John Thompson (died December 1634) was a noted
boy player
A boy player was a male child or teenager who performed in Medieval theatre, Medieval and English Renaissance theatre, English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for adult companies and performed the female roles, since women ...
acting women's roles in
English Renaissance theatre
The English Renaissance theatre or Elizabethan theatre was the theatre of England from 1558 to 1642. Its most prominent playwrights were William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.
Background
The term ''English Renaissance theatr ...
. He served in the
King's Men, the acting troupe formerly of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 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 ...
and
Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage (6 January 1567 – 13 March 1619) was an English stage actor, widely considered to have been one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre and of his time. In addition to being a stage actor, he was also a theatre owne ...
.
Thompson's career is notable for his length. Some boy actors, like
John Honyman
John Honyman (1613 – April 1636), also Honeyman, Honiman, Honnyman, or other variants, was an English actor of the Caroline era. He was a member of the King's Men (playing company), King's Men, the most prominent playing company of its era ...
and
Stephen Hammerton
Stephen Hammerton (fl. 1629–47) was a boy player or child actor in English Renaissance theatre, one of the young performers who specialized in female roles in the period before women appeared on the stage. His case illuminates the condition ...
, filled female roles for only three to five years before switching to male roles; others, like
Richard Sharpe, appear to have continued in women's roles for a decade. Thompson is known to have played women for at least ten years, if not more.
Early life
Thompson began as an apprentice of veteran
comedian
A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...
and teacher
John Shank
John Shank (also spelled Shanke or Shanks) (died January 1636) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a leading comedian in the King's Men during the 1620s and 1630s.
Early career
By his own testimony, Shank began his stage career with P ...
. In 1636, Shank claimed in legal testimony to have spent £40 to acquire Thompson as an apprentice. (Apprentices' contracts were sometimes purchased from their "masters", as with the case of
Stephen Hammerton
Stephen Hammerton (fl. 1629–47) was a boy player or child actor in English Renaissance theatre, one of the young performers who specialized in female roles in the period before women appeared on the stage. His case illuminates the condition ...
.)
According to the cast list in the 1623 first edition of
Webster's
''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the US English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by Noah Webster (1758–1843), a US lexicographer, as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...
''
The Duchess of Malfi
''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theat ...
'', Thompson played Julia, the "Cardinals Mis". This is Thompson's earliest known part.
The cast list refers to two separate productions, the original of c. 1614 and a revival of c. 1621. When different actors played a role in the two stagings, the list identifies them: the parts of Ferdinand, the Cardinal, and Antonio were filled by different actors in the two productions. The cast list gives the role of the Cardinal's mistress Julia to Thompson in both productions; but this has been greeted with skepticism by some commentators, who think Thompson played the role only in the revival of c. 1621. About 1614 is an early date for the start of Thompson's career, but it is not impossible, and no evidence contradicts the idea.
Career
Thompson's last known female role was as Panopia in the company's production of
Wilson's ''
The Swisser
''The Swisser'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Arthur Wilson. It was performed by the King's Men in the Blackfriars Theatre in 1631, and is notable for the light in throws on the workings of the premier acting company o ...
'' in 1631. In between he had roles in
Ford's ''
The Lover's Melancholy
''The Lover's Melancholy'' is an early Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Ford. While the dating of the works in Ford's canon is very uncertain, this play has sometimes been regarded as "Ford's first unaided drama," an antici ...
'', and in ''
The Lovers' Progress
''The Lovers' Progress'' (also known as ''The Wandering Lovers'', ''Cleander'', or ''Lisander and Calista'') is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. As its multiple titles indica ...
'', ''
The Maid in the Mill
''The Maid in the Mill'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and William Rowley. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Performance
The play was licensed for performanc ...
'', and ''
The Pilgrim'', three plays in the canon of
John Fletcher and his collaborators. He also played Domitia in ''
The Roman Actor
''The Roman Actor'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger. It was first performed in 1626, and first published in 1629. A number of critics have agreed with its author, and judged it one of Massinger's best plays.
...
'' (
1626
Events
January–March
* January 7 – Polish–Swedish War (1625–1629), Polish-Swedish War: Battle of Wallhof in Latvia – Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, defeats a Polish army.
* January 9 – Peter Minuit sail ...
), and Honoria in ''
The Picture'' (
1629
Events
January–March
* January 7 – Henry Frederick, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate, the 15-year-old son of the German Palatinate elector, Frederick V of the Palatinate, Frederick V, drowns in an accident while sailing ...
), both by
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His plays, including '' A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', '' The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and soci ...
, plus Cleonarda in
Carlell's ''
The Deserving Favourite
''The Deserving Favourite'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Lodowick Carlell that was first published in 1629. The earliest of Carlell's plays "and also the best," it is notable for its influence on other plays of the Car ...
'' (also 1629) and Miniona Undermine in
Clavell's ''
The Soddered Citizen'' (
1630
Events
January–March
* January 2 – A shoemaker in Turin is found to have the first case of bubonic plague there as the plague of 1630 begins spreading through Italy.
* January 5 – A team of Portuguese military advisers ...
).
Thompson appears to have had a penchant for playing formidable and dominant women, like Honoria the queen or Cleonarda the huntress. More conventionally female roles went to other boy actors. This must reveal something about Thompson's personal characteristics and acting skills. It may also suggest other parts he could likely have taken. For example, no cast information survives for the King's Men's production of Massinger's ''
The Duke of Milan
''The Duke of Milan'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger. First published in 1623, the play is generally considered among the author's finest achievements in drama.
Performance
Massinger's play was first perform ...
'' (c. 1622); but Marcelia, the heroine in that play, is another formidable beauty like Cleonarda or Honoria, and a role that Thompson might have played.
Later life
Thompson fades from view after 1631; but the very patchy records of the era may obscure the fact that he simply continued acting. He was named a
Groom of the Chamber
Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Household of the monarch in early modern England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In France, the Duchy of Burgundy, and in Eng ...
on 15 April 1633, which certainly suggests a continuing career. (Actors were sometimes rewarded with the honorific post; Honyman was named a Groom of the Chamber along with Thompson, and five King's Men became Grooms in January 1641.)
The
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
records of St. Giles without
Cripplegate
Cripplegate was a city gate, gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London, England.
The Cripplegate gate lent its name to the Cripplegate Wards of the City of London, ward of the City, which encompasses the area where the gat ...
, which was the home of many theatre people of the day and located near the
Fortune Playhouse
The Fortune Playhouse was an historic theatre in London. It was located between Whitecross Street, London, Whitecross Street and the modern Golden Lane, London, Golden Lane, just outside the City of London. It was founded about 1600, and suppre ...
, note two Thompson daughters in 1631 – the christening of Anne on 16 July and the burial of Lettice on 1 October. Thompson's funeral was held in the same parish on 13 December 1634.
[ G. E. Bentley, "Records of the Players in the Parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate," ''Papers of the Modern Language Association'' Vol. 44 No. 3 (September 1929), pp. 789–826.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, John
English male stage actors
17th-century English male actors
1634 deaths
Year of birth unknown
Boy players
King's Men (playing company)