The Boar's Head Theatre was an
inn-yard theatre
In the historical era of English Renaissance drama, an Inn-yard theatre or Inn-theatre was a common inn with an inner courtyard with balconies that provided a venue for the presentation of stage plays.
Beginnings
The Elizabethan era is appropri ...
in the
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
area of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
from 1598 to around 1616.
It was based in the yard of the Boar's Head Inn. During its lifetime as a playhouse, it was home to
the Earl of Derby's Men (summer 1599-summer 1601, summer 1602-March 1603),
the Earl of Worcester's Men (summer 1601-summer 1602, April 1604–1605 or 1606), and
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 ...
(summer 1609-March 1616); the historian Herbert Berry suggests that many other unidentified companies may have played there, as well.
Location
The Boar's Head was located on the north side of
Whitechapel High Street
Whitechapel High Street is a street in the Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It is about 0.2 miles (350 m) long, making it “one of the shortest high streets in London”. It links Aldgate High Street to the south-west with ...
. Berry notes that "it became a playhouse partly because of where it was — just outside the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
… a few feet beyond the ordinary jurisdiction of the lord mayor and his aldermen". Until the end of the nineteenth century ''Boars Head Yard'', named after the original inn, was a small alley running between Middlesex Street and Gulston Street, parallel to Whitechapel High Street and just to the northwest of
Aldgate East station
Aldgate East is a London Underground station on Whitechapel High Street in Whitechapel, in London, England. It takes its name from the City of London ward of Aldgate, the station lying to the east of the ward (and the City). It is on the Hamm ...
; Sisson, too, notes that this alley was just beyond the boundary of
Portsoken Ward, and thus outwith the jurisdiction of the City.
History
As Alexander Leggatt notes, the Boar's Head was originally an inn, which was built in the 1530s. Prior to 1598, the Boar's Head was simply an inn and did not include any formal playing space. However, it was being used as an extempore venue for plays at least as early as 1557, when an injunction from 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 ...
ordered the
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...
to send officers to the Boar's Head to prevent the performance of "a lewd play called a ''Sack full of News''", arrest the performers and confiscate the play-book. The Lord Mayor complied, but in a further letter on the following day the Privy Council ordered the prisoners' release.
It underwent two renovations for use as a playhouse: first, in 1598, when a simple stage was erected, and a second, more elaborate renovation in 1599. In 1616, the lease of the space to Oliver Woodliffe, one of the men responsible for expanding the theatre, expired, and Charles Sisson surmises that this marked the end of the Boar's Head's days as a theatre space.
On 28 November 1594, Jane and Henry Poley, who owned the inn, entered a lease agreement with Oliver and Susan Woodliffe. The agreement began on 25 March 1595 and ended on 24 March 1616 and included a promise to spend £100 during the following seven years to build, among other things, a tiring house and a stage.
In 1598, a primitive stage was built in the middle of the yard, measuring by . The audience stood mostly in the yard, as the galleries were not big enough to accommodate a large audience. In 1599, Woodliffe and Richard Samwell (who had leased the inn in 1598 from Woodliffe; Woodliffe remained landlord of the theatre) took down the primitive stage setup and built a new playhouse apparently meant to compete with Shakespeare's
Globe
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...
, which had just opened on the other side of the Thames. As Leggatt states, "the stage — essentially the same stage — was moved to the west wall so that actors could enter directly on to it from the tiring house, a roof was built over the stage, and the galleries were considerably expanded and roofed with tiles."
Berry lists a number of plays that can be associated with the Boar's Head during its heyday, although he is careful to note that "we cannot show that any surviving plays were unquestionably written for performance at the Boar's Head." He lists "two plays that may well have been written for performance at the Boar's Head":
*''A Pleasant conceited Comedie Wherein is shewed how a man may chuse a good Wife from a bad'' (London, 1602), ''sundry times Acted by the Earle of'' Worcesters ''Seruants."''
*''The History of the tryall of the Cheualry'' (London, 1605 twice), "lately acted by the right ''Honourable the Earle of Darby his'' seruants."
Also listed are six plays that are less likely to have been written specifically for performance at the Boar's Head but that were published as having belonged to the Queen's men and Prince Charles's men at the time of their respective stints at the Boar's Head:
*
Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'', a ...
, ''If you know not me, You know no bodie'' (London, 1605)
*Heywood, ''The Second Part of, If you know now me, you know no bodie'' (London, 1606)
*''No-body and Some-body'' (London, n.d.), ''"acted by the Queens Maiesties Seruants"''
*
Thomas Dekker and
John Webster
John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and car ...
, ''The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat'' (London, 1607), "As it was plaied by the Queens Maiesties Seruants."
*''The Fayre Mayed of the Exchange'' (London, 1607); often attributed to Heywood.
*
William Rowley
William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in ...
and
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...
, ''A Faire Quarrell'' (London, 1617), "As it was Acted before
the King ''and diuers times publikely by the'' Prince his Highnes Seruants."
In 1616, the lease agreement between the Woodliffes and the Poleys (now controlled by Mrs. Poley's heir, Sir John Poley) expired. By this time, the Prince's Men had merged with Lady Elizabeth's Men and had entered into an agreement to play in the
Hope Theatre
The Hope Theatre was one of the theatres built in and around London for the presentation of plays in English Renaissance theatre, comparable to the Globe, the Curtain, the Swan, and other famous theatres of the era.
The Hope was built in 1613 ...
on
Bankside
Bankside is an area of London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance befor ...
. Sisson suggests that Poley "found it more profitable to develop the buildings and site of the Boar's head, or to dispose of it to a speculator, for other purposes than those of an inn and a theatre, in the rapid growth of this residential and industrial suburb of London.".
Layout
As Berry explains, the Boar's Head differed from many other playhouses of the time in that it "was not a single free-standing building, like the
Globe
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...
,
Fortune
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 others, but, except for the stage, mostly a scheme of additions and alterations to existing buildings originally meant for very different uses." These other sections included various lodgings, stables, gardens, barns, and, thankfully for its customers, a privy. The Boar's Head featured a covered, square playing area in an age of polygonal playhouses (such as the
Globe
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...
, the
Swan
Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...
and the
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
) and was surrounded on all sides by the audience.
Even after its expansion, the Boar's Head remained a comparatively small theatre for its time, with only two levels of galleries on the east side, and one each on the north and south sides. (For comparison, the Swan and Fortune theatres each had three levels of galleries.)
[Leggatt, 14.]
Archaeology
In 2019 the
Museum of London Archaeology
MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) is an archaeology and built heritage practice and independent charitable company registered with the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA), providing a wide range of professional archaeological servic ...
began an excavation of the site, which will eventually be preserved within a new building which is intended for the location.
[
]
See also
* English Renaissance theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642.
This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
External links
Digital model of the Boar's Head Theatre, based on the sketches in Herbert Berry's book
{{coord, 51.5149, -0.0740, type:landmark_region:GB-TWH, display=title
1598 establishments in England
1616 disestablishments
Elizabethan architecture
Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Former theatres in London
Inn-yard theatres
Theatres completed in 1598
Former pubs in London
Pubs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets