1 Stephen Orgel, ‘A View from the Stage’ in From Script to Stage in Early Modern England, ed. byPeter Holland and Stephen Orgel (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p.2.
2 Claire Sponsler, ‘Drama in the Archives: Recognizing Medieval Plays’, in Holland & Orgel, pp.112 – 13.
3 In his comprehensive Dramatic Documents of the Elizabethan Playhouses, W. W. Greg refers to the ‘elegant professional hand’ of the scribe Ralph Crane in his analysis of the prompt-book of Fletcher & Massinger’s St. John van Olden Barnavelt. W. W. Greg, Dramatic Documents of the Elizabethan Playhouses (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931), p.268. Professional scribes wrote not only for the playhouses, but undertook legal and ecclesial scrivening too; Ralph Crane is known to have written Richard Burbage’s will.
4 David Bradley, From Text to Performance in the Elizabethan Theatre: Preparing the Play for the Stage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p.2.
5 Andrew Gurr, The Shakespearean Stage 1574 – 1642, 3rd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.192-3.
6 W. W. Greg, Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931), p.194.
7 Written by Ben Jonson and first performed on 31st October 1614 at the Hope by the Lady Elizabeth’s Men.
8 Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair (London: Nick Hern Books Ltd., 1997), p.4.
9 Stage-Keeper: But these Master Poets, they will ha’ their own absurd courses; they will be informed of nothing! He has, sir reverence, kicked me three or four times about the Tiring-house, I thank him, for but offering to put in, with my experience. I'll be judged by you, gentlemen, now, but for one conceit of mine! Would not a fine pump upon the Stage ha’ done well, for a property now? And a punk set under upon her head, with her stern upward, and ha’ been soused by my witty young masters o’ the Inns o’ Court? What think you o’ this for a show, now? He will not hear o’ this! I am an ass! I! And yet I kept the stage in Master Tarleton's time, I thank my stars. Ho! And that man had lived to have played in Bartholomew Fair, you should ha’ seen him a-come in, and ha’ been cozened i’ the cloth-quarter, so finely! And Adams, the Rogue, ha’ leapt and capered upon him, and ha’ dealt his vermin about, as though they had cost him nothing. And then a substantial watch to ha’ stolen in upon ’em, and taken ’em away, with mistaking words, as the fashion is in the stage-practice. 10 Jonson, Bartholomew Fair,pp.4 – 5.
11 Those with a share in the ownership or management of a theatre and/or theatre company were known as ‘sharers’; those employed on a casual basis were known as ‘hirelings’. It is not evident whether any book keeper became a sharer in an Elizabethan or Jacobean theatre company; however, it is clear from the extent of duties undertaken by the book keepers and the closeness of their responsibility to the company’s stock of promptbooks that a continuity in the employment of the company’s book keeper would have been desirable. For further discussion of this issue, see G.E. Bentley, The Profession of Player in Shakespeare’s Time, 1590 –
1642 (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 80-1, and Jane Milling, ‘The development of a professional theatre, 1540 - 1660’, in The Cambridge History of British Theatre, ed. by Jane Milling and Peter Thomson, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Volume 1, Origins to 1660, p.152.
12 John Russell Brown, Free Shakespeare (Huntington: A&C Black, 1997), p.52. 13 Stern, Shakespeare to Sheridan, pp.94-5.
14 Gerald Eades Bentley, The Profession of Player in Shakespeare’s Time, 1590 – 1642 (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984) pp. 80-1.
15 ‘Musicians and Necessary Attendants’, of whom twenty-four were recorded in a list made by the Master of the Revels, Henry Herbert, on 27th December 1624, could not be arrested or pressed for soldiers without the consent of the Lord Chamberlain or the Master of the Revels. Edward Knight is listed as ‘Book-Keeper; Necessary Attendant’ on this list; one Anthony Knight is also recorded as a necessary attendant of the company, as is John Rhodes, possibly the King’s Men Tireman.
16 Jane Milling, ‘The development of a professional theatre, 1540 - 1660’ in Jane Milling and Peter Thompson (ed.s), The Cambridge History of British Theatre, Volume 1: Origins to 1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p.152. 17 Glynne Wickham, ‘Documents of control, 1530-1660’ in Theatre in Europe: a
documentary history, 5 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). 18 R. A. Foakes, ‘Henslowe’s Rose / Shakespeare’s Globe’ in Holland & Orgel, p.27. 19 Gurr, Shakespearean Stage, p.194.
20 Greg, pp. 1 – 3.
21 Foakes, ‘Henslowe’s Rose / Shakespeare’s Globe’ in Holland & Orgel, p.15 22 Gurr, Shakespearean Stage,p.36.
23 Bradley, p.2.
24 SeeGreg, Dramatic Documents pp. 189–308,where this is discussed at length. 25 Roslyn Lander Knutson, ‘Working Playwrights, 1580 – 1642’ in Milling &
Thompson, p.360.
26 British Library Add.MS.10,449, Stage-Plots of Old Plays.
27 Philip Butterworth, Theatre of Fire: Special Effects in Early English and Scottish Theatre (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1998), p.32.
28 Ibid., p.26. From the Mystery of St. Martin at Seurre, 1496. 29 Greg, p.xii.
30 Ibid., pp.189-90.
31 This is an established term used by other scholars to describe not notes which refer to the actual prompting of lines to performers, of which there are very few, if any, but to all annotations made by the person keeping the book relating to blocking, mood, props, furniture, costume, or alterations to the text. Any kind of note, in fact, made by the person keeping the book of the play in relation to the staging of that play.
32 Greg, p.190. Greg states that there were fifteen such manuscripts; the fifteenth, John A Kent and John A Cumber, is no longer held at the British Library and so was not analysed as part of this study. The manuscript is now in the Huntington Library in America.
33 Chronologically, as follows:
Edmond Ironside, or, War Hath Made All Friends c1590 – 1600 Playwright, company and playhouse unknown.
Richard II, or, Thomas of Woodstock c1592-5 Playwright, company and playhouse unknown. Sir Thomas More c1593
Contributing playwrights believed to be Anthony Munday, Henry Chettle, Thomas Haywood, William Shakespeare, and Thomas Dekker; believed to have been performed by the Lord Strange’s Men at the Rose.
Charlemagne, or, The Distracted Emperor c 1605 Playwright, company and playhouse unknown. The Second Maiden’s Tragedy licensed 1611 by Thomas Middleton and possibly Philip Massinger;
the King’s Men, believed performed at the Globe / Blackfriars.
Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt 1619
by John Fletcher and possibly Philip Massinger; the King’s Men, believed performed at the Globe / Blackfriars.
The Two Noble Ladies and the Converted Conjurer c1622-3
Playwright unknown, believed performed by the King’s Revels Men at the Red Bull.
The Welsh Embassador c1623
by Thomas Dekker and possibly John Ford, believed performed by the Lady Elizabeth’s Men at the Cockpit.
The Captives 1624
by Thomas Heywood; the Lady Elizabeth’s Men, believed performed at the Cockpit. The Parliament of Love 1624
by Philip Massinger, the Lady Elizabeth’s Men, believed performed at the Cockpit.
The Honest Man’s Fortune first written 1613; this MS Licensed 1624/5
by Philip Massinger, John Fletcher, and Nathan Field, believed first performed by the Lady Elizabeth’s Men at the Whitefriars; this MS believed performed by the King’s Men, Globe / Blackfriars.
Believe As You List licensed 1631
by Philip Massinger; the King’s Men, believed performed at the Globe / Blackfriars. The Launching of the Mary licensed 1633
by Walter Mountford; company and playhouse unknown. The Lady Mother licensed 1635
by Henry Glapthorne; the King’s Revels Men at the Salisbury Court Playhouse. 34 These manuscripts were, in alphabetical order, as follows:
Believe As You List licensed 1631 BL MS Egerton 2828 (microfilm)
Charlemagne, or, The Distracted Emperor c1605 BL MS Egerton 1994
Edmond Ironside, or, War Hath Made All Friends c1590 - 1600 BL MS Egerton 1994
Richard II, or, Thomas of Woodstock c1592-5 BL MS Egerton 1994
Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt 1619 BL Add.MS. 18653
Sir Thomas More c1593 BL Facsimile J.S.Farmer, 1910 The Captives 1624
BL MS Egerton 1994
The Honest Man’s Fortune licensed 1624/5 NAL Dyce MS.9 (25F.9)
The Lady Mother licensed 1635 BL MS Egerton 1994
The Launching of the Mary licensed 1633 BL MS Egerton 1994
The Parliament of Love 1624 NAL Dyce MS.39
The Second Maiden’s Tragedy licensed 1611 BL MS Lansd.807
The Two Noble Ladies c1622-3 BL MS Egerton 1994
The Welsh Embassador c1623
BL MS Facs.249 (rotograph) and CCL MS.4.12 (original manuscript).
BL denotes manuscript held at the British Library, London.
NAL denotes manuscript held at the National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
CCL denotes manuscript held at Cardiff Central Library.
35 See J. M. Nosworthy, ‘Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More’ in Review of English Studies (1955), vol VI ( No. 21) p.12.
36 It is possible that the ‘Q’ stands for ‘cue’, as in the contemporary understanding; Shakespeare writes: ‘Pyramus, enter; your cue is past: it is ‘never tire’ . . . in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, suggesting that this usage was in the vocabulary of the time.
37 Possibly from 1591 until 1624, when he died. 38 Greg, p.268.
39 National Art Library (Victoria & Albert Museum), MS Dyce 9(25F.9).
40 Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), p.76.
41 William Gascoyne is listed as a ‘Necessary Attendant’ on Herbert’s list of 27th December 1624.
42 Andrew Gurr, The Shakespeare Company 1595 – 1642 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p.122.
43 Thomas Hobbs and Curtis Greville were actors and hired men from 1626 until 1637 and 1633 respectively; in 1634, Greville became a sharer in the King’s Revels Men. 44 Eliard Swanston played with the King’s Men from 1624.
45 Thomas Pollard was an actor and sharer with the King’s Men (dates unknown). 46 Joseph Taylor joined the King’s Men in 1619.
47 Richard Robinson joined the King’s Men in 1611.
48 John Lowin is believed to have played with the King’s Men from 1603, and to have become a sharer in 1604.
49 Robert Benfield was a member of the King’s Men between 1616 – 1619. 50 Greg, p.307.
51 Whilst usage of the term ‘blocking’ is anachronistic in the context of this period, it will be used throughout this thesis as the industry-standard term for the recording of cast movements in the promptbook, at the point in the text at which they were to occur.
52 This can be evidenced by the extensive inventory compiled by Henslowe in the spring of 1598. See R. A. Foakes, Henslowe’s Diary, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 317 - 25.
53 Foakes, Henslowe’s Diary, pp. 319-320. 54 Butterworth, Theatre of Fire p.12.
55 Gurr discusses at length the means by which gruesome stage effects were realised, stating that: ‘many other realistic details testify to the esteem the players had for realism on this level. In the plot of the Admiral’s Battle ofAlcazar three characters are executed and disembowelled on stage. [ . . . ] Some plays had execution scenes involving decapitation. [ . . . ] A list of other realistic devices in staging might include the appearance of the mariners ‘wet’ after the shipwreck in The Tempest, a device also used in the horse-courser scene of Faustus. Smoke was provided to make mists and fog . . . Realism could easily be supplied by means of noises off, and was.’ Gurr, Shakespearean Stage,3rd edn pp.182 – 4.
56 Ibid., p.187.
57 Orgel, ‘A View from the Stage’ in Holland & Orgel, p.6.
58 Known as the livre de conduite du régisseur (the current French name for the job title of stage manager) from the play Le Mystère de la Passion by Arnoul Gréban; it includes le compte des dépenses or account of all expenditure for the production. The implicit suggestion that the régisseurconducted the performance is significant. 59 Hendrik Baker, Stage Management and Theatrecraft: A Stage Manager’s Handbook
(London: J. Garnett Miller, 1968), pp. 51 – 2.