Queen Henrietta's Men

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Queen Henrietta's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era London, formed in 1625, at the start of the reign of King Charles I, by theatrical impressario Christopher Beeston under royal patronage of the new queen, Henrietta Maria. They were sometimes called the Queen's Majesty's Comedians or other variations on their name.

The company was founded after an eight-month closure of the London theatres due to bubonic plague. The actors of the new company came from several different companies then active. Richard Perkins, the new company's leading man, had been with Queen Anne's Men at the Red Bull Theatre and briefly (1624–5) with the King's Men.^[1] Anthony Turner and William Sherlock were other prominent members; they, and probably William Allen also, came from the Lady Elizabeth's Men, which passed out of existence around this time. (Their nominal patroness, Elizabeth of Bohemia, no longer lived in Britain and had many and major difficulties of her own at the time.) The new company certainly inherited some of the plays of the Lady Elizabeth's company, like George Chapman's Chabot, Philip Massinger's The Renegado, and James Shirley's Love Tricks.

At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men. Perkins played Barabas in their revival of Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, along with many other leading parts.

Cast lists survive from five of the company's productions: The Renegado, Thomas Heywood's two-part play The Fair Maid of the West, Shirley's The Wedding, Robert Davenport's King John and Matilda, and Thomas Nabbes's Hannibal and Scipio. In addition to Perkins, Sherlock, Turner, and Allen, the company included Theophilus Bird (or Bourne), William Robbinson (or Robbins), Hugh Clark, and Michael Bowyer, among others. Hugh Clark played female roles, in Fair Maid, The Wedding, and other plays. Bird had played female roles for the company in the 1620s, probably as a boy player; he later married Beeston's daughter and was a successful actor both before and after the Interregnum, including a period with the King's Men. Allen and Bowyer also moved on to the King's Men after their time with Queen Henrietta's. Robbinson played clown parts in Fair Maid, The Renegado, and many other plays; he was the company's leading comic actor through most of its existence.

Queen Henrietta's Men acted at Beeston's Cockpit Theatre, also called the Phoenix, in the years 1625–36. In the latter year they had a falling-out of some nature with their founder and manager, and moved to the rival Salisbury Court Theatre. Beeston had a reputation for breaking up theatre companies when it was in his interest to do so, as a way of maintaining control over recalcitrant and unruly actors; Philip Henslowe was accused of similar tactics in the previous generation. The 1636–7 era was another difficult one for the theatrical profession, with a long theatre closure due to plague; it was in this period that Richard Brome got into a serious contract dispute between Richard Heton at the Salisbury Court on one side and Beeston on the other. The Queen Henrietta's company split apart during this time; but it was reconstituted in October of 1637, with Perkins, Sherlock, Turner, and other members, at the Salisbury Court. According to his own testimony, Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, was actively involved in rebuilding the Queen Henrietta's company — he apparently had some financial interest in the Salisbury Court Theatre.

The company ended its existence when the London theatres were closed in August 1642 at the start of the English Civil War. Some of its personnel (Anthony Turner is one example) re-surfaced as members of the newly-formed King's Company when the theatres re-opened in 1660. The King's Company also inherited a good portion of the repertory of Queen Henrietta's Men, including plays by Shirley, Brome, and Heywood.

[edit] Repertory

The following list includes plays acted by Queen Henrietta's Men in the years cited, and gives an indication of the nature of their repertory:

The Maid's Revenge, James Shirley, 1626 The Wedding, Shirley, 1626–9[2] The English Traveller, Heywood, 1627? The Martyred Soldier, Henry Shirley, 1627–35 The Rape of Lucrece, Heywood, 1628 The Witty Fair One, Shirley, 1628 King John and Matilda, Davenport, 1628–34 The Grateful Servant, Shirley, 1629 Hoffman, Henry Chettle, c. 1630 If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Heywood c. 1630 (both parts) Match Me in London, Thomas Dekker, c. 1630 The Renegado, Massinger, 1630 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, John Ford, 1630? The White Devil, John Webster, c. 1630 The Fair Maid of the West, Heywood, 1630–1 (both parts) The Humorous Courtier, Shirley, 1631 Love Tricks, Shirley, 1631 Love's Cruelty, Shirley, 1631 The Traitor, Shirley, 1631 The Ball, Shirley, 1632 Hyde Park, Shirley, 1632 The Jew of Malta, Marlowe, c. 1632 The Maid of Honour, Massinger, 1632 Perkin Warbeck, Ford, 1632 The Prisoners, Thomas Killigrew, 1632–5 The Bird in a Cage, Shirley, 1633

Covent Garden, Thomas Nabbes, 1633 The Gamester, Shirley, 1633 A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Massinger, c. 1633 A Tale of a Tub, Ben Jonson, 1633 The Young Admiral, Shirley, 1633 The Example, Shirley, 1634 Love's Mistress, Heywood, 1634 The Opportunity, Shirley, 1634 The Shepherd's Holiday, Joseph Rutter, 1633–5 The Antiquary, Shackerley Marmion, c. 1635 Hannibal and Scipio, Nabbes, 1635 The Coronation, Shirley, 1635, 1639 Chabot, Admiral of France, Chapman and Shirley, 1635 The Honest Whore, Dekker and Thomas Middleton, c. 1635 (both parts) The Lady of Pleasure, Shirley, 1635 Claracilla, Killigrew, 1635–6 The Duke's Mistress, Shirley, 1636 The Hollander, Henry Glapthorne, 1636 The Antipodes, Richard Brome, 1636–8 The English Moor, Brome, 1637 Mirocosmus, Nabbes, 1637 The Careless Shepherdess, John Goffe, c. 1638 The Fatal Contract, William Heminges, 1638–9 The Noble Stranger, Lewis Sharpe, 1638–40 A Mad World, My Masters, Middleton, c. 1640

Nineteen of the fifty-one works on the list are the work of James Shirley, the company's house dramatist through much of their existence.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Perkins, probably in the role of Flamineo, played in the original failed performance of Webster's The White Devil at the Red Bull Theatre in 1612, and also in the successful revival by Queen Henrietta's Men c. 1630. His original performance was praised by Webster. Perkins's career had begun as early as 1602; he died in 1650. He was apparently a personal friend of Heywood.
2. ^ On this list, the name "Shirley" refers to the prominent dramatist James Shirley, not the obscure dramatist Henry Shirley, except where noted.

[edit] References

• Bentley, Gerald Eades. The Jacobean and Caroline Stage. Volumes I and II, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1941.
• Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.