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The King's Men is the acting company to which
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 ...
(1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as the
Lord Chamberlain's Men
The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a company of actors, or a "playing company" (as it then would likely have been described), for which Shakespeare wrote during most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead roles, including Hamlet, Othe ...
during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
, they became the King's Men in 1603 when
King James I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
ascended the throne and became the company's patron.
The royal patent of 19 May 1603 which authorised the King's Men company named the following players, in this order:
Lawrence Fletcher
Lawrence Fletcher (died 1608) was a Jacobean actor, and man of mystery.
Fletcher was named first on the royal patent of 19 May 1603 that transformed the Lord Chamberlain's Men into the King's Men. William Shakespeare was second, and Richard Bu ...
, William Shakespeare,
Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage (c. 1567 – 13 March 1619) was an English stage actor, widely considered to have been one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre and of his time. In addition to being a stage actor, he was also a theatre owner, ent ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
Henry Condell
Henry Condell ( bapt. 5 September 1576 – December 1627) was a British actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing and editing the First Folio, the col ...
,
William Sly
William Sly (died August 1608) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a colleague of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men.
Nothing is known of Sly's early life. He enters the historica ...
,
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 ...
,
Richard Cowley
Richard Cowley (died 1619) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a colleague of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men.
Cowley was in the c. 1591 production of ''The Seven Deadly Sins'', ...
, "and the rest of their associates...." The nine cited by name became
Grooms of the Chamber
A bridegroom (often shortened to groom) is a man who is about to be married or who is newlywed.
When marrying, the bridegroom's future spouse (if female) is usually referred to as the bride. A bridegroom is typically attended by a best man an ...
. On 15 March 1604, each of the nine men named in the patent was supplied with four and a half yards of red cloth for the coronation procession.
Chronologically typed
To 1610
In their first winter season, between December 1603 and February 1604 the company performed eight times at Court and eleven times in their second, from November 1604 through February 1605, including seven plays by Shakespeare and two by
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 ...
. This represented a workload twice as great as was typical under
Elizabeth
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
. The King's Men needed more men and in 1604 the number of sharers was increased from eight or nine, ten, eleven and twelve. The new sharers included
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 ...
,
Alexander Cooke
Alexander Cooke (died February 1614) was an actor in the King's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the acting companies of William Shakespeare, John Heminges and Richard Burbage.
Cooke was most likely introduced to the theatre by John Heminge ...
, and
Nicholas Tooley
Nicholas Tooley (c. 1583 – June 1623) was a Renaissance actor in the King's Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare.
Recent research has shown that Tooley was born in late 1582 or early 1583; his birth name was not Tooley but Wilkin ...
.
May 1605 brought the death of Augustine Phillips. In his will, Phillips left legacies to Shakespeare, Burbage, and eight other members of the company, plus two apprentices, and £5 to the hired men "of the company which I am of". (Phillips also leaves a bequest to
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 ...
, as a former "servant". Beeston was almost certainly another former apprentice.)
The company gave ten Court performances in the winter of 1605–06 and, unusually, three Court performances in the summer of 1606, during a state visit by the King of Denmark. Each Court performance earned them £10. They also toured that summer, and were in Oxford at the end of July, among other stops. Nine performances at Court marked the winter of 1606-07, including a performance of 26 December of ''
King Lear
''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...
;'' the following winter, 1607–08, saw thirteen Court appearances.
From July to December 1608 the theatres were closed due to plague. The King's Men toured the countryside; they were in Coventry in late October. The
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 acto ...
, owned by the Burbage family, was organised into a partnership in August that year, with five of the seven shares going to members of the King's Men – Shakespeare, Burbage, Heminges, Condell, and Sly. Sly, however, died soon after, and his share was split among the other six. (The two non-actors involved in the arrangement were
Cuthbert Burbage
Cuthbert Burbage (c. 15 June 1565 – 15 September 1636) was an English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adj ...
, Richard's brother, and Thomas Evans, agent for theatre manager
Henry Evans.)
The acquisition of the Blackfriars represented an enormous advantage for the company. It allowed the company to perform year round instead of only in clement weather. The Blackfriars hall is thought to have been , including the stage; its maximum capacity was likely in the hundreds of spectators. This can be compared with the maximum capacity at the Globe Theatre of 2500 to 3000. Yet the ticket prices at the Blackfriars were five to six times higher than those at the Globe. Globe tickets ranged from a penny to sixpence (1''d''. to 6''d''.); tickets at the Blackfriars ranged from sixpence to two shillings sixpence (6''d''. to 2''s''. 6''d''.; 1 shilling = 12 pence). The cheapest admission at the Blackfriars equalled the most expensive at the Globe; the most expensive seat at the Blackfriars cost five times as much as its Globe counterpart. Adding the Blackfriars to the Globe should have allowed the King's Men to at least double their income from public performances.
Their new wealth allowed the King's Men to overcome major adversity: when the Globe Theatre burned down in 1613 (see below), the company could afford an expensive rebuild, replacing the vulnerable thatch roof with tile. The fact that the King's Men had a second theatre meant that they did not lose all their playscripts and costumes, as happened to the
Admiral's/Palsgrave's Men in the Fortune Theatre fire of December 1621 (a disaster that was, for that company, the beginning of the end).
1609 was another plague year during which the company travelled, although nine plays were still performed at Court. (Royal patronage was an advantage in difficult times: special payments in times of plague were made to the company in 1603, 1608, 1609, and 1610.)
1610 was a better year, with public performances at the Globe – ''
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
'' and Jonson's ''
Sejanus
Lucius Aelius Sejanus (c. 20 BC – 18 October AD 31), commonly known as Sejanus (), was a Roman soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Of the Equites class by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Praetorian Guar ...
'' among others. By this time the company had been augmented by
John Underwood and
William Ostler
William Ostler (died 16 December 1614) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare.
Ostler started out as a boy player in the Children of the Chapel troupe; he was cast in their 1 ...
, both veterans of the
Children of the Chapel
The Children of the Chapel are the boys with unbroken voices, choristers, who form part of the Chapel Royal, the body of singers and priests serving the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they were called upon to do so. They were overseen ...
/Queen's Revels company. The company left London and performed in Oxford in August, 1610. They were paid by the Oxford Municipal Authorities. A letter by Oxford student at Corpus Christi, Henry Jackson and dated September 1610 and in latin, describes the King's Men performing Ben Jonson's The Alchemist and describes Desdemona (in Othello) both of which had been performed earlier that year in London. The record is held at Corpus Christi and a copy can be viewed at the Folger Exhibition, Shakespeare Documented.
To 1616
In 1611 Jonson's ''
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina ( 108 BC – January 62 BC), known in English as Catiline (), was a Roman politician and soldier. He is best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy, a failed attempt to violently seize control of the R ...
'' was performed; apart from
Richard Robinson's substitution for Armin, the cast roster was the same as for ''Sejanus'' the previous year. This may have been John Heminges' last production; in 1613 he's described as "stuttering." Heminges normally received the payments for the company's Court performances, as far back as 1595; he continued to be active in the company's financial affairs even after he left the stage.
Between October 1611 and April 1612 the King's Men performed 22 plays at Court, including ''
The Winter's Tale
''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...
'' and ''
The Tempest''. Their connection with ''
The Second Maiden's Tragedy
''The Second Maiden's Tragedy'' is a Jacobean play that survives only in manuscript. It was written in 1611, and performed in the same year by the King's Men. The manuscript was acquired, but never printed, by the publisher Humphrey Moseley af ...
'' also dates from this period; the manuscript of that play reveals that
Robert Gough was cast as Memphonius, while Richard Robinson was the Lady.
On Sunday 12 and Monday 13 January 1612, the King's Men joined with
Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. In their own era they were known colloquially as the Queen's Men — as were Queen Elizabeth's Men and Queen Henrietta's Men, in theirs.
Formation
The group w ...
to give Court performances of two Queen's Men's plays by
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 ...
, ''The Silver Age'' and ''The Rape of Lucrece.'' No cast list for these performances has survived; but given the two companies' known personnel, this might have been the first time
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 ...
acted with his old colleagues since leaving the Lord Chamberlain's Men nearly a decade earlier.
In the winter of 1612–13, great Court festivities celebrating the marriage of the
Elector Palatine
The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...
to King James' daughter
Princess Elizabeth were held. The King's Men gave 20 performances, including seven plays by Shakespeare (''
Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...
'' twice), one by Jon
''Cardenio'' was performed again at Court on 8 June 1613, before the ambassador from Savoy. The
second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 provides partial cast lists for three King's Men productions from the c. 1613 period, for Fletcher's ''
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 ...
'' and ''
Valentinian'' and the Beaumont and Fletcher collaboration ''
The Captain''.
On 29 June 1613, 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 ...
burned down, its
thatch roof set afire by
squibs set off during a lavish performance of the Shakespeare/Fletcher ''
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
''. The Globe was rebuilt by the following spring, at a cost of £1400. The thatch roof was replaced with tile. During the winter of 1613–14 the company played at Court sixteen times.
In 1614 Alexander Cooke and William Ostler both died; their places as sharers were taken, perhaps, by
William Ecclestone
William Ecclestone or EgglestoneDNB ( fl. 1610 – 1623) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of Shakespeare's company the King's Men.
Life
Nothing is known with certainty about Ecclestone's early life. There was an Eccles ...
and
Robert Benfield
Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death.
Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was mo ...
. Ostler's death may have been sudden, and was problematic in that he died intestate. His father-in-law, John Heminges, seized control of his theatre shares. Ostler's widow, Thomasine Heminges Ostler, sued her father in 1615 for control of the shares – a suit that was apparently unsuccessful.
In the winter of 1614–15 the King's Men performed at Court only eight times, half their workload of the previous year. During the next winter, 1615–16, they were back up to fourteen Court performances.
On 23 April 1616, Shakespeare died. His role as the King's Men's leading playwright would be filled by Fletcher and his various collaborators through the coming years, with
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 ...
assuming greater prominence in the 1630s.
Nathan Field
Nathan Field (also spelled Feild occasionally; 17 October 1587 – 1620) was an English dramatist and actor.
Life
His father was the Puritan preacher John Field, and his brother Theophilus Field became the Bishop of Llandaff. One of his brothe ...
joined the company in 1616; already a prominent actor, he would go on to write plays for the King's Men in his all-too-brief career with the company.
To 1623
Nathan Field's contribution to the King's Men is illustrated by the play ''
The Knight of Malta
''The Knight of Malta'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Date and source
No firm information is avai ...
'', which Field wrote with Fletcher and Massinger. The first
Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I (1603–25).
They became known as a team early in their association, so much so that their jo ...
folio of 1647 gives a list of the principal cast in the company's production of the play, which included Burbage, Field himself, John Underwood, Richard Sharpe, Henry Condell, Robert Benfield, John Lowin, and Thomas Holcombe. (Sharpe and Holcombe were
boy actors with the company.) The date of this production is unknown, but it must have occurred in the 1616–19 era, between Field's joining the company and Burbage's death. Field may also have played the title role in
George Chapman
George Chapman (Hitchin, Hertfordshire, – London, 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been speculated to be the Rival Poet of Shak ...
's ''
Bussy D'Ambois
''The Tragedy of Bussy D'Ambois'' (1603–1607) is a Literature in English#Jacobean literature, Jacobean stage play written by George Chapman. Classified as either a tragedy or "contemporary history," ''Bussy D'Ambois'' is widely considered Ch ...
'' in this period. He is reported to have played the role at some time in his career, and the King's Men had the play in their repertory for many years.
1619 was a pivotal year in the company's history. The residents of the upscale Blackfriars neighbourhood, many of whom were wealthy and influential politically and socially, had never been happy about the presence of a theatre in their midst; in the spring of 1619 they complained more loudly than usual about the traffic problems associated with the theatre, which blocked access to the local churches. (All the playing companies were required to cease activity during Lent – a requirement they flouted whenever possible, often with impunity.) In response to this local opposition, the King's Men obtained a renewal of their royal patent dated 27 March 1619. The patent named the twelve current shareholders in the company; in addition to the veterans Burbage, Lowin, Heminges, and Condell, the list includes William Ecclestone, Robert Gough, Richard Robinson, Nicholas Tooley, and John Underwood, and the newest members, Nathan Field, Robert Benfield, and
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 ...
.
Shank would be the company's primary clown in the years to come; his specialties were dancing and knockabout physical comedy. He was a veteran of several troupes over the previous decades, going back perhaps to
Pembroke's Men
The Earl of Pembroke's Men was an Elizabethan era playing company, or troupe of actors, in English Renaissance theatre. They functioned under the patronage of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Early and equivocal mentions of a Pembroke's compan ...
and
Queen Elizabeth's Men
Queen Elizabeth's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in English Renaissance theatre. Formed in 1583 at the express command of Queen Elizabeth, it was the dominant acting company for the rest of the 1580s, as the Admiral's Men and the ...
in the reign of Elizabeth; he had been with the
Admiral's/Prince Henry's/Palsgrave's company in the 1610–13 period. Shank may have taken Robert Armin's place in the King's Men after Armin's death in 1615. Shank also trained apprentices for the company – Thomas Holcombe,
John Thompson,
Thomas Pollard
Thomas Pollard (1597 – 1649×1655) was an actor in the King's Men – a prominent comedian in the acting troupe of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage.
Thomas Pollard was christened on 11 December 1597 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. H ...
, and
John Honyman
John Honyman (1613 – April 1636), also Honeyman, Honiman, Honnyman, or other variants, was an English actor of the Caroline era. He was a member of the King's Men, the most prominent playing company of its era, best known as the company o ...
. Robert Gough had been associated with the actors of the company perhaps as far back as 1591, when he may have been a boy player in
''The Seven Deadly Sins''; he received a legacy in the 1603 will of
Thomas Pope
Sir Thomas Pope (c. 150729 January 1559), was a prominent public servant in mid-16th-century England, a Member of Parliament, a wealthy landowner, and the founder of Trinity College, Oxford.
Early life
Pope was born at Deddington, near Ban ...
, and he witnessed the 1605 will of Augustine Phillips, whose sister he most likely married. Gough was never a prominent actor, and little is known about the roles he played.
In one particular, the new patent was out of date the day it was issued. On 13 March 1619, Richard Burbage died. In April or May
Joseph Taylor transferred from
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 ...
to take Burbage's place; he would play Hamlet and the other great Shakespeare/Burbage roles. Yet Burbage was missed: in May 1619 the Lord Chamberlain,
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 ...
, wrote to a colleague that while others had gone to see a play, "I being tender-hearted, could not endure to see so soon after the loss of my old acquaintance Burbage."
In August 1619, the company premiered its production of the controversial play ''
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 ev ...
''. And sometime in this immediate post-Burbage period, they must also have staged Fletcher's ''
The Humorous Lieutenant
''The Humorous Lieutenant'', also known as ''The Noble Enemies'', ''Demetrius and Enanthe'', or ''Alexander's Successors'', is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher. Highly praised by critics, it has been called "Fl ...
''. The cast list for that play in the 1679 Beaumont and Fletcher folio is the only surviving list that includes both Taylor and Condell. Not long after this, Condell must have retired from the stage.
Another blow hit the company in the following year, 1620, when Nathaniel Field died at the young age of 33. His place as sharer was taken by
John Rice.
The works of Fletcher and his collaborators, especially Massinger, continued to make up a significant portion of the company's repertory in the 1619–22 era. Fletcher's ''
Women Pleased
''Women Pleased'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy by John Fletcher that was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Date and performance
The play's date is uncertain; it is usually assigned to t ...
'' and the Fletcher/Massinger collaborations ''
The Custom of the Country
''The Custom of the Country'' is a 1913 tragicomedy of manners novel by the American author Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl who attempts to ascend in New York City society.
Plot summary
The Spraggs, a famil ...
'' and ''
The Little French Lawyer
''The Little French Lawyer'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Date
Definite information on the play's date of au ...
'' were acted by the King's Men in this period. Casts lists in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio give the same roster for all three plays: Taylor, Lowin, Underwood, Benfield, Tooley, Ecclestone, and the boys Richard Sharpe and Thomas Holcombe.
Around 1621, the King's Men performed ''
The Duchess of Malfi
''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, ...
'' again. When the play was first printed two years later, in 1623, the quarto featured a combined cast list for both the King's Men's productions, c. 1614 and c. 1621 (the latter occurred between the deaths of Burbage in 1619 and Tooley in 1623). Together these cast lists give a mixed picture of change and stability in the company in this era.
In both productions, Tooley and Underwood played the ''Madmen'' in addition to their other roles. Along with the permanent company members or sharers, the cast included four hired men or boys, Pallant, Pollard, Sharpe, and Thompson; note also the doubling (and in the case of Pallant, more than doubling) of roles.
The Fletcher/Massinger collaboration ''
The Sea Voyage
''The Sea Voyage'' is a late Jacobean comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. The play is notable for its imitation of Shakespeare's '' The Tempest.''
Performance and publication
''The Sea Voyage'' was licensed for performance ...
'' was licensed by 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. ...
on 22 June 1622. On
St. Stephen's Day
Saint Stephen's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in Western Christianity and 27 December in Eastern Chr ...
, 26 December 1622, The King's Men acted another Fletcher/Massinger play, ''
The Spanish Curate
''The Spanish Curate'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It premiered on the stage in 1622, and was first published in 1647.
Date and source
The play was licensed for production by Sir ...
,'' at Court.
1623: The First Folio gives a list of names of the 26 "principal actors" in Shakespeare's plays, providing a fairly comprehensive roster of important members of the Lord Chamberlain's/King's Men through the previous thirty years. In addition to eight men on the original 1603 royal patent (Shakespeare, Burbage, Heminges, Condell, Phillips, Cowley, Sly, and Armin), the list includes
William Kempe
William Kempe (c. 1560–c. 1603), commonly referred to as Will Kemp, was an English actor and dancer specialising in comic roles and best known for having been one of the original players in early dramas by William Shakespeare. Roles associat ...
,
Thomas Pope
Sir Thomas Pope (c. 150729 January 1559), was a prominent public servant in mid-16th-century England, a Member of Parliament, a wealthy landowner, and the founder of Trinity College, Oxford.
Early life
Pope was born at Deddington, near Ban ...
,
George Bryan,
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 ...
,
Samuel Crosse,
Alexander Cooke
Alexander Cooke (died February 1614) was an actor in the King's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the acting companies of William Shakespeare, John Heminges and Richard Burbage.
Cooke was most likely introduced to the theatre by John Heminge ...
,
Samuel Gilburne,
William Ostler
William Ostler (died 16 December 1614) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare.
Ostler started out as a boy player in the Children of the Chapel troupe; he was cast in their 1 ...
,
Nathan Field
Nathan Field (also spelled Feild occasionally; 17 October 1587 – 1620) was an English dramatist and actor.
Life
His father was the Puritan preacher John Field, and his brother Theophilus Field became the Bishop of Llandaff. One of his brothe ...
,
John Underwood,
Nicholas Tooley
Nicholas Tooley (c. 1583 – June 1623) was a Renaissance actor in the King's Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare.
Recent research has shown that Tooley was born in late 1582 or early 1583; his birth name was not Tooley but Wilkin ...
,
William Ecclestone
William Ecclestone or EgglestoneDNB ( fl. 1610 – 1623) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of Shakespeare's company the King's Men.
Life
Nothing is known with certainty about Ecclestone's early life. There was an Eccles ...
,
Joseph Taylor,
Robert Benfield
Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death.
Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was mo ...
,
Robert Gough,
Richard Robinson,
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 ...
, and John Rice.
Sometime in 1623, the veteran clown
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 ...
joined the King's Men for the final two years in his stage career. He would play the Fat Bishop in the next year's ''
A Game at Chess
''A Game at Chess'' is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. The play is notable for its political content, dramatizing a conflict between Spain and England.
The plot ...
''.
Richard Perkins, a leading actor from
Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. In their own era they were known colloquially as the Queen's Men — as were Queen Elizabeth's Men and Queen Henrietta's Men, in theirs.
Formation
The group w ...
and the
Red Bull
Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...
company, also joined the King's Men late in 1623.
To 1642
1624:
Eliard Swanston
Eliard Swanston (died 1651), alternatively spelled Heliard, Hilliard, Elyard, Ellyardt, Ellyaerdt, and Eyloerdt, was an English actor in the Caroline era. He became a leading man in the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare and Richard B ...
left the
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 ...
to join the King's Men. Previous Lady Elizabeth's veterans to join include Nathan Field, John Rice, and (via
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 ...
) Joseph Taylor. Swanston is reported to have played Othello and Richard III during his years with the company (which extended at least through 1642).
Robert Gough died in 1624.
Also in 1624, the King's Men gave their sensational production of
Middleton's ''
A Game at Chess
''A Game at Chess'' is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. The play is notable for its political content, dramatizing a conflict between Spain and England.
The plot ...
'', which ran for an unprecedented nine days straight (6–16 August, Sundays excepted), and also got them prosecuted and fined by 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 ...
. The company got into more trouble in December, for performing Massinger's ''
The Spanish Viceroy
''The Spanish Viceroy'' is a problem play of English Renaissance drama. Originally a work by Philip Massinger dating from 1624, it was controversial in its own era, and may or may not exist today in altered form.
History
1624
In December 1624, ...
'' without a license from 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. ...
.
The sharers in the King's Men depended upon a crew of hired men to make their performances work. On 27 December 1624, Sir
Henry Herbert issued a list of the company's 21 hired men who could not be arrested or "press'd for soldiers" without the allowance of 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 ...
or 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. ...
. The list includes supporting actors like Robert Pallant, musicians, and functionaries like
Edward Knight the
prompter and
John Rhodes the wardrobe keeper.
The spring of 1625 brought a period of uncertainty. The new king,
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
, had long had his own troupe of actors,
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 ...
; would he make them the new King's Men? The existing company's established prestige – they were widely recognised the best in the land – led to a continuance of royal patronage. The Prince Charles's company folded after their patron became king, with three of its members, Thomas Hobbs, William Penn, and Anthony Smith, joining the King's Men. Though the early-to-mid-1620s was a period of economic depression in England, the King's Men prospered: the company had fifteen sharers in 1625. This abundance of personnel allowed the company to stage productions with larger casts than before
ee:_''The_Lover's_Melancholy'';_''The_Novella_(play).html" "title="The_Lover's_Melancholy.html" ;"title="ee: ''The Lover's Melancholy">ee: ''The Lover's Melancholy''; ''The Novella (play)">The Novella
''The Novella'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first published in the 1653 Brome collection ''Five New Plays'', issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring.
Date and P ...
''].
Also in 1625,
Richard Perkins terminated his brief period with the King's Men to become the leading man of the newly formed
Queen Henrietta's Men Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era in London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.
Beginnings
The company ...
.
When the King's Men premiered Massinger's ''
The Roman Actor
''The Roman Actor'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger. It was first performed in 1626, and first published in 1629. A number of critics have agreed with its author, and judged it one of Massinger's best plays.
...
'' late in 1626, the cast included a new boy player,
John Honyman
John Honyman (1613 – April 1636), also Honeyman, Honiman, Honnyman, or other variants, was an English actor of the Caroline era. He was a member of the King's Men, the most prominent playing company of its era, best known as the company o ...
, aged 13. William Trigg was another boy playing female roles for the company in the 1626–32 period; but after that his activities are unknown.
Henry Condell died in December 1627. He left shares in the company's theatres, the Blackfriars and the Globe, to his surviving family.
Opposition from the King's Men's Blackfriars neighbours reached another peak around 1630. In 1631 a commission investigated the possibility of buying out the Blackfriars property, and concluded that the company's investment in the property, over the coming fourteen years of their unexpired lease, was £2900 13''s''. 4''d''. This figure, however, covered only theatre rent and interest; in response the King's Men produced an itemised account of their investment, valuing the whole at £21,990, more than seven times as much as the commission's figure. The company's interest in the theatre was never bought out.
Upon John Heminges' death in 1630, his shares in the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres passed to his son William. William Heminges's disposal of his shares five years later would cause a major controversy within the company; see 1635 below.
The boy player
Stephen Hammerton
Stephen Hammerton ( fl. 1629–47) was a boy player or child actor in English Renaissance theatre, one of the young performers who specialized in female roles in the period before women appeared on the stage. His case illuminates the conditio ...
joined the King's Men in 1632. Richard Sharpe died in the same year; he was the boy actor who played in both productions of ''The Duchess of Malfi,'' and later graduated to young male leads, as Hammerton would do over the coming decade.
In 1633, the company had difficulties with 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. ...
, over the content of their plays. On 19 October, Herbert forbad the performance 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 ...
,'' Fletcher's sequel to Shakespeare's ''
The Taming of the Shrew
''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...
'', because of its "foul and offensive" content. The company acted the Fletcher/Beaumont play ''
The Scornful Lady
''The Scornful Lady'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, and first published in 1616, the year of Beaumont's death. It was one of the pair's most popular, often revived, and frequently reprint ...
'' instead. On 21 October, Herbert addressed a letter to Edward Knight, the "book-keeper" or prompter of the company, on the subject of the "oaths, profaneness, and public ribaldry" in their plays. And on 24 October, John Lowin and Eliard Swanston apologised to Herbert for giving offence. (Joseph Taylor and Robert Benfield were reportedly present at the meeting, but were uninvolved in either the offence or the apology; apparently Swanston and Lowin were in the cast of ''The Woman's Prize'' but Benfield and Taylor were not.) After this incident, the King's Men had their old play texts re-examined by Herbert for new productions, something that was previously not required. This meant more fees paid to Herbert.
The text of Fletcher's play was repaired adequately by the next month, when the company performed ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and ''The Woman's Prize'' before the King and Queen at
St. James's Palace on 26 and 28 November 1633. According to Herbert, Shakespeare's play was "liked", but Fletcher's play was "very well liked."
On 7 April 1634, the King's Men played
George Chapman
George Chapman (Hitchin, Hertfordshire, – London, 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been speculated to be the Rival Poet of Shak ...
's ''
Bussy D'Ambois
''The Tragedy of Bussy D'Ambois'' (1603–1607) is a Literature in English#Jacobean literature, Jacobean stage play written by George Chapman. Classified as either a tragedy or "contemporary history," ''Bussy D'Ambois'' is widely considered Ch ...
'' at Court. The title role was reportedly played by Eliard Swanston; Joseph Taylor, at this point in his career, was too "grey" for the role of a young firebrand. The company played the same play at Court again on 27 March 1638.
In the early 1630s,
William Heminges
William Heminges (1602 – c. 1653?), also Hemminges, Heminge, and other variants, was a playwright and theatrical figure of the Caroline period. He was the ninth child and third son of John Heminges, the actor and colleague of William Shakespear ...
sold off the theatre shares he'd inherited from his father upon John Heminges's death (1630). He sold (clandestinely, perhaps) two shares in the Blackfriars and three in the Globe to King's Man John Shank, for £506. In response to the sale, three other King's Men, Eliard Swanston, Thomas Pollard, and Robert Benfield, appealed to 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
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery, (10 October 158423 January 1650) was an English courtier, nobleman, and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I. Philip and his older brother William were ...
) for a chance to buy shares for themselves. Several documents in this matter, including back-and-forth statements from the three petitioners and from Cuthbert Burbage and John Shank, still exist; they contain abundant information on the company's business c. 1635.
When the petitioners began their campaign, the eight Blackfriars shares were distributed this way: Shank held two, and Taylor, Lowin, Underwood, Cuthbert Burbage, Mrs. Condell (Henry Condell's widow), and Winifred Robinson (Richard Burbage's widow and Richard Robinson's wife) had one each. Of the sixteen shares in the Globe, Cuthbert Burbage and Mrs. Robinson each owned three and a half shares, Shank had three, and Taylor, Lowin, and Mrs. Condell each owned two. Herbert ordered the existing shareholders to sell shares to Swanston, Benfield, and Pollard, though Burbage and Shank resisted.
The King's Men accompanied Charles I on a royal progress in 1636. In so doing they evaded, at least to some degree, the consequences of the prolonged theatre closing due to plague in 1636–37. Comedian John Shank died in 1636, as did Cuthbert Burbage. A royal warrant of 1636 reveals that Shakespeare's nephew William Hart (1600–39), the son of the poet's younger sister Joan, was an actor in the company at the time.
In the later 1630s the company took up the practice of staging plays written by courtiers favoured by Queen
Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...
, like
William Cartwright's ''The Royal Slave'' (1636) or
Sir John Suckling's ''
Aglaura'' (1637); they were rewarded with the lavish costumes of the productions. The company's repertory narrowed in this era; they produced fewer new plays, and those they did stage were mainly these subsidised courtly works.
[Aaron, p. 159.] Their economic situation also worsened; from a high of fifteen in 1625, the number of sharers dropped to nine by 1636.
Unable to foresee the coming collapse of 1642, the King's Men undertook a major expansion around 1640. They brought in five new men as actors and sharers:
William Allen William Allen may refer to:
Politicians
United States
*William Allen (congressman) (1827–1881), United States Representative from Ohio
*William Allen (governor) (1803–1879), U.S. Representative, Senator, and 31st Governor of Ohio
*William ...
,
Theophilus Bird
Theophilus Bird, or Bourne, (1608 – 1663) was a seventeenth-century English actor. Bird began his stage career in the Stuart era of English Renaissance theatre, and ended it in the Restoration period; he was one of the relatively few actor ...
,
Michael Bowyer
Michael Bowyer (1599–1645) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre in the Jacobean era, Jacobean and Caroline era, Caroline eras. He spent most of his maturity with Queen Henrietta's Men, but finished his career with the King's Men (playing ...
,
Hugh Clark, and
William Robbins. All five were veterans of
Queen Henrietta's Men Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era in London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.
Beginnings
The company ...
; and all five were made
Grooms of the Chamber
A bridegroom (often shortened to groom) is a man who is about to be married or who is newlywed.
When marrying, the bridegroom's future spouse (if female) is usually referred to as the bride. A bridegroom is typically attended by a best man an ...
on 22 January 1641, along with Stephen Hammerton. With Massinger's death in 1640, the troupe also needed a new house dramatist;
James Shirley
James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist.
He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so m ...
was recruited for the job. The company staged Shirley's ''
The Cardinal
''The Cardinal'' is a 1963 American drama film produced independently, directed by Otto Preminger and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The screenplay was written by Robert Dozier, based on the novel of the same name (1950) by Henry Morton Robi ...
'' in 1641, and his ''
The Sisters'' in the Spring of 1642. The production of Shirley's next work, ''
The Court Secret'', was prevented by the theatre closure in September 1642.
Aftermath
1642: the
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
s in
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 ...
gained control over the city of London at the beginning 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 ...
, and ordered the
closing of all theatres on 2 September. The theatres remained officially closed until 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
...
in 1660.
In 1646, the King's Men received back-pay from Parliament, money they were still owed for pre-1642 performances.
Clandestine and sporadic theatre activity occurred. 1647 was a year of relative official leniency, when theatrical performances were not uncommon. Ten actors signed the dedication in the 1647
Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I (1603–25).
They became known as a team early in their association, so much so that their jo ...
folio as the King's Men; these were Robert Benfield,
Theophilus Bird
Theophilus Bird, or Bourne, (1608 – 1663) was a seventeenth-century English actor. Bird began his stage career in the Stuart era of English Renaissance theatre, and ended it in the Restoration period; he was one of the relatively few actor ...
,
Hugh Clark, Stephen Hammerton, John Lowin, Thomas Pollard, Richard Robinson, Joseph Taylor, Eliard Swanston, and
William Allen William Allen may refer to:
Politicians
United States
*William Allen (congressman) (1827–1881), United States Representative from Ohio
*William Allen (governor) (1803–1879), U.S. Representative, Senator, and 31st Governor of Ohio
*William ...
. The first seven men on that list also signed a contract as sharers in the King's Men on 28 January 1648, showing that the company was re-activating, or attempting to re-activate, at that time. This iteration of the company collapsed in July the same year when it failed to make a payment.
Another attempt to revive the troupe followed during the winter of 1648–49, with a younger group of actors than the previous crew of veterans; this new group of 16 included
Walter Clun
Walter Clun (died 2 August 1664) was a noted English actor of the 17th century. His career spanned the difficult period when the theatres were closed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum, from 1642 to 1660.
According to James Wrig ...
and
Charles Hart, who had played with the King's Men as boys before the 1642 closing. These two plus eight others signed a contract on 27 December 1648 with one Walter Conway, an upholsterer who was their financier. This effort also failed, and was producing litigation as late as 1661.
Repression grew stronger after 1647: in February 1648 and January 1649, King's Men players were arrested in the midst of performances.
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Some company members chose alternative careers; Eliard Swanston became a jeweller, while hired men Alexander Gough and Andrew Pennycuicke became Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, stationers.
By the time the theatres formally re-opened in 1660, few of the old players and playwrights remained, and the old theatrical practices and traditions had largely been lost. Female roles were soon performed by women rather than boys
Edward Kynaston Edward Kynaston may refer to:
*Edward Kynaston (actor) (c. 1640–1712), English actor
*Edward Kynaston (1709–1772)
Edward Kynaston (6 October 1709–1772), of Garth and Bryngwyn, Montgomeryshire and Hardwick, Shropshire, was a British landow ...
; Margaret Hughes], and the open-air playhouses common in the past were no more; the more elite higher-priced indoor theatres became the norm.
Although a new King's Company was established, it had little in common with its predecessor other than a royal patron (though a few members of the old company, like Charles Hart and Walter Clun, made the transition). The Restoration drama in which it participated was largely a new foundation. While Elizabethan and Jacobean classics were the mainstay of the Restoration repertory, many, particularly the tragedies, were adapted to conform to new tastes influenced by the French theatre of
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
. The Elizabethan features of multitude of scenes, multitude of characters, and melange of genres lived on primarily in
Restoration comedy.
Footnotes
References
* Aaron, Melissa D. ''Global Economics: A History of the Theatre Business, the Chamberlain's/King's Men, and Their Plays, 1599–1642.'' Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2003.
* Bentley, G. E. ''The Jacobean and Caroline Stage.'' 7 Volumes, Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1941–68.
* Cook, Ann Jennalie. ''The Privileged Playgoers of Shakespeare's London, 1576–1642.'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.
*
Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.
*
Gurr, Andrew. ''The Shakespearian Playing Companies.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
* 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.
* Oliphant, E. H. C. ''The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher: An Attempt to Determine Their Respective Shares and the Shares of Others.'' New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:King's Men (Playing Company)
1603 establishments in England
1642 disestablishments
William Shakespeare
17th-century disestablishments in England