Admirals Men

Admiral's Men theatrical company of players, officially designated the Admiral's Men in 1585. They were rivals of the Chamberlain's Men and performed at the theaters of Philip Henslowe . Their leading actor was Edward Alleyn .

Admiral's Men, Elizabethan company which, with Edward Alleyn as their star actor, was the only real rival of the Chamberlain's Men. Their patron was Lord Howard, who became an admiral in 1585, and at Christmas in the same year the ‘Admiral's players’ made their first appearance at Court. In 1590–1 they were housed in the Theatre with some of Strange's Men. After a quarrel with Richard Burbage over finance, most of the two companies moved to the Rose, under Henslowe. When the Chamberlain's Men were formed in 1594 some of the Admiral's Men joined them, while the rest formed themselves into an independent company under Alleyn. They had a large repertory of plays, most of which, except for those of Marlowe, have been lost or forgotten. The retirement of Alleyn in 1597 was a great blow, but in 1600 he returned and the company moved into a new playhouse, the Fortune. On the death of Elizabeth I they lost Alleyn for good and were renamed Prince Henry's Men. Their young patron died in 1612, and they became the Palsgrave's Men. In 1621 the Fortune was burnt down, and all the wardrobe and playbooks were lost. Two years later a new Fortune Theatre opened with practically the same company, but the combination of plague and the death of James I proved too much for it. It was disbanded in 1631, and its remnants were probably absorbed into other organizations.

Strange's Men, company which after playing in the provinces first appeared at Court in 1582, at the same time as the company of Lord Strange's father, the 4th Earl of Derby, a duplication which has caused some confusion in the records. This company, which appears to have amalgamated intermittently with the Admiral's Men, was at the Theatre in 1590–1 and may have been the first to employ Shakespeare, either as actor and playwright or as playwright only. They were also at the Rose under Henslowe in 1592–3, when they may have produced the first part of Shakespeare's Henry VI and perhaps The Comedy of Errors. They also appeared in the lost Titus and Vespasian (1592), which may have been an early draft of Titus Andronicus (1594), and in A Jealous Comedy (1593), a possible source of The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600). The company's repertory included the anonymous A Knack to Know a Knave, Greene's Orlando furioso and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, and Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, as well as a number of plays now lost. They separated themselves from the Admiral's Men in 1594, and on the death of their patron later in that year went into the provinces, some of their actors remaining in London to join the newly formed Chamberlain's Men.