Shakespeare at the Globe, 1599-1609

[2] Gerald E. Bentley, “Shakespeare and the Blackfriars Theatre,” Shakespeare Survey, I (1948), p. 47.

[3] Peter Streete agreed, in this contract dated January 8, 1600, to complete his construction by July 25, 1600 (E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford, 1923), II, p. 438), a period of about twenty-eight weeks. However, it was covenanted that “the saide Peeter Streete shall not be chardged with anie manner of pay[ntin]ge in or aboute the saide fframe howse or Stadge or anie parte thereof, nor rendringe the walls within” (Chambers, II, p. 437). Consequently, we must add to the twenty-eight weeks an indeterminate period during which the playhouse was painted, thus bringing the estimated completion of the Fortune to some time in August at least. It is probable that in computing the schedule for the Fortune, Streete utilized his experience at the Globe, particularly since the new stage was to be so much like the Globe’s. Streete would find such computation easy after allowing for differences in building conditions. On the one hand the fact that the timber from the Theatre was to be used for the Globe suggests that the frame for the Globe took less time to erect. On the other hand, the fact that the Globe had to be built on piles might reasonably suggest that laying its foundations required more time. If Henslowe’s notation of payment “to the laberers at the eand of the fowndations the 8 of maye 1600” (Philip Henslowe, Papers, ed. W. W. Greg, p. 10), correctly reflects the time consumed in erecting these of the Fortune, a matter of about sixteen weeks, then we must assume that the base of the Globe was not ready to take a frame until the middle of June. As Henslowe’s Diary and Papers indicate, Streete probably consummated his portion of the contract somewhat later than he had estimated, that is, about the first week in August (Henslowe, p. 11). But even if there were some delay, as Greg believes, Streete had erred merely by a matter of two weeks. I believe that his initial estimate, fundamentally reliable, reflected his experience at the Globe.

[4] Among others Heminges testified that he shared in profits from the presentation of plays at Blackfriars for four years previous to 1612 (Kirkham vs. Painton, as reprinted in F. G. Fleay, A Chronicle History of the London Stage (London, 1890), pp. 225, 235, 238, 244, 249). The only time when the plague bills declined sufficiently to permit the possibility of performances was in March, 1609. The weekly count of plague deaths was thirty-two as of March 2, forty-three as of March 9, and thirty-three as of March 16. Thereafter, the plague increased in severity and the weekly number of deaths fell below forty only once again before December, 1609. (Statistics from John Bell, London’s Remembrancer (London, 1665) as reprinted in J. T. Murray, English Dramatic Companies (London, 1910), II, pp. 186-187.)

[5] E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare (Oxford, 1930), I; Alfred Harbage, Annals of the English Drama (London, 1940); William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of, ed. G. L. Kittredge (New York, 1936); James McManaway, “Recent Studies in Shakespeare’s Chronology,” Shakespeare Survey, III (1950), 22-33. In composing the list of plays performed by the Globe company, I have relied on Chambers, compared with Harbage and Kittredge, and checked against McManaway’s survey of studies in the chronological order of Shakespeare’s plays. Later theories on particular plays have been examined when relevant.

[6] Twelfth Night, ed. J. D. Wilson (Cambridge, 1930); Leslie Hotson, The First Night of Twelfth Night (New York, 1954).

[7] Percy Allen, “The Date of Hamlet,” T.L.S., January 2, 1937, 12; Chambers, William Shakespeare, I, p. 423; also “The Date of Hamlet,” Shakespearean Gleanings (London, 1944), pp. 68-75; Hamlet, ed. J. D. Wilson (Cambridge, 1936), 2nd ed.; H. D. Gray, “The Date of Hamlet;” J.E.G.P., XXX (1932), 51-61; L. Kirschbaum, “The Date of Hamlet,” S.P., XXXIV (1937), 168-175.

[8] Leslie Hotson, “Love’s Labour’s Won,” Shakespeare’s Sonnets Dated (New York, 1949), 37-56.

[9] A. Hart, “The Date of Othello,” T.L.S., October 10, 1935, 631; A. Cairncross, “A Reply to Hart,” T.L.S., October 24, 1935, 671; Richmond Noble, “A Reply to Hart,” T.L.S., December 14, 1935, 859; W. W. Greg, “The Date of King Lear and Shakespeare’s Use of Earlier Versions of the Story,” Library, XX (1940), 377-400.

[10] Chambers, William Shakespeare, I, p. 522.

[11] Macbeth, ed. J. D. Wilson (Cambridge, 1947), pp. xl-xlii. Wilson offers a fanciful argument to support his theory that the play was first performed before James in Edinburgh in 1601–1602. Kenneth Muir (Arden edition, 1951), p. xxvi, reviewing this argument, concludes, “It is reasonable to assume that the play was first performed in 1606, first at the Globe, and afterwards at Court—perhaps with a few minor alterations.”

[12] Leslie Hotson, Shakespeare vs. Shallow (Boston, 1931), pp. 111-122; P. Alexander, Shakespeare’s Life and Art (London, 1939), p. 125; William Green, Shakespeare’s Garter Play (unpublished dissertation, Columbia University, 1959), believes that Lord Hunsdon commissioned Shakespeare to write the play for performance on April 23, 1597. However, his explanation for the omission of the play’s title from Meres’ list is essentially hypothetical (pp. 249-251).

[13] Eight early plays of Shakespeare’s were actually revived during the Globe period, or supposedly revived according to the title pages of early editions. These plays were The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, and Titus Andronicus. Seven of the eight, all but the first, were printed in quartos. However, the texts of later editions were set up from the early editions without appreciable alterations. The Folio text of Dream does include some additions to the stage directions which may be illuminating but which do not change the theatrical elements. The Fourth Quarto (1608) of Richard II is the first edition to contain the abdication scene, and the Folio text of Titus Andronicus contains additional stage directions and a new scene. But these omissions in the early copies do not seem to be a result of staging conditions. There are two possible inferences. Either the later texts had no connection with the playhouse and therefore merely copied the earlier texts, or the productions did not change sufficiently over the years to cause variations in the texts. As a result I have decided to use these plays for occasional reference only.

[14] The dating of these and the succeeding plays is based upon Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, III, pp. 214, 293, 431, 513; IV, pp. 1, 8, 12, 27, 30, 42, 54.

[15] Baldwin Maxwell, Studies in the Shakespeare Apocrypha (New York, 1956), pp. 99-106, dates the play between 1599 and 1600.

[16] A Yorkshire Tragedy has been identified with Miseries of Enforced Marriage by F. G. Fleay and others. Mark Friedlaender, “Some Problems of A Yorkshire Tragedy,” S.P., XXXV (1938), 238-253, in his reconsideration of the evidence rejects this theory. He suggests that both plays were made from a single original play. In a more recent study Baldwin Maxwell (pp. 153 ff.) considers the plays to be independent works. Whatever the theory, it is certain that both plays were staged and must be enumerated separately.

[17] Thomas Kyd, The Works, ed. Frederick S. Boas (Oxford, 1955), p. xlii. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, IV, p. 23, suggests that the present text was the one presented at the Globe about 1604. However, the suggestion is hedged with so many qualifications that I thought it better to exclude this piece.

[2] Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, IV, pp. 322-325.

[3] Henslowe, I. The list of plays from November 10, 1595–January 17, 1596 may be found on page 27. Fuller descriptions of the plays mentioned by name may be found in Volume II, pp. 167-168, 175-177.

[4] Performances: Nov. 24-25, Hercules, I and II; Nov. 26, Longshank; Nov. 27, New World’s Tragedy; Nov. 28, Henry V (new); Nov. 29, The Welshman; Dec. 1, A Toy to Please; Dec. 2, Henry V; Dec. 3, Barnardo and Fiametta; Dec. 4, Wonder of a Woman; Dec. 6, Crack Me This Nutte.

[5] Belin Dun was performed regularly from June 10 to November 15, 1594, and regularly from March 31 to June 25, 1597, yet there was an isolated performance on July 11, 1596. See Henslowe, II, p. 164.

[6] Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, II, pp. 143ff.; Henslowe, II, pp. 118-119, 124-127.

[7] Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, II, pp. 165-172, 177-180. From 1597 to 1603 nine men, Chettle, Day, Dekker, Drayton, Hathway, Haughton, Munday, Smith, and Wilson, furnished sixty-four of the eighty-eight plays which were finished and produced.

[8] These are: Phaethon, Earl of Godwin and His Three Sons I and II, King Arthur I, Black Bateman of the North, Madman’s Morris, Pierce of Winchester, Civil Wars of France I and II, Fount of New Fashions, Brute, The Spencers, The Page of Plymouth, Troy’s Revenge or Polyphemus, Cox of Collumpton, Fortunatus, atient Grissel, Seven Wise Masters, Strange News out of Poland, Cupid and Psyche, Six Yeomen of the West, Cardinal Wolsey, Thome Strowd III, The Conquest of the West Indies, Judas, Malcolm King of Scots, Love Parts Friendship, Jephthah.

[9] Henslowe, II, p. 112.

[10] F. G. Fleay, A Chronicle History of the London Stage, p. 117.

[11] Sir Henry Herbert, The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, ed. J. Q. Adams (New Haven, 1917), pp. 66-67.

[12] The Virgin Martyr involved the addition of a scene, The Tragedy of Nero was allowed for printing, Come See a Wonder is listed for “a company of strangers,” and “the company at the Curtain” is in dispute.

[13] 1604–1605: 10 plays presented, 7 by Shakespeare; 1611–1612: 23 plays, 2 by Shakespeare, 5 by others, 16 unidentified; 1612–1613: 20 plays, 8 by Shakespeare, 12 by others; 1618: 3 plays, 2 by Shakespeare, 1 by another poet; 1633: 22 plays, 4 by Shakespeare, 18 by others; 1636: 19 plays, 3 by Shakespeare, 16 by others; 1638: 7 plays, 1 by Shakespeare, 6 by others; 1638–1639: 17 plays, 2 by Shakespeare, 15 by others. See Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, IV, pp. 171-183; Mary S. Steele, Plays and Masques at Court (New Haven, 1926).

[14] Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, IV, pp. 350-351. Periods during which plague forced the closing of the theaters between 1599 and 1608 were: March—December, 1603, c. October 5—December 15, 1605, July—December, 1606, July—November 19, 1607, August—December, 1608.

[15] Days without performances because of Lenten observance are not counted.

[16] Chambers, William Shakespeare, II, p. 332.

[17] Henslowe, II, pp. 83, 124-125, 149.

[18] The eight plays are Suckling’s Aglaura (1638), Cartwright’s The Royal Slave (1636), and Habington’s Cleodora (1640), which were presented for Their Majesties by courtiers seeking favor (see Steele, pp. 265, 268; Herbert, p. 58); Carlell’s The Deserving Favourite (1629) and Mayne’s City Match (1639) (see Steele, pp. 263, 274, 277); Two Merry Milkmaids (1620), which may or may not have been presented publicly (Steele, p. 206); Middleton and Rowley, A World Tost at Tennis (1620), which was conceived as a masque, but apparently presented publicly (Steele, p. 227); and As Merry as May Be (1602–1603).

[19] Herbert, p. 32. Also see pp. 19, 19 n., 36.

[20] Ibid., pp. 22, 35, 54; also Bentley, II, p. 675.

[21] J. C. Adams, The Globe Playhouse (Cambridge, 1942), pp. 59-89; T.W. Baldwin, The Organization and Personnel of the Shakespearean Company (Princeton, 1927), pp. 332-338; Alfred Harbage, Shakespeare’s Audience (New York, 1941), p. 33.

[22] Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, IV, pp. 166-175. From Elizabeth the Lord Chamberlain’s men received £30 (3.6 per cent) in 1599–1600, £30 (3.6 per cent) in 1600–1601, £40 (4.8 per cent) in 1601–1602, and £20 (2.4 per cent) in 1602–1603. The percentages indicate that portion of their income derived by the players from the Court. (Based upon Baldwin’s low estimate of £840 annual income.)

[23] Frances Keen, “The First Night of Twelfth Night,” T.L.S., December 19, 1958, 737.

[2] Baldwin, Shakespeare’s Five-Act Structure, pp. 305, 315, 321, 326.

[3] Muriel C. Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge, 1935), p. 5.

[4] Madeleine Doran, Endeavors of Art (University of Wisconsin, 1954), p. 5.

[5] Heinrich Wölfflin, Principles of Art History (New York, 1932), pp. 14-16, 159; Doran, p. 6.

[6] George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (1589), as reprinted in Gregory Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays (Oxford, 1904), II, pp. 19-20.

[7] Francis Fergusson, The Idea of a Theater (Princeton, 1949), pp. 229-230.

[8] Hardin Craig, “Shakespeare’s Development as a Dramatist in the Light of His Experience,” S.P., XXXIX (1942), 226; also S. L. Bethell, Shakespeare and the Dramatic Tradition (London, 1944), p. 70.

[9] Doran, pp. 103, 263.

[10] Ibid., p. 296.

[11] Ibid., p. 264.

[12] Bradbrook, pp. 30, 75.

[13] Doran, p. 295.

[14] See especially Twelfth Night, I, i-iii; Hamlet, I, i-iii; Lear, I, i; Measure for Measure, I, i; The Devil’s Charter, dumb show.

[15] The other ranking figures are Antonio in The Revenger’s Tragedy, Malevole, revealed as Duke Altofronto in The Malcontent, young Flowerdale in The London Prodigal, and the husband in A Yorkshire Tragedy. The prodigal son plays, Miseries of Enforced Marriage, The London Prodigal, and A Yorkshire Tragedy, have a double figure, the husband who judges himself and the wife who grants forgiveness.

[16] Discovery: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Merry Wives of Windsor, All’s Well, Pericles; discovery-single combat: Hamlet, Lear; discovery-suicide: Othello; discovery-trial: Measure for Measure; single combat: Macbeth; suicide: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra; trial: Coriolanus; siege: Timon of Athens.

[17] Curtis B. Watson, “Shakespeare’s Dukes,” S.A.B., XVI (1941), 33. Watson insists that the Duke employed in this fashion is unique to Shakespeare’s plays. However, as the non-Shakespearean plays reveal, the same functions are carried out by father, king, or lord.

[18] G. Wilson Knight, Principles of Shakespearean Production (Harmondsworth Middlesex, 1949), p. 21.

[19] Ibid., p. 21; W. J. Lawrence, “Some Reflections on Shakespeare’s Dramaturgy,” Speeding Up Shakespeare (London, 1937), p. 43; Richard G. Moulton, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist (Oxford, 1893), p. 217.

[20] Moulton, p. 217. He persists in finding a “point” for the climax although he more clearly than any one of the other writers perceives the extended nature of the climax. On page 209 he treats the scenes of Lear’s madness as a “Centerpiece,” apparently realizing their climactic interconnection. Yet he fails to take the next step by abandoning the conception of a climactic moment.

[21] Harley Granville-Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare (Princeton, 1947), I, p. 274.

[22] The appearance of the “climactic plateau” late in Troilus and Cressida is further support for the theory of a two-part play suggested by T. W. Baldwin in A New Variorum Edition of Troilus and Cressida, ed. Harold N. Hillebrand, supplemental ed. T. W. Baldwin (Philadelphia, 1953), p. 452.

[23] The climax is also associated with the subsequent disappearance of the central figure, a characteristic pointed out by W. J. Lawrence. Both comedy, for example, Twelfth Night and Measure for Measure (Angelo is absent for the third and almost all of the fourth act) and tragedy display the same pattern.

[24] Levin L. Schücking, Character Problems in Shakespeare’s Plays (New York, 1922), p. 114.

[25] Elmer E. Stoll, Shakespeare Studies (New York, 1942), p. 37, corrected edition; G. Wilson Knight, Wheel of Fire (New York, 1949), pp. 13-14.

[26] G. Wilson Knight, Wheel of Fire and Principles, pp. 140-155, for his proposed Macbeth production.

[2] V. E. Albright, The Shakesperian Stage (New York, 1909), p. 45.

[3] The figures are suggestive rather than definitive. See Appendix B, chart i, for breakdown according to plays.

[4] H. Granville-Barker, “A Note on Chapters XX and XXI of The Elizabethan Stage,” R.E.S., I (1925), 68.

[5] Ashley Thorndike, Shakespeare’s Theater (New York, 1916), pp. 102 ff.

[6] Twelfth Night, II, ii; Measure for Measure, V, i; Lear, II, i; II, ii; III, i; Othello, V, ii; Antony and Cleopatra, II, vi; III, ii; Troilus and Cressida, IV, i; Coriolanus, I, viii; I, ix; Timon of Athens, I, i; III, iv-vi; IV, ii; Pericles, Chorus, II; II, v; Chorus, III; The Devil’s Charter, prologue; I, i; IV, i; Fair Maid of Bristow, scene xiv.

[7] W. J. Lawrence, The Physical Conditions of the Elizabethan Public Playhouse (Cambridge, Mass., 1927), pp. 22 ff.

[8] W. J. Lawrence, The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies, Series One (Stratford-on-Avon, 1912), p. 23.

[9] Lawrence, Physical Conditions, pp. 22 ff.; J. C. Adams, p. 146.

[10] G. F. Reynolds, “Troilus and Cressida on the Elizabethan Stage,” Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. James G. McManaway et al. (Washington, 1948), pp. 229-238.

[11] Julius Caesar

[12] See Appendix B, chart ii, for the list of properties in Shakespeare.

[13] Henslowe, Papers, pp. 116-118.

[14] Antony and Cleopatra, I, ii; II, vii; Timon of Athens, I, ii; III, vi; Cromwell, scene vii; The Devil’s Charter, V, iv; The Revenger’s Tragedy, V, iii.

[15] Probably Macbeth, III, iv; As You Like It, II, v; undetermined Pericles, II, iii.

[16] Brought out: Hamlet, V, ii; The Devil’s Charter, IV, iii; V, vi; probably brought out: The Devil’s Charter, prologue; uncertain: Every Man Out of His Humour, V, iv; discovered: Othello, I, iii.

[17] A parallel instance is found in Volpone. In the last scene in which the bed is employed, Mosca says to Volpone, then lying in the bed:

The line suggests that the bed was removed rather than hidden by a curtain.

[18] Warren Smith, “Evidence of Scaffolding on Shakespeare’s Stage,” R.E.S., n.s. II (1951), 22-29.

[19] Richard Hosley, “The Discovery-Space in Shakespeare’s Globe,” Shakespeare Survey, XII (1959), 35-46. Many of my own conclusions parallel those of Mr. Hosley. See my dissertation, The Production of Shakespeare’s Plays at the Globe Playhouse, 1599–1609 (Columbia University, 1956).

[20] Ibid., 46. Both Cromwell, sc. vi, and Merry Wives of Windsor, III, iii, require similar facilities.

[21] Richard Southern, “On Reconstructing a Practicable Elizabethan Public Playhouse,” Shakespeare Survey, XII (1959), p. 33.

[22] Hosley, 44-45.

[23] Alone: Devil’s Charter, IV, i; I, iv; Cromwell, sc. iii, vi; attended: Devil’s Charter, V, vi; Cromwell, sc. xii.

[24] A Yorkshire Tragedy, sc. v; The Revenger’s Tragedy, II, iv; The Merry Devil of Edmonton, prologue.

[25] The Revenger’s Tragedy, I, iv; V, i.

[26] Fastidious Briske takes down a “base viol” from a wall. Such action may depend upon the discovery of an interior. (III, ix, 81)

[27] Concealment: As You Like It, III, ii (?); Twelfth Night, IV, ii; Hamlet, III, i, III, iv; Merry Wives of Windsor, III, iii; Measure for Measure, III, i; Lear, III, vi; Coriolanus, II, i; discovery: Othello, I, iii, V, ii; Timon, V, iii; Pericles, I, i, III, i, V, i; tents: Julius Caesar, IV, ii-iii; Troilus and Cressida, passim.

[28] See Two Elizabethan Stage Abridgements: The Battle of Alcazar and Orlando Furioso, ed. W. W. Greg (The Malone Society, 1922), pp. 34-35.

[29] Merry Wives of Windsor, II, ii, III, v; Every Man Out of His Humour, V, iv; Merry Devil of Edmonton, sc. i; Miseries of Enforced Marriage, sc. v; A Yorkshire Tragedy, sc. iii-v.

[30] Adams, p. 289.

[31] Devil’s Charter, II, i, IV, iv; Timon, V, iv; Coriolanus, I, iv; A Larum for London, sc. ii. There is no stage direction specifying Sancto Davila’s appearance on the walls. However, he is “walking about Castle” and he answers to the question, “Whose that above?” (sig. B2^v).

[32] Othello, I, i; Volpone, II, ii; Every Man Out of His Humour, I, ii; Devil’s Charter, III, ii.

[33] Richard Hosley, “The Gallery over the Stage in the Public Playhouse of Shakespeare’s Time,” S.Q., VIII (1957), 31.

[34] J. C. Adams, pp. 209-215. Also G. F. Reynolds, The Staging of Elizabethan Plays at the Red Bull (New York, 1940), p. 188.

[35] Macbeth, IV, i; Hamlet, V, i; A Larum for London, scene xii; The Devil’s Charter, prologue; III, v, IV, i, V, vi. For Hamlet, I, iv and v, see Chapter Five.

[36] Leslie Hotson, Shakespeare’s Wooden O (London, 1959), p. 13.

[37] Hotson, The First Night of Twelfth Night, p. 67, also p. 119; Nagler, p. 11.

[38] Thomas Dekker, The Gull’s Hornbook, in Alois Nagler, Sources of Theatrical History (New York, 1952), p. 135.