The Cockpit or Phoenix Playhouse
Location
The Cockpit, also known as the Phoenix, was an indoor commercial playhouse planned and built by the theatre entrepreneur
and actor Christopher Beeston. The title pages of plays performed at the Cockpit usually refer to its location
in Drury Lane,but G. E. Bentley offers a more precise description:
Beeston’s property lay between Drury Lane and Great Wild Street, north-west of Princes’ Street in the parish of St Giles in the Fields(Bentley vi 49). Herbert Berry adds that the playhouse was
three-eights of a mile west of the western boundary of the City of London at Temple Bar(Berry 624), and Frances Teague notes that it was
on the east side of Drury Laneand that
[t]he site was long preserved by the name of Cockpit Alley, afterwards Pitt Court(Teague 243). Bentley notes that the playhouse was nearer to Whitehall and St. James’s Palace than any other London playhouse, and was within walking distance of the Inns of Court (vi 49). He also observes that, like the Blackfriars and the Globe, the Cockpit was not far from brothels. Indoor playhouses, which were more expensive than their suburban amphitheatre equivalents, apparently benefited from the patronage of many lawyers, making the location suitable for the Cockpit. However, the Inns of Court initially provided an obstacle for Beeston when, in October 1616, the benchers of Lincoln’s Inn raised objections over the planned proximity of the theatre to their property (Berry 627). Ultimately, Beeston succeeded in opening his theatre and members of the Inns of Court are likely to have made up a sizeable part of the audience.
Construction
In 1616, Beeston, at the time a player with Queen Anne’s Men at the Red Bull, took a sublease on a property owned by John Best, a Grocer. That property consisted of several buildings, one of which was used for cock-fighting.
Beeston converted the cockpit into a playhouse, a process that was repeated in the next decade
when a cockpit at Whitehall was converted into a playhouse for use at court (known as the Cockpit-in-Court). Although the construction of new structures within the city was prohibited at this
time, renovation was permissible. Nonetheless, Beeston came into some difficulties: in September 1616, his bricklayer, John Shepherd, was jailed for working on a new foundation, and later that month Beeston was found to have
made a tenement ...distant from his howserather than making
an addition to his owne dwelling howse(Bentley ii 365-6). Despite this, and despite the aforementioned objections of Lincoln’s Inn benchers, the Cockpit was opened in late winter 1616.
Appearance
There are few facts available to reveal what the playhouse may have looked like at
any stage of its development, but there are a number of illustrations that some scholars
have conjectured are representations of the Cockpit. One such illustration is taken from the Great Map (c.1658) by Wenceslas Hollar (Plate 3, p. 3). Berry observes that
[t]he building is in the right place, and the buildings and grounds around it match those mentioned in a series of deeds and in a lawsuit of 1647 partly about the playhouse(624). If Berry is correct that the map depicts the Phoenix, then it seems that the theatre was a square building with three pitched roofs. Other illustrations have come under sustained scrutiny. John Orrell suggested that drawings now housed at Worcester College, Oxford, represent plans for Beeston’s theatre, attributing the designs to Inigo Jones and dating them to 1616 (Orrell 39-77). However, this idea is largely discounted by scholars. Teague concludes:
the drawings, splendid as they are, probably tell us nothing about the appearance of the Phoenix(244).
Companies
Initially, the Queen Anne’s Men played at the Cockpit, moving from the Red Bull Playhouse. The company lost its royal patronage in 1619 when the Queen died, so Beeston replaced them with Prince Charles’s Men who performed there until 1622, whereupon they returned to the Curtain. They were succeeded by the Lady Elizabeth’s Men, a company that ostensibly differed from an older troupe of the same name, famous
for provincial touring. This company was prosperous but its success was apparently
curtailed by the plague of 1625, which forced the theatres to close. When they reopened, after eight months, much
had changed: Charles had succeeded James, and the theatrical world looked very different. Beeston sought to reorganize his business by bringing in a newly formed company under the
patronage of the new Queen. The Queen Henrietta’s Men stayed at the Cockpit until 1637, far longer than any other company. Eventually, they disbanded and re-formed at a
rival theatre, Salisbury Court, but Beeston quickly formed a new troupe to take their place. This company is usually known as
Beeston’s Boys and was comprised mostly of youths supplemented by adult actors. The company continued
after Beeston’s death in 1638, until 1642, when Parliament closed all of the theatres.
Theatre History
1616 Shrove Tuesday Riots
The Cockpit suffered a considerable setback shortly after opening. On Shrove Tuesday, 4 March 1616,1 apprentices rioted and did extensive damage to the theatre (Berry 628-29). The rioting is often understood to have been motivated by theatrical concerns.
Beeston had taken his company, the Queen Anne’s Men, from the Red Bull Playhouse to the newly built Cockpit. It has been argued that the Red Bull patrons were angered by the company (and its repertory of plays) moving away from
their neighbourhood to a more expensive and exclusive venue. Mark Bayer has suggested
that the Clerkenwell community were loyal to the Red Bull and felt out of place in other social contexts (Theatre, Community 178). Furthermore, Beeston, who was suspected of unscrupulous financial and legal dealings regarding the Red Bull lease, began to fall out of favour with the local community and was even personally
attacked (Theatre, Community 205). Eleanor Collins, however, has questioned the idea that the riots were related to
the repertory. She observes that Shrove Tuesday was accumulating a general reputation
for riots, that rioting seems unlikely to have been limited to apprentices (as theatre
historians have assumed), that other buildings were also damaged, and that disturbances
were not limited to Drury Lane (132-40). Whether directly related to the theatre or not, the riots did not ultimately prevent
the playhouse from becoming successful. When it reopened three months later, it acquired
the additional name of the Phoenix, since it had risen from the ashes of the old theatre.2
Questions of Theatrical Taste
The transfer of the Red Bull repertory to the more expensive Cockpit playhouse raises important questions about theatrical tastes. The Red Bull had a reputation for drama that attended to citizen concerns and made extensive use
of elaborate special effects. Sometimes these plays and the playhouse audience were
denigrated as unsophisticated. The Cockpit proprietors, by contrast, were keen to establish their playhouse as urbane and elite.
Collins suggests that the transfer of bombastic plays such as Thomas Heywood’s The Rape of Lucrece from the Red Bull should alert us to continuities between ostensibly disparate playing spaces and audiences
(143). Perhaps distinctions between indoor and outdoor playhouses were less extreme than
is usually imagined. Bayer takes the argument in a different direction: he acknowledges
that the same plays were performed, apparently successfully, at both venues, but suggests
that they appealed to stratified audiences in different ways. For example, he argues
that Thomas Dekker’s Match Me in London, first performed at the Red Bull, may have appeared to its original audience as an ultimately uplifting tale of working-class
heroism, whereas a Cockpit audience may have been more inclined to have been amused at the sentimentality of
the ending (
The Curious Case67). On the other hand, Bayer claims that Philip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts was successful at both venues because it encouraged disparate audiences to unite in condemnation of the usurer Sir Giles Overreach (Theatre, Community 195). Some evidence does support the notions that the Cockpit audience may have mocked the Red Bull and that sharp distinctions between audience responses at the two theatres existed. John Webster’s The White Devil, which was first performed at the Red Bull evidently to no great applause, was printed in 1612 with a preface that described the auditors as
ignorant asses(sig. A2r). The play was later revived at the Phoenix to a seemingly more appreciative and sophisticated audience. Similarly, Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a play that pokes fun at the citizen values of typical Red Bull fare, was a theatrical failure at the Blackfriars, where it was first performed by the Children of the Queen’s Revels. When it was printed, the audience was said to have failed to understand the play’s
priuy marke of Ironie(sig. A2r). In the 1630s, however, it was revived, apparently successfully, at the Phoenix, which is perhaps an indication of this playhouse’s attempt to configure itself as sophisticated and elite, while distancing itself from the Red Bull.
It would be a mistake, however, to push this argument too far. Although the Red Bull and the Cockpit were rival venues and did not operate in partnership like the Blackfriars and Globe playhouses after 1609 when the King’s Men occupied the former, the crossover between the two theatres is striking (Collins 144). Perhaps the Phoenix audience enjoyed Beaumont’s jokes about the Red Bull, but, unlike the Blackfriars’s regulars, they also frequently watched Red Bull staples. In addition to the plays already listed, for example, A Fair Quarrel by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley was initially played at the Red Bull and revived at the Phoenix. Also, Thomas Heywood, the playwright most commonly associated with the Red Bull, had several of his plays performed at the Cockpit, including his two-part history, If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody (Gurr, Shakespearean Stage 292). Indeed, the Phoenix also housed plays generally associated with the Fortune, another outdoor theatre that, like the Red Bull, had a reputation as a plebeian playhouse. Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan classic, The Jew of Malta, first performed at the Rose, but also popular at the Fortune, was revived at the Cockpit in the early 1630s. Henry Chettle’s bloody revenge play The Tragedy of Hoffman, a hit in late-Elizabethan London at the Fortune, was revived in the Caroline period at the Phoenix. The Honest Whore plays, the first written by Middleton and Dekker, and the second by Dekker alone, were initially played at the Fortune in the early Jacobean period, but later revived at the Cockpit around 1635 (Gurr, Shakespearean Stage 292).
Elizabethan Nostalgia
These performances were part of a wider project of Elizabethan revival. Martin Butler
observes that the Phoenix
kept a high proportion of old plays in its repertoire in the 1630s(183). Indeed, the drama of Caroline England was broadly nostalgic in nature, often alluding to, or drawing upon, the established classics of the earlier theatre. John Ford, one of the most successful playwrights of the period, wrote a number of plays for the Cockpit that reimagined earlier plays in exciting new ways. ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1631), now firmly recognized as one of the richest jewels of Renaissance drama, reworked Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by placing incestuous love at its centre. Perkin Warbeck (1633) gestured back towards the Elizabethan history play, but imparted its own brilliant spin on the genre. On the one hand, then, the playhouse seemed unusually prepared to revisit and celebrate older, seemingly outdated plays, including the Elizabethan Robin Hood play, George a Greene. On the other, it appeared at the forefront of dramatic invention by employing bright new talent. Ultimately, the Cockpit developed a prestigious reputation and became the principal rival of the Blackfriars, the major playhouse of the time. Although nostalgic revival was part of its appeal, the Phoenix also successfully marketed itself as an exclusive, courtly, avant-garde theatre. Ford was only one of a number of highly regarded playwrights who helped forge this reputation. Middleton and Rowley’s masterpiece, The Changeling (1622) premiered at the Phoenix. Massinger, who later went on to become the lead dramatist with the King’s Men, wrote several plays for the Cockpit, including The Renegado (1623) and The Bondman (>1623). Finally, Ben Jonson, at one time a Blackfriars regular, wrote his last fully completed play, A Tale of a Tub (1633), for the Phoenix.
Royal Connections
The Phoenix enjoyed particular success when Queen Henrietta’s Men became the resident company in the mid-1620s. Queen Henrietta Maria was an avid theatre lover and a regular performer in court masques, so it is perhaps
little surprise that her company received so many court performances. As Gurr notes,
by 1629 and 1630, they were playing at court almost as regularly as the King’s Men (Gurr, Shakespearian 418). During this time, they continued to perform Elizabethan hits, but they also produced
a series of plays on courtly themes. The Queen had a strong interest in Arcadianism, as demonstrated by Walter Montague’s masque The Shepherd’s Paradise, which was performed as part of the Christmas revels at Somerset House in 1633. This led the commercial company she patronized to commission similarly themed
plays for performance at the Phoenix and at court. Thomas Heywood’s Love’s Mistress (1634), which was subtitled The Queen’s Masque, was performed at the Cockpit, and also three times before the King and Queen at court. Joseph Rutter’s The Shepherd’s Holiday (1633) was likewise played at Whitehall as well as at the Phoenix. In staging these plays, the Cockpit was competing with the Blackfriars, where The King’s Men revived John Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess for a Somerset House performance in 1634. Both theatres were offering their audiences a taste of a supposedly
exclusive court culture. These court connections could in turn prove lucrative to
a playwright wishing for social and professional advancement. Although several of
Heywood’s Red Bull plays were performed at the Cockpit and he also wrote The Captives (1623), The English Traveller (1624), and A Maidenhead Well Lost (1633) for the playhouse, Love’s Mistress represented his attempt at a more upmarket form of drama. Heywood would not have had this opportunity had he not been working for Queen Henrietta’s Men at the Cockpit. The case of James Shirley, effectively employed as the company’s resident writer, is also illustrative of the
Phoenix’s reputation. Shirley was commissioned to write The Triumph of Peace, a masque that was performed at the Inns of Court before the King and Queen, and he was later admitted membership of Gray’s Inn as a Valet of the Chamber of Queen Henrietta Maria in January 1634. Ultimately, he did not go on to become poet laureate, as he had hoped, but his writing
for the Cockpit unquestionably afforded him a prominent position within Caroline literary culture.
Reputation
The Phoenix, then, developed a prestigious reputation and became the principal rival of the Blackfriars. Indeed, in the 1630s, the Phoenix appeared on title pages even more frequently than the Blackfriars did. The growing status of the Phoenix apparently motivated its rivals to express criticism. The fact that the playhouse
shared plays, players, and playwrights with the Red Bull gave ammunition to its critics. Thus, the Cockpit was regularly denigrated as an unsophisticated theatre with a plebeian clientele.
In the early 1630s, William Davenant, a frequent contributor to the Blackfriars repertory, became involved in the promulgation of anti-Cockpit sentiment. His play, The Just Italian, which was printed in 1630, contained a dedicatory poem written by Thomas Carew that criticised the
adulterate stage(sig. A4v) of the Cockpit and the Red Bull. Davenant was responding to the fact that his own play had been poorly received at the Blackfriars, while Shirley’s The Grateful Servant was popular at the Cockpit. Similar propaganda configured the Phoenix audience as a rabble, and the Blackfriars playwrights as guardians of literary taste, wit, and judgement. Massinger, by now the principal dramatist of the King’s Men, evidently retained affection for the Cockpit (where some of his plays were still performed), and responded to the attacks by mocking the proclivities of the critics. Shirley, as the main focus of criticism, also replied aggressively. The war of words did not seem to deter theatre goers. The rivalry might even have enhanced interest in the theatre, as the 1630s were profitable years.
Beeston’s Boys
Queen Henrietta’s Men eventually disbanded and reformed at another rival playhouse, Salisbury Court, but Beeston quickly assembled a new company to fill their place. Beeston’s Boys, as the company became known, reprised the tradition of boy players that had emerged
in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Their repertory is unusually well documented because
of an order issued by the Lord Chamberlain on 10 August 1639 that listed 45 plays in Beeston’s possession (Gurr, Shakespearian 424-25; see EMLoT Record 1573). The edict reveals that some plays, like Beaumont and Fletcher’s Cupid’s Revenge and Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle, that had been written for the boy companies decades earlier, were performed by Beeston’s Boys. Cockpit classics like The Changeling and ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore also remained in the repertory, along with Shirley staples like The Traitor, The Coronation, and The Example. Other established hits performed by the boys included The Renegado, which had previously been performed at the Phoenix by both the Lady Elizabeth’s Men and Queen Henrietta’s Men. Plays like A New Way to Pay Old Debts and The Rape of Lucrece, that were associated with both the Cockpit and the Red Bull, were also performed. Among the texts listed by the Lord Chamberlain, the one known
only as The World is perhaps the most interesting. This may be a lost play (indeed, it is listed as
such on the Lost Plays Database) but it could refer to The World Tossed at Tennis, a masque, written by Middleton and Rowley and performed at an outdoor theatre, the Swan, in 1620. The masque, which alluded to contemporary political events, is highly unusual in
being performed outside of a court setting. It is fascinating to think that it may
have been revived, again, outside of the court, almost twenty years after it was written.
The Later Years
Christopher Beeston died in 1638 and, though this ended a distinguished career in the London theatre industry, his
company continued to perform at the Phoenix. Initially, it was led by his son, William, who inherited the business, but he soon ran into difficulties. William was imprisoned in 1640 when Beeston’s Boys staged a Richard Brome play (perhaps The Court Beggar, which satirized Davenant and other courtier poets) without a license from Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels. Ironically, Davenant, once a vocal critic of the playhouse, took on the management of Beeston’s Boys once William was imprisoned. Davenant, who had been appointed poet laureate (at Shirley’s expense) was a high profile literary figure and would, in time, become a successful
theatre proprietor, but his first stint as company manager did not last long. In 1641, he too was imprisoned, having become involved in the Army Plot (Gurr, Shakespearian 157). William Beeston, now out of Marshalsea prison, regained control of the company, and they continued to perform at the Cockpit until 1642 when all the theatres were officially closed.
Even during the years of theatre closure, the Phoenix was, illicitly, in use. Indeed, the playhouse was raided and damaged by the authorities
on more than one occasion in an attempt to stop illegal performances (Gurr and Orrell 146). In a text printed in 1699, James Wright recalls how, after the Civil Wars, but before the theatres were reopened, some actors
banded together surreptitiously to perform Fletcher, Massinger, and Field’s Rollo, Duke of Normandy, or The Bloody Brother at the Cockpit (sig. B4v-C1r). Operas, however, were apparently legal: in 1658 Davenant staged a revival of his The Siege of Rhodes (1656) at the theatre, and this was followed by The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (1658) and Sir Francis Drake (1658-9). In 1660, the Phoenix officially reopened to stage plays. In October of that year, Samuel Pepys saw revivals of Shakespeare’s Othello (
The Moore of Venice), John Fletcher’s Wit Without Money and The Tamer Tamed (Teague 259; see The Diary of Samuel Pepys 11 October 1660, 16 October 1660, and 30 October 1660). However, the Phoenix, the first theatre built in London’s West End, was ultimately unable to compete with the newer, nearby Drury Lane Theatre that opened in 1663, and it soon closed.
Repertory
Performance Dates3 | Title | Author | Production Date4 | Source |
1623, 1639 | The Bondman (The Noble Bondman) | Philip Massinger | 1624 | DEEP 718 |
1626, 1639 | The Wedding | James Shirley | 1629 | DEEP 742 |
1629, 1639 | The Grateful Servant (The Faithful Servant) | James Shirley | 1630 | DEEP 750 |
1624, 1630, and 1639 | The Renegado, or The Gentleman of Venice | Philip Massinger | 1630 | DEEP 752 |
1612, 1630 | The White Devil (Vittoria Corombona) | John Webster | 1631 | DEEP 584 |
1630 | Hoffman, or A Revenge for a Father | Henry Chettle | 1631 | DEEP 761 |
16215 | Match Me in London | Thomas Dekker | 1631 | DEEP 764 |
1625, 1631, and 1639 | The School of Compliment (Love Tricks) | James Shirley | 1631 | DEEP 765 |
1632, 1639 | The Maid of Honor | Philip Massinger | 1632 | DEEP 805 |
1639 | All’s Lost by Lust | William Rowley | 1633 | DEEP 807 |
1625, 1633, and 1639 | A New Way to Pay Old Debts | Philip Massinger | 1633 | DEEP 811 |
1632 | The Jew of Malta | Christopher Marlowe | 1633 | DEEP 812 |
1628 | The Witty Fair One | James Shirley | 1633 | DEEP 814 |
1631, 1639 | Love’s Sacrifice | John Ford | 1633 | DEEP 815 |
1633 | The Bird in a Cage (The Beauties) | James Shirley | 1633 | DEEP 816 |
1627 | The English Traveller | Thomas Heywood | 1633 | DEEP 821 |
1630, 1639 | ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore | John Ford | 1633 | DEEP 823 |
1632 | Perkin Warbeck | John Ford | 1634 | DEEP 833 |
1625-1634 | A Maidenhead Well Lost | Thomas Heywood | 1634 | DEEP 836 |
16356 | The Knight of the Burning Pestle | Francis Beaumont | 1635 | DEEP 605 |
1634 | Love’s Mistress, or The Queen’s Masque (Cupid and Psyche, or Cupid’s Mistress) | Thomas Heywood | 1636 | DEEP 849 |
1627, 1639 | The Great Duke of Florence | Philip Massinger | 1636 | DEEP 853 |
1635 | Hannibal and Scipio | Thomas Nabbes | 1637 | DEEP 863 |
1632 | Hyde Park | James Shirley | 1637 | DEEP 870 |
1635, 1639 | The Lady of Pleasure | James Shirley | 1637 | DEEP 871 |
1633, 1639 | The Young Admiral | James Shirley | 1637 | DEEP 872 |
1634, 1639 | The Example | James Shirley | 1637 | DEEP 874 |
1633 | The Gamester | James Shirley | 1637 | DEEP 876 |
1637 | 1 The Cid (The Valiant Cid) | Joseph Rutter | 1637 | DEEP 878 |
1623, 1639 | The Bondman (The Noble Bondman) | Philip Massinger | 1638 | DEEP 719 |
16357 | The Fancies Chaste and Noble | John Ford | 1638 | DEEP 883 |
1627-1635 | The Martyred Soldier | Henry Shirley | 1638 | DEEP 884 |
1636 | The Duke’s Mistress | James Shirley | 1638 | DEEP 890 |
16358 | The Seven Champions of Christendom | John Kirke | 1638 | DEEP 909 |
1632 | The Ball | James Shirley | 1639 | DEEP 911 |
1635 | Chabot, Admiral of France | George Chapman, James Shirley | 1639 | DEEP 912 |
1638 | The Lady’s Trial | John Ford | 1639 | DEEP 918 |
1637-1638 | Argalus and Parthenia | Henry Glapthorne | 1639 | DEEP 920 |
1626, 1639 | The Maid’s Revenge | James Shirley | 1639 | DEEP 930 |
1614 | Wit without Money | John Fletcher | 1639 | DEEP 932 |
1635 | The Coronation | James Shirley | 1640 | DEEP 945 |
1631, 1639 | Love’s Cruelty | James Shirley | 1640 | DEEP 946 |
16339 | The Night Walker, or The Little Thief | James Shirley, John Fletcher | 1640 | DEEP 947 |
1634 | The Opportunity | James Shirley | 1640 | DEEP 948 |
1638 | The Bride | Thomas Nabbes | 1640 | DEEP 951 |
1631 | The Humorous Courtier (The Duke) | James Shirley | 1640 | DEEP 952 |
164010 | The Arcadia | James Shirley | 1640 | DEEP 966 |
1637-1640 | The Ladies’ Privilege (The Lady’s Privilege) | Henry Glapthorne | 1640 | DEEP 976 |
163611 | Wit in a Constable | Henry Glapthorne | 1640 | DEEP 977 |
1636 | The Hollander | Henry Glapthorne | 1640 | DEEP 980 |
1632-1635 | The Prisoners | Thomas Killigrew | 1640 | DEEP 5108.01 |
1634-1636 | The Antiquary | Shackerley Marmion | 1641 | DEEP 987 |
1635-1636 | Claracilla (Claricilla) | Thomas Killigrew | 1641 | DEEP 5108.02 |
1641 | A Jovial Crew, or The Merry Beggars | Richard Brome | 1652 | DEEP 1062 |
1622, 1639 | The Changeling | Thomas Middleton, William Rowley | 1653 | DEEP 1068 |
1623, 1639 | The Spanish Gypsy | Thomas Dekker, John Ford, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley | 1653 | DEEP 1077 |
1639-1640 | The Court Beggar | Richard Brome | 1653 | DEEP 5153.03 |
1638 | The Cunning Lovers | Alexander Brome12 | 1654 | DEEP 1098 |
1615-161713 | The Poor Man’s Comfort | Robert Daborne | 1655 | DEEP 1104 |
1628-163414 | King John and Matilda | Robert Davenport | 1655 | DEEP 1113 |
1638-163915 | The Sun’s Darling | Thomas Dekker, John Ford | 1656 | DEEP 1125 |
1621 | The Witch of Edmonton | Thomas Dekker, William Rowley, John Ford | 1658 | DEEP 1151 |
165816 | The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru | William Davenant | 1658 | DEEP 1154 |
165617 | 1 The Siege of Rhodes | William Davenant | 1659 | DEEP 1121 |
1658-165918 | 1 Sir Francis Drake | William Davenant | 1659 | DEEP 1170 |
Additional Notes by MoEML Team
See also the description of the Cockpit/Phoenix and interactive walking map at Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT). See the Venue Record at Early Modern London Theatres (EMLoT), which includes a list of variant names as they appear in the sources and links
to primary and secondary records in their database.
Notes
- We see different dates for this event in secondary sources, depending on how the source treats historical dates. MoEML retains the Julian calendar in use in early modern England, which means that we locate this event in late 1616; see our rationale for doing so in our project. Other sources will correct the date to 1617, as it would have been had the New Year begun on 1 January. (JJ)↑
- EMLoT lists all the primary sources documenting this event. See in particular their record of Privy Council’s letter of 5 March 1616 to Lord Mayor George Bolles. (JJ)↑
- Unless specified, performance dates are taken from Gurr. According to Gurr,
the dates given for many plays are conjectural.
(JT)↑ - Production dates taken from DEEP. (JT)↑
- This date of performance comes from DEEP. Gurr gives the performance date as
1621?
and the performance location as the Red Bull. According to the title page of the 1631 printing, the playhath beene often Presented; First, at the Bull in St. IOHNS-street; And lately, at the Priuate-House in DRVRY-Lane, called the PHŒNIX
; DEEP claims that the play wasre-licensed for stage, Aug 21, 1623.
(JT)↑ - This date of performance comes from conjectural information from DEEP. For more information about Beaumont’s play, see the section on Questions of Theatrical Taste. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
[R]evised 1639
(Gurr 298). (JT)↑- DEEP lists the author with a
(?).
(JT)↑ - Performance date from DEEP. (JT)↑
- Perhaps also performed in 1640, according to Gurr. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
- Performance date from DEEP; it is not listed in Gurr. (JT)↑
References
-
Citation
Bayer, Mark. Theatre, Community, and Civic Engagement in Jacobean London. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2011.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Bayer, Mark.The Curious Case of the Two Audiences: Thomas Dekker’s Match Me in London.
Imagining the Audience in Early Modern Drama, 1558-1642. Ed. Jennifer A. Low and Nova Myhill. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 55-70.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Bentley, G.E. The Jacobean and Caroline Stage. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Berry, Herbert.The Phoenix.
English Professional Theatre, 1530-1660. Ed. Glynne Wickham, Herbert Berry, and William Ingram. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. 623-37.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Butler, Martin. Theatre and Crisis 1632-1642. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Collins, Eleanor.Repertory and Riot.
Early Theatre 13 (2010): 132-49.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks. Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Open.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Egan, Gabriel, ed. Shakespearean London Theatres. De Montfort University and Victoria & Albert Museum. Open.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Gurr, Andrew with John Orrell. Rebuilding Shakespeare’s Globe. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearian Playing Companies. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642. 4th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Hollar, Wenceslaus.Plate 3: Extract from map by Hollar, c.1658.
St. Giles-in-the-Fields, pt 1: Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Ed. W. Edward Riley and Sir Laurence Gomme. Survey of London. Vol. 3, London: London County Council, 1912. 3. Reprint. British History Online. Open.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
MacLean, Sally-Beth, ed. Early Modern London Theatres. U of Toronto, King’s College of London, and U of Southampton. Open.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Orrell, John. The Theatres of Inigo Jones and John Webb. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Daily Entries from the 17th Century London Diary. Dev. Phil Gyford. Open.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Teague, Frances.The Phoenix and the Cockpit-in-Court Playhouses.
The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theatre. Ed. Richard Dutton. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. 240-59.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Wright, James Historia Histrionica an Historical Account of the English Stage. London. 1699. W3695. Reprint. Early English Books Online. Web.This item is cited in the following documents:
Cite this page
MLA citation
The Cockpit.The Map of Early Modern London, edited by , U of Victoria, 20 Jun. 2018, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/COCK5.htm.
Chicago citation
The Cockpit.The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 20, 2018. http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/COCK5.htm.
APA citation
The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/COCK5.htm.
2018. The Cockpit. In (Ed), RIS file (for RefMan, EndNote etc.)
Provider: University of Victoria Database: The Map of Early Modern London Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8" TY - ELEC A1 - Price, Eoin ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - The Cockpit T2 - The Map of Early Modern London PY - 2018 DA - 2018/06/20 CY - Victoria PB - University of Victoria LA - English UR - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/COCK5.htm UR - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/COCK5.xml ER -
RefWorks
RT Web Page SR Electronic(1) A1 Price, Eoin A6 Jenstad, Janelle T1 The Cockpit T2 The Map of Early Modern London WP 2018 FD 2018/06/20 RD 2018/06/20 PP Victoria PB University of Victoria LA English OL English LK http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/COCK5.htm
TEI citation
<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#PRIC1"><surname>Price</surname>, <forename>Eoin</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">The Cockpit</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2018-06-20">20 Jun. 2018</date>, <ref target="http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/COCK5.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/COCK5.htm</ref>.</bibl>Personography
-
Mark Bayer
MB
Mark Bayer is an associate professor and chair of the Department of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is the author of Theatre, Community, and Civic Engagement in Jacobean England (University of Iowa Press, 2011). Mr.Bayer has also written numerous articles and book chapters on early modern literature and culture, as well as the reception of Shakespeare’s plays.Roles played in the project
-
Vetter
Mark Bayer is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Janelle Jenstad
JJ
Janelle Jenstad, associate professor in the department of English at the University of Victoria, is the general editor and coordinator of The Map of Early Modern London. She is also the assistant coordinating editor of Internet Shakespeare Editions. She has taught at Queen’s University, the Summer Academy at the Stratford Festival, the University of Windsor, and the University of Victoria. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism, and The Silver Society Journal. Her book chapters have appeared (or will appear) in Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2007), Approaches to Teaching Othello (Modern Language Association, 2005), Shakespeare, Language and the Stage, The Fifth Wall: Approaches to Shakespeare from Criticism, Performance and Theatre Studies (Arden/Thomson Learning, 2005), Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society (Brill, 2004), New Directions in the Geohumanities: Art, Text, and History at the Edge of Place (Routledge, 2011), and Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives (MLA, forthcoming). She is currently working on an edition of The Merchant of Venice for ISE and Broadview P. She lectures regularly on London studies, digital humanities, and on Shakespeare in performance.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Author of Abstract
-
Author of Stub
-
Author of Term Descriptions
-
Author of Textual Introduction
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Course Instructor
-
Course Supervisor
-
Course supervisor
-
Data Manager
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (Structure and Toponyms)
-
Final Markup Editor
-
GIS Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist (Modern)
-
Geographical Information Specialist
-
JCURA Co-Supervisor
-
Main Transcriber
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Name Encoder
-
Peer Reviewer
-
Primary Author
-
Project Director
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Reviser
-
Second Author
-
Second Encoder
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
-
Transcription Proofreader
-
Vetter
Contributions by this author
Janelle Jenstad is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Janelle Jenstad is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Tye Landels-Gruenewald
TLG
Research assistant, 2013-15, and data manager, 2015 to present. Tye completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2015.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Author of Term Descriptions
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Data Manager
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Architect
-
MoEML Researcher
-
Name Encoder
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
Contributions by this author
Tye Landels-Gruenewald is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Tye Landels-Gruenewald is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Kim McLean-Fiander
KMF
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–present; Associate Project Director, 2015–present; Assistant Project Director, 2013-2014; MoEML Research Fellow, 2013. Kim McLean-Fiander comes to The Map of Early Modern London from the Cultures of Knowledge digital humanities project at the University of Oxford, where she was the editor of Early Modern Letters Online, an open-access union catalogue and editorial interface for correspondence from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. She is currently Co-Director of a sister project to EMLO called Women’s Early Modern Letters Online (WEMLO). In the past, she held an internship with the curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library, completed a doctorate at Oxford on paratext and early modern women writers, and worked a number of years for the Bodleian Libraries and as a freelance editor. She has a passion for rare books and manuscripts as social and material artifacts, and is interested in the development of digital resources that will improve access to these materials while ensuring their ongoing preservation and conservation. An avid traveler, Kim has always loved both London and maps, and so is particularly delighted to be able to bring her early modern scholarly expertise to bear on the MoEML project.Roles played in the project
-
Associate Project Director
-
Author
-
Author of MoEML Introduction
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Contributor
-
Copy Editor
-
Data Contributor
-
Data Manager
-
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (People)
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
JCURA Co-Supervisor
-
Managing Editor
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Architect
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Research Fellow
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Second Author
-
Secondary Author
-
Secondary Editor
-
Toponymist
-
Vetter
Contributions by this author
Kim McLean-Fiander is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Kim McLean-Fiander is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Eoin Price
EP
Eoin Price is the tutor in renaissance literature at Swansea University and teaching associate at The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. His book, The Semantics of the Renaissance Stage: DefiningPublic
andPrivate
Playhouse Performance is forthcoming from Palgrave. He also has work forthcoming in Literature Compass and is a contributor to The Year’s Work in English Studies. He blogs about Renaissance drama and regularly writes for Reviewing Shakespeare.Roles played in the project
-
Author
Contributions by this author
Eoin Price is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Joey Takeda
JT
Programmer, 2018-present; Junior Programmer, 2015 to 2017; Research Assistant, 2014 to 2017. Joey Takeda is an MA student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests include diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Author of Abstract
-
Author of Stub
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Data Manager
-
Date Encoder
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (Bibliography)
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist (Agas)
-
Junior Programmer
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Encoder
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Programmer
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Second Author
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
-
Transcription Editor
Contributions by this author
Joey Takeda is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Joey Takeda is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Martin D. Holmes
MDH
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Author of abstract
-
Conceptor
-
Encoder
-
Name Encoder
-
Post-conversion and Markup Editor
-
Programmer
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
Contributions by this author
Martin D. Holmes is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Martin D. Holmes is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Sarah Milligan
SM
MoEML Research Affiliate. Research assistant, 2012-14. Sarah Milligan completed her MA at the University of Victoria in 2012 on the invalid persona in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. She has also worked with the Internet Shakespeare Editions and with Dr. Alison Chapman on the Victorian Poetry Network, compiling an index of Victorian periodical poetry.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Compiler
-
Copy Editor
-
Date Encoder
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Final Markup Editor
-
Formeworke Encoder
-
Gap Encoder
-
Markup Editor
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Researcher
-
Second Author
-
Toponymist
Contributions by this author
Sarah Milligan is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Sarah Milligan is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Francis Beaumont is mentioned in the following documents:
-
George Bolles is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Richard Brome is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Charles I
Charles Stuart I King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
(b. 1600, d. 1649)King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles I is mentioned in the following documents:
-
George Chapman is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Henry Chettle is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Thomas Dekker is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Queen Henrietta Maria
(b. 1609, d. 1669)Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Consort of King Charles I of England.Queen Henrietta Maria is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Sir Henry Herbert is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Thomas Heywood is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Wenceslaus Hollar
(b. 1607, d. 1677)Bohemian etcher who in 1637 moved to London, where he etched a number of buildings and plans of the city.Wenceslaus Hollar is mentioned in the following documents:
-
James VI and I
King James Stuart VI and I
(b. 1566, d. 1625)King of Scotland, England, and Ireland.James VI and I is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Inigo Jones is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Ben Jonson is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Christopher Marlowe is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Philip Massinger is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Thomas Middleton is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Walter Montague is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Samuel Pepys is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Joseph Rutter is mentioned in the following documents:
-
William Shakespeare is mentioned in the following documents:
-
John Webster is mentioned in the following documents:
-
James Wright is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Christopher Beeston
(b. between 1579 and 1580, d. 1638)Actor and theatre entrepreneur. Founder of the Cockpit Theatre.Christopher Beeston is mentioned in the following documents:
-
William Beeston
(b. between 1610? and 1611?, d. 1682)Actor and theatre manager. Son of Christopher Beeston.William Beeston is mentioned in the following documents:
-
John Best is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Thomas Carew is mentioned in the following documents:
-
William Davenant is mentioned in the following documents:
-
John Fletcher is mentioned in the following documents:
-
John Ford is mentioned in the following documents:
-
William Rowley is mentioned in the following documents:
-
John Shepherd
A bricklayer involved in the building of The Cockpit.John Shepherd is mentioned in the following documents:
-
James Shirley is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Robert Davenport is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Richard Daborne is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Alexander Brome is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Shackerley Marmion is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Henry Glapthorne is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Thomas Killigrew is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Thomas Nabbes is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland
(b. 12 December 1574, d. 2 March 1619)Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Consort of James VI ad I. Daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. Sister of Christian IV of Denmark, Elizabeth of Denmark, and Ulric of Denmark.Anne of Denmark is mentioned in the following documents:
Locations
-
Drury Lane is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Great Wild Street is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Prince’s Street is mentioned in the following documents:
-
St. Giles in the Fields is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Temple Bar
Temple Bar was one of the principle entrances to the city of London, dividing the Strand to the west and Fleet Street to the east. It was an ancient right of way and toll gate. Walter Thornbury dates the wooden gate structure shown in the Agas Map to the early Tudor period, and describes a number of historical pageants that processed through it, including the funeral procession of Henry V, and it was the scene of King James I’s first entry to the city (Thornbury 1878). The wooden structure was demolished in 1670 and a stone gate built in its place (Sugden 505).Temple Bar is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Cockpit Alley (Pitt Court)
Cockpit Alley, later called Pitt Court, was one of a series of narrow alleys that ran southwest to northeast between Drury Lane in the west and Great Wild Street (now just Wild Street) in the east. It took its name from the Cockpit Theatre which was located in the alley or very nearby. It is not labelled in the Agas Map, but appears clearly on the Rocque map of 1746.Cockpit Alley (Pitt Court) is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Whitehall is mentioned in the following documents:
-
St. James’s Palace is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Inns of Court
The four principal constituents of the Inns of Court were:The Inns of Court is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Blackfriars Theatre
The history of the two Blackfriars theatres is long and fraught with legal and political struggles. The story begins in 1276, when King Edward I gave to the Dominican order five acres of land.Blackfriars Theatre is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Globe is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Lincoln’s Inn
Lincoln’s Inn was one of the four Inns of Court.Lincoln’s Inn is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Red Bull
For information about the Red Bull, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT) article on the Red Bull.The Red Bull is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Cockpit-in-Court
The Cockpit-in-Court, or The Cockpit-at-Court, was a private Caroline playhouse for members of the royal household, and was located within Whitehall Palace. Its name arose from the fact that it was formerly a cockfighting site at court. It should not be confused with The Cockpit Theatre, which was located near Drury Lane.The Cockpit-in-Court is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Curtain
In 1577, the Curtain, a second purpose-built London playhouse arose in Shoreditch, just north of the City of London. The Curtain, a polygonal amphitheatre, became a major venue for theatrical and other entertainments until at least 1622 and perhaps as late as 1698. Most major playing companies, including the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the Queen’s Men, and Prince Charles’s Men, played there. It is the likely site for the premiere of Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet and Henry V.The Curtain is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Salisbury Court Theatre is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Fortune is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Rose
Built in 1587 by theatre financier Philip Henslowe, the Rose was Bankside’s first open-air amphitheatre playhouse (Egan). Its foundation, excavated in 1989, reveals a fourteen-sided structure about 22 metres in diameter, making it smaller than other contemporary playhouses (White 302). Relatively free of civic interference and surrounded by pleasure-seeking crowds, the Rose did very well, staging works by such playwrights as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, and Dekker (Egan).The Rose is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Somerset House
Somerset House (labelled asSomerset Palace
on the Agas map) was a significant site for royalty in early modern London. Erected in 1550 on The Strand between Ivy Bridge Lane and Strand Lane, it was built for Lord Protector Somerset and was was England’s first Renaissance palace.Somerset House is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Gray’s Inn
Gray’s Inn was one of the four Inns of Court.Gray’s Inn is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Swan
The Swan was the second of the Bankside theatres. It was located at Paris Garden. It was in use from 1595 and possibly staged some of the plays of William Shakespeare
(SHaLT).The Swan is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Marshalsea is mentioned in the following documents:
Organizations
-
The Grocers’ Company
The Worshipful Company of Grocers
The Grocers’ Company (previously the Pepperers’ Company) was one of the twelve great companies of London. The Grocers were second in the order of precedence established in 1515. The Worshipful Company of Grocers is still active and maintains a website at http://www.grocershall.co.uk/, including a brief history.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The King and Queen’s Young Company
Beeston’s Boys
Beeston’s Boys was a playing company of boy actors in early modern London. The group was formed in 1637 under a royal warrant from King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, but was colloquially known as Beeston’s Boys after actor and theatre impresario Christopher Beeston. The company lasted until the closure of the theatres in September 1642.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Blackfriars Children
Blackfriars Children was a playing company of boy actors in early modern London, known by various names. The company staged plays by Beaumont, Chapman, Fletcher, Jonson, Marston, and Middleton between 1603-13. The company was known at different times as the Blackfriars Boys, Revels Children, Children of the Queen’s Revels, Children of the Chapel, and the Children of Whitefriars. See Gurr 287-87.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The King’s Men
The King’s Men was a playing company in early modern London. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the group had been known as The Lord Chamberlain’s Men after its then patron, Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. It was re-named in 1603 when King James I took over as patron soon after acceding to the throne. It is famous for being the company to which William Shakespeare belonged for most of his career.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
-
The Lady Elizabeth’s Men
The Lady Elizabeth’s Men was a playing company in early modern London. The group was formed in 1611 and was named after Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I and Anne of Denmark. After she was crowned queen of Bohemia in 1618, the company changed its name to The Queen of Bohemia’s Men.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Prince Charles’s Company
Prince Charles’s Company or Prince Charles’s Men was a playing company in early modern London. The group was formed in 1608 as the Duke of York’s Men after Charles, who was then Duke of York and the second son of King James I and Anne of Denmark. When Charles’s elder brother, Prince Henry, died in 1612, the company gradually became known as Prince Charles’s Company. Andrew Gurr identifies this company as Prince Charles’s Company (I) to distinguish it from the company established in 1631 after the birth of the future Charles II, also called Prince Charles’s Company, but usually referred to by theatre scholars as Prince Charles’s Company (II) (395).This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Queen Anne’s Men
Queen Anne’s Men was a playing company in early modern London. The group was formed in 1603 out of Worcester’s Company (1562-1603) and named after its patron, Anne of Denmark, consort of King James I. When she died in 1619, the company continued as The Players of the Revels, but were often simply called the Red Bull Company (1619-25).This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Queen Henrietta’s Men
Queen Henrietta’s Men was a playing company in early modern London. The group was formed in 1625 and was named after Henrietta Maria of France, consort of King Charles I. The company lasted until the closure of the theatres in September 1642.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
Variant spellings
-
Documents using the spelling
Beeston’s theatre
-
Documents using the spelling
Cockpit
-
Documents using the spelling
Cockpit Theatre
-
Documents using the spelling
Phoenix
-
Documents using the spelling
The Cockpit
-
Documents using the spelling
The Cockpit Theatre