Chamberlains Men

Chamberlain's Men Elizabethan theatrical company for which Shakespeare, a joint owner of the company, wrote his plays and served as actor. Organized in 1594, they performed at the Globe and at the Blackfriars theaters. Under the patronage of James I they became c.1603 the King's Men. The members shared in the ownership of the theater and the profits, and most took part in the performances. Richard Burbage was the most famous player. The most important rival company was the Admiral's Men .

Chamberlain's Men, company of actors with which Shakespeare was most closely associated, and for which he wrote most of his plays; it also performed plays by Jonson and others. Founded in 1594, it took possession of the Theatre, recently vacated by the Admiral's Men, and remained there until the lease ran out in 1599. It then migrated to the new Globe Theatre on Bankside, and with Richard Burbage as chief actor had a long and prosperous career apart from a little trouble over Shakespeare's Richard II which Elizabeth I, already angered by the Earl of Essex's unsuccessful rebellion, chose to regard as treasonable. However, the company is known to have played at Court not long before the Queen's death in 1603. With the accession of James I, the somewhat chaotic conditions of theatrical life in London were reorganized and the Chamberlain's Men, who were allowed to remain in sole occupation of their theatre, were appointed Grooms of the Chamber and renamed the King's Men, coming under the direct patronage of the sovereign.