Chapter 9 - Arden of Faversham, Richard Burbage, and the Early Shakespeare Canon

Summary

Theatrically, there is nothing amateurish about Arden of Faversham, and recognition of Shakespeare’s authorship of the middle scenes of Arden is likely to impact classroom curriculums and theatrical repertoires. Drawing on the author’s experience directing the play, this essay challenges the claim by Martin Wiggins that Arden was written by an anonymous amateur who did not understand costume requirements or the limitations of boy actors playing female roles. It shows that Arden was carefully designed to give the actor playing Alice a long rest in mid-play, and that the role was well within the range of boy actors in the late 1590s and early seventeenth century. We know less about the outstanding female impersonators of the 1580s, but Richard Burbage began his long career as a boy, and as an adolescent could have played a demanding role like Alice.