Playhouse Law in Shakespeare's WorldThere is a human face to Shakespeare's theatrical world. It has been captured and preserved in the amber of litigious activity. Contracts for playhouses represent human aspiration: an avaricious hope for profit or an altruistic desire to provide for a family. Lawsuits have preserved the declarations of rights and the righteous indignations as well as the fictions and half-truths under which the Renaissance theater flourished. Leases and agreements preserve the intentions, honest or dishonest, of the men who wrote, performed, and bankrolled the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The period 1590-1623, the limits of the original Shakespearean enterprise, resemble nothing so much as a third of a century of the sort of squabbling, shoving, and place-seeking familiar to every modern theatrical professional. |
Contents
| 9 | |
| 17 | |
| 25 | |
Tricks and Quillets that Thunder at a Playhouse | 51 |
Thy Loves Use Their Treasure | 102 |
Secret Marriages per verba de præsenti | 134 |
Conclusions | 191 |
Bibliography | 236 |
Index | 257 |
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Common terms and phrases
Angelo appear audience Blackfriars Playhouse bond Burbage Cambridge University Press cestui Chancery character church claim Clare Claudio common law conveyance created deed demonstrates dramatist Duchess of Malfi ecclesiastical Edited Elizabethan England English Evans Evans's feoffee Fitzdotterel Gray's Gray's Inn Hawkins Heminges Henry History Inner Temple Inns of Court interest John Jonson Juliet Keysar King's Kirkham land Langley Lawyers lease London Lord Mariana Marriage Contracts marry Marston masque matrimony Measure for Measure Merchant of Venice Middle Temple Middleton Misfortunes of Arthur Oxford partners Paul's Pennyboy Junior performed Picklock play players playhouse playwrights record refers Renaissance Drama Revels riage Richard Robert Rosalind Samwell says Scarborrow secret marriage seems Shakespeare's Legal Shylock solemnization spousals stage Staple Star Chamber Statute Studies suggests Swan Swinburne Swinburne's Theatre theatrical Thomas Thomas Middleton tion Tragedy transfer trust union venture verba de præsenti vows wife William Witgood witness Woodliffe York
Popular passages
Page 158 - From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty ; As surfeit is the father of much fast, So every scope by the immoderate use Turns to restraint; our natures do pursue (Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,) A thirsty evil ; and when we drinK, we die.
Page 40 - At our feast wee had a play called Twelve Night, or what you will, much like the Commedy of Errores, or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni.
Page 131 - You had it in trust ; which if you do discharge, Surrendering the possession, you shall ease Yourself and me of chargeable suits in law, Which, if you prove not honest, as I doubt it, Must of necessity follow. L. All. In my judgment, He does advise you well.
Page 46 - IV, being set forth in a play, and in that play there being set forth the killing of the king upon a stage ; the Friday before, Sir Gilly...
Page 37 - Now I have him, that nere of ought did speake But when of playes or Plaiers he did treate. H'ath made a common-place booke out of plaies, And speakes in print, at least what ere he sayes Is warranted by Curtaine plaudeties...
Page 132 - I redeem it Some noble way, I am but half made up. It is a time of action ; if your lordship Will please to confer a company upon me In your command, I doubt not in my service To my king and country but I shall do something That may make me right again.
Page 48 - Burbage is now altering, and meaneth very shortly to convert and turn the same into a common playhouse, which will grow to be a very great annoyance and trouble, not only to all the noblemen and gentlemen thereabout inhabiting, but also a general inconvenience to all the inhabitants of the same precinct, both by reason of the great resort and gathering together of all manner of vagrant and...
Page 179 - Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman Reign most in her, I know not; but it shows A fearful madness : I owe her much of pity.
Page 211 - hues" in his controlling, Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth. And for a woman wert thou first created, Till Nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting And by addition me of thee defeated, By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure, Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure.