Lord Strange's Men was an Elizabethan
playing companyIn Renaissance London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organized around a group of ten or so shareholders , who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. The sharers employed "hired men" — that is, the minor actors and...
, comprising retainers of the household of
Ferdinando Stanley, Lord StrangeFerdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby was the son of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby and Lady Margaret Clifford. According to the will of Henry VIII, his mother was heiress presumptive of Elizabeth I of England from 1578 to her own death in 1596...
. They are best known in their final phase of activity in the late 1580s and early 1590s. After 25 September 1593, they were known as the Earl of Derby's Men, that being the date of Stanley's accession to his father's title.
Early iterations of the company were active in the 1560s and 1570s; Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, kept players both before and after his accession to the title in 1572. A later iteration was active throughout the 1580s, playing at Court in 1580-1, 1583, and 1585-6. And "active" was the key word: they were a troupe of acrobats, led by John Symons "the Tumbler." In 1588 the company went through a re-organization: Symons and the other tumblers left for a competing troupe,
Queen Elizabeth's MenQueen Elizabeth's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in English Renaissance theatre. Formed in 1583 at the express command of Queen Elizabeth, it was the dominant acting company for the rest of the 1580s, as the Admiral's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men would be in the decade that...
. Lord Strange's became a company more devoted to acting;
William KempeWilliam Kempe , also spelt Kemp, was an English actor and dancer specializing in comic roles and best known for having been one of the original players in early dramas by William Shakespeare...
,
Thomas PopeThomas Pope was an Elizabethan actor, a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and a colleague of William Shakespeare. Pope was a "comedian and acrobat."-Beginnings:...
, and
George BryanGeorge Bryan was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men with William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage....
, all future
Lord Chamberlain's MenThe Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company for whom Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I.It was...
, may have joined the company at this time.
In November 1589, the
Lord Mayor of LondonThe Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
ordered the company not to stage any performances within the city. In response, Strange's Men immediately went to the Cross Keys Inn to mount a performance.
Lord Strange's Men were associated with the Lord
Admiral's MenThe Admiral's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in the Elizabethan and Stuart eras...
from 1590 to 1594; in the winter of 1591 Strange's Men gave six performances at Court. They were also performing at
The TheatreThe Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Shoreditch , just outside the City of London. It was the second permanent theatre ever built in England, after the Red Lion, and the first successful one...
, and perhaps at the
CurtainThe Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Curtain Close, Shoreditch , just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1622....
as well. The "plot" of one of their plays,
The Seven Deadly Sins, survives from this era, with a cast list that includes
Richard BurbageRichard Burbage was an English actor and theatre owner. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama....
,
William SlyWilliam Sly was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a colleague of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men....
,
Richard CowleyRichard Cowley was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a colleague of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men.Cowley was in the c...
, and
Augustine PhillipsAugustine Phillips was an Elizabethan actor who performed in troupes with Edward Alleyn and William Shakespeare. He was one of the first generation of English actors to achieve wealth and a degree of social status by means of his trade....
, more Lord Chamberlain's Men of the future.
Between February and June 1592 they were at Henslowe's
Rose TheatreThe Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre , the Curtain , and the theatre at Newington Butts The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre (1576), the Curtain (1577),...
, where they acted a repertory of 23 plays that included one or more of Shakespeare's
Henry VI trilogy. They gave three more Court performances in the winter of 1592-3; but on 28 January 1593
bubonic plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
broke out again in London, an outbreak so severe that it would disrupt the entire framework of professional theatre in the capital. A combination of Strange's and Admiral's actors, led by
Edward AlleynEdward Alleyn was an English actor who was a major figure of the Elizabethan theatre and founder of Dulwich College and Alleyn's School.-Early life:...
, toured the countryside in 1593-4, visiting Kent, Southampton, Bath, Bristol, Shrewsbury, and perhaps to York and Chester before turning south again to Leicester and Coventry.
When Ferdinando Stanley died in April 1594, the company was still touring, in East Anglia and Hampshire. They returned to London in June, after the plague had abated. The company endured a radical re-organization at this time; many members left to join a new version of another troupe, under the patronage in
Lord HunsdonHenry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, of Hunsdon was an English nobleman.He was the son of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn and also the mistress to King Henry VIII of England...
, the
Lord ChamberlainThe Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
— which became famous as the company of
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and
Richard BurbageRichard Burbage was an English actor and theatre owner. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama....
, the
Lord Chamberlain's MenThe Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company for whom Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I.It was...
.
A company of actors continued to function as Derby's Men, under the patronage of the
sixth EarlWilliam Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby was an English nobleman. Stanley inherited a prominent social position that was both dangerous and unstable, as his mother was heir to Queen Elizabeth I under the Third Succession Act, a position that fell to his deceased brother's oldest daughter in 1596,...
; this organization probably included men who did not make the move to the Chamberlain's company. Derby's Men concentrated on touring the provincial towns outside of London for the remainder of their career, down to 1618 — though they enjoyed one flurry of London activity under the leadership of
Robert BrowneRobert Browne was an English actor of the Elizabethan era, and the owner and manager of the Boar's Head Theatre. He was also part of an enduring confusion in the study of English Renaissance theatre.-Two Robert Brownes:...
around the turn of the century, including four performances at Court in 1600 and 1601.
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