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, 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; he witnessed a contract between Philip Henslowe 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 c ...

, then William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. 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'', '' The Faithful Friends'', and '' The Honest Man's Fortune''. (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 polit ...

's authorial MS. of his '' Believe as You List'' 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.) A second document from the hand of Sir Henry Herbert, addressed personally to Knight, is especially notable. On 21 October

1633 Events January–March * January 20 – Galileo Galilei, having been summoned to Rome on orders of Pope Urban VIII, leaves for Florence for his journey. His carriage is halted at Ponte a Centino at the border of Tuscany, w ...

, Herbert returned the MS. of '' The Woman's Prize'' 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'', 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 ...

, "A New Way with Shakespeare's Texts: An Introduction for Lay Readers, IV," in: ''Shakespeare Survey II'', Allardyce Nicoll, ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1958; p. 82. (The censored manuscript of the Fletcher/Massinger collaboration '' Sir John van Olden Barnavelt'' 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