Pembroke's Men
The Earl of Pembroke's Men were a theater company of the Elizabethan Theater . They worked under the patronage of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke . Early and ambiguous mentions of a "Pembroke's company" go back to 1575; but their existence is assured from 1592. In that year a minimum financial participation in their theater troupe was valued at £ 80. That was more than William Shakespeare paid for his New Place house in Stratford-upon-Avon five years later .
Shakespeare
Some believe that Shakespeare spent some time as a playwright and actor with the Pembroke's Men in the early 1590s. Two of Shakespeare's earliest four- high releases of individual pieces are associated with this company: the title page of the earliest version of Henry VI, Part 3 (1595) states that the piece was performed by the Pembroke's Men, while the title page of Q1 by Titus Andronicus (1594) shows that the play was brought on stage by three theater companies - the Pembroke's Men, the Lord Strange's Men and the Sussex's Men . It is uncommon to mention three acting companies, but the early 1590s were a difficult time for professional actors. Several outbreaks of bubonic plague enforced performance bans in and around London; so the actors were forced to tour the English and Scottish provinces. Occasionally they split up, reunited and did whatever was necessary to continue to exist.
Hard times
The theater company appeared (secured) from 1592 under the name and patronage of the Earl of Pembroke and toured the country for the first time that year. It is generally believed that the force was formed from members of the Lord Strange's Men and Admiral's Men . Two companies that worked together on Philip Henslowe's theater, The Rose , in 1591 . A patron like Pembroke was very important to actors at the time. When the Elizabethan Poor Laws were changed by a law of 1572, the situation of traveling actors changed: those who did not have patronage from a nobleman could be classified as a vagabond and subject to a range of penalties. However, those who enjoyed such protection were legally more secure than before. The Pembroke's Men tour lasted 10 months and was a financial failure. A subsequent tour the following year, u. a. with pieces like the third part of Henry VI. , Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and The Taming of the Shrew (a version different from the version we know today), was also a disappointment; so in September 1593 Henslowe mentioned in a letter to Edward Alleyn that the Pembroke's Men were returning from their last five to six week tour and had to pawn their costumes. However, the actors struggled through and toured the provinces again in 1595 and 1596.
The Isle of Dogs
In 1597 the Pembroke's Men reached the height of their fame, which was more of a major national scandal. In February of that year they signed an exclusive contract with the theater owner Francis Langley , which signed them to his newly built Swan Theater . The ensemble was strengthened by the actors Thomas Downton and Richard Jones of the Admiral's Men. The season began in spring and early summer and, as far as is known, went without incident; but then they brought in July the play The Isle of Dogs of Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson on stage. Something in this play, now lost, aroused the displeasure of the Privy Council , because in its first reaction to the "lewd plaie full of seditious and slanderous matter" ("indecent play, full of inflammatory and insulting subjects") it was ordered that all theaters London had to close for the rest of the summer. Ben Jonson and two other cast members, Robert Shaw and Gabriel Spencer , were detained in Marshalsea Prison until October 3 ; Thomas Nashe was previously able to flee to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk . In the case file, it is stated that Jonson was not only co-writer of the play, but also a member of the cast; one of the few proofs of Jonson's early work in leading theater positions.
When the summer was over, all theaters were allowed to play again. Only Langley's Swan remained closed as the Privy Council under Robert Cecil was investigating a property crime (a presumably resold, stolen diamond) at Langley and therefore decided not to grant his theater a gaming license. Nevertheless, despite the prohibition, he still brought performances on stage in the Swan, which were so irregular that the adequate income of all those involved could not be secured. That put the Pembroke's Men in a difficult position because they were contractually bound to the Swan, but were barely allowed to play. Under this dilemma, the company broke up: Jones and Downton returned to the Admiral's Men, and three other members, William Borne, Shaw and Spencer, followed them. They may also have taken some of the scripts with them; Titles such as Dido and Aeneas , plus Hardicanute, Black Joan, Friar Spendleton, Alice Pierce, and others.
Langley sued her for breach of contract; but obviously an agreement was reached here with Henslowe, the theater owner, in whose theater company the five renegades were now playing. The remainder of the Pembroke's Men, certainly reinforced with new actors, toured the provinces from late 1597 to 1599. After two unsuccessful performances in October 1600 at the Rose Theater, however, they disappeared from the records; some of those involved may have stayed with the Worcester's Men . Langley died a year after the end of his theater company, in January 1602.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b E. K. Chambers , The Elizabethan Stage, 4 volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Volume 2, pages 128-134.
- ↑ Andrew Gurr with John Orrell, Rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe, New York, Routledge, 1989; P. 70.
- ^ FE Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; Pages 361-362.