The Curtain
Abstract
In 1577, the Curtain, the second purpose-built London playhouse, arose in Shoreditch, just north of the City of London.1 The Curtain, a polygonal amphitheatre, became a major venue for theatrical and other entertainments
until at least 1622. The building may have stood on the site until 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 Neighbourhood and the Site
Bounded by Moorfields to the south, Bishopsgate Street to the east, and Finsbury Fields to the west, Shoreditch is located on the north side of the City of London. It remained a collection of manors, farms, fields, and religious houses into the
16th century. The Curtain was built on the south side of the current Hewett Street, near Bishopsgate Street (Bird). In the 1590s, William Shakespeare occupied a house nearby on Bishopsgate Street (Mander). The neighbourhood name references a polluted stream, sometimes called Sewersditch, which ran from St. Leonard’s Church to Holy Well Lane, now known as High Street. Shoreditch followed Roman roads near Kingsland Road, a continuation of Ermine Street , and Old Street, a continuation of Waitling or Watling Street (Campbell). The majority of Shoreditch occupants resided on or near Holy Well Lane.
Shoreditch also had a well known nunnery, Holywell Priory, from the 12th to 16th centuries (Bowsher,
Holywell Priory232). The Priory was the ninth richest in all of England (Bull). Following the Reformation, the Priory was dissolved in 1539 (Mander). Later, the neighbourhood featured manor houses for the wealthy, such as Stratton House and Stone House (Bull). Recent research on the history of first purpose-built playhouse, the Theatre, features useful new historical maps, as well as a schematic that shows the proximity of the Curtain to the Priory and other important structures in the area.
To the north, St. Leonard’s Church still stands at the corner of Bishopsgate Street and Old Street (Mander). No firm date exists for the building of the original medieval church, but in engravings
it appears to date from the 15th century (Bird). It featured a tower with up to five bells (Bird). James Bird points to John Stow (Bird 74), who says that between the north corner of the field west of the High Street and
the church
sometime stood a Crosse, now a Smithes Forge, dividing three wayes.The 1598 edition of A Survey notes that the Curtain and the Theatre were built nearby:
neare thereunto are builded two publique houses for the acting and shewe of Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories, for recreation. Whereof the one is called the Courtein, the other the Theatre: both standing on the Southwest side towards the field(Stow 349; qtd in Collier 263-64). This reference to the two playhouses was removed from the 1603 edition of A Survey.
By the 1590s, St. Leonard’s Church has become associated with actors. Both Cuthbert Burbage and Richard Burbage, actors and sons of theatre owner (and builder of the Theatre) James Burbage, who was also manager of the Curtain, were buried there (Bird). St. Leonard’s is thus sometimes known as the
actor’s churchof London (Mander). The original church became structurally unsound in the early 18th century and was demolished in 1736. It was rebuilt in the same location in 1740 (Thornbury).
After 1577, vice and criminality, including prostitution, began to overtake the neighbourhood.
As early as 1579, moralists complained about the malign influence the theatres in Shoreditch had on the public, with a character, Reason, in Thomas Twyne’s pamphlet Physic against Fortune, a translation of Italian poet Petrarch’s De Remediis utriusque Fortunae, noting that both the Theatre and Curtain were
well knowen to be enimies to good manners; for looke who goeth there evyl returneth worse(Twyne sig. F4; qtd in Chambers 202). John Northbrooke complained about the malign influence of playhouses on the title page of his 1578 Treatise that attacks
vaine Playes(Northbrooke; qtd. in Berry 377).
In 1584, incidents at the Theatre and the Curtain caused significant civil unrest. Correspondence between Queen Elizabeth I’s Lord Chamberlain, William Cecil, Lord Burghley and William Fleetwood, recorder of London, detail a near-riot on 14 June 1584. Fleetwood comments that
very nere the Theatre or Curten at the tyme of the Playes,an apprentice sleeping in one of the nearby fields was pestered by a gentleman, which resulted in a fistfight. The following day, other apprentices threatened to riot and an unnamed number were arrested. Fleetwood ordered the arrest of the Theatre’s owner, James Burbage. Burbage’s status as a member of the playing company sponsored by Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon meant that he could refuse arrest, and he noted that he was
my Lo of hunsdons man.Burbage agreed to appear in court the next day (BL Lansdowne MS 41; qtd. in Berry 345).
One further reference to the dubious nature of the Curtain and its environs comes from a 1613 satirical text by George Wither that mentions derisively that a foolish young lover, Momus,
can cull, / From plaies he heard at Curtaine or at the Bull, / And yet is fine coy Mistress Marry-Muffe, / The soonest taken with such broken stuffe.Momus goes to
the Curtaine’ to pick up hints at fooling, and notes [...] downenot quotations from the plays but
that action [...] that likes him best(Wither sig. D3v; qtd. in Chambers 404).
Theatre Architecture
Built by Henry Laneman (also known as Henry Lanman) in 1577, the Curtain arose a mere 200 yards from its neighbour, the Theatre, built the year before by James Burbage (Gurr 31; Bowsher, Shakespeare’s London Theatreland 55, 62). Very close geographically, they were perhaps even closer in design. No documentation
exists for the specific design of the Curtain, but it may have copied its neighbour in at least some details if we accept Gurr’s
narrative. A similar design may also have been used for the Rose, Swan, and Globe theatres (Gurr 132). Details about the excavation of the Theatre from the Museum of London Archeology provide important background, since the two
playhouses were in such close proximity and had shared management (Bowsher, Shakespeare’s London Theatreland 63; see also LAARC CNU02).
The Curtain was a polygonal amphitheatre, built of timber and finished with lime and plaster
(Adams 77-78). It was probably the Curtain that Shakespeare describes as
this unworthy Scaffold [...] this Cock-pit [...] this Woodden O’in the prologue to Henry V, which seems to have been first performed there (Stern 15; Shakespeare 14-16). Its dimensions remain in question, although excavations are underway (see below, Excavation and Site). As a comparison, the Rose’s foundations, unearthed in 1989, reveal a building about 22 metres in diameter (
The Rose). The Theatre, excavated in 2011, was a 14-sided polygonal building with an almost identical diameter of about 22 metres (Bowsher, Shakespeare’s London Theatreland 58).
The Curtain, modeled after these theatres, as well as popular animal baiting rings such as the
Bear Garden, was a purpose-built, public theatre designed for plays. In a baiting house, animals
such as bulls and bears occupied the ground floor yard and the spectators used the
galleries.2 Playhouses used the yard to pack in patrons instead. In addition to the yard, the
Curtain had three galleries, each of which had wooden steps for seating. The galleries and
stage were covered by the roof, while the yard was open to the elements. A protected
view was an advantage that cost viewers more: one penny was charged to enter the yard,
and then an additional penny was collected to enter the galleries. A final penny gained
a seat close to the stage and a cushion (Gurr 17). A recent collaboration between media firm Cloak and Dagger Studios and Museum of
London Archaeology produced a video animation,
Shoreditch 1595,which shows the current approximation of the appearance of an Elizabethan playhouse.
One likely image of the Curtain has been identified. In
The View of the Citty of London from the North towards the South,a prominent building fitting the description of the Curtain appears on the left half of the image. It is tall, has three upper levels, a loft at the top, staircases on the sides, and a flagpole. Depending on scholarly opinion of the date that The View was engraved, the building is either the Theatre or the Curtain (Berry,
The View of London196-97).
Unlike its predecessor the Theatre (whose timbers became the Globe), the Curtain had longevity. Records indicate the Curtain in use for performances by acting companies at least until 1625, nearly 50 years after its construction (Wickham 67). Ashley Thorndike speculates that the Curtain was most likely still standing at the closing of the theatres in 1642 (Thorndike 45). Some scholars assert it was still standing until destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, while others claim that it was not pulled down until 1698 (
Curtain,ShaLT).
Human Connections: Ownership and Theatre Companies
James Burbage built the Curtain, but actors also owned shares in the building. The Curtain appears in the will of Thomas Pope. Pope, a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, left his share of the Globe and the Curtain to his heirs in his will dated 22 July 1603 (EMLoT; see also Honigmann and Brock 70). John Underwood, a member of the King’s Men, likewise left his share of the Globe, the Blackfriars, and the Curtain to heirs in his will dated 4 October 1624 (EMLoT; see also Honigmann and Brock 143).
In 1597—1598, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which included Will Kempe as their clown, used the Curtain for their performances. The 1599 second quarto of Romeo and Juliet features the stage direction
enter Will Kempjust prior to the character Peter’s lines in 4.5 (Q2, K3v, qtd in EMLoT). Collier concludes that Kemp must have played on the Curtain stage (Collier 89). Another of Shakespeare’s comic actors also may have performed there. Robert Armin once referred to himself as
Clonnico de Curtanio Snuffor the Clown of the Curtain Snuff (Chambers 403).
After the Lord Chamberlain’s Men moved to the Globe in Southwark, some public records indicate that other companies played at the Curtain. In 1601, Oxford’s Men seem to have been the target of an order from the Privy Council, who asked the Middlesex county justices of the peace to halt the performance of
an unnamed play at the Curtain. The play apparently represented
the persons of some gentlemen of good desert and quality that are yet alive,although it did so in
an obscure manner(Berry,
The View of London414). Beginning in 1603, the Queen Anne’s Men, also known as Worcester’s Men, performed various plays at the Curtain until 1609 when they relocated to the Red Bull. However, the Privy Council ordered in April 1604 that the King’s Men, the Queen’s Men, and the Prince Charles’s Men be allowed to perform at the Globe, Fortune, and Curtain (Berry,
The View of London414). Starting in 1622, the Prince Charles’s Men used the Curtain, the Red Bull, and the Cockpit until they disbanded in 1625 (Gurr 55-67; Bowsher, Shakespeare’s London Theatreland 64). Although the building was standing in 1642 and perhaps as late as 1660, or even 1698, no other companies have been discovered in connection with the Curtain.
Human Connections: Plays and Playwrights
Between 1585 and 1642, various well known playwrights had their plays performed at the Curtain. Most famously, scholars such as Tiffany Stern and Julian Bowsher conjecture that
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet first debuted at the Curtain in a performance by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1598. This date arises in part from a passage by Shakespeare’s contemporary, John Marston, whose Tenth Satire has a habitual playgoer, Luscus, who is asked:
(Marston sig. H4r; transcribed in Furness 409)Luscus, what’s plaid today? I’faith now I knowe:I see thy lips abroach, from whence doth flowNaught but pure Juliet and RomeoSay who acts best? Drusus or Roscio?Now I have him, that ne’er of aught did speakeBut when of plays or players he did treat;And speakes in print, at least whate’er he saysIs warranted by Curtain plaudities.
According to Tiffany Stern,
the few narratives that relate to the Curtain always suggest that there was something unglamorous about the place,and that audiences mined plays like
Romeo and Juliet for verbal tidbits that they can use in their later, post-play flirtations(Stern 79), clearly referring to the Marston passage above. The following year, Shakespeare’s final history play Henry V played there, which likely features the Curtain as
this Wooden O(Shakespeare 14).
Other notable playwrights whose work appeared on the Curtain’s stage include Ben Jonson, Thomas Heywood, William Rowley, John Day, and George Wilkins. Few plays are certainly known to have been performed at the Curtain, with only a handful well known. The earliest documented play performed at the theatre
was Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humor in 1598, with William Shakespeare in the cast (EMLoT; Bowsher, Shakespeare’s London Theatreland 64). The next few years in the Curtain’s history are a blank. No playbills survive, and there are no title-page ascriptions.
The next known play surfaced in 1603—Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Kill’d with Kindness. In 1607, The Travels of Three English Brothers was performed by the Queen Anne’s Men (EMLoT).
Known Plays Performed at the Curtain
Performance Date | Title | Author | Date of First Publication3 | Playing Company | DEEP Number | Wiggins Number4 |
1598-1599 | Romeo and Juliet | William Shakespeare | 1597 | Lord Chamberlain’s Men | 234 | 987 |
1599 | Henry V | William Shakespeare | 1600 | Lord Chamberlain’s Men | 252/288 | 1183 |
1598 | Every Man in His Humour | Ben Jonson | 1601 | Lord Chamberlain’s Men | 313 | 1143 |
1603 | A Woman Kill’d With Kindness | Thomas Heywood | 1607 | Worcester’s Men5 | 502 | |
1607 | The Travels of the Three English Brothers | William Rowley, John Day, George Wilkins | 1607 | Queen Anne’s Men | 482 | |
1615 | The Hector of Germany, or The Palsgrave | Wentworth Smith | 1615 | Unidentified6 | 623 |
Archaeology: Excavation and Site in Modern London
The precise location of the Curtain was unknown in modern London until the foundations were discovered in 2012 during improvement construction in the Borough of Hackney. Historians knew the general
location, and so a commemorative plaque commissioned by Hackney London Borough Council
was placed in 1993 high on an exterior brick wall at 18 Hewett Street. The plaque was placed at the
Curtain’s purported location, but there was no physical supporting evidence. The plaque proved
to be amazingly accurate: it was approximately 266 feet (82 metres) from the plaque
to the entrance of the site of the actual theatre. The site sits at the intersection
of Hewett Street and Curtain Road with the entrance of the Curtain appearing to be on the western side of the building, now situated against Curtain
Road below the Victorian era pub, The Horse and Groom. Next to the Horse and Groom
is a car repair shop with an investigation pit that had, unknowingly, exposed the
foundations of the Curtain even before excavation began (Kennedy). Bowsher believes that the stage was situated on the eastern side of this parcel
(Bowsher, Shakespeare’s London Theatreland 67).
Limited excavation began at the site in 2012, carried out by archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology. According to
reports on the archaeological investigation, the remains of the Curtain’s foundation appear to have escaped serious interference and are
remarkably well-preserved(Kennedy). The surviving base of the foundation is made of bricks and is currently buried about 3 metres below ground level. An outer yard was also discovered in the excavation. This yard was
paved with sheep knuckle bones that could date from the theatre or slightly later housing(Kennedy). Unlike the Rose excavation in 1988, so far only a few artifacts have been found at the site. The only artifacts found so far that date to Shakespeare’s time have been shards of pottery from a pipe:
other small finds, including fragments of china and wall tile, were rather later in date(Baillie).
Future Development on the Site
The property owners, Plough Yard Developments Ltd., have been cleared by the Hackney
Council to redevelop the site for commercial and residential use. The redevelopment
process to this area of Shoreditch will include
a new 40 story residential tower and theatre, as well as two buildings providing approximately 25,000 square metres of office space and approximately 4,500 square metres of shops and restaurants on a 2.5 acre site(Perkins+Will). Plough Yard Developments Ltd. has commissioned the architectural firm Pringle Brandon Perkins + Will to design the multiuse site. According to Perkins + Will’s website,
the scheme’s centrepiece will [...] showcase [...] London’s second oldest Shakespearean playhouse, the 16th Century Curtain Theatre [...] The theatre and related finds will be excavated, preserved and exhibited[,] including a 164 seat indoor auditorium. An additional 200-seat performance space will be built outside and linked to a square lined with shops, bars, and restaurants.The firm apparently is working closely with Museum of London Archaeology on comprehensive plans to unearth the site once construction and development begin. The museum is
(Perkins+Will)
confident that about three quarters of the original playhouse may be revealedfor public viewing by the time excavation is completed (
Finding the Curtain). At this time, there is still not a concrete date for when the development of the site will be finished. (See artist’s renderings of the future site.)
Further Resources
The Curtain Theatre Shoreditch: A site produced by the community of modern Shoreditch, which has a vested interest
in any future development of the Curtain site.
For information about the Curtain, a modern map marking the site where it once stood, and a walking tour that will
take you to the site, visit the Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT) page on the Curtain.
In 2016, archaeological excavations in Shoreditch revealed that the Curtain was rectangular in shape, instead of polygonal (as initially believed, and as this
article suggests). For more information, see Maev Kennedy,
Excavation Finds Early Shakespeare Theatre was Rectangular,published in The Gaurdian on 17 May 2016.
Notes
- It was preceded by John Rastell’s stage in Finsbury, the 1567 Red Lion in Stepney, and the nearby Theatre, built in 1576. (JJ)↑
- See our topic page—
Bearbaiting in Early Modern London
— for more information. (JT)↑ - Publication dates taken from DEEP. (JT)↑
- The five published volumes of Wiggins’s British Drama cover 1533-1602. Forthcoming volumes will cover the rest of the period up to 1642. (JT)↑
- Low certainty. ()↑
a Company of Young-men of the Citie
()↑
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Cite this page
MLA citation
The Curtain.The Map of Early Modern London, edited by , U of Victoria, 20 Jun. 2018, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CURT2.htm.
Chicago citation
The Curtain.The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 20, 2018. http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CURT2.htm.
APA citation
The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CURT2.htm.
. 2018. The Curtain. 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 - Utah Valley University English 463R Spring 2014 Students ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - The Curtain 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/CURT2.htm UR - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/CURT2.xml ER -
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RT Web Page SR Electronic(1) A1 Utah Valley University English 463R Spring 2014 Students A6 Jenstad, Janelle T1 The Curtain 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/CURT2.htm
TEI citation
<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#UTVU1" type="org">Utah Valley University English 463R Spring 2014 Students</name></author>. <title level="a">The Curtain</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/CURT2.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CURT2.htm</ref>.</bibl>Personography
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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
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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
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Kim McLean-Fiander is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Kim McLean-Fiander is mentioned in the following documents:
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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
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Author
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CSS Editor
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Compiler
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Conceptor
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Copy Editor
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Data Manager
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Date Encoder
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Editor
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Encoder
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Encoder (Bibliography)
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Geographic Information Specialist
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Geographic Information Specialist (Agas)
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Junior Programmer
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Markup Editor
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Metadata Co-Architect
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MoEML Encoder
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MoEML Transcriber
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Proofreader
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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:
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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
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Author
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Author of abstract
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Conceptor
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Encoder
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Name Encoder
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Post-conversion and Markup Editor
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Programmer
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Proofreader
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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:
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Kate McPherson
Kate McPherson is a MoEML Pedagogical Partner. She is Professor of English at Utah Valley University. She is co-editor, with Kathryn Moncrief and Sarah Enloe of Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013); and with Kathryn Moncrief of two other edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2008). She has published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals as well. An award-winning teacher, Kate is also Resident Scholar for the Grassroots Shakespeare Company, an original practices performance troupe begun by two UVU students.Roles played in the project
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Author of Abstract
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Guest Editor
Kate McPherson is mentioned in the following documents:
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Robert Armin is mentioned in the following documents:
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Richard Burbage
(b. 1568, d. 1619)Actor with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men) and younger son of James Burbage.Richard Burbage is mentioned in the following documents:
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Cuthbert Burbage
(b. between 1564 and 1565, d. 1636)Actor, theatre entrepreneur, son of James Burbage, and elder brother of Richard Burbage.Cuthbert Burbage is mentioned in the following documents:
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James Burbage
(b. 1531, d. 1597)Actor and father of Cuthbert and Richard Burbage. Founded The Theatre. Involved in founding the Curtain and Blackfriars theatres.James Burbage is mentioned in the following documents:
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Henry Carey
Henry Carey Lord Chamberlain Lord Hundson
(b. 4 March 1526, d. 23 July 1596)Courtier and administrator. Patron of Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. First cousin of Queen Elizabeth I.Henry Carey is mentioned in the following documents:
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Sir William Cecil
Sir William Cecil First Baron Burghley
(b. between 1520 and 1521, d. 1598)First baron Burghley. Royal minister and son of Richard Cecil.Sir William Cecil is mentioned in the following documents:
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John Day is mentioned in the following documents:
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Elizabeth I
Elizabeth Tudor I Queen of England and Ireland
(b. 7 September 1533, d. 24 March 1603)Queen of England and Ireland.Elizabeth I is mentioned in the following documents:
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Sergeant William Fleetwood
Recorder of London.Sergeant William Fleetwood is mentioned in the following documents:
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Thomas Heywood is mentioned in the following documents:
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Ben Jonson is mentioned in the following documents:
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William Kempe is mentioned in the following documents:
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Henry Lanman
Original proprietor of the Curtain theatre.Henry Lanman is mentioned in the following documents:
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John Marston is mentioned in the following documents:
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John Northbrooke is mentioned in the following documents:
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Thomas Pope is mentioned in the following documents:
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William Shakespeare is mentioned in the following documents:
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John Stow is mentioned in the following documents:
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Thomas Twyne is mentioned in the following documents:
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John Underwood is mentioned in the following documents:
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George Wilkins is mentioned in the following documents:
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George Wither is mentioned in the following documents:
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William Rowley is mentioned in the following documents:
Locations
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Shoreditch is mentioned in the following documents:
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John Rastell’s Stage
John Rastell built London’sfirst purpose-built stage
onproperty fronting on Old Street in Finsbury
(Giles-Watson 172). Although the name of the stage/playhouse, if it had one, is now lost, we find traces of its existence in the legal record.John Rastell’s Stage is mentioned in the following documents:
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Finsbury is mentioned in the following documents:
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The Red Lion
For information about the Red Lion, 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 Lion.The Red Lion is mentioned in the following documents:
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Stepney is mentioned in the following documents:
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The Theatre is mentioned in the following documents:
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Moorfields is mentioned in the following documents:
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Bishopsgate Street
Bishopsgate Street ran north from Cornhill Street to the southern end of Shoreditch Street at the city boundary. South of Cornhill, the road became Gracechurch Street, and the two streets formed a major north-south artery in the eastern end of the walled city of London, from London Bridge to ShoreditchImportant sites included: Bethlehem Hospital, commonly corrupted to the short form -bedlam, a mental hospital and Bull Inn, where plays were performedbefore Shakespeare’s time
(Weinreb and Hibbert 67).Bishopsgate Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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Finsbury Field
Finsbury Field is located in northen London outside the The Wall. Note that MoEML correctly locates Finsbury Field, which the label on the Agas map confuses with Mallow Field (Prockter 40). Located nearby is Finsbury Court. Finsbury Field is outside of the city wards within the borough of Islington(Mills 81).Finsbury Field is mentioned in the following documents:
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Sewersditch
Sewersditch is a heteronym for Shoreditch, the drainage ditch that gave its name to the marshy neighbourhood of Shoreditch. The ditch was built over by the early modern period, but was known to Stow, who mentions it in his Survey.Sewersditch is mentioned in the following documents:
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St. Leonard
St. Leonard’s church—also known asThe Actors’ church
—is the burial place of many prominent early modern actors. The Burbages (James Burbage and his sons Richard Burbage and Cuthbert Burbage), Richard Cowley, William Sly, and many others are buried there (ShaLT).St. Leonard is mentioned in the following documents:
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Holy Well Lane is mentioned in the following documents:
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Old Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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Watling Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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The Globe is mentioned in the following documents:
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Bear Garden
The Bear Garden was never a garden, but rather a polygonal bearbaiting arena whose exact locations across time are not known (Mackinder and Blatherwick 18). Labelled on the Agas map asThe Bearebayting,
the Bear Garden would have been one of several permanent structures—wooden arenas, dog kennels, bear pens—dedicated to the popular spectacle of bearbaiting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.Bear Garden is mentioned in the following documents:
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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:
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Southwark is mentioned in the following documents:
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The Fortune is mentioned in the following documents:
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The Cockpit
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 locationin 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 wasthree-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 wason the east side of Drury Lane
and that[t]he site was long preserved by the name of Cockpit Alley, afterwards Pitt Court
(Teague 243).The Cockpit is mentioned in the following documents:
Organizations
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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:
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Oxford’s Men
Oxford’s Men was a playing company in early modern London.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
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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:
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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:
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Privy Council
In the early modern period, members of the Privy Council advised the reigning monarch on important judicial and political issues. The council still exists today, altough with considerably less authority.This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
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Utah Valley University English 463R Spring 2014 Students
Student contributors enrolled in English 463R: Shakespeare’s Histories and Comedies: Original Practices? at Utah Valley University in the Spring 2014 session, working under the guest editorship of Professor Kate McPherson.Student Contributors
Roles played in the project
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Author
Contributions by this author
This organization is mentioned in the following documents:
Variant spellings
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Documents using the spelling
Courtein
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Documents using the spelling
Courtin
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Documents using the spelling
Curtain
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Documents using the spelling
Curtain Theatre
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Documents using the spelling
Curtaine
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Documents using the spelling
Curten
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Documents using the spelling
Curtine
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Documents using the spelling
the Curtain
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Documents using the spelling
The Curtain
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Documents using the spelling
The Curtain Playhouse
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Documents using the spelling
The Curtain Theatre
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Documents using the spelling
the Curtine