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Queen Anne's Men was a
playing company In Renaissance-era London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organised around a group of ten or so shareholders (or "sharers"), who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. T ...
, 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 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 th ...
and
Queen Henrietta's Men Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors of the Caroline era in London, England. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men. Beginnin ...
, in theirs.


Formation

The group was formed on the accession of James I in 1603, and named after its patron, James's wife
Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I. She was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and List of English royal consorts, Queen of Engl ...
. It was a combination of two previously-existing companies, Oxford's Men and
Worcester's Men The Earl of Worcester's Men was an acting company in English Renaissance, Renaissance England. An early formation of the company, wearing the livery of William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester, is among the companies known to have toured the coun ...
. Among the company's most important members were Christopher Beeston, its manager, and
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 actor-dramatist who wrote many of its plays, including ''The Rape of Lucrece'' (printed
1608 Events January–March *January 2 – The first of the Jamestown supply missions returns to the Colony of Virginia with Christopher Newport commanding the ''John and Francis'' and the ''Phoenix'' bringing about 100 new settlers to ...
) and ''The Golden Age'' (printed 1611).
William Kempe William Kempe ( 1560 – 1603), commonly referred to as Will Kemp, was an English actor and dancer who specialised in comic roles. He was best known as one of the original stage actors in early dramas by William Shakespeare, and roles associa ...
finished his career with this company, though he died c. 1603.


Personnel

In 1604, ten members of the new-formed company were granted the sum of four and a half pounds each, to buy red cloth for their livery for 15 March coronation procession. The ten were Beeston, Heywood, Richard Perkins, Thomas Greene, John Duke, James Holt, Robert Beeston, Robert Lee, Robert Pallant, and Thomas Swinerton. The same ten men are listed in a license granted to the company in 1609 (though Pallant is misnamed "Richard"). Richard Perkins would develop into the company's leading actor, and acquire a reputation as a major tragedian. John Duke had come to Worcester's from the
Lord Chamberlain's Men The Lord Chamberlain's Men was an English company of actors, or a "playing company" (as it then would likely have been described), for which William Shakespeare wrote during most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead roles, includ ...
, along with Christopher Beeston, in 1602. Little is known of Robert Beeston, though the common name suggests he was a relative of Christopher. (Pairs of relatives were not uncommon in acting troupes in this era: the brothers John and Laurence Dutton in Oxford's Men 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 th ...
in the 1580s; Anthony and Humphrey Jeffes in the Admiral's/Prince Henry's Men in the early 17th century. Robert Pallant, the son of the man in Queen Anne's, would play female roles for the King's Men c. 1620.) Thomas Greene was the company's major comedian; he was reputed to have once portrayed a baboon onstage. Greene was so closely identified with his role as Bubble in a 1611 play that the play became indelibly renamed '' Greene's Tu Quoque''. A host of other actors were in the company over its tenure. See
Richard Baxter Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist church leader and theologian from Rowton, Shropshire, who has been described as "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". He ma ...
and William Robbins for examples.


Theatres and performances

Queen Anne's Men originally performed at 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 b ...
— they acted ''The Travels of the Three English Brothers,'' by William Rowley, John Day, and George Wilkins, there in
1607 Events January–March * January 13 – The Bank of Genoa fails. * January 19 – San Agustin Church, Manila, is officially completed; by the 21st century it will be the oldest church in the Philippines. * January 30 – ...
; but they also acted the same play at the
Red Bull Theatre The Red Bull Theatre was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London, operating in the 17th century. For more than forty years, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the y ...
in
Clerkenwell Clerkenwell ( ) is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an Civil Parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish from the medieval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The St James's C ...
that same year, becoming the first company to play there.
John Webster John Webster (c. 1578 – 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 car ...
's
tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...
'' The White Devil'' received a disastrous premiere at the Red Bull on an overcast winter day in
1612 Events January–March * January 6 – Axel Oxenstierna becomes Lord High Chancellor of Sweden. He persuades the Riksdag of the Estates to grant the Swedish nobility the right and privilege to hold all higher offices of governme ...
. Despite their royal patronage, Queen Anne's Men appear to have performed only sporadically at Court in their first decade – something less than once a year on average. On 12 and 13 January 1612, the company joined with the King's Men for Court performances of two Queen's company's plays, ''The Silver Age'' and ''The Rape of Lucrece''. Queen Anne's Men played twice more at Court in the winter of 1613–14, three times in the following winter, and four times in 1615–16. They toured widely every summer throughout this period.


Style

The company acquired a reputation for playing relatively unsophisticated drama for a rowdy audience. or more on their theatre and its audience, see: ''Swetnam the Woman-Hater''.">Swetnam the Woman-Hater">or more on their theatre and its audience, see: ''Swetnam the Woman-Hater''.Yet their style of drama had some surprising aspects. They were creative in terms of special effects: consider these stage directions from Heywood's ''The Silver Age'', written for and acted by the company — * "Enter Pluto with a club of fire, a burning crown...and a guard of devils, all with burning weapons" * "Jupiter appears in his glory under a rainbow" * "Thunder, lightnings, Jupiter descends in his majesty, his thunderbolt burning" * "...fireworks all over the house."


Later years

In 1617 the company moved to the Cockpit Theatre, in the increasingly fashionable Drury Lane. This final move, which brought significantly higher admission prices, engendered indignation among their audience: the Cockpit was set on fire during a
Shrove Tuesday Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day) is the final day of Shrovetide, which marks the end of the pre-Lenten season. Lent begins the following day with Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday is observed in many Christian state, Ch ...
riot on 4 March 1617 and had to be rebuilt. The Queen's troupe seems to have remained at the Cockpit for only a relatively brief time; within a couple of years they were back at the Red Bull. The actors lost their patron at the death of Queen Anne in 1619; they continued on as the Company of the Revels, often known simply as the Red Bull Company after their theatre. Their final years were marked by a major legal dispute: Thomas Greene's widow, remarried as Susan Baskervile, sued for moneys owed her through her late husband's share in the troupe and loans she had extended over the years. The outcome of the so-called Baskerville or Worth/Baskerville suit was that the actors lost and the company was forced to dissolve in 1623.Gurr, p. 56. Some members moved on to other troupes; Richard Perkins, for example, would acquire a reputation as perhaps the major tragedian of his generation while acting with Queen Henrietta's Men from 1625 to 1642. Christopher Beeston would attain prominence as the dominant theatre manager and impresario of the 1620s and 1630s.


References

{{authority control English early modern theatre companies Anne of Denmark