The Loyal Subject is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy by John Fletcher that was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647 .
80-528: The play was acted by the King's Men ; the cast list added to the text in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 cites Richard Burbage , Nathan Field , Henry Condell , John Underwood , John Lowin , Nicholas Tooley , Richard Sharpe , and William Ecclestone – which indicates a production in the 1616–19 era, between 1616, when Field joined the company, and Burbage's death in March 1619. The company revived
160-506: A lavish performance of the Shakespeare/Fletcher Henry VIII . The Globe was rebuilt by the following spring, at a cost of £1400. The thatch roof was replaced with tile. During the winter of 1613–14 the company played at Court sixteen times. In 1614 Alexander Cooke and William Ostler both died; their places as sharers were taken, perhaps, by William Ecclestone and Robert Benfield . Ostler's death may have been sudden, and
240-453: A legacy in the 1603 will of Thomas Pope , and he witnessed the 1605 will of Augustine Phillips, whose sister he most likely married. Gough was never a prominent actor, and little is known about the roles he played. In one particular, the new patent was out of date the day it was issued. On 13 March 1619, Richard Burbage died. In April or May Joseph Taylor transferred from Prince Charles's Men to take Burbage's place; he would play Hamlet and
320-665: A license from the Master of the Revels . The sharers in the King's Men depended upon a crew of hired men to make their performances work. On 27 December 1624, Sir Henry Herbert issued a list of the company's 21 hired men who could not be arrested or "press'd for soldiers" without the allowance of the Lord Chamberlain or the Master of the Revels . The list includes supporting actors like Robert Pallant, musicians, and functionaries like Edward Knight
400-634: A play by Lope de Vega called El gran duque de Moscovia, written c. 1613. An extensive study of the relationship between the plays of Fletcher and Lope de Vega and their background in Russian history has been published by Ervin Brody. The setting may also have been inspired by his uncle Giles Fletcher the elder's treatise Of the Russe Commonwealth, published 1591 after the author's diplomatic work in Russia. The play
480-425: A requirement they flouted whenever possible, often with impunity.) In response to this local opposition, the King's Men obtained a renewal of their royal patent dated 27 March 1619. The patent named the twelve current shareholders in the company; in addition to the veterans Burbage, Lowin, Heminges, and Condell, the list includes William Ecclestone, Robert Gough, Richard Robinson, Nicholas Tooley, and John Underwood, and
560-503: A servant are attempting to keep the populace out of the palace as the masque is for the court alone. Calianax has been ‘humorous’ since his daughter's wedding was broken off and quarrels with Melantius and then with Amintor. The masque of Night and Cynthia (the Moon) is held with various songs, and Evadne and Amintor are taken to their wedding chamber. Outside the chamber Evadne's maid Dula jokes bawdily with her mistress, but Aspatia cannot join in
640-513: A significant portion of the company's repertory in the 1619–22 era. Fletcher's Women Pleased and the Fletcher/Massinger collaborations The Custom of the Country and The Little French Lawyer were acted by the King's Men in this period. Casts lists in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio give the same roster for all three plays: Taylor, Lowin, Underwood, Benfield, Tooley, Ecclestone, and
720-531: Is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher . It was first published in 1619 . The play has provoked divided responses from critics. The play's date of origin is not known with certainty. In 1611 , Sir George Buck , the Master of the Revels , named The Second Maiden's Tragedy based on the resemblances he perceived between the two works. Scholars generally assign the Beaumont/Fletcher play to c. 1608–1611. Scholars and critics generally agree that
800-513: Is arrested and tortured on suspicions that he aims at the throne. The general's son Theodor storms the royal palace and frees his father; the Duke repents, apologizes to Archas, and punishes Boroskie. The Duke's soldiers rebel, and are so disaffected that they intend to join the Tartars to overthrow their Duke; but the loyal Archas prevents them, and is even prepared to execute his son Theodor for treason before
880-428: Is greeted by the King's brother, Lysippus. Melantius expects to have returned to witness the wedding of his friend Amintor with Aspatia, his betrothed, but instead the King has ordered Amintor to marry Melantius's sister, Evadne, in order to honour her brother's military achievements. Aspatia is very melancholy at this, but the whole court is about to celebrate the wedding with a masque. Aspatia's aged father Calianax and
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#1732856059200960-437: Is planned. The King has summoned Evadne, but when she arrives at his bed chamber she finds him asleep. She soliloquises and then ties his arms to the bed. She wakes him and tells him she is going to kill him for his rape of her. The King doesn’t believe her, but she stabs him, makes sure he is dead, then leaves. The King's body is discovered and his brother Lysippus is proclaimed the new King. Melantius, his brother Diphilus, and
1040-614: Is reported to have played Othello and Richard III during his years with the company (which extended at least through 1642). Robert Gough died in 1624. Also in 1624, the King's Men gave their sensational production of Middleton's A Game at Chess , which ran for an unprecedented nine days straight (6–16 August, Sundays excepted), and also got them prosecuted and fined by the Privy Council . The company got into more trouble in December, for performing Massinger's The Spanish Viceroy without
1120-487: Is restrained. He promises to starve himself to death instead. The new King promises to rule ‘with temper’. Critics have varied widely, even wildly, in their responses to the play. Many have recognised the play's power, but have complained about the play's extremity and artificiality. (People who dislike aspects of Beaumont and Fletcher 's work will find those dislikes amply represented, even crystallised, in this play.) John Glassner once wrote that to display "the insipidity of
1200-460: Is set in Muscovy , which is ruled by an otherwise-unnamed Duke. The Duke is served by Archas, a capable and loyal general; but the Duke dismisses Archas from his post, because Archas once corrected the Duke's mistakes in a military exercise. When a Tartar invasion is imminent, however, the Duke must recall Archas, since the army refuses to fight without their commander. The evil counsellor Boroskie tells
1280-473: Is to stay away from her himself. Melantius enters and quarrels with Calianax again; after he leaves, not daring to challenge Melantius, Amintor enters and Melantius gets the secret out of him. He dissuades his friend from revenge and counsels patience, but once Amintor has left he begins to plot to kill the King. In order to do this he has to have control of the citadel which is governed by Calianax. The old man enters again and Melantius proposes common revenge for
1360-472: Is unknown, but it must have occurred in the 1616–19 era, between Field's joining the company and Burbage's death. Field may also have played the title role in George Chapman 's Bussy D'Ambois in this period. He is reported to have played the role at some time in his career, and the King's Men had the play in their repertory for many years. 1619 was a pivotal year in the company's history. The residents of
1440-407: Is unusually informative on this play: Sir George Buck was Herbert's predecessor as Master of the Revels in the 1610–22 period. Critics have debated whether Herbert would have re-licensed an old play unless it had been changed or revised in the interim; some scholars have supposed that Fletcher's play must have been revised for the 1633 revival – though no clear evidence of revision is found in
1520-522: The Admiral's/Palsgrave's Men in the Fortune Theatre fire of December 1621 (a disaster that was, for that company, the beginning of the end). 1609 was another plague year during which the company travelled, although nine plays were still performed at Court. (Royal patronage was an advantage in difficult times: special payments in times of plague were made to the company in 1603, 1608, 1609, and 1610.) 1610
1600-546: The Master of the Revels on 22 June 1622. On St. Stephen's Day , 26 December 1622, The King's Men acted another Fletcher/Massinger play, The Spanish Curate , at Court. 1623: The First Folio gives a list of names of the 26 "principal actors" in Shakespeare's plays, providing a fairly comprehensive roster of important members of the Lord Chamberlain's/King's Men through the previous thirty years. In addition to eight men on
1680-524: The prompter and John Rhodes the wardrobe keeper. The spring of 1625 brought a period of uncertainty. The new king, Charles I , had long had his own troupe of actors, Prince Charles's Men ; would he make them the new King's Men? The existing company's established prestige – they were widely recognised the best in the land – led to a continuance of royal patronage. The Prince Charles's company folded after their patron became king, with three of its members, Thomas Hobbs, William Penn, and Anthony Smith, joining
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#17328560592001760-412: The "oaths, profaneness, and public ribaldry" in their plays. And on 24 October, John Lowin and Eliard Swanston apologised to Herbert for giving offence. (Joseph Taylor and Robert Benfield were reportedly present at the meeting, but were uninvolved in either the offence or the apology; apparently Swanston and Lowin were in the cast of The Woman's Prize but Benfield and Taylor were not.) After this incident,
1840-461: The 1610–13 period. Shank may have taken Robert Armin's place in the King's Men after Armin's death in 1615. Shank also trained apprentices for the company – Thomas Holcombe, John Thompson , Thomas Pollard , and John Honyman . Robert Gough had been associated with the actors of the company perhaps as far back as 1591, when he may have been a boy player in The Seven Deadly Sins ; he received
1920-411: The 1679 Beaumont and Fletcher folio is the only surviving list that includes both Taylor and Condell. Not long after this, Condell must have retired from the stage. Another blow hit the company in the following year, 1620, when Nathaniel Field died at the young age of 33. His place as sharer was taken by John Rice . The works of Fletcher and his collaborators, especially Massinger, continued to make up
2000-554: The Blackfriars and the Globe, to his surviving family. Opposition from the King's Men's Blackfriars neighbours reached another peak around 1630. In 1631 a commission investigated the possibility of buying out the Blackfriars property, and concluded that the company's investment in the property, over the coming fourteen years of their unexpired lease, was £2900 13 s . 4 d . This figure, however, covered only theatre rent and interest; in response
2080-455: The Blackfriars represented an enormous advantage for the company. It allowed the company to perform year round instead of only in clement weather. The Blackfriars hall is thought to have been 66 by 46 feet (20 by 14 metres), including the stage; its maximum capacity was likely in the hundreds of spectators. This can be compared with the maximum capacity at the Globe Theatre of 2500 to 3000. Yet
2160-473: The Blackfriars to the Globe should have allowed the King's Men to at least double their income from public performances. Their new wealth allowed the King's Men to overcome major adversity: when the Globe Theatre burned down in 1613 (see below), the company could afford an expensive rebuild, replacing the vulnerable thatch roof with tile. The fact that the King's Men had a second theatre meant that they did not lose all their playscripts and costumes, as happened to
2240-609: The Chamber on 22 January 1641, along with Stephen Hammerton. With Massinger's death in 1640, the troupe also needed a new house dramatist; James Shirley was recruited for the job. The company staged Shirley's The Cardinal in 1641, and his The Sisters in the Spring of 1642. The production of Shirley's next work, The Court Secret , was prevented by the theatre closure in September 1642. The Maid%27s Tragedy The Maid's Tragedy
2320-425: The Duke intervenes. It is revealed that Archas's younger son has been living in disguise for his own safety, as Alinda, a servant of the Duke's sister. The idea of an extreme test of a subject's loyalty under outrageous royal misbehavior is one that Fletcher employs in other plays, including The Maid's Tragedy and Valentinian . Critics have studied Fletcher's as a socio-political commentary on his own culture:
2400-468: The Duke that Archas conceals a secret treasure, which was given to him by the Duke's father for safe keeping; Archas was to give it to the present Duke in time of need. The Duke takes possession of the treasure, and orders Archas to send his two daughters to Court. (One of the daughters, a supposed innocent, nonetheless manages to outwit and outmaneuver the dissipated Duke before he can seduce her; they end up married.) Based on Boroskie's false charges, Archas
2480-451: The King has difficulty believing him. In the ensuing scene with the whole court, Melantius easily outfaces Calianax's accusations and leaves him looking foolish. When everyone except these two leave, Calianax tells Melantius he has no option but to go along with the plot and hand over the citadel. Melantius expects Evadne to kill the King that night, but at this point Amintor enters talking wildly of revenge and Melantius has to pretend that none
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2560-482: The King's Men had their old play texts re-examined by Herbert for new productions, something that was previously not required. This meant more fees paid to Herbert. The text of Fletcher's play was repaired adequately by the next month, when the company performed The Taming of the Shrew and The Woman's Prize before the King and Queen at St. James's Palace on 26 and 28 November 1633. According to Herbert, Shakespeare's play
2640-570: The King's Men performing Ben Jonson's The Alchemist and describes Desdemona (in Othello) both of which had been performed earlier that year in London. The record is held at Corpus Christi and a copy can be viewed at the Folger Exhibition, Shakespeare Documented. In 1611 Jonson's Catiline was performed; apart from Richard Robinson's substitution for Armin, the cast roster was the same as for Sejanus
2720-424: The King's Men produced an itemised account of their investment, valuing the whole at £21,990, more than seven times as much as the commission's figure. The company's interest in the theatre was never bought out. Upon John Heminges' death in 1630, his shares in the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres passed to his son William. William Heminges's disposal of his shares five years later would cause a major controversy within
2800-416: The King's Men's leading playwright would be filled by Fletcher and his various collaborators through the coming years, with Philip Massinger assuming greater prominence in the 1630s. Nathan Field joined the company in 1616; already a prominent actor, he would go on to write plays for the King's Men in his all-too-brief career with the company. Nathan Field's contribution to the King's Men is illustrated by
2880-453: The King's Men. Though the early-to-mid-1620s was a period of economic depression in England, the King's Men prospered: the company had fifteen sharers in 1625. This abundance of personnel allowed the company to stage productions with larger casts than before [see: The Lover's Melancholy ; The Novella ]. Also in 1625, Richard Perkins terminated his brief period with the King's Men to become
2960-456: The Muscovy of the play is a version of the England of King James I . King%27s Men (playing company) The King's Men was the acting company to which William Shakespeare (1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , they became the King's Men in 1603 when King James I ascended the throne and became
3040-405: The banter and announces she will die of grief, taking a last farewell of Amintor when he enters. Left alone with her husband Evadne refuses to sleep with him and eventually reveals that the King has forcibly made her his mistress and has arranged this marriage to cover up her ‘dishonour’. Amintor is horrified, but agrees to go through with the charade of pretending to be a married couple. He sleeps on
3120-428: The boys Richard Sharpe and Thomas Holcombe. Around 1621, the King's Men performed The Duchess of Malfi again. When the play was first printed two years later, in 1623, the quarto featured a combined cast list for both the King's Men's productions, c. 1614 and c. 1621 (the latter occurred between the deaths of Burbage in 1619 and Tooley in 1623). Together these cast lists give a mixed picture of change and stability in
3200-462: The company in this era. In both productions, Tooley and Underwood played the Madmen in addition to their other roles. Along with the permanent company members or sharers, the cast included four hired men or boys, Pallant, Pollard, Sharpe, and Thompson; note also the doubling (and in the case of Pallant, more than doubling) of roles. The Fletcher/Massinger collaboration The Sea Voyage was licensed by
3280-428: The company's patron. The royal patent of 19 May 1603 which authorised the King's Men company named the following players, in this order: Lawrence Fletcher , William Shakespeare , Richard Burbage , Augustine Phillips , John Heminges , Henry Condell , William Sly , Robert Armin , Richard Cowley , "and the rest of their associates...." The nine cited by name became Grooms of the Chamber . On 15 March 1604, each of
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3360-399: The company; see 1635 below. The boy player Stephen Hammerton joined the King's Men in 1632. Richard Sharpe died in the same year; he was the boy actor who played in both productions of The Duchess of Malfi, and later graduated to young male leads, as Hammerton would do over the coming decade. In 1633, the company had difficulties with Sir Henry Herbert , the Master of the Revels , over
3440-551: The consequences of the prolonged theatre closing due to plague in 1636–37. Comedian John Shank died in 1636, as did Cuthbert Burbage. A royal warrant of 1636 reveals that Shakespeare's nephew William Hart (1600–39), the son of the poet's younger sister Joan, was an actor in the company at the time. In the later 1630s the company took up the practice of staging plays written by courtiers favoured by Queen Henrietta Maria , like William Cartwright 's The Royal Slave (1636) or Sir John Suckling's Aglaura (1637); they were rewarded with
3520-468: The content of their plays. On 19 October, Herbert forbad the performance of The Woman's Prize , Fletcher's sequel to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew , because of its "foul and offensive" content. The company acted the Fletcher/Beaumont play The Scornful Lady instead. On 21 October, Herbert addressed a letter to Edward Knight, the "book-keeper" or prompter of the company, on the subject of
3600-516: The end of July, among other stops. Nine performances at Court marked the winter of 1606-07, including a performance of 26 December of King Lear ; the following winter, 1607–08, saw thirteen Court appearances. From July to December 1608 the theatres were closed due to plague. The King's Men toured the countryside; they were in Coventry in late October. The Blackfriars Theatre , owned by the Burbage family,
3680-428: The fight she drops her guard deliberately and is fatally wounded. Evadne then enters with the bloody knife and asks Amintor to take her as his wife in actuality. He hesitates, leaves, and she stabs herself. He reenters to find her dead and the dying Aspatia reveals herself. He then stabs himself and dies. Finally Melantius, the new King, and the court enter and discover the bodies; Melantius tries to kills himself too but
3760-480: The first time Christopher Beeston acted with his old colleagues since leaving the Lord Chamberlain's Men nearly a decade earlier. In the winter of 1612–13, great Court festivities celebrating the marriage of the Elector Palatine to King James' daughter Princess Elizabeth were held. The King's Men gave 20 performances, including seven plays by Shakespeare ( Much Ado About Nothing twice), one by Jon Cardenio
3840-444: The floor. Aspatia is talking with her maids, advising them never to love. One of them has produced a tapestry of Theseus and Ariadne , a suitable theme for Aspatia's plight. Calianax enters and is angry at the situation, breathing threats against the men of the court. The morning after the wedding night some male courtiers are talking bawdily outside the chamber and are joined by Melantius. Evadne and Amintor emerge and continue with
3920-500: The hired men "of the company which I am of". (Phillips also leaves a bequest to Christopher Beeston , as a former "servant". Beeston was almost certainly another former apprentice.) The company gave ten court performances in the winter of 1605–06 and, unusually, three Court performances in the summer of 1606, during a state visit by the King of Denmark. Each Court performance earned them £10. They also toured that summer, and were in Oxford at
4000-413: The injuries that the King has done them both, but after he leaves Calianax resolves to go straight to the King with this information. Melantius goes to Evadne and forces her to reveal what has happened. He gets her to promise to kill the King. He leaves and Amintor enters, Evadne apologises for the situation, but doesn’t reveal she is to kill the King. Calianax has told the King of Melantius’ plot, however
4080-638: The lavish costumes of the productions. The company's repertory narrowed in this era; they produced fewer new plays, and those they did stage were mainly these subsidised courtly works. Their economic situation also worsened; from a high of fifteen in 1625, the number of sharers dropped to nine by 1636. Unable to foresee the coming collapse of 1642, the King's Men undertook a major expansion around 1640. They brought in five new men as actors and sharers: William Allen , Theophilus Bird , Michael Bowyer , Hugh Clark , and William Robbins . All five were veterans of Queen Henrietta's Men ; and all five were made Grooms of
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#17328560592004160-413: The leading man of the newly formed Queen Henrietta's Men . When the King's Men premiered Massinger's The Roman Actor late in 1626, the cast included a new boy player, John Honyman , aged 13. William Trigg was another boy playing female roles for the company in the 1626–32 period; but after that his activities are unknown. Henry Condell died in December 1627. He left shares in the company's theatres,
4240-489: The manuscript of that play reveals that Robert Gough was cast as Memphonius, while Richard Robinson was the Lady. On Sunday 12 and Monday 13 January 1612, the King's Men joined with Queen Anne's Men to give Court performances of two Queen's Men's plays by Thomas Heywood , The Silver Age and The Rape of Lucrece. No cast list for these performances has survived; but given the two companies' known personnel, this might have been
4320-424: The newest members, Nathan Field, Robert Benfield, and John Shank . Shank would be the company's primary clown in the years to come; his specialties were dancing and knockabout physical comedy. He was a veteran of several troupes over the previous decades, going back perhaps to Pembroke's Men and Queen Elizabeth's Men in the reign of Elizabeth; he had been with the Admiral's/Prince Henry's/Palsgrave's company in
4400-416: The nine men named in the patent was supplied with four and a half yards of red cloth for the coronation procession. In their first winter season, between December 1603 and February 1604 the company performed eight times at Court and eleven times in their second, from November 1604 through February 1605, including seven plays by Shakespeare and two by Ben Jonson . This represented a workload twice as great as
4480-456: The original 1603 royal patent (Shakespeare, Burbage, Heminges, Condell, Phillips, Cowley, Sly, and Armin), the list includes William Kempe , Thomas Pope , George Bryan , John Lowin , Samuel Crosse , Alexander Cooke , Samuel Gilburne , William Ostler , Nathan Field , John Underwood , Nicholas Tooley , William Ecclestone , Joseph Taylor , Robert Benfield , Robert Gough , Richard Robinson , John Shank , and John Rice. Sometime in 1623,
4560-617: The other great Shakespeare/Burbage roles. Yet Burbage was missed: in May 1619 the Lord Chamberlain, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke , wrote to a colleague that while others had gone to see a play, "I being tender-hearted, could not endure to see so soon after the loss of my old acquaintance Burbage." In August 1619, the company premiered its production of the controversial play John van Olden Barnavelt . And sometime in this immediate post-Burbage period, they must also have staged Fletcher's The Humorous Lieutenant . The cast list for that play in
4640-426: The play The Knight of Malta , which Field wrote with Fletcher and Massinger. The first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647 gives a list of the principal cast in the company's production of the play, which included Burbage, Field himself, John Underwood, Richard Sharpe, Henry Condell, Robert Benfield, John Lowin, and Thomas Holcombe. (Sharpe and Holcombe were boy actors with the company.) The date of this production
4720-504: The play in 1633 , and performed it at the Palace of Whitehall on the night of Tuesday, 10 December of that year, before King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria . The play was entered into the Stationers' Register in 1633, which normally preceded a publication; but the play remained out of print until 1647. Sir Henry Herbert , the Master of the Revels , left a note in his office book that
4800-510: The play is mostly the work of Beaumont; Cyrus Hoy , in his extensive survey of authorship problems in the Beaumont/Fletcher canon, assigns only four scenes to Fletcher (Act II, scene 2; Act IV, 1; and Act V, 1 and 2), though one of those is the climax of the play (IV, 1). The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 28 April 1619, and published later that year by the bookseller Francis Constable . Subsequent editions appeared in 1622 , 1630 , 1638 , 1641 , 1650 , and 1661 . The play
4880-431: The plot, its execrable motivation or the want of it, and the tastelessness of many of the lines one would have to reprint the play." Andrew Gurr , one of the play's modern editors, notes that the play "has that anomaly amongst Elizabethan tragedies, an original plot." Other critics have noted that the play introduces romance into the standard revenge tragedy , and that the play, even in its artificiality, has relevance to
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#17328560592004960-432: The pretense, but Amintor is so distressed he says various strange things and Melantius and Evadne notice. The King and courtiers enter and he quizzes the couple; Amintor's answers are so smooth that the King grows jealous and he dismisses everyone except Evadne and Amintor. He satisfies himself that the couple have not slept together and he lets Amintor know the rules: he is to allow Evadne to come to him whenever he wants and
5040-517: The previous year. This may have been John Heminges' last production; in 1613 he's described as "stuttering." Heminges normally received the payments for the company's Court performances, as far back as 1595; he continued to be active in the company's financial affairs even after he left the stage. Between October 1611 and April 1612 the King's Men performed 22 plays at Court, including The Winter's Tale and The Tempest . Their connection with The Second Maiden's Tragedy also dates from this period;
5120-418: The sixteen shares in the Globe, Cuthbert Burbage and Mrs. Robinson each owned three and a half shares, Shank had three, and Taylor, Lowin, and Mrs. Condell each owned two. Herbert ordered the existing shareholders to sell shares to Swanston, Benfield, and Pollard, though Burbage and Shank resisted. The King's Men accompanied Charles I on a royal progress in 1636. In so doing they evaded, at least to some degree,
5200-516: The text. The play's Prologue and Epilogue are thought to date from the 1633 production, and are perhaps the work of Fletcher's longtime collaborator Philip Massinger . Scholars have devoted significant attention to the question of Fletcher's sources for his play. Fletcher modeled his play on an earlier work by Thomas Heywood titled The Royal King and the Loyal Subject, first published in 1637 but written two or three decades earlier. He also used
5280-508: The theatre shares he'd inherited from his father upon John Heminges's death (1630). He sold (clandestinely, perhaps) two shares in the Blackfriars and three in the Globe to King's Man John Shank, for £506. In response to the sale, three other King's Men, Eliard Swanston, Thomas Pollard, and Robert Benfield, appealed to the Lord Chamberlain (then Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke ) for a chance to buy shares for themselves. Several documents in this matter, including back-and-forth statements from
5360-441: The three petitioners and from Cuthbert Burbage and John Shank, still exist; they contain abundant information on the company's business c. 1635. When the petitioners began their campaign, the eight Blackfriars shares were distributed this way: Shank held two, and Taylor, Lowin, Underwood, Cuthbert Burbage, Mrs. Condell (Henry Condell's widow), and Winifred Robinson (Richard Burbage's widow and Richard Robinson's wife) had one each. Of
5440-461: The ticket prices at the Blackfriars were five to six times higher than those at the Globe. Globe tickets ranged from a penny to sixpence (1 d . to 6 d .); tickets at the Blackfriars ranged from sixpence to two shillings sixpence (6 d . to 2 s . 6 d .; 1 shilling = 12 pence). The cheapest admission at the Blackfriars equalled the most expensive at the Globe; the most expensive seat at the Blackfriars cost five times as much as its Globe counterpart. Adding
5520-457: The unwilling Calianax are standing on the citadel explaining to the populace why the King was killed. The new King enters, and after some negotiation the three agree to give up the citadel in return for a pardon. Aspatia enters the palace dressed as a man seeking Amintor. When she finds him she pretends to be a brother of hers looking to fight Amintor to avenge the insult offered to his sister. After much provocation she gets him to fight, but during
5600-410: The upscale Blackfriars neighbourhood, many of whom were wealthy and influential politically and socially, had never been happy about the presence of a theatre in their midst; in the spring of 1619 they complained more loudly than usual about the traffic problems associated with the theatre, which blocked access to the local churches. (All the playing companies were required to cease activity during Lent –
5680-672: The veteran clown William Rowley joined the King's Men for the final two years in his stage career. He would play the Fat Bishop in the next year's A Game at Chess . Richard Perkins , a leading actor from Queen Anne's Men and the Red Bull company, also joined the King's Men late in 1623. 1624: Eliard Swanston left the Lady Elizabeth's Men to join the King's Men. Previous Lady Elizabeth's veterans to join include Nathan Field, John Rice, and (via Prince Charles's Men ) Joseph Taylor. Swanston
5760-412: Was "liked", but Fletcher's play was "very well liked." On 7 April 1634, the King's Men played George Chapman 's Bussy D'Ambois at Court. The title role was reportedly played by Eliard Swanston; Joseph Taylor, at this point in his career, was too "grey" for the role of a young firebrand. The company played the same play at Court again on 27 March 1638. In the early 1630s, William Heminges sold off
5840-710: Was a better year, with public performances at the Globe – Othello and Jonson's Sejanus among others. By this time the company had been augmented by John Underwood and William Ostler , both veterans of the Children of the Chapel /Queen's Revels company. The company left London and performed in Oxford in August, 1610. They were paid by the Oxford Municipal Authorities. A letter by Oxford student at Corpus Christi, Henry Jackson and dated September 1610 and in latin, describes
5920-485: Was both revived and adapted after the London theatres re-opened with the Restoration (1660), as were many of Fletcher's plays. On 18 August 1660, Samuel Pepys saw a production that featured Edward Kynaston , the last of the famous boy actors of the century, in the role of the Duke's sister. (Pepys thought that Kynaston "made the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life, only her voice not very good.") The Loyal Subject
6000-465: Was later included in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 . The texts of the first quarto of 1619, and the second of 1622, are usually synthesized to create modern editions, since Q2 contains eighty lines not included in Q1, plus a couple of hundred changes and corrections on Q1. Melantius, a young general, returns from a military campaign which he has just concluded, winning peace for Rhodes. He
6080-459: Was one of the first dramas staged by Thomas Betterton , and was one of his earliest successes. Fletcher's play was adapted into a version titled The Faithful General by a woman who identified herself as M. N.; among other changes, she shifted the setting from Russia to Byzantium . Her version was acted and printed in 1706. Thomas Sheridan made a prose adaptation that was staged in Dublin . The play
6160-419: Was organised into a partnership in August that year, with five of the seven shares going to members of the King's Men – Shakespeare, Burbage, Heminges, Condell, and Sly. Sly, however, died soon after, and his share was split among the other six. (The two non-actors involved in the arrangement were Cuthbert Burbage , Richard's brother, and Thomas Evans, agent for theatre manager Henry Evans .) The acquisition of
6240-535: Was performed again at Court on 8 June 1613, before the ambassador from Savoy. The second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 provides partial cast lists for three King's Men productions from the c. 1613 period, for Fletcher's Bonduca and Valentinian and the Beaumont and Fletcher collaboration The Captain . On 29 June 1613, the Globe Theatre burned down, its thatch roof set afire by squibs set off during
6320-504: Was problematic in that he died intestate. His father-in-law, John Heminges, seized control of his theatre shares. Ostler's widow, Thomasine Heminges Ostler, sued her father in 1615 for control of the shares – a suit that was apparently unsuccessful. In the winter of 1614–15 the King's Men performed at Court only eight times, half their workload of the previous year. During the next winter, 1615–16, they were back up to fourteen Court performances. On 23 April 1616, Shakespeare died. His role as
6400-423: Was typical under Elizabeth . The King's Men needed more men, and in 1604 the number of sharers was increased from eight or nine, ten, eleven and twelve. The new sharers included John Lowin , Alexander Cooke , and Nicholas Tooley . May 1605 brought the death of Augustine Phillips. In his will, Phillips left legacies to Shakespeare, Burbage, and eight other members of the company, plus two apprentices, and £5 to
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