![London theatres C16—C17, after Redwood](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/London_theatres_C16%E2%80%94C17%2C_after_Redwood.png)
The Red Bull was an inn-yard conversion erected in
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England.
Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington.
The well after which it was named was redisco ...
,
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 ...
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 rowdiness. After
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
closed the theatres in 1642, it continued to host illegal performances intermittently, and when the theatres reopened after the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
, it became a legitimate venue again. There is a myth that it burned down in the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...
but the direct reason for its end is unclear.
Design
The Red Bull was constructed in about 1605 on
St John Street in
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England.
Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington.
The well after which it was named was redisco ...
on a site corresponding to the eastern end of modern-day Hayward's Place. Contemporary documents reveal that it was converted from a yard in an inn. This origin accounts for its square-ish shape, shared, for example, by the original
Fortune Theatre
The Fortune Theatre is a 432-seat West End theatre on Russell Street, near Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster. Since 1989 the theatre has hosted the long running play ''The Woman in Black''.
History
The site was acquired by author, playw ...
among playhouses of the time. The Red Bull inn's name may relate to drovers bringing cattle down St John Street toward the markets at
Smithfield. The conversion was undertaken by Aaron Holland, owner of the inn from 1602, on land he had leased (along with an actor named Martin Slater) from Anne Bedingfeild.
Evidence indicates that its size was comparable to
Globe Theatre and Fortune, its competitors. In its early days, the company of
Queen Anna of Denmark's men offered credible competition to the
King's Men and
Prince Henry's Men. W. J. Lawrence argued that the theatre was roofed over in the early 1620s, but this idea was largely refuted by
Leslie Hotson
John Leslie Hotson, (16 August 1897 – 16 November 1992) was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles.
Biography
He was born at Delhi, Ontario, on 16 August 1897. He studied at Harvard University, where he obtained a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. He we ...
and
G. E. Bentley. The Red Bull was most likely similar to the other outdoor theatres against which it competed, with an uncurtained thrust-forward stage backed by a
tiring house and balcony, surrounded by standing room, and overlooked by galleries on three walls. It may well have held more than the capacity of The Globe.
History
Jacobean and Caroline
A draft royal patent for the Queen's company, mentioning
Thomas Greene, its clown, suggests that it was formed in about 1604, and that the playhouse was built for that troupe. In addition to Greene, Martin Slater, Aaron Holland (a servant of the
Earl of Devonshire
The title of Earl of Devonshire has been created twice in the Peerage of England, firstly in 1603 for the Blount family and then recreated in 1618 for the Cavendish family, in whose possession the earldom remains.
It is not to be confused with ...
), Thomas Swinnerton and
Christopher Beeston
Christopher Beeston (c. 1579 – c. 15 October 1638) was a successful actor and a powerful theatrical impresario in early 17th century London. He was associated with a number of playwrights, particularly Thomas Heywood.
Early life
Little is kno ...
were known to have owned shares in the enterprise. Perhaps because they had learned from
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 ...
's recent problems with neighbourhood opposition in building the Fortune, they did not approach the court for approval until they had already placated their parish neighbours—as Henslowe had—by contributing to poor relief.
Queen Anna's men's repertoire included works by prominent playwrights.
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'', ...
, actor in the company, contributed the greatest part.
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 c ...
's ''
The White Devil'' and ''The Devil's Law-case'',
Thomas Dekker's ''If This Be Not A Good Play, the Devil Is in It'', and John Cooke's well-known ''
The City Gallant (Greene's Tu Quoque)'' were also included. They also came into possession of some older plays, including
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
's ''
Edward II
Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...
''. The audience appears to have disapproved of ''The White Devil'' in 1611, and in later years the Red Bull as the cause of, or scene of, noted riots which are recorded in court cases.
In 1616, the Queen's men, now directed by
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
Hist ...
Christopher Beeston, moved into Beeston's new indoor
Cockpit Theatre
The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was named The Phoenix.
History
The original building was an actual cockpit; that is, a st ...
. This was in emulation of the King's Men's acquirement of the Blackfriars, the company now having both the outdoor Red Bull and the Indoor Cockpit. On
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), observed in many Christian countries through participating in confession and absolution, the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms, finalizing one's Lenten s ...
1617, a mob of apprentices attacked the Cockpit but the theatre was re-established and was a successful venue into the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
. The first company was succeeded at the Red Bull by
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 ...
. The disintegration of Queen Anna's men after
Anne's death in 1619 produced a little-understood reshuffling of these companies. In the decline of the Jacobean period, this company produced plays including Dekker and
Massinger's ''The Virgin Martyr'',
Thomas May
Thomas May (1594/95 – 13 November 1650) was an English poet, dramatist and historian of the Renaissance era.
Early life and career until 1630
May was born in Mayfield, Sussex, the son of Sir Thomas May, a minor courtier. He matriculated a ...
's ''The Heir'', and
Gervase Markham
Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (ca. 1568 – 3 February 1637) was an English poet and writer. He was best known for his work '' The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman'', first publishe ...
and
William Sampson's ''Herod and Antipater''.
After James's death,
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
assumed patronage of the King's Men, and the former Prince Charles's Men disbanded. From this date, an even less reputable company took up residence at the Red Bull. Scholars generally call this troupe the Red Bull company, as the actors called themselves when in London; when touring, as they did frequently, they styled themselves the King's Players. In 1627,
Henry Herbert, acting on a request from
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 ...
, ordered this company to cease performing Shakespeare's plays. In November 1629, the theatre hosted visiting French actors who had earlier played at the Fortune and
Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre was the name given to two separate theatres located in the former Blackfriars Dominican priory in the City of London during the Renaissance. The first theatre began as a venue for the Children of the Chapel Royal, child ac ...
; a contemporary reference may indicate that this troupe, which included women, was poorly received in Clerkenwell.
By 1634, the Red Bull housed a new company patronized by the child Prince
Charles II. By this point, the Red Bull's reputation was tarnished. But the new company boasted a popular comedian, Andrew Cane, and it was able to survive the
Privy Council's anger over the
slander
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
ous play ''The Whore New Vamped'', which mocked an
alderman
An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...
by name and complained of recently levied taxes.
After 1642
Along with all the other theatres in London, the Red Bull was
closed for plays in 1642 by the
Commonwealth. In the short term, the prohibition was of limited effect; as late as 1648, the Red Bull hosted a performance of
Fletcher's ''Wit Without Money''; advertisements for the performance were thrown into gentlemen's carriages. There followed a crackdown on performances by Parliament, which grew wiser to the real implications of advertisements for "rope dancing" and other entertainments at the old theatres. On 20 December 1649, the Red Bull was successfully raided, a number of actors arrested and imprisoned, and their clothes and properties confiscated.
The Red Bull is the only theatre incontestably associated with
droll
A droll is a short comical sketch of a type that originated during the Puritan Interregnum in England. With the closure of the theatres, actors were left without any way of plying their art. Borrowing scenes from well-known plays of the Elizabe ...
s, brief farces taken from the most popular older plays. In 1653,
Robert Cox was arrested at the Red Bull for a performance which crossed the line and was deemed a play. Sir
William Davenant
Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned b ...
and Sir
George Fletcher reportedly watched a play at the Red Bull in February or March 1655. In September 1655, the Red Bull was raided again as part of the same sterner attitude that led Cromwell's soldiers to deface the Fortune and Blackfriars, and actors were arrested for performing there in 1659.
A collection of drolls was published by
Francis Kirkman
Francis Kirkman (1632 – c. 1680) appears in many roles in the English literary world of the second half of the seventeenth century, as a publisher, bookseller, librarian, author and bibliographer. In each he is an enthusiast for popular litera ...
, some attributed to "the incomparable Robert Cox", as ''The Wits'' (1662, and enlarged 1672–73). Kirkman said many had been performed at the Red Bull; however, the frontispiece to his volume does not necessarily represent a performance at the venue, as was once assumed—the drawing shows
footlight
A footlight is a theatrical lighting device arranged to illuminate a stage
Stage or stages may refer to:
Acting
* Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions
* Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referr ...
s and a candelabra, whereas the Red Bull mounted only open-air, daylight performances.
The theatre was re-opened in 1660 upon the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
of the monarchy, as home for
Michael Mohun
Michael Mohun (1616? – buried 11 October 1684) was a leading English actor both before and after the 1642–60 closing of the theatres.
Mohun began his stage career as a boy player filling female roles; he was part of Christopher Beeston's the ...
's company and
George Jolly
George Jolly, or Joliffe (in Germany, Joris Joliphus or Jollifous) (fl. 1640 – 1673) was an actor, an early actor-manager and a theatre impresario of the middle seventeenth century. He was "an experienced, courageous, and obstinate actor-manage ...
's troupe. Its new management returned to the business of staging crowd-pleasing drama; on 23 March 1661
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
recorded seeing a revival of
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 ...
's ''
All's Lost by Lust
''All's Lost by Lust'' is a Jacobean tragedy by William Rowley. A "tragedy of remarkable frankness and effectiveness," "crude and fierce," it was written between 1618 and 1620.
Publication
The play was first published in 1633 (seven years afte ...
'' there, but he notes that the work was "poorly done, with…much disorder". By the following year the building was given over to prize fights and public demonstrations of fencing. The Red Bull came to an end around 1665 or 1666, but this had nothing to do with the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...
, which stopped some distance south.
Buildings were constructed on the site of the playhouse, and the outline of its structure, including the passageway from the auditorium to St John Street, can still be traced at its location off Woodbridge Street.
Legacy
Founded in 2003, Red Bull Theater of New York City takes its name and inspiration from the original Red Bull.
Notes
References
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* 7 volumes.
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External links
*
Shakespearean Playhouses', by
Joseph Quincy Adams Jr. from
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures completed in 1604
1666 disestablishments
Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Islington
Former theatres in London
1604 establishments in England
Theatres completed in 1604