Edward Knight ( fl. 1613 – 1637) was the prompter (then called the "book-keeper" or "book-holder") of the King's Men, the acting company that performed the plays of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

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 ...

, John Fletcher, and other playwrights of Jacobean and Caroline drama. In

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 ...

, the prompter managed the company's performances, ensuring that they went according to plan; he also supervised and maintained the troupe's dramatic manuscripts, its "playbooks." It was in this sense that the prompter "held" and "kept" the "books" of the company. And when censorship problems arose, the prompter had to resolve them. Nothing is known of Knight's personal history; he is known only through his professional activities. Prior to his service with the King's Men, he functioned as prompter for a competing company,

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 ...

; he witnessed a contract between

Philip Henslowe Philip Henslowe (c. 1550 – 6 January 1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance ...

and the actors in March 1616. After some years with the King's Men, he was apparently regarded as a key member of the company's supporting staff: on 27 December 1624, Sir Henry Herbert, the

Master of the Revels The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain. ...

, issued a roster of 21 "musicians and other necessary attendants" of the King's Men who could not be arrested or "pressed for soldiers" without the permission of either Herbert or the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main cha ...

, then

William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (8 April 158010 April 1630) , of Wilton House in Wiltshire, was an English nobleman, politician and courtier. He served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford and together with King James I founded Pem ...

. Knight's name is first on the list. (The 16th name on the list is Anthony Knight, perhaps a relative.) Knight prepared the company's play texts for production, adding stage directions, cues for offstage sounds, and other necessary information to turn an author's or scribe's manuscript into a promptbook. Several play manuscripts in Knight's hand survive – for ''

Beggars' Bush ''Beggars' Bush'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that is a focus of dispute among scholars and critics. Authorship The authorship and the date of the play have long been debated by ...

'', ''

Bonduca ''Bonduca'' is a Jacobean tragi-comedy in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, generally judged by scholars to be the work of John Fletcher alone. It was acted by the King's Men c. 1613, and published in 1647 in the first Beaumont and Fletcher ...

'', ''

The Faithful Friends ''The Faithful Friends'' is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy associated with the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. Never printed in its own century, the play is one of the most disputed works in English Renai ...

'', and ''

The Honest Man's Fortune ''The Honest Man's Fortune'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Nathan Field, John Fletcher, and Philip Massinger. It was apparently the earliest of the works produced by this trio of writers, the others being ''The Queen of ...

''. (Knight's manuscript for ''Bonduca'' is not a promptbook but a presentation MS. In the MSS. of both ''Bonduca'' and ''The Fautfhul Friends'', Knight leaves gaps because he is transcribing the author's drafts, the "foul papers," and sometimes cannot read the defective texts.) Knight's job of annotating manuscripts for use as promptbooks throws light on practical aspects of the stagecraft of the era, and also the censorship problems that plagued the dramatists and actors.

Philip Massinger Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including ''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their politi ...

's authorial MS. of his ''

Believe as You List ''Believe as You List'' is a Caroline era tragedy by Philip Massinger, famous as a case of theatrical censorship. Censorship The play originally dealt with the legend that Sebastian of Portugal had survived the battle of Alcácer Quibir, and the ...

'' reveals official censorship in action, and bears notes and revisions in Knight's hand. (In the ''Believe as You List'' MS., Knight marked the actors' entrances three of four lines prior to their first speaking; they needed the time to traverse the large stage of the

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...

.) A second document from the hand of Sir Henry Herbert, addressed personally to Knight, is especially notable. On 21 October 1633, Herbert returned the MS. of ''

The Woman's Prize ''The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tamed'' is a Jacobean comedy written by John Fletcher. It was first published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647, though it was written several decades earlier (Fletcher died in 1625). There is ...

'' to Knight, ordering him to do a better job of removing "oaths, prophaness, and publique ribaldrye", and threatening Knight with consequences if he doesn't do better: "you will answer it at your perill." Shakespeare scholars have devoted a good measure of attention to the specifics of Knight's practice and his handwriting, looking for insight into the effect Knight may have had on the details of Shakespeare's texts. "The

1634 Events January–March * January 12– After suspecting that he will be dismissed, Albrecht von Wallenstein, supreme commander of the Holy Roman Empire's Army, demands that his colonels sign a declaration of personal loyalty. ...

Quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

of ''

Two Noble Kinsmen ''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' is a Jacobean tragicomedy, first published in 1634 and attributed jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Its plot derives from " The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales'', which h ...

'', printed from a manuscript which apparently reflects a revival of 1625/6, contains stage directions probably penned by Knight." At the extreme, it has been suggested that Knight was "the virtual editor of the

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

on behalf of Heminge and Condell."

John Dover Wilson John Dover Wilson CH (13 July 1881 – 15 January 1969) was a professor and scholar of Renaissance drama, focusing particularly on the work of William Shakespeare. Born at Mortlake (then in Surrey, now in Greater London), he attended Lancing Co ...

, "A New Way with Shakespeare's Texts: An Introduction for Lay Readers, IV," in: ''Shakespeare Survey II'',

Allardyce Nicoll John Ramsay Allardyce Nicoll (28 June 1894 – 17 April 1976) was a British literary scholar and teacher. Allardyce Nicoll was born in Partick, Glasgow, and educated at Stirling High School and the University of Glasgow, where he was the G. A. Cl ...

, ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1958; p. 82. (The censored manuscript of the Fletcher/Massinger collaboration ''

Sir John van Olden Barnavelt ''The Tragedy of Sir John van Olden Barnavelt'' is a Jacobean play written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger in 1619, and produced in the same year by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. Based on controversial contemporaneous political ...

'' contains prompter's notes, but they are not in Knight's hand. The King's Men had another prompter in Knight's era, a man named Thomas Vincent; even less is known about Vincent than about Knight.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Edward Theatre in England British drama People associated with Shakespeare 17th-century English people Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown