Impressment: Managers, Actors and Impressed Boys

By Jeff Hopkins

In 1597 Queen Elizabeth I signed a Royal warrant giving theatre managers Henry Evans, Nathaniel Giles and their deputy, James Robinson authority to ‘impress’ boys to be actors in the second Blackfriars Theatre. In reality it was kidnapping against which there were no laws in Elizabethan England. As a result two of the greatest boy players of the age, Nathan Field and Salomon Pavy, suffered ‘impressment’. The setting up of the new indoor theatre ushers a cavalcade of characters into the former Dominican Priory.

It takes two more decades for all the mysteries of the ill-fated Blackfriars Theatre to be solved. It is a theatrical traverse through the final years of Elizabeth’s reign and the first part of the 17th century. The history is fascinating, and the tale, which proves both comic and tragic, will seem far more strange than fiction ever could be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Aug 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781925353518

Jeff Hopkins

Jeff Hopkins (1950) is a retired schoolteacher. He lives in Walyalup, Western Australia. Walyalup which means 'lungs' is the Whadjuk name for Fremantle, and is part of the Noongar Nation. As the drama master at Hale School in Perth, he wrote ten original musical plays and produced and directed them at the school.In 1992, he researched and wrote a family history, 'Life's Race Well Run', and after retiring in 2006 he has written twenty novels, a memoir, and three 'faction' biographies.

Book preview

Impressment:

Managers, Actors and Impressed Boys

A Fictional Story Based on Fact

by

JEFF HOPKINS

This is an IndieMosh book

brought to you by MoshPit Publishing

an imprint of Mosher’s Business Support Pty Ltd

PO BOX 147

Hazelbrook NSW 2779

http://www.indiemosh.com.au/

Copyright 2015 © Jeff Hopkins

All rights reserved

Cover design by Ally Mosher, IndieMosh.

Cover photo courtesy of American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse, Staunton, VA. Photo by Lauren D. Rodgers.

Licence Notes

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Act One

Scene 1

James Burbage Builds a Theatre

As he sat in his lawyer’s rooms on that cold morning of February 4th 1596, James Burbage had only three hundred and sixty three days to live. He did not know that! At sixty-five years of age he was embarking on the most ambitious project in his whole career as one of the Elizabethan era’s leading theatrical entrepreneurs. He had just purchased the former Dominican Priory at Blackfriars. His lawyer congratulated him:

Well done, James, all the legal documentation is drawn up and complete and once you hand me your draft for six hundred pounds, you will be the new owner of the priory.

Well, I thank you, William.

With that James Burbage leaned across the desk and handed the lawyer a personal draft drawn on his bank for the amount.

It is a huge investment, James, I do hope you know what you are doing?

I have been an impresario and entrepreneur for most of my life, William. I have built and lost fortunes and I have built and lost theatres. My life has been about taking calculated risks and this is just another one.

London’s first and only indoor theatre. If it works James you will not only be remembered for your foresight, but you can anticipate substantial returns on your investment. I can only wish you well.

Thank you again, William. It is going to be a busy and challenging time, but I am excited by it.

With that the ageing former actor levered himself out of the chair and offered his hand to his long time legal advisor and friend. James Burbage was not a tall man by any means, but he was of a solid build and he liked to wear clothes. That morning he was wearing a striking red and gold jerkin with matching breeches and his hose were flame red. His shoes were black leather and although they were of a ‘slip on’ variety they featured expensive gold buckles. He sported modest ruffs at both his collar and cuffs and completed the outfit with a red cloak that was lined in gold silk and trimmed with gold braid. He wore the cloak over his right shoulder and it was secured with a red cord fastened under his left arm.

His head was elongated and almost egg shaped. He wore his former dark hair, which was now greying, combed back from his extensive forehead. He had a small goatee beard and moustache, which was extremely close-shaved and almost presented as the shadow of a beard line only. Apart from that, the face was pleasant and strangely magnetic, if a little worn with the travails of the years. He left the lawyer’s office and walked briskly on the cold morning. It was his intention to go straight to the new property he had just purchased. He passed St. Paul’s Cathedral and turned to the southwest and was soon at the gates of the former Dominican Priory at Blackfriars. The door that was inset into the main gates was open and he entered his new domain with a glowing sense of satisfaction.

James Burbage knew that the priory had not been used for religious purposes since King Henry VIII confiscated it in 1538 when he had dissolved the monasteries. He also knew that the property had not been abandoned since that time. In 1576 Richard Farrant, an impresario like Burbage himself, had leased a part of the disused priory in order to stage plays. The building then had a ten-year history as the first Blackfriars Theatre, with the lease passing through the hands of no lesser personage than the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward De Vere, who gave it to his secretary, John Lyly. It had ceased being a theatre in 1584, and had been desolate and dilapidated ever since. As Burbage stood in the grounds staring at the grey stone façade all these thoughts filled his head. He was under no illusions about the state of the buildings. They would need substantial renovations and repairs, but he had budgeted for this when he negotiated the purchase price and he had set aside funds to undertake the work of renewal.

Burbage wanted to see the frater most of all. This was the space he intended to convert into his unique indoor theatre. So he negotiated the dark passageways and climbed the stone stairs to the frater, which had been the eating room or refectory of the Dominican Priory. It was gloomy and contained only the detritus of decades of misuse. The vaulted ceiling was impressive with its huge oak beams, but the ceiling as seen through the beams was covered in dirt and grime and reflected little or no light as it should have done.

The new owner paced the floor of the former refectory, judging his stride length to be about three feet. On the long side of the frater he stepped out thirty-five paces and across the width he strode a distance of about eighteen paces. It was a room with grand dimensions and Burbage had grand plans for it. As his eyes circumnavigated the space he visualised how a stage would thrust out and galleries would be built on the long walls. He estimated he could build three galleries of workable height. The stage would reduce the auditorium space, but would still leave room for many long benches on which patrons could be seated. Then Burbage walked to the frater entrance and almost instantly designed in his mind’s eye a great portico, from where a paying audience would get a startling and impressive first glance into the heart of the new theatre. However, all this lay in the future. Now he knew his next task was to hire an architect who could create a design that would realise all of his dreams.

In the late winter days that followed Burbage drew his own extensive sketches so when he presented them to the architect, he would be left in no doubt about the scale of the theatre that Burbage planned to build. So it was that he proffered his sketches to Dr. John Dee. Dr. Dee was somewhat notorious and was renowned as a magician and an alchemist, but was also extremely knowledgeable about architecture. James Burbage relied on Dee’s extensive architectural library to design the plans for the construction of the theatre. He asked Dr. Dee to undertake the work as architect for the project. Dee was impressed by Burbage’s sketches, but contained his enthusiasm until he saw the former refectory for himself. Then there was no holding him back.

Dr. John Dee’s assistants measured the frater at 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. In his first drawings, which showed the theatre fitted for playing, the space was 69 feet long and 46 feet wide, including dressing rooms and a green room. There were three galleries and a number of stage boxes adjacent to the stage. The architect estimated the theatre’s capacity between six hundred patrons to a possible audience of almost one thousand. He suggested as many as ten spectators could pay for the privilege of encumbering the stage. Dr. John Dee’s initial plan thrilled the sixty-five year entrepreneur and his final drawings were completed in March 1596. The architect supervised the build himself and Burbage was seldom away from the site.

James Burbage had started his career as a joiner and was experienced in carpentry and he took a particular interest in Dee’s choice of materials. Usually they reached a compromise, often based on costs, but they did seem to reach an impasse on the balustrading of the three galleries, which had been erected on either side of the frater. Burbage had set his heart on solid-turned Greek style balustrading, whereas Dee wanted something simpler to be in accord with the columns that supported the galleries from the floor. Finally Burbage got his way and the solid-turned Greek style balustrading was installed at no small cost to the impresario.

The smell of freshly milled and sawn timbers pervaded the former dining hall and occasionally James Burbage thought that no sweeter smells could ever have stimulated the senses in that refectory. He was reminded of his youthful apprenticeship as he heard the sounds of hammers and mallets, saws and planes, lathes and spoke shaves and the reminiscences delighted him, as did the frantic pace of the renovation. Dr. John Dee drove his supervisors and they in turn drove the craftsmen and by mid summer’s eve all the structural work was complete. Now only the detailed fitting out of the stage machinery, tiring rooms and internal lighting remained to be done. When all the work was completed James Burbage did not know it, but he had less than one hundred and eighty days to live and enjoy his wonderful new theatre.

As Burbage built his new indoor theatre, however, a petition from the residents of the wealthy neighbourhood of Blackfriars persuaded the Privy Council to forbid adult performances being staged there. Lord Hunsdon, patron of Burbage’s own company and Richard Field, the Blackfriars’ printer and hometown neighbour of William Shakespeare signed the letter, which was delivered by hand to James Burbage. The ageing entrepreneur was outraged and drew on all his previous acting experience to put on a performance that would have drawn applause as one of the best tantrums of the age. No one around James Burbage dared to applaud.

The impresario tried every trick and stratagem that he knew to try and derail the protests, but they were all to no avail. Burbage’s adult company of players was absolutely forbidden to perform there. Some people, who knew the great man well, said that this rejection and the failure to see his new indoor theatre utilised as a performance space, broke the old man. Others simply blamed the bitterly cold winter of late 1596 and early 1597 as the reason for Burbage’s demise. Whatever the cause he died on the 2nd February 1597. He had never seen a performance in the second Blackfriars Theatre. James Burbage died intestate, having previously given his personal property to his eldest son, Cuthbert, and the Blackfriars property to his second son, Richard. His widow, Ellen, presented an inventory valued at only thirty-seven pounds. He was buried in the grounds of St. Leonard’s Church in Holywell Street, Shoreditch.

Two years later in 1599, Richard Burbage was able to lease the property to Henry Evans, who had been among those ejected from the first Blackfriars Theatre more than fifteen years earlier. Evans entered a partnership with Nathaniel Giles and James Robinson to jointly manage the second Blackfriars Theatre. These three intended to use the theatre for a commercial enterprise with a group called the ‘Children of the Chapel’, which combined the choristers of the chapel with other boys, many taken up from local grammar schools under the colour of Giles's warrant to provide entertainment for the Queen. There was a dubious legality of these ‘dramatic impressments’. This method brought the company some of its most famous actors, including Nathan Field and Salomon Pavy. Unlike the proposal for Burbage’s theatre, the local residents did not protest at the envisaged new use, probably because of the perceived social differences between the adult and children’s companies.

When Evans, Giles and Robinson inspected their newly leased theatre for the first time they were impressed and excited by its possibilities. Being the first indoor theatre in London the most striking thing the managers noted was the vaulted ceiling. It towered above their heads supported by great oak beams featuring intricate carpentry. The ceiling, as seen through the beam structure, was painted pale blue to give the impression of an overarching skyline and also to help reflect the light into the space, which was being artificially lit for the first time. The stage thrust forward into the auditorium, much like the traditional amphitheatres and the two galleries behind the stage could be used for parts of the drama, which required balconies, battlements, or the lofty locations of the Gods.

In the auditorium itself the patrons would sit on long benches, that were placed in rows across the floor, which was flat and would possibly make viewing difficult from the backbenches. Three balustraded galleries were constructed either side of the auditorium and would accommodate patrons who were prepared to pay two shillings and sixpence for the privilege of sitting in those areas.

Expansive candelabra that hung from the ceiling and could be lowered and raised for lighting or extinguishing as the performance demanded, provided the illumination for the stage and auditorium. Lanterns and candelabra that were controlled by stagehands as part of the presentation provided the subtler stage lighting. The entrance to the theatre was through a grand portico, which would no doubt have first time patrons impressed from the outset, even before they had seen what had been prepared for their entertainment.

While it housed this company managed by Evans, Giles and Robinson, Blackfriars was the site of an explosion of innovative drama and staging. The Blackfriars’ company produced plays by a number of the most talented young dramatists of the day. George Chapman and Ben Jonson wrote almost exclusively for Blackfriars in this period. The new plays, by these playwrights, deliberately pushed the accepted boundaries of personal and social satire and of violence and of sexual frankness that had ever been seen previously on any stage. One of the managers, Henry Evans, stretched the parameters of decency and good taste to the very limit with some of his salacious writings for the boys’ company. On one or two notable occasions he crossed those boundaries with sensational outcomes.

The three managers hoped that the new plays would attract members of a higher social class than was the norm. The admission price (sixpence for a cheap seat) would probably exclude the poorer patrons of the amphitheatres. The Blackfriars playhouse was also the source of other innovations, which would profoundly change the nature of English commercial staging.

In the years around 1600, the children's companies were something of a phenomenon; a reference in Hamlet to ‘little eyasses’ suggests that even the adult companies felt threatened by them. However, by the latter half of that decade, the fashion had changed somewhat, much to the disappointment of Messrs. Evans, Giles and Robinson.

Scene 2

A Theatrical Strategy

On a cold winter morning before Christmas 1599, the three new managers, assembled in the office of the Blackfriars Theatre. They comprised Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical afficionado, Nathaniel Giles, best known for his work at the Chapel Royal, who held a warrant to provide entertainment for Queen Elizabeth I and their deputy manager, James Robinson, a canny business man and investor. The office was downstairs and below the theatre space.

The three managers were well attired, but without the flamboyance of the Elizabethan aristocracy. They were theatrical entrepreneurs and men of the world and dressed accordingly. Blackfriars Priory was cold at the best of times, but in winter it was freezing and Henry Evans had set a fire, which was now blazing in the hearth. The three men sat around Nathaniel Giles’ desk and prepared to discuss their strategy for the newly acquired theatre. Henry Evans initiated the discussion:

So we are agreed gentlemen that we form a troupe of boy players, similar to the one that existed in the 1580’s.

And ended so unfortunately for you, Henry. This was Nathaniel Giles’ pointed quip.

Quite so! The child players will no doubt avoid the protests Burbage had to endure with his adult troupe performing plays here.

Both Giles and Robinson nodded their agreement and Nathaniel Giles added:

We will need to house the troupe here in the rooms below the theatre and feed and clothe them as well.

All expensive matters, Nathaniel. This was James Robinson’s contribution. He was unofficially acknowledged as the treasurer to the enterprise.

Indeed James. That is why I propose we limit the troupe to a dozen initially, then we may have to expand to perhaps a maximum of twenty boys for theatrical performances.

Robinson, mentally calculating, agreed:

That sounds like a manageable number.

Henry Evans turned the conversation from numbers and costs to a strategy for success.

It doesn’t really matter what the size of the troupe is, if we can’t get paying customers then we are doomed to failure.

I think that is a given, Henry.

So I think we have to give careful thought to the type of boys we recruit and, in the first instance, the type of performances we give.

Henry Evans clearly had a strategy and the other two recognised by his tone that he was about to reveal it. Nathaniel Giles simply asked for the plan:

What do you propose, Henry?

Young boys, pretty boys, playing to all male high class audiences who would be titillated by the type of performances being staged.

James Robinson was taken aback and expressed his concern.

You are suggesting lewd performances by pretty boys?

Perhaps lewd is too strong a description.

Well, how would you describe them?

Certainly there would be nakedness and double entendre, possibly even sexual innuendo.

And the society gentlemen would lap it up.

And pay for it!

Henry Evans went on to explain that this was the way in which the Blackfriars Theatre would establish its early reputation and cash flow. Once those things were