The Shakespeare Company, 1594ÔÇô1642
Cambridge University Press, 4/15/2004
EAN 9780521807302, ISBN10: 0521807301
Hardcover, 356 pages, 23.8 x 16.1 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
This is the first complete history of the theatre company, created in 1594, which in 1603 became the King's Men. Shakespeare was at the heart of the team of players, who with their successors ran an operation that lasted until the theatres closed in 1642. During those forty-eight years they staged all of Shakespeare's plays, a number of Ben Jonson's, those of Thomas Middleton and John Webster, and almost all of the Beaumont and Fletcher canon. Andrew Gurr provides a comprehensive history of the company's activities. A chapter on their finances explains the unique management system they adopted and two chapters study the fashions in their repertory and the complex relationships with their royal patrons. The 6 appendixes identify the 99 players who worked in the company and the 168 plays they are known to have owned and performed, as well as the key documents from the company's history.
Preface
1. The plan of 1594
2. The company's work
3. 'Will money buy 'em?'
company finances
4. 'Workes are playes'
the public repertory
5. Royal loyalties
6. The afterlife
Appendix 1. The players
Appendix 2. Documents about the company
Appendix 3. The sharers' papers
Appendix 4. The repertory
Appendix 5. Surviving play-texts
Appendix 6. Court performances
Bibliography
Index.