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CATZ RESEARCH
Shakespeare’s position as
a company shareholder,
theatre owner, and
playwright had a powerful
and changing effect on the
style of his work
company had a kind of ‘war’ with them, in
which the company eventually triumphed.
The final part of Shakespeare in Company
addresses the conditions that helped produce
the playwright’s well-attested ‘late style’
after 1608. Bart explores the reasons for
Shakespeare’s return to his early practice of
co-authorship in this period and his special
closeness to the poet John Fletcher in his
final years. After the lease of the Blackfriars
playhouse, the book argues, Shakespeare
slowly became part of the company of poets
once again.
One of the things that is new about this
study is the unprecedented detail it provides
on Shakespeare’s day-to-day working
practice. The actors with whom he worked
are described through their personal
acquaintances, known roles, and acting
styles. Some, such as Robert Armin and
William Kemp, published compositions of
their own. Individual chapters address the
way that Shakespeare changed his work to
accommodate the leading players, notably
Richard Burbage (who also had the largest
financial stake in the company). A very clear
adaptation occurred when Shakespeare’s
company changed its lead comic actor.
Rumbustious clowns such as Dogberry in
Much Ado About Nothing (written for William
Kemp) provide a marked contrast to the
satirical fools written for Kemp’s successor,
Armin (roles including Touchstone, Feste, and
the Fool in King Lear).
The character of Shakespeare’s actors is one
key factor that the new book considers, but
it is also concerned with the wider culture of
the Early Modern theatre world. The cover
of the book thus features Shakespeare
flanked on the one hand by Richard Burbage
and on the other by Christopher Marlowe:
it was the special balance between these
two kinds of influence that made the
playwright’s position such a powerful one.
Shakespeare in Company thus shows that
the national poet was unique not only in his
literary achievements but also in his material
situation. Shakespeare’s unprecedented
position as a company shareholder, theatre
owner, and playwright had a powerful and
continually changing effect on the style of his
work. Ultimately, Bart van Es’s book concerns
the creative outcome of fellowship. n
ST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2012/53