The juxtaposition of the entries on these records of the names of these two companies in 1586 and 1587, and their union in a performance before the Court in January 1586, shows that a combination of some sort between them was formed in 1585. _Who, then, were the men that composed the Lord Admiral"s company from 1585 to 1589?_
In 1592, when Lord Strange"s players left Burbage to perform under Henslowe at the Rose, we are a.s.sured that Edward Alleyn was the manager of the company, and, though the manager of Lord Strange"s company, that he still styled himself a Lord Admiral"s man. When, then, did Edward Alleyn, who is mentioned in the Leicester records in 1584 as a member of the Earl of Worcester"s company, become a Lord Admiral"s man and cease to perform under the licence of the Earl of Worcester? Is it not palpable that the change took place in 1585, when all records of Worcester"s company cease for several years and a new Lord Admiral"s company begins? The last record of a provincial performance for Worcester"s company is at Barnstaple in 1585. The Court and provincial records of 1586 show that within about eight months of its inception the Lord Admiral"s company worked in conjunction with Burbage"s players--the Lord Chamberlain"s men. That this connection continued in the case of Edward Alleyn and a few others of the Admiral"s men, who were old Worcester men, and that they preserved their licensed ident.i.ty through the several changes in the t.i.tle of the company, until they finally separated early in 1594, shall be made apparent in this history.
It is evident that Edward Alleyn"s brother, John Alleyn, joined the Admiral"s men at about the time of its inception, when his old company, Lord Sheffield"s players, suddenly disappear from the records. Their last recorded provincial performance is in Coventry, under date of 15th November 1585, _the Lord Admiral"s men and the Lord Chamberlain"s men being recorded there under the same date of entry_. John Alleyn continued his connection with the Lord Admiral"s men at least as late as July 1589, when he is mentioned as "servant to me the Lord Admiral" in a letter from the Privy Council to certain aldermen. After this he is not heard of again either in connection with Lord Strange"s or the Admiral"s men. He was evidently one of the discarded actors in the reorganisations of 1589-91.
Past critics, ignoring the fact that there are no records of either Court, London, or provincial performances for Worcester"s company between 1585 and 1589-90, have a.s.sumed that this company was in existence during these years, and that it was disrupted and reorganised in 1589, Edward Alleyn leaving it and joining the Lord Admiral"s men at that period. This inference is drawn erroneously from the following facts: first, that Richard Jones, who is recorded in 1584, in the Leicester records, as a member of Lord Worcester"s company, in January 1589, sold to Edward Alleyn his share in theatrical properties, consisting of playing apparel, playbooks, instruments, etc., owned by him conjointly with Robert Brown, Edward Alleyn, and his brother, John Alleyn, all of whom are supposed to have been members of Worcester"s company at that time, as Brown and Edward Alleyn are also recorded in 1584 as members of that company; secondly, that John Alleyn is mentioned as a servant to the Lord Admiral later on in this year; and thirdly, that Edward Alleyn, when managing Lord Strange"s company in 1593, is also mentioned as a Lord Admiral"s man.
In the light of the foregoing facts and deductions it is evident that the Earl of Worcester"s company, or at least a large portion of it, _became the Lord Admiral"s company in 1585_, and that, at about the same time, they became affiliated with Burbage and the Lord Chamberlain"s company. It is probable, however, that in making this change they discarded some of their old members and took on others, John Alleyn evidently joining them from Sheffield"s company at that time.
The new licence they sought and secured in 1585 was evidently made necessary by the disfavour and ill repute which the ill-regulated behaviour of some of their members--whom they now discarded--had gained for them. In June 1583 the Earl of Worcester"s company was refused permission to perform in Ipswich, the excuse being given that they had pa.s.sed through places infected by the plague. They were, however, given a reward on their promise to leave the city, but instead of doing so they proceeded to their inn and played there. The Mayor and Court ordered that the Earl of Worcester should be notified, that this company should never again receive a reward from the city, and that they leave at once on pain of imprisonment. Though the Mayor and Court, at the entreaty of the company, agreed not to inform the Earl of their misconduct, it is not unlikely that this and similar happenings came to his knowledge, as they seem to have had little respect for munic.i.p.al authorities. They were again in trouble in March 1584, when they quarrelled with the Leicester authorities. Finding at their inn at Leicester the commission of the Master of the Revels" company, which in leaving Leicester three days before this company had inadvertently left behind, they appropriated it and presented it to the Leicester authorities as their own, stating that the previous company had stolen it from them. Not being believed, they were forced to produce their own licence, when they were refused permission to play, but given an angel to pay for their dinner. Later in the day, meeting the Mayor on the street, they again asked leave to play, and, being refused, abused the Mayor with "evyll and contemptuous words, and said they would play whether he wold or not," and went "in contempt of the Mayor with drum and trumpet through the town." On apologising later to the Mayor and begging him not to inform the Earl of Worcester, they secured leave to play on condition that they prefaced their performance with an apology for their misconduct and a statement that they were permitted to play only by the Mayor"s goodwill.[18]
If their past reputation had been good in Leicester there seems to be no reason why they should have wished to perform under another company"s licence. We may infer that these were not isolated instances of their misbehaviour, and that their change of t.i.tle in 1585 was made necessary by reports of their misconduct coming to the notice of the old Earl of Worcester. No company of players is known to have acted under this n.o.bleman"s licence after 1585.
In 1589, when the process of amalgamation between the Lord Admiral"s, the Lord Chamberlain"s, and Lord Leicester"s companies, and Lord Strange"s acrobats, which resulted in the formation of Lord Strange"s company, was under way, discarded members of their companies, including, no doubt, some of the players of the old Worcester company, secured a licence from the new Earl of Worcester and continued to perform--though mostly as a provincial company--until 1603. Other old members, including Robert Brown--the leader of the former Worcester company--and Richard Jones, formed a new company for continental performances. Brown and others continued to make continental trips for years afterwards, while Richard Jones rejoined the Lord Admiral"s men in 1594, after they and the Lord Chamberlain"s men had separated.
It was plainly, then, Richard Jones" share in the stage properties of the Lord Admiral"s company that Edward Alleyn bought in 1589. It is apparent that he also bought out his brother"s and Robert Brown"s shares, as neither of them afterwards appeared as Strange"s or Admiral"s men. _This would give Edward Alleyn entire ownership of the properties of the Admiral"s company_, and, consequently, an important share in the new amalgamation.
It was on Burbage"s stage, then, that this great actor between 1585 and 1589--after having spent several years touring the provinces--entered upon and established his metropolitan reputation, attaining in the latter year, at the age of twenty-three, a large, if not the largest, share in the properties and holdings, and also the management of the strongest company of players in England, as well as the reputation of being the greatest actor of the time.
It somewhat enlarges our old conception of the beginnings of Shakespeare"s theatrical experiences and dramatic inspiration to know, that when he entered into relations with James Burbage, in 1586-87, and for from four to six years afterwards, he had as intimate a.s.sociates both Edward Alleyn and Richard Burbage; two young men of about his own age, who were already winning a good share of the notice and appreciation that later established them as the leading actors of the age. Which of them was the greater was one of the moot questions of the day eight to ten years later, when they had become the star actors of rival companies, and those the foremost two in London.
It is now pertinent to inquire as to which of these companies, if to any, Shakespeare was connected previous to the amalgamation, and also, whether or not he became a member of Lord Strange"s company, along with Richard Burbage, and acted under, or wrote for, Alleyn and Henslowe between 1591 and 1594.
The suggestion which was first made by Mr. Fleay--in which he has since been followed by encyclopaedists and compilers--that Shakespeare joined Lord Leicester"s company upon one of its visits to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1586 or 1587, is plainly without foundation in the light of the foregoing facts, as is also his a.s.sumption that Lord Strange"s company was merely a continuation of Lord Leicester"s company under new patronage.
Lord Leicester"s company spent the greater part of the years between 1585-86 and 1589 performing in the provinces. The records of its provincial visits outnumber all of those recorded for the other three companies concerned in the reorganisation of 1589. If Shakespeare acted at all in these early years he must have done so merely incidentally.
When we bear in mind the volume and quality of his literary productions, between 1591 and 1594, it becomes evident that his novitiate in dramatic affairs in the dark years, between 1585-86 and 1592, was of a literary rather than of an histrionic character, though he also acted in those years. He would have found little time for dramatic composition or study during these years had he accompanied Lord Leicester"s company in their provincial peregrinations. Bearing in mind his later habit of revising earlier work it is not unlikely that some of his dramatic work, which from internal and external evidence we now date between 1591 and 1594, is rewritten or revised work originally produced before 1591.
It is palpable that Shakespeare had not been previously affiliated with Lord Strange"s acrobats, nor a member of the Lord Admiral"s company, and evident, in view of the above facts and deductions, as well as of his future close and continuous connection with James Burbage, that his inceptive years in London were spent in his service, working in various capacities in his business and dramatic interests. It is apparent that between 1586-87 and 1588-89 Shakespeare worked for James Burbage as a bonded and hired servant. In Henslowe"s _Diary_ there are several instances of such bonds with hired servants, and covenant servants, covering terms of years--usually from two to three--between Henslowe and men connected with the Lord Admiral"s company. It shall be shown later that Nashe in his preface to Greene"s _Menaphon_ alludes to Shakespeare in this capacity.
The t.i.tle of _Johannes factotum_, which Greene, in 1592, bestowed upon Shakespeare, as well as the term "rude groome," which he inferentially applies to him, when coupled with the tradition collected by Nicholas Rowe, his earliest biographer, who writes: "He was received into the company then in being, at first, in a very mean rank, but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the stage, soon distinguished him, if not as an extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer," all point to a business rather than to an exclusively histrionic connection with the Burbages in his earlier London years. These evidences are confirmed by the gossip of William Castle, who was parish clerk of Stratford for many years, and who was born two years before Shakespeare died, and, consequently, must have known and talked with many people who had known Shakespeare. He frequently told visitors that Shakespeare was first received in the playhouse as "a servitor." When the legal usage and business customs of that period, as exhibited in legal records and in Henslowe"s _Diary_, are considered it becomes apparent that a youth of from twenty-one to twenty-three years of age, newly come to London, with no previous training in any particular capacity, with a bankrupt father and without means of his own, could not very well a.s.sociate himself with a business concern in any other capacity than that of an indentured apprentice or bonded and hired servant. Without such a legally ratified connection with some employer, a youth of Shakespeare"s poverty and social degree, and a stranger in London, would be cla.s.sed before the law as a masterless man and a vagrant. The term "servitor" then does not refer to his theatrical capacity--as stated by Halliwell-Phillipps--but to his legal relations with James Burbage, his employer. Only sharers in a company were cla.s.sed as "servants" to the n.o.bleman under whose patronage they worked; the hired men were servants to the sharers, or to the theatrical owner for whom they worked.
Being connected with the Burbages between 1586-87 to 1588-89, whatever theatrical training Shakespeare may have received came undoubtedly from his a.s.sociation with the Lord Admiral"s and Lord Hunsdon"s companies, which performed at the Theatre in Sh.o.r.editch as one company during these years, combining in the same manner as Strange"s company and the Lord Admiral"s company did, under Henslowe and Alleyn at the Rose, between 1592-94. Though in later life he was reputed to be a fair actor, he never achieved great reputation in this capacity; it was plainly not to acting that he devoted himself most seriously during these early years. Working in the capacity of handy-man or, as Greene calls him, _Johannes factotum_, for the Burbages, besides, possibly, taking general charge of their stabling arrangements,--as tradition a.s.serts,--he also, no doubt, took care of the theatrical properties, which included the MSS. and players" copies of the plays owned by the company. Though Shakespeare"s grammar school days ended in Stratford he took his collegiate course in Burbage"s Theatre. During the leisure hours of the years of his servitorship he studied the arts as he found them in MS.
plays. _I shall show, later, that Robert Greene, through the pen of his coadjutor, Thomas Nashe, in an earlier attack than that of 1592, refers to Shakespeare"s servitorship and to the acquisitions of knowledge he made during his idle hours._ That he made good use of his time and his materials, however, is demonstrated by the fact that in the four years intervening between the end of 1590 and the end of 1594, he composed, at least, seven original plays, two long poems, and over sixty sonnets; much of this work being since and still regarded--three hundred years after its production--as a portion of the world"s greatest literature.
While it is apparent, even to those critics and biographers who admit the likelihood that Shakespeare"s earliest connection with theatrical affairs was with the Burbage interests, that Lord Strange"s company--of which they, erroneously, suppose that he still continued to be a member--ceased to perform under James Burbage in, or before, February 1592, when they began to play under Alleyn and Henslowe"s management at the Rose Theatre, no previous attempt has been made to explain the reasons for Lord Strange"s company"s connection with Henslowe, or to account for the fact that no plays written by Shakespeare were presented by this company while they performed at the Rose Theatre, though it is very evident, and admitted by all critics, that he composed several original plays during this interval.
As it is probable that James Burbage, through his son Richard, retained some interest in Lord Strange"s company during the period that it acted under Henslowe"s and Alleyn"s management, the question naturally arises, Why should Lord Strange"s company, which was composed largely of members of Leicester"s and Hunsdon"s company, both of which, affiliated with the Admiral"s men, had been previously a.s.sociated with the Burbage interests--why should this company, having Richard Burbage in its membership, enter into business relations with Henslowe and perform for two years at the Rose Theatre instead of playing under James Burbage at the Theatre in Sh.o.r.editch in summer, and at the Crosskeys in winter, where they formerly played?
A consideration of the business affairs of James Burbage will show that the temporary severance of his business relations with Strange"s men was due to legal and financial difficulties in which he became involved at this time, when strong financial backing became necessary to establish and maintain this new company, which, I have indicated, had been formed specially for Court performances. It also appears evident that he again incurred the disfavour of Lord Burghley and the authorities at this time.
In the following chapter I a.n.a.lyse the reasons for the separation of Strange"s company from Burbage at this time and give inceptive evidence that Shakespeare did not accompany Strange"s men to Henslowe and the Rose, but that he remained with Burbage as the manager and princ.i.p.al writer for the Earl of Pembroke"s company--a fact regarding his history which has not hitherto been suspected.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: This interesting fact, hitherto unknown, has recently been pointed out by Mrs. C.C. Stopes, _Burbage and Shakespeare"s Stage_, London, 1913.]
[Footnote 11: A critical examination of the records of the _English Dramatic Companies_, 1558-1642, collected by Mr. John Tucker Murray, convinces me that such affiliations as those mentioned above existed between Lord Hunsdon"s company and the Earl of Leicester"s company from 1582-83 until 1585, and between the remnant of Leicester"s company,--which remained in England when their fellows went to the Continent in 1585,--the Lord Admiral"s company, and the Lord Chamberlain"s company from 1585 until 1589, and following a reorganisation in that year--when the Lord Chamberlain"s and Leicester"s companies merged with Lord Strange"s company--between this new Lord Strange"s company and the Lord Admiral"s company until 1591, when a further reorganisation took place, the majority of Strange"s and the Admiral"s men going to Henslowe and the Rose, and a portion, including Shakespeare, remaining with Burbage and reorganising in this year with accretions from the now disrupting Queen"s company, including Gabriel Spencer and Humphrey Jeffes, as the Earl of Pembroke"s company; John Sinkler, and possibly others from the Queen"s company, evidently joined the Strange-Admiral"s men at the same time. The mention of the names of these three men--two of them Pembroke"s men and one a Strange"s man after 1592--in the stage directions of _The True Tragedy of the Duke of York_, can be accounted for only by the probable fact that all three were members of the company that originally owned the play, and that this was the Queen"s company is generally conceded by critics.
In order to restore their own acting strength the depleted Queen"s company appears now to have formed similar affiliations with the Earl of Suss.e.x"s company, continuing the connection until 1594. In this year Strange"s men (now the Lord Chamberlain"s men) returned to Burbage while the Admiral"s portion of the combination stayed with Henslowe as the Lord Admiral"s company. These two companies now restored their full numbers by taking on men from the Earl of Pembroke"s and the Earl of Suss.e.x"s companies; both of which now cease to work as independent companies, though the portion of Pembroke"s men that returned to Henslowe, including Spencer and Jeffes, appear to have retained their own licensed ident.i.ty until 1597, when several of them definitely joined Henslowe as Admiral men. Some Pembroke"s and Suss.e.x"s men, not taken by Burbage or Henslowe in 1594, evidently joined the Queen"s company at that time. Henslowe financed his brother Francis Henslowe in the purchase of a share in the Queen"s company at about this time.]
[Footnote 12: _Queen Elizabeth and Her Times_, by Thomas Wright, 1838.]
[Footnote 13: Sir Sidney Lee, who as a rule follows Halliwell-Phillipps implicitly, in _A Life of William Shakespeare_, p. 59, writes: "James Burbage, in spite of pecuniary embarra.s.sments, remained manager and owner of the Theatre for twenty-one years"; but in a footnote on p. 52, writes: "During 1584 an unnamed person, vaguely described as "the owner of the Theatre," claimed that he was under Lord Hunsdon"s protection; the reference is probably to one John Hyde, to whom the Theatre was mortgaged." There is surely nothing vague in the expression "owner of the Theatre," especially when we remember that it was used by an important legal functionary in one of his weekly reports to Lord Treasurer Burghley. Recorder Fleetwood was a very exact and legal-minded official, and in using the term "the owner" he undoubtedly meant the owner and, it may be implied from the context, also the manager. Burbage was clearly manager and owner of the Theatre at this period.]
[Footnote 14: This Browne was in all probability the notorious Ned Browne of whom Robert Greene wrote in 1592, _The Blacke Bookes Messenger_, "Laying open the life and death of Ned Browne one of the worst cutpurses, crosbiters, and conycatchers that ever lived in England. Herein he tells verie pleasantly in his owne person such strange pranks and monstrous villanies by him and his consorts performed as the like was yet never heard of in any of the former bookes of conycatching, etc. By R.G. Printed at London by John Danter for Thomas Nelson, dwelling in Silver Street, neere to the sign of the Red Crosse, 1592, Quarto." Fleetwood writes later of Browne: "This Browne is a common cousener, a thief and a horse stealer and colloureth all his doings here about this town with a sute that he hath in the lawe against a brother of his in Staffordshire. He resteth now in Newgate."]
[Footnote 15: _English Dramatic Companies_, by John Tucker Murray, vol.
i. p. 201.]
[Footnote 16: That Tarleton was a member of the Queen"s company in 1588 is shown by a reference in his will, which is dated in this year, to "my fellow, William Johnson."]
[Footnote 17: Previous to the affiliations between Strange"s tumblers and the Lord Admiral"s company they seem to have maintained intermittent relations with the Queen"s company, and are sometimes mentioned as the Queen"s tumblers.]
[Footnote 18: _English Dramatic Companies_, 1558-1642, p. 43, by John Tucker Murray.]
CHAPTER IV
SHAKESPEARE AND THE EARL OF PEMBROKE"S COMPANY
Almost from the time he first began to operate the Sh.o.r.editch Theatre in 1576, until his death in 1597, James Burbage had trouble from one source or another regarding his venture. Both the Theatre, and the Curtain at Sh.o.r.editch, seem to have been particularly obnoxious to the puritanical element among the local authorities, who made numerous attempts to have both theatres suppressed. There were long intervals during the term of Burbage"s lease of the Theatre when, owing to various causes, both the Theatre and the Curtain were closed. Among the causes were--the prevalence of the plague, alleged rioting, and the performance of plays which infringed the law prohibiting the presentation of matters of Church and State upon the stage. Burbage"s Theatre came into disfavour with the authorities in 1589 owing to the performance there of plays relating to the Martin Marprelate controversy; and that it was the combined Strange"s and Admiral"s company that was concerned in these performances, and not the Queen"s, as is usually supposed, is evident from the fact that in November, when they moved to their winter quarters in the City at the Crosskeys, the Lord Mayor, John Hart, under instructions from Lord Burghley, issued orders prohibiting them from performing in the City. It is not unlikely that their connection with the Martin Marprelate affair earlier in the year at the Theatre, and their deliberate defiance of the Mayor"s orders in performing at the Crosskeys on the afternoon of the day the prohibition was issued, delayed the full measure of Court favour presaged for them by their recent drastic--and evidently officially encouraged--reorganisation.
When they performed at Court in the Christmas seasons of 1589-90 and 1590-91, they did so as the Lord Admiral"s men; and in the latter instance, while the Acts of the Privy Council credit the performance to the Admiral"s, the Pipe Rolls a.s.sign it to Strange"s men.[19] Seeing that the Admiral"s men had submitted dutifully to the Mayor"s orders, and that Lord Strange"s men--two of whom had been committed to the Counter for their contempt--were again called before the Mayor and forbidden to play, the company"s reason for performing at Court at this period as the Lord Admiral"s men is plainly apparent. It is not unlikely that their transfer to Henslowe"s financial management became necessary because of Burbage"s continued disfavour with Lord Burghley and the City authorities, as well as his financial inability adequately to provide for the needs of the new Court company, in 1591. In the defiance of Burghley"s and the Mayor"s orders by the Burbage portion of the company, and the subservience of the Alleyn element at this time, is foreshadowed their future political bias as independent companies. From the time of their separation in 1594 until the death of Elizabeth, the Lord Admiral"s company represented the Cecil-Howard, and Burbage"s company the Ess.e.x factional and political interests in their covert stage polemics. Shakespeare"s friendship and intimacy with Ess.e.x"s _fidus Achates_, the Earl of Southampton, between 1591 and 1601, served materially to accentuate the pro-Ess.e.x leanings of his company. This phase of Shakespeare"s theatrical career has not been investigated by past critics, though Fleay, Simpson, and Feis recognise the critical and biographical importance of such an inquiry, while the compilers do not even suspect that such a phase existed.
While the Curtain seems to have escaped trouble arising from its lease and its ownership, the Theatre came in for more than its share. The comparative freedom of the Curtain from the interference and persecution of the local authorities in these years was evidently due to the fact that it was the recognised summer home of the Queen"s company between 1584 and 1591. It is evident that during the winter months the Queen"s company performed at the Rose between 1587--when this theatre was erected--and the end of 1590; it was superseded at Court by Lord Strange"s company at the end of 1591, and was disrupted during this year--a portion of them continuing under the two Duttons, as the Queen"s men. The Rose, being the most important, centrally located, theatre available for winter performances during these years, would naturally be used by the leading Court company. It is significant that Lord Strange"s company commenced to play there when they finally supplanted the Queen"s company at Court. It is probable that they played there also before it was reconstructed during 1591.
The large number of old plays formerly owned by the Queen"s company, which came into the hands of the companies a.s.sociated with Henslowe and Burbage at this time, suggests that they bought them from Henslowe, who had retained them, and probably other properties, in payment for money owed him by the Queen"s company which, having been several years affiliated with him at the Rose, would be likely to have a similar financial experience to that of the Lord Admiral"s men, who, as shown by the _Diary_, got deeply into his debt between 1594 and 1598. The Queen"s company was plainly not in a prosperous financial condition in 1591. It is apparent also that some Queen"s men joined Strange"s, and Pembroke"s men at this time bringing some of these plays with them as properties.
In building the Theatre, in 1576, Burbage had taken his brother-in-law, one John Brayne, into partnership, agreeing to give him a half-interest upon certain terms which Brayne apparently failed to meet. Brayne, however, claimed a moiety and engaged in a lawsuit with Burbage which dragged along until his death, when his heirs continued the litigation.
Giles Allen, the landlord from whom Burbage leased the land on which he had built the Theatre, evidently a somewhat sharp and grasping individual, failed to live up to the terms of his lease which he had agreed to extend, provided that Burbage expended a certain amount of money upon improvements. There was constant bickering between Allen and Burbage regarding this matter, which also eventuated in a lawsuit that was carried on by Cuthbert and Richard Burbage after their father"s death in 1597. Added to these numerous irritations, came further trouble from a most unlooked-for source. In 1581, Edmund Peckham, son of Sir George Peckham, on the most shadowy and far-fetched grounds, questioned the validity of Giles Allen"s t.i.tle to the land he had leased to Burbage, and not only entered a legal claim upon it, but found a jury to agree with him. This suit also continued for years.
In _Burbage and Shakespeare"s Stage_, which is the best account yet written of Burbage and his affairs, Mrs. Stopes evidently gives all available details regarding his legal embarra.s.sments. Mrs. Stopes"
account makes it clear that by the year 1591, James Burbage could not have ama.s.sed much wealth in the practice of his profession, though we may infer that he had enriched a number of lawyers. In the legal records examined by Mrs. Stopes, I learn that upon 10th January 1591 an attachment on the Theatre was awarded against Burbage for contempt of court on the plea of one Robert Miles, and though several attempts were made in the meantime to have the matter adjudicated, that the attachment was still in force in November 1591; there is apparently no record as to when and how the matter was finally settled and the attachment lifted.
It evidently held three months later when Lord Strange"s company commenced to perform under Henslowe at the Rose, or at least as late as December and January 1591-92, in which months Henslowe repaired and enlarged the Rose in antic.i.p.ation of the coming of Strange"s company. I have reason to believe that some settlement was made regarding the attachment upon Burbage"s Theatre early in 1592, and that the Earl of Pembroke"s company played there when in London from that time until we lose sight of them late in 1593. In the spring of 1594 their membership and properties were absorbed by the Lord Admiral"s company and Lord Strange"s company, most of the properties they had in the way of plays going to the latter.
The Rose Theatre was first erected in 1587. By the year 1592, when Lord Strange"s players commenced to appear there, it evidently needed to be repaired and enlarged. Between the 7th of March and the end of April 1592, Henslowe paid out over 100 for these repairs; the work paid for having been done in the few months preceding 19th February 1592, when Lord Strange"s company commenced to perform there.
Henslowe was much too careful a business man to invest the large sum of money in the enlargement and repair of the Rose Theatre, which he did at this time, without the a.s.surance of a profitable return. When his other business transactions, as shown in his _Diary_, are considered it becomes apparent that in undertaking this expenditure he would stipulate for the use of his house by Lord Strange"s men for a settled period, probably of, at least, two years, and that Edward Alleyn, who was the manager of Lord Strange"s men at this time, and continued to be their manager for the next two years,--though still remaining the Lord Admiral"s man,--was Henslowe"s business representative in the company.
Alleyn married Henslowe"s stepdaughter in October, this year, and continued to be his business a.s.sociate until Henslowe"s death, when, through his wife, he became his heir. Lord Strange"s company, under this and the later t.i.tle of the Lord Chamberlain"s men, continued to perform at theatres owned or operated by Henslowe, and probably also under Alleyn"s management, until the spring of 1594, when it appears that they returned to Burbage and resumed performances, as in 1589-91, at the Theatre in Sh.o.r.editch in summer, and at the Crosskeys in winter.
The a.s.sumption that Shakespeare was a member of Lord Strange"s company while it was with Henslowe, is based upon three things: first, the undoubted fact that his close friend and coadjutor, Richard Burbage, was one of the leading members of the company at that time; secondly, that _The First Part of Henry VI._, in an early form, was presented as a revised play by Lord Strange"s men at the Rose, upon 3rd March 1592, and upon several subsequent occasions while they were with Henslowe; thirdly, an alleged reference to Shakespeare"s name in Peele"s _Edward I._, which was owned by the Lord Admiral"s players after 1594, and presumably written for them when Shakespeare acted with the company before 1592. Let us examine these things in order.
At first sight it is a plausible inference, in view of Shakespeare"s earlier, and later, connection with the Burbages, that he should continue to be a.s.sociated with Richard Burbage during these two years.
When the reason for the formation of Lord Strange"s company is remembered, however, it becomes clear that Richard Burbage would be a member for the very reason that Shakespeare would not. The intention in the formation of this company being to secure an organisation of the best actors for the services of the Court, it is evident that Richard Burbage--who even at this early date was one of the leading actors in London--would be chosen. Shakespeare never at any time attained distinction as an actor.
The presentation of _Henry VI., Part I._, by Lord Strange"s players, as a reason for Shakespeare"s membership, infers that he was the author of this play, or, at least, its reviser in 1592, and that the Talbot scenes are his. This, consequently, implies that Nashe"s commendatory references to these scenes were complimentary to work of Shakespeare"s in 1592. It is evident that the play of _Henry VI._, acted by Lord Strange"s men in March 1592, and commended by Nashe, was much the same play as _Henry VI., Part I._, included in all editions of Shakespeare.