8-5LordChamberlainsMen

WHO WERE THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN, LATER CALLED THE KING’S MEN?WHAT WAS SHAKESPEARE’S ROLE IN THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN/THE KING’S MEN?Answer prepared by: John S. Lord Chamberlain’s Men was a theatrical company that was around during Shakespeare’s time. It was the most important company of players in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. They performed many of Shakespeare’s plays. During Shakespeare’s time they were called Lord Chamberlin’s men. “Their early history is somewhat complicated,” explains Internet Shakespeare Editions. “The company was known as Hunsdon's Men. Hunsdon took office as Lord Chamberlain in 1585, and another company (the Lord Chamberlain's Men) under his patronage is traceable to 1590.” Two years later the theatres closed because of plague; when they reopened a good deal of reorganization and amalgamation ( or to blend) between various theatre companies took place. A strong Lord Chamberlain's company emerged. After their patron's death in 1596, the company came under the protection of his son, George Carey, 2nd Lord Hunsdon. Once more it was known as Hunsdon's Men, until their new patron himself took office as Lord Chamberlain in 1597. They were by far the most favored of the theatrical companies. “Their only rival was a company known during Elizabeth’s reign as the Admirals Men and after that as Prince Henry's Men,” says the Encyclopedia Britannica. From the summer of 1594 to March 1603 the Lord Chamberlain's Men seem to have played almost continuously in London. They undertook a local tour during the autumn of 1597, however, and traveled again in 1603 when the plague was in London. The company went on tour during part of the summers or autumns in most years thereafter. So what were the lord Chamberlain’s Men? The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company that William Shakespeare worked at as an actor and playwright for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronized by James I. Works Citied