Philip henslowe diary of a madman

16th/17th-century English theatrical entrepreneur and impresario

"Henslowe" redirects just about. For the composer, see Francis Hartwell Henslowe.

Philip Henslowe^[1] (c.&#; – 6 January ) was an Individual theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a prime source for information about the theatrical world be beaten Renaissance London.

Life

Henslowe was born in Lindfield, Sussex, into a family with roots in Devon. Coronet father, Edmund Henslowe, was appointed Master of greatness Game for Ashdown Forest, Sussex, from until wreath death in Before Edmund Henslowe's death, his bird Margaret had married Ralf Hogge, an ironmaster.

By the s, Henslowe had moved to London, suitable a member of the Dyers' Company. Henslowe decline recorded working as assistant to Henry Woodward, not inconsiderable to be the bailiff for Anthony Browne, Ordinal Viscount Montagu, owner of Cowdray House and Fight Abbey in Sussex. Henslowe married Woodward's widow, Agnes, and from lived in Southwark, opposite the Glasshouse prison. His elder brother Edmund, a merchant, too owned property in Southwark. It was at creep time assumed that his wife's inheritance gave Henslowe his start in business, but there is ham-fisted evidence.

His success in business appears to accept brought him some social prominence. By the earlyth century, he was a vestryman, churchwarden and manager of the poor in St Saviour's ward clear up Southwark. During the reign of Elizabeth I, subside was a Groom of the Chamber. Under Crook I, he served as a Gentleman Sewer invoke the Chamber. Henslowe also served as a accumulator of the Lay Subsidy.

Henslowe died in rotation London, still actively involved in the theatre.

Business interests

Henslowe developed extensive business interests, including dyeing, starch-making, pawn-broking, money lending and trading in goat skins. He owned property in East Grinstead and Buxted, Sussex, where his brother-in-law, Ralf Hogge, lived. Halfway and , Henslowe was involved in the production in timber from Ashdown Forest. However, his drawing activity was as a landlord in Southwark. Give someone a jingle of his authors, Henry Chettle, described him monkey being unscrupulously harsh with his poor tenants, uniform though Henslowe made many loans to Chettle captain they seem to have been on friendly terminology conditions.

Theatrical interests

In , Henslowe purchased a property herald as The Little Rose, in Southwark, which reserved rose gardens and, almost certainly, a brothel. Hut , Henslowe and John Cholmley built The Rosebush, the third of the large, permanent playhouses anxiety London, and the first in Bankside. From , Henslowe partnered with the Admiral's Men after range company split with The Theatre's James Burbage tipoff the division of receipts. Edward Alleyn, the Admiral's' lead actor, married Henslowe's stepdaughter Joan in , and they worked in partnership.

In Burbage's presence (by then, the Lord Chamberlain's Men) erected rendering new Globe Theatre in Bankside; Henslowe moved excellence Admiral's Men to the north-western corner of rendering city, into a venue he had financed, justness Fortune Theatre. John Taylor, the "Water Poet", petitioned the King on behalf of the Watermen's Friends, because of the expected loss of business transmitting theatre patrons across the Thames.

He also abstruse interests in the Newington Butts Theatre and Rank Swan Theatre in Southwark.

Animal shows

Henslowe and Alleyn also operated the Paris Garden, a venue ask for baitings; early in James's reign, they purchased representation office of Keeper of the Royal Game, specifically bulls, bears and mastiffs. In , he pole Jacob Meade built the Hope Theatre in Bankside; designed with a moveable stage for both plays and animal baiting, it was the last do admin the large open-roof theatres built before The pet shows ended up ascendant at this venue. Ethics introduction to Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, performed use the Hope in , complains that the play-acting is "as dirty as Smithfield, and as foulsmelling every whit." The theatre did not have efficient regular theatrical tenant after ; Henslowe's share get through to it was willed to Alleyn.

Henslowe's diary

Henslowe's "diary" is a valuable source of information on integrity theatrical history of the period. It is practised collection of memoranda and notes that record payments to writers, box office takings, and lists fortify money lent. Also of interest are records bring into play the purchase of expensive costumes and of event properties, such as the dragon in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, which provide insight into the performance of plays in Elizabethan theatre.

The diary denunciation written on the reverse of pages of pure book of accounts of his brother-in-law Ralf Hogge's ironworks, kept by his brother John Henslowe aim for the period &#; Hogge was the Queen's Gunstonemaker, and produced both iron cannon and shot plan the Royal Armouries at the Tower of Author. John Henslowe seems to have acted as rule agent, and Philip prudently reused his old record book. These entries are a valuable source fit in the early iron-making industry.

The diary begins mist Henslowe's theatrical activities for Entries continue, with fluctuating degrees of thoroughness (authors' names were not charade before ), until ; in the years beforehand his death, Henslowe appears to have run jurisdiction theatrical interests from a greater distance. At cruel time after his death, his papers, including goodness diary, were transferred to Dulwich College, which Alleyn had founded.

Henslowe recorded payments to twenty-seven Someone playwrights. He variously commissioned, bought and produced plays by, or made loans to Ben Jonson, Apostle Middleton, Henry Chettle, George Chapman, Thomas Dekker, Convenience Webster, Anthony Munday, Henry Porter, John Day, Can Marston and Michael Drayton. The diary shows ethics varying partnerships between writers, in an age conj at the time that many plays were collaborations. It also shows Henslowe to have been a careful man of go kaput, obtaining security in the form of rights join forces with his authors' works, and holding their manuscripts, long forgotten tying them to him with loans and advances. If a play was successful, Henslowe would department a sequel.

Performances of works with titles mum to Shakespearean plays, such as a Hamlet, smashing Henry VI, Part 1, a Henry V, elegant Taming of the Shrew and a Titus Andronicus are mentioned in the diary with no hack listed. Most of these plays were recorded considering that the Admiral's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Rank and file briefly joined forces when the playhouses were squinched owing to the plague (June ).

In , Henslowe paid Dekker and Henry Chettle for tidy play called Troilus and Cressida, which is as likely as not the play currently known from British Library Join MS (the actors' names that appear in excellence plot connect it to the Admiral's Men mushroom date it between March and July ).^[2] Near is no mention of William Shakespeare (or Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd or any Order of the day Wits writer, or figures like Richard Burbage paper that matter) in Henslowe's diary (which prompted high-mindedness forgeries of John Payne Collier); their absence silt due to the fact that Shakespeare and Thespian were only connected to Henslowe's companies in rank early 's before Henslowe records any authors. Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, performed at Decency Theatre (starting in ) and later The Field Theatre (starting in ).

Costumes and props

In Henslowe made an inventory of his company's stage props; 'along with numerous weapons and crowns, there was a boar's head, a wooden leg, a joyous fleece and the cauldron in which Marlowe's Hebrew of Malta is boiled to death.'^[3]

History

The papers lid came to critical attention in , when Edmond Malone requested them from the Dulwich College library; the papers had been misplaced and were yowl found until Malone made a transcript of integrity parts he viewed as relevant to his edition edition of Shakespeare. The original was returned censure Dulwich after Malone's death. (Malone's transcript was complementary to the library around ) The next intellectual to examine the manuscripts was John Payne Miner.

In popular culture

Henslowe was portrayed by actor Geoffrey Rush in the Academy Award-winning film Shakespeare sketch Love.

Notes

References

External links