Andrew Cane (
fl. 1602–1650) — also Kayne, Kene, Keine, and other variants — was a comic actor in late
Jacobean and
Caroline era
The Caroline era is the period in English and Scottish history named for the 24-year reign of Charles I (1625–1649). The term is derived from ''Carolus'', the Latin for Charles. The Caroline era followed the Jacobean era, the reign of Charles's ...
London. In his own generation he was a leading comedian and dancer, and one of the famous and popular performers of his time.
Beginnings
A child with the surname "Keane" (no Christian name recorded) was baptized on 2 March 1589; this might have been the actor/goldsmith. In 1602, Cane began a ten-year apprenticeship to his older brother Richard, who had finished his own apprenticeship and established himself as a goldsmith in 1600. The younger Cane won his "freedom" in the goldsmiths' guild in 1611. Cane married and began a family in 1612.
Jigging clown
Cane's stage career had begun by 1622, when he moved from
Lady Elizabeth's Men
The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, after ...
(at the Cockpit) to the
Palsgrave's Men (at the Fortune). After 1631 he was a "chiefe" member of the
Prince Charles's Men
Prince Charles's Men (known as the Duke of York's Men from 1608 to 1612) was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England.
The Jacobean era troupe
The company was formed in 1608 as the Duke of York's Men, under the titu ...
(II) troupe, and received their payments for their performances at Court.
One of his jobs was dancing the jig that concluded each performance, a traditional task that clowns from
Richard Tarlton
Richard Tarlton (died September 1588), was an English actor of the Elizabethan era. He was the most famous clown of his era, known for his extempore comic doggerel verse, which came to be known as "Tarltons". He helped to turn Elizabethan theatre ...
to
John Shank
John Shank (also spelled Shanke or Shanks) (died January 1636) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a leading comedian in the King's Men during the 1620s and 1630s.
Early career
By his own testimony, Shank began his stage career with Pe ...
had fulfilled. Like other clowns in this function, Cane used the opportunity of a solo turn on the stage to develop a satiric rapport with his audience. He excelled at the task, and was said to possess "the tongue of
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
." By the late 1630s, his political satire had grown so sharp that the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
took notice; in 1639 the Council ordered the Attorney General to address the matter of Cane satirizing politicians from the stage of the
Red Bull Theatre
The Red Bull was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London operating in the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the years for r ...
(though the surviving records do not specify the outcome of the matter).
Cane's stage career was not limited by the official scrutiny. His fame led to non-theatrical expressions: in
1641
Events
January–March
* January 4 – The stratovolcano Mount Parker in the Philippines) has a major eruption.
* January 18 – Pau Claris proclaims the Catalan Republic.
* February 16 – King Charles I of England giv ...
a pamphlet titled ''The Stage Players Complaint'' was printed, which portrays Cane and another famous clown,
Timothy Read
Timothy Read ( fl. 1626–1647) was a comic actor of the Caroline era, and one of the most famous and popular performers of his generation.
Biography
As with many other performers of his historical era, nothing is known of Read's early life. ...
, exchanging witticisms on the issues of the day, and talking up the worth and value of playacting.
Goldsmith
A number of figures in English Renaissance drama maintained formal membership in the guilds of London; this allowed them to bind apprentices to contracts, something that actors, as retainers in noble households, could not legally do under the system of the time. Most of these men kept only a formal guild membership:
John Heminges
John Heminges (bapt. 25 November 1566 – 10 October 1630) was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. Along with Henry Condell, he was an editor of the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare ...
maintained his membership in the grocers' guild, but didn't peddle groceries;
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
kept his membership in the bricklayers' guild, but didn't lay bricks. Andrew Cane, however, was one of a number of actors who pursued a career beyond the stage; he was a member of the goldsmiths' guild and an active goldsmith. He crossed his two careers without hesitation, turning his goldsmithing apprentices into
boy actors. The 14-year-old Arthur Savill was apprenticed to Cane the goldsmith on 5 August 1631 — and before the end of the year he was playing Quartilla, one of the female roles in
Shackerley Marmion
Shackerley Marmion (January 1603 – 1639), also Shakerley, Shakerly, Schackerley, Marmyon, Marmyun, or Mermion, was an early 17th-century dramatist, often classed among the Sons of Ben, the followers of Ben Jonson who continued his style of ...
's ''
Holland's Leaguer.'' The same production featured, in the role of Millicent, the 17-year-old John Wright, who'd become a Cane apprentice in 1629.
(Other theatre figures of the time — actors
Robert Armin
Robert Armin (c. 1568 – 1615) was an English actor, and member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He became the leading comedy actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare following the departure of Will Kempe around 1600. Also a po ...
and
John Lowin
John Lowin (baptized 9 December 1576 – buried – 24 August 1653) was an English actor.
Early life
Born in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, Lowin was the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. While ...
and manager Robert Keysar — came from or maintained membership in the goldsmiths' guild. Evidence of their activity as goldsmiths, however, is lacking.)
The records of the parish of St. Giles without
Cripplegate
Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London.
The gate gave its name to the Cripplegate ward of the City which straddles the line of the former wall and gate, a line which continues to divide the ward into tw ...
(which was near the
Fortune Playhouse
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
and the home of many theatre people) state that a foundling child called Hester, "her parents unknown," was christened on 18 April 1628; she is noted as having been "taken up" at Andrew Cane's "stall," his place of business.
Aftermath
After the theatres were closed in 1642 at the start of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, Cane was an active supporter of the Royalist cause. By 1644, goldsmith Cane was coining the Royalists' debased coinage; he may have had to spend time in prison as a result.
[Milling, p. 151.] Cane did not abandon acting permanently, however. On 22 January 1650, he was one of eight performers arrested at the
Red Bull Theatre
The Red Bull was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London operating in the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the years for r ...
, for play-acting against the regulations of the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
regime.
In 1654 Cane became involved in a lawsuit with actor
William Wintershall
William Wintershall (died July 1679), also Wintersall or Wintersell, was a noted seventeenth-century English actor. His career spanned the difficult years of mid-century, when English theatres were closed from 1642 to 1660, during the English Civ ...
and his wife, over a thirty-year-old debt of £40. The debt stemmed from a 1624 agreement between theater manager
Richard Gunnell
Richard Gunnell (fl. 1613 – 1634) was an actor, playwright, and theatre manager in Jacobean and Caroline era London. He is best remembered for his role in the founding of the Salisbury Court Theatre.
Actor and playwright
Nothing is known of Gu ...
and a group of actors, one of whom was Cane. Wintershall had married Gunnell's daughter Margaret in the early 1640s, and so was drawn into the matter. The outcome of the suit in not known.
The date of Cane's death is also unknown. His son Edward and grandson Andrew continued Cane's trade — not as actors, but goldsmiths.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cane, Andrew
English male stage actors
17th-century English male actors
Year of death unknown
Year of birth unknown