Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time

by Roslyn Lander Knutson

This book examines the nature of commercial relations among the theater companies in London during the time of Shakespeare. Roslyn Knutson argues that the companies cooperated in the adoption of business practices that would enable the theatrical enterprise to flourish. Suggesting the guild as a model of economic cooperation, Knutson considers the networks of fellowship among players, the marketing strategies of the repertory, and company relationships with playwrights and members of the book trade. This important contribution to theatre history will be of interest to scholars as well as historians.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction

212 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 1997

Reviews

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exciting quest to rethink the so-called "War of the Theatres", an invention of theatre historiography that pit Ben Jonson against William Shakespeare, Thomas Dekker, and John Marston as well as the Children of Paul's against the King's Men—and all of these theatre companies against one another.

Knutson takes a very different tactic, arguing methodically that actors, playwrights, and other theatre entrepreneurs were more like guilds than the capitalists we might imagine them to be from our own much later vantage points. She asks us to think instead about the ways they worked together, saw themselves as part of an industry where everyone might benefit, and used publicity in order to drive up attendance at all theatres.

Knutson also makes very specific and painstaking arguments about other "War of the Theatres" matters such as the 1) "little eyases" pages in the Folio Hamlet, a passage that does not appear in any of the Quartos; 2) the authorship, date, and performance history of Histrio-mastix; and 3) the dates and venues of Poetaster and Satiromastix.

All of this is very interesting and detailed, and it helps me rethink my entire concept of how the theatre industry worked during this period.