Roaring Boys: Playwrights And Players In Han Elizabethan And Jacobean England

by Judith Cook

In the late 1580s a new kind of entertainment flowered in professional theatre, with its custom built playhouses, professional companies, incredible staging and, last but not least, the new writers, poets, playwrights - the roaring boys. To ambitious young writers, London was a magnet offering the possibility of fame, excitement, wealth and opportunity beyond their wildest dreams. Arriving in London from quite ordinary backgrounds - Marlowe was the son of a shoemaker, Shakespeare's family were leather workers, Jonson's stepfather a bricklayer - they suddenly found themselves feted, offered large sums of money, the darlings of audiences - and they created drama off stage as well as on. Like footballer and media celebrities of today, they behaved like the stars they thought themselves to be - drinking with wild abandon, partying, courting publicity - their reputations growing in the telling. Some set out to shock; some drank too much, some, like Christopher Marlowe, became involved in fights, fatally; a few ran headlong into political danger. This lively and engaging book, packed with anecdote, recreates the lives and times of these playwrights and actors, and the world in which they lived from 1578 when Burbage built the first purpose built theatre to 1620 when the great age came to its end.

Genres: History, Shakespeare, Biography, Nonfiction, Theatre

212 pages, Hardcover

First published July 25, 2006

About the author

Judith Cook was a lecturer in theatre at the University of Exeter. She wrote several mysteries based on the casebooks of Dr Simon Forman, an Elizabethan doctor and astrologer.

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book by Judith Cook I've read within the past week and I'm starting to suspect she might have been a little bit allergic to imposing a coherent structure on her writing. That said, this was an engaging, worthwhile read. The world of Elizabethan era playwrights and actors is a fascinating one, and Cook does a good job bringing it to life with plenty of interesting detail.

[Saffron Garey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as well written as Bill Bryson's book on Shakespeare, although no doubt containing many more facts and fewer tall tales.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed full of historical detail but anecdotal enough to entertain the general reader, Roaring boys introduces us to a host of late Elizabethan and Jacobean impresarios, actors, poets and playwrights who have, on the whole, been eclipsed by Shakespeare. Xenophobia and bloody sectarianism, heightened by terror of Spanish invasion and of home-front repression by the Queen's secret service, form a political backdrop to one of the greatest flowerings of English stagecraft and poetry ever seen. The lives and works of writers such as Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene, Ben Johnson, Christopher Marlowe right through to the poet Tidiock Tichborne, destined to die horribly as a result of the Babbington plot, are familiar today. Inspired by drink, enterprise and love affairs, they snatched moments of fame, fortune and glory in an uncertain and precarious London. Cook brings to life the streets, theatres, gaols and taverns of the City of London and its shady outlying districts of Bankside and Shoreditch where debauchery jostled side by side with creativity, passion, friendship and betrayal. Most did not die old men in their feather beds.

[Stuart McPherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by this period and by the story of how theatre developed in Elizabethan times. This all too short book covers both the well-known (Shakespeare, Ben Johnson) and the more obscure playwrights and other folk who worked in the theatre of the time. Also some fascinating background, such as Robert Green's relationship (through his mistress) to a notorious highwayman. It portrays the scene in the raw - as it must have been as a new and rapidly developing popular artform (theatres side by side with bear-pits and brothels). The energy and life of what it must have been like comes over as well as the talent and competitiveness.

[Clif · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mostly entertaining book, but the author got caught up in the minutia of historical details sometimes. Usually to the detriment of the storytelling. There was fun and interesting information spread throughout 5 page long explanations as to why some dramatists were still lawyers while they were writing their plays. Good, but there has to be something better out there on this subject

[Ed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not that useful a book--if you know a bit about the world of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan theater you will have know everything she presents. If you don't know much you might fall victim to her poor judgements and prejudices, none more obvious than Cook's very strong anti-Catholic bias.

It is apparently still important in the UK and was one of the defining characteristics of the Tudor/Jacobean period. There is a lot of research being published indicating Shakespeare's Catholicism ("Shadowplay" for example) so writing about Shakespeare and his contemporaries from a biased point of view on such a vital issue of the time shows, at best, a lack of interest in other scholarly work being done and at worst a smear job.

One example: in discussing the historical and social background of the plays and playwrights, Cook writes that the Saint Bartholomew's Day mass killing of Huguenots in France was "a horrific massacre", which it surely was. It is a well documented outrage against French Protestants by their Catholic neighbors instigated by French royalty. Thousands of innocent men, women and children were killed.

But regarding the murderous activities of the English under Elizabeth in Ireland during this time, she says only that "No one can pretend that what England did in Ireland dureing the last half of the sixteenth century was anything of which to be proud..." The campaigns of Drake, Raleigh and other royal favorites in Ireland were nothing less than a war of extermination that lasted for decades and led to the slaughter of tens of thousands and the starvation of many more.

Anything she writes must be seen through the prism of a vicious and open fear and hatred of English subject who professed the Catholic faith, probably the most critical signifier of a person's identity during and after Elizabeth's reign.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seemed as if it would be an interesting book, but the reality is that it's a bit unfocused. A book about the group of playwrights who were Shakespeare's contemporaries would be fascinating, but this book really only contained one chapter of such. The rest was history of the era and the Elizabethan theatre.

I know there are bios of these individuals out there, but I was definitely looking forward to a combined sort of bio.

I guess I need to keep looking.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable and gossipy account of Shakespeare and his contemporaries - I found it a quick read and easy to pick up and dip into. A lot of the anecdotes included may not be true, but, as Cook says, they help to give a flavour of the time. Ben Jonson's character comes across especially vividly.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insights about the playwrights and the era they lived in that I never knew before.