Why Did Shakespeare Change the Name of His Acting Company

The text of Fletcher`s play was properly repaired the following month when the company performed The Taming of the Shrew and The Woman`s Prize before the King and Queen at St. James`s Palace on November 26 and 28, 1633. According to Herbert, Shakespeare`s play was “loved,” but Fletcher`s play was “very popular.” Among the men hired, some became partners. William Sly, who occasionally played with the Admiral`s Men in the 1590s, played for the Chamberlains in 1598 and possibly earlier; he became a partner after Phillips` death in 1605. Richard Cowley, identified by the quarto of Much Ado About Nothing but Yards, became a partner of the King`s Men. Nicholas Tooley, who was formerly apprenticed to Burbage, remained with the firm until his death in 1623. John Sincler (or Sincklo) may have specialized in the role of thin characters; He seems to have remained a paid man. John Duke was a committed man who went to Worcester`s Men early in James` reign. The Chamberlain`s Men consisted of a core of eight “sharers” who shared profits and debts; perhaps an equal number of hired men playing smaller and double roles; and a slightly smaller number of younger players, sometimes linked to an adult actor. The Chamberlains` original shares were eight. Probably most famous in the years 1590 to 1600 was William Kempe, who had been in the company of the Earl of Leicester in the 1580s and later joined the king`s men. As the company`s clown, he probably took on the broadest comedic role in each play; he is identified with Peter in the Romeo and Juliet quarto and probably also invented Dog-berry in Much Ado About Nothing and Bottom in A Midsummer Night`s Dream. Kempe has traditionally been considered the subject of Hamlet`s lament over the extemporization of clowns; Whether this connection was good or bad, Kempe had left the firm in 1601.

Two other Strange`s Men partners had a long-standing association with Kempe. George Bryan was in Leicester`s Men in the 1580s and with Kempe in Elsinore in 1586; As he is not mentioned in later Chamberlain or King`s Men documents, Bryan is thought to have retired from the stage in 1597 or 1598. (Bryan lived for a few years; during James` reign he is listed as the husband of the chamber with household chores until 1613.) Thomas Pope, another veteran of Leicester, retired in 1600 and died in 1603. Bryan and Pope both joined the company from Lord Strange`s Men. Augustine Phillips is also from Strange`s Men. He remained with the troupe until his death in 1605. Das königliche Patent vom 19. May 1603, which authorized the King`s Men Company, named the following actors in that order: Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillips, John Heminges, Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armin, Richard Cowley, “and the rest of their collaborators… The nine nominees became grooms of the chamber. On March 15, 1604, each of the nine men named in the patent received four and a half meters of red cloth for the coronation procession. In August 1619 the company premiered its production of the controversial play John van Olden Barnavelt. And at some point in this immediate post-burbage era, they had to direct Fletcher`s The Humorous Lieutenant. The list of actors in this play in the Beaumont and Fletcher Folio of 1679 is the only surviving list that includes both Taylor and Condell.

Soon after, Condell must have retired from the scene. Unable to foresee the impending collapse of 1642, the King`s Men undertook a major expansion around 1640. They brought in five new men as actors and partners: William Allen, Theophilus Bird, Michael Bowyer, Hugh Clark and William Robbins. All five were veterans of Queen Henrietta`s men; All five were appointed Grooms of the House on 22 January 1641, along with Stephen Hammerton. With Massinger`s death in 1640, the troupe also needed a new playwright; James Shirley was recruited for the position. The Society staged Shirley`s The Cardinal in 1641 and The Sisters in the spring of 1642. The production of Shirley`s next work, The Court Secret, was prevented by the theatre`s closure in September 1642. The original form of Chamberlain`s Men comes largely from Edward Alleyn`s departure from the Strange`s Men and the subsequent death of Lord Strange himself in the spring of 1594.