Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare’s Time

Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare’s Time examines the nature of commercial relations among the theatre companies in London during the time of Shakespeare. Roslyn Knutson argues that the playing 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. The book challenges two entrenched views about theatrical commerce: that companies engaged in cut-throat rivalry to drive one another out of business and that companies based business decisions on the personal and professional quarrels of the players and dramatists with whom they worked. This important contribution to theatre history will be of interest to scholars as well as historians.

• Company history now an important way of looking at Shakespearean theatre, see recent success of McMillin and MacLean, The Queen’s Men • Challenges entrenched views about theatrical commerce as a ‘war of the theatres’ • Will be of interest to Elizabethan theatre historians and social historians

List of maps and tables; Acknowledgements; 1. Theatre history as personality; 2. Players and company commerce; 3. Playwrights, repertories, the book trade, and company commerce; 4. Histrio-Mastix and company commerce; 5. Hamlet and company commerce; 6. Poetaster, Satiromastix, and company commerce; 7. Conclusion: hot anger and company commerce; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

\'Knutson\'s work combines reassuring common sense with meticulous academic research … Roslyn Knutson\'s book will be a valuable addition to university libraries, and to serious scholars of the theatre during Shakespeare\'s time.\' Journal of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa