Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors of the Caroline era in London, England. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.
Beginnings
The company was formed in 1625, at the start of the reign of King Charles I of England, by theatrical impresario Christopher Beeston under royal patronage of the new queen, Henrietta Maria. They were sometimes called the Queen's Majesty's Comedians or other variations on their name. The company was founded after an eight-month closure of the London theatres due to bubonic plague. The Lady Elizabeth's Men, then called the Queen of Bohemia's Men, had been resident at Beeston's Cockpit Theatre up to the plague closing, and provided the foundation of the new organization.Success
Theatre manager Beeston had had several different companies acting in his Cockpit Theatre since opening it in 1617; it was with Queen Henrietta's Men that he achieved the level of success he desired. James Shirley became something like the house dramatist of the group; plays by Philip Massinger, John Ford, and Thomas Heywood were also important in their repertory. The company staged revivals along with new plays; their 1633 production of Marlowe's The Jew of Malta was a major success. They played The Witch of Edmonton early in 1636.In their 1625-36 heyday, the company gave 66 performances at Court, for which they were paid £900.
Personnel
At its start, the actors of the new company came from several different troupes then active. Richard Perkins had been with Queen Anne's Men at the Red Bull Theatre and briefly with the King's Men. His success as Barabas in The Jew of Malta cemented his reputation as a great tragic actor. William Robbins also came from what had been Queen Anne's Men. Robbins was the company's leading comic actor through the first phase of its existence.William Shearlock and Anthony Turner were other prominent members; they were holdovers from the Lady Elizabeth's company. Shearlock must have been a man of girth, since he performed the fat-man role of Lodam in Shirley's The Wedding. Apart from his other roles, Turner played a kitchen maid in Part 1 of Thomas Heywood's The Fair Maid of the West, one of the few cases in which a mature actor, rather than a boy player or a young man, is known to have played a female role.
In addition, the company included William Allen, Theophilus Bird, Hugh Clark, John Sumner, and Michael Bowyer. Bowyer handled leading-man roles; Hugh Clark was a boy player taking female roles, who later switched to adult male parts. Bird also played female roles for the company; he later married Beeston's daughter and was a successful actor both before and after the Interregnum. Allen and Sumner took significant supporting parts.
Six cast lists survive from five of the company's plays: from The Renegado, ''The Wedding, Robert Davenport's King John and Matilda, Thomas Nabbes's Hannibal and Scipio, and from both parts of Heywood's two-part Fair Maid of the West. Two actors, Allen and Bowyer, appear on all six lists, and five more, Clark, Perkins, Shearlock, Sumner, and Turner, appear on five — arguably a good indication of their durability and importance to the troupe.
Additional personnel included:
- Robert Axell played roles in
Change
In 1636 the company had a falling-out of some nature with their founder and manager, and moved to the rival Salisbury Court Theatre. Beeston had a reputation for breaking up theatre companies when it was in his interest to do so, as a way of maintaining control over recalcitrant and unruly actors; Philip Henslowe was accused of similar tactics in the previous generation. The mid-1630s was another difficult period for the theatrical profession, with a long theatre closure due to plague. The Queen Henrietta's company split apart during this time; but it was reconstituted in October 1637, with veterans Perkins, Sherlock, Turner, and Sumner, at the Salisbury Court. According to his own testimony, Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, was actively involved in rebuilding the Queen Henrietta's company; he apparently had a financial interest in the Salisbury Court Theatre.The rebuilt company retained the queen's name and patronage. On 6 March 1640, Turner collected £80 in the company's name for seven Court performances in 1638 and 1639. The company lasted until the theatres closed in September 1642 at the start of the English Civil War.
Repertory
The following list includes plays acted by Queen Henrietta's Men in the years cited, and gives an indication of the nature of their repertory:The Maid's Revenge, James Shirley, 1626The Wedding, Shirley, 1626-29The English Traveller, Heywood, 1627?The Martyred Soldier, Henry Shirley, 1627-35The Rape of Lucrece, Heywood, 1628The Witty Fair One, Shirley, 1628King John and Matilda, Davenport, 1628-29?The Grateful Servant, Shirley, 1629Hoffman, Henry Chettle, c. 1630If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Heywood c. 1630 Match Me in London, Thomas Dekker, c. 1630The Renegado, Massinger, 1630'Tis Pity She's a Whore, John Ford, 1630?The White Devil, John Webster, c. 1630The Fair Maid of the West, Heywood, 1630-31The Humorous Courtier, Shirley, 1631Love Tricks, Shirley, 1631Love's Cruelty, Shirley, 1631The Traitor, Shirley, 1631The Ball, Shirley, 1632Hyde Park, Shirley, 1632The Maid of Honour, Massinger, 1632Perkin Warbeck, Ford, 1632The Prisoners, Thomas Killigrew, 1632-35The Bird in a Cage, Shirley, 1633Covent Garden, Thomas Nabbes, 1633The Gamester, Shirley, 1633A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Massinger, c. 1633A Tale of a Tub, Ben Jonson, 1633The Young Admiral, Shirley, 1633The Example, Shirley, 1634Love's Mistress, Heywood, 1634The Opportunity, Shirley, 1634The Shepherd's Holiday, Joseph Rutter, 1633-35The Antiquary, Shackerley Marmion, c. 1635Hannibal and Scipio, Nabbes, 1635The Coronation, Shirley, 1635, 1639Chabot, Admiral of France, Chapman and Shirley, 1635The Honest Whore, Dekker and Thomas Middleton, c. 1635The Lady of Pleasure, Shirley, 1635Claricilla, Killigrew, 1635-36The Duke's Mistress, Shirley, 1636The Hollander, Henry Glapthorne, 1636The Antipodes, Richard Brome, 1636-38The English Moor, Brome, 1637Mirocosmus, Nabbes, 1637The Careless Shepherdess, John Goffe, c. 1638The Fatal Contract, William Heminges, 1638-39The Noble Stranger, Lewis Sharpe, 1638-40A Mad World, My Masters, Middleton, c. 1640Nineteen of the fifty-one works on the list are the work of James Shirley, the company's house dramatist through much of its existence.