Whitefriars Theatre
Introduction
(Student Project)
One of the lesser known halls or private playhouses of Renaissance
London, the Whitefriars (so-called
because of its location in the Whitefriars
neighbourhood), was home to two different boy playing companies, each of
which operated under several different names. The boy playing companies
often merged and split, formed and reformed for legal and economic
reasons. Run differently from the adult companies, all the boy playing
companies had managers instead of shareholding actors, but the Whitefriars collective was unique even
among the boy companies. Whitefriars
produced many famous boy actors, some of whom later went on to greater
fame in adult companies.
At the Whitefriars playhouse in 1607–1608,
the Children of the King’s Revels catered to a homogenous audience with
a particular taste for homoerotic puns and situations, which resulted in
a small but significant body of plays that are markedly different from
those written for the amphitheatres and even for other hall playhouses.
Ben Jonson’s Epicoene, written for the reopening of the Whitefriars playhouse in December 1609
although not specifically for the Children of the King’s Revels (by then
defunct), displays many of the traits for which the earlier Whitefriars plays were notorious.
Theatre
Michael Drayton and Thomas Woodford brought the Whitefriars theatre into being ca. 1606, converting the
refectory of a former Carmelite monastery into a private playhouse (MacIntyre 3; "Theatre Sites").
A small indoor playhouse, lit artificially by candles, the Whitefriars was 85’ by 35’ (Leech and Craik 112, 123; MacIntyre 3; Gurr 359).
Whitefriars cost more to attend than
public amphitheatre playhouses. Higher prices excluded some potential
playgoers, and for this reason hall playhouses are sometimes known as
"private" playhouses, although they were not private in the sense that
one had to belong to a club to attend; in keeping with the same logic,
amphitheatre playhouses are sometimes known as "public" playhouses. Whitefriars was the first private
playhouse to be built outside the city walls, west of Ludgate between the Fleet River and the Temple
(Leech and Craik 112,
123). The theatre was "a disreputable venture, located in a
notorious brothel district" (Bly
2); we do not know if the theatre acquired its bad reputation
because of its location, or if the location was selected because the
venture was disreputable in itself.
The Whitefriars had a discovery space,
two stage exits on either side, and an above. The above could hold
probably no more than three actors comfortably, and took about a minute
to reach after exiting the stage (MacIntyre 9). The discovery space was much wider than the
exits on either side, and could hold such large properties as a canopied
bed or chairs (9, 13). The
tiring house could be reached through the exits and possibly the
discovery space (21).
After the Children of the Queen’s Revels—also called the second Whitefriars company—left in 1614, the Whitefriars building continued to be used
as a theatre. The Prince Charles’ Men may have used the theatre after
the boy companies left. The theatre was torn down in 1629 and replaced
by the Salisbury Court Theatre ("Whitefriars Theatre"). Unfortunately, the Salisbury Court
Theatre did not survive the Great Fire of 1666, and there is no longer a
theatre at that location. Today, a memorial plaque remains the only
evidence of the site ("Theatre
Sites").
Managers of the Children of the Queen’s Revels
Henry Evans created the Children of the Chapel (later the Children of the
Queen’s Revels). He leased the Blackfriars
playhouse from Richard and Cuthbert Burbage in September 1600. Evans
brought in Nathaniel Giles as a choirmaster, and Giles delivered most of
the boy actors (Gurr 347–48).
Evans also brought in financiers: Edward Kirkham, William Rastall, and
Thomas Kendall. When Queen
Anne became their patron in 1604, she assigned them their own
personal Revels Master, or censor, Samuel Daniel (350). Daniel lost his job in 1606 when he
allowed Philotas to be staged. The company then
came under the control of the Master of the Revels, Sir Edmund Tilney, who already had authority
over all of the adult playing companies (353).
In 1606, the Children of the Queen’s Revels refocused their aim, and no
longer produced sharp political satires as they had before. They
continued doing plays that catered to sophisticated and educated tastes,
like Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning
Pestle. A new financier, Robert Keysar (a former goldsmith),
may have initiated this change. Keysar took a more active role than the
previous financiers (353). In
1608, Evans left the company and it fell mostly into Keysar’s hand. The
company then moved to the Whitefriars
playhouse and merged with the remnants of the Children of the
King’s Revels. Court musician Philip Rosseter joined Keysar in managing
(MacIntyre 1). The
managing team of the merged Whitefriars
and Blackfriars boys also included Robert
Daborne, John Tarbock, Richard Jones, and Robert Brown (Gurr 357). The new management of the Whitefriars company was different than the
management of 1607–1608 when the Children of the King’s Revels played at
Whitefriars, but seems to have been
effective because Whitefriars remained
the venue of boy playing companies until 1613.
The Whitefriars Collective
Playwrights and Finance Management during 1607–1608 for the Children of the King’s Revels.
The theatre company at Whitefriars was
organized in a radically different way from any other Renaissance
theatre company in that it operated as a collective. The structure
of the playing company was not the rigid hierarchy found in many
adult playing companies; rather all of the adults at Whitefriars worked together in many
different areas (Bly 121).
Even the boys, as they began to grow into youths, helped with some
of the management and playwriting.
There are nine known writers for the Children of the King’s Revels.
Only two were professional playwrights: John
Day and Michael Drayton. One, Robert Armin, was an actor.
The other six were amateur playwrights: Lording Barry, Lewis Machin,
Gervase Markham, John Mason, Edward Sharpham, and John Cooke. Barry
and Mason only wrote one play apiece. The other amateur playwrights
often had their very first plays produced at Whitefriars, including Machin,
Markham, and Armin (3,
116–17). Whitefriars plays
were probably written collaboratively for the most part. There are
certain plot devices, shared puns, and phrases of speech that recur
in many of the Children of the King’s Revels (120). Some of the playwrights
functioned as editors for each other’s works, revising plays and
adding their own touches as they went (Cathcart 18).
The playwrights were often financially involved in the Whitefriars company. Barry, Drayton,
and Mason were all shareholders of the company. Many of the
playwrights who were not shareholders were still financially
involved in the theatre, buying properties for their plays and
lending money when needed (Bly
116–17). Since most members of the Whitefriars collective were involved
in more than one capacity, it is not surprising that there is one
significant gap in our knowledge of the Whitefriars management: who chose the plays to be
performed. This decision was possibly made by the group. With
involvement of the playwrights, actors, managers, and financiers of
the Children of the King’s Revels, the collaborative nature of the
Whitefriars Collective was unique
among playing companies and theatres of its time.
Boy Companies at Whitefriars
Company at Whitefriars- 1607 — Children of the King’s Revels (sometimes called the first Children of Whitefriars)
- 1609 — Children of Whitefriars (sometimes called the second Children of Whitefriars)
- 1610 — Children of the Queen’s Revels
- 1613 — Lady Elizabeth’s Men
The Children of the King’s Revels played at the Whitefriars theatre from the spring of 1607 to the spring of
1608 (Bly 126). Some theatre
historians estimate that the Children of the King’s Revels had a
production history of only eight months, while others estimate closer to
twelve months. The Children of the King’s Revels were not actually
licensed by the King to use his name. The Children of the King’s Revels
were alternately known as the Children of Whitefriars, which makes them the first Children of Whitefriars company (2). It is probable that the remnants of the
Children of the King’s Revels joined the Children of the Queen’s
Revels.
Boy companies often changed names and performed at different venues
(including both Whitefriars and Blackfriars). For instance, the Children
of the Chapel Royal in 1600 became the Children of the Queen’s Revels in
1604, when Queen Anne became
their patron (Gurr 350). This
same company was renamed the Children of Blackfriars in 1608, then the Children of Whitefriars in 1609. In 1610, Phillip
Rosseter secured for them the name of the Children of the Queen’s Revels
again (MacIntyre 1). This
company played at the Blackfriars Theatre
from 1600 to 1608. On 11 August 1608, the Burbages reclaimed the Blackfriars lease, and the company
reassembled at Whitefriars in 1609, for
which reason the historians call it the second Whitefriars company (Bly
90, 130). This company merged with an adult playing company
ca. 1613, the Lady Elizabeth’s Men. They moved to the Hope Theatre in
1614 ("Whitefriars
Theatre").
Actors
The boy playing companies produced many renowned actors. As time passed,
the boys began to grow older. Some stayed with their companies and took
on different responsibilities, as assistant managers or playwrights, for
example. Other boy players joined adult companies as they grew up.
Nathan Field began as a boy player with the Children of the King’s Revels
and continued acting with the boy playing companies as they merged and
changed names. Field was still with the Children of the Queen’s Revels
when he was 22 (Gurr 358),
contributing to the company in the capacities of actor and writer. He
wrote two plays, A Woman is a Weathercock in
1609 and Amends for Ladies in 1612. Field
stayed with the Children of the Queen’s Revels when it joined with the
Lady Elizabeth’s Men, and remained with the company during the tenuous
merger with the Prince Charles’ Men. In 1617, Field became a principal
actor for the King’s Men. One of Field’s leading roles was that of
Antonio in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. Field did not write another complete
play, although he did sometimes contribute to other plays, mostly
collaborating with Massinger, Beaumont, and Fletcher (MacIntyre 35).
William Barksted was a boy clown. He played the role of Morose in Epicoene. Barksted grew up with boy companies, and
may have helped to write some of the plays for the second Whitefriars Boys (Bly 121). He was a fine actor who made the
transition into adult playing companies smoothly, joining the Lady
Elizabeth’s men when the Whitefriars
company folded (122).
William Ostler and John Underwood were actors for the Blackfriars boys. When the Blackfriars boys moved to Whitefriars, Ostler and Underwood did not
move with them. Instead, Ostler and Underwood joined the King’s Men and
continued playing at their familiar venue, Blackfriars, in the winter and the
Globe amphitheatre in the summer (Gurr 358).
The Boys and their Plays
Blackfriars Boys’ Plays
The most notorious play of the boy playing companies is probably
Eastward Ho!, which "satirized the
influx of Scotsmen who followed the royal family southwards" in 1605
(Gurr 351). This play
did not please King
James, who ordered the playwrights -- Chapman, Jonson, and
Marston -- imprisoned. This satire was followed by John Day’s The Isle of
Gulls in 1606, which continued to mock the Scottish
nobles, and did not please the King. Also in 1606, Philotas was performed, a play about the 1601 political
scandal known as the Essex rebellion, when some nobility of the
Essex faction tried to stage a coup. Some of the nobility had been
forgiven and had reentered the court; they were not impressed by
this play that hit too close to home. After Philotas, the King took more power over the Blackfriars Boys by putting it under
the jurisdiction of the Revels Master (Gurr 353). The Blackfriars Boys continued to cater to a sophisticated
audience, but no longer had the leeway to perform such pointed
political comedies.
Whitefriars Boys’ Plays
The first Whitefriars Boys, the
Children of the King’s Revels, were known for staging comedies that
pushed the envelope of good taste. The plays were full of homoerotic
puns, and attracted a specific audience. The plays shared not only
linguistic similarities, but also similar character types, such as
the bawdy virgin. These similarities point towards collaborative
playwriting on the part of the Whitefriars collective. Capitalizing
on the all-boy casts, the plays indulge "in two equally untenable
suggestions: either they celebrate wanton, desirous women or they
promote laughing, homoerotic boys" (Bly 14). The patrons were often in the
neighbourhood to go to the nearby brothels. Prostitutes would have
frequented the theatres to meet clients. Early modern homosexuals
(although this word was not coined until 1892) would have gone to
Whitefriars: the homoerotic jokes
were not to condemn them, but, according to Mary Bly, to engage them
(20–21). Children of
the King’s Revels produced only one tragedy that we know of, The Turke by John Mason (61). Although The
Turke offers a change from the normal comedies played at
Whitefriars, it too is rife with
homoeroticism (4).
After the Children of the King’s Revels dissolved, the second Whitefriars Boys company, the Children
of the Queen’s Revels continued the tradition of staging sexually
daring plays. They performed plays like Jonson’s Epicoene, which features a boy player playing a boy who
is pretending to be a woman.
Plays Performed at the Whitefriars
| AUTHOR | PLAY | DATE PERFORMED | COMPANY [1] |
| Anonymous | Every Woman in Her Humour | 1607–1608 | uncertain |
| Armin, Robert | Two Maids of Moreclacke | 1607–1608 | Children of the King’s Revels |
| Barry, Lorden (and John Cooke?) | Ram-Alley or Merrie Tricks | 1607–1608 | Children of the King’s Revels |
| Beaumont, Francis, and John Fletcher | The Coxcomb | ca. 1608–1610 | Children of the Queen’s Revels? |
| Beaumont, Francis, and John Fletcher | Cupid’s Revenge | ca. 1611 | Children of the Queen’s Revels |
| Beaumont, Francis, and John Fletcher | The Scornful Lady | ca. 1613–1616 [2] (printed 1616) | Lady Elizabeth’s Men |
| Chapman, George | The Revenge of Bussy D’Ambois | ca. 1610 | Children of the Queen’s Revels? |
| Day, John | Humour out of Breath | 1608 | Children of the King’s Revels |
| Day, John | Law Tricks or Who Would Have Thought It | 1609 and later [3] | Children of the Queen’s Revels |
| Field, Nathan | A Woman is a Weathercock | ca. 1609 | Children of the Queen’s Revels |
| Field, Nathan | Amends for Ladies | ca. 1611 | Lady Elizabeth’s Men |
| Jonson, Ben | Epicoene | 1609 | Children of the Queen’s Revels |
| Marston, John, William Barkstead, and Lewis Machin | The Insatiate Countess | ca. 1610 | Children of the Queen’s Revels |
| Mason, John | The Turke | 1607–1608 | Children of the King’s Revels |
| Markham, Gervase, and Lewis Machin | The Dumb Knight | 1607–1608 | Children of the King’s Revels |
| Middleton, Thomas and Thomas Dekker (and Lording Barry?) | The Family of Love | 1607? [4] | Children of the King’s Revels |
| Shapman, Edward | Cupid’s Whirligig | 1607 | Children of the King’s Revels |
Epicoene
Epicoene epitomizes the themes and
characteristics of the plays written for the boy companies. The very
title -- a grammatical term for Greek and Latin nouns that "without
changing their grammatical gender, may denote either sex" (
OED
, "epicene" adj 1) --
suggests the androgyny presented on stage when a boy played a woman.
Epicoene has a "fascination with gender, a
category of signification which, through stage conventions of
crossdressing and the deployment of boy actors to play women’s parts was
represented as protean and ambiguous" (Comensoli and Russell 1).
Epicoene is overtly homoerotic: Morose marries
Epicoene, who turns out to be a young boy. Homoerotic relationships seem
to be natural in the world of the play. Clerimont has an "ingle at home"
(1.1.24): a boy kept for
homosexual pleasure (
OED
, "ingle" n 2). It is
possible that Epicoene was Dauphine’s ingle. The wits (Truewit,
Dauphine, and Clerimont), with whom playgoers are invited to identify,
praise these relationships and see them as normal. Truewit lists
Clerimont’s ingle as one of the distracting pleasures of a London life
of leisure. Dauphine benefits from his relationship with Epicoene
economically, and their relationship has a positive outcome whether or
not it is sexual (DiGangi 73).
Stepping back from the world of the play, we can say that all of the
relationships are potentially homoerotic because the supposed women on
stage are, in reality, boys.
Epicoene does not derogate homosexuality;
rather, it is foolishness that is disparaged. Morose, who foolishly
thinks that he can have a wife who will be silent, is humiliated by
being forced to announce his impotence. The gulls in the play, La Foole
and Daw, are also punished for their witlessness and cowardice. Truewit
amuses himself by setting up a duel between La Foole and Daw, to
entertain himself, Clerimont, Dauphine, and the Collegiates. Dauphine
gives Daw’s backside six kicks and tweaks La Foole’s nose. These are
both emasculating gestures, but the real humiliation is having their
swords taken; the sword is almost inevitably a phallic signifier in
Renaissance drama. Morose, La Foole, and Daw are all emasculated by the
loss of their swords. This loss is similar to the "lack" ascribed to all
women on stage: the idea that the "female body is by definition
defective insofar as it is present at all," based on the Galenic
"one-sex" model that defines women as incomplete and imperfect men (Adelman 25). The gulls are
therefore punished for their foolishness by being twinned with the
imperfect bodies of women.
Epicoene was certainly written for the
Whitefriars playhouse. However, Jonson, unlike most playwrights, edited his own plays for
publication in his Works of 1616. Therefore,
the text we have is not a wholly reliable guide to Whitefriars staging practices. In 4.5, the
duel scene, Jonson places all
of the Collegiates in the above with Clerimont. This staging is probably
wishful thinking on Jonson’s
part because the above could realistically hold no more than three
actors. Jonson probably added
the stage direction when he was supervising publication of his play
(MacIntyre 10).
Epicoene is typical of Whitefriars plays because of its homoerotic connotations.
Epicoene displays "one of the inherent
features of the theatrical occasion [, which] is a ritualistic
celebration -- however indirect -- of the spectators themselves" (Shapiro 416). That Jonson was aware of his
audience is evident in his Prologue, which addresses the "men and
daughters of Whitefriars" (Prol. 24). The "men [. . .] of
Whitefriars" probably refers to the
playgoers of 1607–1608, and the "daughters of Whitefriars" to the prostitutes who worked the audience.
Jonson’s Epicoene celebrates Whitefriars’ unique audience with clever
use of boy players and witty language.
References
-
Adelman, Janet.
Making Defect Perfection: Shakespeare and the One-Sex Model.
Enacting Gender on the English Renaissance Stage. Ed. Viviana Comensoli and Anne Russell. Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1999. Print. 23–52. - Bly, Mary. Queer Virgins and Virgin Queans on the Early Modern Stage. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.
-
Cathcart, Charles.
Plural Authorship, Attribution, and The Children of the King’s Revels.
Renaissance Forum 4.2 (2000): 1–36. Web. - Comensoli, Viviana, and Anne Russell. Introduction. Enacting Gender on the English Renaissance Stage. Ed. Viviana Comensoli and Anne Russell. Chicago: U of Illinois Press, 1999. 1–22. Print.
- DiGangi, Mario. The Homoerotics of Early Modern Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. Print.
- Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearian Playing Companies. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.
- Jonson, Ben. Epicene. Ed. Richard Dutton. Revels Plays. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2004. Print.
- Leech, Clifford, and T.W. Craik, eds. The Revels History of Drama in English. Volume 3, 1576–1613. London: Harper and Row, 1975. Print.
-
MacIntyre, Jean.
Production Resources at the Whitefriars Playhouse, 1906–1912.
Early Modern Literary Studies 2.3 (1996): 1–35. Web. - Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Web. Subscr. OED.
-
Shapiro, Michael.
Audience vs. Dramatist in Jonson’s Epicoene and other Plays of the Children’s Troupes.
English Literary Renaissance 3 (1973): 400–17. Print. - Theatre Sites (blurb). London Footprints. 17 March 2003. Web.
- Whitefriars Theatre (subheading of "Shakespeare and The Globe: Then and Now"). Encyclopaedia Britannica. 17 March 2003. Web.
- The Children of the Queen’s Revels referred to here is the amalgamation of the Blackfriars Boys and the Children of the King’s Revels (the first Whitefriars Boys)
- Not certainly performed at Whitefriars
- Written for another theatre and played again at Whitefriars.
- Written for another theatre and played again at Whitefriars.
This project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
