|
The Admiral's Men (more strictly, the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after 1612, the Elector Palatine's Men or the Palsgrave's Men) was a theatre company in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, generally considered the second most important acting troupe of English Renaissance theatre (after the company of Shakespeare, the Lord Chamberlain's or King's Men). They were first known as the Lord Howard's Men, named after their patron Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham. When Howard became England's Lord High Admiral in 1585, the group's name was changed to reflect his new title. The main actor of the Admiral's Men was Edward Alleyn; their manager was Philip Henslowe. The group acted in the plays of Christopher Marlowe, such as Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus, and also staged plays by George Chapman and William Haughton. The Rose was home to the Admiral's Men for several years. Henslowe had interests in other theatres, including the Fortune Theatre (built in 1600), and when the lease ran out on The Rose in 1605 it was abandoned. The move to the Fortune also allowed the Admiral's Men to re-organize into something closer to a "free association" structure, like that of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and thus to lessen, to some degree, Henslowe's control over their finances. This gave them a greater stability, allowing the troupe to last longer than many of their competitors. In 1603, when the House of Stuart succeeded to the throne of England, the Admiral's Men acquired a new patron, Prince Henry Frederick (1594-1612), later the Prince of Wales (1610-12). They were known as Prince Henry's Men until the Henry's early death (November 6, 1612), after which they came under the patronage of his new brother-in-law, Frederick V, Elector Palatine. The retirement of Alleyn in 1604, and Henslowe's death in 1616, were major developments in the company's history. The company nonetheless persisted for years, but disbanded by 1631.
Reference F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964. | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |