Viewing Event Record: Chamberlain's Office, 'Sharers' Papers': The Burbages and Robinson reply

Abstract

Cuthbert and William Burbage and Winifred Robinson respond to the players' petition. They ask that they not be deprived of their livelihood 'by men so soon shot up, since it hath been the custom that they should com to it by far more antiquity and desert than those can justly attribute to themselves.' They outline the great expense and trouble James Burbage had in building first the Theatre and then the Globe. The twenty-one year lease on the Globe, they note, has been their undoing, 'for [the members of the original consortium] dying at the expiration of three or four years of their lease, the subsequent years became dissolved to strangers, as by marrying their widows, and the like by their children.' The Blackfriars, they further explain, is their inheritance; again they emphasize James Burbage's labour and expense in setting up the playhouse. They complain that 'these new men' threaten to deprive them of their livelihood; like Shanks, they point to the profits garnered by the three petitioners in the past year. They appeal, finally that they be required to part with no more than one share, and that the petitioners be directed to seek any further shares elsewhere.

Date Event Recorded

Date
From: 1635 (Source of claim: original)

Date Event Happened

Date
From: 1635 (Source of claim: original)

Venues

Name
Globe (II)
Name
Blackfriars (II)
Name
Theatre

People

Name Event Role(s) Document Role(s)
Evans, Henry company manager
Field, Nathan player
Ostler, William player
Swanston, Elliard player
Burbage, James playhouse owner
Burbage, Cuthbert playhouse sharer
Burbage, William playhouse sharer
Robinson, Winifred playhouse sharer
Burbage, Richard playhouse sharer
Phillips, Augustine playhouse sharer
Shakespeare, William playhouse sharer
Condell, Henry playhouse sharer
Heminges, John playhouse sharer
Underwood, John playhouse sharer

Event Type

  • company business
  • court case
  • playhouse business