Archives, Archaeology and the Playing Venues of the Earls of Derby

Abstract

Archives, Archaeology and the Playing Venues of the Earls of Derby Julian Bowsher The Earls of Derby had long had minstrels, other musicians, and tumblers in their retinues (see also Graham's article in this issue), but by the 1530s the 3rd Earl also had a touring troupe of players, largely for customary aristocratic revels: various entertainments including banquets, dance, acrobatics, masques, and plays. The 4th Earl of Derby's Men subsequently became "one of the most prominent of the Elizabethan acting companies" (Manley and MacLean 19). They played at court in Greenwich, in Hampton Court's Great Hall, and at Windsor in January 1580/1 (Astington 230). There is no record of any performance in any other metropolitan venue. Derby's Men largely disappeared with the foundation of the Queen's Men in 1583, made up of players from existing companies. But Ferdinando, Lord Strange, the heir to the earldom, formed his own "Men" in about 1585, who toured company actors and tumblers across the country (see Manley and MacLean App. C for itineraries), but the company was also frequently invited to court from 1589 to 1593 (Astington 233–34). Ferdinando succeeded as 5th Earl in September 1593 but died in April the next year. His younger brother William, who succeeded as 6th Earl, was by all accounts even more enamored of theatre. Interestingly, there was a company referred to as "the players of the Countesse of Derby" (the widow of the 5th Earl) at Winchester in May 1594, but a week earlier the new "Earl of Darbeys" company had performed in Southampton (Manley and MacLean 325; see also MacLean's article in this issue); and in early May the new Derby Company was already on tour. It is in order to contextualize the history of performances by companies under the patronage of the family of the Earls of Derby, the Stanleys, that this article will survey and discuss the range of these and other playing spaces used in the period. In creating [End Page 383] an overview of performance spaces used by the Earls of Derby's various companies, the article draws on both "desktop" materials (existing theatrehistorical accounts and archival records) and evidence from archaeological excavations. Court The early modern English royal court, as John Astington has pointed out, "retained the mobile character of medieval kingship" and assembled at whichever "house" the monarch happened to be living in at any given moment (Astington 1). Royal patronage of the professional playing companies included "invitations" for command performances at court. These both provided up-to-date drama for the court and enhanced the reputation of the playing companies, who would have been well paid. Amongst the royal houses where players are known to have performed, there were several significant venues. Hampton Court was one of the most prominent royal houses in the London area. Henry VII took over the house from Cardinal Wolsey and greatly enlarged it (Thurley, Royal Palaces 114). The building included a great hall on the first floor, forming the north side of the inner court. It is a large cavernous space measuring approximately 108ft x 40ft (33m x 12.2m), with a high roof. It was the largest court theatre space before the Restoration; it survives, today, very much as it was first built. Although a smaller playing space, the great chamber, was added in the 1620s, a number of companies, including Lord Strange's Men, had performed here in the earlier period. Whitehall Palace on the river front at Westminster was the seat of Tudor power in the earlier sixteenth century. The original hall, or great hall, was a north–south building forming, as usual, one side (the west) of the chapel court, measuring 75ft x 40ft (23m x 12.2m). A great chamber, added later in Henry VIII's reign, formed the west side of the inner court, but on the first floor it measured c 65ft x 35ft (19.8m x 10.7m). Masques were performed in the hall in the 1570s, though by the 1580s the professional companies, such as those of the 4th Earl and Lord Strange, were performing in both the hall and the chamber. Greenwich Palace was downstream...