Professional Players in the Guild Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1568–1597

Summary

The following article summarizes professional theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in the years from 1568 to 1597, a period when payments for more than thirty visits to the town by travelling companies are recorded in the Minutes and Accounts of the Corporation of Stratford-Upon-Avon. Stratford was, in the years in question, a fairly average Midlands town with a population of 1500–2000. It may therefore stand for any number of towns visited by travelling companies, an aspect of England’s theatre culture being progressively revealed by volumes in the Records of Early English Drama series. The present discussion is indebted to the generosity of Alan Somerset, editor of the forthcoming Warwickshire volume, who has allowed me to quote from his unpublished work. I am also much indebted to Sally-Beth MacLean, whose remarkable The Queen’s Men and their Plays, written with the late Scott McMillin, has set a scholarly standard for everyone working in the field. Published studies by Andrew Gurr and Siobhan Keenan have made my own immeasurably more modest enquiries possible. Research by Edgar I. Fripp, J. O. Halliwell, Richard Savage, Levi Fox and John Tucker Murray, sometimes neglected by today’s scholars, has been called on, as well as recent historical and sociological studies by Robert Bearman and others. I am grateful to Margaret Shewring for scholarly and practical help.