wy i i 7 ee ee, e ames ee 4 (wen ee 
theatre at all was an innovation in itself, 
+ ees 
THE HAMLET PASSAGE 175 
: ; the history of the drama and stage at which the allusions could 
have point or fit the facts. 
The strolling players are those of the public theatres,—men. 
In giving the reason for their traveling, Shakespeare glances at 
the theatrical conditions of the times, as already examined. The 
Queen in carrying out her notions of what she wished in the way 
of a theatre, established the Blackfriars with the Children of the 
Chapel. With this grew up the notion of restrictions and pro- 
hibitions of the public theatres. For the Queen to maintain a 
But to maintain a pri- 
vate theatre and at the same time to attempt to shut up all but ' 
two of the public playhouses, with severe restrictions on even 
those two, was both an innovation and an inhibition at once, that 
seemed related to each other as cause and effect.1_ This not only 
diminished the reputation and profit of the unfavored players and 
drove them into the country,? but also justly called for so much 
; [1602] xxvj*° Julij 
_ James RobertsEntred for his Copie 
vnder the handes of master 
PASFEILD and master waterson 
warden A_ booke called ‘the 
Revenge of HAMLETT Prince 
[of] Denmarke’ as yt was late- 
lie Acted by the Lord Chamber- 
leyne his servantes......... vj* 
—E. Arber, A Transcript of the 
Registers of the Company of Sta- 
toners 1554-1640 (1875-94) , III, 212. 
The play in final form, from 
which the above publication was 
garbled, was on the stage long 
enough before this entry to inspire 
the surreptitious issue. 
See also on the dating, supra, 
May Day (86, 168), Widow’s Tcars 
(ibid.), Clifton’s Complaint (86), 
the stage-quarrel (158*, 171, 181), 
the strained official and theatrical 
relations (157). Also see infra, 
183-84". 
All evidences combine to show 
Hamlet was written late 1601, and 
first acted late 1601—early 1602, 
doubtless the chief attraction of the 
Christmas season. 
*“T think their inhibition comes 
by the means of the late innova- 
tion.” 
*I do not know the detailed basis 
for Shakespeare’s claim as to the 
players having to travel. This 
might be ascertained by long re- 
search in the archives of munici- 
palities. But the preceding pages 
have shown sufficiently that the 
statement is based upon actual con- 
ditions of hardship resulting from 
the Queen’s attitude. The few 
known details of the traveling com- 
panies at this period are these: 
In 1599, a company of English 
actors under Laurence Fletcher 
(sometimes, but erroneously, sup- 
posed to have been Shakespeare’s 
company) visited Scotland, and 
were patronized by James VI. (See 
State Papers, Elizabeth, Scotland, 
LXV, Nos. 64 and 641, dated Nov., 
1599, Public Record Office). Again, 
in Oct., 1601, Fletcher led a com- 
pany thither. 
Shakespeare’s own company was 
at Oxford and Cambridge some- 
time prior to the publication of 
Hamlet. (See title-page of Qu, in- 
fra, 182°). Whether these visits 
antedated the Stationers’ Register 
entry, 26 July, 1602, is undeter- 
mined. 
Henslowe’s Diary (ed. W. W. 
Greg, 1904), 177-78, shows Lord 
Worcester’s men, of the Rose, went 
289 
