In the historical era of English Renaissance drama, an Inn-yard theatre or Inn-theatre was a common inn with an inner courtyard with balconies that provided a venue for the presentation of stage plays. [1]
In the historical era of English Renaissance drama, an Inn-yard theatre or Inn-theatre was a common inn with an inner courtyard with balconies that provided a venue for the presentation of stage plays. [1]
The Elizabethan era is appropriately famous for the construction of the earliest permanent professional playhouses in Britain, starting with James Burbage's The Theatre in 1576 and continuing through the Curtain (1577), the Rose, Swan, Globe and others —; a development that allowed the evolution of the drama of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and their contemporaries and successors. Prior to the building of The Theatre, plays were sometimes staged in public halls, the private houses of aristocrats, or royal palaces —; but most often, and most publicly, they were acted in the courtyards of inns. (It is an often-stated truism of the critical literature that the open-air public theatres or amphitheatres of Burbage and his successors were modeled on the inn yards, with their surrounding balconies, open space in the center, and stage to one side.) Though the surviving documentary record is frustratingly limited, "it seems certain that some of the inn-yards were converted into something like permanent theatres." [2] These venues did not cease operation once the first purposely-built theatres appeared in 1576–77; to the contrary, they remained in use and constituted an important aspect of Elizabethan drama.
The available evidence indicates that six London inns were significant sites for drama during the second half of the sixteenth century. [3] The following list gives their locations and dates of earliest evidence as inn-theatres.
John Florio's English-Italian phrase book First Fruits (1578) refers to plays being staged at the Bull Inn. [4] Richard Tarlton saw the famous performing horse "Marocco" at the Cross Keys Inn sometime before his death in 1588. In November 1589 the Lord Mayor of London ordered Lord Strange's Men not to perform in the city —; and they promptly showed their defiance by acting at the Cross Keys that afternoon. There were at least six inns and taverns in London in this era that employed the sign of the Boar's Head, which caused scholars significant confusion before the matter was clarified by C. J. Sisson. [5] [6] John Brayne, who was involved in both the Red Lion project and Burbage's Theatre in Shoreditch, attempted to convert the George Inn in Whitechapel into a theatre in 1580, but was unsuccessful. [7]
Queen Elizabeth's Men were deliberately established as the premier playing company of their day in 1583; yet the royal charter that defined the troupe specified their venues for acting in London were two inn-yard theatres, the Bell Inn and the Bel Savage Inn.
The Lord Chamberlain's Men used the Cross Keys Inn as their winter quarters for a time. [8]
In his famous anti-theatre diatribe Histriomastix (1632), Puritan polemicist William Prynne recounts one of the classic urban legends of his generation, which held that the Devil was conjured up onstage during a performance of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus , an event so horrifying that several members of the audience lost their sanity. This manifestation allegedly occurred during a performance of the play at the Bel Savage Inn. [9]
The Lord Mayor and city authorities of London were consistently hostile to actors and theatrical performances, considering them a breeding ground for crime and civic disturbance; they made repeated attempts to suppress all theatrical activity within their jurisdiction. They were usually frustrated by the Lord Chamberlain, who was responsible for entertaining the Queen and Court and found the actors a valuable resource for that task. In the crucial period of the development of Elizabethan drama, two Lords Chamberlain in succession, Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex (Lord Chamberlain from 1572 to 1585) and Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (from 1585 to 1596) were noblemen who maintained their own troupes of players (Sussex's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men respectively), and who countered the attempts of the London authorities to suppress the drama.
This situation reversed in 1596, with the death of Lord Hunsdon and the selection of William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham as Lord Chamberlain. Cobham was sympathetic to the London authorities and hostile to the players; under his influence the Privy Council agreed to a prohibition of plays within the City of London. The London authorities proceeded to "pull down" and "put down" all the "Play-houses" within their municipality. (Theatre owners like James Burbage and Philip Henslowe wisely chose locations outside of city control.) A late report (from 1628) gives a somewhat defective and ambiguous list of the inn-theatres suppressed during 1596; [10] but it seems clear that at least the Bull, the Bell, the Cross Keys, and the Bel Savage Inns were victimized.
Fortunately for Elizabethan drama and English literature, Lord Cobham died in March 1597; the office of Lord Chamberlain was then filled by George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, who returned to his father's policy of support and patronage for drama.
The remaining inn-yard theatres continued to function. The Boar's Head Inn was refurbished in 1598 and 1599, and the litigious theatre entrepreneur Francis Langley was involved there for a time. In 1602, Worcester's Men received official permission to become the third playing company permanently based in London; their first performing venue was the Boar's Head Inn. In 1604, an inn in Clerkenwell was converted into the Red Bull Theatre, which remained an important site for acting in the coming decades, and was finally abandoned only in 1660.
English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1597.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1596.
The Swan was a theatre in Southwark, London, England, built in 1595 on top of a previously standing structure, during the first half of William Shakespeare's career. It was the fifth in the series of large public playhouses of London, after James Burbage's The Theatre (1576) and Curtain (1577), the Newington Butts Theatre and Philip Henslowe's Rose (1587–88).
The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch, just outside the City of London. It was the first permanent theatre ever built in England. It was built in 1576 after the Red Lion, and the first successful one. Built by actor-manager James Burbage, near the family home in Holywell Street, The Theatre is considered the first theatre built in London for the sole purpose of theatrical productions. The Theatre's history includes a number of important acting troupes including the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which employed Shakespeare as actor and playwright. After a dispute with the landlord, the theatre was dismantled and the timbers used in the construction of the Globe Theatre on Bankside.
James Burbage was an English actor, theatre impresario, joiner, and theatre builder in the English Renaissance theatre. He built The Theatre, the first permanent dedicated theatre built in England since Roman times.
Sir John Oldcastle is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-/15th-century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr.
The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch, just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624.
The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a company of actors, or a "playing company", for which Shakespeare wrote during most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead roles, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronized by James I.
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 actors associated with the Queen's chapel choirs, and who from 1576 to 1584 staged plays in the vast hall of the former monastery. The second theatre dates from the purchase of the upper part of the priory and another building by James Burbage in 1596, which included the Parliament Chamber on the upper floor that was converted into the playhouse. The Children of the Chapel played in the theatre beginning in the autumn of 1600 until the King's Men took over in 1608. They successfully used it as their winter playhouse until all the theatres were closed in 1642 when the English Civil War began.
In Renaissance-era London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organized around a group of ten or so shareholders, who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. The sharers employed "hired men" – that is, the minor actors and the workers behind the scenes. The major companies were based at specific theatres in London; the most successful of them, William Shakespeare's company the King's Men, had the open-air Globe Theatre for summer seasons and the enclosed Blackfriars Theatre in the winters. The Admiral's Men occupied the Rose Theatre in the 1590s, and the Fortune Theatre in the early 17th century.
The Admiral's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in the Elizabethan and Stuart eras. It is generally considered the second most important acting troupe of English Renaissance theatre.
Cuthbert Burbage was an English theatrical figure, son of James Burbage, builder of the Theatre in Shoreditch and elder brother of the actor Richard Burbage. From 1589 he was the owner of the ground lease of the Theatre. Best known for his central role in the construction of the Globe Theatre, he was for four decades a significant agent in the success and endurance of Shakespeare's company, the King's Men.
Lord Strange's Men was an Elizabethan playing company, comprising retainers of the household of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange. They are best known in their final phase of activity in the late 1580s and early 1590s. After 25 September 1593, they were known as the Earl of Derby's Men, that being the date of Stanley's accession to his father's title.
Francis Langley (1548–1602) was a theatre builder and theatrical producer in Elizabethan era London. After James Burbage and Philip Henslowe, Langley was the third significant entrepreneurial figure active at the height of the development of English Renaissance theatre.
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 Lord Chamberlain's Men would be in the decade that followed.
The Earl of Leicester's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in English Renaissance theatre, active mainly in the 1570s and 1580s in the reign of Elizabeth I. In many respects, it was the major company in Elizabethan drama of its time, and established the pattern for the companies that would follow: it was the first to be awarded a royal patent, and the first to occupy one of the new public theatres on a permanent basis.
Robert Browne was an English actor of the Elizabethan era, and the owner and manager of the Boar's Head Theatre. He was also part of an enduring confusion in the study of English Renaissance theatre.
Robert Browne was an English actor and theatre manager and investor of the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He was also part of a long-standing confusion in the scholarship of English Renaissance theatre.
The Boar's Head Theatre was an inn-yard theatre in the Whitechapel area of London from 1598 to around 1616.