85
Theater on the edge
Although the Lord Chamberlain’s
Men often performed before the
queen, theater life was precarious.
The company was always playing
cat-and-mouse with authorities
keen to control what they saw
as salacious entertainment, and
theaters stayed on marginal land
beyond the city walls. In 1598, the
landlord of a Shoreditch playhouse
known as The Theatre demanded
a huge rise in rent, then decided to
tear down the building altogether.
Shakespeare’s company secretly
dismantled it beam by beam and
carried the timbers over the river to
Southwark to erect a new theater,
The Globe, which was owned by
the company. The Globe was an
instant triumph. In its opening year,
1599, it saw performances of Julius
Caesar, As You Like It, Henry V, andHamlet. The company’s worries,
however, went beyond capricious
landlords. Theater at this time
could be political dynamite, and
actors faced a constant battle to
get scripts past the Master of the
Revels, who vetted every play.Dangerous times
Just how far this censorship went
is clear from the cuts made to the
script of Sir Thomas More. This
play, which Shakespeare had a
hand in but which has several
authors, portrays the Chancellor
of King Henry VIII, who refused
to grant the king a divorce, in a
favorable light. Some have argued
that Shakespeare was a Catholic
rebel, who stuffed his plays with
coded symbols designed to evade
the censor but convey a powerful
message to anyone who understoodthem. If this is true, he was
playing a risky game. It is true that
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were
not afraid of political controversy.
On February 7, 1601, Sir Gelly
Meyrick, acting on behalf of the
Earl of Essex, commissioned a
special performance of Richard II at
The Globe, including the scenes in
which the monarch is deposed and
murdered—scenes too incendiary
to publish at the time. The
performance went ahead, and the
very next day the Earl of Essex led
a small army toward Whitehall
Palace to bring down the queen
and replace her with James VI of
Scotland. Essex’s revolution ended
in farce and the Earl was executed.
It could all have turned out badly for
Shakespeare and the Chamberlain’s
Men, but somehow they managed
to escape punishment. ■THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN
1598
1598
1599 1600 1601
1599 1601 1602
Much Ado About
Nothing is written.
Shakespeare’s name
becomes a selling
point and appears on the
title pages of the quarto
editions of his plays.
Shakespeare acts in
Ben Jonson’s play Every
Man in His Humour at
the Curtain Theatre.The Globe Theatre
is built in Southwark.
The actors, including
Shakespeare, are
shareholders.Sir Thomas More
is written, but is
probably never
staged due to
censorship and the
huge cast required.The rebellion
against Elizabeth I
by her one-time
favorite Essex is
crushed and he
is beheaded.The poet Edmund
Spenser dies.
The Bishop’s Ban
prohibits satire in a
large selection of
literary works.Twelfth Night is written.
A special performance
of Richard II is staged
at The Globe, perhaps
to incite the deposition
of the Queen.Troilus and Cressida
is written.