The golden age of the English theatre began in the form of performances on makeshift, temporary wooden platforms put up in the courtyards of London taverns – the so-called inn-yard theatres. Travelling companies of actors went from town to town, hawking their entertainment from one venue to another, seeking licences to put on shows for the public, but were as often as not greeted with the suspicion extended to all outsiders.

One way to make the theatrical profession respectable was to gain the sponsorship of a member of the gentry, so these early companies were often licensed to particular aristocrats, such as Lord Buckingham and Lord Oxford. Leicester’s Men, for example, founded in 1572, were maintained by Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester. Theoretically, they were supposed to perform only on the patron’s own premises, but that rule was soon widely flouted in favour of public shows in the inn-yards.

Philip Henslowe (c.1550-1616)

Henslowe was the son of a Sussex gamekeeper who, in the 1570s, cannily married the widow of his wealthy employer, a London bailiff. Having set up house in Southwark on the south bank of the Thames, the Henslowes bought a piece of land, on which Philip and a business partner built the Rose Theatre in 1587.

The Rose soon rivalled the success of The Theatre, allowing Henslowe to expand his business interests in the theatrical world. In the years that followed, he went on to establish two more of the important London theatres of the day: the Fortune in Golden Lane, Finsbury, founded in 1600 as home to an acting company known as the Admiral’s Men (after the Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard); and the Hope, built on Bankside in 1613-14, which doubled as a venue for both theatrical performances and the generally more lucrative animal-baiting.

Henslowe died in the same year as Shakespeare, 1616.

Portrait of Elizabeth I (by kind permission of Lord de Lisle, Penshurst Place, Kent)
©TopFoto.co.uk

By royal appointment

Not the least important reason that the theatre flourished so spectacularly during this period is that Queen Elizabeth herself was one of its most enthusiastic supporters. Many private performances were put on for her at court, which not only helped the acting companies to dodge some of the restrictions on what sort of material they could present and when, but also encouraged other members of the royal family, and minor gentry, to embrace theatre patronage.

Elizabeth’s successor, James I, went one better and became a theatrical patron himself. Keen to support the arts in all their guises, James chose Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (originally named after a holder of that state office, Henry Carey), on which to bestow the royal patent very soon after his accession to the throne in 1603 (whereupon they naturally changed their name to the King’s Men). Six of Shakespeare’s own plays were performed before the King, including The Merchant Of Venice, Measure For Measure and the tragedy of Othello.