Chapter 3 - The Second Decade (1567–1577)

Summary

Chapter 3 links the company’s touring destinations in their second decade to Dudley’s attempts to influence the parliaments of 1571 and 1572 and to expand his landholdings. I argue that this should also make us rethink the players’ letter of 1572 and their receipt of a royal patent in 1574. Rather than a knee-jerk reaction to the Vagabond Act of 1572, the players’ letter leveraged their patron’s ambitions to expand their touring activity and to curry favour with the crown. Where the players did face renewed hostility was from within London. I argue that the patent of 1574, the company’s move out of the Red Lion, and the shift of their base of operations to the Theatre in Shoreditch by 1576, all respond to attempts by London’s mayors and aldermen to shut down their activities in or near the city. The second half of Chapter 3 focuses on making sense of the design of the Theatre and describes the company’s adoption of the repertory playing system as a logical extension of the goals that had not been fully accomplished with the Red Lion, along with the continued accumulation of theatrical capital during the 1570s.