The True Prince
Page 25
“Here we are!” cried Robin, as Whitehall gardens swept into view. “God guide the issue, as Master Heminges says.”
Gregory laughed. “Die all, die merrily, as Hotspur says.”
Robin turned to me. “What does Richard say?”
I could no longer resist their joy and goodwill. The grip of sorrow loosened, its cold memory trailing behind in the waters of the Thames. I raised a fist, croaking, “Esperance!”
They glanced at each other, then raised their hands likewise, clasping mine. “Esperance!”
The major events affecting Shakespeare's Company that I have presented in this story are all true: the change in the Company's name, their landlord problems, Henry Brooke's complaint against the portrayal of Sir John Oldcastle, and the midnight dismantling of the Burbages' Theater.
The new theater to come would be called the Globe. Giles Allen, who was not one to live and let live, sued the Company for “stealing” his building, and the case dragged on in court for years. Meanwhile, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, Will Kempe, Thomas Pope, William Shakespeare, and the Burbage brothers set up a management arrangement that was unusual for its time: they divided the business into ten shares, with five of the players taking one share each and the Burbages taking five. The sharers took all responsibility for expenses, profits, and ownership of the building. Peter Street completed the Globe in the spring of 1599, at a cost of about 400 pounds—much less than the price tag would have been if he had used all new lumber. One of the first plays performed at the Globe was Henry V, continuing the adventures of “Royal Hal,” but without Falstaff. Sir John dies offstage early in the play, and it's implied that he lost heart after Hal cut him off so abruptly. But the public, or perhaps the Queen herself, could not let Falstaff go that quietly, so Shakespeare wrote him into a comedy called The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Court rivalry in Elizabeth's time was every bit as vicious as presented here. The elderly Queen was not expected to live more than a few years, and ambitious men and women were maneuvering to win fame and fortune while they could. Younger nobles flocked to the Earl of Essex, who was handsome and dashing and something of a military hero. The Queen showered favors on him, but relied more on her Secretary of State, Lord Burghley. Cliques tended to form around these two men. Intrigue at court affected the theater companies of London, who depended on their noble patrons both for status and for protection from the city's mayor and aldermen (who generally didn't approve of the theater). For Shakespeare's Company to lose the title of Lord Chamberlain's Men was a drop in prestige for them, but their fortunes improved when William Brooke died and the Queen appointed their patron, Lord Hunsdon, as the new Lord Chamberlain.
Philip Tewkesbury is fictional, and so is the “Putrid Play,” but the Epilogue of Henry IV, Part Two contains this reference: “Be it known to you, as it is very well, I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it and to promise you a better [one].” No one has been able to identify this displeasing play, so I invented one of my own.
While most of the events are true, I've nudged a few dates together to tell this particular story. We know (thanks to the legal proceedings initiated by Giles Allen) that the Theater was dismantled in the dark of night in late December of 1598. However, William Brooke held the office of Lord Chamberlain from 1596 until his death in 1597, so the Company's brief stint as the Lord Hunsdon's Men would have happened earlier than represented here. It is most likely that the first performances of the Henry IV plays took place a year or two earlier as well. But the plays' themes of honor and reputation fit so well with the story I wanted to tell, and the parallels to the renaming of Shakespeare's Company and the dismantling of their Theater were so interesting, that I couldn't resist bringing them all together. I like to think that Shakespeare, who frequently did the same sort of thing himself, wouldn't mind.
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Copyright © 2002 by J. B. Cheaney
Map by Susan Simon, adapted by Kayley LeFavier
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