Robert Greene (?)
ROBERT GREENE has gone down in literary history as the man who first let us know that a rustic scribbler from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire was now in London and was doing quite well, thank you very much.
It all started when Robert Greene (1558-1592) who was a fellow dramatist in Elizabethan London published a pamphlet, A Groatsworth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance as he lay dying in London. This pamphlet, edited by Henry Chettle, would probably have gone completely unnoticed had it not contained the following diatribe against his fellow writers and dramatists which said:
...for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tyger's hart wrapt in a Player's hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.
Why is this important? Because it is absolute proof, literally black on white, that our William was already in London, happily and successfully writing plays for the London stage. In fact, in order to denigrate his more successful rival, Greene even paraphrased one of Shakespeare's speeches from Henry the Sixth, Part Three, (I.iv.137) in which WS describes the weak King Henry's tough, aggressive wife, Margaret of Anjou, who had a tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide.
Who was Robert Greene? He was a moderately successful dramatist who led a very unhealthy life and it was a surfeit of wine and pickled herrings that finally brought about his untimely demise in September 1592, aged 34. Not only did he attack our William, but he also castigated three other contemporary "University Wits" as they styled themselves (as opposed to WS who never had a university education,) Christopher Marlowe, -'famous gracer of Tragedians,' Thomas Nashe and George Peele.
The iconic picture of Robert Greene in his goose-turd green coat.
Greene studied at Cambridge and then admitted in his writings that he had led a dissolute life in Italy and Spain before he returned to England. Even though he tried to reform himself and even married, he relapsed into his old ways and abandoned his wife and son before 1586 to live among London's lowlife. His mistress was the sister of a notorious thief, "Cutting Ball" who was later hanged at Tyburn (site of Marble Arch today).
He wrote romantic novels such as Menaphon (1589) and Pandosta (1588), the latter being the source for WS plot for Winter's Tale. He also Orlando Furioso and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay which deals with the 'Faustus' theme, but with a touch of comedy and also James the Fourth, Alphonsus and A Looking Glass for London (with Thomas Lodge).
Greene died in great poverty in the company of his mistress and his landlady and left his unfortunately named son, Fortunatus, to face the world.
Final note: Some scholars think in fact that it was Henry Chettle who wrote the above about Shakespeare and not Robert Greene.
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Next time: The Harts - Shakespeare's descendants.
To all the followers of my Shakespeare blog: This is to tell you that the next entry will appear in the first week of January 2017.
Festive greetings to all and that you should have a Happy and Healthy 2017, or as Lorenzo says to Portia in "The Merchant of Venice,"
Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you."
Sam Wanamaker and friend.
In the 1950's the Hollywood blacklist against "UnAmerican" actors and directors caused many of them to leave the USA. One of the most famous was Charlie Chaplin. Another was Sam Wanamaker and this was very good news for England. Wanamaker had a passionate drive, some called it an obsession to recreate Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London.
In 1970, Wanamaker established the Shakespeare's Globe Trust and its aim was to rebuild the Globe theatre as close a copy as possible to the
Jacobethan playhouse. Many technical experts doubted if this was possible, but after overcoming mountains of technical and legal problems, very near to where the original playhouse stood 400 years ago, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre opened on the South Bank of the River Thames in May 1997.
The first play to be performed was Henry the Fifth, and the first artistic director was the actor, Mark Rylance. Since then, Dominic Dromgoole and Emma Rice have succeeded him.
The building was made of English oak and mortice and tenon joints were used instead of nails and screws to join these huge wooden beams together. Unlike the original Globe, the wood has been impregnated with special material so that it will be inflammable and that the thatch roof - the first to be built in London since the Great Fire of 1666 - has also been rendered inflammable by the use of fire retardants. In addition, if you look up at the roof carefully, you will notice that fire sprinklers have been embedded in the thatch.
Thatch from Norfolk being made fireproof as it is laid on the roof of the Globe. Small fire sprinklers were added later.
Other differences between this Globe, the third, (the second lasted from 1614-1642 when it was pulled down by Cromwell's Puritan forces) is that the pit where the groundlings stand has a concrete surface, as opposed to the original rush-strewn earthen floor. Today, the Globe can hold up to 857 spectators, about half of the number who would have filled it in the Bard's day.
Other differences include a gift-shop, a restaurant and visitor centre. Perhaps the greatest differences between the Globe that WS knew and loved and today's theatre is that there are public toilets and that the price for tickets between the sixteenth century and today has jumped from one penny for the groundlings to five pounds for the honour of standing in the open pit. If you wish for greater comfort, you will have to pay45 pounds to sit in one of the surrounding and covered galleries.
Author photo taken of "Henry V" during one of the first performances at the Globe in summer, 1997.
At first, in 1997, the Globe did not use microphones, speakers or any form of amplification, but since 2016, experimental sound and lighting systems have been tried out. Fortunately, the Globe theatre today, as in WS's period, does fulfil a need, so much so that it is generating over twenty million pounds per year.
The author outside the reconstructed Globe.
When because of its open-roof structure, the main theatre cannot be used during the winter, the adjacent Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is used instead. This is modelled after the 16th century indoors Blackfriars theatre, which in those days was candle-lit.
The Globe theatre in London is not unique. There are different Globe theatres in Argentina, Germany, Rome, Tokyo, New Zealand and six in the USA. However, Sam Wanamaker's looks the closest to the original. (Said by me who wasn't actually present as a spectator at the original!) However, I have been to the newest London Globe twice and watched performances of Henry the Fifth and Richard the Third.
A certificate of my own personal contribution to the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe theatre.
Note: If you want to know more about the modern Globe theatre, read This Wooden O by Barry Day.
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Next time: The playwright who made WS famous - Robert Greene.
The w
FIRE AT THE 'GLOBE'!
Bankside Playhouse Utterly Destroyed!
Scoop Report by our own Malvolio Oldcastle
This afternoon at about three o'clock fire broke out at London's favourite playhouse, the 'Globe.' This occured during a performance of William Shakespeare's latest play, All is True, better known as Henry the Eighth.
The fire started at the beginning of the play when the actor playing King Henry the Eighth was making his appearance on stage. Just as he was stepping onto the stage, one of the cannons that were firing in order to make the king's entrance more impressive, shot off a spark which immediately ignited the playhouse's thatched roof.
Within minutes the whole structure was blazing. Sir Henry Wotton, the author, diplomat and politician, later told your reporter,
The King's players had a new play called "All is True" representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry VIII. When certain cannons being shot off at Henry's entry, some of the paper or other stuff, wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where being thought at first but idle smoak, and their more attendant to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran around like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the very ground.
Sir Henry Wotton
Naturally, when the audience of 3,000 playgoers observed the fire taking hold of the whole building, panic spread as fast as that of the blazing thatch on the roof. Everyone rushed for the doorways which consisted of two very narrow exits. Thankfully nobody was wounded or killed in the massive hasty dash for safety.
Only one playgoer was hurt making his way for the exit. We do not know his name but as another playgoer told your reporter,
"one man had his breeches set on fire, that would perhaps have broyled him, if he had not, by the benefit of a provident wit, put it out with a bottle of ale."
It is thought that Mr Shakespeare's friend and rival playwright was in the playhouse at the time but we could not find anyone to confirm this story. However, it is thought Mr. Shakespeare lost many of the original drafts of his plays in the blaze. Your reporter also learned that despite the above, Mr. Shakespeare did not lose any of his own monies because of this unfortunate incident as he had previously sold his shares in the Globe. It is now known that he is now spending much of his time back at home in Warwickshire where he resides with his wife, Anne, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Two questions must now be asked. Is the King's company of players thinking of rebuilding their playhouse and if so, will they construct it with more and wider exits if God forbid, another fire breaks out?
Next blog - The Globe part 3
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matic
"THE GLOBE" - THE MOST FAMOUS THEATRE IN THE WORLD was funded and built by Richard Burbage (1568-1619), the son of James Burbage and also one of the most famous actors in his day) in 1599. The main timbers for its construction were taken from James Burbage's theatre, 'The Theatre' which was built in 1576 in Shoreditch, north of the River Thames. According to tradition, these timbers were taken during the Christmas festival after protracted negotiations for the extension of the lease had broken down. The original lease had said that Burbage could 'take down and carry away' the structure and that is exactly what happened.
James Burbage
Burbage, together with his actors and a dozen or so supporters and workmen dismantled the 'Theatre' and ferried the timbers over the river to the site near where the modern reconstruction of the Globe now stands. The new building was a round hollow, or to be exact, a twenty-sided polygon, and in typical Elizabethan style, it was similar to the Colleseum in Rome. Shakespeare reminds us of this particular construction in the opening Chorus of Henry V.
...may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did afright the air at Agincourt?
The Globe could house an audience of three thousand who sat in three tiers around the sides (and who paid extra for being protected from the rain) as well as the groundlings who stood in the middle in the open and who paid a penny to enter. This penny they dropped into a box as they entered, hence the use of the term 'box office.'
The view from the stage
The wealthier citizen who wished to watch from one of the surrounding tiers had to pay an extra penny in another box at the foot of the stairs to go up to the second and third levels. (Today, a groundling pays five pounds and a higher level seat costs about twenty-five pounds.)At the end of the play, the 'box' was opened and the money was shared among the actors etc. WS and several others received more as he was a 'sharer' - a shareholder in the Globe.
Since there were no toilets in the building, and since Elizabethan personal hygiene was somewhat different from today's standards, the groundlings were also known as 'stinkards,' - fish that swim on the riverbed and gape upwards. Such a description sounds very apt especially when you imagine all of these happy spectators all crammed and standing in the lower 'pit' on a hot and clammy summer's day in good ol' Elizabethan London. WS's rival playwright, Ben Jonson, called the stinkards, 'the understanding gentlemen of the ground.'
Johann de Witt's contemporary sketch of the 'Swan' theatre, c.1596, a building very similar to Shakespeare's 'Globe.' Note: the flag is flying on the top.
A crest also appeared above the main entrance to the Globe saying, Totus mundus agit historionem - 'The whole world is a playhouse.' (Sounds somewhat similar to another well-known WS line?) In addition, to let everyone know that the play was about to begin, a trumpet would be sounded.When a play was showing, a different coloured flag on the roof: red - historical play, white - comedy and black for a tragedy. (A bit like the system of different coloured warning flags on beaches about the dangers of swimming).
The author standing next to the 'Holy of Holies,' the stage at the Globe.
The performances began between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. This meant that a long play such as Hamlet could only be shown in the summer as otherwise it would be dark before the play was over.
Next time: More about the Globe, its destruction and resurrection.
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