ul The Curtained Space 61 The Upper Playing Space 7h The Stage Properties 100 Appendix - The Closing of the London Theatres 1599-1608 107 VOLUME TWO Criticism of The Globe Playhouse Its Design and Equipment by J. C. Adams Bibliography THE PLAYS - SELECTION AND USE This study is based on plays known to have been produced under the auspices of the Chamberlain's Men (after 19 'ky> 1603> the King's Lien) while they were giving their public London performances exclusively at the first Globe theatre. It is limited, therefore, to the period 1599-1608. There can be little question as to the choice of the date l£99> since the first Globe was built in that year, but some explanation of the more arbitrary choice of 1608 mayhH 1be* necessary. It is based on the fact that in that year the Chamberlain's men acquired a vate theatre, Blackfriars, and any ^lay rroduced after that ^ may have been written for their new house v/hich is known to have differed in many rescects from the first Globe. Althourh it is pro bable that the repertories of the two theatres were not different, and some plays, for exanple The Duchess of ilalfi, are known to have been performed at both, it seems better for the purposes of this study to limit the plays used as source material to those written and performed while the first Gl?be was the only I ondon theatre of the company. It is difficult to be exact with a subject as tenuous as the theatre, and, when all the complications which senerate us from any kind of reconstruction of a performance in the first Globe are faced, one can orQv choose the "most likely" material. This material was originally divided into three categories in an attempt to reco<~i>- nise all possible variations in the value of the different ^lays as evidence. Subsequent reference to the rroured materials showed no contradictions in the structural features required by r lays in dif ferent categories. The original distinctions are described in the following section and kept in the chronological list of plays which follows; they are retained when citing plays as evidence, but no attempt is made to arrange the evidence arbitrarily by category. The first category consists of those plays written, produced, and printed within the dates 15>99-l6o8. The nearer the publication date of the play is to the probable date of first production the more likely it is that the copy prepared for reading was based on the pro duction. Later editors have a wav of interpolating their own ideas of how a scene was staged and inserting their own stae;e directions, thereby ruining the value of the olay for a study of this kind; for even a suggested bit of staging makes it difficult for the reader to visualize the play from a completely unbiased, uncoloured viewpoint. The lapse of time between the first production of a play and its publication is not important of itself, but what the playwright, ac tors, or editors may have done to the play during that time is. There fore the plays of greatest value for this study are those which, be cause of the slightest time lapse, allow the least chance of such interpolation. They are given an "A" rating in the list of pla^s which follows, and on which this study is based. All the plays in any category are listed chronologically, as nearly as possible. Thus Henry V is A 1 and "'very Man Out of his Hunor is A 2, because, a both were acted in l£99 and printed in 1600, Henry V was entered in G. F. Reynolds in The Staging of Elizabethan rlays at the Red. Pull Theatre Used a similar classification and reached a~similar con- elusion about its value, pp 1&7-8. the Stationers' Register a few days earlier. This is admittedly somewhat arbitrary, but the evidence of first production dates is seldom adequate to eliminate the possibility of error. In the second category the "B" plays are those plays written, produced, and first printed before the Globe was built, but belong ing to the Chamberlain's company and carried into the repertory of its new playhouse, acted there, and then reprinted before 1608-9, and sometimes bearing the words "as...acted by the Kings Ifelesties Seruants at the Globe." The third category, or "C" plays, are those which have a time lapse between production and printing of up to twenty four years, and are, therefore, of somewhat doubtful value. This weakness in their value as evidence is mitigated, as will be pointed out later, b-r the fact that they were all by Shakespeare and were printed with commemorative intent "according to the true original copies." In the listing of the plays which follows, the date determined by Sir Edmund Chambers as the probable date of first production is be low the title of each play. Dates of publication are on the rl^ht. The abbreviation »£. R." before a date.indicates that it is the date of entry in the Stationers' Register. Here is a sample listing: 1. The first play, chronologically. B 1 Richard III (Title of Play) Shakespeare (Author) 1592-3 (Chambers' "first li production date" limits. A If date written "-1593" indicates 1602 Q "newly augmented" a terminal date not later than 1605 ;« 1593.) 1612 and 1622 3q 1623 F (iMblication date and quarto or folio form. Underlining means that editions have been studied.) S. R. 20 October 1^97 (First entry in the Stationers Register) At the end of each listing are comments on the relative value of the play and its various editions for this study. Indications of auspices and place of performance which appear on the title pages of various editions are noted. For example, in the case of the first play, Richard III; "As it hath beene lately Acted by the Right honourable the Lord Chantoerlaine his seruants." 15>97 "As it hath beene Acted by the Kings Maiesties seruants." 1612 There was no augmentation in 1602. Charnbers,III,u8l To continue: CHRONOLOGICAL LISTIl'G OF PLAYS USED AS SOURCES 1- B 1 Ri chard III Shakespeare see sample listing above. 2- B 2 Titus Andronicus Shakespeare 1600 ^ S. R. 6 February 15 9U 1611 v, 1523 F "AS it was Flaide by the Right Honourable the Earle of Darbie, Esrle of Fembrooke and Earle of Sussex their Seruants." li?9U "As it hath sundry times beene playde by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke, the Earle of Darbie, the Earle of Sussex, and the Lorde Chamberlaine theyr Seruants." 1600 .Quotations from this play are based on the Bodleian copy of the edition of 1611- I.Ialone 37 which :,lalone collated with the Duke of Bridgewater ' s copy of the edition of 1600. B 3 Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare 159U 1597 4 i 1599 Q fc S. R. No original entry 1&Q9 Q, 1623 F "As it hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely, by the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his seruants." 1597 "...Newly corrected, augmented, and amended;...." 1599 "...by the King's Maiesties Seruants at the Globe...." 1609 The first Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain through whose patronage the company first derived its name, died 22 July, 1596. The players were retained by his son, George Carey, the second Lord Hunsdon, and were known as the Lord Hunsdon's Men from 22 July, 1596, to 17 March, 1597. At that time, Lord Cobham, who had succeeded Henry Carey as Lord Chamberlain, died; the post was given to the company's patron, and they were again the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The first quarto of Romeo and Juliet *.vas printed during this period, July 1596 and March li?97^It was the first printing of a Shakesperian play written for the company for whom all the author's major work was done. The 1597 quarto of Romeo and Juliet is one of the "bad quartos" put together from fragments of the play, remembered, or taken in rough notes, and augmented with recollected descriptions of what had been seen on the stage. These are often more il luminating than a perfect text for a study of this kind. The quarto of 1609 is one of six quarto editions of plays which specifically mention, not only the acting co-many, but a text performed at the first Globe theatre. The others are Richard II (1608), The Yorkshire Tragedy (1608), The Merry Devil of Edmonton (1608), Troilus and Creosida (1609), ancnPericles ll6o97.~TE is interesting that specific mention of the theatre did not occur until these two years, either as the place.of performance or, as in the case of King Lear (1608) or Macedonia (1611), as the usual playing place of the company.