Newington Butts Theatre
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The Newington Butts Theatre was one of the earliest
Elizabethan 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. ...
s, possibly predating even
The Theatre The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It was the first permanent theatre ever built in England. It was built in 1576 after the ...
of 1576 and 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 ...
, which are usually regarded as the first playhouses built around London. William Ingram believes it was probably the first of the three to begin construction, and may have been the first completed.


Establishment

The Mayor and Corporation of London banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and in 1575 they formally expelled all players from the city. This prompted the construction of playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the
liberties Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
of Halliwell (in Shoreditch) and later
the Clink The Clink was a prison in Southwark, England, which operated from the 12th century until 1780. The prison served the Liberty of the Clink, a local manor area owned by the Bishop of Winchester rather than by the reigning monarch. As the Lib ...
, and at Newington near the established entertainment district of St. George's Fields. The Newington theatre was located not on
Newington Butts Newington Butts is a former hamlet, now an area of the London Borough of Southwark, that gives its name to a segment of the A3 road running south-west from the Elephant and Castle junction. The road continues as Kennington Park Road leading to ...
itself, but nearby on the east side of Walworth Road near the junction with New Kent Road. The playhouse stood less than an acre of land in Lurklane, occupying of frontage on what became Walworth Road and bounded to the south by a drainage ditch (or "sewer" in the language of the time). Ingram uses Commissions of Sewers records of 1576–1578 to deduce that the actor Jerome Savage lived adjacent to the sewer and thus the playhouse was in the northern part of the plot. The Reliance Building used to occupy the site; it is now under the southern roundabout of the Elephant and Castle junction. Lurklane was out of leased in 1566 from the Dean and Chapter of
Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...
by Richard Hick(e)s. Hicks was a
grocer A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food preservation, packaged ...
and member of the royal retinue, sometimes described as a "yeoman of the guard". Hicks sublet Lurklane to Jerome Savage on or about Lady Day (25 March) 1576, some three weeks before the lease was signed for
The Theatre The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It was the first permanent theatre ever built in England. It was built in 1576 after the ...
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 ...
. However, soon after the 1576 lease was signed, Hicks and his son-in-law Peter Hunningborne tried to rescind it. They failed to do so through the courts, but used trickery to make Savage default on his rent on Lady Day 1577. Savage appears to have stayed on the premises, and in turn sought the protection of the law as Hunningborne sought to move into Savage's residence. Hunningborne described Savage as "a verrie lewed fealowe" who "liveth by noe other trade than playinge of staige plaies and Interlevdes".Ingram (1992) p 168 However the sewer assessments indicate that Savage remained on the premises, so the lawsuit may have been withdrawn or settled out of court. Wickham ''et al'' interpret these documents to mean that Hicks constructed a 'house or tenement' that someone (presumably the actor Savage) converted into a playhouse. It was clearly established by Lady Day 1577 and like the Theatre may have been in use before the winter of 1576/77,Ingram (1992) p 170 or even in 1575.Wickham ''et al'' (2000) p 320 Savage may have built the theatre under the patronage of the
Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation c ...
whose company of actors first performed at court on 14 February 1575. Warwick had been appointed to the Privy Council in the autumn of 1573, and the more powerful privy councillors – the earls of
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
,
Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...
,
Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...
and his younger brother
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was ov ...
– were all patrons of playing companies.Ingram (1992) p 172


Success and decline

Warwick's company appears to have flourished for around five years, before ill-health forced him to retire to his home in Hertfordshire. On 13 May 1580 the Privy Council wrote to the Surrey justices about an unknown company playing at Newington Butts despite a ban on theatre.Ingram (1992) p 174 It is known that John and Lawrence Dutton led members of Warwick's company to reform as the
Earl of Oxford Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, first created for Aubrey de Vere by the Empress Matilda in 1141. His family was to hold the title for more than five and a half centuries, until the death of the 20th Earl in 1703. ...
's players by April 1580, and Ingram speculates that it was they who were playing at their old home. Oxford was sent to the
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
in 1581, banished from court until 1 June 1583 and went off to war in Flanders in 1585. John Dutton left for the newly formed
Queen'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 1583 but Oxford's Men survived the loss of their leader, being recorded in each year 1584–1587 and leaving traces of activity thereafter.Ingram (1992) p 175 A sewer record of 26 February 1591 refers to Hunningborne and the playhouse.Ingram (1992) p 176 By that time it seems to have been in decline, as more theatres sprung up closer to London. Some time in the early 1590s (and definitely before September 1593)
Lord Strange's Men Lord Strange's Men was an Elizabethan playing company, comprising retainers of the household of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange (pronounced "strang"). They are best known in their final phase of activity in the late 1580s and early 1590s. After ...
played three days there, but the undated Privy Council document comments on the inconvenience of its location and "of longe tyme plaies haue not there bene vsed on working daies". Plague closed down London's theatres for most of the period between 22 June 1592 and 14 May 1594.Wickham ''et al'' (2000) p 328 The impresario
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 ...
took the opportunity to remodel his Rose Theatre, but for some reason the Privy Council kept it closed from 16 May to 15 June 1594. Accordingly, Henslowe promoted a series of plays at Newington Butts from 3–13 June 1594 with the
Admiral's Men The Admiral's Men (also called the Admiral's company, more strictly, the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after 1612, the Elector Palatine's Men or the Palsgrave's Men) was a playing company or troupe of actors in the El ...
and
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 ...
, the two companies that had emerged from Lord Strange's men during the layoff. The nature of Henslowe's relationship with Newington Butts is uncertain, Vickers among others has suggested Henslowe owned it by this time but Wickham ''et al'' speculate that the poor profits he recorded for the season were in part due to the cost of renting the theatre. The ownership theory might be bolstered by Winifred Frazer's suggestion that the enigmatic abbreviation 'ne' used by Henslowe in his records of certain plays, conventionally taken to mean a new play, applies to a performance at Newington. This season of plays in June 1594 is well documented, as Henslowe kept assiduous records in his "Diary". These include some of the earliest known performances of familiar names such as ''
Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'', ''
Titus Andronicus ''Titus Andronicus'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593, probably in collaboration with George Peele. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy and is often seen ...
'' and ''
The Taming of a 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 ...
'' but in each case the exact relationship between the 1594 plays and those we know as
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 ...
's is uncertain and controversial among scholars. Rutter regards the ''Titus'' put on by Henslowe at the Rose in January 1594 as "almost certainly Shakespeare's", but it is very early for the ''Hamlet'' of the
Second Quarto The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size. The publications of the latter are usually a ...
and
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 ...
, which is ascribed to around 1600. This and other evidence has led to the theory that the 1600 text is based on an earlier play, the so-called "''
Ur-Hamlet The ''Ur-Hamlet'' (the German prefix '' Ur-'' means "original") is a play by an unknown author, thought to be either Thomas Kyd or William Shakespeare. No copy of the play, dated by scholars to the second half of 1587, survives today. The play wa ...
''", which was written by either Thomas Kyd, Shakespeare, or someone else. This performance is the first one on record of Ur-Hamlet, although it appears to have existed since at least 1589. On 6 July 1594 the Dean and Chapter let the playhouse site to Paul Buck, on condition that he convert the playhouse to other uses and that no more plays were performed after
Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...
(29 September). Buck seems to have complied – there is no mention of the playhouse in the renewal of his lease on 5 April 1595, and on 5 October 1599 the Sewer Commission refers to "the houses where the old playe house did stand att Newington". The theatrical links lingered after the theatre was gone; a bad pun is referred to as a "Newington conceit" in a play of 1612 and the playwright
Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...
died there and was buried at Newington Butts church on 4 July 1627.


Notes

{{Coord, 51, 29, 41.8992, N, -0, 6, 2.862, W, scale:3125_region:GB, display=title Theatres completed in 1577 1594 disestablishments in England Former theatres in London Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark