The Theatre
The Theatre was an
History
The Mayor and Corporation of London banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the
Throughout the building of The Theatre, Burbage and Brayne continually became indebted to each other. To fix this they constructed schemes to keep the building of The Theatre going. John Hind was one of the creditors for the construction of The Theatre, however, almost nothing else is known about him except that there was also a contract between him and Burbage/Brayne which entailed that he arrange players for them. One of their schemes was to put on plays in The Theatre while it was still being built, to raise money for further construction.[7]
Although Burbage's son later claimed the Theatre as the first permanent playhouse in the London conurbation, it may not have been the first permanent theatre to serve Londoners. The Newington Butts Theatre may have been built as early as 1575,[8] certainly actor Jerome Savage renewed a lease on the site on 25 March 1576, three weeks before Burbage's lease in Shoreditch.[9] Newington Butts was clearly established by Lady Day 1577,[10] and Wickham et al. interpret the available documents as saying that Savage was adapting an existing building constructed by Richard Hicks rather than building from scratch.[11]
The design of The Theatre was possibly adapted from the inn-yards that had served as playing spaces for actors and/or
The open yard in front of the stage was cobbled and provided standing room for those who paid a
The Theatre opened in the autumn of 1576, possibly as a venue for Leicester's Men, the acting company of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester of which James Burbage was a member. In the 1580s the Admiral's Men, of which James Burbage's son, Richard was a member, took up residence. After a disagreement between the company and young Burbage, most of the company left for the Rose Theatre which was under the management of Philip Henslowe.
In 1594, Richard Burbage became the leading actor of the
Towards the end of 1596, problems arose with the property's landlord, Giles Allen. Consequently, in 1597, the Lord Chamberlain's Men were forced to stop playing at The Theatre and moved to the nearby Curtain. The lease had been granted to Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage upon the death of their father. The lease that the late James Burbage had obtained from Allen in 1576 was to last only twenty years, but when that day did come, in 1596, Allen "stipulated that the playhouse should only be applied to theatrical purposes for another five years. This stipulation was contested by Burbage, and he and his sons began a harassing lawsuit with Allen. But before the dispute had gone very far Burbage died (in the spring of 1597) and the suit was continued by his sons Richard and Cuthbert."[3] The sight of the deserted Theatre prompted these lines from a minor satirist of the day:
...But see yonder,
One like the unfrequented Theatre
Walks in dark silence and vast solitude.— Edward Guilpin, Skialetheia, 1598
Brayne's widow, Margaret Brayne, and former business partner, Robert Myles, filed a lawsuit against the Burbages after Brayne's death in 1586. When Brayne passed the Burbages halted their payments to Margaret for their debt. When they filed lawsuit, Margaret and Robert showed up at The Theatre demanding half of everything inside of it—in disagreement, Richard Burbage physically assaulted Robert Myles, and Robert and Margaret left empty handed. However, this was not the end as Myles attempted to bring down the Burbages in another two lawsuits, which both ended in failure. "The old disputes of the Theatre were overtaken by the new litigation of the Alleyns-the original owners, when the Burbages dismantled the Theatre and rebuilt it as the Globe."[13] At the time of Margaret Brayne's death there were still lawsuits that had not been settled, and in her last will and testament she left all of her prospective winnings to Robert Myles.[6]
Though Giles Allen was the landlord John Hyde legally owned the lease to the Theatre and would return the lease to Richard and Cuthbert Burbage and Margaret Brayne for the sum of £30. Cuthbert then went to Walter Cope, a trusted business man, and had Cope ask Hyde if Cuthbert could outright pay for the lease and own it himself. Cuthbert paid and outright owned the lease now, ultimately squeezing Margaret Brayne out of the business. They justified this by stating that now that the lease was in Cuthbert's name and no longer in James’ name John Brayne had no dealings with the Theatre and therefore neither did Margaret Brayne.[6]
This state of affairs forced the Burbage brothers to take drastic action to save their investment. In defiance of the landlord and with the help of their friend and financial backer William Smith, chief carpenter
Archaeological investigation
In August 2008, archaeologists from the Museum of London excavating in New Inn Broadway, Shoreditch, announced that they had found the foundation of a polygonal structure they believed to be the remains of the north-eastern corner of The Theatre.[16][17][18] The Theatre and Shakespeare's involvement with it are commemorated by two plaques on 86–90 Curtain Road,[19] the building at the corner with New Inn Yard currently occupied by a Foxtons office.[20] The remains of the theatre are listed as a scheduled monument.[21]
See also
- Inn-yard theatre
- Curtain Theatre – opened in the following year further down Curtain Road
- Globe Theatre
- The Rose
- Shakespeare's Globe
Notes
- ^ Ordish, Thomas Fairman (1899), Early London Theatres: In the Fields, London: Elliot Stock, p. 30
- ISBN 978-1-901992-85-4.
- ^ a b c d Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 285.
- ^ Mullaney, 1988.
- ^ Berry, Herbert. "Brayne and his other brother-in-law". Shakespeare Studies. Literature Resource Center. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Berry, Herbert. English Professional Theatre, 1530–1660. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- ^ Mateer, David. "New Light on the Early History of the Theatre in Shoreditch [With Texts]." English Literary Renaissance 36.3 (2006): 335–375. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-521-23012-4
- ISBN 978-0-8014-2671-1
- ^ Ingram (1992) p170
- ^ Wickham et al (2000) p321
- ^ Egan, 2005.
- ^ Capp, Bernard. "The Burbages At Law (Again)." Notes & Queries 47.4 (2000): 433. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.
- ISBN 0-571-21480-0..
- ^ Schoenbaum 1987: 206–209
- Times Online. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
- ^ "The Bard's 'first theatre' found". BBC News. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
- ^ "Shakespeare's first theatre found". BBC News Online. 9 March 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
- ^ "The Theatre and Holywell Priory". London Borough of Hackney. 28 February 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ Dunthorne, Joe (10 July 2010). "Shakespeare's ghost". The Guardian. London. p. R5.
- ^ Historic England. "The Theatre Playhouse, Non Civil Parish (1433271)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
References
- Egan, Gabriel (2005), Platonism and bathos in Shakespeare and other early modern drama accessed 16 January 2022.
- Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642. Third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
- Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 4th edition. London: Oxford UP, 1983. p. 964.
- Moreton, W. H. C. (1976) "Shakespeare came to Shoreditch" LBH Library Services Text accessed 10 November 2006.
- Mullaney, S. (1988) The Place of the Stage: Licence, Play and Power in Renaissance England. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
- Schoenbaum, S. (1987) William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. Oxford University Press.
- Thomson, Peter. "The Theatre". in Banham, Martin, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, London: Cambridge UP, 1992.
- Wallace, Charles William, (1913), The First London Theatre, Materials for a History , Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska.
- Ticket-Taker, (1993), "The Theater", TURNS
- De Young, J. and Miller, J. (1998) London Theatre Walks, New York: Applause Books.
Berry, Herbert. "John Brayne and his other brother-in-law." Shakespeare Studies (2002): 93+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.
External links
- Shakespeare's Theatre? Archaeology at 4–6 New Inn Broadway Hackney Museum of London Archaeologyassessment of archaeological and historical background
- Shakespearean Playhouses, by Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr. from Project Gutenberg
- The Theatre Digital Reconstruction, a collaboration between Cloak and Dagger Studios and Museum of London Archaeology