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The Origin and Personnel of the Pembroke Company

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Karl P. Wentersdorf
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Theatre Research International , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Winter 1979 , pp. 45 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1979

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References

Notes

1. Chambers, E. K., William Shakespeare (Oxford, 1930), I, 49.Google Scholar For the belief in an earlier origin, see Lee, Sidney in Dict. Nat. Biogr., IX, 641Google Scholar; Adams, J. Q., A Life of Wm. Sh. (Boston, 1923), p. 131Google Scholar; Alexander, Peter, Sh.'s ‘Henry VI’ and ‘Richard III’ (Cambridge, 1929), p. 203.Google Scholar

2. Chambers, , WS, I, 237–9;Google ScholarWilson, J. D., Cambridge editions of 2 Henry VI (1952), p. xiii,Google Scholar3 Henry VI (1952, repr. 1965), pp. 119–22, and The Taming of the Shrew (1928, repr. 1962), pp. 113–20; 2 Henry VI, ed. Cairncross, A. S. (London, 1957), pp. xviii–xixGoogle Scholar; Gurr, Andrew, The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642 (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 26–7.Google Scholar

3. See Gaw, Allison, ‘Actors' Names in Basic Shakespearean Texts’, PMLA, 40 (1925), 535–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chambers, , WS, I, 287–9 et passim;Google ScholarMcKerrow, R. B., ‘The Elizabethan Printer and Dramatic Manuscripts’, The Library, 4th series, 12 (1931–1932), 271–5Google Scholar; Greg, W. W., The Editorial Problem in Shakespeare (Oxford, 1942 3rd ed. 1954), pp. 39–40et passimGoogle Scholar, and The Shakespeare First Folio (Oxford, 1951), pp. 113–21 et passimGoogle Scholar; Wilson, J. D., 3 Henry VI (1952), pp. 119–22Google Scholar; Wilson, F. D., Shakespeare and the New Bibliography, rev. and ed. Gardner, Helen (Oxford, 1970), pp. 67–8Google Scholar; Wentersdorf, K. P., ‘Actors' Names in Shakespearean Texts’, Theatre Studies, 23 (1976–1977), 18–30.Google Scholar

4. Although Greg, , Folio, p. 117Google Scholar, n. 2, notes an example of a book-keeper's cancellation of two character-names after he had added two actor-names, the cancellation (it is found in the manuscript of Massinger's Believe As You List, a play of 1631) is evidently anomalous and was most probably accidental. The same book-keeper replaced Massinger's right-margin stage directions by comparable directions in the left margin; frequently, he cancelled the author's right-hand directions, but occasionally he accidentally left them standing. See Greg, W. W., Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (Oxford, 1931, repr. 1969), I, 295–6.Google Scholar

5. ‘Casting for Pembroke's Men: The Henry VI Quartos and The Taming of A Shrew’, SQ, 23 (1972), 156.Google Scholar

6. The Taming of A Shrew, ed. Boas, F. S. (London, 1908), p. xxiv.Google Scholar

7. For a reproduction, transcription, and description of this stage-plot, see Greg, , Documents, I, 18–19, 105–22, and II (plot II).Google Scholar

8. See Chambers, , WS, I, 48–50Google Scholar; Gurr, , Stage, pp. 24–30.Google Scholar

9. Italics are used in the two lists to indicate my expansion of the names to the full or customary forms.

10. This George, the player of a minor role as one of Cade's fellow rebels, is obviously distinct from George Bryan, a sharer and leading actor. For the assumption that George and Bevis in F 2 Henry VI are one and the same person, see Chambers, , WS, I, 288Google Scholar, and Wilson's, ed. of 3 Henry VI, p. 120.Google Scholar

11. See Chambers, , WS, I, 47–52.Google Scholar

12. The stage-plot does not name the actors of Pride and the other Deadly Sins; these are very small parts and would have been played by actors doubling other minor roles.

13. See Bevington, D. M., From ‘Mankind’ to Marlowe (Boston, 1962), pp. 105–6, 202–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ringler, W. A. Jr., ‘The Number of Actors in Shakespeare's Early Plays’, in The Seventeenth-Century Stage, ed. Bentley, G. E. (Chicago, 1968), pp. 113–26.Google Scholar

14. Evidence for the amalgamation is provided by an official travel licence issued 6 May 1593 to ‘Edward Allen, servaunt to the right honorable the Lord Highe Admiral, William Kempe, Thomas Pope, John Heminges, Augustine Phillipes and Georg Brian, being al one companie, servauntes to our verie good Lord the Lord Strainge’. Correspondence relating to the subsequent provincial tour by this group shows that it included Richard Cowley and ‘Mr Douton’ (probably Thomas Downton, who, with Edward Alleyn, was an Admiral's man).

15. Cf. the modern phrase Tom, Dick, and Harry; the earliest occurrence of this phrase noted by OED is dated 1815.

16. A check of the roster of just over 400 actors compiled by Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford, 1923), IIGoogle Scholar, chapt. xv, reveals the highest frequency for the following baptismal names: John or Jack, 93; William or Will, 57; Thomas or Tom, 44; Richard or Dick, 39; Robert or Robin, 37; Edward or Ned, 16.

17. Greg, , Documents, I, 123, and II (plot III).Google Scholar

18. Gurr, , Stage, p. 29.Google Scholar

19. Chambers, , ES, II, 307.Google Scholar

20. McMillin, Scott, ‘The Plots of The Dead Man's Fortune and 2 Seven Deadly Sins: Inferences for Theatre Historians’, SB, 26 (1973), 240–3.Google Scholar

21. Documents, I, 44.

22. Chambers, , ES, II, 308.Google Scholar

23. See Wilson's, ed. of 2 Henry VI, p. xiiiGoogle Scholar; Gurr, , Stage, p. 29.Google Scholar

24. Hart, Alfred, Stolne and Surreptitious Copies: A Comparative Study of Shakespeare's Bad Quartos (Melbourne, 1942), pp. 352–402.Google Scholar The occasional errors that have been noted among Hart's materials are not such as to invalidate his general conclusions.

25. Cairncross, A. S., ‘Pembroke's Men and Some Shakespearian Piracies’, SQ, 11 (1960), 335–49.Google Scholar

26. Henslowe's Diary, ed. Foakes, R. A. and Rickert, R. T. (Cambridge, 1961), p. 280.Google Scholar

27. For the original formulation of this theory, see my paper ‘Shakespeares erste Truppe’, Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, 84–6 (1948–1950), 114–30.Google Scholar

28. The records of these and other performances referred to below are printed by Chambers, , ES, IV, 159–64.Google Scholar

29. Wentersdorf, , ‘Truppe’, pp. 122–3.Google Scholar

30. Alexander, Peter, Shakespeare's Life and Art (London, 1939, repr. 1961), p. 56.Google Scholar

31. For example: Wadsworth, Frank W., ‘Shakespeare's Life’, in William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, ed. Harbage, Alfred (Baltimore, rev. ed. 1969), pp. 13–14Google Scholar; Barnet, Sylvan, ‘Shakespeare's Life’, The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare (New York, 1972), p. 2Google Scholar; Levin, Harry, ‘General Introduction’, in The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. Evans, G. Blakemore (Boston, 1974), p. 4.Google Scholar In the ‘Introduction’ (1969) to The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. Ribner, Irving and Kittredge, George L. (Waltham, 1971), p. 17Google Scholar, Ribner mentions the possibility that Shakespeare was a member of the Pembroke company, adding that it ‘disbanded upon its return to London in 1594 [sic]’.

32. Rowse, A. L., William Shakespeare: A Biography (New York, 1963), p. 100CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Shakespeare, The Man (London, 1973), pp. 52, 128–9.Google Scholar

33. Halliday, F. E., The Life of Shakespeare (London, 1961, rev. 1964), pp. 80–7Google Scholar; Quennell, Peter, William Shakespeare: A Biography (New York, 1963), p. 188Google Scholar; Burgess, Anthony, Shakespeare (London, 1970), p. 98Google Scholar; Schoenbaum, S., ‘The Life of Shakespeare’, in A New Companion to Shakespeare Studies, ed. Muir, Kenneth and Schoenbaum, S. (Cambridge, 1971), p. 5.Google Scholar

34. Gurr, , Stage, pp. 24–7.Google Scholar

35. See the court records (Chamber and Revels Accounts) printed by Chambers, , ES, IV, 160–4.Google Scholar

36. ‘The Queen's Men, 1583–92’, Theatre Survey, 11–12 (1970–1971), 58–61.Google Scholar

37. ‘Shakespeare, Her Majesty's Players, and Pembroke's Men’, Shakespeare Survey 27 (Cambridge, 1974), pp. 129–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38. ibid., p. 134, n. 3.

39. Chambers, , ES, II, 131, and WS, I, 50.Google Scholar

40. Law, R. A., ‘Richard III, Act I, Scene 4’, PMLA, 27 (1912), 117–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wentersdorf, , ‘Truppe’, pp. 127–9Google Scholar; Pinciss, , ‘Pembroke's Men’, pp. 130–3.Google Scholar

41. Schoenbaum, S., William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life (New York, 1975), pp. 125–6.Google Scholar

42. Edmond, Mary, ‘Pembroke's Men’, RES, n.s. 25 (1974), 129–36.Google Scholar

43. For records of private performances by Shakespeare's company for Sir Edward Hoby in Westminster (Dec. 1595), Lord Hunsdon in Blackfriars (Mar. 1600), and the Earl of Southampton in London (Jan. 1605), see Chambers, , WS, II, 320, 322, 332.Google Scholar

44. Greg, , Documents, I, 50.Google Scholar

45. Foakes, , Diary, pp. 7, 9.Google Scholar Greg has plausibly argued, and Chambers concurs (ES, II, 114), that the date of the first entry, 1593, is an error on Henslowe's part for 1594.

46. Chambers, , ES, II, 299, 347.Google Scholar

47. ibid., IV, 296. My identification of Johnson has been anticipated by Scott McMillin in his note ‘Simon Jewell and the Queen's Men’, RES, n.s. 27 (1976), 174–7.Google Scholar

48. ibid., II, 107, 324.

49. At least one of the ‘bad’ Pembroke texts was reconstructed before 1593–4 (the Q of Arden of Faversham was registered for printing in April 1592); its origin must be ascribed to some of the Queen's actors during the disintegration of the once powerful company in 1590–2.

50. See my paper, ‘Richard III (Q1) and the Pembroke “Bad” Quartos’, ELN, 14 (1977).Google Scholar

51. Chambers, , ES, II, 131–2Google Scholar; Foakes, , Diary, pp. xxxvi–xl, 239–41.Google Scholar

52. Foakes, , Diary: the two Jeffes, pp. 68–71, 84Google Scholar; Bradshawe, pp. 83, 100, 165; Felle, p. 83; Parr, p. 332. The word man often appears in Elizabethan records to designate both ‘servant’ and ‘player’.

53. Chambers, , ES, II, 346–7.Google Scholar

54. ibid., II, 133.