Globe Theatre
Why was the Globe Theatre famous?
What destroyed the Globe Theatre?
Globe Theatre, famous London theater that opened in 1599 and in which the plays of William Shakespeare were performed. It was founded by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the theatrical company to which Shakespeare belonged. The Globe, known for its open-air construction, emerged within the English Renaissance, when humanism, urbanization, expanding literacy, and renewed interest in classical drama contributed to the growth of professional theater. The Globe was noted for its partnership model, in which the founding members, including Shakespeare, shared ownership. It has been rebuilt twice, first after the original structure burnt down in 1613. The theater was closed in 1642 and pulled down in 1644. Its third and modern iteration opened in 1997.
Early in 1599 Shakespeare, who had been acting with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men since 1594, paid into the coffers of the company a sum of money amounting to 12.5 percent of the cost of building the Globe. He did so as a chief shareholder in the company, and by doing so he helped to establish a uniquely successful form of commercial operation for the actors of the time. This investment gave Shakespeare and the other leading actors both a share in the company’s profits and a share in their playhouse.
At this time officially approved playhouses and acting companies had been in existence in London for only a few years. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, legitimized and legally protected by the patronage of George Carey, 2nd Lord Hunsdon (who was appointed Lord Chamberlain in 1597), was one of only two companies licensed to perform within the London city limits. (For more on this subject, see Sidebar: Shakespeare and the Liberties.) The other company used the Rose playhouse, owned by an impresario and his ex-actor son-in-law.
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The second best playhouse
Shakespeare’s company built the Globe only because it could not use the special roofed facility, Blackfriars Theatre, that James Burbage (the father of itsf leading actor, Richard Burbage) had built in 1596 for it inside the city. The elder Burbage had a long history as a theatrical entrepreneur. In 1576 he had built the first successful amphitheater, known as The Theatre, in a London suburb. Twenty years later, when the lease on The Theatre’s land was about to expire, he built Blackfriars Theatre as its replacement. But the wealthy residents of Blackfriars persuaded the government to block its use for plays, so Burbage’s capital was locked up. He died early in 1597, his plans for the future of theater in London frustrated.
Thus, the members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were forced to rent a playhouse. At the end of 1598, they decided to build one for themselves. Because the inheritance of Burbage’s sons, Cuthbert and Richard, was tied up in the Blackfriars, they formed a consortium with Shakespeare and four other actors, who became co-owners of the new Globe. The same shortage of cash made the consortium reluctant traditionalists; they gave up the idea of an indoor theater in the city. The old playhouse was one of their few remaining resources, but they could not use it in situ because the lease had expired, so they dismantled it, took the timbers (illegally) to make the skeleton of their new amphitheater, and kept the basic auditorium shape of The Theatre for the new building.
The success of the Globe
For all its hurried construction in 1599, the Globe proved a triumph. It became the best-known symbol of England’s professional Renaissance theater and played a central role in the development of Shakespearean drama. Its first decade of use made it a favorite not just with subsequent generations of theatergoers but with the company itself. In later years the troupe paid a lot to keep it going. At least two circumstances provide evidence for this statement. In 1608, when the company could finally fulfill James Burbage’s original plan for the Blackfriars, the members chose, extravagantly, to operate the two theaters together, using the open-air Globe in the summer and the roofed Blackfriars in the winter. Had they chosen to, they could have easily rented one of the buildings to another company, since there was a shortage of playhouses in London in this period. But they kept both for themselves.
They were given a second chance to transfer full-time to the Blackfriars in 1613, when the Globe burned to the ground, its thatch accidentally set alight by a cannon during a performance of Henry VIII. By then the Blackfriars was already beginning to bring better profits than the Globe, since the smaller house size was more than compensated by its higher prices. Instead, bearing the cost out of sentiment and traditional loyalty, the company members dug deep into their own pockets and rebuilt the Globe more splendidly than before.
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Technically, the 1599 Globe and its 1614 replacement span an era in the history of theater design. The first Globe, based on the skeleton of the original Theatre of 1576, was unique not just as the most famous example of that peculiar and short-lived form of theater design but because it was actually the first to be built specifically for an existing acting company and financed by the company itself. Julius Caesar (1599) is believed to be the first play Shakespeare wrote for performance at the Globe. He also designed As You Like It, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello, All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Pericles, and The Winter’s Tale, not to mention Troilus and Cressida and Timon of Athens, for performance there.