This book offers the first extended study of Queen Henrietta's Men, one of Caroline London's most important professional playing companies. The drama that the company performed at the Cockpit between 1626 and 1636 includes many underexplored and neglected plays from the period alongside more celebrated works by dramatists including James Shirley and John Ford, and a number of Elizabethan and Jacobean revivals. This book explores the material and cultural conditions under which the company operated, and offers an account of the dynamics that held between new drama written for the company and the revivals staged alongside that fare. In doing so, this account illuminates the ways in which an appreciation of the work of Queen Henrietta's Men can offer new perspectives on theatre history.
By:
Eleanor Collins
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9780719090868
ISBN 10: 0719090865
Series: Revels Plays Companion Library
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 01 December 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Part I: Material and Cultural Circumstance 1 The Company, the Theatre, and the Dramatists: Christopher Beeston and the formation of Queen Henrietta’s Men 2 Queen Henrietta’s Men at Court: Performance and Patronage 3 ‘An ould play revived at their house’: Theatrical taste and the cultural status of revivals in Caroline London Part II: The Repertory in Play 4 Staging the Cockpit Repertory 5 Thomas Heywood’s ‘Noyse and shows’: Reconciling the Red Bull fare 6 James Shirley, Queen’s Man Coda Appendix A: The Repertory of Queen Henrietta’s Men Appendix B: Evidence for Specific Court Performances Given by Queen Henrietta’s Men Bibliography Index -- .
Eleanor Collins is Acquisitions Editor in Literature at Oxford University Press, and Co-Ordinating Editor of The Malone Society.
