The first Fortune playhouse, far from being merely a rival to the Globe, housed a company that lay claim to a distinct theatrical tradition. Built in 1600 and situated in the northwest suburbs of Middlesex, the theatre represented the commercial and artistic aspirations of Phillip Henslowe and his son-in-law, the actor Edward Alleyn, who together brought the Lord Admiral's (later Prince Henry's) Men to the magnificent stage of the Fortune. There the players staged the best of their old repertory, notably the plays of Marlowe, and introduced new plays designed to please their predominantly middle-class audience, who had, in general, old-fashioned dramatic and conservative political tastes The tragedies were largely revivals, and the one extant new tragedy, Hoffman, continues the tradition of the Marlovian overreacher and the Kydian revenger. The history plays in the repertory reflect a distrust of Catholicism and an overt glorification of Prince Henry, the patron of the company, as the Protestant savior of England. The comedies, which reflect most clearly the tastes of the audience for which the bulk of the repertory was written, flatter the citizen-playgoers by romantically reconciling their apparently strict morality with their practical merchantilism. The repertory served the company well at least through the first decade of operation of the playhouse. Unfortunately, no new plays written for the company after 1611 survive. Events suggest, however, that the second decade would have been markedly less successful Overall, an examination of the repertory and history of the first Fortune reveals the distinctiveness of the company that, for too long, has been overshadowed by or incorporated into the critical evaluation of its more famous rival, the King's Men. By considering the Fortune in terms of its own strengths and weaknesses, we can gain a more accurate conception of the cultural milieu, which, in the drama at least, fostered various traditions / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_27440 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Contributors | Krantz, Susan Ellen (Author) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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