Shakespeare's Companies (studies In Performance And Early Modern Drama)

SHAKESPEARE’S COMPANIES General Editor’s Preface Helen Ostovich, McMaster University Performance assumes a string of creative, analytical, and collaborative acts that, in defiance of theatrical ephemerality, live on through records, manuscripts, and printed books. The monographs and essay collections in this series offer original research which addresses theatre histories and performance histories in the context of the sixteenth and seventeenth century life. Of especial interest are studies in which women’s activities are a central feature of discussion as financial or technical supporters (patrons, musicians, dancers, seamstresses, wigmakers, or ‘gatherers’), if not authors or performers per se. Welcome too are critiques of early modern drama that not only take into account the production values of the plays, but also speculate on how intellectual advances or popular culture affect the theatre. The series logo, selected by my colleague Mary V. Silcox, derives from Thomas Combe’s duodecimo volume, The Theater of Fine Devices (London, 1592), Emblem VI, sig. B. The emblem of four masks has a verse which makes claims for the increasing complexity of early modern experience, a complexity that makes interpretation difficult. Hence the corresponding perhaps uneasy rise in sophistication: Masks will be more hereafter in request, And grow more deare than they did heretofore. No longer simply signs of performance ‘in play and jest’, the mask has become the ‘double face’ worn ‘in earnest’ even by ‘the best’ of people, in order to manipulate or profit from the world around them. The books stamped with this design attempt to understand the complications of performance produced on stage and interpreted by the audience, whose experiences outside the theatre may reflect the emblem’s argument: Most men do use some colour’d shift For to conceal their craftie drift. Centuries after their first presentations, the possible performance choices and meanings they engender still stir the imaginations of actors, audiences, and readers of early plays. The products of scholarly creativity in this series, I hope, will also stir imaginations to new ways of thinking about performance. Shakespeare’s Companies William Shakespeare’s Early Career and the Acting Companies, 1577–1594 TERENCE G. SCHOONE-JONGEN Independent Scholar, Washington, DC, USA © Terence G. Schoone-Jongen 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Terence G. Schoone-Jongen has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Wey Court East Union Road Farnham Surrey GU9 7PT England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Schoone-Jongen, Terence Shakespeare’s companies: William Shakespeare’s early career and the acting companies, 1577–1594. – (Studies in performance and early modern drama) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 – Stage history – To 1625 2. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 – Stage history – England – London 3. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 – Relations with actors 4. Theater – England – London – History – 16th century 5. Theatrical companies – England – London – History – 16th century I. Title 792’.09421 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schoone-Jongen, Terence. Shakespeare’s companies: William Shakespeare’s early career and the acting companies, 1577–1594 / by Terence Schoone-Jongen. p. cm. — (Studies in performance and early modern drama) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7546-6434-5 (alk. p