Cuthbert Burbage
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Cuthbert Burbage (c. 15 June 1565 – 15 September 1636) was an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
theatrical figure, son of
James Burbage James Burbage (1530–35 – 2 February 1597) was an English actor, theatre impresario, joiner, and theatre builder in the English Renaissance theatre. He built The Theatre, the first permanent dedicated theatre built in England since Roman time ...
, builder of the
Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
in
Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
and elder brother of the actor Richard Burbage. From 1589 he was the owner of the ground lease of the Theatre. Best known for his central role in the construction of the
Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...
, he was for four decades a significant agent in the success and endurance of
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's company, the King's Men.


Family

The Burbage family is now thought to have come to London from
Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...
in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. Cuthbert Burbage, baptized 15 June 1565 at St. Stephen Coleman Street near the
London Guildhall Guildhall is a municipal building in the Moorgate area of the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The building has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and i ...
, was the elder of the two surviving sons of
James Burbage James Burbage (1530–35 – 2 February 1597) was an English actor, theatre impresario, joiner, and theatre builder in the English Renaissance theatre. He built The Theatre, the first permanent dedicated theatre built in England since Roman time ...
(c.1531–1597) and Ellen Brayne (c.1542–1613), the daughter of Thomas Brayne (d.1562), a London tailor, and his wife, Alice Barlow (d.1566). His younger brother was the renowned actor, Richard Burbage. He had two sisters, Ellen (baptized 13 June 1574, buried 13 December 1596) and Alice (baptized 11 March 1576).


The Theatre in Shoreditch

Burbage's father found employment for him with
Sir Walter Cope Sir Walter Cope ( – 30 July 1614) of Cope Castle in the parish of Kensington, Middlesex, England, was Master of the Court of Wards, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, public Registrar-General of Commerce and a Member of Parliament for Westminst ...
, a second cousin of Lady Burghley, and
gentleman usher Gentleman Usher is a title for some officers of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. See List of Gentlemen Ushers for a list of office-holders. Gentlemen Ushers as servants Historical Gentlemen Ushers were originally a class of servants fou ...
to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. According to Wallace, Cuthbert Burbage's position as 'servant' to Cope was likely as a clerk in the Treasury. In June 1586 he reached the age of majority, and joined his father in an ongoing legal dispute over the
Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
in
Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
. In August of that year the London
grocer A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food preservation, packaged ...
John Brayne John Brayne (c. 1541 – June 1586) was a member of the Worshipful Company of Grocers. He built the Red Lion playhouse, and financed, with his brother-in-law, James Burbage, the building of the Theatre in Shoreditch, in which he was to ...
, his father's brother-in-law, died, allegedly as a result of blows at the hands of his partner in the building of the George Inn in Whitechapel, the London goldsmith, Robert Miles, who was 'tried for murder' at a coroner's inquest. James Burbage and Brayne had originally financed the building of the
Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
in
Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
together; it was later claimed that Brayne had bankrupted himself in so doing. However they had no written agreement governing the terms of their partnership, and had earlier fallen out. Brayne, who was childless, had failed to revise his will to leave his interest in the Theatre to James Burbage's children, as he had promised to do, and Burbage had failed to grant Brayne a half interest in the 21-year ground lease which he had signed with
Giles Allen Giles may refer to: People * Giles (given name), male given name (Latin: ''Aegidius'') * Giles (surname), family name * Saint Giles (650–710), 7th–8th-century Christian hermit saint * Giles of Assisi, Aegidius of Assisi, 13th-century com ...
on 13 April 1576, and had kept it solely in his own name. On 9 August 1577 an assignment of lease had been drawn up, and on 22 May 1578 Burbage signed a bond in the amount of £400 requiring him to assign a half interest in the ground lease to Brayne, but this was never done. Brayne accused Burbage of double-dealing, and in the following month the partners submitted their dispute to arbitration by two friends, in the course of which Burbage struck Brayne and they fell to fisticuffs. On 12 July 1578 the arbitrators submitted the articles containing their decision, and both Burbage and Brayne signed bonds in the amount of £200 as a guarantee of performance. To further complicate matters, in order to evade his creditors, not only with respect to the Theatre but also in connection with the building of the George Inn with Robert Miles, Brayne signed various deeds of gift of his property, and on 26 September 1579 Burbage borrowed £125 8s 11d from the London grocer John Hyde, in return for which he mortgaged the ground lease of the Theatre for a one-year term. Hyde was not repaid, and the ground lease was forfeited to Hyde on 27 September 1580. Hyde allowed Burbage to continue operating the Theatre and extended the lease, but it was again forfeited to Hyde for non-payment. Hyde had Burbage arrested for debt in June 1582, and tried to put Brayne out as part owner of the Theatre. In the same year, 1582,
Edmund Peckham Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings an ...
sued Giles Allen over ownership of the ground on which the Theatre stood, and their dispute escalated to the point that, as Cuthbert Burbage later deposed in 1600, his father was forced to hire men to guard the Theatre both day and night. Performances were stopped, and
Leicester's Men The Earl of Leicester's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in English Renaissance theatre, active mainly in the 1570s and 1580s in the reign of Elizabeth I. In many respects, it was the major company in Elizabethan drama of its time, and ...
, who had been playing there, disbanded as a company. James Burbage then became Lord Hunsdon's man, and from 1583 on Hunsdon's Men, known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men from 1585, performed at the Theatre. Thus, at the time of Brayne's death in August 1586, the only legal documents which established that Brayne had had any financial interest in the Theatre were the two bonds which he had managed to get Burbage to sign. James Burbage allowed Brayne's widow, Margaret (née Stowers), a share of the profits for a short time, but then cut her off. At about the same time Hyde, as legal owner of the forfeited ground lease, falsely represented that he had sold his interest to his father-in-law, George Clough, and tried to remove James Burbage from the Theatre and replace him with Clough. In early 1587 Margaret Brayne, with financial backing from Robert Miles, sued James Burbage at
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
in an attempt to either recover on the bonds or obtain a half interest in the ground lease and the profits of the Theatre. In the same year the executors of Robert Gardner, to whom Brayne had made one of his deeds of gift, also sued Burbage. In the autumn of 1588 Burbage brought an action of his own against Margaret Brayne in Chancery, and Margaret Brayne then counter-sued in Chancery. The legal battles between Burbage and the widow Brayne continued for a decade, with Burbage always emerging the victor. While these lawsuits were ongoing, both James Burbage and Margaret Brayne sought to obtain an assignment of the ground lease from Hyde. In June 1589 both James and Cuthbert Burbage sought help from Cuthbert's employer, Walter Cope, who accordingly wrote to Hyde suggesting that he, Cope, might be of service to Hyde with the Lord Treasurer, Lord Burghley, on some future occasion if Hyde would assign the ground lease of the Theatre to Cuthbert Burbage. With some reluctance Hyde complied, and on 7 June 1589 assigned his interest in the ground lease of the Theatre to Cuthbert Burbage. According to Wallace, James Burbage continued to manage the Theatre, and business went on much as before, 'but the Theatre itself was Cuthbert's'. Hyde said later that he would not have made the assignment had it not been for Cope's letter. Cuthbert Burbage was equally dissatisfied with the arrangement. He later deposed that he agreed only to save his father from debt, and was of the view that he could have used his influence with Cope to better personal advantage. He was forced to borrow money to pay Hyde, and although the amount is not known with certainty, a statement by Hyde himself indicates that it was almost the entire original debt of £125 8s 11d plus interest. Through his ownership of the ground lease, Cuthbert Burbage was drawn further into the ongoing battles between his father and the widow Brayne. On 4 November 1590 she obtained a court order sequestering the Theatre property until the hearing of the case; however on 13 November Cuthbert succeeded in having that order stayed, and obtained an order for performance of the 1578 arbitration. On 16 November Margaret Brayne, Robert Miles and his son Ralph, and a friend, Nicholas Bishop, took a copy of the order to the Theatre to enforce its terms by taking half the profits from the gallery that day. They arrived just as playgoers were flocking in for a performance. James Burbage, after initial argument through a window of the Theatre, came down into the yard and called Robert Miles a knave and a rascal, and the widow Brayne a 'murdering whore'. James Burbage's wife and her son Richard Burbage, then only about nineteen, came into the yard and beat Robert Miles with a broomstaff. Richard Burbage, after 'scornfully and disdainfully playing with Nicholas Bishop's nose', threatened to beat him also. At that point Cuthbert Burbage arrived, and threatened the intruders with 'great and horrible oaths'. They were then violently thrust out of the yard. Some of the actors were attracted by the tumult, among them John Alleyn, brother of
Edward Alleyn Edward "Ned" Alleyn (; 1 September 156621 November 1626) was an English actor who was a major figure of the Elizabethan theatre and founder of the College of God's Gift in Dulwich. Early life Alleyn was born on 1 September 1566 in Bishopsga ...
, who also put in a word for the widow Brayne, to no avail. The
Admiral's Men The Admiral's Men (also called the Admiral's company, more strictly, the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after 1612, the Elector Palatine's Men or the Palsgrave's Men) was a playing company or troupe of actors in the El ...
, of which the Alleyn brothers were members, subsequently withdrew from the Theatre and went across the river to play at Henslowe's theatre. On 28 November Margaret Brayne had James Burbage arrested for being in contempt of the court order, and for the next two or three years there was a lengthy investigation into the contempt issue which was still ongoing when Margaret Brayne died in late April 1593. In her will dated 8 April she made Robert Miles her sole executor and left him all her property, including her half interest in the Theatre, and he thereby inherited the litigation in which he had already been active as her financial backer. Miles filed a
bill of reviver Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...
near the end of the year and continued the suit in Chancery until 28 May 1595, when the court finally adjudged that he should attempt to collect on the bonds in the common law courts, which he appears not to have attempted. James Burbage died in February 1597, and two months later the ground lease on the Theatre expired, Giles Allen having refused to renew it. At this point Miles brought an action against Cuthbert Burbage in the
Court of Requests The Court of Requests was a minor equity court in England and Wales. It was instituted by King Richard III in his 1484 parliament. It first became a formal tribunal with some Privy Council elements under Henry VII, hearing cases from the poor an ...
, the outcome of which is not known as the relevant documents are no longer extant.


The Globe in Southwark

Cuthbert Burbage was left to execute the matter of finding the Lord Chamberlain's Men a new home after the lease of the Theatre expired. James Burbage's attempt to bring his company to the Blackfriars Theatre had been stymied by opposition from
Blackfriars Blackfriars, derived from Black Friars, a common name for the Dominican Order of friars, may refer to: England * Blackfriars, Bristol, a former priory in Bristol * Blackfriars, Canterbury, a former monastery in Kent * Blackfriars, Gloucester, a f ...
' wealthy residents; Burbage and company were faced with an imminent crisis. After a last futile attempt to renew the lease, Burbage took action. He leased the Blackfriars to impresario Henry Evans, whose intended use of it for performances by children did not attract opposition. The situation regarding the Theatre was more problematic. The lease, however, gave him the right to use the framing timber of the building, if he did so before the expiration of the lease. When he did not do so, Alleyn announced his intention to use the timber for his own purposes. Looking for a place for his new theatre, Burbage made a verbal agreement with
Nicholas Brend Nicholas Brend (c. 1560 – 12 October 1601) was an English landowner who inherited from his father the land on which the Globe Theatre was built, and on 21 February 1599 leased it to Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, ...
for a lease on a stretch of land on Maid Lane in
Bankside Bankside is an area of London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance befor ...
, near
Philip Henslowe Philip Henslowe (c. 1550 – 6 January 1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance ...
's
Rose Theatre The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre (1576), the Curtain (1577), and the theatre at Newington Butts (c. 1580?) – and the first of several playhouses to be situated in Ba ...
. Burbage hired Peter Streete to take down the old Theatre and to build the new one from as much of the salvaged material as possible. On the night of 28 December 1598, Cuthbert, Richard, a certain William Smith "of Waltham Cross, in the County of Hertford, gentleman", Streete, and twelve others took down the Theatre, carried all the wood and timber across the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
and built it again there. This new theatre was renamed the Globe. It opened by September 1599. (The Chamberlain's Men, in the interim, appear to have performed at the
Curtain Theatre The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624. The Curtain was ...
in Shoreditch). The Globe provided a stable home for the Chamberlain's Men and their successors, the King's Men, for the next four decades. Cuthbert and his brother had financed the new venue by making five actors (
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, John Heminges,
Augustine Phillips Augustine Phillips (died May 1605) was an Elizabethan actor who performed in troupes with Edward Alleyn and William Shakespeare. He was one of the first generation of English actors to achieve wealth and a degree of social status by means of his ...
,
Thomas Pope Sir Thomas Pope (c. 150729 January 1559), was a prominent public servant in mid-16th-century England, a Member of Parliament, a wealthy landowner, and the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Early life Pope was born at Deddington, near Ban ...
, and
William Kempe William Kempe (c. 1560–c. 1603), commonly referred to as Will Kemp, was an English actor and dancer specialising in comic roles and best known for having been one of the original players in early dramas by William Shakespeare. Roles associat ...
) as a group, half-sharers in the profits of the house: this arrangement seems to have solidified the structure of the group, helping cement the position of the Chamberlain's Men as the preeminent troupe in London. Together with Richard Robinson and Winifred (d.1642), his wife,
William Heminges William Heminges (1602 – c. 1653?), also Hemminges, Heminge, and other variants, was a playwright and theatrical figure of the Caroline period. He was the ninth child and third son of John Heminges, the actor and colleague of William Shakespear ...
, Joseph Taylor and John Lowin, Burbage filed a Bill of Complaint on 28 January 1632 in the
Court of Requests The Court of Requests was a minor equity court in England and Wales. It was instituted by King Richard III in his 1484 parliament. It first became a formal tribunal with some Privy Council elements under Henry VII, hearing cases from the poor an ...
against the owner of the Globe, Sir Matthew Brend, in order to obtain confirmation of an extension of the 31-year lease originally granted by Sir Matthew Brend's father,
Nicholas Brend Nicholas Brend (c. 1560 – 12 October 1601) was an English landowner who inherited from his father the land on which the Globe Theatre was built, and on 21 February 1599 leased it to Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, ...
..


Death

Burbage remained one of the keepers of the Globe until his death, aged seventy-one years, in 1636, and the position appears to have been lucrative for him; he lived in a house in a fashionable district,
St Giles Cripplegate St Giles-without-Cripplegate is an Anglican church in the City of London, located on Fore Street within the modern Barbican complex. When built it stood without (that is, outside) the city wall, near the Cripplegate. The church is dedicated to S ...
, and owned another estate in Middlesex.


Portrayals in Media


On stage

*Billy Nevers portrays Cuthbert in ''
& Juliet ''& Juliet'' is a 2019 coming-of-age stage musical featuring the music of Swedish pop songwriter Max Martin, with a book by David West Read. The story focuses on a "what if" scenario, where Juliet does not die at the end of Shakespeare's '' ...
'' on the West End, presenting him as a fun-loving superfan of Shakespeare.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burbage, Cuthbert English drama Theatre owners 1565 births 1636 deaths People associated with Shakespeare People of the Elizabethan era 17th-century English people Theatre in England 17th-century theatre managers 16th-century theatre managers