Shakespearean Playhouses: A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the RestorationAdams, Joseph Quincy
History
Shakespearean Playhouses: A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restoration
Adams, Joseph Quincy
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stage history -- To 1625; Theaters -- England -- London -- History
The Queen's Men returned to the Red Bull and acted there until their
ruined playhouse could be repaired. Three months later, on June 3,
they again occupied the Cockpit,[589] and continued there until the
death of Queen Anne on March 2, 1619.[590]
[Footnote 589: Greenstreet, Documents, _The New Shakspere Society's
Transactions_ (1880-86), p. 504.]
[Footnote 590: Mr. Wallace (_Three London Theatres_, p. 29) says that
the documents he prints make it "as certain as circumstances
unsupported by contemporary declaration can make it, that Queen Anne's
company occupied the Red Bull continuously from the time of its
erection ... till their dissolution, 1619." His documents make it
certain only that Queen Anne's Men occupied the Red Bull until
February 23, 1617. Other documents prove that they occupied the
Cockpit from 1617 until 1619. (Note the letter of the Privy Council
quoted above.) The documents printed by Greenstreet show that Queen
Anne's Men moved to the Cockpit on June 3, 1617, and continued there.]
This event led to the dissolution of the company. For a year or more
its members had been "falling at variance and strife amongst
themselves," and when the death of the Queen deprived them of a
"service," they "separated and divided themselves into other
companies."[591] As a result of the quarrels certain members of the
company made charges against their former manager, Beeston: "The said
Beeston having from the beginning a greater care for his own private
gain, and not respecting the good of these defendants and the rest of
his fellows and companions, hath in the place and trust aforesaid much
enriched himself, and hath of late given over his coat and
condition,[592] and separated and divided himself from these
defendants, carrying away not only all the furniture and apparel,"
etc.[593] The charges against Beeston's honesty may be dismissed; but
it seems clear that he had withdrawn from his former companions, and
was preparing to entertain a new troupe of actors at his playhouse.
And Beeston himself tells us, on November 23, 1619, that "after Her
Majesty's decease, he entered into the service of the most noble
Prince Charles."[594] Thus Prince Charles's Men, after their
unfortunate experiences at the Hope and at Rosseter's Blackfriars,
came to Beeston's playhouse, where they remained until 1622. In the
spring of that year, however, they moved to the Curtain, and the
Princess Elizabeth's Men occupied the Cockpit.[595] Under their
tenancy, the playhouse seems to have attained an enviable reputation.
Heminges and Condell, in the epistle to the readers, prefixed to the
Folio of Shakespeare (1623), bear testimony to this in the following
terms: "And though you be a Magistrate of Wit, and sit on the stage at
Blackfriars, or the Cockpit, to arraign plays daily." A further
indication of their prosperity is to be found in the records of St.
Giles's Church; for when in 1623 the parish undertook the erection of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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