John Underwood (died October 1624) was an early 17th-century
actor, a member of the
King's Men, the theatrics company of
William Shakespeare.
Career
Underwood began as a
boy player with the
Children of the Chapel, and was cast in that company's productions of
Ben Jonson's ''
Cynthia's Revels'' (
1600
__NOTOC__
In the Gregorian calendar, it was the last century leap year until the year 2000.
Events
January–June
* January 1 – Scotland adopts January 1 as New Year's Day instead of March 25.
* January
** Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of T ...
) and ''
The Poetaster'' (
1601
This Epoch (reference date)#Computing, epoch is the beginning of the 400-year Gregorian leap-year cycle within which digital files first existed; the last year of any such cycle is the only leap year whose year number is divisible by 100.
Jan ...
). In 1608 or soon after, he joined the King's Men along with
William Ostler, another former member of the Chapel Children troupe. Underwood was a member of the cast of the King's Men's production of Jonson's ''
The Alchemist'' in
1610
Some have suggested that 1610 may mark the beginning of the Anthropocene, or the 'Age of Man', marking a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and the Earth system, but earlier starting dates (ca. 1000 C.E.) have received broa ...
, and was in the casts of many productions that followed, including Jonson's ''
Catiline'' (
1611
Events
January–June
* February 27 – Sunspots are observed by telescope, by Frisian astronomers Johannes Fabricius and David Fabricius. Johannes publishes the results of these observations, in ''De Maculis in Sole observa ...
) and
John Webster's ''
The Duchess of Malfi'' (the revival of c. 1621).
In the 25 cast lists added to plays in the
second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of
1679
Events
January–June
* January 24 – King Charles II of England dissolves the "Cavalier Parliament", after nearly 18 years.
* February 3 – Moroccan troops from Fez are killed, along with their commander Moussa ben Ahmed be ...
, Underwood is mentioned in the casts of 18 dramas:
* ''
Bonduca''
*
''The Custom of the Country''
* ''
The Double Marriage''
* ''
The False One''
* ''
The Humorous Lieutenant''
* ''
The Island Princess''
* ''
The Knight of Malta''
* ''
The Laws of Candy
''The Laws of Candy'' is a Jacobean stage play, a tragicomedy that is significant principally because of the question of its authorship.
Date
The play received its initial publication in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Scholars ...
''
* ''
The Little French Lawyer''
* ''
The Lovers' Progress
''The Lovers' Progress,'' also known as ''The Wandering Lovers,'' or ''Cleander,'' or ''Lisander and Calista,'' is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. As its multiple titles ind ...
''
* ''
The Loyal Subject''
* ''
The Maid in the Mill''
* ''
The Pilgrim
A pilgrim is one who undertakes a religious journey or pilgrimage.
Pilgrim(s) or The Pilgrim(s) may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Film, television, radio and the stage
* The Pilgrim (1923 film), ''The Pilgrim'' (1923 film), a si ...
''
* ''
The Queen of Corinth''
* ''
The Sea Voyage''
* ''
Valentinian''
* ''
A Wife for a Month
''A Wife for a Month'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Maste ...
''
* ''
Women Pleased''
His total appearances equals those of
Joseph Taylor and
Robert Benfield, and is exceeded only by
John Lowin's 21. Considering that his career was two decades shorter than Taylor's or Benfield's (both of whom acted until the theatres closed in 1642), Underwood was clearly a mainstay of the company during his acting career.
His will
Underwood died between 4 and 10 October 1624. His last will and testament was drawn up on the 4th; a codicil was appended on the 11th, after his death. He left his property in a trust for his five minor children (John, Elizabeth, Burbage, Thomas, and Isabel). His executors and overseers, who included
John Lowin,
Henry Condell, and
John Heminges, were left 11 shillings each to buy memorial rings. Shakespeare's 1616 will had left Condell, Heminges and
Richard Burbage 28 shillings sixpence (28''s.'' 6''d.'') each for the same purpose.
Theatre shares
Underwood's property included shares in the King's Men's theatres, the
Globe and the
Blackfriars Blackfriars, derived from Black Friars, a common name for the Dominican Order of friars, may refer to:
England
* Blackfriars, Bristol, a former priory in Bristol
* Blackfriars, Canterbury, a former monastery in Kent
* Blackfriars, Gloucester, a f ...
, as well as a share in the
Curtain Theatre
The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624.
The Curtain was ...
in
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area.
In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
. The last is a significant point.
Thomas Pope, a member of the
Lord Chamberlain's Men who died in 1603, had also possessed a share in the Curtain and had listed it in his will. As far as is known, Henry Lanman, who built the Curtain in 1577, had originally run that theatre as his private business; yet sometime before 1603 the Curtain had clearly been re-organized into a shareholders' enterprise. The fact that two men of Shakespeare's troupe owned shares in the Curtain suggests that this re-organization occurred around the time the Lord Chamberlain's Men were acting at the Curtain in the 1597–99 period. (Pope was a member of the company at that time, while Underwood was not; the implication is that Underwood purchased his share in the Curtain from another troupe member.)
When the brothers Richard and
Cuthbert Burbage built The Globe Theatre in early 1599, they organized it as a shareholders' concern, keeping 50% of the business for themselves and dividing the other 50% among four of the Lord Chamberlain's Men – Shakespeare, Pope, Heminges, and
Augustine Phillips
Augustine Phillips (died May 1605) was an Elizabethan actor who performed in troupes with Edward Alleyn and William Shakespeare. He was one of the first generation of English actors to achieve wealth and a degree of social status by means of his ...
. (Originally
William Kempe was meant to be the seventh partner, but he sold out to the other four minority shareholders, giving each of them a 12.5% stake instead of 10%.) It has been argued that the Burbages pursued this arrangement out of necessity: their financial problems involving
The Theatre and the Blackfriars left them in need of outside investors.
[Gurr, pp. 45–6.] It is generally held that the Globe arrangement constituted the first case in which the standard sharers' partnership in a
playing company was extended to theatre construction and ownership. Yet the Curtain Theatre shares owned by Underwood and Pope suggest that the Globe was perhaps not the initial instance of such an arrangement, and that the Burbages applied to the Globe a structure that was already familiar to the Lord Chamberlain's Men from the Curtain.
Notes
References
*
Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
*
Gurr, Andrew. ''The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642.'' Third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
*
Halliday, F.E. ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964.'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, John
King's Men (playing company)
Year of birth unknown
1624 deaths
17th-century English male actors
English male stage actors