The Alchemist and the emerging adult private playhouse

Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Spring, 2005 by Anthony J. Ouellette

  I have considered, our whole life is like a Play: wherein every man,
  forgetfull of himselfe, is in travaile with expression of another. (1)
  --Ben Jonson

Although the earliest recorded performance of The Alchemist took place in Oxford in September 1610, the text of the play that has survived was apparently written to be performed in that year at the Blackfriars private playhouse situated within the City walls of London. (2) The author of the text, Ben Jonson, had previously collaborated on a play set in London and performed in 1604 at the Blackfriars entitled Eastward Ho! By 1610, however, the company that performed at the Blackfriars had changed from the Children of the Queen's Revels to the King's Men. This article discusses those aspects of The Alchemist that illustrate the reinstatement of adult performances within the City of London and what these elements indicate about the changing relationships between players, dramatists, and spectators, and between theater and society in general.

When James Burbage built his indoor theater at Blackfriars in 1596, his plan of having the Chamberlain's Men move into and begin playing at the new playhouse was effectively stopped by a petition signed by thirty-one residents of the liberty, one of which was the Chamberlain's Men's patron, George Carey. The chief anxieties of the residents were that the 'underworld vagabonds would enter the City and cause disruption through their own "mischeefe" and the spread of plague, as well as create noise, which could interfere with church services. Despite the fact that the King's Men had secured permission to re-enter the City of London in 1608, The Alchemist demonstrates that such concerns were still foremost in the residents' minds. (3)

Fortunately for the King's Men, several events aided their move into the Blackfriars playhouse in 1608, (4) the most important of which was the patronage of King James I. Nevertheless, the King's Men could not have felt entirely at ease, particularly since the City was formally given jurisdiction over the liberties, including Whitefriars and Blackfriars, on 20 September 1608--a little more than a month after the leases to the Blackfriars theater were signed. This single act may explain why the King's Men felt it necessary to retain the Globe and rebuild it after it burned in 1613, for permission to play in the City proper did not extinguish the Blackfriars residents' petitions that playing at the King's Men's indoor theater should cease. (5) Such concern might have induced the King's Men to adopt their practice of performing at the Globe in the summer months from around May until September. Even so, the rotation from the Blackfriars to the Globe was something of a necessity, as an important section of the Blackfriars audience was absent during the summer months when the royal court was out of London from July to August, the Inns of Court were on vacation, and the gentry and courtiers frequently left to escape the possibility of plague. (6) After the King's Men acquired the Blackfriars playhouse, Andrew Gurr discerns a marked sharpening of the social divisions between public and private playhouse clientele. (7) The possibility that the King's Men encouraged this social stratification is most evident from the fact that Burbage made a copayment with Robert Keysar and Philip Rosseter of Whitefriars to Edward Pearce, the master at Paul's, for the termination of playing at St. Paul's indoor playhouse. This undertaking seems foremost an effort to acquire Paul's regular spectators. In effect, the King's Men were taking over a business rival and purchasing a clientele list, which to a lesser extent included the adoption of their rival's repertory. (8)

Of the professional dramatists available to write a play representing the King's Men's inauguration into the Blackfriars (delayed because of plague until 1610), Jonson seems to have been the natural choice. (9) Although presumably the King's Men could have asked their resident playwright, Shakespeare, to produce such a play, the procurement of Jonson's talents was likely due to the fact that he had already established himself as a prominent poet-dramatist in both the public and private playhouses. Jonson had provided the Chamberlain's Men with several plays that were considered meritorious, including Every Man out of His Humour and Every Man in His Humour (1599-1600) and one of the great Renaissance comedies, Volpone (1605), in addition to having written Cynthia's Revels (1601) for the boy company at Blackfriars when the private playhouses were reopened at the turn of the seventeenth century. (10) Likewise, because he had prepared the first and last triumphal arches for James's royal entry into the City of London on 15 March 1604, Jonson represented for the King's Men another link with their patron, King James I. In effect, Jonson's career as a dramatist exhibited an individualism that paralleled the King's Men's attempts to assert for themselves a unique position in London's theater market. (11) As David Riggs comments, "The path that led from Hartshorn Lane to Westminster School had Whitehall for its eventual destination." (12) In 1607, Jonson made it clear that he was on his way to achieving his goal when he signed the dedication to Volpone "From my house in the Blackfriars, this 11th day of February, 1607." (13)