#susan frye

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Although most of the child and adult companies performed in the provinces as well as at court, three notable adult companies performed largely in London. The most popular troupe in the 1580s was the Queen’s Men. The 1590s and the turn of the seventeenth century saw two rival companies in London. The first of these, the Admiral’s Men, patronised by Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, featured the plays of Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson. The second company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, patronised by Lord Hunsdon, featured the plays of William Shakespeare. In the winter of 1600, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed four times at court, and the Admiral’s Men probably about four times as well. William Shakespeare, then, both acted in and wrote plays performed for the queen. Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labour’s Lost and The Merry Wives of Windsor are among the plays performed for the court, and there were doubtless many more. Several of Shakespeare’s outspoken, educated and witty heroines draw to some extant on Elizabeth: Isabella in Measure for Measure, for example, Olivia in Twelfth Night and Rosalind in As You Like It.

Susan Frye, ‘Entertainments at Court’ in Elizabeth I: The Exhibition Catalogue.

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Of the many entertainments in which Elizabeth participated, whether as an active performer or as an audience member, some might have been considered ‘higher’ forms of art than others, especially if they derived from classical works. The vast majority were probably considered what today would be called ‘popular culture’. Nevertheless, because the most innovative minds in England helped to create the entertainments at Elizabeth’s court, they deeply influenced the developing drama, prose and poetry of the literary period known in retrospect as the Golden Age of English literature. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, English was not widely considered a language expressive enough to be the vehicle of great poetry, prose and drama, in spite of the achievements of Chaucer, Gower and Wycliffe, Skelton, More, Wyatt and the earl of Surrey. But by the conclusion of Elizabeth’s reign, the English language, although still relatively new and flexible, had become the literary language of Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney and Elizabeth herself, as well as of the great playwrights of the age, Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. These city dwellers mingled the tastes and concerns of court, university and city to create a drama whose treatment of comedy, tragedy and history was unprecedented. As Elizabeth’s reign progressed, the printing press made possible an ever-wider dissemination of their writings.

Susan Frye, ‘Entertainments at Court’ in Elizabeth I: The Exhibition Catalogue.

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The achievements of the great writers of this age cannot be separated from the court and court entertainments: Edmund Spenser wrote his epic poem, The Fairie Queene, dedicating it to Elizabeth, who was figured as the Fairy Queen in entertainments both before and after the publication of the poem’s first three books in 1590. The pretext for Spenser’s entire poem appears to be a combined court entertainment and tournament closely resembling those held on Accession Day. The reference to a ‘vestal virgin’ in A Midsummer Night’s Dream not only suggests court entertainments that linked Elizabeth’s virginity to that of the Roman vestals, but has also suggested to scholars that a young William Shakespeare may have witnessed the Kenilworth entertainments, which took place a few miles from Stratford. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, like Spenser’s poem, features a Fairy Queen, Titania, but as a less solemn figure than that of Spenser. Philip Sidney’s prose romance, Arcadia, features jousts and battles clearly drawn from court tournaments, while Ben Jonson created Cynthia’s Revels, a dramatic masque, for the court. Much of this great outpouring of drama and literature was stimulated by court patronage. Acting companies existed in large part because of the courtly interest in entertainment. These companies included the Boys of St Paul’s, who performed publicly and at court under the patronage of the earl of Oxford, among others. The Children of the Chapel, who probably participated in the Kenilworth entertainments, were supported by the queen, who also contributed to the Children of Windsor and the Children of the Queen’s Revels, also known as the Children of Blackfriars. Adult companies of actors received patents from Elizabeth that granted them the right to perform in the city and just outside it, while insisting on her right to summon them to court. In addition to the Queen’s Men, the companies during the course of her reign appeared under the sponsorship of courtiers from whom they took their name, including the earls of Leicester, Sussex, Warwick, Arundel, Hertford, Derby and Pembroke, as well as the Lords Rich, Abergavenny and Berkeley.

Susan Frye, ‘Entertainments at Court’ in Elizabeth I: The Exhibition Catalogue.

[richardlevygallery]

Coordinates

April 17–June 6

Closing Reception: Saturday, June 6, 6:00–8:00 pm

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present Coordinates, a group exhibition that showcases gallery artists working in the middle Rio Grande Valley area. This exhibition reflects the diverse range of media and artistic voice that exists in our community and is in partnership with On the Map: Unfolding Albuquerque Art + Design. Coordinates includes work by an anonymous artist, late 20th c., Thomas Barrow, Xuan Chen, Katya Crawford and Susan Frye, Jenna Kuiper, Emi Ozawa, Mary Tsiongas, Jennifer Vasher,  and Tom Waldron.