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Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time
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.
- GenresShakespeareNonfiction
212 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 29, 2025
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.
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.
May 22, 2026
【Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time / Roslyn Lander Knutson / 2006, CUP】
It's a pretty readable book for readers even if they are not particularly familiar with the context of Renaissance England's war of theater, and I'd say you would easily dive into this book, written in a highly concise prose probably with a certain knowledge about marketing as a modern discipline too.
--Rather, the playing companies relied on a cooperative workforce of playwrights who could readily supply scripts on popular topics in fashionable genres that were marketable on stage and, when some advantage to the companies presented itself, to the bookshop. (p. 49, Chapter 3)
--The Londoners who had developed a taste for playgoing due to Marlowe's figures and mighty line, the boy's companies were a "noveltie" in 1599 and 1600, as Gillerston wryly observed in the text of Hamlet published in 1603. (p. 63., Chapter 3)
--For all his hauteur [against Thomas Dekker], however, what Jonson actually did was routine commercial work: he earned 40s. on 25 September 1601 from the Admiral's Men for revision to The Spanish Tragedy... (pp. 142-3, Chapter 6)
If you'd like to read a monograph on the olden days of marketing without the dramatised narrative, this would be a solid source of curiosity and interest, especially on the textual problem of controversial plays possibly misattributed.
It's a pretty readable book for readers even if they are not particularly familiar with the context of Renaissance England's war of theater, and I'd say you would easily dive into this book, written in a highly concise prose probably with a certain knowledge about marketing as a modern discipline too.
--Rather, the playing companies relied on a cooperative workforce of playwrights who could readily supply scripts on popular topics in fashionable genres that were marketable on stage and, when some advantage to the companies presented itself, to the bookshop. (p. 49, Chapter 3)
--The Londoners who had developed a taste for playgoing due to Marlowe's figures and mighty line, the boy's companies were a "noveltie" in 1599 and 1600, as Gillerston wryly observed in the text of Hamlet published in 1603. (p. 63., Chapter 3)
--For all his hauteur [against Thomas Dekker], however, what Jonson actually did was routine commercial work: he earned 40s. on 25 September 1601 from the Admiral's Men for revision to The Spanish Tragedy... (pp. 142-3, Chapter 6)
If you'd like to read a monograph on the olden days of marketing without the dramatised narrative, this would be a solid source of curiosity and interest, especially on the textual problem of controversial plays possibly misattributed.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews