Lady Elizabeth's Men

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The Lady Elizabeth's Men was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was sometimes known as The Queen of Bohemia's Men, after Elizabeth and her husband the Elector Palatine had their brief and disastrous flirtation with the crown of Bohemia.

The company received its royal patent on April 27, 1611; it is thought to have been composed largely of former child actors from the children's troupes—the Children of the Chapel, the Children of Paul's, and others—who were now grown to manhood. They may have started out playing at the Swan Theatre. On August 29 of 1611, the company signed a bond with Philip Henslowe; they would rely on Henslowe for financing and would in the future act at Henslowe's new theatre, the Hope.

Soon after their inception, the company was performing in the provinces; but by 1612 they were back in London, and in that year played four times at Court. In 1613, Lady Elizabeth's Men combined with the Children of Whitefriars; the combined troupe performed A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, by Thomas Middleton, at the Swan in 1613. Sometime in the next year or two (ca. 1614-15), they joined in another combination with Prince Charles's Men. The company acted Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair at the newly-built Hope Theatre on Oct. 31, 1614.

In 1615 the company had a falling-out with Henslowe, and as a result drew up a list of their grievances, the "Articles of Oppression against Mr. Hinchlowe."[1] Most of their complaints were financial in nature—that Henslowe loaned them money on extortionate terms, and the like; but they also accused Henslowe of withholding play scripts that the actors had paid for, and of having "broken and dismemb'red five companies" in three years.

After Henslowe's death in 1616, the Lady Elizabeth's Men dissolved their bond with Prince Charles's Men, and left London to tour the provinces; they are absent from the extant records of the London theatres for roughly six years. During this era, they lost important cast members. Nathaniel Field joined the King's Men in 1616. William Ecclestone became a King's Man in 1614, as John Rice did around 1620; Joseph Taylor, who had stayed with the Prince Charles' company in 1616 and had become their leading man, replaced Richard Burbage as the King's Men's lead actor when Burbage died in the spring of 1619. The leakage from the Lady Elizabeth's troupe included plays as well as personnel: plays by John Fletcher and his collaborators that had been in their repertory, including Cupid's Revenge, The Coxcomb, and The Knight of Malta, ended up as King's Men's plays.[2]

The Lady Elizabeth's Men reappear in London in 1622, when they are working for Christopher Beeston—in April 1624, for example, they performed Philip Massinger's The Renegado. Defections continued: in 1624 Eliard Swanston left to join the King's Men. In 1625, the Lady Elizabeth's Men were replaced by, or combined with, the newly-created Queen Henrietta's Men.

Later in the Caroline era, in the 1626-31 period, a theatre troupe called itself the Queen of Bohemia's Men, though in fact it lacked royal patronage.

[edit] Repertory

The following list includes plays that are known to have been acted by the Lady Elizabeth's Men in the years cited, and suggests the general nature of their repertory:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Andrew Gurr, Shakespearean Stage, pp. 58 ff.
  2. ^ Andrew Gurr, The Shakespeare Company, pp.128, 159.

[edit] References

  • Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespeare Company 1594–1642. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
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