Shakespeare in Company: 1599-1616

This research (which will result in an Oxford University Press book) responds to a major critical separation in Shakespeare studies. There is currently a division between the idea of Shakespeare as 'literary dramatist' and the picture of him as 'man of the theatre'. My book combines those perspectives by exploring the literary effect of the playwright's decision to become a sharer in an acting company in the year 1594. The position of sharer in a prosperous company (which was enjoyed by no other playwright) gave Shakespeare not only a unique level of financial security but also a sustained and unparalleled control over the dramatic production of his work. To revise our understanding of Shakespeare's creative achievement, the book brings together two distinctive networks that have previously been examined in isolation. On the one hand, theatre historians have explored the nexus of performance, company formation, and playhouse finance; on the other, scholars of literary culture have examined the connections between classically informed Renaissance poet-playwrights. I provide an account that joins these two strands in the life of England's greatest writer.
The book's approach is chronological, taking us from the first examples of Shakespeare's writing to the end of his career. Its opening section looks at professional authorship in the early 1590s before the formation of the Chamberlain's Men. I argue that Shakespeare's compositional practice during this period was strongly connected to that of other playwrights such as Greene, Peele, and Marlowe. Shakespeare, that is, began his writing career under circumstances that were not very different from those of his contemporaries. My second section explores the impact that joining the Chamberlain's Men had on Shakespeare. I make the case that, as a result of his new position as sharer, Shakespeare begins to write differently. His plays become less imitative and he abandons co-authorship; his characters become more distinctive and consistent in the way they speak. I look at dramaturgy, rehearsal, company finance, and at the character of individual performers (such as the clown, William Kemp). My book examines key Shakespearean works and compares them to writing by other dramatists of the same period. Ultimately, I contend that Shakespeare's knowledge of his ensemble, combined with the security of long-term dramatic and financial ownership, enabled the development of a new, distinctive dramaturgy.
An AHRC Fellowship would allow me to complete this project. Further research is essential because developments in the seventeenth century bear out and illustrate the key contentions of the first half of the book. One key episode, for example, is the departure of Kemp. His replacement, Robert Armin, provided Shakespeare with a very different style of comic performance. Armin's own compositions, plus the known roles written for him by other dramatists, provide a wealth of material that remains largely unexplored by Shakespeare scholars. In the light of this evidence, I will provide new readings of the roles that Shakespeare crafted to the abilities of this performer (roles such as Touchstone, Feste, and the fool in Lear). The conclusion of this project will also set out the way that Shakespeare, in the final stages of his career, returns to more conventional patterns of composition. His late collaboration with Fletcher, I will suggest, is connected to Shakespeare's relative distance from dramatic performance in his final years. Key events in the history of the company (such as the acquisition of Blackfriars and the expansion of the sharing fellowship) will again be placed alongside stylistic developments. In this way, Shakespeare in Company will provide an innovative account of the playwright's professional and literary career.

I plan to maximize the impact of this research in two major ways: first, by broadening its profile and accessibility through work in the public media; second, by inviting discussion of its underlying ideas through a conference on early modern repertory and performance. In this way the research will reach a broad and diverse audience; it will also inform debate in the immediate and in the long term.
As regards impact in the public media, I already have relevant experience and established contacts. In 2007 I published the leading commentary piece, 'Company Man,' in the Times Literary Supplement. That article set out some of the underlying arguments of the projected monograph, Shakespeare in Company, and it sparked a vigorous debate in the TLS letters pages. The debate shows that the ideas of this book are important and controversial. In the wake of my TLS piece I was contacted by the Sunday Times and I have made provisional plans with a journalist at that paper to publicize parts of this book when it is completed. Finishing the book will allow public discussion of its core argument: i.e. the idea that Shakespeare's unique association with an acting company transformed the way he worked. There is also likely to be considerable public interest in some of its more specific observations, which are well suited to release as general interest articles or as stories for public report. One article I have already discussed is another TLS commentary piece, this time on the comic acting of Robert Armin. In a more popular format, I project a shorter article on the concept of the actor-sharer, which would explain Shakespeare's unique position amongst early modern dramatists in continuing to derive income from his plays more than two decades after they were completed. On this and other matters I have been in touch with a journalist at The Independent on Sunday and with a producer at BBC Radio 4.
The ideas and research in this book would also contribute to a conference, which I plan to coincide with the publication my monograph in 2012. I have been a participant in seminars and workshops at a number of larger meetings (the Shakespeare Association of America; the British Shakespeare Association; and the Renaissance Society of America) and have got to know a large number of academics and practitioners who have a strong interest in the area of repertory and early modern performance. A conference on the topic of repertory and performance (very likely to be held at the Globe Theatre in London) would be an excellent way to broaden the impact of this project. The Director of Education at the Globe, Patrick Spottiswoode, has expressed a strong interest in a conference related to this project. I have begun preliminary planning with colleague at Oxford, Tiffany Stern, and with the Globe Projects Coordinator, David Workman. The conference will be of benefit to academics, actors and directors, schoolteachers, and to members of the general public. In the past year I have spoken to very diverse audiences on aspects of this project: to professional scholars at conferences and seminars, to English teachers at a conference on teaching practice, to potential applicants at Oxford open days, and to classrooms of children at both senior and junior level. From this experience it is clear that there is a wide audience that would have an interest in such a conference and my experience of the October 2008 Globe Blackfriars conference suggests that this would be a productive model: a combination of academic papers, panel discussion, theatre workshops, and presentations by theatre professionals. Such an approach will enable both the dissemination and the further development of this research.