The Swan
History of the Swan Theatre
Francis Langley, a London goldsmith who lived from
1548 to 1602, was what we would now call an entrepreneur.
William Ingram, Langley’s biographer, explains that Langley acquired the Paris Gardens manor in 1589 from its indebted
former owner (Brazen Age 71–72). The
Swan was not his only business venture on the land. By 1595, Langley had built thirteen
tenements, nine of which were tenanted (109–10). He continued to develop the manor’s demesne lands after
1595, building new tenements for thirteen more families near the
playhouse around 1598 (
Neere the Play Howse,62–63).
According to Ingram, the foundations of the Swan theatre were probably laid by
November 1594, when John Spencer, the
Lord Mayor, wrote a letter to William Cecil, Lord
Burghley (an advisor to Queen Elizabeth,
and Lord High Treasurer) in protest (Brazen
Age 108; Chambers 2:412).
Late 1594 was a challenging time to begin building a new theatre. There
had been plague in the city from mid-1592 until mid-1594.
Henslowe’s Rose
had been open only on seventy of the 600 playing days during the period (Brazen Age 104–05). Ingram supposes
that Langley observed the busy re-opening of the Rose in June 1594, and was thus inspired to build a
competing playhouse. If indeed it was begun in November of 1594, the
Swan was probably finished in spring of 1595 (Chambers 2:412). It was certainly completed by
1596, when the Prince of Anhalt observed four spielhäuser (playhouses) in London
(2:412). Ingram believes the
playhouse probably cost Langley about £1000 to
build, a significant investment (Brazen Age
111).
It is unclear whether the Swan was used for any plays in 1595—playing was
suspended that summer, possibly around the same time as the Swan was finished
(Brazen Age 114). The suspension
was brief, however, as Henslowe’s new season began
in August (Rutter 39). Ingram
speculates that since Henslowe’s profits were
slightly lower than normal in 1595, it is possible that competitors had begun
playing at the Swan, but there is no concrete evidence that it was used at all
in the 1595–96 season (Brazen Age
114). Ingram also speculates that perhaps Francis Henslowe (the nephew of
Philip Henslowe), who joined a new company in
the summer of 1595, might have played at the Swan, but the evidence is scant
(116–19). It is more definitely
known, however, that there was a company playing in the Swan by 1596, which is
generally accepted as the year in which Johannes de
Witt visited London and sketched the Swan (Chambers 2:412).
The Swan was located in St. Saviour’s Parish, at
the western end of the Bankside, in the Liberty
and Manor of Paris Gardens. Ingram speculates that
Francis Langley might have seen, from Paris Gardens Manor, the Rose’s customers arriving at Paris Garden
stairs, and enjoying refreshments at the nearby Falcon Inn before walking to the theatre (Brazen Age 106). Perhaps Langley decided to build the Swan near these
landmarks in order to divert the Rose’s crowds,
because the location was otherwise an awkward one—near the mill pond, and only a
short distance, about a hundred yards, or ninety-two meters, from the manor
itself (106–07). The neighbourhood was
mostly residential: the theatre was not far from numerous, recently developed
tenements on the manor lands, the manor house itself, and its attached meadows
and pastures (
Neere the Play Howse,58). The Swan was near enough to the Rose to be a source of serious competition, and not far from bull-baiting sites and the Bear Gardens.
The Swan’s lifetime was not uneventful. In 1597, a performance of The Isle of Dogs that was probably at the Swan may have
led to a Council order to stop all plays near London (Chambers 2:412). Gabriel
Spencer, Robert Shaa, and Ben Jonson,
who were all part of the Earl of Pembroke’s Men, then playing in the Swan, were
arrested in August 1597 in connection with the performance of The Isle of Dogs. Reports about the play are unclear; its authors
and performers must have considered it safe to write and perform, but apparently
the government disagreed. (Brazen Age
179). It is generally accepted that a 28 July performance at the Swan
led to the injunction against plays on the same date. Unfortunately, the play is
lost, so it is impossible to know how seditious it really was. The three
arrested players were released on 3 October 1597. Performances began again at
the Rose on 11 October (Brazen Age 185–86; Rutter 58).
By that date, several of the players who had formerly been at the Swan had
transferred their loyalty to the Rose. Since the
entire Pembroke company had been bonded to Langley
to play nowhere but at the Swan for a year, this move led to an exchange of
legal volleys between Langley and the departed
players when the latter filed for protection against Langley’s attempts to obtain financial compensation for his loss.
Part of the players’ defence was their objection that the Swan lacked a licence
(Brazen Age 186–90). It is unclear
why Langley was unable to acquire a licence in the
fall of 1597, but if indeed The Isle of Dogs was the
cause of the summer injunction, perhaps the two facts are related.
Those of the Earl of Pembroke’s Men who had not moved to the Rose continued to play at the Swan, licensed or
not, in the fall of 1597. Part of Langley’s lawsuit
asserted that the departed players
might have played if it had pleased them in the defendant’s house, as other of their fellows have done(PRO Req.2/266/23; qtd. in Ingram, Brazen Age 189). In February 1597/8, the Privy Council sent letters to the Justices of Middlesex and Surrey, and to the Master of Revels, drawing attention to the fact that only two playing companies were licensed (the Lord Admiral’s and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men), but that a third company—presumably the Earl of Pembroke’s men at the Swan—was playing (Brazen Age 205–06). The letter suggested that
said third company may be suppressed and none suffered hereafter to play but those two formerly named(Acts of the Privy Council 1597–98 327; qtd. in Brazen Age 206). Whether or not playing at the Swan actually ceased is unknown. While it is generally accepted that it did, Ingram argues that the churchwardens’ requests for tithes from playhouse owners, continuing at least until July of 1598, imply that the Swan was still in use (Brazen Age 207–10). In any case, at some time around 1598 or perhaps 1599, plays were no longer being performed at the Swan.
In 1600, Langley’s debts led him to sell Paris Gardens to Hugh Browker (250). Browker was a religious man, and from 1600
until his death in 1608, there is absolutely no evidence of plays at the Swan
(287). The theatre was, however,
used for other entertainments. According to Chambers, the Council sanctioned it
for
feats of activityby Peter Bromvill in 1600, and fencers performed in it in 1602 (2:413). The Swan’s most active period lay ahead of it, from 1611 to about 1615, when it was probably managed by Henslowe and occupied by the Lady Elizabeth’s men (2:413). On a manor map of 1627, the Swan is marked as
Old Playhouse(2:414), and in Nicholas Goodman’s Holland’s Leaguer, published in 1632, it is described as
beeing in times past, as famous as any of the other [Amphytheators], was now fallen to decay, and like a dying Swanne, hanging downe her head, seemed to sing her owne dierge(Goodman F2v). It is shown on maps drawn in 1616 by Claes Van Visscher and 1638 by Matthäus Merian, but is absent from a 1647 map by Wenceslaus Hollar (Chambers 2:414). Overall, the Swan was used for public performances for less than a decade, and the building did not survive to see its fiftieth anniversary. 1
De Witt’s Sketch of the Swan
Johannes De Witt, a Dutch scholar, sketched the
Swan theatre on a visit to London in about 1596, because of its resemblance to a
Roman amphitheatre. His close friend, Arend Van
Buchell, later copied the sketch into a commonplace book, which was
discovered in the University of Utrecht library in 1880 (Gurr, Shakespearean Stage 122). This copy of De Witt’s sketch forms the
inevitable basis of any comprehensive account of the main structural features of a [Shakespearean] playhouse(Chambers 2:527). Of course, as a copy, the version we have now is second-hand evidence. Since its discovery, critics have criticized, lauded, and measured this sketch. It has gained the status of a dubious authority on Elizabethan theatres. Since the early twentieth century, though, viewpoints have changed drastically, and the sketch’s relevance to Elizabethan theatre architecture in general has been disputed.
The sketch depicts a roughly elliptical area. The walls of the theatre are drawn
in at the far end, with three levels of galleries—the first labelled orchestra (audience space reserved for the
honoured spectators), the second sedilia
(seats), and the third porticus (covered
gallery). The roof on the right-hand side is labelled tectum (roof). A set of stairs is on each
side of the stage at ground level, and the left-hand one is labelled ingressus. In the centre of the sketch is
the stage, and behind it the tiring house structure, which has a turret above
the level of the third gallery. A flag with a swan on it flies from a flagpole
on the right-hand side of the turret, and from its base a trumpeter (or,
perhaps, a flag bearer, as suggested by C. Walter Hodges) is leaning out a door
(Hodges 33). The front of the
tiring house, labelled mimorum ades
(dressing room), has two double doors and a small gallery above them.
Elaborately clothed people are depicted in this gallery, though all other
galleries in the sketch contain empty benches. At the top of the tiring house,
above the gallery, a roof appears to project over some portion of the stage, and
this roof is supported by two large pillars. Front and centre on the stage are a
bench and three actors posed around it. The stage projects about halfway into
the ellipse, and is labelled proscaenium
(flat open stage). The empty half of the ellipse is labelled planities sive arena (the yard where the
audience stood) (van Buchell).
In
The Dutch Humanist Origins of the De Witt Drawing of the Swan Theatre,John B. Gleason argues that, in order to interpret the Swan sketch, it is essential to know something about the men who produced it. Both De Witt and van Buchell were keen classicists and antiquarians, and their interest in the Swan was partly because of its similarity to Roman amphitheatres. The scholars’ interest in all things Roman may have influenced the Swan sketch—they were thinking of it in terms of Roman amphitheatres. The labels on the sketch, and the description of it, are written in Latin. Gleason notes that both men were skilled artists; De Witt drew things on his travels throughout his life, including some that are considered to be
quite skilfully delineated(qtd. in Gleason 329). Engravers of the time considered his drawings
no mean catch(qtd. 329). De Witt also considered himself an expert assessor of paintings. Evidently, art was an important subject of study to him. Van Buchell shared this interest—a book-length volume of his writings on art was compiled in 1928 (330). Gleason had the opportunity to view several drawings by van Buchell, and considered them to
show a skill far beyond that of most persons(330).
It is important to know not only the artists’ level of skill, but also the style
in which they worked. Gleason explains that, in Renaissance prints, the
convention of simultaneous representation was commonly used (332). The goal is not to produce a snapshot of any
particular moment in time, but rather a sort of abbreviation of the normal
goings-on at a location (332). With
this in mind, it becomes less important to speculate, as some scholars have,
about exactly what the actors are doing, or why the trumpeter and actors are
simultaneously present. A.M. Nagler in
1952 and George Reynolds in 1967, for
example, posited that the actors on the stage are participating in a rehearsal.
Chambers, in 1923, considered the
simultaneous presence of the trumpeter and actors a mistake. That no audience is
drawn does not necessarily mean that no audience was present. Such details are
unimportant—De Witt would have collapsed events
into the sketch that might have happened at any time during his visit to the
Swan, in order to present a picture of what happened there in general. Gleason
concludes that, when considered as a simultaneous representation, the De Witt sketch is considerably more reliable than
some scholars have previously assumed (338).
Critics have written frequently about the Swan sketch since its discovery. In
general, critics in the first half of the twentieth century are negative about
the quality and reliability of the sketch. According to D.F. Rowan, three
critics in the first decade of the twentieth century (V.E. Albright, W.J.
Lawrence, and William Archer) dismissed the sketch as
hearsay evidenceor a drawing of a
unique theatre(qtd. in Rowan 39). Rowan finds the most convincing statement of this position in John Cranford Adams’s 1942 The Globe Playhouse, in which he dismisses the sketch as evidence that
must always be approached with reservations, for it abounds in so many contradictions, omissions, and obvious errors that no reliance can be placed on any detail unless that detail is sustained by evidence from other sources(qtd. in Rowan 39). As late as 1958, A.M. Nagler wondered
What was going on in the theatre while the wretched draftsman, who lacked an eye for perspective or proportion, was doing his sketch?(Nagler 10). Such early dismissals of De Witt came without qualification and sometimes without justification. In spite of this general consensus of inutility, T.S. Graves in 1912 and J. Le Gay Brereton in 1916 took (slightly) more positive views of the sketch. Certainly, the sketch is imperfect, but the overwhelmingly dismissive approach taken to it in the earlier half of the century was still more vehement than is warranted.
After about 1960, critics began to be more forgiving of De
Witt and van Buchell. A.J. Gurr in 1960, Richard Hosley in 1964 and 1967, George F.
Reynolds in 1967, and D.F.
Rowan in 1967 all approach the sketch as a useful source. These
mid-century articles tend to focus on particular aspects of the Swan sketch,
whether there are pillars or hangings under the stage, whether the scene
depicted is a rehearsal, and so on. Perhaps beginning with D.F. Rowan in 1967, such focus begins to be
abandoned in favour of sweeping metacritical articles, surveying—and sometimes
disproving—past impressions of the sketch. The Gleason article explored above is
one such, and Johan Gerritsen has
produced at least one metacritical article (not seen by author).
Recent criticism on the Swan sketch generally either follows the mid-century
trend of examining very specific features, or ventures into the metacritical. It
would be overly simplistic to suggest that there is any consensus about the
accuracy of the Swan sketch, for dialogue is ongoing. 2
Structure of the Swan
Unfortunately, our only source of information about the structure of the Swan
comes from a single sketch of questionable reliability. There is no critical
consensus about whether Arend van Buchell’s sketch
of the Swan, copied from a sketch by Johannes De
Witt, is an accurate representation of the theatre. Given this fact,
and given that the sketch itself is an interpretation (or, rather, an
interpretation of an interpretation), it is impossible to come to a reliable
conclusion about what the Swan looked like.
The problematic nature of our one source has not stopped critics from
hypothesizing about the Swan’s structure. Most critics do not provide detailed
information about how they have come to conclusions (or, rather, made guesses)
about the Swan’s structure, so we may assume that these guesses are based on
simple examination of the sketch. Some critics, however, have used measurements
of the sketch and mathematics to arrive at what may be more concrete conclusions
about the structure of the Swan (if we assume the sketch is correct). Of these
articles, one by Robert Hosley in particular attempts to clearly explain how
conclusions about the Swan’s structure are generated, both to ensure that the
sketch is clearly understood (by measuring it, rather than simply looking at
it), and also to take into account its possible limitations.
Hosley concludes that the Swan was a twenty-four sided polygon (
Stage Superstructures131). He supports De Witt’s estimation that the Swan had a capacity of around 3,000 audience members (
Elizabethan Theatres10–11). Hosley, who has created a scale reconstruction of the Swan, takes the sketch mostly at face value, with the exception of the apparent projection of the tiring house. Having calculated the effects of such projection on the audience’s ability to see the stage, he concludes that the tiring house must not have projected significantly, though the sketch implies that it does (
Stage Superstructures156).
It is overly simplistic either to rely completely on or to dismiss the Swan
sketch based on visual assessment of it alone, and it would also be overly
simplistic to assume that it is useful as a model for all Elizabethan theatres.
One critic, Scott McMillin, attempted to determine whether the plays staged at
the Rose could also have been staged at the Swan.
McMillin found that a very concentrated one third of the Rose plays contained stage directions using a raised structure more
complex than the gallery at the Swan, and using a discovery space or third door
(163). The other two thirds of the
Rose plays used no such spaces, and could have
been staged at the Swan.
McMillin concludes that either a temporary structure, perhaps a sort of pavilion,
could have been erected at either theatre, or the Rose had permanent structures not present at the Swan (163). The archaeological evidence
available for the Rose does not offer any
conclusion, except that the Rose’s stage was
indeed different from that suggested by the Swan sketch (165–66). Thus, both textual and physical evidence
suggest that the Swan sketch is not typical of Elizabethan theatres in general,
and therefore cannot be used in thinking about the structure of other theatres,
like the Rose. 3
Repertoire and Companies
Because the Swan was used for plays for less than a decade in total, its
repertoire, even were it known, would be small, and the number of companies who
played there would be few. No sources comparable to Henslowe’s diary of the Rose’s
quotidian activities survive from the business operations of the Swan. These and
other factors make it impossible to assign more than one play or more than two
companies to the Swan with any degree of certainty.
William Ingram makes an argument that one of the first companies to play in the
Swan was likely the Lord Hunsdon’s Men (Shakespeare’s company, at this point
under the patronage of George Carey, Lord Hunsdon) in 1596 (Brazen Age 142; see also 115–20 on the possible
formation in 1595 of a undocumented company that may have included Francis
Henslowe, Philip Henslowe’s nephew). This
contention is based on evidence that Shakespeare and Francis Langley (the Swan’s owner) were acquainted, on that
company’s need of a space at that time (they were about to lose the lease on the
Theatre and James Burbage had disastrously tied up
all his capital in the ill-fated Blackfriars
renovation), on our knowledge from De Witt that the
Swan was occupied during the 1596 season (assuming that De
Witt’s visit to London was in 1596), and on evidence that Henslowe’s profits were significantly lower than
normal that year (142–48). While
Ingram’s speculations are compelling, there is, finally, no incontrovertible
evidence that Shakespeare’s company played at the Swan.
Evidence from lawsuits between Francis Langley and
several players places the Earl of Pembroke’s Men at the Swan from February 1597
until July of the same year, and suggests that some (not all) of the company
continued to play there into the fall (153). One play has been strongly linked to this period: The Isle of Dogs, by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson. The play may have played a part in the
prohibition of plays near London in late July of 1597, but no absolute proof
presents itself either that the play was the cause of the prohibition, or that
the play was definitely played at the Swan (Brazen Age 176–84).
Lady Elizabeth’s company, according to Andrew Gurr, spent most of 1611 and 1612
travelling. From 1611 until perhaps 1614, the group was bonded to Henslowe, probably for use of his props and plays
(Shakespearian Playing Companies 398). It is
probably during this time that the company staged A Chaste Maid
in Cheapside, which was later published with the subtitle
A Pleasant conceited Comedy never before printed. As it hath beene often acted at the Swan on the Banke-side, by the Lady Elizabeth her Servants(Middleton A1r). This subtitle proves the presence of both the Lady Elizabeth’s Men and Chaste Maid at the Swan.
We have proof positive that the Earl of Pembroke’s Men and the Lady Elizabeth’s
Men played at the Swan, and that A Chaste Maid in
Cheapside was staged there. It is probable that The
Isle of Dogs was too. This meagre list is surely not long enough.
There must have been other plays, and there has been speculation about which
ones they were. D.F. Rowan makes passing reference to the plays of one Robert
Daborne, now lost, which might have been played at the Swan (45). A reference in Thomas
Dekker’s Satiromastix to Jonson playing Zulziman at the Swan has been
interpreted as proof that Soliman and Perseda (a play
that, if it ever existed, might have been written by Thomas Kyd) was played
there. However, the reference could also be to a character in The Isle of Dogs, so this rather tenuous claim cannot be taken as
proof (Rowan 45).
The Swan’s career was generally unsettled. No company stayed for a full year
before the sale of the playhouse in 1600, and it was not tenanted regularly
again until 1611. The playhouse changed hands in the meantime, and the
entertainment that did take place there was unpredictable. In 1602, Richard
Venner announced and advertised a performance of England’s
Joy to be acted at the Swan, but the whole thing was a sham. Venner
planned to collect the money at the door and then escape by river (Holland 193). The Swan canon is as
elusive as England’s Joy, if, that is, the theatre
could be said to have a canon in the first place. The playhouse was host to
plays for less than a decade, and during that time was played in by only two
companies that we can identify with certainty. It had no constant manager, as
the Rose did, to keep detailed and lasting
records. It is hardly surprising that no more certain record of the Swan plays
exists. 4
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside at the Swan
Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid
in Cheapside remains the only play that was certainly played at the
Swan. The 1630 printing bears the subtitle
A Pleasant conceited Comedy never before printed. As it hath beene often acted at the Swan on the Banke-side, by the Lady Elizabeth her Servants(Middleton A1r). If more of the Swan’s repertoire were available, ventures like Scott McMillin’s study of the Rose repertoire or Mary Bly’s study of the Whitefriars repertoire would be possible. Unfortunately, with only one play, it is impossible to say whether the printed stage directions are for the space, or simply visual guides for the reader of the play. McMillin divided the Rose plays into those with and those without uses of raised and enclosed spaces; following this method, Chaste Maid falls into the latter category. The play uses no raised spaces, and makes only one use of an enclosed space, when at the very beginning
a shop [... is] discovered(1.1.0 s.d.).
There has been much speculation about this discovery and how it was staged in a
theatre that seems, from the evidence of the De
Witt sketch, to have had no discovery space. Richard Hosley suggests that either of the doors on
the Swan stage could have been opened to discover a shop, while A.M. Nagler believes that a temporary pavilion
would have been used at all theatres of the time. Some early critics note that,
as this discovery is at the very beginning of the play, if the whole stage were
curtained, drawing back said curtains could
discovera shop that would stay on the main part of the stage throughout the play. Andrew Gurr has supported the idea of some kind of hanging (Shakespearean Stage 138). The only other point in the play at which an enclosed space could be required, the bed scene, neatly avoids the idea of the discovery space—the bed is
thrust out,not discovered (3.2.0 s.d.). Either of the Swan’s stage doors could have been used in this scene, if they were wide enough for a bed (and there is no evidence as to the size of the stage property bed). D.F. Rowan goes so far as to state that Chaste Maid is
tailored to the playing conditions pictured in the sketch(43).
Perhaps the most telling thing about Chaste Maid in
terms of the Swan is the play’s simplicity. Based on the De Witt sketch, the Swan theatre appears to have been relatively
simple. There is no discovery space, and no space for complicated raised scenes,
though simple scenes could have been staged in the gallery above the stage (McMillin 161). Chaste
Maid requires none of these features. The
discoveryof the shop could have been arranged without a typical discovery space, the bed scene could be played on the main stage, and there are no raised scenes at all. The simplicity of Chaste Maid does not necessarily provide proof that the Swan’s stage was as simple as the sketch implies, but it does not suggest any more complexity than the sketch. The play is well suited to what we think the Swan looked like. 5
For information about the Swan, 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 Swan.
Notes
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Cite this page
MLA citation
The Swan.The Map of Early Modern London, edited by , U of Victoria, 20 Jun. 2018, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/SWAN1.htm.
Chicago citation
The Swan.The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 20, 2018. http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/SWAN1.htm.
APA citation
The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/SWAN1.htm.
2018. The Swan. 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 - Knox, Alyssa ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - The Swan 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/SWAN1.htm UR - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/SWAN1.xml ER -
RefWorks
RT Web Page SR Electronic(1) A1 Knox, Alyssa A6 Jenstad, Janelle T1 The Swan 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/SWAN1.htm
TEI citation
<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#KNOX1"><surname>Knox</surname>, <forename>Alyssa</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">The Swan</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/SWAN1.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/SWAN1.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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Janelle Jenstad is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Janelle Jenstad is mentioned in the following documents:
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Alyssa Knox
AK
English 364, English Renaissance Drama, Spring 2006; BA honours student in English, University of Victoria.Roles played in the project
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Author
Contributions by this author
Alyssa Knox is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Alyssa Knox is mentioned in the following documents:
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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
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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:
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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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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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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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Martin D. Holmes 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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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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Thomas Dekker is mentioned in the following documents:
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Johannes de Witt 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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Philip Henslowe is mentioned in the following documents:
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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:
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Ben Jonson is mentioned in the following documents:
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Francis Langley is mentioned in the following documents:
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Matthäus Merian is mentioned in the following documents:
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Thomas Middleton is mentioned in the following documents:
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Gabriel Spencer
(b. 1576, d. 1598)Player with the Lord Admiral’s Men. Killed in a duel by Ben Jonson.Gabriel Spencer is mentioned in the following documents:
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Arendt van Buchell
Friend of Johannes de Witt. Known for having made a copy of de Wit’s sketch of the Swan Theatre.Arendt van Buchell is mentioned in the following documents:
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Claes van Visscher
Cartographer. Drew a map of London in 1616.Claes van Visscher is mentioned in the following documents:
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Sir John Spencer is mentioned in the following documents:
Locations
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Paris Garden Manor House 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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St. Mary Overie (Southwark Cathedral)
For information about St. Marie Overie (now known as Southwark Cathedral), 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 St. Marie Overie.St. Mary Overie (Southwark Cathedral) is mentioned in the following documents:
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Bankside is mentioned in the following documents:
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Paris Garden Stairs is mentioned in the following documents:
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Falcon Inn 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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Whitefriars
This page points to the district known as Whitefriars. For the theatre, see Whitefriars Theatre.Whitefriars is mentioned in the following documents:
Variant spellings
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Documents using the spelling
Swan
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Documents using the spelling
The Swan
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Documents using the spelling
the Swan